January 10 - Originally A Christian

January 10 – Originally a Christian

Ok, it’s a bit of a play on the name, but Origen was another Gnostic that began as a Christian. In 202 AD, his father was killed in the name of Christ. Origen tried to martyr himself in his father’s stead, but his mother hid his clothing. He was only sixteen at the time.

Origen was an amazing teacher and within the next two years became well known for his teaching among young Christians. He taught against Gnosticism, but then got caught up in much of it. He renounced all physical comforts, castrated himself, only drank water and didn’t wear shoes. He also began teaching Christians to search the Scriptures for hidden, mystical messages.

Origen was quite a prolific writer. It is said that he kept seven secretaries busy with his dictation. He produced more than 2000 works, including commentaries on nearly every book in the Bible and hundreds of sermons. One of his greatest works was the Hexapla. In this, he found the best Greek translation of the Old Testament and in six columns displayed the Hebrew OT, a Greek transliteration, three Greek translations and the Septuagint.

He wrote apologetics and one of the first books of systematic theology, examining Christian beliefs about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, creation, the soul, free will, scriptures. He taught that there were three levels of meaning in the Scriptures; the moral, the literal and the spiritual or the hidden meaning.

Origen worked at relating Christianity to science and philosophy, teaching that Platos ideas could work with Christianity. Much of Greek though teaches that the material world is inherently evil. He believed that the soul existed prior to birth and a man’s place in the world was due to the soul’s conduct. He denied that there was a real resurrection and tried to teach that God would provide salvation for all men and angels. He taught that God had sent the Son to create the world since God could come into contact with matter. When Jesus died, it was only his humanity that died on the cross.

These teachings got him excommunicated, though he stayed in contact with many church leaders because of his outstanding mind. Even though Origen got caught up in teaching and philosophy that were terribly wrong, his incredible scholarship laid the foundation for that within Christianity.