The Alexandrians: Origen.

His Voluminous Writings.

        Origen was the greatest Christian scholar and the most prolific Christian writer of antiquity. Epiphanius declared that he wrote six thousand works, doubtless meaning rolls, or scrolls, of ordinary length, about as long as Matthew or Acts. Rufinus laughed at this and called Epiphanius a crazy old man (delirus senex), but Jerome rather took his side: “Which of us,” said Jerome, “can read all that he has written?.”

        Origen was a native of Alexandria, where he was destined to carry the great tradition of Pantaenus and Clement to its peak. He was born m (A.D. 184-85. His father was a Christian teacher and suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Severus, A.D. zoz, which had driven Clement from the city. Origen, then sixteen or seventeen, undertook to support his widowed mother and his six brothers and sister by teaching, and a year later, in 202-3, Demetrius, the bishop, put him at the head of the catechetical school, when he was hardly eighteen years old. For a dozen years he carried on that work with marked success.

        This was his first Alexandrian period. In the course of it he traveled to Rome, visited the church there, and heard Hippolytus preach. He was also summoned to Arabia by the governor there for an interview (Church History vi. 19. 15). In A.D. 215 Caracalla's furious attack upon the Alexandrians interrupted Origen's work at the school and drove him from the city.

        He took refuge in Palestine and lived for perhaps two years in Caesarea, preaching in the churches at the request of the bishops of Jerusalem and Caesarea. As he was not ordained, this offended his,; old friend Demetrius the bishop of Alexandria, and he called Origen back to resume his conduct of the school, probably about A.D. 217. About this time Origen found an able assistant in Heraclas, whose lectures later drew Julius Africanus to settle in Alexandria for a time to hear them (Church History vi. 31. 2). It was in this second Alexandrian period, which lasted for thirteen years, that Origen's real work of writing began.

        In 230 he traveled to Greece on some church business and, stopping at Caesarea on his way, was ordained a presbyter by Theoctistus, the bishop there. When Demetrius heard of this, he felt that his authority had been flouted, and, on Origen's return, Demetrius assembled a synod that decreed that Origen should no longer teach or live in Alexandria. Only the bishops of Palestine, Phoenicia, Arabia, and Greece stood by Origen. In this most unhappy way his work in Egypt, which was destined to prove so historic, was ended.

        Origen now removed to Caesarea, where he prosecuted his studies and his work of teaching, preaching, and writing. His fame spread over the East. The emperor's mother, Julia Mamaea, invited him to visit Antioch so that she might hear him preach (Church History vi. 21. 3, 4). He also revisited Athens and Arabia in these years. The persecution of Maximin, A.D. 235-38, may have driven him to take refuge in Caesarea in Cappadocia and spend two years there, as Palladius says (Lausiac History 64), although this is not altogether certain. But in the Decian persecution, Origen was imprisoned and suffered tortures in consequence of which he soon afterward died, probably in Caesarea, but perhaps in Tyre, A.D. 254, at the age of sixty-nine.

        About the time of Origen's return to Alexandria, in A.D. 217, or soon after, he made a great friend in Ambrose, a man of means and position whom he had won over from Valentinian views. Ambrose became his friend, patron, and publisher. Eusebius' account of this connection gives us the clearest picture of an ancient writer and his publisher that has come down to us anywhere. It is doubly important not only for showing one early Christian publishing house actually at work, but for the light it throws upon the immense literary output credited to Origen by ancient writers.

        Eusebius says that Origen “began his commentaries on the divine scriptures being urged thereto by Ambrose, who employed innumerable incentives, not only exhorting him by word, but furnishing abundant means. For he dictated to more than seven amanuenses, who relieved each other at appointed times. And he employed no fewer copyists, besides girls who were skilled in elegant writing. For all these Ambrose furnished the necessary expense in abundance” (Church History vi. x 3. 1, 2). It will be seen that Ambrose not only expedited the publication of books thought of and written by Origen but urged further undertakings upon him, in particular his commentaries on the scriptures. “To the, management and support of Ambrose,” said Harnack, “we owe a great part of the works of Origen.”[70] Origen long refused to have his sermons taken down stenographically, but after he was sixty, he allowed this to be done. It is clear that all that ancient methods ` could do was done to encourage Origen to produce, and to circulate his product. So urgent did Origen's publisher sometimes become in his demands for new books that Origen once humorously described him as his taskmaster, or slave-driver (ergo-dioktes).

        This great body of Origen's writings may be conveniently divided under five heads: textual studies, interpretation, theological' studies, apologetics, and letters.