Dimitris Zaganas: New Reasons to Doubt the Authenticity of the "Enarratio in Isaiam" Attributed to Basil.

Traditionally assigned to Basil of Caesarea, the Enarratio in prophetam Isaiam (CPG 2911) is an important, yet imperfect and problematic commentary on Isaiah 1-16. Three centuries have passed since Julian Garnier strongly argued against its authenticity, and contemporary scholarship is still striving to rehabilitate it, but underlying issues of the debate are left unaddressed or even have intensified. This paper will seek to problematize anew the Enarratio’s genesis, attribution and relation to Basil. However striking or numerous they may be, are the similarities between the Enarratio and genuine works of Basil sufficient to establish its authenticity? How their equally numerous discrepancies are then to be understood, and how other problematic aspects of the commentary are to be explained? The authenticity issue, to be sure, is more complex than it appears, and needs further critical study.