Fathers of the Church: Origen (11 vols.)

by Origen; Pamphilus of Caesarea

Publisher:

Catholic University of America

, 1982–2010

Overview

Origen stands firm as one of the most prolific and influential of the Early Church Fathers. His impact was felt by many of the other Fathers—including Athanasius, Jerome, and the Cappadocian Fathers. Origen’s works give us insight into the life and thought of 3rd century Christianity that simply would not otherwise exist. Though for a time his works were avoided and condemned, his legacy endures to this day in his surviving writings.

This collection brings together some of Origen’s homilies and commentaries on sacred Scripture—many of which have never before been translated into English. In his own lifetime, students would flock to hear Origen preach and teach. These texts clearly illustrate why: Origen’s keen theological insight, deep faith, and love for the Word of God help shed light on the sacred page. Also included in this collection is the classic Apology for Origen written to defend his legacy from his detractors.

Key Features

• Includes biblical commentary from one of the most prolific and influential of the Early Church Fathers
• Includes English translations of some works that are available nowhere else
• Brings together all of the volumes by or about Origen in the monumental Fathers of the Church series

Product Details

• Title: Fathers of the Church: Origen
• Author: Origen
• Series: The Fathers of the Church
• Publisher: Catholic University of America
• Volumes: 11
• Pages: 3,533
• Resource Type: Ancient Texts
• Topic: Church Fathers

Commentary on the Gospel According to John, Books 1–10

• Author: Origen
• Translator: Ronald E. Heine
• Series: Fathers of the Church
• Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
• Publication Date: 1989
• Pages: 355

Origen composed at least 32 books of a commentary on the Gospel according to John, at the request of St. Ambrose of Milan. Of these, only nine books are extant in almost complete form, although we have selections of others persevered in other collections of the works of Origen. The commentary proceeds verse by verse, and is particularly notable for its emphasis on the spiritual meaning of the Gospel.

This volume contains books 1, 2, 6, and 10, and fragments of books 4 and 5. Origen’s main interest is the allegorical interpretation of the Gospel according to John, which makes this an important work in the study of Origen's mystical thought. A secondary interest is the refutation of Valentinian gnosticism. According to Eusebius, Ambrose had been a Valentinian before his conversion by Origen, and Origen refers to the Gnostic writer Heracleon regularly throughout the commentary in order to refute his views.

Commentary on the Gospel According to John, Books 13–32

• Author: Origen
• Translator: Ronald E. Heine
• Series: Fathers of the Church
• Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
• Publication Date: 1993
• Pages: 448

This volume contains what remains of Books 13–32 of Origen’s Commentary on the Gospel according to John, and thus completes the publication of the first full English translation of this work that stands as the beginning of Christian scriptural exegesis. Ronald Heine introduces his translation with a discussion of the times and circumstances within which the commentary was composed. He also provides a survey of the major theological questions with which the commentary is concerned. These include Origen’s thought on the nature of God, the person and work of Christ, his relation to the Father and to the created order, his teaching on the Holy Spirit, the Resurrection, and eschatology, and his ideas on the devil.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Books 1–5

• Author: Origen
• Translator: Thomas P. Scheck
• Series: Fathers of the Church
• Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
• Publication Date: 2001
• Pages: 424

Origen of Alexandria’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans is the oldest extant commentary on Romans (ca. 246). This volume presents the first English translation of the commentary, covering his exegesis of Rom 1:1 to 6:11. One of his longest and most mature works, it is the only commentary of Origen available in a coherent form from beginning to end. The work was originally composed in Greek in Caesarea, but only fragments of the archetype have survived. Fortunately, Origen’s admirer Rufinus of Aquileia translated the work into Latin (ca. 406).

Origen’s exegesis predates the controversy between Augustine and Pelagius by 170 years; thus it offers a striking perspective on Romans. Opposition to Gnostic interpretations of Paul is an important characteristic of the commentary. Above all Origen defends the Church against the “doctrine of natures”—the belief that all human beings are born with unalterable natures, either good or evil, and thus bound for either salvation or damnation, and that their conduct during this life cannot alter their destiny. Origen successfully refutes this teaching, showing that freedom of will always abides in rational beings.

Provoked by Marcion’s repudiation of the Old Testament, Origen emphasizes the harmony between Gospel and Law. He highlights as one of Paul’s main themes in Romans the transfer of religion from Judaism to Christianity, from the letter to the spirit, in terms both of salvation history and of the transformation of the individual. Origen claims that the key to unlocking Romans is understanding Paul's use of homonyms—identical expressions such as law, Jew, circumcision, death, etc., with divergent meanings.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Books 6–10

• Author: Origen
• Translator: Thomas P. Scheck
• Series: Fathers of the Church
• Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 340

This volume completes the first English translation of Rufinus’s Latin version of Origen of Alexandria’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans and contains Origen’s detailed exegesis of Romans 6:12–16:27. Origen’s much neglected Commentary, which stands out in splendid isolation at the fountainhead of Greek and Latin exegesis, is now completely accessible to English readers.

In Books 6–10, Origen carries through to completion his program, begun in Books 1–5, of defending human freedom and of opposing the natural predestinarian doctrine of the sects founded by the Gnostic heretics Marcion, Valentinus, and Basilides. These schools relied heavily on texts from Paul, interpreted in isolation from the rest of Scripture, not only to deny free will but to support the doctrine that salvation is determined by the nature one receives at birth, whether good or evil. In contrast Origen clarifies passages in Romans by citations from Paul’s other letters, from the Gospels, and from the Old Testament. He attempts to construct a coherent and unified “biblical theology.” Origen views human beings as chosen or rejected by God deservedly; everyone has it within his own power whether he becomes a servant of God or of sin, a vessel of wrath or of mercy.

Whether one sympathizes with Origen’s interpretations or finds them infuriating, it is difficult not to admire his concordance-like mind at work as he tackles the apostle Paul’s greatest epistle. Readers will find interesting and thought-provoking discussions of all the important theological themes and terms of Romans: faith, hope, love, works, justification, election, law, Israel, Gentiles, Church, sin, death, flesh, body, glory, etc. The importance of these discussions is magnified by the fact that they stand alone in their detail and breadth and stem from the Church’s most important theologian of the third century. Moreover, because Origen’s work was productive in subsequent centuries in Rufinus’s Latin translation, the Commentary is of outstanding importance for the history of New Testament exegesis.

Homilies on Genesis and Exodus

• Author: Origen
• Translator: Robert E. Heine
• Series: Fathers of the Church
• Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
• Publication Date: 1982
• Pages: 434

Origen, son of the martyr Leonides, oldest in a family of seven children was born probably at Alexandria 184/85 and died probably in Tyre 253/54 after imprisonment and torture during the Decian persecution. Surnamed “man of steel,” Origen was an outstanding theologian of the early Greek-speaking Church, a man of the virtue and a genius with a prodigious capacity for work, an excellent teacher to whose lectures students flocked “and did not give him time to breathe for one bath of pupils after another kept frequenting from morn till night his lecture-room” (Eusebius, H.E. 6, 15).

As an author Origen surpasses all the writers of the Early Church in literary output. A list complied by Eusebius, now unfortunately lost, credited Origen with some 2000 books. Even a far shorter list known to St. Jerome and mentioned by him in his Letter To Paula giving the number of 786 works is still impressive. Jerome then goes on to add some reflections. “Do you see the Greeks and Latins outstripped by the work of one man? Who could ever read all that he wrote? What reward did he receive for this exertion? He is condemned by bishop Demetrius; except for the bishops of Palestine, Arabia, Phoenicia and Achaia the world concurs in his condemnation. Rome itself convokes an assembly against this man not because of novelty of teachings, not because of heresy as now mad dogs pretend against him, but because they could not bear the fame of his eloquence and learning and were considered speechless when he spoke.”

Homilies on Leviticus, 1–16

• Author: Origen
• Translator: Gary Wayne Barkley
• Series: Fathers of the Church
• Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
• Publication Date: 1990
• Pages: 312

This new translation of Origen’s Homilies on Leviticus may be read as a companion to Ronald E. Heine’s translation of Origen’s Homilies on Genesis and Exodus, volume 71 in the Fathers of the Church series. Both volumes reveal Origen’s tenacious belief that, although the meaning of Scripture was threefold, that is, literal, moral, and spiritual, the most important interpretation was the spiritual.

The Homilies on Leviticus were delivered during a three-year cycle between 238 and 244 in Alexandria where Origen was a brilliant teacher, theologian, churchman, and exegete until his imprisonment and torture under Decian and his reluctant death in Tyre in 253/254. They were translated by Rufinus, who admitted to having changed the text by condensing the homilies and, at the same time, expanding some of the explanations. Nevertheless they provide valuable insights on the third-century Church, touching on topics of conversion from sin, works of piety, baptism, Lent and fasting, the ordination of a priest, and the process of Christian discipline. Perhaps Origen’s most significant theological contribution, however, is his doctrine of the Trinity which influenced the Trinitarian debates of the fourth and fifth centuries.

Origen was the most prolific writer of the Early Church. Eusebius numbers his books at 2000, and St. Jerome writes of 786 works. But Origen’s chief aim, as an interpreter of the Scriptures, was to draw out the historical meaning of the text and communicate that wisdom of perception to his flock. It was this that inspired his profound spiritual interpretation in the Homilies on Leviticus so finely translated in this volume.

Homilies on Joshua

• Authors: Origen
• Translator: Barbara J. Bruce
• Series: Fathers of the Church
• Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 240

These homilies were among the last Origen gave before his torture and death during the Decian persecution, around 254.

With the saga of the Israelites entering and possessing their promised land, Origen unfolds the story of the Christian life from baptism to resurrection. He exhorts his hearers to persevere in their own struggles to overcome the enemies of their souls and obtain their own inheritance. Their leader is Jesus, the Son of God, who is prefigured in Jesus (Joshua), the son of Nun. All battles, victories, and defeats happen within the individual; all aspects of the Law and temple become but shadows of the fulfilling work of God in Jesus Christ. The story brims with allegory and passion, a passion for the people and for their priests who, “standing near the blazing fire of the altar,” must illuminate the path for others.

As Origen exhorted, others wrote down his words, words he had asked the people to pray for and the Spirit to supply. Most of the original writings in Greek were lost during the centuries when Origen was officially defamed. What we have today is the Latin translation by Rufinus, the basis of the translation in this volume. In the Introduction, Barbara J. Bruce discusses and affirms the reliability of the Latin text, and briefly looks at Origen’s ministry, his concept of the nature of Scripture, and his method of interpretation.

Homilies on Judges

• Author: Origen
• Translator: Elizabeth Ann Dively Lauro
• Series: Fathers of the Church
• Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
• Publication Date: 2009
• Pages: 152

In his General Audience of May 2, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI praised Origen for his “primordial role” in the history of lectio divina, the prayerful reading of Scripture. He explained that Origen approaches Scripture reading not as “mere study” but as the pathway to knowing Christ and “falling in love with him.” Origen’s nine extant homilies on Judges exemplify this approach.

In them, Origen calls his audience to participate in a loving relationship with Christ through interaction with Scripture. Delivered sometime between 238 and 248, these homilies expound on themes extracted from Judges 2–7. Some of the homilies focus generally on God’s redemption of Israel through judges after each cycle of sin, enslavement, and repentance, while others stress that victory belongs to God alone through events such as the defeat of the Midianites by Gideon’s meager army of 300 men, Gideon’s test with the fleece, and the murder of the Philistine general Sisera by the woman Jael. The homilies brim with hope in Christ’s ultimate victory over sin and death, a hope that is specific to the individual believer but accessible only within the Church.

Origen applies his allegorical method of Scriptural interpretation to these passages, sometimes drawing faith-enriching meaning from the literal (somatic) sense as well as from one or both of the two figurative (psychic and pneumatic) senses. Using both allegory and typology, Origen shows his audience God’s abundant mercy and grace, the power of Scripture to assist in the battle against sin and the promotion of virtue, and the church leader’s duty to walk his flock through the transforming terrain of Scripture toward likeness to and union with Christ.

Largely because of early controversies over Origen’s legacy, these homilies are extant only in Rufinus’s fourth-century Latin translation, but his ability to capture Origen’s meaning and spirit is well documented. This is the first-ever English translation of Origen’s homilies on Judges.

Homilies on Jeremiah and I Kings 28

• Author: Origen
• Translator: John Clark Smith
• Series: Fathers of the Church
• Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
• Publication Date: 1998
• Pages: 379

Souls existing before their bodies, witches summoning dead prophets from the underworld, the return of the damned—and the Devil himself—to God in the end, and many other theological speculations surprise the reader of Origen’s Homilies on Jeremiah and I Kings 28. Some of these very theses of the third-century priest from Alexandria, Egypt, were condemned in the Second Council of Constantinople. But plumbing the mystical depths of the Prophecy of Jeremiah is the central point of the homilies.

Presented in this volume are the remains of 22 homilies and a collection of fragments delivered by Origen around AD 240. The original texts of the homilies on Jeremiah have not come down to us completely; two of the homilies survive only in a Latin translation of St. Jerome. The homily on I Kings 28, while not a part of the homilies on Jeremiah, deals with the Witch of Endor and has been added to this volume in virtue of its own inherent interest.

In this collection, Origen seeks understanding of the significance of the hostility of the Chosen People towards the Prophet Jeremiah before their captivity in Babylon. Origen in many ways identified with the great prophet and thought of Jeremiah as a type for Christ in the Hebrew Scriptures. Origen realized that Jeremiah came at a crucial time in the history of Israel, the time of captivity, and he views this event and the events around it as pregnant with meaning for the people of his time.

Watching a master grapple with admittedly difficult, obscure texts and give them compelling, forceful delivery must have impressed Origen’s congregation. Readers will find it no less engaging to read his homilies now and experience some of that exhilaration of hearing a true expert highlight every subtlety of the pericope and make plain what once was obscure.

Homilies on Luke

• Author: Origen
• Translator: Joseph T. Lienhard
• Series: Fathers of the Church
• Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
• Publication Date: 1996
• Pages: 285

Thirty-nine of Origen’s homilies on the Gospel of Luke survive in Jerome’s Latin translation. Origen preached them in Caesarea, perhaps around 234 or 240, to a congregation of catechumens and faithful. Most of the homilies are short; on average, they treat about six verses of the Gospel and would have lasted between eight and twelve minutes. The first 33 homilies treat chapters one through four of Luke’s Gospel; the remaining six treat passages from the tenth to the twentieth chapters.

Origen’s homilies are the only extant patristic writing devoted to Luke’s Gospel before Ambrose’s Exposition on Luke, written ca. 390 (and Ambrose himself followed Origen, sometimes quite closely). Homilies 1 to 20 also constitute the only existing commentary from the pre-Nicene Church on either Infancy Narrative. Several hundred fragments of Origen’s homilies and commentary on Luke also survive, mostly in Greek.

Henri de Lubac formulated the important principle, “Observe Origen at work,” and Origen’s writings on Luke’s Gospel are an intriguing place to do that. Origen, the champion of spiritual interpretation, regulary beings with a painfully literal reading of the text. His first unit of understanding is the word, and often the key that unlocks the meaning of a word in the Bible for him is the use of that same word elsewhere in Scripture. Origen assumed that each word had a meaning that is both profound and relevant to the reader—for the Holy Spirit is never trite and what the Holy Spirit says must always touch the hearer.

This volume, the first English translation of the extant homilies and of fragments from the commentary on Luke, is an important addition to the growing body of Origen’s work now available in English.

Apology for Origen: with On the Falsification of the Books of Origen

• Authors: Saint Pamphilus and Rufinus
• Translator: Thomas P. Scheck
• Series: Fathers of the Church
• Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
• Publication Date: 2010
• Pages: 164

Presented here for the first time in English translation (from Rufinus’s Latin version) is the Apology for Origen, the sole surviving work of St. Pamphilus of Caesarea (d. 310 AD), who was one of the most celebrated priest-martyrs of the ancient Church. Written from prison with the collaboration of Eusebius (later to become the bishop of Caesarea), the Apology attempts to refute accusations made against Origen, defending his views with passages quoted from his own works. Pamphilus aims to show Origen’s fidelity to the apostolic proclamation, citing excerpts that demonstrate Origen’s orthodoxy and his vehement repudiation of heresy. He then takes up a series of specific accusations raised against Origen’s doctrine, quoting passages from Origen’s writings that confute charges raised against his Christology. Some excerpts demonstrate that Origen did not deny the history of the biblical narratives; others clarify Origen’s doctrine of souls and aspects of his eschatology. Pamphilus was beheaded on February 16, 310, under the emperor Maximinus Daia.

In 397 AD, at the urgent invitation of his friend Macarius, Rufinus of Aquileia translated Pamphilus’s Apology into Latin, the first of his extensive translations of Origen’s writings. Rufinus probably did not suspect the incomparable importance of his undertaking, but by translating Origen he saved from impending ruin some of the most precious monuments of Christian antiquity, destined to form Latin minds for many years to come.

Also presented in this volume is a new English translation of Rufinus’s work, On the Falsification of the Books of Origen in which Rufinus sets forth arguments for his theory that Origen’s writings had suffered interpolations by heretics. Rufinus demonstrates that literary frauds and forgeries carried out by heretics were widespread and affected many writers. He may have been misled by his intense respect for Origen’s genius, and he certainly exaggerated when he claimed that all the doctrinal errors to be met with in Origen’s works were due to interpolations.

About Origen

Origen (c. 182–251) was a Christian scholar and theologian and one of the most distinguished of the fathers of the early Christian Church. He is thought to have been born at Alexandria, and died at Caesarea. His writings are important as the first serious intellectual attempt to describe Christianity.