Origen

Christian scholar, ascetic, and theologian (c. 185 – c. 253)

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Lived 185–254, aged 69Egypt

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Wikipedia
68 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in Egypt
#162
Academics
Era
185–254
Aged 69

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

An early Christian scholar who wrote roughly 2,000 treatises and produced the first critical edition of the Hebrew Bible—then was condemned as a heretic three centuries after his death and had all his writings ordered burned.

Biography

About

Born around 185 in Alexandria, Origen became one of the most prolific writers in late antiquity, sustained by a patron who gave him a team of secretaries to capture his output. He founded the Christian School of Caesarea, where he taught logic, cosmology, and theology, and became the go-to authority on doctrine across Palestine and Arabia. His *On the First Principles* laid the systematic foundation for Christian theology; his *Contra Celsum* became a cornerstone of apologetics; his *Hexapla* arranged the Hebrew Bible in six parallel columns—original text, four Greek translations, and a transl…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Origen

Origen

saidundated

That is properly termed everlasting or eternal which neither had a beginning of existence, nor can ever cease to be what it is.

— On First Principles, Bk. 1, ch. 2; par. 11

Origen

saidundated

Every being which is endowed with reason, and transgresses its statutes and limitations, is undoubtedly involved in sin by swerving from rectitude and justice.

— On First Principles, Bk. 1, ch. 5; vol. 1, p. 45.

Origen

saidundated