Origen on the heterodox

[Peter Kirby]

This thread is for notes about what Origen says on the heterodox.

Homilies on the Psalms, p. 313.

All right, look at what they say: “The creator is savage, the creator is inhumane, there is another, higher, good god.”

Here is the footnote:

In Hom. Jer. 1.16, Origen also says that heretics call the god who gave the Mosaic law “savage” and “inhumane” (agrios and apanthrōpos). They do so because they fail to recognize that Scripture has a deeper sense. Simpler Christians are guilty of the same fault. In Princ. 4.2.1 Origen commends simpler Christians for understanding that there is no higher God than the creator (dēmiourgos), but accuses them of believing worse things about God than one would believe about the most bloodthirsty and unjust of human beings.

It's possible that these words (agrios, apanthrōpos, and dēmiourgos) were in Marcion's Antitheses.

[Peter Kirby]

Origen says that the Marcionites don't read the prophets with the holy spirit, and that they "do not have the Creator God who has given the prophecies," so they don't understand them and don't have the prophets.

Homilies on the Psalms, p. 196

And when you delete the prophets, or you acknowledge their statement, but do not fully receive their mind as you ought, there is no prophet for you; a prophet is for one who hears the prophetic logoi as the Holy Spirit wants. And just as the Marcionites reading the prophets do not have the prophets (for they do not have the Creator God who has given the prophecies), so also you, if you malign the prophets—for the Apostle says, “Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophecies”—you will say, “There is no longer a prophet, and he will know us no longer.”

[Secret Alias]

Does anyone really believe the prophets had "holy spirit"? Even the Samaritans didn't.

[Peter Kirby]

Origen in the homilies on the Psalms often contrasts God's words, with the words of the heretics (81.6, p. 447):

If you want to see what the foundations of the earth are, see with me the logoi of the heretics and those outside the Church; see with me the logoi of the Jews who do not accept Jesus Christ (ἴδε μοι τοὺς λόγους τῶν Ἰουδαίων τὸν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν μὴ παραδεξαμένων).

[Peter Kirby]

Origen generalizes about heretics here (Psalm 77 Homily 2 section 6, p. 314):

You will find that nearly all the heretics are of the same mind, dishonoring the law of Moses and the god who gave the law.

[Peter Kirby]

The three heresies frequently mentioned by Origen (77.5.7, p. 349):

Thus the Marcionites, thus the Valentinians, thus the Basilideans and any others who introduce a God separate from the God of the law, by misconstruing, lead astray the hearts of the innocent.

Origen probably read Basilides, given the lack of much evidence for an enduring following of "Basilideans" in the 3rd century.

[billd89]

Homily on the Psalms, p.313: All right, look at what they say: “The Creator is savage, the Creator is inhumane; there is another, Higher-, Good-God.”

The Demiurge must be Ialdabaoth/Samael. Among the Jews/Semites, is there another 'savage, inhumane Creator' god, AND the lesser of the Most High, Good God?

Was Phoenician Surmubelos the 'Serpent of Bel'? God's Serpent would certainly be a candidate for the 'Serpent of the Garden of Eden' (Samael), c.350 BC. There may be various names for the mythic personage, and even conflicting iterations of the story, but the 'Other God' is there.

[Peter Kirby]

Origen sees the Marcionite heresy as a threat to simple and naïve believers (77.7.6, pp. 373-374):

But so that you may understand more, I would say that Christ’s livestock are those who are more simple and more naïve among believers. God saves livestock, since it is written, “Lord, you save human beings and livestock”—but the livestock are not Christ’s if they are entering heretical gatherings in logos. Far be it from me to enter thus among them, if not in order that I might capture captivity for Christ! If then, entering, I see naïve souls who are not learned, but are utterly simple, who have been brought under the rule of godless teaching and are irrationally subjected to it, I would say that these are the livestock of the Egyptians and that, because of Marcion, these are the sheep of Egypt.

[Peter Kirby]

Origen sees the Marcionite heresy as a threat to simple and naïve believers (77.7.6, pp. 373-374):

Shortly thereafter, Origen goes on to say of "those supposing that the so-called 'wrath' in the Scripture is an inner disturbance of God" (77.7.7, p. 374) in reference to Psalm 77:49:

“He sent out to them wrath of his anger, anger and wrath and affliction, a dispatch by means of evil angels.” Against those supposing that the so-called “wrath” in the Scripture is an inner disturbance of God and who on that basis are slandering the God of the law and the prophets, it is possible to say that they do not understand what they are saying. If it is an inner disturbance and remains in the soul, how can it be sent out?

So it's probable that the Antitheses ascribed orgē, “wrath,” and pathos, "an inner disturbance," to "the God of the law and the prophets." Marcionite exegesis of passages like this one is relatively straightforward, because it says "wrath," and so they are able to (according to Origen) deceive the simple.

[Peter Kirby]

Origen (p. 375) goes on to quote Ephesians 2:3, which is highly compatible with the point of the Marcionites here, and then to quote 1 Cor 5:4–5, which is employed as an argument against the newness and difference of the Apostle as supposed by Marcionites.

For there is a wrath, whose children we were, according to the Apostle: “by nature we were children of wrath, just as the rest,” and the wrath has reached them in the end. God, then, sends that wrath along with anger, wrath, and affliction, and sends a dispatch for the sake of those who merit such things, through evil angels, like the wrath sent out on the fornicator at Corinth. And do you want to see that there was a wrath sent out on the part of the Apostle as the sender? Hear: “I have judged that when you and my spirit are gathered, with the power of the Lord Jesus, to hand over such a person.” The one that has been given over to Satan has been given over to wrath; the wrath, then, is sent out.

Ephesians 2:3 then, saying that we were "children of wrath," was likely referenced by Marcionites.