Origen
Christian scholar, ascetic, and theologian (c. 185 – c. 253)
b. 185 · d. 254
Origen of Alexandria, also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early Christian philosopher, ascetic, and theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Alexandria. He was a prolific writer who wrote roughly 2,000 treatises in multiple branches of theology, including textual criticism, biblical exegesis and hermeneutics, homiletics, and spirituality. He was one of the most influential and controversial figures in early Christian theology, apologetics, and asceticism. He has been described by John Anthony McGuckin as "the greatest genius the early church ever produced".
Related people
- Leonides of Alexandria child of · traditional
- Clement of Alexandria disciple of · documented
- Hippolytus of Rome disciple of · traditional
- Ammonius of Alexandria disciple of · traditional
- Leonides of Alexandria disciple of · traditional
- Alexander of Jerusalem ordained by · traditional
- Firmilian teacher of · traditional
- Pope Dionysius of Alexandria teacher of · traditional
- Gregory Thaumaturgus teacher of · traditional
- Heraclas of Alexandria teacher of · traditional
- Licinian of Cartagena influenced · traditional
- Evagrius Ponticus influenced · traditional
Works
Events
Places
- Alexandria ministry
- Rome travel
- Caesarea Maritima ministry
- Tyre death
How we know
Recorded as a historical figure.
- Ecclesiastical History 7 claims — The martyrdom of Leonides at Alexandria; Origen takes charge of the catechetical school; Origen is condemned at Alexandria and settles at Caesarea
- The Seven Ecumenical Councils (NPNF series 2 vol. 14) 2 claims — Second Council of Constantinople; Who exactly was condemned in 553
Sayings
- For a rock is every disciple of Christ of whom those drank who drank of the spiritual rock which followed them, and upon every such rock is built every word… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Origen on the answer of Peter at Caesarea Philippi. He takes the blessing pronounced on Peter to rest on the grounds of it — that flesh and blood did not reveal the confession …
- We may therefore make bold to say that the Gospels are the first fruits of all the Scriptures, but that of the Gospels that of John is the first fruits. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The opening argument of the first commentary ever written on a book of the New Testament. Origen has been reading the priesthood of Israel as a figure of the church, and the…
- But if you suppose that upon that one Peter only the whole church is built by God, what would you say about John the son of thunder or each one of the Apostles? Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The question Origen puts to anyone who reads the promise at Caesarea Philippi as given to one man. If the gates of Hades cannot prevail against Peter alone, are they to prevail…
Show all 8
- And Peter, on whom the Church of Christ is built, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail left only one epistle of acknowledged genuineness. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Origen is arguing that the apostles wrote very little — Paul only a few lines to a few churches, John one gospel though he said the world could not hold what might be written …
- The children of the philosophers speak of geometry and music and grammar and rhetoric and astronomy as being ancillary to philosophy; and in the same way we… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The sentence that settled how the Greek church would use pagan learning. Origen is writing to a former pupil who could have been a distinguished Roman lawyer, and rather than…
- In a word, when John points out Christ, it is man pointing out God, the Saviour incorporeal, the voice pointing out the Word. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Origen’s reading of the relation between John the Baptist and Christ, and the figure the Greek fathers after him kept: a voice can be made without meaning and a meaning can be…
- he will obtain the things that were spoken according to the letter of the Gospel to that Peter, but, as the spirit of the Gospel teaches, to every one who… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — How Origen holds the two halves together. The words were said to Peter according to the letter of the gospel, and he does not deny it; what he adds is that the spirit of the…
- And do not be content with knocking and seeking, for what is most necessary for understanding divine things is prayer Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The close of the same letter, and the reason Origen is read as a spiritual writer and not only as a scholar. He has just told Gregory to knock at what is closed in the Scriptures…
Glosses
- Who exactly was condemned in 553 The fifth ecumenical council anathematised Origen, and the three men usually named with him were not all named by it. Canon 11 of Constantinople II lists Origen alone among the ancient heretics it condemns. It is the…
- The two Ammonii Origen had a teacher named Ammonius and so did Plotinus, and for seventeen centuries nobody has been able to say for certain whether that is one sentence or two. Porphyry, writing against the Christians, said that…
What he held
- The restoration of all things The punishment of the wicked and of the demons has an end, and all rational creatures are at last restored.
In the disputes
- The Origenist dispute Three centuries after his death, propositions circulating under Origen's name — the pre-existence of souls, the restoration of all things — were anathematized by name at Constantinople.