Fathers of the Church Origen Homilies on Genesis and Exodus

by Ronald E. Heine

English (translation)Original Latin, Greek

422 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1982

About the author

Ronald E. Heine (PhD, University of Illinois) is professor of Bible and Christian ministry at Northwest Christian University in Eugene, Oregon. He is the author of Reading the Old Testament with the Ancient Church and several books on Origen.

Reviews

[Chandler Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains Origen’s extensive homilies on Genesis and Exodus as translated into English by Ronald Heine from Rufinus’s Latin translation. There is an introduction from Heine at the beginning that contains an excellent discussion on the reliability of Rufinus as a translator of Origen’s work. Concerning the actual homilies themselves, where do I even begin? These homilies are so rich and are a fantastic exhibition of Origen’s allegorical hermeneutic. Yet, these homilies show the depth of Origen’s hermeneutic as he moves from the historical sense, to the spiritual sense, then to the moral sense of the passage. As he also teaches in his “On First Principles,” the ability to discern these different senses is dependent on the spiritual maturity of the reader of the biblical text. According to Origen, the letter of the law is dead for the Christian, and it is the spirit of the law that gives life. Origen gives a compelling argument for the spiritual interpretation of the law. He also shows how biblically knowledgeable he is as many of his homilies contain constant quotations of or connections to biblical texts throughout the Old and New Testament. The biblical index at the end shows just how extensive Origen’s memorization of Scripture was. I honestly can think of no finer example of patristic interpretation of the Scriptures than this excellent work. You will have to get past some of Origen’s outdated teachings about gender here. For example, in his allegorization of men and women in certain texts of Genesis-Exodus, he has men stand for rationality and women stand for the wild passions. This view is quite unfortunate. Origen is also often accused of being a universalist, but I found plenty of language throughout this book that suggested that he believed in a condemnation of the wicked. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the study of the church fathers.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

To sum up Origen on Genesis: Only a fool would read Genesis as a literal story. Enter into one of the greatest theologians ever with these homilies and ponder hermeneutics/allegory.