Gallery of Philologists
Origen
c185 - 254

Origen was born into a Christian family at Alexandria. Like many of the people mentioned in these pages, he was a youthful prodigy of learning. He first studied with his father Leonides, and later under Pantaenus and Clement at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. In 202, when he was seventeen, during the persecutions of Septimus Severus, he was kept from joining his father in martyrdom only by his mother, who hid his clothes so that he could not leave the house. Clement of Alexandria, the master of the School of Alexandria, had been driven out by the same persecution, and in 203 Origen was formally confirmed by Bishop Demetrius as his successor. He continued to pursue learning, even beyond Alexandria. To better understand pagan thought, he attended the NeoPlatonic lectures of Ammonius Saccas. He also visited Rome, where in obedience to the principle of Matthew 19:12, he supposedly underwent castration, ostensibly in order to be able to teach female converts without provoking scandal. One of those female students later became the mother of a future Emperor. Another persecution at Alexandria, that of Caracalla in 215, interrupted his teaching. He went to Palestine, but was presently recalled by Bishop Demetrius. His literary output, which first and last was enormous, had by this time established him as an authority in the Eastern Church..

Origen was concerned that the Greek Old Testament should rest on a secure foundation, and he had the basic good idea of lining up the current received Hebrew text (together with a transliteration into Greek letters) in columns beside four translations: three recent ones and the older Septuagint. His thought was to improve on the Septuagint translation by comparing it against the best available Hebrew text; unfortunately, he did not realize that the Septuagint version had been made from an earlier, and in many places better, Hebrew text; the Hebrew text then current had become corrupted at several points.

The same right instinct led him to the correct answer in the case of the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews. This had come to be ascribed to Paul, but there were doubts. Origan found the doubts persuasive:

That the character of the diction of the epistle entitled To the Hebrews has not the Apostle's rudeness in speech, who confessed himself rude in speech [2 Cor 11:6], that is, in style, but that the epistle is better Greek in the framing of its diction, will be admitted by everyone who is able to discern differences of style.

But he also found the sensibilities of the faithful persuasive, and retreated from the obvious conclusion:

But again, on the other hand, that the thoughts of the epistle are admirable, and not inferior to the acknowledged writings of the Apostle, to this also everyone will consent as true who has given attention to reading the Apostle . . .

This wavers at the last. For the philologist of conscience, there is no "on the other hand."

Origen wrote in Greek, though many of his works were translated into Latin. Most of them are lost, but a respectable number survive, in whole or in part, and some remain Christian classics in our time. They display an intensity both spiritual and intellectual. Among them are his Exhortation to Martyrdom (c235); his tract Contra Celsum, written to refute the heretic Celsus, whose treatise of c180 was considered a serious attack on Christianity; his treatises On First Principles (Peri Archon or De Principiis, written while still in Alexandria) and on the Passover and the Lord's Prayer (c231; the first Christian essay on prayer as such); and his homilies on several books of the Bible, including Genesis, Exodus, the Song of Solomon, Jeremiah, and Joshua; on the Gospels of Matthew and John; and on the Pauline epistles to the Romans and the Hebrews.

Readings

• Ronald Heine (ed). The Commentaries of Origen and Jerome on St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. Oxford 2003
• Eusebius. Ecclesiastical History. Most of Book VI is devoted to Origen.

2 Oct 2006 / Contact The Project / Exit to Gallery Index Page