Pseudo-Basil

“Pseudo-Basil” marks homiletic and exegetical works circulated under the name of Basil the Great but not securely his, preserved mainly in later collections and catenae.

Such anonymous works, gathered in later collections and catenae, testify to the authority Basil's name carried: homilies and exegetical notes of uncertain origin were preserved under it and so handed on to the medieval church. Readers should weigh comment labelled "Basil" in the catenae with this caution, since not all of it is securely his.

Such pieces are valued in the catenae for their content even when their authorship cannot be secured, and they remind the reader that the church's exposition was a shared, cumulative tradition rather than the work of named authors alone.