Origen and Prophecy

Origen and Prophecy presents a new reading of the concept of prophecy in the work of Origen of Alexandria (c.185-22 AD). While prophecy in classical antiquity was focused primarily on telling the future, Jewish and early Christian writers began to discuss prophets as moral leaders and sages, understanding their prophecies as moral and mystical proclamations as well as predictions. In this book, I show how Origen developed this model of prophecy using his own principles for reading scripture. The chapters move through several centuries of Greek, Jewish, and Christian thinking about prophecy, divination, time, human nature, autonomy and freedom, allegory and metaphor, and the role of the divine in the order and structure of the cosmos.

Race, Racism, and the Hebrew Bible: The Case of the Queen of Sheba

The Queen of Sheba, best known for visiting Solomon at the height of his rule, is commonly understood to be one of the most famous Black queens of the Bible. However, biblical texts record nothing of her family or people, any physical characteristics, nor where, precisely, Sheba is located. How did this association between the Queen of Sheba and Blackness become naturalized? This article answers this question by mapping three first millennium textual moments that racialize the Queen of Sheba through attention to geography, skin color, and lineage in the writings of Origen of Alexandria, Flavius Josephus, and Abu Ja’afar al-Tabari. These themes are transformed in the Ethiopic text the Kebra Nagast, which positively claims the Queen of Sheba as an African monarch in contrast to the Othering that is prominent in earlier texts. The Kebra Nagast has a complex afterlife, one which acts as the ground for the also-complex modern reception of the character of the Queen of Sheba.

Two ancient theologians’ interpretations of the withered fig tree (Mt 21:18–22)

This article is an investigation on how two theologians from the Early Church interpreted the withered fig tree, as narrated by the evangelist Matthew (Mt 21:18–22). The two theologians referred to are Origen of Alexandria, who belongs to the pre-Nicene era and represents the Alexandrian School, and Ps.-Chrysostom who belongs to the post-Nicene era, and represents the School of Antioch. Origen believed that when the fig tree withered, it referred to Israel’s withering. This interpretation of the narrative surrounding the withered fig tree was very common in the Early Church. Ps.-Chrysostom makes it very clear that he cannot agree with this interpretation, which was quite common in the Early Church. He stated that it is wrong to liken the fig tree to the synagogue of the Jews. He argues that Jesus could not curse the synagogue, because he said that ‘The Son of Man did not come to destroy, but to seek and save the lost’ (cf. Lk 9:56). Moreover, if the synagogue withered, fruitful branches such as Paul, Stephen, Aquila and Priscilla could not have sprouted from the roots. These names are proof that God did not entirely reject the Jewish people. Ps.-Chrysostom then offers a different explanation to the question why the fig tree withered: He points out that Adam used the leaves of a fig tree to cover his nakedness. When Jesus caused the fig tree to wither, he wanted to show that he can give Adam a new garment of water and spirit that glistens like snow. Christ gave back to Adam what the serpent had robbed him of, namely ‘the angel-like life, the luxuriance of paradise, the garment of incorruptibility’ (PC. cp. 4).Contribution: The primary goal of this article is to explore the exegetical practices of two ancient theologians who came from two different schools and from two different eras. This study shows how they interpreted the account of the withered fig tree (Mt 21:18–22), based on their respective theological perspectives.

Jesus “The Way” According to Origen and Marcellus: Confronting Two Patristic Traditions

The article aims to examine and compare the evangelic title of Jesus the Way (John 14:6) in two Christian authors who belonged to two opposing theological traditions, namely, Origen of Alexandria and Marcellus of Ancyra. This comparison, based on original texts, aims not only to show the differences between these two patristic traditions, but rather to identify some common traits that belong to the core of Christian faith. Thus, Origen of Alexandria and Marcellus of Ancyra, two very dissimilar Christian authors, were of the same mind in confessing that only if the Son of God became fully human, could he be the Way for humankind towards the Father.

The Unity and Multiplicity of the Holy Spirit in Origen of Alexandria

In his study on angelomorphic traditions in early Christian pneumatology, Bogdan Bucur suggests that Origen is both indebted to and develops upon Clement of Alexandria’s pneumatology. This article takes up Bucur’s claim, offering the first examination of Origen’s pneumatology in light of previous research on early Christian angelomorphic traditions. It argues that Origen interprets the traditional understanding of the Holy Spirit as one and seven in terms of a philosophical notion of power, allowing him to explain how the one Holy Spirit can distribute many different gifts.

The Virgin Mother Sarah: The Characterization of the Matriarch in Genesis Rabbah

This article analyzes the portrayal of the matriarch Sarah in the fifth-century Palestinian rabbinic midrash Genesis Rabbah. The midrash not only dedicates a large number of derashot to the matriarch, but it repeatedly depicts her as a model of personal and religious excellence. In order to understand this development, I turn my attention to the portrayal of Sarah in the works of Origen of Alexandria. Continuing New Testament themes, Origen presents her as the spiritual mother of Christianity and a prefiguration of Jesus’ mother Mary. Various textual and thematic parallels help demonstrate that the rabbis were both aware of this rhetoric and responded to it. Based on this, I conclude that the rabbis used their portrayal of Sarah to combat the Christian appropriation of the matriarch on the one hand, and to establish her as a Jewish alternative to the Virgin Mary on the other.

Cultivation as Immanent Critique: Horticultural Metaphors in Gregory of Nyssa’s Reception of Origen and Basil

The present article asks after Gregory of Nyssa’s debts to Basil the Great, and this by re-examining two texts the former wrote shortly after the latter’s death: De hominis opificio and Apologia in Hexaemeron. It does so on the premise, mostly promissory for now, that Gregory’s efforts to sort through Basil’s legacy in his late brother’s wake was part and parcel of the Nyssen’s career-long project to reprise Origen of Alexandria under a “pro-Nicene” banner. Defending his elder sibling’s apparently incomplete Homiliae in Hexameron while also disputing their basic premise, that is, gave Gregory an opportunity to negotiate the dialectic of dependence and distinction that ultimately determined his reception of earlier authorities, including the great Alexandrian they both revered. With that much longer story in sight, this article focuses on Gregory’s deployment of horticultural metaphors, especially in the Apologia in Hexaemeron, to describe his stance toward both Basil and Origen. Closer scrutiny of these images alongside his more technical means of differentiating between himself and Basil suggests that Gregory considered his own work to be both a natural development of his predecessors and, precisely thereby, the immanent perfection of their thought.

Literary Persons and Medieval Fiction in Bernard of Clairvaux’s Sermons on the Song of Songs

Like many exegetes before him, the twelfth-century Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux regarded the lovers in the Song of Songs as allegorical fictions. Yet these prosopopoeial figures remained of profound commentarial interest to him. Bernard’s Sermons on the Song of Songs returns again and again to the literal level of meaning, where text becomes voice and voice becomes fleshly persona. This essay argues that Bernard pursued a distinctive poetics of fictional persons modeled on the dramatic exegesis of Origen of Alexandria as well as on the Song itself. Ultimately, the essay suggests, Bernard’s Sermons form an overlooked episode in the literary history of fiction.

Scriptural Models of Dream Interpretation

This chapter traces the models of prophetic dream interpretation that were available to late antique Jewish, Byzantine Christian, and early Islamic writers from their own scriptural traditions. It offers a survey of those foundational scriptural traditions regarding the spiritual value and meaning of dreams and visions. First, it examines the Hebrew scriptures on prophetic dreams and their hierarchy of revelation. The ambiguity inherent in enigmatic dreams gave the chance of a starring role to two young men blessed with the divine gift of dream interpretation, Joseph and Daniel. Women had only a very limited place within the Hebrew prophetic tradition. Prophetic women were given a great chance to star in the New Testament writings, and especially in early apostolic tradition of Montanism. The chapter discusses how this third-century prophetic movement dealt with the question of extra-biblical prophecy through visions. The problem of discerning true from false prophets will be found to be a live issue for early Christian commentators such as Origen of Alexandria. Finally, the chapter contrasts the Judaeo-Christian scriptural tradition with the Qur’anic verses in which Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets, described his various revelations.