Origenes. Sources.—The main authority
for the details of Origen's Life is Eusebius
(H. E. vi.), who collected upwards of 100 letters of Origen (ib. 36). These, together with official documents (ib. 23, 33) and information from those acquainted with Origen (ib. 2, 33), formed the basis of his narrative. His account of the most critical period of Origen's life, his retirement from Alexandria, was given in bk. ii. of his Apology, which he composed with the help of Pamphilus (ib. 23). This unhappily has not been preserved.
Origen's own writings give but few details
of his life. But the loss of his letters is irreparable. They would have given a fuller picture of the man, even if they gave little additional information on the outward circumstances of his life.
Of modern authorities, see Tillemont, Mémoires; Lardner, Credibility; Ceillier, Auteurs sacrés; Lumper, Hist. Patrum Theol. Critica; Walch, Gesch. d. Ketz.; Du Pin, Nouvelle bibliothèque des auteurs ecclés.
His life and doctrine have been discussed, with special reference to his historical position in the development of Christian thought, by Guericke, de Schola Alex. Catech. (1825); Neander, Kirch. Gesch.; Thomasius, Origenes (1837); Redepenning, Origenes (1841–1846); Moehler, Patrol. (1840); Huber, Philos d. Kirchenväter (1859); Schaff, Church Hist. (1867); De Pressensé, Hist. des trois premiers siècles (1858–1877); Boehringer, Kirchengesch. in Biogr. Klemens u. Origenes (1869, 2 Aufl.).
Life.—Origen was probably born at Alexandria (Eus. H. E. vi. 1), but whether of
Egyptian, Greek, or mixed descent is not
known. The loose phrase of Porphyry, that
he "was a Greek and reared in Greek studies" (ib. 19), is in itself of little value, but the name of his father (Leonides) points in the same direction. His mother's name has not been preserved. May she have been of Jewish descent? He is said to have learnt Hebrew so well that in singing the psalms "he vied with his mother" (Hieron. Ep. 39 [22], § 1).
Origen's full name was Origenes Adamantius. Origenes was the name of one contemporary philosopher of distinction, and occurs elsewhere. Adamantius has commonly been regarded as an epithet describing Origen's unconquerable endurance, or for the invincible force of his arguments. But the language of Eusebius (H. E. vi. 14) and of Jerome (de Vir. Ill. 54, "Origenes qui et Adamantius") shews that it was a second name, and not a mere adjunct. His father, Leonides, suffered martyrdom in the persecution of the 10th year of Severus (202), and Origen had not then completed his 17th year (Eus. H. E. vi. 2). He must have been born therefore
185–186, a date consistent with the statement (ib. vii. 1) that he died in his 69th year, in the reign of Gallus ( 251–254). In Origen we have the first record of a Christian boyhood, and he was "great from the cradle." His education was superintended by his father, who especially directed him to the study of Scripture. The child's eager inquiries into the deeper meaning of the words he committed to memory caused perplexity to his father, who, while openly checking his son's premature curiosity, silently thanked God for the promise he gave for the future. Origen became the pupil of Pantaenus (after his return from India) and Clement, in whose school he met Alexander, afterwards bp. of Jerusalem (ib. vi. 14), with whom he then laid the foundation of that life-long friendship which supported him in his sorest trials.