What is Origen’s justification for using allegorical interpretation?

Origen discussed two problems concerning the Old Testament that confronted the early Church:

• a. The Jews expected Jesus to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament in a literal manner ; for instance, that He would be their king who rules over all the world.¹⁷⁶ Origen says, “Both Jews and Christians agree that the books (of Scripture) were written by the Spirit of God, but we do not agree about the meaning of their contents; for we do not regulate our lives like the Jews, because we are of opinion that the literal acceptance of the laws is not that which conveys the meaning of the legislation.”¹⁷⁷ Origen also says, “If therefore both the Lord and God are ‘Spirit,’ we ought to hear spiritually those things which the Spirit says.”¹⁷⁸

• b. The Gnostic sects rejected the Old Testament because they were scandalized by certain passages which refer to God as becoming angry, changing his mind, or feeling regret. They were scandalized because they interpreted these descriptions literally rather than spiritually.

Origen contends that the attribution of human characteristics to God ( anthropomorphism ), like God’s wrath, cannot be understood literally. He says, “If you hear of the anger of God and his wrath , do not suppose that anger and wrath are passions of God. The purposes of using this way of speaking are for converting and bettering the infant [i.e. the human race], since we also use a fearful expression with children, not from an actual state of mind but because of a purpose to cause fear. If we maintain what is kindly for the soul in our expression toward a baby, and we show the affection which we have for it, since we have not altered ourselves nor changed for the conversion of that one, we lose him and make him worse. So then it states that God is also said to be angry and wrathful in order that you can convert and become better. And he is truly neither angry nor wrathful, but you experience the effects of anger and wrath when you are in unbearable pains because of evil, whenever he disciplines by what is called the anger of God.”¹⁷⁹

In addition to countering the Jews and Gnostic sects, Origen appeals to a third reason for the use of allegory, namely, that the spiritual interpretation is justified by the fact that the Old Testament presents to us the person of Christ in advance. Origen says, “ most of the things recorded in the law refer typically and enigmatically to the Christ.”¹⁸⁰ Therefore, it is

176 N. R. M. De Lange, Origen and the Jews: Studies in Jewish-Christian Relations in Third-Century Palestine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976): pp. 82–83.

177 Origen, Against Celsus 5.60 (ANF 4:569) amended.

178 Origen, Homilies on Leviticus 4.1 (FOTC 83:70).

179

Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah 18.6 (FOTC 97:200–201); Carl A. Volz, Pastoral Life and Practice in the Early Church , (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1990): p. 114.

180 Origen, Homilies on John 13:161 (FOTC 89:102).

the spiritual meaning which links the Old Testament to the New and reveals the relationship between them.