Although the homilies in the work that Bede referred to in HISTORIA ECCLESIASTICA GENTIS ANGLORUM V.xxiv as “omeliarum euangelii libros II” (ed. Lapidge 2010 2.482; “homilies on the Gospel: two books,” trans. Colgrave and Mynors 1969 p 569) have been identified (Morin 1913), edited (CCSL 122), and translated (Martin and Hurst 1991), their popularity has, for three reason, left many basic questions about their circulation unanswered. First, Bede's careful fashioning of his collection was quickly obscured by PAUL THE DEACON's dismemberment of it for his own widely-influential HOMILIARY, commissioned by CHARLEMAGNE before he became emperor; see Reginald Grégoire (1980 p 422). This work contains 36 sermons from Bede's HOMILIARY (Grégoire pp 427-78; HOMILY I.4 appears twice, in I, 12 and II, 76, Grégoire pp 432 and 467). Second, similar passages from Bede's other works – the COMMENTARIUS IN MARCUM, the COMMENTARIUS IN LUCAM and, in a few cases, the Historia ecclesiastica itself – readily adapted to the same purposes of preaching and spiritual reading were extracted and disseminated alongside of his actual homilies. Paul the Deacon included 22 such passages (two are used together in II, 75, Grégoire pp 466-67), all taken from the Commentaries on Mark and Luke (Grégoire pp 427-78), and later English versions of his Homiliary contain around 40 more. Finally, following in Bede's footsteps, Carolingian writers, especially HAYMO OF AUXERRE, SMARAGDUS, and HEIRIC OF AUXERRE, used both his works and his main sources, AUGUSTINE and GREGORY THE GREAT, in writing sermons similar to Bede’s. The result is that while we know in this case as in most others what Bede wrote, establishing the form in which his words were read or heard by later Anglo-Saxons is often still unclear.

To respond to this problem, we have separated this section on the homilies, which consists of an entry on the collection as a whole, and individual ones on each homily, from Bede's other exegetical works among which he included his “two books” in the list in the Historia ecclesiastica, where they follow the Commentarius in Lucam and precede the COLLECTIO EX OPUSCULIS AUGUSTINI IN EPISTULAS PAULI.