7 in-print translations and 1 audiobooks, compared by who made them, when, and what each one is actually trying to do — Origen.
The short answer. There is no single best translation of Commentaries & Homilies, because the editions are optimised for different things: for a first read, the editions described as the most readable are Joseph W. Trigg; on audio the choice is mostly which translation is being read and whether it is one narrator or a full cast.
Every claim below is the publisher’s or translator’s own description, shown next to it, so you can judge rather than take our word. And you can read the whole thing free on this site first.
Scriptorium Press publishes a complete new plain-English translation of Commentaries & Homilies, free, with a complete free audiobook. No account, no paywall — 73 works in this volume.
Start reading free → Free audiobook → Whole book on one page →Older translations, out of copyright, hosted free by Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL), Internet Archive, New Advent. Not our work and not affiliate links — they are here because they are genuinely useful.
| Translator | Year | What it is | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allan Menzies | 1896 | CCEL work page confirmed to host Origen's Commentary on John from ANF vol. 9 | Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) → |
| Allan Menzies | 1896 | Confirmed page text states translation by Allan Menzies, ANF vol. 9, 1896 | New Advent → |
| John Patrick | 1896 | Confirmed page text states translation by John Patrick, ANF vol. 9, 1896 | New Advent → |
| John Patrick | 1896 | CCEL page confirmed to host Origen's Commentary on Matthew from ANF vol. 9 | Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) → |
| Allan Menzies (ed.); Menzies/Patrick | 1896 | Archive.org item description explicitly lists 'Origen's Commentary on John, Books 1-10, and Commentary on Matthew, Books 1, 2, and 10-14'; multiple free download formats, Public Domain Mark | Internet Archive → |
Sorted as the research file records them. The note on each row is that edition’s own published description.
| Translator | Year | Publisher | What it is | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ronald E. Heine | 1989 | Catholic University of America Press | prose, standard scholarly English version, first complete English translation | Find it |
| Ronald E. Heine | 1993 | Catholic University of America Press | prose, companion volume completing the Heine translation | Find it |
| Ronald E. Heine | 2018 | Oxford University Press (Oxford Early Christian Texts) | most-recommended/most complete; first full English translation with facing scholarly annotations | Find it |
| Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J. | 1996 | Catholic University of America Press | prose, first English translation, only patristic commentary on Luke before Ambrose | Find it |
| John Clark Smith | 1998 | Catholic University of America Press | prose, first English translation of Origen's only Greek-preserved homilies | Find it |
| Joseph W. Trigg | 1998 | Routledge, The Early Church Fathers | accessible one-volume anthology with introduction; a good starting point | Find it |
| Joseph T. Lienhard | 1996 | Catholic University of America Press | the only complete set of the Luke homilies in English | Find it |
Those are affiliate links. They cost you nothing extra and pay a small commission to the people who publish these editions, and to us.
The thing that most changes an audiobook of Commentaries & Homilies is which translation is being read — a scholarly text and a colloquial one are different listening experiences before the narrator says a word.
| Narrator | Translation read | Publisher | Year | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Telfer | Joseph W. Trigg | Ukemi Audiobooks | 2023 | audio edition of the Trigg anthology | Listen |
Affiliate links, including the Audible ones. They cost you nothing extra. Our own audiobook of Commentaries & Homilies stays free either way.
The editions described as the most readable are Joseph W. Trigg (1998). Their published descriptions emphasise pace and plain modern idiom rather than strict line-by-line fidelity, which is what makes them easier on a first pass.
The most frequently recommended are Ronald E. Heine (1989). "Most recommended" is not the same as "best for you": a scholarly standard and an easy first read are different books, and the table on this page shows which is which.
There are 1 commercial recordings. They differ mainly in which translation is being read and whether it is a single narrator or a full cast: John Telfer reads Joseph W. Trigg. A complete free audiobook of our own translation is also on this site.
Yes. Scriptorium Press publishes a complete new plain-English translation of Commentaries & Homilies free to read, with a complete free audiobook, no account and no paywall - 73 works in this volume.
Historical context, on our companion site: Who decided the books of the Bible?