“Origen was the most important Christian thinker between Paul in the first century and Augustine in the fifth century.” – Joseph Lynch
Life (186 – 253)
- Grew up in a Christian home
- A committed ascetic
Scripture
- Strong commitment to the inspiration of Scripture
- An early textual critic: one who compares manuscripts to figure out the original reading
- Hexapla
- Hebrew (had learned from a Jew)
- Secunda (transliteration of Hebrew into Greek letters)
- Aquila of Sinope (2nd c., ad 130) very literal translation
- Symmachus the Ebionite (late 2nd c.)
- Septuagint with textual critical notes to mark where it differs from the Hebrew
- Theodotion (late 2nd c.) (Jewish Christian?)
- Interpreted Scripture
- Looking for hidden treasures
- Preferred “spiritual” readings rather than reading according to “the letter” (2 Corinthians 3:6, 14-16)
- Esoteric interpretation for elite, educated Christians (2 Corinthians 2:6-7)
Books
- Commentaries
- Commentary on Matthew, John, Song of Songs, etc.
- Sermons (Homilies)
- Approximately 280 survive
- Treatises on Subjects
- On Prayer, Exhortation to Martyrdom, On Passover
- An Apology
- Against Celsus (over 500 pages!)
- Letters
- Letter from Origen to Sextus Julius Africanus, Letter from Origen to Gregory Thaumaturgus
- A Systematic Theology
- On First Principles (Greek: Peri Archon, Latin: De Principiis)
Theology
- God the Father is supreme
- Begets Christ through exceptional process
- God created a realm of spirits (minds) with free will.
- These minds did not direct their attention properly and fell.
- Christ alone remained faithful to God.
- Through his Word, God created a physical universe to provide a way back for fallen spirits.
- Improvement is available to all creatures, even demons.
- Ladder of stages:
perfection<->angels<->humans<->demons - Speculated a kind of universalism (apokatastasis)
Christology
- Third Century Christologies
- Dynamic Monarchians (Artemon, Paul of Samosata)
- Modalistic Monarchians (Sabellius, Noetus)
- Logos Subordinationists (Tertullian, Origen)
- Docetists (Valentinians, Marcionites)
- Eternal generation
- Logos/Son is eternal AND begotten
- Clearly believed the Son was subordinate
Unusual Doctrines
- Transmigration of souls (a.kx.a metempsychosis or reincarnation)
- Universalism (a.k.a. apokatastasis)
- Even the devil eventually gets saved?
Review
- Origen was the most important Christian thinker between Paul and Augustine.
- He was an ascetic who trained himself to avoid pleasure.
- He strongly believed that God inspired Scripture.
- His hermeneutic (interpretation method) was to peer beneath the body of Scripture to its soul, and occasionally even its spirit through the use of allegory.
- He strongly opposed belief in a physical hope, preferring heaven to paradise on earth and a spiritual body to a physical resurrection.
- He believed elite Christians should ponder deeper esoteric truths that weren’t safe for the simple-minded.
- He interpreted Scripture through the lens of Neo-Platonism, always looking for a lesson on the soul’s ascent to the higher, spiritual plane.
- He believed the supreme Father eternally begot the subordinate Son/Logos as rays are eternally generated from the sun.
- A tireless defender of the faith he knew, Origen regularly risked his life as a young man and in the end suffered physical torture for his faith, eventually resulting in his death.
