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Origen of Alexandria: The study of the Scriptures as transformation of the

readers into images of the God of love

Article  in  HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies · December 2010

DOI: 10.4102/hts.v67i1.871

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 Page 1 of 8 Original Research

Origen of Alexandria: The study of the Scriptures as

transformation of the readers into images of the God of love
Author: For Origen, the purpose of reading the Scriptures is to be transformed more and more into the
Paul B. Decock1,2 likeness of God, who is Love, through the Logos embodied in the Scriptures. This article first
situated Origen’s approach to the Scriptures in the broad agreement over the centuries that
Affiliations:
1
School of Religion and the Scriptures are meant to address the present readers and not merely the original readers.
Theology Department, This has led to various approaches to actualise the text up to the present varieties of contextual
University of KwaZulu-Natal, exegesis. Secondly, the article showed how, for Origen, the aim of actualising the text is the
South Africa
transformation of the readers. It will be necessary, therefore, to briefly present some of the
2
St. Joseph’s Theological key aspects of Origen’s pre-understanding. The third part focused on Origen’s understanding
Institute, Cedara, South Africa of the reading process as a movement from the letter to the spirit, a process that involves the
transformation of the reader. This process is a struggle to understand what love, which is both
Correspondence to:
the mystery of God and the aim for which every being is created through the Logos, is.
Paul Decock

email:
[email protected] Introduction
Postal address: Reflecting on one of the great pioneers of biblical interpretation in the Early Church’s approach
St. Joseph’s, Private Bag to the Scriptures is no doubt a suitable way to honour the work of Professor Andries van Aarde,
6004, Hilton 3245,
who, in our context, continued that passion and dedication.
South Africa

Dates:
Received: 25 May 2010
The Scriptures as addressed to the present readers
Accepted: 09 Sept. 2010 A first characteristic of the approach to the Scriptures in early Christianity was the conviction that
Published: 07 June 2011 the Scriptures are meant to speak to the actual readers and not just to a past generation. In fact,
the sharp distinction between what the text ‘meant’ and what the text ‘means’ did not come about
How to cite this article:
Decock, P.B., 2011, until after the contributions of the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule [History of Religions School]
‘Origen of Alexandria: The as reaction against the liberal interpretation (see Stendahl 1962:418–420). Origen’s approach to
study of the Scriptures the Scriptures must be seen in the context of the broad agreement over the centuries that the
as transformation of the
Scriptures are meant to address the present readers and transform their lives. In order to situate
readers into images of
the God of love’, HTS Origen’s approach on this trajectory this article looked first at the process of actualisation in the
Teologiese Studies/ very production of the Scriptures. After the Scriptures were considered as standardised and fixed,
Theological Studies 67(1), the task of interpretation was seen as relating the text to the reader by means of reading and
Art. #871, 8 pages. DOI:
commentary. In the process ‘more-than-literal meanings of the text’ had to be articulated (see
10.4102/hts.v67i1.871
Decock 1993). During the next stage on the trajectory, from the 13th century and especially from
the Renaissance onwards, the literal meaning was seen to be the decisive one for the present,
especially in view of disputes over doctrine. As a result of the Enlightenment, the literal meaning
often became incredible or contested. After the challenge of the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule
against the liberal efforts at saving the literal meaning, scholars became more sharply aware of the
gap between what the text meant in its context and culture of origin and what it means now in new,
contemporary contexts. Whilst it became common from that time onwards to define the task of
exegesis as exploring the historical meaning of the text, soon the need was felt again to go beyond
this and explore again the meaning of the text for the present readers, in their cultural context.
Bultmann, in his demythologising programme and, later on, contextual exegesis with the various
forms of liberation and advocacy readings again clearly focussed on the present context (Brown
& Schneiders 1990:1159–1160).

In order to go briefly over this trajectory, Fishbane (1985, 1989) will be used as starting point. He
shows how the Hebrew Bible ’not only sponsored a monumental culture of textual exegesis but
was itself its own first product’ (1989:4). He continues: ’it is clear that the authoritative text being
© 2011. The Authors. explicated was not considered inviolable but subject to the invasion of a tradition of interpretation
Licensee: OpenJournals which rendered it more comprehensible’ (1989:5) and concludes:
Publishing. This work
is licensed under the One may say that the entire corpus of Scripture remains open to these invasive procedures and strategic
Creative Commons reworkings up to the close of the canon in the early rabbinic period, and so the received text is complexly
Attribution License. compacted of teachings and their subversion, of rules and their extension, of topoi and their revision.

http://www.hts.org.za DOI: 10.4102/hts.v67i1.871

 Page 2 of 8 Original Research

Within ancient Israel, as long as the textual corpus remained only when read within a revelatory context.3 For Qumran, the
open, Revelation and Tradition were thickly interwoven and eschatological context enabled the interpreters to transcend
interdependent, and the received text of the Bible is itself, the understanding of the prophets, as the Commentary on
therefore, the product of an interpretative tradition. Habakuk 2:3a says: ‘Its interpretation: the final age will be
(Fishbane 1989:18)
extended and go beyond all that the prophets say, because
This is also the way we have to understand the development the mysteries of God are wonderful’ (transl. García Martínez
of the Gospel material; the aim of the handing on of 1994:200). However, only a ‘charismatic exegesis’ is able to
this material was not merely to preserve, but to make it discern this depth.4 For Paul, in 1 Corinthians 2:10–16 the
‘present’ in such asa way that it could serve the needs of the revelatory context is established by those who have the mind
communities. Dieter A. Koch (1986:322–326) points out how of Christ. Here too, Paul’s focus is on the meaning of the text
Paul understood the Scriptures as speaking to the present for the present readers:
hearers, for example in 1 Corinthians 9:10; 10:11; Romans these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the
4:23–24; and 15:4. Paul even felt free to ‘adjust’ the texts of Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what
Scripture to bring out more clearly the relevance for the human being knows what is truly human except the human
present (Koch 1986:346–347).1 spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly
God`s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the
Whilst the text of the Scriptures gradually became spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we
standardised and more fixed at about the beginning of our may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we
era (i.e. 1st century CE), this did not mean that they wanted speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom
but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those
to capture and fix an ‘original’ meaning. Both Rabbinical
who are spiritual. Those who are unspiritual do not receive
Judaism and Early Christianity continued to see the text as
the gifts of God`s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and
open-ended and to be completed by the right interpretation.
they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually
Although the letters of Scripture were considered to be fixed, discerned. Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they
the meaning of Scripture remained open. This is beautifully are themselves subject to no one else`s scrutiny. ’For who has
expressed in the following midrashic comment from Eliyahu known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have
Zutta,II, quoted by Fishbane: the mind of Christ.
When the Holy One, blessed be He, gave the Torah to Israel, He (1 Cor 2:10–16)
only gave it as wheat from which to extract flour, and as flax For Origen, having ‘the mind of Christ’ in order to be able
wherewith to weave a garment ...2 to understand the Scriptures means that the reader has to be
(Fishbane 1989:37–38) conformed to Christ:
This imagery suggests that, in order to be useful, the words For indeed everyone who has been perfected ’no longer lives,
of the Scriptures need to be worked upon, crushed as the but Christ lives in him’, [Gal 2:20] and since ’Christ lives’ in him,
wheat and submitted to a disintegration process like the flax. it is said of him to Mary, ‘Behold your son’, the Christ. How
Origen reverts to similar images in his Homilies on Genesis great, then, must be our understanding that we may be able to
when he takes the scene of Jesus breaking the bread as an understand in a worthy manner the word which is stored up in
image for the interpretation of the Scriptures: earthen treasures of paltry language, whose written character is
read by all who happen upon it, and whose sound is heard by all
That is, unless the letter has been discussed and broken into little
who present their physical ears? ... For he who will understand
pieces, its meaning cannot reach everyone. But when we have
these matters accurately must say truthfully, ‘But we have the
begun to investigate and discuss each single matter, then the
mind of Christ, that we may know the graces that have been
crowds indeed will assimilate as much as they shall be able.
given us by God’.
(Hom. Gen. 12; transl. Heine 1982:183)
(Comm. Io. 1:23–24; transl. Heine 1989:38)
Patricia Cox Miller (1988:172) also refers to the image of Christ
Whilst the words of Scripture are hard to penetrate, they are
harrowing hell in Origen’s De Engastrimutho as an image for
nevertheless enlightening, healing and empowering energies
the interpreter of the Scriptures: ’However polysemous their
in the lives of those who are properly disposed and approach
potential, words are gates of brass that must be broken by
the text with diligent labour. In his Homilies on Exodus,
active interpretation; unless so engaged, they remain like iron
bars’. This presupposes what Augustine later called the ‘mira
profunditas’ [wonderful depth] of the Scriptures (Confessions 3.‘... the two terms [figure or type and allegory] do not simply describe features of the
biblical texts as such (i.e. as a text that has “other meanings” or one that contains
12:14; text O’Donnell 1992:170). This does not mean, however,
“figures” or “types”). Instead, the terms describe the biblical text as it is read by
that the words themselves have this depth on their own, but persons who are themselves undergoing the process of spiritual transformation ...’
(Dawson 1999:365). Augustine’s theological interpretation of Scripture is supported
1.‘The primary concern of the sages, the apocalyptists and the early Christians was not by the observation in De Magistro that ‘... it is more truly said that “the sign is known
the original, the literal meaning of Bible, but rather what it had come to mean, i.e. in the thing” than “the thing is learned from a given sign”. At this point the treatise
its actualized or contemporized meaning’ (Aune 1983:340). unfolds its essential point that Christ the inner teacher acquaints the soul with
2.Neusner (1984:137), in fact, speaks about ‘the always open canon’ in rabbinical the realities behind all signs’. (De Magistro 11.38). Inner experience fills out the
Judaism: ‘The rabbi speaks with authority about the Mishnah and the Scripture. meaning of the words, guided by the faith of the Church (Cameron 1999:794; see De
He therefore has authority deriving from revelation. He himself may participate in Doctrina Christiana, Prologue 3 and Alici 1996:32). We are not convinced by words,
the processes of revelation (there is no material difference). Since that is so, the but by the things to which the words point; if we have no experience of these things
rabbi’s book, whether Talmud to the Mishnah or midrash to Scripture, is torah, that the words will remain empty!
is, revealed by God. It also forms part of the Torah, a fully “canonical” document ...
So in the rabbi, the word of God was made flesh. And out of the union of man and
Torah, producing the rabbi as Torah incarnate, was born Judaism, the faith of Torah: 4.On ‘charismatic exegesis’ and its three essential features, namely that it is a
the ever-present revelation, the always open canon’. commentary, eschatological and inspired, see Decock (1993:277–280).

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 Page 3 of 8 Original Research

Origen compares the energies of the words of the Scriptures the embodiment of the Logos. More broadly, his approach is
with those of seeds: further shaped by his understanding of God, the Logos, the
I think each word of divine scripture is like a seed whose nature world as God’s creation and the goal of the history of this
is to multiply diffusely ... Its increase is proportionate to the creation. Origen had explored these issues and articulated
diligent labor of the skilful farmer or the fertility of the earth. his understanding by reading the Scriptures under the
(Hom. Exod. 1:1; quoted by Cox Miller 1988:167–168)5 guidance of the rule of faith. He expressed his perception in
It may be interesting at this point to recall Psalm 119:18LXX, particular in response to the different answers given to these
avpoka,luyon tou.j ovfqalmou,j mou kai. katanoh,sw ta. qauma,sia, sou questions by philosophers, Gnostic writers and ‘simple’
evk tou/ no,mou sou . This, for Origen, was a clear indication that Christians. His ‘Grand Narrative’ can be seen as a response
understanding the Scriptures was a process of ‘un-veiling,’ to and a transformation of, the Platonic and Gnostic versions
requiring the purification of our sight and of our whole of such a narrative. His positive view of the created reality
life. He understood the verse, therefore, as a prayer for the is crucial and indicates the direction of the whole drama of
removal of ’every cloud and darkness which obscures the salvation. God’s aim, for Origen, is expressed in the words
vision of our hearts hardened with the stains of sins’ (see of 1 Corinthians 15:28: ‘... so that God may be all in all’.8 The
Hom. Lev. 1:1,4; transl. Barkley 1990:30).6 miserable state of the present world was a challenge posited
by the Gnostics and Marcion, to which Origen responded by
As can be seen, the understanding that the full meaning positing a perfect state of creation at the beginning, in which
of a text is the meaning for the current readers has been the created intelligences [nou/j]9 were created in the image of
the dominant view in the history of Christianity and is, in the Logos, the only perfect image of God. In their original
various forms, very much alive today. Even the historical perfection, they were fully united with God; God was all in
approach took it for granted that the meaning for today was all. However, this original love for God weakened in most10
the historical meaning of the text and a large number of its of the created intelligences. The original equality was lost in a
practitioners saw in it a means of ‘purifying’ the ‘irrational’ hierarchy ranging from angels to demons and Satan (Dively
views of their contemporaries. It was the Religionsgeschichtliche Lauro 2004:101). Human beings were intelligences who had
Schule that highlighted the cultural distance between the degenerated into ‘souls.’11 They had fallen from that original
ancient texts and the contemporary cultures of the readers. unity and love and had become divided in themselves
The hermeneutical challenge was therefore seen as moving between the higher elements (intellect, heart, governing
from what the text meant to what the text now means. faculty) and the lower parts (instincts and passions).12 Their
Origen, a man of his times, did not see the problem as one bodies became mortal and they were placed by God in the
of cultural distance, but of penetrating the literal meaning present material universe as a merciful means of reform
to reach the spiritual meaning. This movement from the and return to God (Gn 3:21). Origen emphasised the crucial
literal meaning to the spiritual meaning required a process of importance of human will and freedom in the process of
personal transformation in the reader.7 salvation. In this process the good is ‘appropriated’ 13 against
the common determinism of Hellenistic culture (astrology)
The usefulness of Scripture for human and the Gnostic view, according to which salvation was
transformation determined by one’s make up (as gnostics, psychics, or
hylics). The goal of salvation, to love, can only be a free
Origen approached the Scriptures as divine instruction, that human act, but an act called forth by the loving approach of
aims at the transformation of the present readers and not Logos, even imagined by Origen as the ‘wounding dart of
merely at information about the past (see 2 Tm 3:16–17). The eros’ (Comm. Cant. Prologue; transl. Lawson 1957:30). In fact,
purpose of reading is that readers will grow in existential
wisdom. They are also enabled to progress towards a fuller
8.The Biblia Patristica gives 41 references to this verse in Origen’s writings.
understanding of the meaning of the text in their own lives
9.On the form of the plural used by Origen, Crouzel (1989:206) asserts: ‘he would
to the extent that they grow in that wisdom. We now turn certainly not have used the plural noes but noi’.
to Origen’s understanding of the Christian story of meaning,
10.Not all intelligences fell away from unity with God; first of all, there is the one
which provides the framework for this existential wisdom. assumed by the Logos (Princ. 2:6; see Crouzel 1989:192); some others may also
have remained faithful, but accepted like the one assumed by the Logos to share
the condition of the fallen ones in order to save them (Crouzel 1989:211).
Origen’s ‘Grand Narrative’ or his Christian story 11.Origen based his reflection on an etymology of the word yuch/- as related to yu=coj,
cold (see Princ. 2:8,3–4); see Crouzel (1989:210).
of meaning
12.‘All that corresponds more or less to what later theology would call concupiscence,
Origen’s approach to the reading and interpretation of the but only to a degree, for ‘the thought of the flesh’ means more than the attraction
to sin. It contains natural functions, which are not evil in themselves and can be
Scriptures is shaped by his understanding of their nature as spiritualised without being destroyed, when the intellect adheres to the spirit. All
that is clearly shown by Origen’s reflections on the humanity of Christ. ... So the
lower part of the soul could not be for Him a source of temptation, but it was a
5.Cox Miller (1988:168) refers also to Origen’s comparison of the words of the source of distress, sadness and suffering, as the Gospel testifies’(Crouzel 1989:88–
Scriptures ‘as goads, prodding the beast, the interpreter, to move in the nuanced 89).
world that they offer’.
13.‘For the Creator gave, as indulgence to the understandings [Latin: mentes, in this
6.It is interesting that Fishbane (1985:539–542) also draws attention to this verse; article it is usually translated as ‘intelligences’] created by him, the power of free
he contrasts this with the warnings in Deuteronomy 29:29 and Sirach 3:20–22 and voluntary actions, by which the good was that was in them might become
where wondrous knowledge must be understood as ‘speculations which involved their own being preserved by the exertion of their own will; but slothfulness and
apocalyptic experiences’. the dislike of labour in preserving what is good and an aversion to and neglect of
better things furnished the beginning of a departure from goodness. But to depart
7.Candler (2006) has shown how, in the Middle Ages, understanding the Scriptures from good is nothing else than to be made bad. For it is certain that to want good-
was seen as an ‘ascent’ of the readers in which they are not alone but are guided by ness [bono carere] is to be wicked’ (Princ. 2:9,2; transl. Crombie 1982:290). On the
a whole tradition of earlier readers. debate on Origen’s appreciation of grace, see O’Leary (2004:114–115).

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 Page 4 of 8 Original Research

the Logos, in his ‘suffering’ because of the fallen condition • moral purification
of the souls, was moved14 to share, in his unfallen soul, the • recognition of the true value of everything created by
fallen state of humanity. In so doing he could, by the fire of God (which brings order in our lives , see Song of Songs
his love, make a holocaust of the flesh to God on the wood 2:4b LXX) and the discovery of the infinite God
of the cross and, in his ’body’, reunite the fallen souls. It is • a never ending progress in knowledge and love for God.
this Logos who is embodied in the Scriptures and who now
The aim of Greek paideia was to lead the believers towards
continues to draw all to himself (Jn 12:32). Just as on the cross
the highest goal of the human person, moral quality, virtue
the incarnate soul of Jesus was glorified by becoming one
with the Logos (Comm. Jo. 32:325–326), so this process will or wisdom (as Greek ideal, Marrou 1950:302–303). For Origen
extend itself to all humanity (Comm. Jo. 32:400 with reference the highest virtue is love of God, which is therefore the goal
to Ps 62:9, ‘My soul has clung to you’). Through this union, of the Christian paideia (see Comm. Cant. Prologue 3; transl.
humanity is enabled to return to the ardent love of God as in Lawson 1957:44–45).
the original creation. It is in view of this return to the original
state that the Scriptures have been given to us. Origen understood the task of reading the Scriptures as
guiding the readers on a spiritual journey. It is not surprising,
Transformation of the reader as the purpose of therefore, that he will be attentive to those passages in
the Scriptures about journeys, especially about Abraham
reading the Scriptures (see Comm. Jo. 13:346; 20:67,68,124) and the exodus and
Modern biblical scholars recognise a variety of outlooks wanderings in the desert (Torjesen 1986:73–77).
present in the Canon and some have elevated some books
as the Canon within the Canon (Brown & Collins 1990:1052–
1054). Origen, however, tried to accommodate this diversity The challenge of reading
as a divine educational process. This process of paideia was a Origen’s reading process
lively concern in the Hellenistic world (Marrou 1950:139–313)
Origen sees the Scriptures as the embodiment of the Logos.
and Origen clearly interpreted the Scriptures as the Christian
Therefore, just as the people meeting Jesus during his earthly
version of this paideia. Before him, Philo referred to the Greek
life were challenged to go beyond his outer appearance as a
educational system and the specific order in which various
human being to the divine presence, so too readers will have
subjects had to be taught in his interpretation of Genesis 16.15
According to Philo, the ultimate aim of education is wisdom to go beyond the ‘earthen treasures of paltry language’ to hear
or virtue, but Abraham (the soul) is unable to procreate with the teachings of the Logos. Origen goes about this process
Sarah (virtue) until he has ‘knowledge’ of the lower forms in a systematic way. Torjesen (1986:138–147) concludes her
represented by the concubine (Hagar): grammar, music, study on Origen’s hermeneutical procedure and theological
mathematics, geometry, rhetoric, dialectic, astronomy. method by identifying four steps in his approach. In the first
However, these are only preliminary studies (handmaids) step, he explores the grammatical sense of the text. In a second
and should never take the place of the true aim (the wife), step, he moves to the ‘event’ or ‘history’ to which the ‘letter’
wisdom and virtue. Similarly, Origen draws our attention to refers. The ‘history’ which is envisaged is the involvement
the established order of procedure in the study of philosophy, of Logos in human history. Origen understood the ‘letter’
where the sequence of ethics, physics and enoptics guides in a specific way, as a text written by the saints, who were
him to view the sequence of the three books of Solomon in attuned to the manifestations of the Logos and wrote with
precisely that order: Proverbs (ethics), Qohelet (physics) and the aim that the readers of the text may also encounter the
Song of Songs (enoptics).16 This provides Origen with the Logos in their own historical context. ‘The words are written
three basic stages of the spiritual growth: to be understood in a spiritual way’ (Torjesen 1986:139). This
means that the narratives, psalms and so on, are symbolic
14.Whilst generally Origen will interpret the passions ascribed to God in the Scriptures reports of encounters with the universal Logos. Therefore,
in a metaphorical sense, ‘... in his sermons on Ezekiel he deals explicitly with God’s
caritatis passio, so that he appears to bring about an undeniable contradiction these texts ’can become the model for succeeding experiences
between the divine impassibility and divine passibility. Origin solves this problem
by arguing that the “passion of charity” or “philanthropy” must belong to the of the Logos since the pedagogy of the Logos is the same
pre-existent Logos. In fact, it is the very reason for the incarnation‘ (Fernandez
Eyzaguirre 2006:135). in all times’ (Torjesen 1986:140–141). ’It is the historical
pedagogy of the Logos as the content of the historical-literal
15.For instance, in Mating with Preliminary Studies: ‘For some have been ensnared
by the love of the lures of the handmaids and spurned the mistress ... some doting sense which forms the basis for the spiritual sense‘ (Torjesen
on poetry, some on geometrical figures, some on blending of musical colours and a
host of other things and have never been able to soar to the winning of the lawful 1986:141). It is in this precise sense that Origen moves from
wife (p. 77). ... Now philosophy teaches us control of the belly and the parts below ‘history’ to spiritual truth. This move to spiritual truth is the
it and control also of the tongue. Such powers of control are said to be desirable
in themselves, but will assume a grander and loftier aspect if practiced for the third step. It is achieved in two possible ways, allegory and
honour and service of God (p. 80)’ (transl. Colson & Whitaker 1985:497–498).
Origen follows this same line in Philocalia 13. historical generalisation. Allegory discovers a universal truth
16.Origen clearly approached the Scriptures in the tradition of philosophy, as can in the symbolic representations of history in the Scriptures
be seen in his introductions to his commentaries. They followed a pattern that and historical generalisation, for instance, a challenge to the
was well established in the philosophical schools of Alexandria (see Hadot 1987;
Neuschäfer 1987; and Heine 1995). Philo was for him and for Clement before sinners in Jeremiah’s time, can be seen as the way of the
him, an important example on how to relate philosophy to the Scriptures. ‘Philo’s
method of composing his allegorical treatises is clearly related to exegetical Logos in all situations. The fourth step ‘is the transition from
methods developed by both Greek and Jewish interpretations of authoritative the doctrine of the Logos within the world of Scripture to the
writings (cf. Hamerton-Kelly). My impression – more than that it cannot be at this
juncture – is that the formal aspects have been drawn from Greek models, whilst doctrine of the Logos present within the world of the hearer’
the manner of invoking and handling the biblical text has a Jewish background’
(Runia 1987:120). (Torjesen 1986:146). This is a gradual process by which the

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 Page 5 of 8 Original Research

person becomes godlike through the knowledge of God and of David, nor as king, enables us to say further that, since the
thereby is able to know God.17 This shows the pastoral focus servant has been made the lord, and the disciple as the master,
of exegesis: the servant obviously is such no longer: he has become as the
lord. Neither does the disciple figure as a disciple when he has
The progress of the soul toward perfection, participation in the
been made as the master; rather, the sometime disciple is in truth
Logos – in his universal pedagogy – is made possible through
as the master now, and the sometime servant as the lord.
exegesis of the sacred text. It is the ministerial task of exegesis
(Comm.Cant. Prologue 4; transl. Lawson 1957:54)
in the church to discover the presence of Christ the Logos
in Scripture, who through his teachings (the progression of This ascent from the literal (Torjesen’s steps 1 and 2) to the
spiritual doctrines) completes the work of redemption in each spiritual (steps 3 and 4) is ultimately the work of God. He
individual soul (divinization through knowledge). leads us through Christ in the Holy Spirit to an ever deeper
(Torjesen 1986:147) encounter and a corresponding transformation into the
The aim of the whole process of reading is participation likeness of the Logos (Comm. Jo. 1:89). In the next section,
or even identification with the Logos. This can be briefly the challenge to understand the core of the Scriptures will be
illustrated by means of some passages from Origen’s more fully articulated, that is, that God is love and that love
commentaries on the Gospel of John (Comm. Jo. 1:22–28) and of God and love of neighbour are the summary of the Law
the Song of Songs (Comm. Cant. Prologue 4). For Origen, the and the Prophets.23
text of John is the fruit of the working of the Logos within
him. No one can understand the text fully as expression of Reading as struggle to understand and embody
the Logos unless one becomes like John, who was intimately
love, the goal of the Christian paideia
related to the Logos as the Logos is related to the Father (Jn
13:23 and 25 recall 1:18; Comm. Jo. 32:264).18 Furthermore, Origen saw no problem in the historical distance between
becoming like John means in fact even to become Jesus, as the meaning of the text in its origin and the meaning for the
Jesus gave John to his mother as Mary’s son and his mother present reader. His focus was fully on the distance between
to John as John’s mother.19 Origen first explains this kind of the literal meaning and a worthy and fruitful meaning for
identity by referring to Galatians 2:20: ‘It is no longer I who today. 24 However, this movement beyond the letter is often
live, but Christ who lives in me.’ 20 In the next paragraph, he difficult and he describes it as a struggle with the words
adduces 1 Corinthians 2:16 and 12, where Paul speaks of us (see Cox 1988:165–178). What Origen is searching for is not
having the ‘mind of Christ’, which enables us to know the mere doctrine, but to open the readers to the divine activity
gifts of God.21 The understanding that Origen speaks of is in their lives. A fundamental dimension of this process is
ultimately the fruit of the union or identification of the reader the reciprocal relationship between ‘understanding’ and
with the Logos. In the reading of the Scriptures as gospel, ‘embodying.’ In other words, the more the lives of the
the Logos himself approaches the home of the readers and readers are embodying the divine life of love, the better they
knocks in order to be allowed to enter (Rv 3:20).22 will understand the divine words about love, according
to the well known principle that ‘only like knows like.’
Origen discovers this process of transformation, first of all, in Understanding the Scriptures is therefore an existential
the inspired writers themselves and this same process has to process and as a consequence, a gradual and always imperfect
be repeated in the readers. For instance, Origen sees Solomon, understanding. As is well known, Origen imagined this
the author of the Song of Songs, as having gone through progress of conversion as involving three basic steps:
such a process, as one who has been fully transformed into a • moral purification
participant in the love song of the Logos: • recognition of our created condition and the discovery of
And the fact that in the Song of Songs, where now perfection the infinite God
is shown forth, he [Solomon] describes himself neither as Son • never ending progress in knowledge and love for God.25
17.As Torjesen (1986:147) reminds us, ‘Knowledge has this mystical-contemplative Spiritual understanding of the Scriptures can, therefore, only
character not only in Origen but within the Hellenistic world generally. Knowledge
is only possible through similarity. Like is known by like’. be an anticipation of the face to face understanding of the
apocatastasis.
18.‘The charism of the interpreter is the same as that of the inspired author ... and
one can only interpret the Gospel if one has in oneself the nous, the mind of Christ,
which the Spirit gives ...’ (Crouzel 1989:73).
In his Commentary on the Song of Songs, Prologue 2, Origen
19.‘For indeed everyone who has been perfected “no longer lives, but Christ lives in begins by recalling that the Greeks and many sages have
him”, and since “Christ lives” in him, it is said that of him to Mary, “Behold your
son”, the Christ’ (Comm. Jo. 1, 23; transl. Heine 1989:38).

20.The theme of Christ living in us (Gl 2:20) is very important for Origen. According to
him, Christ must be born and develop in each of us: ‘If the soul is to give birth to 23.Obviously, Origen regularly refers to 1 John 4:8 (12 times according to Biblia
the Word, then Mary is the model: “And every soul, virgin and uncorrupted, which Patristica) and Matthew 22:37–40 (48 times according to the Biblia Patristica).
conceives by the Holy Spirit, so as to give birth to the Will of the Father, is the
mother of Jesus” (Fr. Matt. 281)’ (Crouzel 1989, 124). 24.‘The consistency which exists between Moses and Jesus is at bottom the
consistency of God’s activity (and, therefore, an identity), as we learn in Contra
21.‘What also must we say? For who will understand these matters accurately must Celsum 7.25 and, as such, exhibits the character of a temporal manifestation of
say truthfully, “But we have the mind of Christ, that we may know the graces that the eternal, whose revealed content can only be expounded from one age to the
have been given us by God”’ (Comm. Jo. 1, 24; transl. Heine 1989:38). next, never definitively and finally articulated. This fact arises from the character
of the biblical language itself with its polyvalence and obscurity of multi-layered
22.But if the writings of Paul were gospel, it is consistent with that to say that Peter’s significations, but it comes also from the fact that the very act of exposition is
writings also were gospel and, in general, those which present the sojourn of Christ always to some extent contaminated by the imperfection of the expositor who is
and prepare for his coming and produce it in the souls of those who are willing to not yet without sin’ (Gorday 1988:334).
receive the Word of God who stands at the door and knocks and wishes to enter
their souls (Comm. Jo. 1, 26; transl. Heine 1989:39). 25.For a fuller discussion of these three stages, see Decock (2010:19–23).

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 Page 6 of 8 Original Research

explored in dialogue form the nature of love. He asserts that: Son except the Father, we are dependent on the Spirit, who
The power of love is none other than that which leads the soul ’goes about trying to find souls worthy and able to receive
from earth to the lofty heights of heaven and that the highest the greatness of this charity’ (Comm.Cant, Prologue 2; transl.
beatitude can only be attained under the stimulus of love’s Lawson:39). How are the readers to understand the true
desire. image of love into which they are called to be transformed?
(transl. Lawson 1957:24) We can see how Origen struggled to understand how God
could be seen as love, because in his philosophical context
However, dealing with this God-given dynamism is both
God was seen as self sufficient and beyond any need or
dangerous and difficult. It is dangerous, because it can easily
feelings or passions. Fernandez Eyzaguirre (2006:135–147 )
be misunderstood in a vicious and carnal sense, as amongst
has pointed out a very interesting text in which we see how
some Greeks. Origen, therefore, exhorts his readers to pray:
Origen struggles, against the common and easy solutions, to
So that we, out of these things that have been written, may be understand both God’s impassibility and God’s passibility:
able to make clear a wholesome meaning in regard to the name
I am going to give an example of men which, if the Holy Ghost
and nature of love and one that is apt for the building up of
permits, I shall then apply to Jesus Christ and God the Father.
chastity.
When I speak to a man and beg him for something, so that he
(transl. Lawson 1957:24)
may have pity on me, if he has no mercy he will not suffer (nihil
Origen is then at pains to distinguish passionate love from patitur) for what I have said; if on the contrary, he is sensitive
charity. Charity, in the proper sense of the word, is the passion and there is nothing in him to harden his heart, he will listen to
directed towards God. In a derived and secondary way, it is me and have mercy on me and his entrails shall quiver with my
directed towards ourselves and our neighbour. However, pleading. I want you to understand something similar regarding
it is a misnomer if we speak of love for money, pleasure or our Saviour: He descended to earth because he had mercy on
anything connected with corruption and error. With this the human gender, and so bore our passions before suffering on
understanding of charity Origen can then state: the cross and deigning to assume our flesh (passiones perpessus
est nostras, antequam crucem pateretur et carnem nostram dignaretur
All the same, you must understand that everyone who loves
assumere). If he had not suffered, he would not have come to
money or any of the things of corruptible substance that the
share our human life. He suffered first and then he descended
world contains, is debasing the power of charity, which is of
and revealed himself (primum passus est, deinde descendit et visus
God, to earthly and perishable objects and is misusing the things
est). Now, which was this passion he suffered for us? It is the
of God by making them serve purposes that are not his; for God
passion of charity (caritatis est passio). For the very Father, God of
gave the things to men to be used, not to be loved.
the universe, who is magnanimous, full of mercy and compassionate
(transl. Lawson 1957:35)26
(Ps 102,8), doesn’t he also suffer in some way? Do you ignore that,
An important aim of reading the Scriptures for Origen when he manages human realities, he suffers human passions?
is to let the Logos bring order in our loves. He comments Verily the Lord, your God, assumed your manners (mores tuos) as a
extensively on the line in the Song of Songs 2:4LXX: ta,xate man would assume his son (Dt 1,31). So God assumes our manners
evpV evme. avga,phn [‘ordinate in me caritatem’27] (Comm. Cant. 3:7; as the Son of God bears our passions. The Father himself is not
transl. Lawson 1957:187–195; Hom. Cant. 2:8; transl. Lawson impassible (Ipse Pater non est impassibilis). If begged, he pities
1957:294–297). Origen envisages the action of the Logos in and condoles, he suffers for a certain charity (patitur aliquid
the lives of readers as a ‘dart of love’ (Isa 49:2; see Lawson caritatis), and gets to [conditions] in which He cannot agree with
1957:315, notes 33 and 34). In fact, he reads the last part of the magnitude of his nature and, for our sake, he bears human
verse 5, o[ti tetrwme,nh avga,phj evgw, [I am wounded by love], passions (et fit in iis in quibus iuxta magnitudinem naturae suae non
also in that sense, as can be seen from the translations of potest esse, et propter nos humanas sustinet passiones).
Rufinus and Jerome, ‘quia vulnerata caritatis ego’. Origen (Hom. Ezech. 6,6; transl. Fernandez Eyzaguirre 2006:139–140)
thinks of the scene of the disciples on the road to Emmaus as Fernandez Eyzaguirre (2006) comments on this last sentence:
the model for such experiences: He admits that God, out of mercy, exercising his liberty, surpasses
How blessed is it to be wounded by this dart! Those men who the limits imposed upon him by the greatness of his being, since,
talked together, saying to each other: Was not our heart burning for the economy, God becomes [fit] what is incompatible with
within us in the way, whilst he opened to us the Scriptures? had the magnitude of his nature.
been wounded by this dart. If anyone has been wounded by (Eyzaguirre 2006:147)
our discourse, if any is wounded by the teaching of the Divine
Another question Origen had to struggle with was how
Scripture, and can say, ‘I have been wounded by love,’ perhaps
God’s love can be reconciled with the experience of suffering
he follows the former and the latter.
and the understanding of punishment. Inspired by Proverbs
(Hom. Cant. 2:8; transl. Lawson 1957:297)
3:12 and the common view on punishment, Origen sees
Furthermore, exploring the meaning of love is difficult. It is sufferings as saving punishments (see selection of texts
as difficult to fathom as God self, who is charity. Just as no in Von Balthasar 1984:nrs 909–924, 934–951). Will God be
one knows the Father except the Son and no one knows the able to bring all people to salvation? Will the punishment
be effective and will all suffering and inequality between
26.This passage seems to be the source of the well known distinction in Augustine of
uti and frui and which has aroused so much discussion until the present time: see persons come to an end? Origen seems confident that all will
De Doctrina Christiana 1,22.20 and 33.37; on the present discussion, see Dupont
(2006). be saved:
27.This is how Rufinus and Jerome translated the line into Latin in the translation But in this purification which is obtained through the punishment
of Origen’s Commentary (Rufinus) and Origen’s Homilies (Jerome). Origen’s Greek of fire, how much time and how many ages of punishment may
text is no longer available to us. Jerome’s own translation of this line in what later
became the Vulgate differs as it follows the Hebrew text available to him. be required of a sinner, only he can know to whom ’the Father

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 Page 7 of 8 Original Research

has given all judgment’ (Jn 5:22), who so loves his creation that symbolic meanings in the words, sentences and scenes of the
for it ‘he emptied himself of the form of God, taking the form of Scriptures emerges in the process of personal conversion and
servant, humbling himself unto death’ (cf. Phil 2:6–8), desiring transformation. ‘Ascending’ into the Scriptures goes hand in
’all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’ hand with the spiritual ascent of the reader along the three
(2 Tim 2:4). basic stages of spiritual growth. Whilst Origen focuses on the
(Comm. Rom. 8:12; transl. von Balthasar 1984:nr 955) personal ascent into the meaning and reality of love, we now
However, this knowledge may not be beneficial to all, as for realise more fully that this always takes place in interaction
some this foreknowledge may ’cause them to relax and no with our changing socio-cultural context, which itself is
longer resist sin the way they should, since what was foretold grappling with issues of equality, human rights, freedom
would be happening in any case’ (Comm. Gen. Fragm 3:7; and dignity of the person as dimensions of the meaning of
transl. von Balthasar 1984:nr 960). Origen concludes in that love. Presently, in our world and culture, humanity is still
same passage, ‘Thus it is fitting for us not to know whether searching and struggling to figure out not only what a just
we will turn out good or bad’ (Comm. Gen. Fragm 3:7; transl. human community is meant to be like but, beyond that, how
von Balthasar 1984:nr 960).28 to let this world become a loving community. In the vision of
Origen, this is the ultimate aim of the study of the Scriptures.
It was seen that, for Origen, understanding the Scriptures It is in the struggle with the words of the Scriptures as
for our times, particularly, understanding love, is a mighty participants in the currents of our present socio-cultural
struggle. He struggled with the limitations that his culture context that we meet the Logos who leads us towards an ever
was imposing on God and against the deviations in the fuller understanding of and participation in, the God who is
understanding of love that he saw in his culture. From the love.
point of view of our present culture, his understanding of
love may be seen as suffering from otherworldliness and
from a negative attitude towards the body and the whole References
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