Sophia Scriptura

Apology for Origen

Apologia pro Origene · Ἀπολογία ὑπὲρ Ὠριγένους

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Contents

Reading pages: 0 · 1.1–2.1 · 3.1–4.1 · 5.1–5.9 · 6.1–8.1 · 9.1–10.1

  1. 0An anonymous prologue, Rufinus's preface with his creed, and Pamphilus's preface, which defends Origen's humility as an inquirer and announces a defence from Origen's own words.
  2. 1.1Pamphilus quotes Origen's summary of the apostolic rule of faith (On First Principles, preface) and his definition of a heretic from the lost Commentary on Titus, to show that Origen held the Church's teaching as the test of truth.
  3. 2.1Origen, quoted from On First Principles, teaches that God is incorporeal and incomprehensible, and that the God of the Old Testament is the Father of Jesus Christ.
  4. 3.1Pamphilus gathers Origen's statements that the Son is the image of God, born of the Father without beginning, the eternal radiance of the eternal light, Son by nature and not by adoption.
  5. 4.1Pamphilus quotes Origen on the Holy Spirit as unchangeable, never a creature, and always known within the Trinity; on the limits of every creature's knowledge of God; and on the spread of the faith as proof of Christ's divinity.
  6. 5.1Origen's argument from fulfilled prophecy (the end of Judah's rulers, the calling of the Gentiles, the spread of the gospel) closes Pamphilus's proof of his faith in the Trinity; Pamphilus then begins to list the charges against him.
  7. 5.4The fourth charge: that Origen taught that Christ's deeds happened only in appearance.
  8. 5.5The fifth charge: that Origen preached two Christs.
  9. 5.6The sixth charge: that Origen denied the historical events narrated in Scripture.
  10. 5.7The seventh charge: that Origen denied the resurrection and the punishment of sinners.
  11. 5.8The eighth charge: that Origen's views on the soul are wrong.
  12. 5.9Pamphilus lists the last charge (transmigration of souls) and answers the first five charges with Origen's own words: the Son is born of the Father by nature, not by emission; Christ is God and not a mere man; his body was real; and there is one Christ.
  13. 6.1After Origen's words on Christ as mediator before the incarnation, Pamphilus defends Christ's human soul from Scripture and answers the sixth charge with Origen's insistence that most of Scripture's history and commandments are to be taken literally.
  14. 7.1Pamphilus answers the charge that Origen denied the resurrection with passages from his books On the Resurrection and his commentaries: the same body will rise, transformed, and Christ carried his flesh into heaven.
  15. 8.1Pamphilus answers the charge that Origen denied the punishment of sinners with his teaching on the fire of judgment as a remedy and on the pains of the risen body, and begins his defence of Origen's views on the soul.
  16. 9.1Pamphilus argues that the origin of the soul is not settled by Scripture or the Church's preaching, that the rival views (creation at conception, transmission with the seed) are more open to objection than Origen's, and begins his answer to the charge of transmigration.
  17. 10.1Pamphilus answers the charge that Origen taught the transmigration of souls with passages in which Origen rejects it as foreign to the Church and contrary to Scripture's teaching that the world will end.

About this work

Author
Pamphilus of Caesarea
Attribution
disputed · Photius (Bibliotheca 118) says Pamphilus and Eusebius wrote the six-book Apology together in prison; Jerome later argued that Eusebius alone wrote it and that Rufinus misused Pamphilus's name. Only Book 1 survives, in Rufinus's Latin (made about 397), which may be freely adapted; the Greek is lost. Rufinus's preface, in which he states his aims, is included.
Standing
Honoured by the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Honoured as a saint or in a church calendar by: Catholic, Orthodox.
Date
ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) (approximate) · Written in prison at Caesarea before Pamphilus's death in 310; Rufinus's Latin translation dates to about 397.
Written at
Caesarea, Palestine (probable)
Language
Latin
Genre
apology
Reference system
Chapter.section following the headings of Migne (PG 17); section 0 is Rufinus's preface to Macarius and the opening of the book. Migne's chapter divisions are not a standard citation; this numbering is provisional.
SBL abbreviation
Apol. Orig.Not yet checked
Text from
J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, series Graeca, vol. 17 (Paris, 1857), cols. 539–616 (Rufinus's Latin version of Book 1; Migne's notes and Monitum not reproduced); text transcribed from library-scan OCR (Printed edition in the public domain; text transcribed from library-scan OCR)
Critical editions
Pamphile et Eusèbe de Césarée, Apologie pour Origène, ed. René Amacker and Éric Junod, SC 464–465 (Paris: Cerf, 2002) (edition to be checked) (cited, not reproduced)