Weekly Catechesis 05.06.2007

Pope Benedict XVI met with 25,000 people in St. Peter’s Square April 25 during his general audience. He dedicated his catechesis to Origen of Alexandria, a third-century theologian who was highly esteemed for his theological brilliance and exemplary moral conduct. Origen is best known for grounding theology in Scripture. He emphasized a three-pronged approach to reading Scripture, based on the literal, moral and spiritual meanings of the text that progressively leads to a deeper prayer life and a closer relationship with God.


Continuing our meditations on some of the prominent figures of the early Church, today we will get to know one of its most remarkable personalities.

Origen of Alexandria truly was one of the key figures in the development of Christian thought. He drew upon the legacy of Clement of Alexandria, on whom we meditated last Wednesday, and, in a very innovative way, carried it towards the future, thereby marking an irreversible turning point in the development of Christian thought.

He was truly a “teacher” and his pupils, with nostalgia and great emotion, revered him as such. Not only was he a brilliant theologian, he was also an exemplary witness to the doctrine that he passed on. As Eusebius of Caesarea, his enthusiastic biographer, wrote, “He taught that one’s actions should correspond exactly to one’s words, and this above all other things — with the help of God’s grace — led many others to imitate him” (Historia Ecclesiastica, 6,3,7).

Faithful Follower of Christ

His entire life was permeated by a desire for martyrdom. He was 17 years old when the persecution against Christians broke out in Alexandria during the reign of Septimius Severus. Clement, his teacher, left the city, and Origen’s father, Leonides, was thrown into prison.

His son had a deep yearning to die a martyr’s death, but he was unable to fulfill this desire. Therefore, he wrote to his father, exhorting him not to shirk the supreme witness of the faith.

When Leonides was beheaded, young Origen felt he should follow the example that his father gave. Forty years later, while he was preaching in Caesarea, he made the following confession: “Finding joy in having had a father who was a martyr is meaningless if I do not persevere in a good and upright life and if I do not honor the noble example of those who preceded me — my father who was martyred and the witness he gave in Christ” (Hom. Ez. 4:8).

When the possibility of giving witness with his life seemed to fade thanks to the Emperor Philip the Arab’s policy of extreme tolerance, Origen made the following remark in a later homily: “If God would consent to let me be washed in my blood, receiving a second baptism by accepting death for Christ, I would surely go from this world. … But blessed are they who merit these things” (Hom. lud. 7:12).

Here, Origen reveals his nostalgia for a baptism by blood. In the end, this irresistible desire was, in part, fulfilled. In 250, during the persecution of Decius, Origen was arrested and cruelly tortured. Severely weakened by the sufferings he endured, he died a few years later. He was not yet 70 years old.

Earlier we referred to an “irreversible turning point” that Origen left in the history of theology and Christian thought. But what did this “turning point,” this new thing so fraught with consequences, consist of?

Basically it consisted of grounding theology in the explanations of Scripture. For him, theology was essentially explaining and understanding Scripture. We might even say that his theology is the perfect symbiosis between theology and exegesis.

Truly, the characteristic mark of Origen’s teaching seems to lie in his never-ending invitation to pass from the letter of Scripture to its spirit in order to progress in knowledge of God. As von Balthasar wrote, this “allegoristic” approach corresponds precisely “with the development of Christian dogma through the teachings of the Doctors of the Church,” who, in one way or another, were receptive to Origen’s “lesson.” Thus, tradition and the magisterium, the foundation and the guarantee of theological research, join together and become “Scripture in action” (see Origene: il mondo, Cristo e la Chiesa, Milan 1972, p. 43)

We might say, therefore, that the central nucleus of Origen’s immense literary work consists in his “three-pronged approach” to reading the Bible. But before talking about this “three-pronged approach,” it would be fitting to give an overview of Origen’s literary works. In his Epistle 33, St. Jerome lists the titles of 320 books and 310 homilies by Origen. Unfortunately, most of those works have been lost, yet his few surviving works make him the most prolific writer of the first three centuries of Christianity. His array of interests extended from exegesis to dogma, philosophy, apologetics, asceticism and mysticism. It is a fundamental yet global vision of Christian life.

A New Approach

The inspiration that is at the core of this work is, as we mentioned earlier, a “three-pronged approach” to reading Scripture that Origen developed during his lifetime. This expression alludes to the three most important ways — with no particular order or importance — in which Origen studied Scripture.

First of all, he read the Bible with the intent of assessing the text as best he could and offering the most trustworthy version of it. This is always the first step: knowing what is actually written and knowing what the scriptural text initially said and intended to say.

He carried out a great study with this aim in mind and created an edition of the Bible with six parallel columns from left to right with the Hebrew texts written in Hebrew characters (Origen even contacted rabbis in order to better understand the original Hebrew text of the Bible), followed by a transliteration of the Hebrew text into Greek and four different translations into Greek that allowed him to compare the various possibilities for translating it.

This immense synopsis has been given the title of Hexapla (six columns). This is the first point: to ascertain exactly what is written, based on the text as such.

Origen the Teacher

Secondly, Origen systematically read the Bible along with his famous Commentaries. They faithfully reproduce the explanations that Origen the teacher offered at his schools, both in Alexandria and Caesarea. Origen would proceed verse by verse in a minute, broad and deep way, adding notes of a philological and doctrinal character. With precision he struggled to understand exactly what the sacred authors wanted to say.

Finally, starting even before his ordination to the priesthood, Origen dedicated a great deal of time to preaching the Bible, adapting himself to various audiences. As we see in his Homilies, he was totally dedicated to a systematic interpretation of the text he was examining, breaking it down little by little into smaller verses. Even in his Homilies, Origen seizes upon every opportunity to recall the various dimensions of the meaning of sacred Scripture that aid or express a way of growing in faith.

There is the “literal” sense, but this hides deeper meanings that are not apparent upon a first reading. The second dimension is the “moral” meaning: what we must do to live the Word. Finally, there is the “spiritual” meaning, in other words, the unity of Scripture, which throughout its development speaks about Christ.

It is the Holy Spirit that helps us understand the Christological content and, in doing so, the unity of Scripture in its diversity.

It would be interesting to show this. In my book Jesus of Nazareth, I tried somewhat to show this multidimensional aspect of the Word, of sacred Scripture, in today’s world, which must first of all be respected in a historical sense. But this sense draws us toward Christ, in the light of the Holy Spirit, and shows us the way — how we are to live.

We find traces of this, for example, in Origen’s Ninth Homily on Numbers, where he compares Scripture to a nut. “The teaching of the Law and of the Prophets in the school of Christ,” he affirms, “is bitter reading, like the peel, after which you come to the shell, which is the moral doctrine. In the third place, you will find the meaning of the mysteries, where the souls of the saints are fed in this life and in the next” (Hom. Num. 9:7).

It is, above all, in this way that Origen began promoting in an effective way a “Christian reading” of the Old Testament, responding brilliantly to the challenge of those heretics — especially the Gnostics and the Marcionites — who pitted the Old Testament and the New Testament against each other, ultimately rejecting the Old Testament.

Origen made the following statement in his Ninth Homily on Numbers regarding this: “I do not call the Law an ‘Old Testament,’ if I understand it in the Spirit. The Law becomes an ‘Old Testament’ only for those who wish to understand it in terms of the flesh,” that is to say, stopping at the mere reading of the text.

But, “for us, we who understand it and apply it in the Spirit and in the sense of the Gospel, the Law is always new, and the two testaments are for us one new testament, not because of a temporal date, but because of the newness of the meaning. … For the sinner, on the other hand, and those who do not respect the pact of charity, even the Gospels grow old” (Hom. Num. 9:4).

I invite you, and in doing so I conclude, to welcome the teachings of this great teacher of the faith into your hearts. He reminds us with intimacy and enthusiasm that the Church is always renewed and rejuvenated through a prayerful reading of Scripture and a commitment to life based on reason. The Word of God, which never ages or runs dry, is a special way in which to do this.

Indeed, it is the Word of God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, that always leads us anew to the whole truth (see Benedict XVI, “To Participants in the International Congress for the 40th Anniversary of the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum,” in Insegnamenti, vol. I, 2005, pp. 552-553).

Let us ask the Lord today to give us thinkers, theologians and exegetes who will find this multidimensional aspect and this ongoing relevance of sacred Scripture and its newness for today. Let us ask the Lord to help us to read sacred Scripture in a prayerful way and to truly nurture ourselves on the true bread of life and on his Word.

Let us pray that the Lord will help us to read the sacred Scriptures in a prayerful way, to really nourish ourselves on the true bread of life, his Word.

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