The homilies of Origen, one of the Church’s earliest and most seminal theologians, give a window into the tone of early Christian exegesis. Peering into that window can help open the eyes of 21st century expositors to the Church’s historical tradition of creative, exciting, and compelling exegesis. I want to give a brief and cursory consideration of Origen’s Bible reading from his first homily on Genesis with an eye to how we, conservative Reformed and evangelical interpreters of Scripture, can learn from his approach. This is neither meant to be a critical interaction, nor a blanket endorsement, but rather an appraisal that sifts through the at-times unhelpful and bizarre to find what might be helpful in our present context.a
Beginning in Christ
The first words of Origen’s first homily on Genesis address, appropriately, the opening verse of Scripture: “In the beginning God made heaven and earth.” How does Origen exposit Genesis 1.1?
What is the beginning of all things except our Lord and “Savior of all,” Jesus Christ “the firstborn of every creature”? In this beginning, therefore, that is, in his Word, “God made heaven and earth” as the evangelist John also says in the beginning of his Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word… “
Homily 1.1
Origen’s comments on this verse reflect his hermeneutical presupposition, that the Christian reader does not come to Scripture prima facie, but rather we always read and hear the text in and through Christ. Henri de Lubac, a 20th century Catholic ressourcement theologian strongly influenced by Origen, puts it well: “For a Christian to understand the Bible means to understand it in the light of the Gospel.” (Catholicism, p. 178) God has definitively revealed Himself in the person of His Son, and there is now no going behind that.
Our conservative evangelical tendency is to look for the grammatical-historical interpretation of the text as the primary meaning, and to (maybe) go from there to types, to how the text foreshadows Christ or the life of the Church. Origen shows us, in the pattern of patristic exegesis, that for the Christian the Christological is the primary meaning of the text. Our task when reading the Old Testament is not to find or pick out what things might be pointing to Christ; Jesus has already solved that for us. All of Scripture is fulfilled in Him, in His life, death, and resurrection, and in the continuing life of His body, the Church.
The Cosmic and the Microcosmic
Genesis speaks of the ordering of creation, how the creator God forms and fills His creation. Origen reads this account and finds an invitation to discern from God’s creative activity the deep realities and patterns of human life. A few examples:
Origen describes the firmament as the “corporeal heaven,” dividing the waters above, where God’s throne is, from the waters below. This duality, according to Origen, corresponds to the spirit-body nature of all God’s creation and instructs us in how our lives are to be ordered:
…that first heaven indeed, which we said is spiritual, is our mind, which is also itself spirit, that is, our spiritualman which sees and perceives God. But that corporeal heaven, which is called the firmament, is our outer man which looks at things in a corporeal way.
Homily 1.2
Whether we take Origen’s line that primary distinctions are between material and immaterial, mind and body, etc., or not, we can learn from him that how God goes about creating, and how He structures His creation, should drive us to consider our own lives and callings in creation. Origen exhorts the faithful to
… be zealous to become a divider of that water which is above and that which is below… that, attaining an understanding and participation in that spiritual water which is above the firmament one may draw forth ‘from within himself rivers of living water springing up into life eternal…’
Ibid.
God separates the waters and the dry land, and He names the dry land earth, and the earth is able to bring forth fruit. Origen connects the waters that are under the firmament with “the sins and vices of our body,” and points out that a separation from these “waters” will transform us from dry land to earth, able to “bear fruit for God.” And, like the vegetation and fruit trees brought forth by God, we must also not only bear fruit but contain seed within ourselves, “that is, to contain in our hearts the seeds of all good works and virtues…” (1.4)
God’s placement of the heavenly lights, too, points to the reality of the Son and His Bride:
Just as the sun and the moon are said to be the great lights in the firmament of heaven, so also are Christ and the Church in us. But since God also placed stars in the firmament, let us see what are stars in us, that is, in the heaven of our heart.
Homily 1.7
Image Restored
When Origen comes to the imago Dei, the creation of man and woman in God’s image, he once again makes the connection with Jesus. The Son is the “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” (Col. 1.15) To be made in the image of God, then is to be made in the image of this One, this Christ Whom we see giving up His life, Whom we see exalted over all creation.
… for this reason, our Savior… moved with compassion for man who had been made according to his likeness, seeing him, his own image having been laid aside… assumed the image of man and came to him…
Homily 1.13
It’s through union with Christ, then, that we truly become participants in the divine image, and our full humanity is restored.
Sure, we may want to differ on some of the details and directions we read in Origen. But overall, what we find in Origen’s preaching is an awareness that God’s Word is meant to convey history, but also that the acts of God recorded are there to guide us in our life as image-bearers. Our lives are to be patterned after the life and works of God. We become like the One we worship, and like the One about Whom we read.
And, importantly, Origen sees Jesus as the starting point for any true understanding of Scripture, and any true exegesis and exposition of the text. Our of Scripture finds its amen in Him.
- Full disclosure: I am not an Origen scholar, nor am I a scholar of patristic exegesis more broadly. In fact, I’m rather new to Origen. I write this aware of my ignorance (it has to count for something when one is not ignorant of one’s ignorance, right?) of the philosophical discussions at play. Yet, this ignorance and lack of expertise notwithstanding, there are basic patterns and principles of exegesis shown by Origen that can be highly illuminating and instructive for us. (back)
