Origen in the Likeness of Philo: Eusebius of Caesarea’s Portrait of the Model Scholar

Justin M Rogers

doi:10.6017/scjr.v12i1.9725

Abstract

This article discusses the similarities between the biographical presentations of Philo and Origen in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History. The tension Eusebius feels between Philo Christianus and Philo Judaeus is certainly detectible in his presentation of the Therapeutae, a group about whom Philo reports and whom Eusebius considers the first Egyptian Christians. Eusebius recognizes that Philo is exegetically closer to Christianity, and religiously closer to Judaism. This realization creates an ambiguity in the Ecclesiastical History in which Philo is presented explicitly neither as Jew nor Christian, but can be identified as either.

Highlights

Ilaria Ramelli has argued that Eusebius’ accounts of Philo and Origen in the Ecclesiastical History are strikingly similar, picking up Robert Grant’s stress on the similarity between Origen and the Philonic Therapeutae.[4]
The name of Philo of Alexandria occurs more in the writings of Eusebius of Caesarea than in those of any other ancient author
Philo’s name can be located over 20 times in the surviving literary corpus of Eusebius,[1] and there is strong evidence that Eusebius’ Caesarean library is the very reason Philo’s works exist today.[2]. The core of this library can be traced to the personal collection of Origen when he settled in Caesarea in 232 CE.[3]

Summary

Introduction

Ilaria Ramelli has argued that Eusebius’ accounts of Philo and Origen in the Ecclesiastical History are strikingly similar, picking up Robert Grant’s stress on the similarity between Origen and the Philonic Therapeutae.[4].

Results

Conclusion