He Wrote More than Most People Read in a Lifetime

Mondays are for Church History
7/27/20

Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church (The Complete Eight Volumes in One). Amazon Kindle Edition, 2014. 
Volume 2, Ante-Nicene Christianity A.D. 100-325, “Chapter 13. Ecclesiastical Literature of the Ante-Nicene Age, and Biographical Sketches of the Church Fathers.” sec. 159-204.
§ 188. The Works of Origen.

We have previously been introduced to Origen. Now Schaff reviews his writings which are quite extensive, including tracts, homilies, letters, books, and lectures, probably totalling about 6,000 works (Schaff 2014, loc. 22595).

Of note, Schaff discusses his Hexapla and Tetrapla, works which were 28 years in the making (Schaff 2014, loc. 22600). Each is a polyglot Bible, arranged in parallel columns. These comparative critical editions had notations of alterations and omissions, as well as marginal explanations. There remain only some fragments, as the original is thought to have been destroyed in the invasion of 653 (Schaff 2014, loc. 22609).

Origen also wrote commentaries on almost all the books of the Bible, either as brief notes on difficult passages, longer books of commentary, or homilies (Schaff 2014, loc. 22614). Most of what we have in this genre was translated by Jerome for common use.

There were also a number of polemic or apologetical works, particularly his refutation of Celsus (Schaff 2014, loc. 22619). Origen’s dogmatic works, which contain “Platonizing and Gnosticizing errors” led to questions about his theology, though Schaff says he retracted some of his views later in life (Schaff 2014, loc. 22625).

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