22
April. Remembering
Origen, c. A.D. 185-253.
Have you ever
known a teenager who loved Christ so much that he was eager to die for him? A
man so brilliant that he kept seven secretaries busy recording his torrent of
thought? Somone so eager to walk close to the Lord that he fasted every
Wednesday and Friday? Origen was such a person, a saintly man of rare
brilliance, an author of thousands of works.
Born in
Alexandria, Egypt about 185, Origen was reared in a Christian home. His father,
Leonides, sent him to the best teachers in town and had his son memorize
Scripture every day. When Leonides went to prison for his faith about 202,
Origen encouraged him not to deny Christ. He planned to surrender himself to
the authorities so that he could join his father in prison, but his mother hid
his clothes. Leonides was martyred and his property confiscated, leaving the
family destitute.
A wealthy
woman assisted Origen; he was able to teach the Greek language and copy
manuscripts for a living. When the young man was about 18, the Bishop of
Alexandria made him head of a church school in Alexandria. Origen was responsible
to instruct new converts. He soon found that he needed to answer the arguments
of heretics, Jews and pagans. He studied with a leading philosopher in order to
learn how to refute pagan arguments against the Christian
faith.
To remove any
hint of scandal as he taught young women their catechism, Origen castrated
himself, literally following Matthew 19:12. He later realized that his action
was ill-advised and not to be taken as an example. Origen also strictly
followed Christ's words in Matthew 10:10--he had only one coat, no shoes, and
took no thought for the next day. He refused gifts or pay from his pupils, ate
no meat, drank no wine, and slept on the bare floor. Much of the night he spent
in prayer and study. He helped friends and pupils when they went to prison for
their faith.
During his
early years at Alexandria, Origen wrote On First Principles, the first
systematic theology ever produced. For 28 years he worked on another book, the Hexapla,
a massive work of Old Testament textual analysis. He was one of the few
churchmen before the Reformation who learned Hebrew to assist his study of the
Old Testament. Origen's method of interpreting Scripture tremendously
influenced the Middle Ages. He found three levels of meaning in it: the
literal, the moral and the allegorical. He used allegory to reveal Christ in
the Old Testament.
Paradoxically,
Origen can be called both a father of orthodoxy and a heretic. He wrote at a
time when the church was defining its basic doctrines. His contributions have
helped theologians for centuries. But his active mind also led him into
speculations that the Church rejected. In fact, church councils held in 231 and
232 enacted motions against Origen, and excommunicated him.
Origen found
refuge in Palestine and Arabia. The faith was still dear to him. During a third
century persecution, pagans threw him into prison. Tortured and condemned to
die, only the death of Emperor Decian saved him from execution. But Origen's
health was broken. He was close to 70 when he died in 253 or 254.
Though he
made serious mistakes, Origen's contribution was inestimatable. One of his
students, the church father Gregory of Nazianzus, aptly summed him up as
"the stone that sharpens us all." Because no definite dates are
associated with Origen's life, we have chosen this day,
April 22, to recognize his contribution to the church.
Bibliography:
1. Adapted from Christian History Institute's Glimpses #54.
2. Aland, Kurt. Saints and Sinners; men and ideas in the early church.
Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1970.
3. Ante-Nicene fathers: translations of the writings of the fathers down to
A.D. 325. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.
American reprint of the Edinburgh edition. Revised and chronologically arranged,
with brief prefaces and occasional notes, by A. Cleveland Coxe. New York:
Scribner's, 1926.
4. Crouzel, Henri. Origen. Translated by A.S. Worrall. San
Francisco : Harper & Row, 1989.
5. Curtis, Ken, J. Stephen Lang and Randy Petersen. Dates with
Destiny; the 100 most important events in church history. (Tarrytown, New York: Revell, 1991).
6. "Origen." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church.
Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford, 1997.
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