Homily concerning the Holy Mother of God, ever-virgin

Gregory of Neocaesarea (d. 270)

ON AN ANTE-NICENE HOMILY OF GREGORY THAUMATURGUS.

NOTE OF TRANSLATOR ( F. C. CONYBEARE ).

[The following Armenian homily of Gregory Thaumaturgus was printed for the first time in the journal called Ararat, of the convent of Etschmiadzin, for September, 1895. It is unknown in Greek. The text so printed, and here translated, is contained in an old book of homilies in the Etschmiadzin library. It is also found in a MS. of San Lazaro, Djarrentir, No. 3; but apparently without title.

It is quite in the style of the other homilies ascribed to this father. These are by some ( e.g., Harnack, Altchristliche Literatur bis Eusebius, p. 431) accounted spurious. Why I cannot understand; for they are found, whether in Greek, or in Syriac, or in Armenian, with the constant ascription to this Gregory. Why should a later age have forged an entire series of homilies and ascribed them to him? If they were Tentenzschriften, i.e., homilies written with a certain and marked doctrinal bias of some kind, their forgery would be intelligible. But they cannot be accused of being this. They are just the pious and rather rhetorical outpourings of a devout and simple mind.

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