- c. 220 AD - 

Alexandria, province of Egypt 

Roman Empire 

Origen of Alexandria (c. 185 – c. 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was one of the earliest and most important Christian scholars. He is remembered not only for his extraordinary scholarship, but also for his radical commitment to holiness.

He spent half his life in Alexandria and is credited with producing approximately 2,000 treatises on multiple branches of theology, including textual criticism, biblical exegesis and hermeneutics, homiletics, and spirituality. Among the most important works of Origen are the Hexapla (Ἑξαπλά), De Principiis (Περὶ ἀρχῶν) and Contra Celsum (Κατὰ Κέλσου).

He was one of the most influential figures in theology and has been described as "the greatest genius the early church ever produced."

Origen, a Persecuted Scholar

Almost all information about the life of Origen of Alexandria comes from the Book VI of the Ecclesiastical History, written by Eusebius of Caesarea (c. AD 260/265 – AD 339), who describes the theologian as the perfect Christian scholar.

Origen was born around 185 AD in Alexandria. According to Eusebius, his father was Leonidas of Alexandria, a respected professor of literature and an openly practicing Christian. Origen's mother, whose name is unknown, may have belonged to a lower class that was not entitled to citizenship. It is likely that, because of his mother's status, Origen was not a Roman citizen.

Origen's father taught him literature and philosophy, as well as the Bible and Christian doctrine. Eusebius claims that his father made him memorize passages from the Holy Scriptures daily and that as an adult he was able to recite long passages at will.

In the year 202, when Origen was not yet seventeen, the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus ordered the execution of Roman citizens who openly practiced Christianity. Origen's father, Leonidas, was arrested and imprisoned.

Eusebius of Caesarea (c. AD 260/265 – AD 339) tells that Origen wanted to surrender to the authorities so that they could also execute him, but his mother hid all his clothes and he could not go to the authorities because he refused to leave the house without clothes. As for his father, he was beheaded and the state confiscated all of the family's assets, leaving them devastated and impoverished.

Origen was the eldest of nine children and, as his father's heir, assumed responsibility for supporting the entire family. At eighteen he was appointed director of a school in Alexandria and received visits from politicians and academics. He spent his days teaching and stayed up late writing treatises and commentaries. He went barefoot and wore only a cloak. He was a teetotaler and vegetarian, and often fasted for long periods. In addition, Origen wrote scholarly works of great quality and quantity.

Jerome of Stridon (347 AD - 420 AD) would later ask, sarcastically: "Has anyone read everything Origen wrote?"

A prominent exponent of orthodox gnosis, he was the first to conceive a complete system of Christianity, integrating Neoplatonic theories. His ideas, recovered and systematized in the following centuries by a school of thought called Origenism, gave rise to a lively controversy and were finally condemned at the Council of Constantinople in 553 AD.

His great capacity for work was proverbial among his contemporaries, to the point of being nicknamed Adamantius or "man of steel". Among his works of philosophical interest are Against Celsus (refutation in eight books of the criticisms that the Neoplatonist Celsus directed against Christianity) and On the First Principles (four books); also preserved are the book On Prayer and the Exhortation to Martyrdom and some fragments of his monumental Bible known as Hexapla, which presented the Hebrew biblical text in several columns and various versions in other languages.

His works on the Bible fall into three categories: Scholia, that is, explanations of difficult passages; Homilies, sermons intended to illustrate entire books of Scripture; and Commentaries, a systematic examination of the texts. In the latter, Origen applies a symbolic exegesis, distinguishing in Scripture three levels of meaning, corresponding to the three parts of human nature (physical, psychic and spiritual).

In Scripture, then, there is a literal sense, which is limited to considering the historical facts narrated; a moral sense, which discovers ethical orientations in history, and therefore challenges the will; and a mystical sense, belonging to the depth of the mystery of faith hidden in the letter.

In his doctrinal works (Against Celsus and On the First Principles), Origen sets forth his philosophical thought, in which he shows himself indebted to Platonism, Stoicism and Neoplatonism. Origen postulates the creation of the world ab aeterno, as corresponding, according to him, to the immutability of God and his goodness, which by its very nature tends toward continuous manifestation and gift.

Origen studied with non-Christian philosophers in his hometown of Alexandria, Egypt, to better understand their arguments. On Principles is believed to be the first comprehensive work of systematic Christian theology, and here Origen not only presents a structured approach to Christian beliefs, but does so through the lens of contemporary Greek philosophy.

On the other hand, Origen spoke to a rich man named Ambrose to approach Jesus Christ and abandon Valentinian Gnosticism. Ambrose was so impressed by the young scholar that he provided him with a house, a secretary, seven stenographers, a team of copyists and calligraphers, and paid for the publication of all his writings.

Sometime in his early twenties, Origen sold the small library of Greek literary works he had inherited from his father for a sum that provided him with a daily income of four obols, and used the money to continue his studies of the Bible and philosophy. Another of Origen's most important works is the Hexapla, a book of textual criticism and academic apologetics, as well as a true interlinear Bible.

The Hexapla has a six-column format: one column of Hebrew text in parallel with five columns of various Greek translations. Origen's purpose in compiling it was to counter Gnostic and Jewish attacks on early Christianity. This work also provided Christians with a comprehensive guide to the Old Testament. The original is estimated to have been over 6,500 pages long and took over 28 years to complete.

Origen also responded to an anti-Christian work written shortly before his birth by the Greek philosopher Celsus. Celsus's work broadly attacked the history, philosophy, prophecy, and social duties of Christianity. In Contra Celsum (Against Celsus), Origen produced a detailed and intellectually powerful defense of Christianity, one of the first and best of the early church era. In it Origen responds to Celsus point by point, weaving together evidence, logic, and philosophy in support of Christianity.

Understanding Origen's work can be challenging because he believed that all Scripture had three levels of meaning: literal, figurative, and moral, and he often offered multiple ways to interpret the same passage.

Origen is an excellent example of early Church scholars who accepted non-literal interpretations of certain passages, such as the creation account in Genesis. He also criticized the idea that only specially ordained men had the spiritual authority to interpret Scripture. Much of his work was a deliberate effort to promote knowledge over mere authority, including ecclesiastical leadership.

Unfortunately, one of the most famous episodes in Origen's biography is that of his self-castration. Eusebius states that when Origen was young, after reading the passage in Matthew 19:12, in which Jesus says: "For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it." Origen went to a doctor and paid him to surgically remove his genitals, to ensure his reputation as a respectable tutor for young men and women.

At that time it was customary to castrate oneself for various reasons, including to be able to access certain positions of trust. Eusebius further states that Origen privately told Demetrius (c.127-232), bishop of Alexandria, about castration and that Demetrius initially praised him for his devotion to God because of it.

Origen, however, not only never mentions anything about having been castrated in any of his numerous writings, nor did he ever defend this practice, but on the contrary fervently denied it on many occasions throughout his life. However, he does mention in his work "Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew" the verse quoted above, written near the end of his days, and strongly condemns any literal interpretation of that paragraph of Matthew, stating that "only a fool would interpret the passage as an advocacy of literal castration."

Apparently he interpreted it symbolically, as a way of putting the spiritual path before physical pleasures if one wants to enter the kingdom of heaven, since this is an elevated state of consciousness.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, some scholars have questioned the historicity of Origen's self-castration, and many consider it a total invention because Origen stood out from a very young age for his intelligence, culture and abilities and, due to envy or differences of approach, he had enemies who accused him of all kinds of things. However, the debate has continued among scholars of Origen's biography to this day.

Conflict with Demetrius

In his early twenties Origen became less interested in work as a grammarian and more interested in operating as a rhetor-philosopher.

Origen's new position as a self-styled Christian philosopher brought him into conflict with Demetrius, the bishop of Alexandria. Demetrius, a charismatic leader who ruled the Christian congregation of Alexandria with an iron fist, became the most direct promoter of the elevation in status of the bishop of Alexandria; before Demetrius, the bishop of Alexandria had merely been a priest who was elected to represent his fellows, but after Demetrius, the bishop was seen as clearly a rank higher than his fellow priests.

By styling himself as an independent philosopher, Origen was reviving a role that had been prominent in earlier Christianity but which challenged the authority of the now-powerful bishop.

In 212 he travelled to Rome – a major center of philosophy at the time. In Rome, Origen attended lectures by Hippolytus of Rome and was influenced by his logos theology. In 213 or 214, the governor of the Province of Arabia sent a message to the prefect of Egypt requesting him to send Origen to meet with him so that he could interview him and learn more about Christianity from its leading intellectual. Origen, escorted by official bodyguards, spent a short time in Arabia with the governor before returning to Alexandria.

In the autumn of 215, the Roman Emperor Caracalla visited Alexandria. During the visit, the students at the schools there protested and made fun of him for having murdered his brother Geta (died 211). Caracalla, incensed, ordered his troops to ravage the city, execute the governor, and kill all the protesters. He also commanded them to expel all the teachers and intellectuals from the city.

Origen fled Alexandria and traveled to the city of Caesarea Maritima in the Roman province of Palestine, where the bishops Theoctistus of Caesarea and Alexander of Jerusalem became his devoted admirers and asked him to deliver discourses on the scriptures in their respective churches.

While this was an unexpected phenomenon, especially given Origen's international fame as a teacher and philosopher, it infuriated Demetrius, who saw it as a direct undermining of his authority and he also issued a decree chastising the Palestinians for allowing a person who was not ordained to preach. The Palestinian bishops, in turn, issued their condemnation, accusing Demetrius of being jealous of Origen's fame and prestige.

Origen obeyed Demetrius's order and returned to Alexandria, bringing with him an antique scroll he had purchased at Jericho containing the full text of the Hebrew Bible. The manuscript, which had purportedly been found "in a jar", became the source text for one of the two Hebrew columns in Origen's Hexapla.

Origen repeatedly asked Demetrius to ordain him as a priest, but Demetrius continually refused. In around 231, Demetrius sent Origen on a mission to Athens. Along the way, Origen stopped in Caesarea, where he was warmly greeted by the bishops Theoctistus of Caesarea and Alexander of Jerusalem, who had become his close friends during his previous stay. While he was visiting Caesarea, Origen asked Theoctistus to ordain him as a priest. Theoctistus gladly complied. Upon learning of Origen's ordination, Demetrius was outraged and issued a condemnation declaring that Origen's ordination by a foreign bishop was an act of insubordination.

Eusebius reports that as a result of Demetrius's condemnations, Origen decided not to return to Alexandria and instead to take up permanent residence in Caesarea.

Demetrius died in 232, less than a year after Origen's departure from Alexandria. The accusations against Origen faded with the death of Demetrius, but they did not disappear entirely and they continued to haunt him for the rest of his career. Origen defended himself in his Letter to Friends in Alexandria, in which he vehemently denied that he had ever taught that the Devil would attain salvation and insisted that the very notion of the Devil attaining salvation was simply ludicrous.

In Caesarea

During his early years in Caesarea, Origen's primary task was the establishment of a Christian School; Caesarea had long been seen as a center of learning for Jews and Hellenistic philosophers, but until Origen's arrival, it had lacked a Christian center of higher education. According to Eusebius, the school Origen founded was primarily targeted towards young pagans who had expressed interest in Christianity but were not yet ready to ask for baptism. The school therefore sought to explain Christian teachings through Middle Platonism.

Origen started his curriculum by teaching his students classical Socratic reasoning. After they had mastered this, he taught them cosmology and natural history. Finally, once they had mastered all of these subjects, he taught them theology, which was the highest of all philosophies, the accumulation of everything they had previously learned.

With the establishment of the Caesarean school, Origen's reputation as a scholar and theologian reached its zenith and he became known throughout the Mediterranean world as a brilliant intellectual. The hierarchs of the Palestinian and Arabian church synods regarded Origen as the ultimate expert on all matters dealing with theology. Pagans also took a fascination with Origen.

The Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry heard of Origen's fame and traveled to Caesarea to listen to his lectures. Porphyry recounts that Origen had extensively studied the teachings of Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, but also those of important Middle Platonists, Neopythagoreans, and Stoics, including Numenius of Apamea, Chronius, Apollophanes, Longinus, Moderatus of Gades, Nicomachus, Chaeremon, and Cornutus.

Eusebius reports that Origen was summoned from Caesarea to Antioch at the behest of Julia Avita Mamaea, the mother of Roman Emperor Severus Alexander, "to discuss Christian philosophy and doctrine with her."

In 235, approximately three years after Origen began teaching in Caesarea, Alexander Severus, who had been tolerant towards Christians, was murdered and Emperor Maximinus Thrax instigated a purge of all those who had supported his predecessor.

His pogroms targeted Christian leaders and, in Rome, Pope Pontianus and Hippolytus of Rome were both sent into exile. Origen knew that he was in danger and went into hiding in the home of a faithful Christian woman named Juliana the Virgin, who had been a student of the Ebionite leader Symmachus.

Origen's close friend and longtime patron Ambrose was arrested in Nicomedia, and Protoctetes, the leading priest in Caesarea, was also arrested.

In their honor, Origen composed his treatise Exhortation to Martyrdom, which is now regarded as one of the greatest classics of Christian resistance literature. After coming out of hiding following Maximinus's death, Origen founded a school of which Gregory Thaumaturgus, later bishop of Pontus, was one of the pupils. He preached regularly on Wednesdays and Fridays, and later daily.

Sometime between 238 and 244, Origen visited Athens, where he completed his Commentary on the Book of Ezekiel and began writing his Commentary on the Song of Songs. After visiting Athens, he visited Ambrose in Nicomedia.

According to Porphyry, Origen also travelled to Rome or Antioch, where he met Plotinus, the founder of Neoplatonism. The Christians of the eastern Mediterranean continued to revere Origen as the most orthodox of all theologians, and when the Palestinian hierarchs learned that Beryllus, the bishop of Bostra and one of the most energetic Christian leaders of the time, had been preaching adoptionism (the belief that Jesus was born human and only became divine after his baptism), they sent Origen to convert him to orthodoxy.

Origen engaged Beryllus in a public disputation, which went so successfully that Beryllus promised only to teach Origen's theology from then on. On another occasion, a Christian leader in Arabia named Heracleides began teaching that the soul was mortal and that it perished with the body. Origen refuted these teachings, arguing that the soul is immortal and can never die.

In c. 249, the Plague of Cyprian broke out. In 250, Emperor Decius, believing that the plague was caused by Christians' failure to recognise him as divine, issued a decree for Christians to be persecuted. This time Origen did not escape.

Eusebius recounts how Origen suffered "bodily tortures and torments under the iron collar and in the dungeon; and how for many days with his feet stretched four spaces in the stocks".

The governor of Caesarea gave very specific orders that Origen was not to be killed until he had publicly renounced his faith in Christ. Origen endured two years of imprisonment and torture, but obstinately refused to renounce his faith.

In June 251, Decius was killed fighting the Goths in the Battle of Abritus, and Origen was released from prison. Nonetheless, Origen's health was broken by the physical tortures enacted on him, and he died less than a year later at the age of sixty-nine.

Origen of Alexandria dedicated his life to making evidence, reason, and Scripture accessible to as many people as possible. His legacy is an excellent response to any claim that early Christianity was superficial, superstitious, or anti-intellectual, and he is one of the most important figures of the early Church.


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