The Living Tradition An Orthodox Archive of the Church Fathers and Early Church

Condemned figure

Origen

Also known as Origen Adamantius

The greatest biblical scholar of the ancient Church and the source of much later exegesis, condemned by name in the sixth century. His influence and his condemnation are both real and neither cancels the other.

  • Historical consensusBroadly agreed among historians working from the surviving evidence. Consensus can shift when the evidence or the method changes.
  • Individual patristic opinionThe view of a particular Father that the Church has not received as its own teaching. The Fathers are not individually infallible: some speculated, some changed their minds, some were later corrected.
  • Disputed historyHistorians genuinely disagree. The page gives the range the evidence supports rather than choosing the most striking version.

Awaiting official-source verification Content last reviewed 2026-08-29

What still needs checking (2)
  • No work of Origen is archived here. Archive On First Principles and Against Celsus from a public-domain edition, then upgrade this page.
  • Confirm the Orthodox account of Origen's condemnation and continuing influence against an official Orthodox source.

Report an accuracy issue on this page

Read aloud. Your browser speaks the page using the voices installed on this device. Nothing is uploaded — the text never leaves your computer. Voice quality varies by browser and device.

Dates
around 185 - around 253 — Died at Tyre of injuries suffered in the Decian persecution; the year is usually given as 253 or 254.
Region
Alexandria, then Caesarea in Palestine
Language of composition
Greek

Life

Origen was born in Alexandria to Christian parents; his father was martyred when Origen was a boy. He taught in Alexandria, quarrelled with his bishop over his ordination in Palestine, and moved to Caesarea, where he taught, preached and wrote for the rest of his life. He was tortured in the Decian persecution and died of the effects.

His output was immense: the Hexapla, a six-column comparison of the Hebrew text and Greek versions of the Old Testament; commentaries and homilies on most of the Bible; On First Principles, the first attempt at a systematic Christian theology; and Against Celsus, a reply to the most serious pagan critique of Christianity.

Works

Generally accepted as authentic

  • On First Principles — Survives largely in Rufinus's Latin translation, which Rufinus admits he altered. Not archived here.
  • Against Celsus — Not archived here.
  • Commentaries and homilies on most books of Scripture — Survive in fragments and in Latin translations. Not archived here.

Theological and spiritual contribution

Origen essentially invented Christian biblical scholarship. The habit of comparing texts and versions, of asking what a word means in its scriptural usage, of reading a passage at more than one level, and of preaching consecutively through a book all descend from him.

His influence on the Fathers who are received is direct and enormous. Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus compiled an anthology of his writings. Athanasius, Ambrose and Jerome all drew on him, Jerome extensively before turning against him. Much Orthodox exegetical practice is Origen's, transmitted through people the Church honours.

Controversy and reception

Positions associated with Origen and with later Origenism — the pre-existence of souls, the eventual restoration of all rational creatures including the devil, the subordination of the Son, a spiritualised resurrection body — were condemned. Origen is anathematised by name in the eleventh capitulum of the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, in a list of heretics.

Whether the fifteen separate anathemas against Origenism belong to that council or to a synod immediately before it is genuinely disputed; Percival prints them with an excursus on the difficulty. It is also disputed how far sixth-century Origenism, as held by certain monks in Palestine, was Origen's own position rather than a development of it.

  • Clement of Alexandria

    Teacher at Alexandria who argued that Greek philosophy had prepared the Greeks for Christ. Honoured in some Orthodox usage and not universally; his reception is genuinely mixed.

    Father or writer

  • Eusebius of Caesarea

    The first Church historian, without whom the pre-Nicene Church would be largely unknown to us — and an interested party in the fourth-century disputes he narrates. He is not a canonised Father.

    Father or writer

  • The Second Council of Constantinople

    The council that condemned the Three Chapters and clarified Chalcedon in Cyrilline terms. It issued no canons and no creed, and it was received only slowly in the West.

    Council

  • Evagrius Ponticus

    The most systematic thinker of the Egyptian desert, whose analysis of the thoughts shaped all later ascetic writing, and whose speculative theology was condemned in the sixth century.

    Father or writer

  • Reading the Fathers

    Genre, rhetoric, allegory and typology — how to read an ancient text without misusing it.

    Theme

Your notes

Stored in this browser only. Never uploaded, never visible to anyone else, and marked as your own words if you add this page to a study packet.

Sources for this page

  1. Tier C Eusebius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.); Arthur Cushman McGiffert (trans.) Eusebius, Church History, Book VI translated edition of primary texts The principal ancient account of his life and works. Source record
  2. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) The Capitula of the Council, Capitulum XI annotated edition of conciliar texts Origen named among condemned heretics. Source record
  3. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) Excursus on the XV Anathemas Against Origen annotated edition of conciliar texts On the disputed conciliar status of the fifteen anathemas. Source record

Tiers are explained in the methodology. No page on this site has been reviewed or approved by any bishop, priest, synod or seminary.