Origen

This article is about the Christian writer Origen. For the non-Christian Platonist of the same name, see Origen (Platonist) .

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Ideal author's portrait of Origen in a manuscript by In Numeros homilia XXVII from Schäftlarn Monastery , Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek , clm (codex latinus monacensis) 17092, fol. 130v (approx. 1160)

Origen (Greek Ὠριγένης Ōrigénēs ; Latin Origenes Adamantius ; in some older sources also Ὡριγένης Horigenes , 'the one born of Horus '; inadvertently Origines ; * 185 in Alexandria ; † around 254 ) was a Christian scholar and theologian. Whether he counts as a church father or just as a "church writer" is controversial.

Life

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Few sources are available on the life of Origen. Most of it comes from the church history of Eusebius of Caesarea . Eusebius was an avid follower of Origen and his teachings. In his presentation, which is not complete, he transfigured in particular the youth and martyrdom of Origen. However, he probably had Origen's correspondence. He wrote an apology for Origen with Pamphilus of Caesarea . Other sources provide only sparse supplements. Most of Origen's works have not survived in their text, but there is a translation of some works by Rufinus into Latin, which, however, was accused of an inaccurate translation by some contemporaries.

education

His full name was believed to be Origen Adamantius. The name, "from Horus ", indicates Egyptian origin. The difference between the names “Horigenes” and “Origenes” stems from the fact that in ancient Greek initial vowels can be provided with a breath sound ; in the typeface it was always called Origen. He received extensive biblical and scientific instruction through his father Leonides. 202 Origen lost his father through the persecution of Christians under Septimius Severus (the proselyte ban also applied to Christians). He tried to follow his father into martyrdom , which could only be prevented by a trick of his mother: Origen wanted to run out of the house, but his mother prevented him from doing so by stealing his clothes. The death of Leonides left the family impoverished and their property was confiscated. Origen, however, came under the protection of a wealthy and respected woman. (This woman may have been close to gnosis , which could explain Origen's later thoughts tied to gnostic motives.)

From 203 in Alexandria he gave lessons in elementary grammar at the catechist school supported by the Bishop of Alexandria ( Demetrius ) . During the persecution of Christians, the young teacher ceaselessly visited the prisoners, cared for them in court and comforted the condemned, while protecting himself from harm. In order to be independent of his teaching income, Origen sold his library for an amount that gave him a daily income of four oboloi , on which he lived in the utmost modesty. During the day he taught, the greater part of the night he devoted to Bible study and lived in strict asceticism . This went so far that he is said to have literally obeyed Matthew 19.12 ( Mt 19.12  EU ) and emasculated himself; however, current research doubts this. Presumably this claim comes from the opponents of Origen, such as B. Demetrius of Alexandria .

In the past it was often assumed that Origen in Alexandria was a student of the famous Platonist Ammonios Sakkas , from whom Plotinus , the founder of Neoplatonism , received his training, and that he was influenced by the Platonists there. This view is rejected today by the vast majority of researchers; it is assumed that the student of Ammonios was a non-Christian Platonist of the same name. The equation of the Ammonios pupil with the Christian is only defended occasionally. The comprehensive education of the Christian Origen speaks for a longer study, during which he also heard his later opponents, such as Clemens of Alexandria .

From 211 to 212 Origen stayed in Rome , but returned to Alexandria disillusioned with the laxity during the pontificate of Zephyrinus and devoted himself more to his teaching. Meanwhile, the demands on the school had grown beyond the ability of a single person; the catechumens were active in teaching the faith, and the baptized were sought-after interpreters of the Bible. Under these circumstances, Origen entrusted the teaching to the catechumene Heraclas , brother of the martyr Plutarch, his first pupil. In Rome he also had a public conversation with a heretic who was not known by name. In the documentation of this conversation, false statements were deliberately foisted on him in order to defame him. He concentrated his own interests increasingly on exegesis and accordingly studied Hebrew, although nothing is known about his language teacher. From this time (212-213) comes his acquaintance with Ambrose of Alexandria , whom he had led back from Valentinianism to the Orthodox faith. Later (around 218) the wealthy Ambrose concluded a treaty with Origen to distribute his writings; all of his subsequent works (with the exception of the sermons, which were not expressly intended for publication), were dedicated to Ambrosius.

Around 214 Origen visited Arabia at the request of the local prefect, who also asked him for religious instruction; so he spent a short time in Petra , after which he returned to Alexandria. In the following year (215) there was an uprising here, instigated by Emperor Caracalla , who let his soldiers plunder the city, close the schools and drive out all foreigners. The latter measure caused Ambrose to seek refuge in Caesarea , where he settled. Origen fled Egypt, apparently to Ambrose in Caesarea, where he spent some time, preaching in Caesarea in accordance with local Jewish custom, although he was not ordained , and laid down at the request of the Bishops Alexander of Jerusalem and Theoctistus of Caesarea from the Holy Scriptures. When the turmoil in Alexandria subsided, Demetrius called Origen back around 216. The conflict with Demetrius may already have started then.

Little is known of Origen's activity during the next decade; she was evidently devoted to teaching and writing. Ambrosius promoted his writing by providing Origines with more than seven scribes and copyists. At Ambrose's request, he began a large commentary on the Bible , beginning with the Gospel of John , on Genesis , Psalm 1–25 and the Lamentations of Jeremiah , as well as short exegeses of the selected texts ( forming the 10 books of the Stromata ), two books on the Resurrection and the Work Peri archon .

Conflict with Demetrius and return to Caesarea

Around 230 Origen embarked on a fateful journey that would force him to give up his work in Alexandria and that darkened the years that followed. During a church business trip to Greece, he went to Caesarea, where he was ordained a presbyter (priest). This angered Demetrius deeply, probably because he had refused Origen the priesthood because of his inability to procreate. It is possible that Demetrius himself accused Origen of heresy . The metropolitan then convened a synod of bishops and presbyters, which initially revoked Origen's license to teach, while a second synod declared his ordination ineffective.

Origen then fled Alexandria in 231 and settled permanently in Caesarea. Origen was joyfully received in Caesarea and was a. a. Guest of Firmilian , the Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia , and the Empress Dowager, Julia Mamaea in Antioch . He also previously visited Caesarea, where he preached and taught dialectics, physics, ethics and metaphysics. Origen's concern was to survey the entire science of his time from a Christian point of view and to elevate Christianity in the Hellenistic tradition to a universal theory. When Maximinus Thrax came to power (235), a renewed persecution of Christians began, and according to tradition, Origen hid himself in the house of a Juliana in Caesarea in Cappadocia for two years.

Little is known of the last two decades of his life. He preached regularly on Wednesdays and Fridays in the Eucharistic service, later daily. In doing so, he interpreted the writings of the Old and New Testaments, following the pericope order designed as lectio continua . Apparently he was also extraordinarily productive in literature, interrupted by occasional trips, one of which took him to Athens and gave him ample time for research.

On his return from Athens he led Beryllus , the bishop of Bostra , from his adoptian views to the Orthodox faith; nevertheless, during this period (around 240) attacks on his own orthodoxy forced him to write letters of justification to Fabianus , the bishop of Rome (236–250) and numerous other bishops. Neither the source nor the basis of these attacks are known; Connections with Novatianism are conceivable. After the conversion of Beryllus, however, he was called to help more often against heresies . When a doctrine was proclaimed in Arabia that the soul dies and decays with the body and that it will not be brought back to life until the resurrection , Origen was commissioned to travel to Arabia.

Origen did not escape the 250 persecutions of the Church that broke out again. He was tortured (according to Eusebius) (staked and handcuffed for days). Hieronymus ( De viris illustribus, chapter 54) reports of a release 251. He died, weakened by severe torture, probably 254 in Tire (according to other information in Caesarea Maritima ).

Works

Exegetical writings

Epiphanius of Salamis (Haer. LXIV 63) ascribes approximately 6,000 works (i.e. scrolls or chapters) to Origen. In his lost life of Pamphilus, Eusebius made a list of these writings (Hist. Eccl. VI., XXXII. 3; Engl. Ex., NPNF, 2 ser., I. 277), which Jerome apparently knew (Epist. Ad Paulam , NPNF, vI. 46). Origen's writings can be divided into four categories (with the exception of certain spurious works):

1. text-critical work
2. exegetical writings
3. Works on systematic, practical and apologetic theology
4. Letters.

By far the most important text-critical work of Origen was the Hexapla , the more precise knowledge of which only became possible through the discovery of original fragments. With this work he wanted to create a basis for studying the Old Testament that would meet scientific standards. Nothing is known of the fate of the Hexapla. The Milan fragment (from the 9th or 11th century) suggests that at least individual parts of the Hexapla lasted much longer than was long assumed. The references in Hexapla to later manuscripts and authors are therefore of greater importance. The Tetrapla was an abbreviation in which Origen only related the translations (Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion and the Septuagint) to one another.

Origen was well aware of the difficulties of textual transmission of the New Testament, although he never wrote anything explicitly on the subject. In his exegetical writings he often alludes to the different readings , but his way of roughly quoting during dictation, which the review has left to the scribes, makes it impossible to reconstruct the text at hand from his comments.

Origen's exegetical writings can be divided into three categories:

1. Scholia or short summaries of the meaning of difficult passages
2. Homilies (sermons)
3. "Books" or comments in the narrower sense.

Hieronymus (see above) lists Origen's scholia on Leviticus , Psalm 1–15, Ecclesiastes , Isaiah and parts of the Gospel of John.

Almost the entire Bible had homilies (sermons) from the mouth of Origen, which were written after he was sixty years old, in the manner in which he preached. It can be assumed that Origen paid no special attention to the publication of his homilies, for only such an assumption can explain the numerous signs of negligence in the style of language. The exegesis in the homilies is simpler than that of the scientific commentaries and does not place undue demands on the intellect of the audience.

Origen's main aim was to expose the meaning of the text practically, verse by verse, but while he tried to allegorize the numerals in books such as Leviticus , because of the abundance of material in the books of the prophets, he seldom saw the need to search for a deeper meaning . It is not known whether the sermons were collected in series or in homilies in a single book in different series. The homilies that have been preserved refer to Genesis (17), Exodus (13), Leviticus (18, no. 28), Joshua (16), Book of Judges (9), Book of 1 Samuel (2), Psalms XXXVI – XXXVIII ( 9), the Song of Songs (2), Isaiah (9), Jeremiah (7 Greek, 2 Latin , 12 Greek and Latin), Ezekiel (14) and Luke (39).

On June 11, 2012, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek announced in a press release the spectacular discovery of previously unknown Greek sermons on the Psalms of Origen. The assignment was confirmed by Lorenzo Perrone, a leading Origen expert. The text has been included in the World Digital Library and is available online.

Comments received from Origen

The concern of Origen's commentaries was an exegesis which, instead of an incidental, insignificant historical significance, worked out the deeper, hidden, spiritual truth. In doing so, he neglected neither philological, geographical, historical nor older material, to which he devoted numerous digressions.

In his commentary on John's Gospel, he constantly looked at the exegesis of the Valentinian Herakleon (presumably at the instigation of Ambrosius), and in many other passages he pointed to Gnostic views, some of which he expressly quoted and also refuted. Unfortunately only fragments of the comments have survived. Apart from the quotations in Philocalia , the fragments of the third book of the Genesis Commentary, Ps. 1, 4 1, the little Commentary on Songs, the Second Book of the Great Commentary on Songs, the twentieth book of the Commentary on Ezekiel, the Commentary on Pants and the Commentary on John, only books I. ., II., X., XIII, XX, XXVIII., XXXII. and obtained a fragment from XIX.

The commentary on Romans has only survived in the abridged version by Rufinus , and the eight books that have survived from the commentary on Matthew seem to be a revised or rough reproduction, so to speak. The Codex Vaticanus, 1215, takes on the division of the twenty-five books of the Commentary on Ezekiel and parts of the arrangement of the Commentary on Isaiah (beginnings of Books VI., VIII., XVI; Book X. extended from Isa. 8.1 to 9.7; XI from IX 8, to X 11; XII., From X. 12 to X. 23; XIII from X. 24 to XI 9; XIV from XI 10 to XII 6; XV from XIII. 1 to XIII.16; XXI from XIX 1 to XIX 17; XXII from XIX 18 to XX 6; XXIII from XXI 1 to XXI 17; XXIV from XXII. 1 to XXII. 25; XXV from XXXII. 1 to XXXII. 18; XXVI. From XXIV 1 to XXV 12; XXVII. From XXVI. 1 to XXVI.15; XXVIII. From XXVI. 16 to XXVII. 11a; XXIX. From XXVII. 11b to XXVIII. 29; and XXX.- from XXIX. 1ff.).

Dogmatic, Practical and Apologetic Writings

A piece of the oldest text tradition of Origen's writing Contra Celsum in the Cairo Papyrus , Egyptian Museum , JE 88747 (late 6th or early 7th century), which contains excerpts from this work; here page 29

The most important of Origen's systematic, practical and apologetic writings is Περὶ ἀρχῶν Perì archōn (Latin: De Principiis, German: From the principles ), possibly written for older students in Alexandria, probably between 212 and 215. The work is only in Free translation of Rufinus , except for fragments of the 3rd and 4th books, which are contained in the Philocalia , and in smaller quotations in Justinian's letter to Menas.

In the first book, Origen looks at God, the Logos , the Holy Spirit, the ground of being and the angels ; in the second, the world and man (including the incarnation of the Logos, the soul, free will and eschatology ); in the third the doctrine of sin and redemption ; and in the fourth book the whole is summarized into a system. In this work, the Christian faith is presented for the first time as a complete theory of the universe. With this work Origen wanted to give a satisfactory answer to basic questions of faith.

The two books on the resurrection were written earlier than this work (lost, as were the two dialogues on the same topic). On his return to Caesarea, Origen wrote several works that have survived: He wrote about prayer shortly before 235 (or 230). It contains an introduction, discusses the necessity and benefit of prayer, and an exegesis of the Lord's Prayer, and concludes with comments regarding position, location, and posture during prayer. Origen also wrote On Martyrdom and Against Celsus .

The persecution of Christians under Maximinus Thrax was the cause of the text About Martyrdom , which is received in the invitation to martyrdom . In it Origen warns against idolatry and emphasizes the task of enduring martyrdom manfully; while in the second part he explains the meaning of martyrdom. The eight books against Celsus were written in 248 in response to the first differentiating polemic of a pagan philosopher against Christianity. Euseb records a collection of over a hundred letters from Origen; Jerome's list speaks of some books with his epistles . Apart from a few fragments, only a short letter to Gregor Thaumaturg and the epistle to Sextus Julius Africanus (defending the authenticity of the Greek appendix to the Book of Daniel) have survived.

Rufinus reports in his De Adulteratione librorum Origenis about forgeries of Origen's writings during his lifetime. The Dialogus de recta in fide Deum , the Philosophumena by Hippolytus of Rome and the Commentary on Job by Julian of Halicarnassus were also ascribed to him.

Views

Philosophical and Religious

Origen, educated in the school of Clement of Alexandria and by his father, was essentially a Platonist with occasional traces of the Stoa . As a result, he had clear idealistic views and viewed everything temporal and material as meaningless and indifferent; the only real and eternal things, however , are decided in the idea . Consequently, he saw in God the ideal center of the spiritual and eternal world, God, the pure ground, whose creative powers would have called the world into being, with matter as merely a necessary substrate.

Equally platonic is the doctrine that that soul, which is capable of the knowledge of the highest reason, but trapped in the body in this world, ascends into the divine realm after death, after it has previously been purified by fire.

In his search to connect the system of the Greek thought world with Christianity, Origen found his predecessors in the Platonizing Philo of Alexandria as well as in Gnosis. His exegesis did not differ in principle from that of Herakleon , but in the canon of the New Testament and in the tradition of the Church Origen had a criterion that kept him away from the extremes of Gnostic exegesis.

Nevertheless, there are many Gnostic and Hellenistic views in his work. So he accepted the tripartite division of the human being into body (soma), soul (psyche) and spirit (nous). He applied this to the scriptures, which are to be taken literally, morally, and mystically. Soul and spirit are pre-existent in man, i.e. H. being before birth. This doctrine of preexistence provided fuel for fuel up until the Middle Ages. Today's reincarnationists see this as evidence of a later suppressed belief in rebirth in Judaism and Christianity, although this is a misinterpretation and is due to a lack of distinction between pre-existence and rebirth (reincarnation). On the contrary, Origen even explicitly denied the doctrine of reincarnation (transmigration) in a commentary on the Gospel of Matthew.

Origen was a rigorous follower of the Bible, none of his statements were not connected with a biblical quotation. Since the divine Logos spoke from the Holy Scriptures, he regarded it as an organic, complete whole, and he opposed the Marcionite doctrine of the inferiority of the Old Testament. He took into account the differences and contradictions between the Old and New Testaments, but he considered these to be insignificant since they result from a non-spiritual historical exegesis or belief in letters.

In his exegesis Origen sought to discover the deeper meaning represented in the Holy Scriptures (the "allegorical", "spiritual" sense). One of his main methods was the translation of proper names, which, like Philo, enabled him to regularly find a deeper meaning in every event in history (see: Hermeneutics ); but at the same time he insisted on a precise grammatical interpretation of the text as the basis of all exegesis.

Origen made a sharp distinction between the invisible (ideal) and the visible (real) church, "a double church of men and angels" or, in Platonic language, representing the earthly church and his heavenly ideal. The ideal church alone is the church of Christ, scattered over the whole earth, the other also provides protection for sinners.

More important to him was the Platonic idea of ​​the separation between the great multitude of people, who are only capable of literal interpretation, and that minority, who are able to grasp the hidden meaning of Scripture and various mysteries, for which the organized church is only something Ephemeral is.

Theological and dogmatic

Origen represented the doctrine of subordination , ( Latin subordination ), according to which Jesus Christ, God is subordinate to the Father. “ God, whom we call our Father, is the source of all things. Everything became of him. He is wholly spirit, but as such a person at the same time; he has a shape. God is the only eternal being, uncreated. But his power is limited by his goodness, righteousness, and prudence; and, although completely free from constraints, his goodness and omnipotence limited him to reveal himself. "

“Christ, the only begotten Son of God, whom we call our Lord, is the only Son of God, born of God from eternity. So Christ did not become the Son of God by adoption, but he alone is the Son of God by nature ” . "Christ is the perfect image of God".

According to Origen, this revelation , the outward self- emanation of God, is expressed in various ways; the logos is just one of many logoi. Revelation was God's first creation (cf. Proverbs 8.22) to create a creative connection between God and the world; Such a mediation is necessary because God, as an immutable entity, cannot be the source of a diverse creation.

The Logos is the rational creative principle that pervades the universe. Since God manifests himself forever, the Logos is also eternal, as it were. He forms a bridge between creation and the uncreated, and it is only through him as the visible representative of divine wisdom that the incomprehensible and non-corporeal God makes himself known. Creation comes into existence through the Logos alone, and God's closest approach to the world is the commandment to create. While the logos is essentially a unit, it encompasses a variety of terms that Origen Platonically names "essence of beings" and "idea of ​​ideas."

Defending the oneness of God against Gnosis led Origen to cling to the submission of the Son to the Father; the teaching of eternal creation came later. Origen clearly emphasized the independence of the Logos and the distinction between the essence and substance of God. He did not use the term “identical in nature to the father”. He is just an image, a reflex that cannot be compared with God; like one among other “gods”, but of the highest rank.

In the Logos theory, Origen clearly emphasizes the humanity of Christ: The Father (1st Logos) is greater than the Son (2nd Logos). In the Arian dispute (Council of Nicaea 325), both sides (defender of the essential unity of father and son and defender of the difference between father and son) try to quote him in their sense.

The doctrine of the logos and the cosmos

Origen Platonically understood the work of the Logos as the world soul in which God manifests his omnipotence. His creation was the divine spirit as an independent being; and the created rational beings were partial reflexes of the Logos who, since they had to turn back to the perfect God as their originator, sought perfection, so to speak; whereby free will played an essential role regardless of Divine Providence. The Logos, eternally creative, forms endless rows of limited, understandable, differing worlds, understood the stoic teaching of a universe, the biblical teaching of the beginning and the end of the world, he understood the visible world as stages of an eternal cosmic process.

Man's being is seen as a passing matter, but his higher nature is formed in the image of the Creator. He divides the soul into the rational and the irrational, the ultimate being being material and temporary, while the former, the non-physical and immaterial life has free will and the ability to rise again to a purer life. The ethical influence of this cosmic process is obvious. The return to the original being through the divine ground is the subject of the entire cosmic process. Through the worlds that follow one another in eternal order, the spirit is able to return to paradise. God arranged the universe in such a way that all individual works are aligned together towards a cosmic goal.

With regard to Origen's anthropology, man is encompassed in the image of God by imitating God and is able to become like God through good works if he first recognizes his own weakness and entrusts everything to divine goodness. He receives help through guardian angels, and especially through the Logos, through saints and prophets.

Christology

The climax of this gradual revelation is the universal revelation of Christ. In Christ God appears, who so far only appeared as the Lord, as the Father. The incarnation of the Logos was also necessary, since it would not otherwise be understood by the human sensory capacity; but the indwelling Logos remained a mystery which could only be represented by its analogy which is indwelling in the saints. Origen speaks of a "remarkable body" and in his view the body of Jesus was transformed by God into an ethereal and divine body, thereby approaching docetism, which he otherwise rejected. His conception of the soul of Jesus is in a way uncertain and wavering. He asks whether she was not originally with God, but was perfect and was his emanation, and accepted a material body at his command. He saw the solution to the difficulty in pointing to the mystery of divine government over the universe.

More logically he explained the material nature of the world, it was a mere episode in the spiritual development process, the end of which was the annihilation of all material things. This (the world?) Will return to God, where everything is again in everything. He supported the doctrine of the resurrection of the body by stating that the Logos maintains the unity of the human being by changing his body into new forms, thus retaining the unity and identity of the constitution in harmony with the teaching of an endless cosmic process . Origen's concept of the logos did not allow him to make a definitive statement about Jesus' work of redemption. Since sin, as lack of pure knowledge, was viewed only negatively, the work of Jesus was essentially example and instruction, and his human life more casual. Origen saw the death of Jesus as a sacrifice and equated it with other cases of self-sacrifice for common good. In this regard, Origen's agreement with the teaching of the Church was rather superficial.

In the following period in relation to the successor of Origen between "Linksorigenisten" which tends to be weaker understood the unity of Father and Son, and thus for a distinction Adoptionism , even in amplified form to Arianism tended and the "Rechtsorigenisten" those who in an effort To preserve the unity of father and son, the difference of the divine persons only related to the economy of salvation , but no relational difference (in the terminology of the time: idiomata, cf.Basil of Caesarea ) of the divine substance ( ousia ) assumed, and so to the modalistic concept of a Sabellius inclined.

Eschatology

Origen's idealizing tendency to regard spiritual matters alone as real was fundamental to his entire system and led him to combat the ostensible chiliasm (see: eschatology ), a sensual hereafter ; however, he did not break with the clear heavenly hopes and representations of Paradise that predominated in the Church. Origen represents an ascending purification of souls until they, purified from all shadows of evil, see the God-Father face to face, who would know God's truth as the Son knew him. His idea largely corresponded to the Platonic concept of a purgatory that would purify the world of evil and consequently lead to cosmic renewal. Through further spiritualization, Origen was able to name God himself as this consuming fire. In proportion as souls were freed from sin and ignorance, the material world would be transcended until, after infinite eons, at the final end, God should be all in all and the worlds and spirits should return to the knowledge of God.

Origen did not know of eternal punishments, as they appear in the later prevailing idea of hell . Based on the scripture from 1 Cor 15:28: "When everything is then subjected to him, he, the Son, will also submit to him who has submitted everything to him, so that God rules over everything and in everything" he was convinced, that even demons and the devil will be redeemed in the end. This teaching, known as Apokatastasis panton , was rejected in 553 at the fifth ecumenical council , the second council of Constantinople .

In his writings, Benedict XVI deals . repeated with Origen and his eschatology.

Views to the Star of Bethlehem

Origen was also a “lateral thinker” of his time when it came to the relationship between theology and the natural sciences. One example is his thoughts on the Star of Bethlehem . As one of the first ancient philosophers, he thought through concrete possibilities, which astronomical celestial phenomenon could have been the reason for the report of the Gospel of Matthew (Mt. 2, 1–19). He suspected that the "Magoi from the East" (in the Greek original "μάγοι ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν") were Chaldean astrologers who had caused a comet to travel to Jerusalem or Bethlehem. Early Christian works of art (such as the Copts and Ravenna ) show the "three wise men" in the corresponding Persian costume, but a comet appearance for the stars only became popular with Giotto di Bondone in the late Middle Ages.

Origen - and before him Irenaeus of Lyons and Clemens of Alexandria - interprets the gifts brought with regard to the royal dignity of the baby Jesus: gold, frankincense and myrrh correspond to the recipient, less to the bearer. Gold not only symbolizes high value, but also the kingship of Christ, the incense his divinity, the myrrh foreshadowing his death and resurrection. Origen also seems to be the first written source for the view that there were three Magoi. In contrast, there is a Syrian-Arian legend about the number of 12 wise men, which has been handed down to the 5th century.

Effect and the Origenistic Disputes

Origen was never condemned during his lifetime, but his theology has always been controversial. To date, he was no status of churches Church teachers awarded, he is the Catholic Church only as ecclesiastical writers .

On the other hand, his authority was so strong that he was never officially condemned as a heretic . Some of his teachings were discarded around 553 around the 2nd Council of Constantinople , his writings were to be destroyed.

Origen can hardly be understood without the spiritual and cultural context surrounding early Christianity ( Mysteries , Gnosis , Platonism , Pythagoreans ). Only recent finds, such as the writings of Nag Hammadi , allow us a view of Origen's motives and way of thinking that is undisguised by later dogmatics. Today's church history research strives for its rehabilitation.

The first Origenist dispute (late 4th century)

As a result of the trinitarian struggles of the 4th century, the so-called first Origenist dispute broke out among the monks of Egypt at the end of the century. The monks, known as anthropomorphic monks, imagined God with a material body in human form. Prior to this, Epiphanios of Salamis had named Origen a heretic in his Panarion list of heretics from 374/77, based on Origen's teaching that the son should be subordinate to the father. Epiphanios thereby became the cause of the Origenist disputes and made himself an enemy of Bishop John of Jerusalem , a staunch supporter of Origen. Bishop Theophilos of Alexandria (term of office 385-412), who initially sided with the Origenists, allowed himself to be blackmailed by the anthropomorphic monk hordes in 399 or 400 and condemned the Origenists. He declared Origen's theology to be "rags from the garb of the philosophers" to save his bishopric. Origenistic monks who invoked Euagrios Pontikos (346 - 399/400), such as B. Palladios (around 364 - around 430) and Johannes Cassianus (around 360 - around 435) then left their monasteries and hermitages in Egypt to settle in Palestine or Constantinople. In Constantinople, Bishop Johannes Chrysostomos (around 350-407) granted them asylum, which prompted Theophilos, in association with Empress Aelia Eudokia (* around 380-404), wife of Emperor Arcadios , to depose and banish John Chrysostom.

The Origenistic Troubles (6th Century)

In the 6th century, clerics and monks referring to Origen had a wide variety of views and divisions, who differed in their beliefs about the relationship between God the Father and God the Son and about the doctrine of the nature of Christ. Abbot Sabas (d. 532) from Jerusalem, the head of the Palestinian monks, tried to take Emperor Justinian (term of office 527-565) against the Origenistic teachings. Justinian, on the other hand, promoted Origenist clerics and appointed two of them bishops. When Sabas' successor, Gelasios, drove 40 Origenist monks from the great Laura near Jerusalem, riots and riots broke out. As a result, opponents of the Origenists received the edict against Origenem from Emperor Justinian in 543 , which listed and condemned Origen's non-Orthodox teachings in nine points. This was preceded by a letter from Justinian to the Patriarch Menas of Constantinople, in which Justinian pronounced a ban on Origen and in particular rejected his doctrine of apocatastasis. In a synod preceding the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, the Emperor's criticism was accepted and confirmed in 15 theses. All bishops of the empire, including the Roman Pope Vigilius (term of office 537 - 555), agreed to the condemnation ( anathema ).

Remembrance day

April 27 in the Evangelical Name Calendar .

Text editions and translations

Total expenditure

• Church Fathers Commission of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (Paul Koetschau, Erich Klostermann , Erwin Preuschen et al.): The Greek Christian Writers . Volumes 2, 3, 6, 10, 22, 29, 30, 33, 35, 38, 40, 41 (12 volumes). 1899-1959.

Peri archon / de principiis

• GW Butterworth (Ed.): On first principles , Being [Paul] Koetschau's text of the "De principiis", transl. into English, together with an introd. and notes, Introd. to the Torchbook ed. by Henri de Lubac . 1936. Reprinted by Peter Smith, Gloucester (Mass.) 1973, ISBN 0-8446-2685-6 .
• Herwig Görgemanns , Heinrich Karpp (Hrsg., Transl.): Origen, four books of the principles (= texts for research. Volume 24). Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1996, 3rd edition. (Latin / Greek-German)
• Marguerite Harl, Gilles Derival, Alain Le Boullec (eds.): Origène, Traité des Principes , Traduction de la version latin de Rufin avec un dossier annexe d'autres témoins du texte. Paris 1976.
• Henri Crouzel, Manlio Simonetti (eds.): Origène, Traité des Principes ( Sources Chrétiennes . Volumes 252-253, 268-269, 312). Paris 1978-1984.

Contra Celsum

• Karl Pichler (Ed.): Origen, Against Kelsos , German translation by Paul Koetschau . Selected and edited by Karl Pichler (= writings of the church fathers. Volume 6). Kösel, Munich 1986.
• Marcel Borret (Ed.): Origène, Contre Celse , Introduction, texte critique, traduction et notes (= Sources Chrétiennes. Volumes 132-136, 147, 150). 4 volumes, Paris 1967–1969.

More fonts

• Bernd Witte: Origen's writing “About the Passover”. Text edition and commentary (= work on late antique and Coptic Egypt. Volume 4). Oros-Verlag, Altenberge 1993, ISBN 3-89375-089-4 .
• Origen, invitation to martyrdom. Greek - German, translated and provided with explanations by Maria-Barbara von Stritzky . De Gruyter Verlag and Herder Verlag, Berlin / Freiburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-020505-3
• Origen. Works with German translation. Volume 1/2: The Homilies to the Book of Genesis. Ed., Trans. and come by Peter Habermehl . De Gruyter Verlag and Herder Verlag, Berlin / Freiburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-174084-3 .

literature

• Wolfgang A. Bienert : Dionysius of Alexandria. On the question of Origenism in the third century. Berlin 1978.
• Christoph Bruns: Trinity and Cosmos. On Origen's doctrine of God (= Adamantiana . Volume 3). Münster 2013.
• Hans von Campenhausen : Greek church fathers. 8th edition, Stuttgart a. a. 1993, pp. 43-60.
• Gilles Dorival: Origène d'Alexandrie. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques . Volume 4, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-271-06386-8 , pp. 807-842 (overview)
• Alfons Fürst : Christianity as an intellectual religion. The Beginnings of Christianity in Alexandria. (= Stuttgart Bible Studies . Volume 213). Stuttgart 2007.
• Rolf Gögler: On the theology of the biblical word in Origines. Düsseldorf 1963.
• Wolf-Dieter Hauschild : Textbook of church and dogma history. Volume 1. Old Church and Middle Ages. 2nd edition, Gütersloh 2000, § 1, 8 = pp. 19–22 (especially on the theory of hypostasis); § 2, 10.5 = pp. 85–87 (on person and teaching, especially on his hermeneutics: allegorical method).
• P. Heimann: Chosen fate. Pre-existence of the soul and Christian faith in Origen's model of thought. Tübingen 1988.
• T. Heither: Translatio religionis. Origen's interpretation of Paul in his commentary on Romans. Cologne 1990.
• Manfred Hornschuh: Origen and the Alexandrian School. In: Journal of Church History . No. 71, 1960, pp. 1-25 and 193-214.
• Hans Küng : Origen: The great synthesis of ancient and Christian spirit. In: Ders .: Great Christian Thinkers. Piper, Munich 1994, pp. 45-78.
• Dieter Lau : Origen's tropological hermeneutics and the truth of the biblical word: a contribution to the foundations of early Christian Bible exegesis. Frankfurt am Main 2016, ISBN 978-3-631-67211-2 .
• Lothar Lies: Origen's Peri Archon. An undogmatic dogmatics. Darmstadt 1992.
• Till A. Mohr: Return you human children - The foundation of the Christian doctrine of reincarnation . Grafing 2004.
• GQ Reijners: The word from the cross. Symbolism of the cross and redemption in Origen. Cologne 1983.
• Robert Sträuli: Origen - the diamond; Wisdom of Faith, Life and Work of Origen. Zurich 1987.
• Holger Strutwolf: Gnosis as a system. On the reception of the Valentine Gnosis in Origen (= research on church and dogma history . Volume 56). Göttingen 1993.
• Henning Ziebritzki : Holy Spirit and World Soul. The problem of the third hypostasis in Origen, Plotinus and their predecessors (= contributions to historical theology . Volume 84). Tübingen 1994, ISBN 3-16-146087-1 .
• Balbina Bäbler , Heinz-Günther Nesselrath (ed.): Origen the Christian and Origen the Platonics. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2018. ISBN 978-3-16-155855-9

Web links

Commons : Origenes  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Origen  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by and about Origen in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Origen  in the German Digital Library

Works of Origen

• De Principiis: (F. Crombie 1885, English) , (Karl Fr. Schnitzer 1835, German)
• Against Celsus: (F. Crombie 1885, English) , (P. Koetschau 1926, German)
• Philokalia: selection of the texts of Origen compiled by Basilius von Caesarea and Gregory von Nazianz : (G. Lewis 1911, English)
• Matthew Commentary (J. Patrick 1896, English)
• John's Commentary (A. Menzies 1896, English)
• On prayer (De oratione): (P. Koetschau 1926, German) , (WA Curtis, English)
• Exhortation to martyrium (Exhortatio ad martyrium): (P. Koetschau 1926, German)
• Works (Greek, Latin) based on the edition by Jacques Paul Migne , in the Documenta Catholica Omnia

About Origen

• Edward Moore:  Origines. In: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
• Mark J. Edwards:  Origines. In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
• Vorländer, History of Philosophy, Origen
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Origen and Origenism
• Origen working group
• Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
• Clemens Scholten:  Origen (AT). In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
• Ulrike Weichert: Conference Report Autonomy and Human Dignity. Origen in Modern Philosophy. February 10, 2010–11. February 2010, Münster . In: H-Soz-u-Kult , March 8, 2010.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ patristic literature | Christianity. In: britannica.com. Retrieved August 4, 2016 .  Charles Herbermann (Ed.): Fathers of the Church . Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton, New York 1913.
2. ↑ See the research overview in Gilles Dorival: Origène d'Alexandrie . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 4, Paris 2005, pp. 807–842, here: 810–813 as well as Christoph Bruns: Was Origen like Plotinus pupil of Ammonios Sakkas? A source-critical contribution to its location in the educational environment of Alexandria . In: Jahrbuch für Religionsphilosophie 7, 2008, pp. 191–208.
3. ↑ Claudia Fabian: 29 Greek sermons of Origen . In: Bibliotheksmagazin 2013 Issue 1, pp. 20–24.
4. ↑ 29 Sermons in Greek on the Psalms by Origen .
5. ↑ Eusebius: Historia ecclesiasticus , VI., XXXVI. 3; English translation NPNF, 2 ser. I. 278f.
6. ↑ Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew .
7. ↑ so in his work Περὶ ἀρχῶν "Perì archōn" or Latin: "De Principiis", see Markus Vinzent : The Resurrection of Christ in early Christianity. Herder, Freiburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-451-31212-0 , p. 221.
8. ↑ “de principiis” I, 1,5-6, pages 107-113
9. ↑ “de principiis” II 6.5-6, pages 367-371
10. ↑ “de principiis” I 2,6, page 115
11. ↑ Cf. Christoph Bruns: Christological Universalism. The Johannes prologue in Origen's interpretation of reality, in: Markus Enders / Rolf Kühn : "In the beginning was the logos ..." Studies on the history of the reception of the Johannes prologue. With a contribution by Christoph Bruns (Research on European Intellectual History. Volume 11), Freiburg u. a. 2011, 7-46.
12. ^ Franz-Josef Nocke: eschatology . In: Theodor Schneider (Ed.): Handbuch der Dogmatik . 6th edition. tape 2 . Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Ostfildern 2017, ISBN 978-3-7867-2984-6 , p. 437, 438 .