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| Fenton John Anthony Hort |
In 1890, Fenton John Anthony Hort
(half of the Westcott-Hort duo) delivered a series of six lectures on
ante-Nicene fathers. They
were published in 1895, a
few years after his death. What follows here, with slight adjustments, is
the sixth lecture in the series.
LECTURE VI: ORIGEN
In the last
two lectures the Fathers who have come before us have all belonged to Africa. It will be the same today. We return now from North
Africa, and the two great Fathers whom at this early time it brought forth for Latin theology, to Egypt
and to the most characteristically Greek theology.
If the
influence of Clement of Alexandria over the later times of early Christianity
was less than we might have expected, the same cannot be said of his great
pupil Origen.
Not only had he the
veneration of devoted disciples for several generations, but the theologies
built up in the succeeding centuries of the age of the Fathers would, as far as
we can see, have been very different from what they actually were, had it not
been for the foundations laid by him.
Above all, his influence as an interpreter of the Bible, direct and
indirect, has been both wide and lasting.
In the ancient Church three men stand out above all others as having
left a deep mark by their independent interpretation of Scripture.
The other two are
Theodore
of Mopsuestia (late in the fourth century), the highest representative of
the
School of Antioch, and (a generation later)
Augustine the North
African, the primary teacher of the Latin West.
Not the least interesting fact however in the history of the influence
of Origen as an interpreter is the way in which his thoughts and often his
words were appropriated and handed on by Latin Fathers, and especially the
three greatest Latin Fathers of the fourth century,
Hilary of
Poitiers (theologically the greatest of them all),
Ambrose
and
Jerome.
In this
manner, as well as by direct translations of some of Origen’s works, Origenian
ideas, penetrating down through various channels, supplied a by no means
insignificant element in the very miscellaneous body of traditional
interpretation which prevailed till the fresh and open study of the meaning of
Scripture was restored, chiefly by the Revivers of learning just before the
Reformation and by some of the Reformers themselves.
The permanent value of his interpretation of
Scripture is much lessened by the fact that, in common with most ancient
interpreters outside the
School
of Antioch, he shows an
excessive devotion to allegorical senses; yet along with this mere fancifulness
we find in him evidence of a genuine and profound study of the words of
Scripture.
For all his great and lasting
influence, Origen’s name has been by no means surrounded with the halo of
conventional glory which has traditionally adorned Fathers inferior to him in
every way.
Some of his speculations were
doubtless crude and unsatisfactory, but these are but trifles beside the vast
services which he rendered to theology; and accordingly, every now and then, from
Athanasius
onwards, he has received cordial words of vindication from men who were able to
recognize goodness and greatness, in spite of an unpopular name.
Unlike the
Fathers whom we have been lately considering, Clement of Alexandria,
Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen had the blessing of Christian parentage, and
received from his father Leonides a careful education both in the ordinary Greek
culture of the day and in the study of Scripture, becoming the pupil of
Clement. He was not seventeen when that
persecution of about the year 202 under Septimius Severus occurred which drove
Clement from Alexandria,
and Leonides was thrown into prison. Origen himself, being restrained by a
device of his mother’s from rushing to join him in the anticipated martyrdom [she hid his clothes – JSJ], wrote to him
entreating that no care for his family should be allowed to shake his
constancy. On his father’s martyrdom,
with confiscation of goods, he provided for his own and his mother's and six
brothers’ wants by teaching, except that he was lodged by a lady of wealth.
Some
heathens came to him for instruction, including Plutarchus, who was martyred,
and Heraclas, who became Bishop of Alexandria; and thus he was
led to take up, though in an informal way, the dropped work of the Catechetical School.
After a time he was placed formally at its head by the Bishop
Demetrius. For some twelve years he went
on without other interruption than a short visit to Rome
and another to Arabia, lecturing to large
audiences as a layman, living a sternly rigorous and self-denying life. To this time belongs the rash act of
self-mutilation always associated with his name, suggested to him by a
misunderstanding of the real drift of one of our Lord’s sayings. Meanwhile he labored to fit himself for his
work more and more. On the one hand he
studied Hebrew; on the other he attended the lectures of the most eminent
heathen philosophers, that he might be ‘better able to understand the thoughts
of those’ who came to him for help. The
work increased so much that he associated with himself his convert Heraclas.
At length
about the year 215 he was driven by tumults to leave Alexandria,
as Clement had done, and took refuge for a considerable time at Caesarea, the
Greek or Roman capital of Palestine. Alexander, now Bishop of Jerusalem, of whom
we heard a fortnight ago, and the Bishop of Caesarea joined in inviting him to
preach (homilein) to the assembled
congregation. On receiving a remonstrance from Demetrius at their permitting a
layman to preach before bishops, they cited various precedents in defense of
their action. But Demetrius refused to
give way, and fetched Origen back to Alexandria
in a peremptory way. After his return he
was persuaded by Ambrosius, now a friend, formerly a convert of his from some
Pseudo-Gnostic sect, to undertake commentaries in writing, for which purpose
Ambrosius provided short-hand writers.
But after
Origen had taught at Alexandria
for about a quarter of a century, his career there came to a painful end. The Churches of Achaia, being much distracted
by what were called heresies (of what kind, is not related), invited him to
come to their help. He started without
obtaining license from Demetrius (but under what circumstances we do not know),
and took his way through Palestine. There he was ordained presbyter by the Bishop
of Caesarea, with Alexander’s knowledge and approval. He then completed his journey to Greece, making sojourns at Ephesus
and Athens, and
at length returned home. His reception
there is a sad one to read of. Demetrius
assembled “a synod of bishops and of certain presbyters,” by whom he was
forbidden to teach or even reside in Alexandria. They did not agree to reject his ordination,
as apparently Demetrius wished, but this too he obtained from a subsequent
smaller meeting of bishops alone.
Our too
fragmentary authorities do not tell us quite clearly the ground of
condemnation. Apparently it was the ordination of one who was mutilated, though
it is also possible that doctrinal differences and it may be even personal
jealousies were unavowed motives of action. There is reason to believe that the
Roman Church supported the action of Demetrius, but it was entirely ignored by
the Bishops of Asia; those of Palestine, Arabia, Phoenicia
(i.e. probably North Syria) and Achaia being
specially mentioned. Origen left Alexandria for ever, and
though beloved disciples of his own succeeded Demetrius as bishop, apparently
no attempt was made to undo the banishment.
Gentlest,
humblest, and most peace-loving of men, Origen would be the last to disturb the
peace of the Church for his own sake.
Accordingly for the third time he betook himself to the friendly
Caesarea, and there in the great seaport beside the Mediterranean
he made his permanent home for the rest of his life, above twenty years. Being welcomed and cherished by the two
Palestinian Bishops of whom we heard before, he carried on his literary work as
a Christian theologian with the help of Ambrosius, and at the same time resumed
oral instruction, partly by expository sermons of a comparatively simple kind
in Church, partly by more advanced lectures to students and philosophical
enquirers, as at the Catechetical School of Alexandria.
With this
period are specially connected the names of two illustrious disciples,
Firmilianus
and
Gregory of Neocaesarea.
Firmilianus was apparently already bishop of
the Cappadocian Caesarea, the capital of the inland regions of
Eastern Asia Minor, when this recorded intercourse with
Origen took place, though it may well have begun at an earlier time. Sometimes
he used to get Origen to come to visit him in Cappadocia to instruct his
Churches; sometimes he used to make stays in
Palestine to have the personal benefit of
hearing Origen discourse.
A man of still
greater eminence in the years after the middle of the third century was Gregory
Bishop of Neocaesarea in
Pontus.
According to his own narrative he had
traveled to
Palestine to educate himself as an
advocate by study at
Beirut, where there was a
famous
School of
Roman
Law; but before fixing himself there, he had traveled on to
Caesarea with his sister, whose husband held an official
post there.
Beirut however was soon given up.
He fell (with his brother) under the spell of
Origen’s teaching and personal presence, and remained under his instruction for
five years.
On his
departure he delivered an address in expression of his gratitude, and this
address is still extant. In it he
describes how he first came under Origen, and how Origen dealt with him and
with other pupils. First came a training
in the faculties of the mind, a pruning away of wild growths of opinion for
opinion’s sake, an enforcement of clear thinking and exact speaking. Then came the study of the visible order of
nature, founded on the study of geometry.
Thirdly came Christian ethics as founded on godliness, which he called
the beginning and the end of all the virtues. Having passed through these
preliminary stages of mental discipline, Origen’s pupils were encouraged to
read freely in the works of Greek poets and philosophers, and then, thus
prepared, to enter on the study of Christian theology proper, more especially
in its primary source, the Bible.
Such was
the method of Origen’s regular teaching at Caesarea. But he did not refuse invitations to leave
home for a while, and give help to other Churches. Some time, we know, he spent at Athens. Twice he was asked to come into Arabia to help in neutralizing false doctrines which had
arisen there. In each case, instead of
using declamation and anathemas, he sought quiet conference with the men who
had propounded these doctrines; and in each case succeeded in persuading them
that they had been in error. If later
controversies had been dealt with in the same spirit, what a different
Christendom and a different world would now be meeting our eyes!
Our first
glimpse of Origen was as a boy, encouraging his father to face martyrdom
without hesitation, undistracted by any anxieties for his helpless family. A
third of a century later a similar task fell to his lot. The emperor
Alexander Severus, who had
been friendly to the Christians, and with whose mother Mamsea Origen had had
some intercourse, had come to a violent end, and his murderer and successor
Maximinus entered on a persecution of such Christians, it would seem, as had stood in special favor
with Alexander. Origen was apparently
saved by a Christian Cappadocian lady, Juliana, who kept him out of harm’s
way. But Ambrosius and a presbyter of
Caesarea were imprisoned, and to them Origen wrote an
Exhortation which we still possess.
But fifteen
years later, or less, he had to suffer grievously in his own person.
In that persecution of
Decius
in which his old fellow-student and supporter Alexander died in prison, he too
was cast into prison, and had to undergo a succession of tortures.
Decius’ reign was a short one; and on his
death Origen was released from prison, shattered by the treatment which he had
received, and two years later he died at
Tyre,
being not far from 70 years of age.
His
tomb in the Cathedral of Tyre is several times in the early Middle Ages noticed
as then still visible, and the inscription of it still later; and a tradition
of his place of burial is still said to be current in the neighborhood.
Though he does not bear the conventional
title of Saint, no saintlier man is to be found in the long line of ancient Fathers
of the Church.
One of the
best known sentences of
Butler’s Analogy,
occurring in the Introduction, is to this effect:
“Hence, namely from analogical reasoning,
Origen has with singular sagacity observed, that
he who believes the Scripture to have proceeded from him who is the
Author of Nature, may well
expect to find the same sort of difficulties in it, as are found in the
constitution of Nature.” These few
words are characteristic of the subjects of Origen’s writings. He was deeply and reverently occupied in
meditation on all things in heaven and earth of which the human mind can take
any cognizance; but the Bible was the center of all his thoughts and of all his
studies. He wrote commentaries or
preached homilies, taken down by rapid writers, on a large proportion of books
of both Testaments. What is lost was far
more than what is preserved: but we still have much, large portions of the
commentaries on St. Matthew and
St.
John, that on the Romans in a too free Latin condensed
translation, some Homilies on Jeremiah, many Greek fragments on various books,
and many Latin translations of Homilies, chiefly on the Old Testament.
A biblical
work of another kind was what is called Origen’s
Hexapla, an
arrangement of the books of the Old Testament in (for the most part) six
parallel columns, each containing a distinct text, the Hebrew, the same in
Greek letters, the Septuagint, and three other Greek translations.
Numerous detached readings copied from it
have been preserved, but hardly more. By this combination of texts Origen hoped
to throw light on the meaning of many passages in which a Greek reader would be
either bewildered or misled if he had only the Septuagint before him.
Besides the
Exhortation
to Martyrdom mentioned before, we possess a very interesting little
treatise of Origen’s on
Prayer.
Very little unhappily remains of his letters, of which a collection was made
some time after his death. But we fortunately possess in one shape or other
what were probably his two greatest works, the systematic doctrinal treatise on
First
Principles, written before his departure from
Alexandria, preserved for the most part only
in a too free Latin version; and the
eight
books against Celsus in the original Greek, written near the end of his life. In connection with Origen’s writings it is
worth while to mention the
Philocalia,
a small collection of extracts from them chiefly bearing on the interpretation
of Scripture, made late in the fourth century by Basil and
Gregory of Nazianzus. It was from this
source that
Butler
made his quotation, and the little book deserves to be better known.
As an easy
specimen of the book on First Principles,
which chiefly consists of somewhat difficult speculative meditations, we may
take a passage on the thirst for Divine knowledge implanted in the heart of
man, and, however little he may know in this life, intended to render him
capable of even higher levels of knowledge in the stages of the future life.
“Therefore,
as in those crafts which are accomplished by hand, we can perceive by our
understanding the reason which determines what a thing is to be, how it is to
be made and for what purposes, while the actual work is accomplished by the
service of the hands, so in the works of God which are wrought by His own hand,
we must understand that the reason and designs of the things which we see made
by Him, remain unseen. And just as, when
our eye has seen things made by the craftsman, the mind, on observing something
made with especial skill, is forthwith anxious to enquire in what fashion or
manner or for what purposes the thing has been made, so much more and in an
incomparably higher degree the mind is anxious with an unspeakable longing to
recognize the reason of the things which we behold made by God. This longing, this ardent desire, has we
believe without doubt been implanted in us by God, and, just as the eye
naturally requires light and object of vision, and our body by nature demands
food and drink, so our intellect is possessed with a fit and natural desire for
knowing the truth of God and discovering the causes of things. Now this desire we have received from God not
in order that it should never be satisfied or be capable of satisfaction;
otherwise vainly will the love of truth appear to have been implanted in our
intellect by God the Creator, if it is made never capable of satisfying its
longing.
“Wherefore
even in this life those who have laboriously given their attention to godly and
religious meditations, even though they obtain but a small amount from the
great and infinite treasures of the Divine wisdom, yet just because they keep
their minds and attention turned towards these subjects and outstrip themselves
in this desire, receive much profit from the very fact that they are directing
their minds to the search and love of discovering truth and making them more
ready to receive future instruction, just as, when a man wishes to paint a
portrait, if a pencil sketch in bare outline first marks out the plan of the
coming picture, and prepares marks on which the features may be laid, the rough
outline doubtless is found more ready to receive the true colors, so may a mere
sketch, a rough outline by the pencil of our Lord Jesus Christ, be traced on
the tablets of our heart. And perhaps it
is for this reason that it is said, ‘For to everyone that hath shall it be
given, and it shall be added to him.’
Whence it is certain that to those who possess in this life a sort of
rough outline of truth and knowledge shall be added in the future the beauty of
the perfect picture. Such, I imagine,
was the desire indicated by him who said, ‘But I am constrained in two ways,
having a desire to depart and be with Christ, for it is far better,’ knowing
that when he had returned to Christ, he would recognize more clearly the
reasons of all things which are done on earth.” [From
Origen, ii. IV. p. 236. Redep. (ii. xi. 4, 5).]
The Books
against Celsus contain at once the best and the most comprehensive defense of
the Christian faith which has come down to us from the days of the
Fathers. They defend it not against
popular prejudice and malice only, as the early Apologists had done, but
against the careful and powerful indictment laid by an earnest though scoffing
heathen philosopher who was also apparently an accomplished Roman lawyer,
writing in the name of the highest philosophy of the time, and passionately
devoted to the welfare of the Roman Empire.
A long time had passed between the writing of Celsus’ “True Account,” as
he called his literary onslaught on the Christians and their faith, and its
coming into Origen’s hands. He had no
real knowledge about the author, but he evidently felt that if he could answer
him successfully, he would practically have effectually upheld the cause of the
Gospel at all points. If he sometimes
fails to understand on what this or that smart saying of Celsus’ really rested,
he never shows the unfairness of the mere partisan. The candor and patience of his treatise are
among its brightest qualities.
The whole
treatise amply repays reading and re-reading; one passage however must now
suffice. It is the reply to Celsus’
scoff about the lateness of the Incarnation and its limitation to an obscure
corner of the world, a scoff in form, but covering a serious question. As regards the time, Celsus compared it to
the comic poet’s representation of Zeus as waking out of sleep and suddenly
sending Hermes to men. As regards the place, he asked why God did not breathe
souls into many bodies and send them all over the earth. Here is the answer.
“Observe
here too Celsus’ want of reverence when he most unphilosophically brings in a
comic poet, whose object is to raise a laugh, and compares our God the Creator
of the Universe with the god in his play who on awaking dispatches Hermes. We
have said above that, when God sent Jesus to the human race, it was not as
though He had just awoken from a long sleep, but Jesus, though He has only now
for worthy reasons fulfilled the divine plan of His incarnation, has at all
times been doing good to the human race.
For no noble deed among men has ever been done without the Divine Word
visiting the souls of those who even for a brief space were able to receive
such operations of the Divine Word. Nay,
even the appearance of Jesus in one corner of the world (as it seems) has been
brought about for a worthy reason, since it was necessary that He of whom the
prophets spoke should appear among those who had learnt one God, who read His
prophets and recognized Christ preached in them, and that He should appear at a
time when the Word was about to be diffused from one corner to the whole world.
“Wherefore
also there was no need that many bodies should be made everywhere, and many
spirits like to that of Jesus, in order that the whole world of men might be
illumined by the Word of God. For it
sufficed that the one Word rising like the Sun of Righteousness from Judea should send forth His speedy rays into the soul of
them that were willing to receive Him.
And if anyone does wish to see many bodies filled with a divine Spirit,
ministering like Him the one Christ to the salvation of men in every place, let
him take note of those who in all places do honestly and with an upright life
teach the word of Jesus, who are themselves too called ‘Christs’ (‘anointed
ones’) in the passage, ‘Touch not mine anointed ones and do my prophets no
harm.’ For even as we have heard that
antichrist comes and nevertheless have learnt that there are many antichrists
in the world, even so, when we recognize that Christ has come, we observe that
owing to Him many Christs have been born in the world, to wit, all those that
like Him have loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and for this reason God,
the God of Christ, anointed them too with the oil of gladness. But He however, having loved righteousness
and hated iniquity to a higher degree than those who are His partners, has also
received the first-fruits of the anointing, and, if we may so term it, has
received the entire unction of the oil of gladness, while they that were His
partners partook also in His unction, each according to his capacity.
“Wherefore,
since Christ is the head of the Church, so that Christ and His Church are one
body, the ointment has descended from the head to the beard (the symbol of the
full-grown man Aaron), and this ointment in its descent reached to the
skirts of his clothing. This is my answer to Celsus’ impious speech when he
says that ‘God ought to have breathed His Spirit into many bodies in like
manner and to have sent them forth throughout the world.’ So then while the comic poet to raise a laugh
has represented Zeus as asleep and as waking up and sending Hermes to the
Greeks, let the Word which knows that the nature of God is sleepless teach us
that God with regard to seasons orders the affairs of the world as reason
demands. But it is not to be wondered
at, if, seeing that the judgments of God are sublime and hard to interpret,
uninstructed souls do err, and Celsus among them.
“There is
then nothing absurd in the fact that to the Jews, with whom were the prophets,
the Son of God was sent, so that beginning with them in bodily form He might
arise in power and spirit upon a world of souls desiring to be no longer bereft
of God.” [Origen, adv. Celsum, vi. 78
foll.]
At Origen’s death in the year 253 we
are still nearly half a century from the end of the first three centuries, and
nearly three-quarters of a century from the
Council of
Nicea.
If time permitted, it would
not be difficult to give some account of Fathers belonging to this interval who
are quite worthy of being known.
At the
same time it is true that we have only fragments, sometimes hardly that, of the
men who seem as if they had been best worth knowing.
Moreover, with the exception of the almost
forgotten Lucianus of Antioch, they seem to have been less original and
important Fathers than nearly all those who have come before us this term.
The most attractive group is formed by the
disciples of Origen, not only the two already spoken of, but Heraclas, and
Pierius, and Dionysius of Alexandria of whom we can obtain a tolerably vivid
and very pleasant image from the fragments of his letters preserved by
Eusebius, showing how a great bishop trained by Origen would deal with the
difficult questions raised by persecution without and false doctrine
within.
Then would come
Pamphilus, the
loving collector of memorials of Origen and zealous champion of his good name
against the detractors who were beginning to assail it; himself a martyr in the
terrible last persecution at the beginning of the fourth century.
And Pamphilus in turn leads to his younger
friend Eusebius the historian, who lived and wrote in the fourth century, and
yet might in some ways be called the last of the Ante-Nicene Fathers.
But we must
be content with this very hurried glance at that most important but most
obscure time between the death of Origen and Cyprian and the Council of
Nicea. A better break than at the death
of Origen we could hardly desire. Not to
speak of the men of later days, looking only at those other Fathers who have
come before us this term, we cannot help recognizing that they had often work
given them to do which he could not do, and that they were enabled to see some
truths which he could not see. But he is
for us practically the last and most characteristic of the early Fathers,
properly so called, the Fathers who lived while Christian thought could still
be free, and while Christian faith still embraced the whole world. From all these early Fathers taken together,
you will, I trust, have gained the feeling, if you had it not already, that
Christian pastors and teachers in this nineteenth century can ill afford to neglect
the thoughts and aspirations of those earliest Christian ages, though, like the
thoughts and aspirations of all intervening times, they must remain a dead
letter to us till they are interpreted by the thoughts and aspirations of our
own time as shone upon by the light of the Spirit who is the teacher of
Christ’s disciples in every succeeding age.
