THE SACRED PAGE PODCAST: ORIGEN

Michael Barber, Ph.D. / John Paul the Great Catholic University 2011
www.JPCatholic.com / www.TheSacredPage.com / email: [email protected]

Origen (c. A.D. 185254)1

1. Eusebius devotes almost all of book 6 of his Ecclesiastical History to Origen
2. Born in Egypt
3. Highly educated
4. Beloved father, Leonides, martyred (wrote letter exhorting him to martyrdom)
5. Studied under Clement
6. Followed as leader of school of Alexandria (at age 18!)
7. Popularity: Thousands flocked to hear him teach2
8. Holiness: Led ascetic lifestylesometime to the extremes (e.g., castration)!3
Accordingly it seems to me that one who is about to enter upon prayer ought first to have paused
awhile and prepared himself to engage in prayer throughout more earnestly and intently, to have
cast aside every distraction and confusion of thought, to have bethought him to the best of his
ability of the greatness of Him whom he is approaching and of the impiety of approaching Him
frivolously and carelessly and, as it were, in contempt, and to have put away everything alien.
Origen, On Prayer, 20
9. Banished by Bishop Demetrius after being ordained in Caesarea
a. Demetrius disapproved of his being allowed to preach there without orders
b. Caesareans hoped ordination would please Demetrius
c. Demetrius was further upset
d. Castration rendered him unfit for ordination
e. Jerome insists banishment (two synods) was not due to his doctrine!4
10. Philosophical: Heavily influenced by Plato
11. Scholarship: Studied Hebrew and consulted with rabbis over difficulties in the OT
12. Astonishingly prolific
a. St. Epiphanius attributes 6,000 works to him!
b. Works translated due to a wealthy female disciple
c. Many works lost
13. Hexapla: six texts of OT given side-by-side
a. Hebrew
b. Transliterated Hebrew into Greek letters
c. 4 different Greek texts (Aquila; Symmachus; recension of the LXX; Theodotion LXX)
14. Suffered in Decian persecution
The mans numerous letters contain both a true and accurate account of the nature and extent of
that which he endured for the word of Christ, punishments as he lay in iron and in the recesses of
his dungeon; and how, when for many days his feet were stretched four spaces in that instrument of
torture, the stocks, he bore with a stout heart threats of fire and everything else that was inflicted by
his enemies; and the kind of issue he had thereof, the judge eagerly striving with all his might on no

1
The critical biographical information about Origen is found in Eusebius Ecclesiastical History (Book VI).
2
Eusebius writes, As was his speech, so was the manner of the life that he displayed and as his manner of life, so his speech, and it was
especially for this reason that, with cooperation of the divine power, he brought so many to share his zeal (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.3.7).
3
Eusebius tells us, He persevered, as far as possible, in the most philosophic manner of life, at one time disciplining himself by fasting,
at another measuring out the time for sleep, which he was careful to take, never on a couch, but on the floor. And above all he
considered that those sayings of the Saviour in the Gospel ought to be kept which exhort us not to provide two coats nor to use shoes,
nor, indeed, to be worn out with thoughts about the future (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.3.910).
4
 account to put him to death; and what sort of sayings he left behind him after this, sayings full of
help for those who need uplifting. Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.39.5
15. Died in A.D. 253, likely due to results of earlier torture
Origens Approach to Scripture
1. Analogy of incarnation
The Word is as it were incarnate in the Bible (Commentary on Matthew, frag. 11).
2. Inspiration
. . the holy books are not the compositions of men, but as a result of the inspiration [epipnoias] of
the Holy Spirit by the will of the Father of the universe through Jesus Christ, these were written
and have come down to us. (De Principiis 4.2.2. [Greek text])
3. Holy Spirit as the true author (Philocalia 2.4)
4. All parts of Scripture equally inspired: The divine character of Scripture extending through all of it
5. Division of Scripture
Three-fold sense of Scripture Three-fold division of humanity
Literal / somatic (historical knowledge / virtue) the physical
moral/psychical (inspires fight for virtue vs. vice) the soul
allegorical/pneumatic (wisdom Incarnation / Eschaton) spiritual/intellectual
6. Approach to spiritual senses
a. Hierarchy of multiple meanings in a single passage
b. Many meanings required by divine nature of the text
c. A deeper meaning for the spiritually wise
7. How to find the deeper meaning
a. Recognize divine accommodation in Scripture
i. [God] condescends and accommodates Himself to our weakness, like schoolmaster
talking a little language to his children, like a father caring his own children and
adopting their ways. (Frag. on Deut. 1:21, PG, 17, 24).
ii. Just as when we are talking to very small children we do not assume as the object of our
instruction any strong understanding in them, but say what we have to say
accommodating it to the small understanding of those whom we have before us, and
even do what seems to us useful for the education and upbringing of children, realizing
that they are children: so the Word of God seems to have disposed the things which
were written, adapting the suitable parts of his message to the capacity of his hearers
and to their ultimate profit. (Contra Celsum, 5, 16; 4, 71).
b. Interpretation must never contradict regula fidei (though later contradicted him!)
i. Every interpretation which is outside scripture is not holy. . . No one can bring his
own interpretations unless he shall have shown them to be holy, from that which is
contained in the divine Scriptures. (Commentary on Matthew, 2.18).
ii. "Although there are many who believe that they themselves hold to the teachings of
Christ, there are yet some among them who think differently from their predecessors.
The teaching of the Church has indeed been handed down through an order of
succession from the apostles and remains in the churches even to the present time. That
alone is to be believed as the truth which is in no way at variance with ecclesiastical and
apostolic tradition" (Fundamental Doctrines, 1, preface, 2).
iii. "[I]f we were to attend carefully to the Gospels, we should also find, in relation to those
things which seem to be common to Peter . . . a great difference and a preeminence in
the things [Jesus] said to Peter, compared with the second class [of apostles]. For it is no
small difference that Peter received the keys not of one heaven but of more, and in
order that whatsoever things he binds on earth may be bound not in one heaven but in
 them all, as compared with the many who bind on earth and loose on earth, so that
these things are bound and loosed not in [all] the heavens, as in the case of Peter, but in
one only; for they do not reach so high a stage with power as Peter to bind and loose in
all the heavens" (Commentary on Matthew 13:31).

Origen and Catholic Doctrines

1. Apostolic tradition
Although there are many who believe that they themselves hold to the teachings of Christ, there are
yet some among them who think differently from their predecessors. The teaching of the Church
has indeed been handed down through an order of succession from the apostles and remains in the
churches even to the present time. That alone is to be believed as the truth which is in no way at
variance with ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition (The Fundamental Doctrines 1:2).
2. Eucharist
Formerly there was baptism in an obscure way . . . now, however, in full view, there is regeneration
in water and in the Holy Spirit. Formerly, in an obscure way, there was manna for food; now,
however, in full view, there is the true food, the flesh of the Word of God, as he himself says: My
flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink [John 6:55] (Homilies on Numbers 7:2 [A.D. 248]).
3. Sacramental Confession
[A fincallsal method of forgiveness], albeit hard and laborious [is] the remission of sins through
penance, when the sinner . . . does not shrink from declaring his sin to a priest of the Lord and from
seeking medicine, after the manner of him who say, I said, "To the Lord I will accuse myself of my
iniquity (Homilies on Leviticus 2:4 [A.D. 248]).
4. Infant baptism
Every soul that is born into flesh is soiled by the filth of wickedness and sin. . . . In the Church,
baptism is given for the remission of sins, and, according to the usage of the Church, baptism is
given even to infants. If there were nothing in infants which required the remission of sins and
nothing in them pertinent to forgiveness, the grace of baptism would seem superfluous (Homilies
on Leviticus 8:3 [A.D. 248]).
The Church received from the apostles the tradition of giving baptism even to infants. The
apostles, to whom were committed the secrets of the divine sacraments, knew there are in everyone
innate strains of [original] sin, which must be washed away through water and the Spirit
(Commentaries on Romans 5:9 [A.D. 248]).
5. Trinitarian formula for Baptism
The Lord himself told his disciples that they should baptize all peoples in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit . . . for indeed, legitimate baptism is had only in the name of
the Trinity (Commentary on Romans 5:8 [A.D. 248]).
6. Communion of Saints
But not the high priest [Christ] alone prays for those who pray sincerely, but also the angels . . . as
also the souls of the saints who have already fallen asleep (Prayer 11 [A.D. 233]).
7. Christology
a. Anticipates Athanasius: there was no time when the Son was not ( )5
b. Origen writes that Christ's Sonship is by nature, not by adoption6
c. Explains that the Son proceeds from the Father by way of an eternal spiritual act of generation7
d. Describes the Son's relation to the Father in terms of consubstantial: homoousios ()8

5
De princ. 1,2,9f; 2; 4,4,1; In Rom. 1,5.
6
It is not "per adoptionem spiritus filius, sed natura filius (De princ. 1,2,4).
7
aeterno ac sempiterna generatio (In Jer. 9,4; De. princ. 1,2,4).
8
In Heb. frg. 24, 359.
 What else are we to suppose the eternal light is but God the Father, who never so was that,
while He was the light, His splendor (Heb 1:3) was not present with Him? Light without
splendor is unthinkable. But if this is true, there is never a time when the Son was not the
Son. He will be, however, not, as we have described the eternal light, unborn (lest we seem
to introduce two principles of light), but, as it were, the splendor of the unbegotten light,
with that very light as His beginning and source, born of it indeed, but there was not a time
when He was not.
Thus Wisdom, too, since it proceeds from God, is generated out of the divine substance
itself. Under the figure of a bodily outflow, nevertheless, it, too, is thus called 'a sort of clean
and pure outflow of omnipotent glory' (Wis. 7:25). Both these similes manifestly show the
community of substance between Son and Father. For an outflow seems , i.e., of
one substance with that body of which it is the outflow or exhaltation (In Hebr. frg.
24,359).
e. He describes Christ as the God-Man () (De princ. 2,6,3).
8. Trinity
a. Origen uses the term trinity ()9
b. Anticipates the psychological model of the Trinity used by later writers
For if the Son do all those things which the Father does, then, in virtue of the Son doing all
things like the Father, is the image of the Father formed in the Son, who is born of Him,
like an act of His will proceeding from the mind. And I am therefore of opinion that the
will of the Father ought alone to be sufficient for the existence of that which He wishes to
exist. For in the exercise of His will He employs no other way than that which is made
known by the counsel of His will. And thus also the existence (subsistentia) of the Son is
generated by Him. For this point must above all others be maintained by those who allow
nothing to be unbegotten, i.e., unborn, save God the Father only. . . As an act of the will
proceeds from the understanding, and neither cuts off any part nor is separated or divided
from it, so after some such fashion is the Father to be supposed as having begotten the Son,
His own image; namely, so that, as He is Himself invisible by nature, He also begat an image
that was invisible. For the Son is the Word, and therefore we are not to understand that
anything in Him is cognizable by the senses. He is wisdom, and in wisdom there can be no
suspicion of anything corporeal. He is the true light, which enlightens every man that
cometh into this world; but he has nothing in common with the light of this sun. Our
Saviour, therefore, is the image of the invisible God, inasmuch as compared with the Father
Himself He is the truth: and as compared with us, to whom He reveals the Father, He is the
image by which we come to the knowledge of the Father, whom no one knows save the Son,
and he to whom the Son is pleased to reveal Him (De princ. 1,2,6 ANF).
9. Mariology
No one can grasp the meaning of the Gospel (of John) unless he has rested on the breast of Jesus, and
unless he has received from Him Mary, who becomes his mother also (Origen, Commentary on John,
1:6).
10. Systematic treatise on prayer and the spiritual life

Origenism
1. Largely due to uncritical acceptance of Platonic thought
2. Never deliberately rejected teaching of the Church
3. Origenism of 6th century rests on Origens works
a. Pre-existence of the soul

9
In Joh. 10, 39, 270; 6, 33, 166; In Jes. hom. 1,4,1.
 b. Apokatastasis
4. Subordinationist thought

Origen and Justification

1. Linked to ceremonial laws10
2. Origen: faith as synecdoche (includes the whole of post-baptismal renewal)
3. The life of faith begins with baptism11
4. Justification first occurs without works12
5. Good works flow from the gift of infused faith13
6. Cannot say justification is by faith alone because of the witness of Scripture!
You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. (Jas 2:24)
7. Example: Good thiefbelieves and rebukes the blasphemer!14
8. Similar approach in Jerome,15 Augustine,16 Chyrsostom17, Aquinas18

10
One should know that the works which Paul repudiates and frequently criticizes are not the works of righteousness [opera iustitiae]
which are commanded in the law, but those in which they boast who keep the law according to the flesh; that is, the circumcision of
the flesh, the sacrificial rituals, the observance of Sabbaths and new moon festivals [cf. Col 2.18]. These and works of a similar nature
are the works by which he says no one can be saved, and concerning which he says in the present passage, not on the basis of works;
otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. For if anyone is justified through these, he is not justified gratis. But these works are by no
means sought from the one who is justified through grace; but this one should take care that the grace he has received should not be in
him in vain [cf. 1 Cor 15.10] . . . So then, one does not make grace become in vain who joins works to it that are worthy and who
does not show himself ungrateful for the grace of God. For anyone who sins after having attained grace becomes ungrateful to him
who offered the grace. Origen, Commentary on Romans 8, 7, 6. Cited from Scheck, Origen and the History of Justification, 40. The
Legacy of Origens Commentary on Romans (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008), 4849.
11
See Origen, Commentary on Romans, 2.5.25659, who cites John 3:5: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the
Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. For a fuller discussion see Scheck, Origen and the History of Justification, 4041.
12
A human being is justified through faith; the works of the law contribute nothing to his being justified. But where there is no faith
which justifies the believer, even if one possesses works from the law, nevertheless because they have not been built upon the
foundation of faith, although they might appear to be good things, nevertheless they are not able to justify the one doing them,
because from them faith is absent, which is the sign of those who are justified by God. . . . Therefore all boasting which comes from the
works of the law is excluded. Origen, Commentary on Romans 3.6.6171; cited Scheck, Origen and the History of Justification, 40.
Cited at Trent.
13
The Apostle is saying that it is only on the basis that one believes in him who justifies the ungodly that righteousness is reckoned to
a man, even if he has not yet produced works of righteousness. For faith that believers in the one who justifies is the beginning of being
justified by God [initium iustificari a Deo]. And this faith, when it has been justified, is embedded in [haeret] the soil of the soul like a
root that has received rain so that when it begins to be cultivated through Gods law, branches arise from it which bring forth the fruit
of works. The root of righteousness, therefore, does not grow out of the works, but the fruit of works grows out of the root of
righteousness, namely out of the root of righteousness which God accepts even without works. Origen, Commentary on Romans
4.1.21624; cited from Scheck, Origen and the History of Justification, 50.
14 Christ himself then is the tree of life. . . . His death becomes for us a tree of life as a new and a wonderful gift from God . . . Now I
think that one could fittingly say this also about that thief who was hanging together with Jesus on the cross and has appeared to be
planted together into the likeness of his death by his confession in which he said: Lord, remember me when you come into your
kingdom; and he rebuked the other thief who was blaspheming. But it has appeared that he was also planted together inhis
resurrection by what is said to him: Today you will be with me in paradise. For truly he was a plant worthy of paradise which was
joined to the tree of life. Origen, Commentary on Romans, 5.10.26466; cited from Scheck, Origen and the History of Justification,
4647.
15
There are indeed many things, he says, which could under interrogation compel you to prefer the gospel to the law; but since you
are senseless and are by no means able to hear these things, I should speak with simple words to you. I should ask about what is at
hand: whether it was works of the law, observance of the Sabbath, the superstition of circumcision and new moons that gave you the
Holy Spirit that you received? . . . . Let us consider carefully that he does not say, I want to learn from you whether you received the
Spirit by works, but instead by the works of the law. For he knew that even Cornelius the centurion had received the Spirit by works
but not by works of the law, with which he was unacquainted. But if, on the other hand, it is said: well then, the Spirit can be received
even without the hearing of faith, we will respond that he [Cornelius] did indeed receive the Spirit, but by the hearing of faith and
by natural law, which speaks within our hearts the good things that must be done and the evils that must be avoided. Jerome,
Commentary on Galatians on 3:2. Cited from Thomas P. Scheck, trans., St. Jeromes Commentaries on Galatians, Titus and Philemon
(Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010), 114.
16
Here he begins to demonstrate in what sense the grace of faith is sufficient for justification without the works of the law. . . . But so
that this question may be carefully treated and no one may be deceived by ambiguities, we must first understand that the works of the
law are twofold; for they reside partly in ceremonial ordinances and partly in morals. To the ordinances belong the circumcision of the
flesh, the weekly Sabbath, new moons, sacrifices and all the innumerable observances of this kind. But to morality belong You shall
not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not bear false witness and so on. Could the apostle possibly not care whether a
Christian were a murderer and adulterer or chase and innocent, in the way that he does not care whether he is circumcised or
uncircumcised in the flesh? He therefore is specially concerned with the works that consist in ceremonial ordinances, although he
indicates that the others are sometimes bound up with them. But near the end of the letter he deals separately with those works that
consist in morals, and he does this briefly, but he speaks at greater length regarding the [ceremonial] works . . . Augustine,
Commentary on Galatians on 3:2. Cited from Thomas P. Scheck, trans., St. Jeromes Commentaries on Galatians, Titus and Philemon
(Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010), 114.
17
See John Chrysostom, Homily 3 on Galatians at 3:3.
18
. . . he is speaking here about keeping the commandments of the Law insofar as the Law consists of ceremonial precepts and moral
precepts. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Galatians, ch. 3, lecture 4.