Porphyry on Origen

The Greek philosophers who flourished in his own time are themselves witnesses to his success in these studies. We have found frequent mention of the man in their writings: sometimes they dedicated their own works to him, and sometimes they brought their labors to him as to a teacher for his judgment. But why say this, when even Porphyry, who settled in Sicily in our own time, wrote treatises against us? In them he tried to slander the divine Scriptures and mentioned those who have interpreted them. Unable to bring any charge worth the name against the doctrines, for lack of arguments he turns to abuse and to slandering the interpreters, and Origen above all. He says he knew Origen in his youth, and he tries to slander him. [a] Yet without realizing it, he commends the man. He tells the truth where he could not say otherwise, and lies where he thought he would not be found out. At one point he accuses him as a Christian; at another he describes his progress in philosophical studies. Hear, then, what he says, word for word:

“Some, eager to find not a way to abandon the wretchedness of the Jewish scriptures but a solution to it, turned to interpretations that cannot be fitted together and do not agree with what is written. These bring not so much a defense of what is foreign to them as approval and praise for what is their own. For they boast that the things Moses says plainly are riddles, and they proclaim them as divine oracles full of hidden mysteries; and having bewitched the critical judgment of the soul with their conceit, they bring in their interpretations.” Then, after other remarks, he says: “Let the manner of this absurdity be taken from a man whom I too met when I was still quite young. He was highly esteemed then, and still is, for the writings he has left: Origen, whose fame has spread widely among the teachers of these doctrines. For he was a hearer of Ammonius, who made the greatest progress in philosophy of anyone in our times. For skill in reasoning he gained much benefit from his teacher; but in the right choice of a way of life he took the opposite road from him. [b] For Ammonius was a Christian, brought up among Christians by his parents; but as soon as he took up thinking and philosophy, he changed over to the way of life that accords with the laws. Origen, on the other hand, a Greek educated in Greek learning, ran aground on the barbarian recklessness. To it he carried himself and his skill in learning, and peddled them there. In his manner of life he lived as a Christian, against the laws; but in his opinions about things and about the divine he thought like a Greek, and slipped Greek ideas underneath foreign fables. [c] For he was always in company with Plato. He was at home in the writings of Numenius and Cronius, Apollophanes, Longinus, Moderatus and Nicomachus, and the distinguished men among the Pythagoreans. He also used the books of Chaeremon the Stoic and of Cornutus. From them he learned the figurative method of interpreting the Greek mysteries, and he applied it to the Jewish scriptures.” [d]

These things are said by Porphyry in the third book of the treatises he wrote against the Christians. He tells the truth about the man’s discipline and wide learning, but he plainly lies — for what would an opponent of the Christians not do? — where he says that Origen came over from the Greeks, and that Ammonius fell from a life of godliness into pagan ways. For Origen kept the teaching of Christ handed down from his forebears, as our earlier account has shown; and Ammonius kept his inspired philosophy pure and unfailing to the very end of his life. The man’s labors still bear witness to this, for he is esteemed by very many for the writings he left, such as the one entitled On the Harmony of Moses and Jesus, and all the others to be found among cultured readers. Let this be set out, then, to show both the slander of the liar and Origen’s wide experience of Greek learning. He defends this learning against some who blamed him for his zeal for it, writing as follows in a certain letter:

“When I was devoted to the word, and the report of my ability was spreading, there came to me sometimes heretics, sometimes people trained in Greek learning, and especially in philosophy. So it seemed right to examine the doctrines of the heretics and what the philosophers claim to say about the truth. [e] In doing this we imitated Pantaenus, who benefited many before our time and had no small preparation in those subjects; and also Heraclas, who now sits in the presbytery of the Alexandrians. I found him with the teacher of philosophical studies, whom he had already attended steadily for five years before I began to hear those lectures. Because of that teacher he put off the ordinary clothing he used to wear and took up the philosopher’s dress, which he keeps to this day; and he does not stop studying the books of the Greeks as far as he can.” This is what he says in defense of his Greek training. [f]

At this time, while he was staying at Alexandria, a soldier came and delivered letters from the governor of Arabia to Demetrius, bishop of the church, and to the prefect of Egypt at that time, asking that they send Origen with all speed to discuss things with him. So he went to Arabia; and having soon accomplished the purpose of his visit, he returned to Alexandria. [g] Some time later, when no small war had flared up in the city, he slipped away from Alexandria and went to Palestine, where he stayed in Caesarea. There the bishops of that country asked him to discourse and to interpret the divine Scriptures publicly in the church, although he had not yet been ordained to the presbyterate. [h] This is clear from what Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, and Theoctistus of Caesarea write about Demetrius, defending themselves as follows: “He has added to his letter that such a thing has never been heard of, and has not happened now either, that laymen should preach in the presence of bishops. I do not know how he comes to say what is plainly untrue. [i] For wherever people are found fit to benefit the brothers, they are invited by the holy bishops to address the people. So it was in Laranda, where Euelpis was invited by Neon; in Iconium, Paulinus by Celsus; and in Synnada, Theodore by Atticus, our blessed brothers. It is likely that this happens in other places too, though we do not know of it.” In this way the man was honored while still young, not only by the bishops at home but by those in foreign lands as well. [j] But Demetrius called him back again by letter, and through men who were deacons of the church pressed him to return to Alexandria. So he came back and carried on his usual labors.