Nikolai Lipatov - Preaching as the audience heard it: unedited transcripts of Patristic homilies.

Texts of most Patristic homilies preserved in manuscripts represent edited versions produced by their authors for publication. The amount of reworking could be substantial. Although it has resulted in a more polished appearance it also has hidden from us the live interaction between the preacher and his audience as well as the spontaneous turns which the preacher’s thought could take. Even when the author chose to include in the final version of the text the audience’s response to his words at the time of their delivery (as St. Basil has done in the eighth homily of the Hexaemeron) the process of selection and editing which affected the text available to us imposes serious qualifications on any conclusions we can reach about the actual interaction between the speaker and the listeners.

Examples of unedited transcripts are very valuable since they allow us a glimpse at how particular preachers were communicating with their audiences. They also provide the material for comparison between the reworked and untouched texts which may allow us to establish at least approximately the amount of changes introduced in the process of editing.

The two unedited texts considered in the communication are the homily “In memory of the martyrs” (CPG 2941) preserved under the name of St. Basil in a single manuscript, and the fourth homily from the group of six homilies “On king Uzziah” by St. John Chrysostom (CPG 4417).

The first text is clearly an untouched transcript since the text reflects the growing tension between the preacher and the bishop disapproving of his symbolical interpretation. The preacher, having barely completed the introductory part of his sermon, breaks it off with a stinging remark about his superior.

The second unedited text is particularly remarkable because alongside it the group “On king Uzziah” contains its thoroughly reworked but recognisable descendant. The unedited version (the fourth homily ) and the edited text (the fifth homily) ended up in Greek manuscripts side by side as a result of a long process of formation of the cycle. Its initial stages are revealed by the Syriac and Armenian translation of the homilies.