538 Origen
See alsoANTI-JUDAISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM; ANTIPODES;
CRUSADES; GOG AND MAGOG;JEWS ANDJUDAISM;MANDEV-
ILLE,JOHN, ANDMANDEVILLE’STRAVELS;MAPS;PRESTER
JOHN.
Further reading:Maxime Rodinson, Europe and the
Mystique of Islam,trans. T. Veinus (Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 1987); Edward Said, Orientalism(New
York: Vintage, 1978); John V. Tolan, ed., Medieval Chris-
tian Perceptions of Islam: A Book of Essays(New York:
Garland, 1995).
Origen (ca. 185–ca. 251/254)biblical exegete, theologian
He was probably born at ALEXANDRIA, the son of a Chris-
tian martyr, who was killed in 202. He barely missed mar-
tyrdom himself. While he was still young, the bishop of
Alexandria put him in charge of his catechetical school.
There he taught PHILOSOPHY,THEOLOGY, and biblical exe-
gesis. He led an ascetic life of FASTING, vigils, and VOLUN-
TARY POVERTY. Taking the text of the GOSPEL, literally, he
even mutilated his genitals. To escape from the massacres
of the emperor Caracalla (r. 211–217), he fled to Caesarea
in PALESTINE where he got in trouble for preaching.
Recalled he returned to Alexandria. In 230, on a voyage
to GREECE, he was illicitly ordained a priest. The bishop
of Alexandria threw him out his diocese because of this
questionable ordination and probably also because of his
preaching heterodox ideas as a layman. Origen then set-
tled permanently at Caesarea, where he founded a school,
and remained there until the mid-third century. In Decian
persecutions of 250, he was imprisoned and tortured at
Caesarea. He died sometime after June 251 at Tyre as a
result of his torture.
OPUSOrigen’s learned and celebrated work, the Hexapla,estab-
lished parallel texts of the Septuagint. It had many clarifi-
cations of difficult passages or terms. He also wrote
homilies or commentaries that we possess only in frag-
ments. He composed an apologia for Christianity, Against
Celsus.Another treatise, On First Principles,was a dogmatic
synthesis of the Christian faith interwoven with NEOPLA-
TONISM. It covered the doctrine of the Trinity, ANGELSand
their fall, the creation of the world, humankind as having
fallen SOULS enclosed in a body, REDEMPTIONby Jesus
Christ, ESCHATOLOGYor the end of the world, principles
of moral THEOLOGY, problems of free will, SIN, the Holy
Scripture as source of FAITH, and the three interpretive
senses for Scripture, the literal, moral, allegorical. He
also suggested that all creatures, even the DEVIL, would
eventually be saved. These were to become some of the
main preoccupations of subsequent theological thought.
Some of his doctrines or Origenism, or the eternity of
Creation, the preexistence of souls, and his allegorical
interpretation of biblical accounts, led to controversies in
the fourth and sixth centuries and as part of the
“Origenist controversy.” They were condemned by
regional synods and in 553 at the second Council of Con-
stantinople. Origen probably did not intend to promote
unorthodox ideas, but they were discerned in his elusive,
audacious, and creative thought.
Further reading: Origen, Contra Celsum, trans.
Henry Chadwick (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1965); Henry Chadwick, Early Christian Thought
and the Classical Tradition: Studies in Justin, Clement, and
Origen(New York: Oxford University Press, 1966); Eliza-
beth A. Clark, The Origenist Controversy: The Cultural
Construction of an Early Christian Debate(Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1992); Charles Kannengiesser
and William L. Petersen, eds., Origen of Alexandria: His
World and His Legacy(Notre Dame, Ind.: University of
Notre Dame Press, 1988); Joseph W. Trigg, Origen(Lon-
don: Routledge, 1998).Orosius, Paulus (fl. early fifth century)Spanish historian
Paulus was a Spanish priest from Braga in modern PORTU-
GALwho fled to Hippo in North Africa in 414 to evade
the invasion by Goths. Working as a pupil with AUGUS-
TINE, he wrote several works in defense of orthodoxy. The
first was on the origin of the human SOUL. He was sent in
415 to debate with PELAGIUSin PALESTINE. The outcome
was inconclusive. An episcopal report sent to ROMEques-
tioned his orthodoxy. Augustine then asked him to pro-
duce a historical supplement to his City of God.After
finishing it in 418, he began to oppose a popular contem-
porary argument that Rome’s fall was directly caused by
mass conversion to Christianity. The resulting History
against the Pagans in Seven Bookswas dominated by the
themes of providential history and beleaguered but tri-
umphant Christianity. Completed in 418, the book was
well received and widely read. Nothing is known about
him after its appearance.
See alsoCHRONICLES AND ANNALS.
Further reading:Paulus Orosius, Seven Books of His-
tory against the Pagans: The Apology of Paulus Orosius,
trans. Irving Woodworth Raymond (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1936); Paulus Orosius, The Seven Books of
History against the Pagans,trans. Roy J. Deferrari (Wash-
ington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1964).Oseberg find or ship This discovery comprised a
VIKINGship and the skeletons of two women found in
1903 at Oseberg, west of the Oslofjord in NORWAY. They
are now in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, along with a
host of well-preserved wooden objects. The ship is about
65 feet long, with 15 pairs of oars, and was built of oak in
about the year 820. It was not designed for making long
voyages, but for show and hugging coasts. The find
included grave goods, FURNITURE, sledges, farm tools, and
a wagon. There are also fine animal carvings, such as the
serpent’s head at the prow. The skeletal remains of two