Origin of Alexandria - Bio and focus on letter to Gregory Thaumaturgus

1. OUR TEACHER ORIGEN
ON HOLY SCRIPTURE
(AD 185 – 254)
Servants Preparatory March ‗14

2. His Early Years
 Origen was perhaps the first modern Bible scholar, as
well as a preacher and philosopher, who, like Tertullian,
was later condemned as a heretic.
 He was a native Egyptian.2
 He was taught by his father, but the latter was martyred
when Origen was young.
 He was strongly influenced by St. Clement of
Alexandria, a Platonian philosopher and Christian who
had founded the catechetical school of Alexandria.
 He was also influenced by the preaching of Hippolytus
of Rome.

3. His Early Zeal
 When his father was killed, he wanted to be killed also,
so his mother stole all his clothes so that he would be
too embarrassed to go outside.
 His mother and six siblings had their possessions
confiscated, so he went to live with a rich Christian
woman for a few years, where he continued to study.
 He reinstituted St. Clement‘s Catechetical School of
Alexandria at the age of eighteen!
 Origen was a strong ascetic. He even castrated himself
so as to be able to teach women without being tempted
to sin
 In his writings he argues against such literal
interpretations of Scripture.

4. His Writings
 Epiphanius claimed that Origen wrote in Greek about 6,000 works
(but ―works‖ may have meant chapters or volumes) on many
different topics, but most of them have been lost (See below).
 Some of his most well known books are:
 Hexapla — a compilation of six translations of the Old Testament
side by side
 Stromateis — brief summaries of the meanings of difficult
passages in Scripture
 On First Principles — a book of philosophy that presented
Christianity as a complete philosophy
 On Prayer
 On Martyrdom
 Against Celsus — written against those philosophers who argued
against Christianity

5. His Writings
 He wrote huge multi-volume commentaries on
most of the books of the Bible.
 Origen was a scholar of Hebrew. As a
translator, he was very conscious about the
differences in both Old Testament and New
Testament manuscripts and often made note
of such variants.
 He considered the Septuagint to be more
authoritative than the Masoretic Text.

6. His Teachings
 He held 1 Clement and The Shepherd of Hermas
to be canonical.
 He tended to interpret Scripture allegorically, not
literally.
 He went out of his way to refute Gnosticism in his
writings.
 He supported every statement of philosophy or
theology in his works with Scripture.
 He argued that Paul wrote the letter of Hebrews
 He often wrote about the free will of humans and
the supreme goodness of God.

7. His Heresies
 He believed in the preexistence of souls,
ultimate universal salvation/redemption, and
possibly a hierarchical view of the Trinity. In
553, the Church ordered the destruction or
modification of some of Origen‘s writings,
because it was determined that his views on
these things were heretical.
 He believed in a cyclical history, that there was
a universe before this one.
 He believed that the sun, moon, and stars, are
conscious beings.

8. His Latter Life
 Upon visiting Rome during the headship of Bishop Zephyrinus, he,
like Hippolytus, was disgusted by the moral compromise in the
Church that he found there.
 He became close friends with a rich man named Ambrose, whom
he converted from Gnosticism, and he dedicated all of his later
books to him, because the latter funded the publication of the
books.
 For a few years, Origen lived in Caesarea, where he preached and
taught from the Scripture there.
 On a second visit there, he was ordained as an elder.
 This — and his past preaching there without permission — angered the
bishop of Alexandria, who called a meeting of bishops and elders.
 They banished Origen from Alexandria and declared his eldership to be
void.
 Those in Alexandria and Rome accepted this judgment, while all the
other churches in the world seem to have ignored it.
 Origen‘s character continued to be attacked for many years.

9. His Death
 He continued to be sent on missions against
heresies by the Church, despite the rumors
against him.
 .Origen died after being severely tortured in
~254 during the persecution started by
Emperor Decius, who blamed the Christians
refusal to worship him as the cause of the
Antonine Plague.

10. On The Holy Scriptures: Letter to
Gregory
 Origen lived in the Bible. He states that the
whole Scriptures "breathe the Spirit of fullness,
and there is nothing, whether in the Law or in
the Prophets, in the Evangelists or in the
Apostles, which does not descend from the
fullness of the Divine Majesty. Even at the
present time the words of fullness speak in the
Holy Scriptures to those who have eyes to see
the mysteries of heaven, and ears to hear the
voice of God."

11. On The Holy Scriptures: Letter to
Gregory
 Learning is useful, Origen tells his pupil Gregory,
but the holy Scriptures are their own best key.
 Be diligent in reading the divine Scriptures, yes,
be diligent...
 Knock, and the doorkeeper will open unto you...
 And be not content to knock and to inquire, for the
most necessary aid to spiritual truth is prayer.
 Hence our Savior said not only "Knock, and it
shall be opened," and "Seek, and you shall find,"
but "Ask, and it shall be given you.
 Each of us who serves the word of God digs wells
and seeks living waters, from which he may
renew his hearers.

12. On The Holy Scriptures: Letter to
Gregory
 According to Origen, knowledge of the holy Scriptures
is the royal road to the knowledge of God.
 Although he sometimes speaks as a philosopher to
philosophers, using their own language, especially in
his work "De Principiis," he asserts the importance of
the holy Scriptures.
 Now in our investigation of these important matters we
do not rest satisfied with common opinions and the
evidence of things seen, but we use in addition, for
the manifest proof of our statements, testimonies
drawn from the Scriptures, which we believe to be
divine, both from what is called the Old Testament and
also from the New, endeavoring to confirm our faith by
reason.

13. On The Holy Scriptures: Letter to
Gregory
 We can say, that he believes that through the
divine Scriptures our human knowledge is
sanctified and becomes true wisdom.
 Therefore, he states that knowledge must
become wisdom, and human knowledge
grasps the principles only because divine
perception has conjoined it.
 It is therefore divine perception as articulated
through Scriptures that determines the
character of philosophical thinking.

14. On The Holy Scriptures: Letter to
Gregory
Allegory of the Exodus
 ―…They are directed to beg from their neighbours and from
those dwelling in their tents vessels of silver and of gold, and
raiment; thus they are to spoil the Egyptians, and to obtain
materials for making the things they are told to provide in
connection with the worship of God.
 For out of the things of which the children of Israel spoiled the
Egyptians the furniture of the Holy of Holies was made, the
ark with its cover, and the cherubim and the mercy-seat and
the gold jar in which the manna, that bread of angels, was
stored.
 These probably were made from the finest of the gold of the
Egyptians, and from a second quality, perhaps, the solid
golden candlestick which stood near the inner veil, and the
lamps on it, and the golden table on which stood the
showbread, and between these two the golden altar of
incense…‖