Origen

Origen, the most learned and original of the early church fathers, and perhaps the noblest figure amongst them all, was born, probably at Alexandria, in 185 or 186. His full name was Origenes Adamantius. He was the son of the Christian martyr Leonidas, who was beheaded under Severus in 202. 'Origen was great even from his cradle,' says Jerome. In the early years when he was instructed by his father, Eusebius tells us, 'the simple and easy meanings of the sacred Scriptures were not enough for him, but he sought something deeper,' and Leonidas would often bend over his son's bed as he lay asleep and kiss his breast, 'which the Spirit of God had made His temple.' In the catechetical school of Clement he formed the friendship of Alexander, afterwards Bishop of Jerusalem. He encouraged his father to martyrdom, and his purpose of joining him in this was only frustrated by the artifice of his mother, who concealed all his clothes. After his father's death he supported his mother and six brothers by teaching 'grammar,' and from his eighteenth year he acted, with the consent of his bishop Demetrius, as master of the catechetical school. A collection of classical books which he had bought or copied out for himself he sold for a sum which yielded him four obols (or about 6d.) a day, which sufficed for his simple wants for many years. According to Eusebius he went so far in his asceticism as to mutilate himself, following a literal interpretation of Matthew, xix. 12, but by some this is doubted. His intercourse with heretics and educated heathens led him to devote himself to more thorough study of Plato, the later Platonists and Pythagoreans, and the Stoics, under the guidance of the Neoplatonist Ammonius Saccas. At Alexandria he taught for twenty-eight years (204-232), composed the chief of his dogmatic treatises, and commenced his great works of textual and exegetical criticism. The labours of those years were interrupted by journeys to Rome, Arabia, Antioch, and other places. During a visit to Palestine in 216 the bishops Alexander of Jerusalem and Theoctistus of Cæsarea had employed him to deliver public lectures in the churches, and on a later occasion (in 230) had consecrated him as a presbyter without referring to his own bishop. A synod held at Alexandria under Demetrius forbade him to teach in that city, and a second Alexandrian synod (consisting of bishops only) deprived him of the office of presbyter. The churches of Palestine, Phœnicia, Arabia, and Achaea declined, however, to concur in this sentence. Origen then settled at Cæsarea in Palestine, which was his chief home for twenty years. He there founded a school which afforded its disciples a thorough training in literature, philosophy, and theology. Among their number were Gregory Thaumaturgus and Firmilian of the Cappadocian Cæsarea. In the latter city Origen took refuge for two years during the Maximinian persecution. In the last twenty years of his life he made many other journeys. In the Decian persecution he was arrested at Tyre and cruelly tortured. He died there in 253 or 254.

Origen was a most voluminous writer. 'Which of us,' asks Jerome, 'can read all that he has written?' Yet the statement of Epiphanius that his works numbered 6000 is doubtless exaggerated. His exegetical writings extended over nearly the whole of the Old and New Testaments, and included Scholia (short notes), Homilies, and Commentaries. Of the Homilies only a small part has been preserved in the original, much, however, in the Latin translations by Rufinus and by Jerome; but unfortunately these cannot be relied upon, for the translators thought fit to modify and tamper with them. Of the Commentaries a number of books on Matthew and on John are extant in Greek, those on John of great value for the study of his speculative theology. Origen's gigantic Hexapla, the real foundation of the textual criticism of the Scriptures, was too large to be preserved entire. The remains of its text of the Septuagint were collected by Bern. de Montfaucon (2 vols. fol. Paris, 1713) and Field (2 vols. Oxford, 1875). His Eight Books against Celsus (q.v.), written in his old age, are preserved entire in the original Greek. This, the greatest of early Christian apologies, effectively appeals to the Christian life as the most convincing proof of the Christian faith. The speculative theology of Origen is presented in his four books Peri Archōn, extant as a whole only in the somewhat garbled Latin translation of Rufinus. It is a bold attempt to evolve from the church's rule of faith, with the help of Scripture and reason, a science of Christian faith. Two books On the Resurrection and ten books of Stromata (in which he proved all the Christian dogmas by quotations from the philosophers) are lost. The eclectic philosophy of Origen bears the distinctive stamp of Neoplatonist and Stoic theories. God alone has being in the proper sense. It is essential to the Deity to will, work, and reveal Himself unchangeably and eternally. In the Logos, proceeding by eternal generation from God, and of the same substance with Him, all creative ideas are concentrated. He is the link between the oneness of Deity and the multiplicity of the world. All finite being is good only as it has part in the Divine. All created spirits are free. Their fall led to the creation of the material world, that in forms more or less material (soul and body) the renewing discipline of the spirit within might be realised. The idea of the procession of all spirits from God, their fall, their redemption, and return to God lies at the foundation of the whole development of the world, at the centre of which is the incarnation of the Logos for the revelation of redeeming truth and the union of divine forces with humanity. Origen's system is an elaborate web, of which Greek metaphysics is the warp, the gospel history the woof. All that was true in Greek philosophy Origen held to be traceable to the general revealing agency of the Logos, who in Christianity alone is fully and expressly manifested. The proper source of the knowledge of the Christian faith is the Word of Christ (i.e. the Scriptures). A living faith in those truths of Scripture which have been handed down as fundamental by the church's succession of bishops is itself sufficient for salvation. Beyond such 'unreasoning faith' there is the 'knowledge' or 'wisdom' which rises to the free love of God, and leaves behind it the historical contents of the church's teaching, which have served to it as the media of spiritual ideas in its progress from practical faith to the vision of God and likeness to Him. It is by entering more deeply into the successive senses of Scripture that this process is carried out. Scripture admits of a threefold interpretation, in correspondence to the tripartite nature of man. The 'bodily' (literal or historical) sense is always to be retained, except where it is unworthy of God or contradictory to reason; for God has intended such passages to be 'stumbling-blocks,' suggesting the necessity of seeking a deeper meaning. The Psychical (or ethical signification) is next; and beyond it is the Pneumatic (allegorical or mystical) sense.

Unhappily for the memory of Origen, his name was chiefly remembered in connection with the most erroneous part of his work. His fanciful method of interpretation was perpetuated alike in the east and the west, and the fruits of his gigantic labours were appropriated by orthodox theologians, who branded him as a heretic, and doubted of his salvation. Long after his death malignant falsehoods were heaped upon his name by unscrupulous enemies like Theophilus of Alexandria; and not merely the heresy of maintaining the ultimate restitution of all mankind, but even heresy respecting the nature of Christ was triumphantly discovered in his writings. Yet, heterodox though he was, not one amongst those honoured by the church as saints surpasses him in saintliness or spiritual elevation of character. 'His whole life,' says Bishop Westcott, 'from first to last was fashioned on the same type. It was, according to his own grand ideal, "one unbroken prayer," one ceaseless effort after close fellowship with the Unseen and the Eternal. No distractions diverted him from the pursuit of divine wisdom. No persecution checked for more than the briefest space the energy of his efforts. He endured a double martyrdom: perils and sufferings from the heathen, reproaches and wrongs from Christians; and the retrospect of what he had borne only stirred within him a humbler sense of his shortcomings.'

There is as yet no complete critical edition of Origen's works; the best apology for this is that of the uncle and nephew, De La Rue (4 vols. folio, Paris, 1733-59), reprinted by Lommatzsch (25 vols. Berlin, 1831-48), and by Migne, Patrol. Curs. Compl., ser. Gr., vols. xi.-xvii. The Prolegomena to a critical edition by Dr Ph. P. Koetschau of the work against Celsus appeared in 1890. The work of P. D. Huet, Origenis in sacras Scripturas Commentaria quæcumque Græce reperiri potuerunt (2 vols. Rothomagi, 1668), was the foundation of the critical study of Origen. For an account of his theological opinions and the great controversies that these originated, see the works on church history by Baur, Neander, Dorner, Böhringer, Schaff, and E. de Pressensé; also E. W. Müller, Geschichte des Kosmologie in der Griechischen Kirche bis auf Origenes (Halle, 1860); Kahnis, Die Lehre vom Heiligen Geist (1847); and the following special books: Thomasius, Origenes (Nürnberg, 1837); Moehler, Patrologie (Regensb. 1840); and especially Redepenning, Origenes, eine Darstellung seines Lebens und seiner Lehre (2 vols. Bonn, 1841-46). See also Joly, Étude sur Origène (Dijon, 1860); Freppel, Origène (Paris, 1868); J. Denis, La Philosophie d'Origène (Paris, 1884); as also Harnack's Dogmengeschichte (2d ed. 1888) and Farrar's Lives of the Fathers (1889).