at last we come to a father of the church whose whole life is on record.
of those of his predecessors we know hardly anything, except what we gather from their writings
and a little scrappy information.
..he was also, next to augustine, the most voluminous writer, though much of his work is lost.
origines adamantius was born at alexandria..
was the son of a devout christian, leonidas, who was either an egyptian or a greek
and was martyred in 202.
origen..then a boy of sixteen, encouraged his father
and entreated him not to be deterred from martyrdom by his affection for his wife and child.
indeed, it was only by hiding his clothes that his mother prevented the boy from offering himself as well.
there is a touching story that when origen was a child his father used to kiss his breast as he lay in bed,
regarding it as the temple of the Holy Ghost.
so that from childhood origen was dedicated to the church,
which he served unceasingly and with never flagging enthusiasm and industry till his death.
from his father he received an excellent all round education,
which enabled him at 18 to succeed clement as the head of the catechetical school.
in his youth he is said to have been seized by a mob,
carried to the temple of serapis,
dressed as a priest,
and ordered to distribute palms to the people
whereupon he distributed them boldly, not in the name of an ido,
but of their true Lord, Jesus Christ.
on his father's death, his mother being in poverty, he was patronized by a rich alexandrian lady
and gave lessons in grammar, collecting at the same time a library
but as he wished to be independent, he shortly afterwards sold the library for an annuity
of the equivalent of sixpence a day, resolving to teach gratuitously in future.
at the same time he led a completely ascetic life, sleeping on bare boards
and following literally the instruction in matthew not to have two coats or to wear shoes.
he seems to have been always working or praying, for he prayed into the middle of the night.
he is also said to have become an eunuch 'for the kingdom of heaven's sake'..
but his asceticism never made him austere in his relation to others.
from 204-215 he retained his position as catechist,..till 29 years of age.
..he also converted plutarch and accompanied him to his martyr's death.
indeed, he always made a point of cheering and encouraging the martyrs
and as a born christian seems to have been in less danger than the converts.
in 215 origen fled from alexandria on the occasion of a persecution of literary men by caracalla,
in revenge for some satirical writing; and about this time visited rome.
he also paid a visit to arabia to give religious instruction
and also to julia mammaea at antioch, the mother of alexander severus, afterwards emperor.
..was recalled to alexandria.
the next ten years were spent less in teaching than in writing.
during this period he was financed by ambrosius, formerly a valentinian gnostic, whom he had converted.
this useful friend provided him with 7 shorhand clerks, 7 transcribers
and a number of girls who were skilled in caligraphy.
then in 228 (aged 42) he went to greece by invitation for controversial purposes.
on the way, probably to strengthen his position,
the bishops of caesarea and jerusalem, or rather one of them, ordained him
and this finally turned demetrius (bishop of alexandria) against him,
so that when he returned to alexandria in 231, he found his position intolerable.
the complaint against him was that he had committed a breach of church order
in receiving ordination from any other than his own bishop;
possibly also that his self mutilation disqualified him.
there is no evidence that his views were questioned..
at any rate demetius called a local synod, which forbade origen to teach, but refused to depose him.
he therefore left alexandria for caesarea.
a little later demetrius called together three other bishops, who excommunicated and banished him.
where he got these bishops is not explained...
the eastern bishops, however, remained origin's firm friend.
on his way to caesara he preached in jerusalem on psalm
(
note: isaiah? 1.16-7
wash yourselves; make yourselves clean
remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes
cease to do evil,
learn to do good; seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow'.)
is said to have wept bitterly on giving out the text.
in 235 he retired, owing to a persecution, to cappadocia (central turkey),
where he was sheltered by a learned christian lady, juliana.
this lady possessed a valuable library, which was of great use to him,
especially as it included symmachus' translation of the old testament,
which he was thus enabled to include in the hexapla.
on that marvellous work of textual criticism he was engaged for 28 years.
he returned to palestine in 238.
finally we find him at tyre, where in 251 he was put to the torture in prison,
from the effect of which he never recovered.
his death at tyre occurred in 253/4;
the last work of his life being the 'contra celsum',
which was the crowning christian apology
and directed against the most powerful of all pagan attacks on christianity.
as regards the Tradition he says:
'seeing there are many who think they hold the opinion of Christ,
and yet some of them think differently from their predecessors;
yet as the teaching of the Church, transmitted in orderly succession from the apostles
and remaining in the churches to the present day, is still preserved,
that alone is to be accepted as truth, which differs in no respect from ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition'.
..he then goes on to say that
'the holy apostles delivered themselves with the utmost clearness on certain necessary points,
leaving the grounds of their statements to be examined into by those who should deserve the excellent gifts of the Spirit, ie. gifts of language, wisdom and knowledge.
but there were also, he thought, many points which were left entirely open to private speculation
the creed which follows is essentially, as with his predecessors, the apostles creed;
but with certain amplifications.
for instance, 'the Holy Ghost is associated in honour and dignity with the Father and the Son,
but it is not clearly distinguished (ie. by the apostolic tradition) whether a Son of God or not.
...the immense work which origen did in connection with the bible,
writing commentaries on almost every book,
and also criticizing various texts in his hexapla,
calls for a note here on the new testament canon.
until the period of the councils, no authoritative declaration was made by the church
as to the limits of the new testament or what books were to be considered inspired and what apocryphal.
books like the shepherd of hermas, the epistle of barabas, possibly the epistle of clement of rome
and many others, were treated as almost, if not quite, scripture;
and the views of the different churches varied.
but in the third century these apocryphal (doubtful author or authenticity) books
had almost entirely lost their hold,
and all the new testament books were firmly established,
except hebrews, james, II+III john, II peter and jude.
about these there was still a difference of opinion.
origen, as representing the church of alexandria,
accepted generally all the new teatament,
but spoke with caution of the disputed books;
he though II peter doubtful, also II+III john.
he once also admitted some doubt as to the authenticity of jude.
he also spoke of 'the epistle in circulation under the name of james.
as regards hebrews he says:
'i should say that the thoughts are the apostle's,
but the diction and composition that of some one who recorded from memory the apostle's teaching
and, as it were, illustrates with a brief commentary the sayings of his master...
the men of old time handed it down as paul's;
but who it was that wrote it, Cod alone knows certainly.
some say clement, while others assign it to luke. ...
the carthaginian church ignored Hebrews;tertullian accepted jude,
but appears not to have known james, II+III john or II peter.
the roman church did not accept hebrews as pauline. in asia minor there was no trace of jude and james; II peter very uncertain.
in the church of antioch the canon seems to have been complete about 300.
the muratorian canon gives the earliest list extant.
it was published in 1740 from a manuscript in milan,
which had been transcribed in the seventh or eighth century from a previous manuscript of about 170.
this omits james, II peter, hebrews.
the following books, therefore, hebrews, james, II peter, II+III john are called by roman catholics
deutero-canonical, as having been accepted later.
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