Origen’s Pauline Commentaries

Abstract

Abstract Origen greatly admired Paul and used to look at Paul’s apostolate as a model for his own ministry of the Word. The Commentary on Philemon seems to have been Origen’s first commentary on Paul’s letters and it should be seen as a general introduction to the whole Pauline corpus. Most of Origen’s commentaries and homilies on Paul have been transmitted unto us only through indirect tradition: anthologies (the Apology for Origen, composed by Pamphilus and the patristic catenae of the Byzantine age) or lengthy quotations in other works (some of Jerome’s Epistles and Commentaries, the Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius). However, Origen’s most extensive surviving work on Paul’s exegesis is the Commentary on Romans, preserved in Ruphinus’ Latin translation (and adaptation) which is generally regarded as substantially reliable and provides us with an extensive essay as an example of Origen’s exegetical methodology. Although the Pauline letters normally gives only a limited access to allegorical interpretation, nevertheless Origen largely develops his typical spiritual interpretation by making even more explicit the pervasive presence of the Logos in the Apostle’s writings.