Alexander Schmemann

1. The Beginning of the Church (28 pages)

Page 24

When he was very young he assumed the office of instructor, whose duty was to explain the Scriptures to new converts. While devoting himself completely to this work, he soon came to the conclusion that a simple reading of Scripture was not enough. Sitting in his lecture hall were philosophers, scholars, men of great learning. The Word of God must be explained to them as the highest revelation and all its depths uncovered.

The school of Origen soon outgrew its original task; it was open to all who were interested and became a forum for genuine encounter between Christian and pagan wisdom. It was not a matter of Christian wisdom simply overthrowing the pagan, however; here was the first acceptance of Hellenistic values by Christianity in order to convert them to the service of Christ. “I would wish you to use all the strength of your mind for the advantage of Christianity, which should be your highest goal,” wrote Origen to his disciple Gregory Thaumaturgus. “To achieve this I desire you to take from Greek philosophy those spheres of knowledge, which are potentially an introduction to Christianity, and whatever information from geometry and astronomy may serve to explain the sacred books; that what philosophers say of geometry, music, grammar, rhetoric, astronomy — namely, that they are handmaidens of philosophy — may be said as well of philosophy itself in relation to Christianity.”8 This represented a revolution in relation to profane culture but in contrast to Gnosticism, Christianity was not subordinated to Hellenism, but Hellenism rather proclaimed as a preparation of the minds of men for the higher revelation and understanding of the Scriptures.

The final meaning of all scholarship, as well as of Christianity itself, was the understanding of the Word of God. Everything was subordinate to this, and there was no limit to the extent to which one could become immersed in its meaning. Yet this understanding required not only a special grace, illumination of the mind by prayer and of the body by ascetic practice, but also scholarly preparation. Origen himself studied Hebrew and in his Hexapla copied the whole Old Testament Scriptures six times, in parallel columns, placing beside the Hebrew original and its transcription in Greek lettering all extant Greek translations of it. He adopted the methods of the famous Alexandrian literary school, which had undertaken the study of ancient Greek literature; and through him these methods became a fundamental part of Christian study of the Bible.

This work was only preparatory, however. There remained the interpretation of the Scriptures, and here Origen struck out on new paths. The basic principle of his interpretation was the Church tradition about the spiritual meaning of the Word of God, which lay behind the literal meaning. The Old Testament prefigured the New, while in the New Testament are revealed the eternal patterns of Church and Christian life. The Jews did not perceive these types in their own Scriptures and rejected Christ, whereas the Gnostics, unable to understand the Old Testament, rejected it on the grounds of being a revelation of a malicious and vengeful God. According to Origen, all these Old Testament types became reality in the appearance of Christ, and therefore He alone is the key to the Scriptures, just as the Scriptures are for us the only source of revelation about Him. The Old Testament reveals the New, and the New reveals the coming kingdom of God, when “God will be all in all” and all these types will be manifested in an eternal reality.

 

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