SOURCE: "Origen," in The Christian Platonists of Alexandria: Eight Lectures, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1886, pp. 115-34.

[In this lecture, Bigg provides an overview of Origen's life and work in its various aspects: textual criticism, exegesis, and religious philosophy.]

Clement as we have seen is a philosopher of a desultory and eclectic type and so far as the needs of his tranquil spirit led him on. Egypt is his world, Gnosticism his one trouble. Origen had travelled to Rome in the West and Bostra in the East, and had found everywhere the clash of arms. But apart from this he was not one of those who discover the rifts in their harness only on the morning of the battle. His sceptical intelligence pries unbidden into every defect, and anticipates the hostile thrust. He stands to his arms for life or death, like a Dominican theologian of the thirteenth century, or an English divine of the nineteenth. The range of his activity is amazing. He is the first great scholar, the first great preacher, the first great devotional writer, the first great commentator, the first great dogmatist. But he is nothing else. Already we have entered upon the joyless age of erudition. The beauties of Hellenism, in which Clement still delighted, are a withered flower, and Christian art is as yet unborn.

The life of Origen extended from 185 A.D. to 254 A.D., from the reign of Commodus to that of Valerian and Gallienus. During this long and eventful period his activity was constant, varied and distinguished, and friends and enemies, both equally ardent, have left us large materials for his biography. It is impossible here to deal exhaustively with a subject so wide. We must content ourselves with touching upon the most characteristic features¹.

He was 'by race an Egyptian,' a Copt, one of the children of the soil, despised by the Greek colonists for their animal-worship and their petulant turbulence, and treated even by the upright Roman law on the footing of slaves. Son as he was of Christian parents he yet bore the name of one of his country's deities, Origenes, child of Hor, the god of Light². From his blood he drew that fiery ardour which long tribulation softened but could not quench. He was a martyr by race, but a stern schooling was needed before he learned to drink the cup as God had mixed it for him. When his father Leonidas fell a victim to the persecution of Severus, nothing but the womanly sense of his mother prevented Origen, then a boy of seventeen, from drawing destruction on his own head by open defiance of the authorities. The destitute orphan found shelter in the house of a wealthy Alexandrine lady, but neither gratitude nor the sense of a common misfortune could induce him to behave with civility to her Gnostic chaplain. Shortly afterwards, at the age of eighteen, he found independence in the mastership of the Catechetical School, left vacant by the flight of Clement. He breathed his own spirit into his pupils, of whom six at least perished. Nor was it Origen's fault that he did not share their fate. He visited them in prison, he acted as their advocate, and gave them the brotherly kiss in open court. We are not surprised to hear that he narrowly escaped stoning in the streets, or that he was hunted from house to house by the gendarmery. What is remarkable is that he escaped, and even contrived throughout the reign of terror to keep his school together. It is probable that the edict of Severus, which was directed against converts only, did not touch him, and that so long as he abstained from formal defiance he was personally safe³. And he had already learned that formal defiance was suicide.

The second path that allures the wilful martyr is that of self-torture. Like Buddha, like Marcus Aurelius, like Wesley, like many another enthusiast in every age and clime and church, Origen flung himself into asceticism only to learn the truth of the old Greek adage, 'He who starts in the race before the signal is given is whipped.' He sold the manuscripts of the Greek classics, which he had written out with loving care, for a trifling pension, in order that he might be able to teach without a fee, and subjected himself for some years to the severest discipline by night and day. This was the time of his bondage to the letter. He would carry out with severest fidelity the precept of the Saviour, 'provide neither gold nor silver … neither two coats, neither shoes.' He went, as is well known, even farther than this, and did what was condemned at once by the wholesome severity of the Roman law, and the conscience, if not the actual ordinance of the Church. This error too he learned to renounce, but not wholly nor frankly, for to the last he looked with a sombre eye on the affections of the flesh.

Rebellion is the third temptation of undisciplined zeal, and this charge also may be laid to Origen's account. Here unhappily our materials are too scanty for a clear and dispassionate judgment. The bare facts are that in the year 215 Origen, being then at Caesarea, accepted the invitation of Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem, and Theoctistus, Bishop of Caesarea, to expound the Scriptures before the assembly of the Church, though as yet a layman, and that in 228 he was ordained at the same place by the same Bishops. We cannot tell how far these acts were in violation of the existing discipline. Both were lawful in Palestine, both were regarded by Demetrius as unlawful. If the rule was more stringent at Alexandria, it was possibly a recent innovation. We do not know how far the dispute was complicated by the character of the Patriarch, by the teaching and conduct of Origen, or by the peculiar position of the Alexandrine Presbytery. But it is significant that the extreme penalty of degradation was carried only by the voices of the newly created suffragan bishops, against the inclination of the priests. These latter could not but sympathise with a victim of the same usurpation that lay so heavy on themselves.

For our present purpose the importance of the incident is that it marks the final renunciation by Origen of that narrow legal spirit, which leads by many paths to the one goal of servitude. He was learning in strange and unexpected ways the true meaning of the Christian sacrifice. He had been willing and eager to 'give his body to be burned,' he had 'given all his goods to feed the poor,' and his reward had been not the martyr crown but the martyr spirit, 'love which beareth all things.' Now, when he had found his true career in indefatigable labour for the Word of God, and sought to sanctify his toil and enlarge his influence by the name and authority of a priest, what he sought was given to him, but at the cost of banishment and obloquy. Such discipline was needed before this high impatient spirit could obey with docility the bridle of God.

Many years before this it had become manifest in what direction Providence was leading him. As a child he had received by his father's care not only a minute knowledge of Scripture, a great part of which he learned by heart, but a thorough training in what was called the encyclic discipline—the grammar, rhetoric and science which formed the ordinary education of a youth of good family. Hebrew, a rare accomplishment, and philosophy⁴, he acquired while so absorbed in school work that he could find time for study only by curtailing the hours of sleep. His literary activity began in 223, when he would be thirty-eight years old, and continued incessantly to the end of his life. Like many other men of studious habits he found the labour of composition irksome, but Ambrosius, a wealthy and intelligent man whom Origen had reclaimed from Gnosticism, continually spurred him on, and overcame the physical difficulty by providing him with a number of shorthand writers and copyists. From this time his labours were unremitting. 'The work of correction,' he says in one of his letters, 'leaves us no time for supper, or after supper for exercise and repose. Even at these times we are compelled to debate questions of interpretation and to emend MSS. Even the night cannot be given up altogether to the needful refreshment of sleep, for our discussions extend far into the evening. I say nothing about our morning labour continued from dawn to the ninth or tenth hour. For all earnest students devote this time to study of the Scriptures and reading⁵.

Such was his life during the progress of the Hexapla, and indeed at all times. The volume of writing thus produced was enormous. But it is evident that no man can accomplish the best work of which he is capable under these conditions, harassed by the demands of pupils, toiling with feverish anxiety to master the ever-growing mountain of minute facts, and in hardly won intervals pouring out the eager flow of extemporaneous thought to nimble-fingered stenographers⁶. The marvel is not that Origen composed so much, but that he composed so well.

And to these professional labours must be added a far-reaching personal influence, with all its responsibilities and engagements. Origen was essentially a man of the student type, but he wielded that powerful charm which attaches to high intellectual gifts when combined with an ardent and sympathetic nature. His pupil Gregory Thaumaturgus speaks of his 'sweet grace and persuasion mingled with a certain constraining force⁷,' and uses towards him that strong Greek word by which Plato describes the love of the soul for its ideal. Such a charm is a practical power, and works with more freedom and pungency in a private station of life. It constituted Origen the unofficial representative, arbiter, peacemaker of the Eastern Church. A provincial governor consults him on affairs of the soul, the Christian or half-Christian Emperor Philip corresponds with him, the Empress Mother Mammaea summons him to Antioch and provides him with a guard of honour⁸. The Churches of Achaea and Arabia make him their umpire, and peace follows his award. In the furnace of affliction he has grown to be one of those magnetic natures that test the capacity for love and veneration in every one that comes within their sphere.

Origen had long learned to acquiesce in the prevalent view of the Easterns that martyrdom involves a high responsibility, that the Christian has no right either to fling away his life or to fix the guilt of blood upon 'the powers ordained of God.' The Church would gladly have restricted this Olympian contest to her chosen athletes. Hence he quitted Alexandria during the Fury of Caracalla, which though not specially directed against Christians, no doubt involved them. Once again he fled from the persecution of Maximin to Caesarea of Cappadocia, where in the house of Juliana he whiled away the stormy days in labour upon the Hexapla. What thoughts solaced him during this dry and gigantic task we know from the treatise on Martyrdom, composed at this time for the benefit of his friend Ambrosius, who had been thrown into prison, 'a golden book' it has been called with truth, for it touches not a single false note. At last his own summons came. He was incarcerated in the persecution of Decius, and treated with a severity which shattered his frame already enfeebled by labour and old age.

He was buried in Tyre, where for centuries his tomb, in the wall behind the high altar, formed the chief ornament of the magnificent cathedral of the Holy Sepulchre. Tyre was wasted by the Saracens, but even to this day, it is said, the poor fishermen, whose hovels occupy the site of that city of palaces, point to a shattered vault beneath which lie the bones of 'Oriunus⁹.'

We may consider his voluminous and many-sided works under three heads—Textual Criticism, Exegesis, and Religious Philosophy. The first of these does not properly fall within the scope of our enquiry, but a brief notice may be permitted for the sake of the side-light which it throws upon the character of our author.

He devoted much time and labour to the text of the New Testament, which was already disfigured by corruptions, 'some arising from the carelessness of scribes, some from the evil licence of emendation, some from arbitrary omissions or interpolations¹⁰.' Already the records were perverted in numberless passages, not only by Gnostic audacity, but by those minor variations which constitute what are known as the Western and Alexandrine families. Between errors of the latter class and the genuine reading he had no means of deciding except the perilous canon of intrinsic probability, which he applies with much acuteness, but at the same time with severe caution¹¹. All that he could hope was to purify his own MS. or MSS.¹² (for he used more than one, and those of different families) from manifest faults of transcription and from recent and obvious depravations. This he effected with care and ability. The Exemplaria Adamantii acquired the authority of a standard, and derived additional importance from the fact that a copy was presented by Eusebius to the Emperor Constantine. But Origen's fame as a critic rests chiefly upon the Hexapla. In controversy with the Jews the Christian disputant was constantly baffled by the retort, that the passages on which he relied were not found, or were otherwise expressed, in the Hebrew. Several new translations or recensions of the whole or part of the LXX had been produced, in which the discrepancies of the Alexandrine Version from the original were brought into strong relief. Origen saw clearly the whole of the difficulties involved, and with characteristic grandeur and fearlessness determined upon producing an edition of the Old Testament that should exhibit in parallel columns the Hebrew text and the rival versions, thus bringing before the eye of the enquirer in one view the whole of the evidence attainable¹³. At the same time he corrected and supplemented the LXX from the other versions, chiefly those of Theodotion and Aquila. This gigantic and costly scheme was rendered feasible by the munificence, and facilitated by the active cooperation, of Ambrosius.

The Hexapla, the first great achievement of Christian erudition, is impressive in many ways, not least as a proof of the intelligence and sincerity of the community to which it was addressed. But with all his devotion and learning Origen was not a consummate master in the higher functions of criticism. His equipment was insufficient. His knowledge of Hebrew was respectable, and for his age remarkable, but not profound. He had a fair acquaintance with the grammar and dictionary, but had not penetrated into the genius of the language¹⁴. Again he was hampered by prejudice. He regarded the LXX as an independent and inspired authority, and, like Justin, accounted for its variation from the Hebrew by supposing that the latter had been deliberately falsified by the Jews¹⁵. In this way he explained the absence from the Canon of the Apocryphal Books. On one occasion he had employed in a public debate doctrinal proofs taken from the History of Susanna. This drew upon him an epistle from Julius Africanus, in which it was shown with great force and ingenuity that this addition to the Book of Daniel could not have been composed in Hebrew¹⁶. Origen with much learning and some little warmth refused to be convinced, but the honour of arms remained with Africanus, whose letter indeed is a signal refutation of the epithets 'credulous' and 'uncritical' so often applied to the age in which, and the men by whom, the Canon of the New Testament was settled.

Of the stately Hexapla time has spared us nothing but a gleaning of scattered fragments. The original MS. perished probably when the library of Caesarea was destroyed by the Arabs in the middle of the seventh century, and its immense size—it consisted of not less than fifty great rolls of parchment—must have prevented its ever being copied as a whole, though the revised LXX was circulated separately, and indeed still exists in a Syriac translation¹⁷. But of the exegetic work of Origen a very considerable mass is still extant, partly in the authentic Greek, partly in Latin translations. The surviving remains cover a large part both of the Old and of the New Testaments, and afford ample material for judging the method and substance of his teaching. Yet they are but a portion of what he accomplished. In the form of Scholia, Homilies or Commentaries he expounded nearly every book in the Bible, and many books were treated in all three ways.

The Scholia¹⁸ were brief annotations, such as are commonly found on the margin of ancient MSS. The Homilies and Commentaries require a fuller notice.

Already the old prophesyings and speaking with tongues, except among the Montanist sectaries, have disappeared before the growing reverence for Scripture and the increasing stringency of discipline. Their place was supplied by the Homily¹⁹ or Discourse, a name derived from the philosophic schools, expressive of the character of Christian eloquence, which was didactic and not rhetorical. In the days of Origen, and in Palestine, (for his priestly activity belongs wholly to the time after his exile from Egypt) public worship was held no longer in the large room of some wealthy brother's house, but in buildings definitely appropriated for the purpose, in which the Bishop and his clergy were seated in a semicircle round the decorated Altar²⁰. The service was divided into two portions, corresponding to what were afterwards known as the Mass of the Catechumens and the Mass of the Faithful. To the first, which was held daily, belonged the reading of Scripture, the Sermon, and apparently certain prayers²¹; to the second, celebrated on Sundays and festivals, the prayers properly so called and the Eucharist. At the first catechumens, even heathen, were allowed to be present; from the second all, save the baptised, were rigidly excluded.

The Lessons were often of considerable length, comprising as much as three or four of our modern chapters, and went on in regular order, and the preacher expounded the whole or a portion of each according to the direction of the presiding bishop²². It is probable that the friendly prelate of Caesarea suffered Origen to follow his own plan; hence his Homilies form a continuous exposition of the several books. They were delivered before a mixed, shifting, and not always orderly congregation. The services were daily and long. Some of the brethern would attend only on feast-days, and not always then. Some left the church before the sermon began, or if they remained, gathered in knots in the farther end of the building, the place of the heathen and unbaptised, 'turning their backs on the Word of God and busying themselves with secular gossip.' There were broad differences again in knowledge and morality. Some thought it not inconsistent with their Christian profession to haunt the circus or the amphitheatre; some fluctuated between Gnosticism and the Church; some were still tainted with heathen superstitions; some, sincere but ignorant, interpreted the promises of the Gospel in the most gross and carnal sense, or 'believed of God what would not be believed of the cruelest of mankind.' Hence the duty of Reserve, which Origen everywhere professes, weighs upon him with especial urgency in the Homilies²³.

The Homilies are rather what we should call Lectures than Sermons. His object in the pulpit, Origen tells us, is not the explanation of the letter so much as the edification of the Church; hence he dwells here almost entirely upon the moral and spiritual sense²⁴. There is abundance of allegory but little exhortation, still less unction or pathos. Origen does not wind himself into the heart. He has not the blithe geniality of Clement, whose cloistered life seems never to have felt a storm. In Origen there is a subdued fire that reveals the tale of mental suffering and exhausting toil. Hence that austere solemnity, that absolute sincerity, that breadth and dignity of mind, which still grasp and detain the reader with the same spell that was cast upon Gregory. Origen is emphatically 'a man of God,' strong and subtle yet infinitely humble and gentle, a true Ductor Dubitantium, because he knew there was much that he did not know and yet was not afraid. His style is almost everywhere loose and prolix, owing to his habit of extemporaneous speech or dictation. This applies to the Commentaries as well as to the Homilies. Where he used the pen it is terser and more collected. But it is always simple and direct, flowing straight from the heart, devoid of every ornament, and owing its force entirely to that glowing fusion of thought and feeling by which it is informed.

The plan which he laid down for himself in the Commentaries²⁵ was to give first the literal, then the moral, then the spiritual sense of each verse in regular succession. The text is but the threshing-floor on which he pours out all the harvest of his knowledge, his meditations, his hopes. Any word may open up a train of thought extending throughout all Scripture and all time. Hence there is much repetition and confusion. Even here the object is not so much instruction as the deepening of the Christian life. We lose in perspicuity, but we never miss the inspiriting sense of immediate contact with a great character.

To us, though not to himself nor to the men of his time, Origen's merit as an expositor rests mainly upon the skill and patience with which he evolved the real and natural sense of the Bible.²⁶ He himself saw clearly that this is the foundation of everything. If we measure him by the best modern commentators, we may be struck by his deficiencies. But in relation to his own age his services are extraordinary. He need not fear comparison with the great pagan grammarians. He took great pains as we have seen to ascertain the text; he insists on the necessity of fixing the precise meaning of the words, and for this purpose will hunt a phrase through the whole Bible with a fertility of quotation truly prodigious, when we remember that it rests upon unaided memory. He never slurs a difficulty, raising and discussing every doubt that can by any possibility suggest itself. Hebrew he knew but imperfectly, and this is a fatal defect in dealing with the LXX. But in the New Testament he displays an accurate and intelligent appreciation of Greek grammar. Where he fails it is from preconceived ideas, from the hairsplitting and oversubtlety which are the Nemesis of Allegorism, or from deficiency of that sense of humour which corrects the extravagances of Clement. He cannot understand irony, and the simpler a thing is the more difficult he makes it.²⁷ Such scientific knowledge as the times could supply is at his call,²⁸ and he had travelled in Palestine with a keen eye for the geography of the Gospels. Philosophy too was at his command, though he does not rate it so high as Clement.²⁹ 'Few,' he says, 'are those who have taken the spoils of the Egyptians and made of them the furniture of the tabernacle.' Learning is useful, he tells his pupil Gregory, but the Scriptures are their own best key. 'Be diligent in reading the divine Scriptures, yes, be diligent … Knock and the doorkeeper will open unto thee … And be not content to knock and to enquire, for the most necessary aid to spiritual truth is prayer. Hence our Saviour said not only "knock and it shall be opened," and "seek and ye shall find," but "ask and it shall be given you."'³⁰

Notes

1. For fuller information about the biography of Origen the reader should consult Thomasius, Redepenning, or Huet. Denis, Philosophie d' Origène, is a most valuable aid to the study of his system of doctrine. Dr. Harnack's Dogmengeschichte is also very useful. Redepenning, ii. 472, gives a list of editions. The special literature will be found in Möller's article in Herzog, in Nitzsch, Dogmengeschichte, or in Ueberweg, Grundriss der Gesch, der Philosophie. All my references are to the edition of Lommatzsch, the volume and page have been noted where it seemed desirable.
2. G.J. Voss was the first who gave the right derivation of the name of Origen; Redepenning, i. 421. Suidas, Erasmus, Halloix, Cave were satisfied with the impossible etymology, 'born in the mountains.' Origen is commonly spoken of by the by-name Adamantius, which, according to Photius, Cod. 118, means the same as Doctor Irrefragabilis …, according to Jerome denotes his indefatigable capacity for labour …, according to Huet the firmness with which he stood like a rock against Heretics. For the heathen philosopher of the same name see Porphyry, Vita Plotini, 20; Eunapius, Vita Porphyrii, p. 457; Ruhnken, Diss, philologica de vita et scriptis Longini, in his ed. of Longinus, Oxford, 1806. Epiphanius endeavoured to save the reputation of Origen by inventing a second author of the same name, to whom he ascribed the more heterodox articles of Origenism, Haer. lxiii. I; lxiv. 3. The Praedestinati auctor, Haer. 42, calls this phantom heresiarch Syrus sceleratissimus, and adds a third Origen, who denied the Resurrection. See Huet, Origeniana, i. 1. 7.
3. An excellent account of the persecution of Severus will be found in Aubé, Les Chrétiens dans l'Empire Romain. See also Münter, Primordia Eccl. Afr.
4. Origen does not name the professor whose lectures he attended. The belief that it was Ammonius Saccas rests upon the statement of Porphyry. Porphyry, who was an excellent man, no doubt spoke in good faith, but he has confused the heathen Origen whom he once knew with the Christian Origen whom he can never have known, and therefore no weight at all can be attached to what he says. The teacher may well have been Ammonius, but it is by no means certain. For even if that distinguished man was already in the chair, it appears from the opening of the Eunuchus ascribed to Lucian, that at a great school there were two professors of each of the four sects of philosophy. Their stipend was 10,000 drachmas per annum. See notes in Heinichen on Eusebius, H. E. vi. 19.
5. From the Epistle to a Friend about Ambrosius, in Lomm. xvii. p. 5.
6. Ambrosius, whom Origen calls his έργοδιώκτηs, taskmaster, provided him with seven stenographers, and the same number of calligraphists. We may compare them with the staff of a modern lexicographer. But Origen used them for his commentaries and other composition. Thus In Joan. vi. 1 (Lorn. i. p. 176) he complains that his work has been at a standstill because the συνήθεια ταχuγράφοι were not with him. After the year 246 his extemporaneous Homilies were taken down by shorthand writers.
7. From the Panegyric of Gregory Thaumaturgus, 6 (in Lorn. xxv). The student of Origen should certainly begin with this graphic and loving though too rhetorical sketch of the great master. Gregory was on his way to the Roman law school at Berytus, where he was to study for the bar. But by a series of accidents, which he regarded afterwards as divinely ordered, he fell in with Origen at Caesarea, and could not tear himself away. 'It was as if a spark fell into my soul and caught fire and blazed up, such was my love for the Holy Word and for this man its friend and advocate. Stung by this desire I forgot all that seemed to touch me most nearly, my studies, even my beloved jurisprudence, my country, my relatives, my present mission, the object of my travels.' Gregory stayed with Origen for five years, became a bishop, and was famed for his miracles.
8. The date of the interview with Mammaea is doubtful. Baronius, Tillemont and De 1a Rue (see Huet) place it in 218. Redepenning, i. 372, in 223; this is Huet's own opinion. Aubé, pp. 306 sqq. throws it forward to 232, on the ground that it was after the ordination of Origen, but I am not aware what reason he has for this statement. On the vexed question of the relation of Philip to Christianity see Huet and Aubé, pp. 470 sqq.
9. I owe this fact to Dr. Westcott's article, Origen and the beginnings of Christian Philosophy, in the Contemporary Review for May, 1879.
10. In Matth. xv. 14 (Lom. iii. 357).
11. See the Diss. critica de Cod. IV Evang. Origenis in Griesbach, Opuscula Académica, vol. i. Origen sometimes makes conjectures in his Commentaries, but never admitted them into his text. Thus he thought the words 'thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself spurious in Matt. xix. 19 (see In Matth. xv. 14), but he does not venture to expunge them. He supports the reading αβργβσήνων in Matt. viii. 28 and the parallel passages, but it is doubtful whether he actually inserted it in his MS.; see In Joan. vi. 24; Redepenning, ii. 184 note; and Tischendorf. Bethabara he found in some copies. In Rom. v. 14 the majority of his MSS. omitted the μη, In Rom. v. 1 (Lom. vi. 344). There were bolder critics in his time. Some wished to set aside the story of Dives and Lazarus, In Joan, xxxii. 13 (Lom. ii. 447); the words 'today thou shalt be with me in Paradise,' In Joan, xxxii. 19 (Lom. ii. 481); and the advice given to slaves, 1 Cor. vii. 21, In Rom. i. 1 (Lom. vi. 12).
12. Redepenning, ii. 182 sqq.; Griesbach, p. 240. The latter scholar pointed out that the text of Mark used by Origen for In Matth. was Western, while that quoted in the In Joan, is Alexandrine. See Gregory, Prolegomena to Tischendorf, p. 189; Westcott and Hort, p. 113.
13. Field, in his magnificent work, Origenis Hexapla, xlviii. does not think that Origen had a distinctly controversial purpose in view. But see Redepenning, i. 234. 375; ii. 170. The locus classicus is In Matth. xv. 14. Partly owing to the plan followed by Origen, partly to the haste and inaccuracy of transcribers, the Hexapla caused very serious changes in the text of the LXX. Jerome, Praefatio in Librum Paral, Migne, vol. xxviii. p. 1323; Schürer, p. 701.
14. Redepenning, i. 367; ii. 166. 198; Ernesti, Opuscula Philologica et Critica. There is however some reason for lowering this estimate. In Num., Hom. xiv. 1, Aiunt ergo qui hebraicas literas legunt, in hoc loco Deus non sub signo tetragrammati esse positum, de quo qui potest requirat (Redepenning thinks these words may have been inserted by the translator).… Origen does not speak of his own knowledge on this important and much debated point, and the authorities on whom he relied misled him, for the word almah is not found in the passage to which he refers, Deut. xxii. 23-26. It is evident from the Ep. ad Afric. that Origen could not walk alone in Hebrew. Hence Boherellus inferred 'Origenem hebraice plane nescivisse.' See Rosenmüller, iii. 63. 23. 153.
15. Justin, Trypho, 71; Otto, p. 256.
16. The chief point urged by Africanus is the play of words.… Origen struggles against this cogent argument in the Ep. ad Afric. But in a Fragment from Strom. x. (Lom. xvii. p. 74) he admits that if the paronomasia does not exist in Hebrew the objection is fatal. The if is not critical but theological. See Schürer, p. 717.
17. The Syro-Hexaplar text is probably nearly all in existence, though till all the Fragments have been published it cannot be known what deficiencies may exist. See the articles Versions in Dict, of Bible by Tregelles and Syrische Bibelübersetzungen by Nestle in Herzog; Field; Ceriani, Codex Syro-hexaplaris Ambrosianus, Milan, 1874; Lagarde, V. T. ab Origene recensiti frag, apud Syros servata quinque, Göttingen, 1880; Dr. T. Skat Roerdam, Libri Judicum et Ruth, Hauniae, 1861; the last-named authority gives full and elaborate prolegomena.
18. Jerome, Preface to his translation of the Homilies on Ezekiel, 'Scias Origenis opuscula in omnem Scripturam esse triplicia. Primum eius Excerpta, quae Graece [scolia] nuncupantur, in quibus ea quae sibi videbantur obscura atque habere aliquid difficultatis summatim breviterque perstrinxit.' In the Preface to his Comm. on Matthew, Jerome calls them 'commaticum interpretandi genus.' The word σημβίωσις, which also occurs, appears to be used in the general sense of 'notes,' which were sometimes perhaps [scolia], sometimes extracts from the Commentaries or Homilies, Origeniana, iii. 1. 4, but see Redepenning, ii. 376; Ernesti, Opuscula Philologica. Such are the fragmentary extracts, chiefly from Catenas and of somewhat doubtful authenticity, published as Selecta. See the monita in De 1a Rue. Gallandi, vol. xiv., App., has collected many fragments that are not given in Lommatzsch.
19. Redepenning, ii. 212 sqq. The terms σήρυγμά and διάλεξις were also in use.
20. In Jesu Nave, Hom. x. 3 (Lom. xi. 104); In Judices, Hom. iii. 2 (Lom. xi. 237); Probst, Kirchliche Disciplin, p. 212.
21. Many of the Homilies end with the admonition to stand up and pray, e.g. In Luc., xxxix. Catechumens were addressed In Luc, Hom. vii. Heathen were sometimes present, In Jerem., Hom. ix. 4 (Lom. xv. 210).
22. The Lesson read before the Sermon on the Witch of Endor included 1 Sam. xxv. xxvi. xxvii. xxviii.… There was as yet only one lesson, taken sometimes from the Old, sometimes from the New Testament. At a somewhat later period there were four, divided into two pairs, the first pair from the Old, the second from the New Test., and between the two readings a psalm was sung, Const. App. ii. 57, but no trace of this usage is found in Origen, Redepenning, ii. 221 sqq.; Probst, Liturgie, 152. Many of Origen's Homilies must have taken an hour and a half in the delivery.
23. The behaviour of the women was especially troublesome, 'quae tantum garriunt, quae tantum fabulis obstrepunt, ut non sinant esse silentium. I am quid de mente earum, quid de corde discutiam, si de infantibus suis aut de lana cogitent aut de necessariis domus,' In Exod. Hom. xiii. 3: cp. In Num. Hom. v. 1; In Lev. Hom. ix. 5. 7. 9; In Gen. Hom. x. 1; Philocalia, i. ad fin.; Redepenning, ii. 229.
24. In Lev. Hom. i. 1; In Num. Hom. xiv. 1. The reader may acquire a just idea of Origen as a preacher by perusing In Gen. viii; In Lev. vii; In Luc. xiv. The Homilies on Judges we know to have been written, though extempore passages were added in the delivery, see Hom. i. 3: 'Sed et illud quod dicentibus nobis occurrit,' &c. Beyond this passage I am not aware of the existence of any positive evidence as to which of his works were written with his own hand, though some, e.g. the In Joan., we know were not. But I cannot think that the De Principiis, the De Oratione, or the De Martyrio belonged to the latter class. Eustathius complains of Origen's αμβτροςφΑναρίά; Theophilus called him 'Seminarium loquacitatis;' Erasmus on the other hand praises his brevity, Huet, Orig. iii. 1. 1; Redepenning, ii. 252. Some interesting remarks will be found in Rothe, Geschichte der Predigt, Bremen, 1881.
25. I may recommend to the reader the allegory on the Treasury In Joan. xix. 2; the passage on the Death of Christ, ibid. xxviii. 14; on Faith, ibid. xxxii. 9; the allegory on the Mercy Seat, In Rom. iii. 8, and the Exposition of the Parables in St. Matthew. The latter Commentary is generally superior to that on St. John. But those who wish to see Origen at his best will seek him where he is least allegorical, in the Contra Celsum, or the treatises on Prayer and on Martyrdom.
26. Perhaps the best instance of Origen's merits and defects in dealing with the literal sense is to be found in his comments on the opening words of St. John's Gospel In Joan. i. 16 onwards. In the New Testament he is always excellent, but we must compare him with the ancient commentators on Homer, not, as Rosenmüller practically does, with the best modern divines. I have adhered to Origen's own distinction of the literal from the mystic sense. But it must be remembered that many of the most important passages in the N. T. are figurative, and that it is precisely in the explanation of these that the merit of Origen is to be found. Perhaps his supreme excellence lies in his clearness and courage in pointing out difficulties, the moral anomalies which beset the Gnostic and the ignorant Christian, the apparent non-fulfilment of the Messianic hope which rebuffed the Jew (see for all this the opening of the Philocalia); the contradictions of the Evangelists, In Joan. x. 3. sqq.; the chronological difficulty involved in the 'four months before harvest,' In Joan. xiii. 39; the historical difficulty in the title βασιλικά?, In Joan. xiii. 57. If he often creates perplexities out of insignificant verbal distinctions, this is still a fault on the right side. For details see Redepenning, ii. 200 sqq.; Rosenmüller. Ernesti, Opuscula Philologica et Critica, rates him very high as the founder of textual criticism and scientific inductive exegesis.
27. A good instance of this is this treatment of the gift of Caleb to his daughter Achsa (Joshua xv. 19), 'Et accepit Gonetlam superiorem et Gonetlam inferiorem … Videtis quia vere auxilio Dei opus est ut haec explanari queant,' In Jesu Nave, Hom. xx. 4.
28. It did not amount to much. See the account of the different kinds of pearls In Matt. x. 7. Origen thought that the popular beliefs that serpents spring from the spinal marrow of dead men, bees from oxen, wasps from horses, beetles from asses, that serpents have a knowledge of antidotes, that the eagle uses the άετίτης λi0os as an amulet for the protection of its young were possibly true, Contra Celsum, iv. 57. 86. But he is no worse than Celsus himself or Pliny. Similar absurdities are to be found in Clement. For Origen's other accomplishments, see Origeniana, ii. 1; Redepenning, i. 219. M. Denis, p. 14, rates them very low. Indeed absorbed as Origen was in the drudgery of tuition from his eighteenth year, it is impossible that he can have gone profoundly into any line of knowledge not immediately connected with his special studies.
29. For the use that he made of philosophy, see the Panegyric of Gregory, and the account of his method of teaching in Lecture II. M. Denis, Philosophie d'Origène, p. 30, says: 'Il ne conservait de l'esprit philosophique que l'insatiable curiosité,' and complains, in the chapter on Anthropologie, of his neglect of ethics, psychology and politics. The duties of citizens would not have been a safe theme for a Christian writer under the heathen Empire. Psychology again is for another reason an exceedingly difficult subject for a Christian, because he cannot isolate it, because he has to regard above all things the point of junction with metaphysics, and with the metaphysics of Revelation. Clement and Origen were the first to attempt the problem from this point of view. The same difficulty attaches to the theory of Ethics. The practice of Ethics is undervalued both by Clement and Origen, though not so markedly by the latter. Hence it is a just criticism, 'Qu'il y a bien plus à apprendre sur l'observation intérieure non seulement dans Saint Augustin ou dans Saint Jérome, mais encore dans Tertullien.' The remarks of M. Denis are brilliant and in the main accurate, but the plan of his work compels him to approach Origen obliquely, and view him in a false light. Origen is before all things a theologian, but a philosophical theologian. The reader may consult with advantage Harnack, Dogmengeschichte, pp. 514 sqq.
30. From the Epistola ad Gregorium. The difference between the attitude of Clement and Origen towards philosophy is well described by M. Denis, Introduction.