The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

I. Origen, Allegorizing Philosopher and Scholar

1. ORIGEN’S ALEXANDRIAN BACKGROUND

It is desirable that we understand well the circumstances, and know intelligently the one who, more than any other, first set in motion these forces that ultimately set aside the second advent hope and expectancy, which hope lead been held rather consistently ever since the time of the apostles. PFF1 310.2

“The ante-Nicene fathers expected the ultimate triumph of Christianity over the world from a supernatural interposition at the second Advent. Origen seems to have been the only one in that age of violent persecution who expected that Christianity, by continual growth, would gain the dominion over the world.” ² PFF1 310.3

He also hoped for ultimate universal salvation. He opposed all millenarianism, for he spiritualized the resurrection and allegorized the prophecies, thus striking at these inseparable corollaries of the advent. ³ PFF1 310.4

The setting is to be sought in Alexandria, Egypt, where Origen was brought up. The Jews in the Macedonian, or Hellenistic, period had absorbed into their very life currents the “wisdom of the Greeks.” Noted for its Museum, or university, and its great libraries, it formed a common meeting ground for Jewish tradition and the Egyptian mysteries, into which Greek Platonists had injected their subtle philosophies. Because the leaders of the Christian church were, after the initial period of Palestinian leadership, largely ignorant of the original Hebrew of the Old Testament, they used the Alexandrian Septuagint, despite its recognized faults, as the common version. It was in the catechetical school of Alexandria, under such environment, that the allegorical method came into vogue in the early church, in an attempt to extract Greek philosophy from the Pentateuch. ⁴ PFF1 310.5

2. ORIGEN’S PRECOCIOUS THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE

ORIGEN (c. 185-c. 254), probably born in Alexandria, and possibly of Greek parentage, was the chief exponent of the mystical interpretation of Scripture. ⁵ Although his personal character was above reproach, he did incalculable injury to the faith of the church through his injection of Neo-Platonic mysticism. He was one of the most remarkable men in history for sheer genius and learning, and was considered the most brilliant scholar of his age. His chief accomplishment was in the field of textual criticism, but his knowledge embraced all departments of philosophy, philology, and theology, in a period when the ecclesiastical language of the church was just being formed, and before the great councils had defined the limits of “orthodoxy.” PFF1 311.1

Origen received the standard liberal education of the day. He was thoroughly familiar with Greek literature, and with Scripture as well. Unquestionably a youthful prodigy, with a precocious thirst for knowledge, he misapplied much of that knowledge through wild and fanciful interpretation. Eusebius, who recounts Origen’s early life and proclivities, ⁶ tells us that while yet a boy he memorized whole sections of the Bible. But, unsatisfied with the plain and obvious intent of the text, he inquired so persistently into its “inner meaning” that he greatly perplexed his father, drawing forth a rebuke for inquiring into things beyond his youthful capacity? ⁷ PFF1 311.2

At the age of seventeen Origen was a student in the catechetical school at Alexandria, under the noted Clement, when violent persecution of the Christians broke out under Septimius Severus in 202. Origen’s father, Leonides, was numbered among the martyrs. Clement’s flight left the catechetical school at Alexandria without a teacher. So Origen was induced to give informal instruction in the faith in this crucial period. PFF1 311.3

3. EXERTS BLIGHTING INFLUENCE AS ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL HEAD

Such exceptional success attended him that Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria, definitely appointed Origen head of the school when he was only an eighteen-year-old layman. This appointment determined the course of his life. He sold his collection of ancient writings, and thenceforth devoted himself to exposition and teaching, and the Alexandrian school, already prominent, rose to new heights under his leadership as great numbers flocked to his lectures. Thinking to fill his office better, he devoted himself to an exhaustive study of all the heresies of his age, until he became steeped in Greek philosophy and heretical Gnosticism. ⁸ PFF1 312.1

He brilliantly attacked and refuted the enemies of the Christian religion, who feared him ⁹ But he injured the very religion he defended by mixing with it multiple errors, particularly allegorical and metaphysical theology. And instead of bringing the heathen mind up to the Christian standard, he brought the Christian truth down toward the level of pagan philosophy in an attempt to make it acceptable to the higher classes, ¹⁰ thereby contributing tragically to the corruption of the faith of the church. There is scarcely a heresy that has blighted the Christian church which is not to be traced to this dreamer. PFF1 312.2

After Origen had taught thirteen years at Alexandria, the persecution under the emperor Caracalla forced him to with draw to Palestine. Though still a layman, he was requested by the bishops of Jerusalem and Caesarea to expound the Scriptures in their presence in public assembly. Demetrius, strongly disapproving this unprecedented situation, demanded his return to Alexandria. There Origen began his written expositions of Scripture, laboring for the next fifteen years as teacher and author. PFF1 312.3

About 230, while on the way to Greece, he was ordained a presbyter at Caesarea. There had already been opposition to Origen in Alexandria, and this honor drew upon him the condemnation of his bishop. His ordination was pronounced invalid, and his headship of the catechetical school terminated. This occasioned his permanent withdrawal to Caesarea. There he formed a new theological school, similar to the one in Alexandria, where he trained some of the most eminent fathers. Under the persecution of Decius, he was thrown into a dungeon at Tyre. He was later released, but died several years afterward as a result of the sufferings inflicted upon him. ¹¹ PFF1 313.1

From the notorious errors in his scheme of philosophy, including those antagonistic to belief in the second advent and necessitating its rejection or explaining away, sprang that hostility that pressed successfully against him the charge of heresy. That he had perverted the “orthodox faith” could not be gainsaid. By a later synod, after his death, he was charged with heresy and anathematized as a heretic ¹² His teachings, however, lived on, and exercised a profound influence on the succeeding centuries. From the days of Origen to those of Chrysostom there was not a single eminent commentator who did not borrow largely from his works. ¹³ PFF1 313.2

4. LITERARY ACTIVITIES, HERESY, AND CONDEMNATION

The indefatigable Origen’s literary activities were prodigious. He is alleged by Epiphanius, an opponent, to have written six thousand works, ¹⁴ large and small. Ambrosius, a wealthy friend who considered him perhaps the greatest of living teachers and Scripture expositors, devoted much of his fortune to transcription and publication, enabling Origen to write voluminously. ¹⁵ From dawn till late at night seven shorthand writers were always attendant upon him, rotating in taking dictation, with a like number of copyists. Thus his commentaries and treatises came to be, covering an amazing range—apologetic, polemic, and dogmatic. He quoted liberally from the Scriptures, generally the Septuagint, and his knowledge of the text of Scripture was indeed extraordinary, considering that he had no concordance to aid him. PFF1 313.3

His crowning work was the monumental Hexapla, or sixfold Bible, compiled for the improvement of the received Septuagint text. It was a critical work—the Old Testament in six parallel columns, two Hebrew and the rest Greek: (1) the Hebrew text; (2) the Hebrew text transliterated into the Greek alphabet; and then the Greek versions of (3) Aquila, (4) Symmachus, (5) the Septuagint, and (6) Theodotion. Origen became the father of textual criticism, through this stupendous work, which consumed twenty-eight years, and laid the foundation of all later textual criticism. He even learned Hebrew in order to compare the Septuagint and other Greek versions with the Old Testament Hebrew. The degree of literalness determined the order of the columns. The departures from the standard he marked with asterisks and obelisks, respectively, for alterations and omissions. ¹⁶ He gave digests of the early readings of the text, carefully noting the textual variations that existed in his day. PFF1 314.1

To this scholarly textual work of Origen we owe the preservation of the original Septuagint version of the book of Daniel; this earlier Greek translation survives only in a single manuscript, a text from Origen’s Tetrapla (the four Greek columns of the Hexapla). ¹⁷ The Hexapla was so huge that it was never copied entire, but it long remained accessible to scholars in the library of Pamphilus at Caesarea. Origen has been regarded by scholars as the most celebrated Biblical critic of antiquity. PFF1 314.2