ORIGEN

These variations are too numerous, and too significant in their effect on the one doctrine, to be ascribed to chance. In support of this conclusion, we remark, first, that there are strong probable grounds to conclude that the text of the Scriptures current in the East received a mischievous modification at the hands of famous Origen.

In a word Origen was, during the times of the Sabellian and Arian controversies, the Magnus Apollo of oriental biblical scholars and his critical opinions were regarded by them as almost infallible.

Now, what manner of man was Origen? He is described by Mosheim (in his Com.de Rebus Christ, volume Two, page 144) as "a compound of contraries, wise and unwise, the patron of superstition, the corrupter of Christianity, and the one to whom the Bible suffered much." The disgraceful story that his condemnation by his bishop, Demetrius, and his flight from Alexandria, were caused by his apostasy to Paganism under the impulse of fear, is not only detailed by Epiphanius, the great enemy of Origenism, but by Cedremus and Suidas. As the controversialist, he was wholly unscrupulous. His reputation as the great introducer of mysticism, allegory, and Neo - Platonism in the Christian church is too well known to need recital. Those who are best acquainted with the history of Christian opinion know best that Origen was the great corrupter and the source, or at least earliest channel, of nearly all the speculative errors which plagued the Church in after ages.

This general character is enough to excite well grounded suspicion. But these statisticians are confirmed when we examine the particular traits of his system. He was strictly Rationalist. He disbelieved in the full inspiration and infallibility of the Scriptures. His philosophy was that of Ammonius, who asserted a common religion in all the schemes of philosophy, including the Bible. The key-note of all Origen's labors was the effort to reconcile Christianity and this electic Pagan philosophy into a substantial unity. That the mere words are, accordingly, of no importance. He expressly denied the consubstantial unity of the Persons and the proper incarnation of the God head. Nolan charges that Origens method of citing the Scriptures is inconsistent and vacillating; that he often cites from heretical codices and readings; that he often proposes to correct the text of the New Testament by the supposed indications of the Septuagint, As he had labored to supersede the authorized version of the Old Testament, he contributed to weaken the authority of the received text of the New. Some difficulties which he found himself unable to solve in the evangelists he undertook to remove, by expressing his doubts of the integrity of the text.

The commentaries of Origen, abound in quotations drawn from heretical revisals of Scripture. The facilities of correcting this text from Origen's writings, and the blind reverence in which that ancient father was held in the School of Caesarea, seem to have rendered the corruption of this text unavoidable. There appears a strong probability, then, that "the learned Origen" is least of all entitled to that authority which the recent critics claim for him as a witness to the state of the genuine readings; but that, if the whole truth could be recovered, he would be found the original corrupter of the text. The secular clergy usually condemned his sentiments and influence; and it was by a Byzantine council of such clergy that his name was finally fixed (where it belongs) in the list of heretics.

We shall be prepared to believe that the Western early version, where Origenism had then no currency, reflects the original purity of the text, even more truly than the Greek manuscript prevalent after Origen's day in Palestine and Egypt. The testimony of the old Italic in favour of 1 John 5:7 is therefore more weighty than at first appeared. We shall find in Eusebiusa of Caesarea another probable source of mutilation of the original texts. He was a blind admirer of Origen, and constantly made tacit pretensions of being, through Pamphilus, the lineal successor to his fame and influence. Origen and his school deteriorated the correctness of the text, it is to the same extent clear that Eusebius accepted and perpetuated that injury. His employment by the Emperor Constantine to edit fifty complete codices of the Scriptures, as detailed in his life of that Prince, may be received as being as authentic as any part of the history. Now we are not left wholly in dark as to the character of this edition. The Eusebian Canons, as they are called, have come down to us; and they disclose the fact that this father excluded Mark 15:9 to end from the text. We must remember their temporary triumph in the East under Constantine's successors; their reckless and unprincipled persecuting spirit; the villainous means to which they are known to have resorted to gain their ends, fraud, lying, subornation (as in the case of the venerable Bishop Athanasius and Eustathius of Antioch), and violence, and the charges of mutilating the sacred books made against them by the orthodox. Athanasius, for instance, in his first Encyclical Letter against the Arians to the bishops of Egypt and Lybia, charges it upon them, as one of their customary tricks to deceive the unwary, that they advanced deceitful readings of the Scripture. We know from their extant writings the Arians were wont to urge against the proper divinity of Christ. The Arians were notoriously unscrupulous. They were openly charged with corrupting the texts for polemical purposes.

Shepherd of Hermas

A 2nd-century Christian writing that is one of the works representing the Apostolic Fathers, Greek Christian writers of the late 1st and early 2nd centuries. The author, Hermas, is known only through the autobiographical details given in the Shepherd. A Christian slave who was given his freedom,... He stated that he was a contemporary of Clement of Rome. However, the Muratorian Canon, the oldest (c. 180) extant list of New Testament writings, asserts that he was a brother of Pope Pius I (d. 155), and internal evidence in the Shepherd seems to support the later date.... It was regarded as scripture by Clement of Alexandria and Origen, but the Muratorian Canon denied that it was inspired, and St. Jerome stated that it was known very little in the Western Church. Much more popular in the Eastern Church, the work is contained in the 4th-century Codex Sinaiticus (Copyright (c) 1995 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All Rights Reserved)

 

Alexandria, School of

The first Christian institution of higher learning, founded in the mid - 2nd century AD in Alexandria, Egypt. Under its earliest known leaders (Pantaenus, Clement, and Origen), it became a leading centre of the allegorical method of biblical interpretation, espoused a rapprochement between Greek culture and Christian faith, and attempted to assert orthodox Christian teachings against heterodox views in an era of doctrinal flux. Opposing the School of Alexandria was the School of Antioch, which emphasized the literal interpretation of the Bible. (Copyright (c) 1995 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All Rights Reserve

Blavatsky: We were one day inquiring of a Brahman of the pagoda of Chidambaram, whether he believed in the existence of God, He answered us, smiling: 'I am myself a god'. 'What do you mean by that?' "'I mean that every being on earth, however humble, is an immortal portion of the immortal matter'." Every man is a god on earth. ... Origen writes that the Brahmans were always famous for the wonderful cures which they performed by certain words. ...The worshippers of Buddha know that they "are gods." (Isis Unveiled, By H.P. Blavatsky Vol 2 Page 262,263,288 and Vol 1 page 444)

And now hear what Canon Cook has to say about Origen

The tendency to mystic interpretations common in his own language, but in no other writer so fully developed or pushed to the same extremes. (Which Bible can we Trust, by Les Garrett page 190)

Here also Bishop Marsh on the same subject (Lecture 2 edition 1838, page 482) "Whenever therefore grammatical interpretation produced a sense which in Origen's opinion was irrational or impossible, in other words irrational or impossible according to the philosophy which Origen had learnt at Alexandria, he then departed from the literal sense." (Which Bible can we Trust, by Les Garrett page 190)

Balvatsky: Origen was well versed in Pagan symbology, having begun his career as a philosopher (Isis Unveiled, Vol. 1 Page 298 By H.P. Blavatsky

Blavatsky: In the "fall of of Adam" we must see, not the personal transgression of man. ...Philo represents the story of the Fall as symbolical, and Origen regarded it as an allegory. (Isis Unveiled, by H.P. Blavatsky Vol. 2 Page 277,546)

Freemasonry, is derived from this, in the sense used in the Mysteries. Therefore, when Paul entitles himself a 'master-builder," he is using a word pre-eminently kabalistic, theurgic, and masonic, and one which no other apostle uses. He thus declares himself an Adept, having the right to initiate others. 'We speak wisdom', says Paul, 'among them that are perfect' (or initiated). What Paul preached was preached by every other mystic philosopher. ... As we have eleswhere shown, the primitive Christian community was composed of small groups scattered about and organized in secret societies, with passwords, grips and signs. ...Also Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and others of the fathers drank deeply from the fountains of philosophy.(Isis Unveiled, By H.P.Blavatsky Vol 2 page 84,85,89,90,91,111,145and 335)

Canon Cook

Meanwhile we would like to place on record again what Canon Cook had to say about the personality of Origen in connection with these matters, for that feature is of vital importance. The Church at large disagreed with Origen's conclusions. Westcott and Hort after nearly 1700 years merely wished to place us textually in the heart of an Alexandrian text. (Which Bible can we Trust, by Les Garrett page 189)

In the Greek speaking East, the tradition of Christian Platonism reaches as far back as the second century. Its most distinguished early proponents, Clement of Alexandria and Origen. Clement and Origen represented a Platonist philosophical outlook. England was the scene of Platonist revivals in both the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The school of the "Cambridge Platonists" [Westcott & Hort] of the mid nineteenth century, B.F.Westcott Platonic ideas influenced the development of English theology. ( Platonism, Page 360,362,363)

Dr. Philip Comfort, author of Early Manuscripts and Modern Translations of the New Testament states:

(T)he early manuscripts exhibit some very significant differences in the wording of the New Testament, text-differences pertaining to the titles of the Lord Jesus Christ, Christian doctrine and church practice as well as significant word variations...(T)extual corruption happened at such an early date...Origen was the first New Testament critic. (New Age Bible Versions, By Gail Riplinger Page 530.)

Les Garrett

Origen, being a textual critic, is supposed to have corrected numerous portions of the sacred manuscripts. Evidence to the contrary shows he changed them to agree with his own human philosophy of mystical and allegorical idea. (Which Bible can we Trust, By Les Garrett Page 16)

R.L. Dabney

These variations are too numerous, and too significant in their effect on the one doctrine, to be ascribed to chance. In support of this conclusion, we remark, first, that there are strong probable grounds to conclude, that the text of the Scriptures current in the East received a mischievous modification at the hands of famous Origen. (This article appeared in the Southern Presbyterian Review for April, 1871)

Dr. David Fuller, Princeton scholar:

Many of the important variations in the modern versions may be traced to the influence of Eusebius and Origen. ( Which Bible, Page 3.)

R.L. Dabney

We shall be prepared to believe that the Western early version, where Origenism had then no currency, reflects the original purity of the text, even more truly than the Greek manuscript prevalent after Origen's day in Palestine and Egypt. The testimony of the old Italic in favour of 1 John 5:7 is therefore more weighty than at first appeared. We shall find in Eusebiusa of Caesarea another probable source of mutilation of the original texts. He was a blind admirer of Origen, and constantly made tacit pretensions of being, through Pamphilus, the lineal successor to his fame and influence. Origen and his school deteriorated the correctness of the text, it is to the same extent clear that Eusebius accepted and perpetuated that injury. His employment by the Emperor Constantine to edit fifty complete codices of the Scriptures, as detailed in his life of that Prince, may be received as being as authentic as any part of the history. Now we are not left wholly in dark as to the character of this edition. The Eusebian Canons, as they are called, have come down to us; and they disclose the fact that this father excluded Mark 15:9 to end from the text. We must remember their temporary triumph in the East under Constantine's successors; their reckless and unprincipled persecuting spirit; the villainous means to which they are known to have resorted to gain their ends, fraud, lying, subornation (as in the case of the venerable Bishop Athanasius and Eustathius of Antioch), and violence, and the charges of mutilating the sacred books made against them by the orthodox. Athanasius, for instance, in his first Encyclical Letter against the Arians to the bishops of Egypt and Lybia, charges it upon them, as one of their customary tricks to deceive the unwary, that they advanced deceitful readings of the Scripture. We know from their extant writings the Arians were wont to urge against the proper divinity of Christ. The Arians were notoriously unscrupulous. They were openly charged with corrupting the texts for polemical purposes. (This article appeared in the Southern Presbyterian Review for April, 1871)

Dr. Edward Hills, Harvard and Yale scholar, :

Origen...was not content to abide by the text which he received but freely engaged in the boldest sort of conjectural emendations. And there were other critics at Alexandria...who deleted many readings of the original New Testament text and thus produced the abbreviated text found in the papyri and in the manuscripts Aleph and B (the Greek manuscripts used to create the recent new versions). (New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger page 530.)

World renowned scholar Hermann Hoskier, (scholars say his collation of New Testament manuscripts is unsurpassed in quality and quantity) feels:

We do not necessarily recover Origen's manuscripts when we are inclined to follow Aleph and B (basis for new translations), but very likely Origen himself. He goes on to say: the text of Westcott and Hort is practically the text of Alep & B. (New Age Bible Versions, By Gail Riplinger Page 531,546.)

John Burgon, author of scores of scholarly books on the transmission and corruption of the original Greek manuscripts said:

I am of the opinion that such depravations of the text (as found in Aleph and B) were in the first instance intentional. Origen may be regarded as the prime offender. ..the author of all the mischief...(Clement used) ‘hopelessly’ corrupt' versions of the New Testament which there is in these last days an attempt to revive and palm off on an unlearned generation the old exploded errors. He went on to say: "We are assured without a particle of hesitation, that Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus manuscripts are of the most scandalously corrupt copies exant. They exhibit the most shamefully mutilated text which are anywhere to be met with, and have become the depositories of the largest amount of fabricated readings, ancient blunders, and intentional perversion of truth, which are discoverable in any known copies of the Word of God.( The Revision Revised, Page 336.)

Alfred Martin, former Vice-President of Moody Bible Institute calls Origen "aberrant" and says:

He seems to have been so saturated with the strange speculations of the early heretics. It is manifest that Origen is not a safe guide in the textual criticism any more than in theology.( Which Bible, Page 164.)

R.L.Dabney

The commentaries of Origen, which abound in quotations drawn from heretical revisals of Scripture. The facilities of correcting this text from Origen's writings, and the blind reverence in which that ancient father was held in the School of Caesarea, seem to have rendered the corruption of this text unavoidable. There appears a strong probability, then, that "the learned Origen" is least of all entitled to that authority which the recent critics claim for him as a witness to the state of the genuine readings; but that, if the whole truth could be recovered, he would be found the original corrupter of the text. The secular clergy usually condemned his sentiments and influence; and it was by a Byzantine council of such clergy that his name was finally fixed (where it belongs) in the list of heretics. (This article appeared in the Southern Presbyterian Review for April, 1871)

Gordon Fee asserts:

P66 "offers us firsthand evidence of a kind of official editorial activity going on in the church in Alexandria at the time of Clement." ( Greek Manuscript of the Ancient World, Page 108.)

Lachmann,

Whose critical edition of the Greek New Testament was published in Berlin in 1832 and 1850. Among the Fathers, he lies chiefly upon the quotations of Origen (This article appeared in the Southern Presbyterian Review for April, 1871)

 

ORIGEN AND THE OLD TESTAMENT

 

The Septuagint (LXX), a Greek translation of the Old Testament, is used today by textual critics, in many instances, to determine the wording of new versions. It appears that Origen was the author of this A.D. document. The NIV translators admit they use the O.T. text which was "standardized early in the third century by Oregin". Hence, Oregin's six column Old Testament, the Hexapla, is used as the LXX today. It is freely drawn from by new translation editors to alter the Masoretic Hebrew Text. (New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger page 537.)

Nolan

Charges that Origen's method of citing the Scriptures is inconsistent and vacillating; that he often cites from heretical codices and readings; that he often proposes to correct the text of the New Testament by the supposed indications of the Septuagint, "As he had laboured to supersede the authorised version of the Old Testament, he contributed to weaken the authority of the received text of the New. Some difficulties which he found himself unable to solve in the evangelists he undertook to remove, by expressing his doubts of the integrity of the text." (This article appeared in the Southern Presbyterian Review for April, 1871)

Sidney Collett 1905

The Septuagint version

It is known as the Septuagint or Alexandrian version, Septuagint being a Latin word meaning seventy, it was said to have been the work of seventy scholars at Alexandria hence its title A measure of uncertainty exists as to the truth of this. I believe that Origen was the author

Christian Handbook of Biblical Scholarship

Until Origen showed up "THE SEPTUAGINT" did not exit on the face of this earth. Origen and his three friends (Symmachs, Theodotian, and Aquilla) wrote the Septuagint. The first column of the Hexapla was a Hebrew Old Testament. The second column was a Greek transliteration . The third column was by Aquilla, and apostate Jew, who professed Christianity while retaining astrology. He turned against the Chistians and went back to a Rabbinical school. The fourth column was written by an Ebionite named Symmachus. An "Ebionite" is a man who believes all we have to do to get to heaven is to follow Christ's example. The Fifth column was by Origen (see The Believer's Commentary on Gennesis, 1969, Genesis 5:5 for a discussion of the number five.) The sixth column was by another Ebionite named Theodotian. Theodotian is the one who said that Joseph was Christ's father in Matt 1:16 Compare Luk. 2:33 ,Matt 2:43 in the new translations. They were just as corrupt as Westcott and Hort They used the New Testament Text to alter the Hebrew Old Testament to make them match the New Testament quotations. They pulled off the greatest gaffed act that was ever pulled off on the body of Christ. They manufactured a complete Greek Old Testament out of thin air after the New Testament was completed and then palmed it off as B.C. Septuagint with the aid of the writings of two apostate Jews: PHILO and JOSEPHUS. You say: "Where is the proof of all this. That is easy: reject it when you find One verse any Apostle quoted from the Old Testament written in Greek before Aquilla, Symmachus, Origen, and Theodotian. Just One will do fine. Please note that by inserting B.C. false writings into the A.D. "Septuagint," it would give the appearance of the existence of a Septuagint BEFORE the time of Christ. This desired effect was obtained by Origen and company when they put out the Hexapla, and it was reinforced when Eusebius and Pamphilus sent Constatine his fifty "fine parchments". To this day, no scholar on earth ever found one verse quoted in the New Testament that came from a B.C. manuscript writen in Greek. ( Christian's Handbook of Biblical Scholarship Page 92,93)

Ira Price

The LXX comes from Origen's fifth column in the Hexapla. Origen's fifth column IS the LXX. it is the Greek Old Testament "Septuagint." ( The Ancestry of Our English Bible, by Ira Price Page 75)

Gleason Archer

When listing the contents of Origen's six-columned Hexapla, he calls the fifth column written by Origen the LXX. it is the fifth column that was copied out repeatedly after A.D. 254, according to Miller. (Survey of the Old Testament, by Gleason Archer Page 39-40)

Philip Mauro

But not to dwell longer upon mere circumstances, the two MSS., when carefully examined, are found to bear upon their face clear evidences that they were derived from a common, and very corrupt, source. The late Dr. Edward Vining of Cambridge, Mass., has gone thoroughly into this, and has produced evidence to show that they were copies (and most carelessly made) of the original brought by Origen out of Egypt, where, as is well known, the Scriptures were corrupted almost from the beginning in the interest of the same ascetic practices as now characterize the church of Rome. (Which Bible can we Trust, by Les Garrett Page 159)

In A.D.331 Constantine asked Eusebius to create bibles which presented this somewhat de-deified Christ and ecumenical theology. Origen had much in his writings to suggest the subordination of the Son; his amalgamation of heathen and Christian doctrine - smoothing out differences thereby allowing for unity - was perfect for Constantine's purposes. So Constantine,...charged Eusebius with preparing fifty copies... written on prepared skins with the help of skillful artists. (New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger page 535.)

Dr. Herman C. Hoskier's extensive collation of Vatican (B), unsurpassed to this day, leads him to conclude that the new version editors are guilty of an"...incomplete examination of documentary

evidence... [working] without due regard to scientific foundation."

My thesis is then that B (Vaticanus) and Aleph (Sinaiticus) and their forerunners, with Origen who revised the Antioch text [KJV], are Egyptian revisions current between A.D. 200-400 and abandoned between 500 and 1881, merely revived in our day.( Which Bible, Page 134-143.)

I. Take 'the name' of the beast.

2. Give 'up to the beast'.

3. Form a one world government.

4. Kill those not receiving his 'name'.

5. Worship female virgins.

6. Receive 'another spirit'.

7. Seek power.

8. Believe that God is immanent in his creation, as a pantheistic monistic Hindu god.

9. Avoid marriage; permit fornication.

10. Abstain from fasting.

11. Subscribe to the New Age Root Race Theory.

12. Be saved by being baptized and keeping the twelve mandates of the Antichrist.' (New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger page 557.)

Gail Riplinger

They are not alone, but are not in good company.The Ghostly Guild duo, Westcott and Lightfoot, and their specters from the past, Clement, Origen and Eusebius, called these added books, "divinely inspired and very useful," "remarkable" and "Theologically...of the highest value. Mme. Blavatsky, sees these added books as vehicles for her Luciferian doctrines. She snickers in her book, Isis Unveiled, of Westcott's ardor for this material, recognizing it as the domain of the occult world. She recognizes (the contents of The Shepherd of Hermas) as direct excerpts from pagan literature. She gives several pages of quotes showing the parallels between Aleph's apocryphal Shepherd of Hermas and occult writings (She not only shows these added books to be occultic, but throws in Lightfoot himself, who she quotes to support her views on magic: Lightfoot assures us that this voice [which] responded from the mercy-seat within the veil was indeed performed by magic art. ( New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger page 558.)

THE EPISTLE OF BARNABAS

The epistle of Barnabas: This Apocryphal book sits between the book of revelation and the Shepherd of Hermas in manuscript Aleph (Sinaiticus). It is written in the same handwriting as the rest of Aleph, by someone who apparently believed it to be inspired. Lightfoot, makes the following comment regarding this 'epistle': "It was written in Alexandria...and cited by Origen and Clement." (New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger page 579)

 

ORIGEN AND THE NEW AGE

MONISM

Origen: "Sun, moon and stars are animated and rational, the temporary body of souls which shall hereafter be released from them and finally be brought into the great unity." "The individual...exists only as part of the cosmos." (New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger page 539.)

OFFICE OF CHRIST

Origen: "The Son is less than the Father". "In the incarnation, the son united Himself with a soul which had remained absolutely pure in its preexistent state."

New Age: Teach: (1) Christ is a creature, a begotten God, "ranked beneath God." (2) Separate 'the Christ' (the Logos) from Jesus, calling Christ consciousness "itself" not himself.

NEW AGE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHY

Origen: "Some by diligent obedience have been raised to the loftiest places in the celestial hierarchy."

(New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger page 540.)

New Age: Calls devils 'demons'. Presents a spiritual ranking system with Christ as the highest 'rank'. Teaches salvation by diligent "obedience". Says there is a plurality of "gods".

Origen: "Their variety tend to the one end of perfection." "All things were made for the sake of man." "The end of life then...is the progressive assimilation of man to God." (New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger page 541)

Origen: Believed, "The position of each has been determined in accordance with previous conduct."

Blavatsky: Origen held all the daemons which possessed the demoniacs mentioned in the New Testament to be human "spirits." (Isis Unveiled, Vol. 1 Page 353 H.P. Blavatsky)

Origen, the Platonist, wrote the first draft of Sinaiticus (Aleph) helps clarify the meaning of Hermas 'black ones'. Hort's hours spent in Plato give rise to his comment: The niggers themselves...they have surely shown themselves only as an immeasurably inferior race, just human and no more, their religion frothy and sensuous, their highest virtues those of a good Newfoundland dog. (B.F.Westcott, essays in the History of Religious Thought in the West, Page 25,211 and Origen, De Principis, Book 2 Ch. 11, and New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger page 589)

Christian Plantonism, as developed at Alexandria...[has] three representative names...Philo, Clement, and Origen...Among later developments of Christian Plantonism...it is necessary to mention...the Cambridge Plantonists of the seveneeth century, and in our day the theology of F.D. Maurice [Hort’s ‘Apostle’]and Westcott...Alexandrianism has been revived by mordern thinkers. ...Westcott...Hort. ( The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Page 318,319.)

Westcott also chose to ignore the scriptural admonition against philosophy; he even wrote an entire book, Religious Thought in the West, showcasing Plato, Aeschylus, Euripides, Dionysius, Origen and others. This book was not written during a mental hiatus from his position in the Anglican church, but between 1866-1883 the very years in which his Revised Version was taking shape. (New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger page 524.)

The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics follows the tracks of the wolf pack down to the twentieth century: Clement and Origen, by which...Platonism...was incorporated into Christianity...[M]odern thinkers, for example Westcott, are in sympathy with Clement and Origen. The Encyclopedia closes its article on 'Alexandrianism' citing Hort's opinion of Clement: 'In Clement, Christian theology, in some important respects, reaches its highest point...There was no one whose vision of what the faith of Jesus Christ was intended to do for mankind was so full and so true.' .(The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Page 318,319.)

The History of Heresy calls Origen a 'Christian Gnostic' who was pronounced a 'heretic' by a series of general synods.( David Christie-Murray, The History of Heresy, Page 6.)

The Encyclopedia Man, Myth and Magic list Ammonius Saccas of Alexandria as the foundation of the New Age philosophy. Wescott seems to share Blavatsky's ardour for Saccas when writing: His success shewed that he had some neglected forms of truth to make known; and Origen became one of his hearers..There can be no doubt that Origen was deeply influenced by the new philosophy.

Blavatsky summonses Origen dozens of times in her Isis Unveiled to pander her occult doctrines. (Religious Thought in the West, Page 207, and New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger page 526.)

Blavatsky: It is maintained, on purely historical grounds, that Origen and even Clemens Alexandrinus, had been themselves initiated into the mysteries.(The Secret Doctrine,Vol. 1 Page xliv Introductory by H.P.Blavatsky

The McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia records Origen: saying, "[T]he scriptures are of little use to those who understand them as they are written. "Hidden Wisdom vaults Origen's allegorical method of bible interpretation saying: Disciples of Saccas and the neo-platonists of Alexandria and their successors [Clement and Origen] down to this present day [Westcott, Hort, and Blavatsky] have all regarded world scripture as being largely, but not entirely allegorical. The hidden sense lies concealed. (New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger page 527 and The Esoteric Basis of Christianity, Page 149.)

New Age books like The Hidden Wisdom in the Holy Bible, quote Origen at length with such blasphemies as, "[T]he law of men appear more excellent and reasonable than the laws of God.

Shirley MacLaine's "We are not under the law of God. We are the law of God." (New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger p. 507.)

H.P.Blavatsky

"It is well known that Origen, and Clement.confessed that the Bible is a veiled and secret book"

( The Secret Doctrine, Page 100,565,)

Corrine Heline author of New Age Bible Interpretation:

Cites Origen and his belief that "The entire bible is written so that it has one meaning for the masses of the people and another for occult students." (New Age Bible Interpretation, Page 32.)

Westcott repeats the New Age Bible Interpretation's view:

It must be remembered that the book (Origen's on First Principle) was not for simple believers but for scholars for those who were familiar with the teachings of Gnosticism and Platonism...question which...become urgent when men have risen to a wide view of Nature and life. He aimed at presenting the higher knowledge. (Religious Thought in the West, Page 225.)


Westcott's son tells us that:

For many years the works of Origen were close to his (Westcott's) hand and he turned to them at every opportunity." For this reason Westcott was selected to write the section on Origen in the Dictionary of Christian Biography. ( New Directions in New Testament Study, Page 277.)

In the nineteenth century the so-called Broad Church school in the Church of England ....owed a good deal to the platonic tradition, and B.F. Westcott (1825-1901), bishop of Darham, was an admiring student of Origen. More recently, W.R. Inge (1860-1954 dean of St Paul's, was a profound student of Plotinus, whose deep influence is to be seen in the mystical emphasis in his theology. In the philosophical milieu of Alexandria there grew up the Christian Platonist school whose most important represntatives were Clement and Origen. Origen barrowed from the platonic tradition the doctrines, sharply at variance with the general tradition of Christiaqnty, Of the soul's pre-existance, of a cosmic Fall, and of reincarnation. ( The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Vol. 6 Page 338,339)

Moody's Alfred Martin agrees:

"Origen's influence in promoting the spiritualizing method of Bible interpretation has done untold damage. Hort relied on him perhaps more than any Father. (David Otis Fuller, Which Bible, Page 146.)

The church declared Origen a heretic because he held the following beliefs:

1. The Logos is subordinate to the Father and has characteristics similar to the Logos of the Gnostics.

2. The soul is preexistent; Jesus took on some preexistent human soul. #

3. There was no physical resurrection of Christ nor will there be a second coming. Man will not have a physical resurrection.

4. Hell is nonexistent; purgatory, of which Paul and Peter must partake, does exist.

5. All, including the devil, will be reconciled to God.*

6. The sun, moon and stars are living creatures +

7. Emasculation, of which he partook, is called for males.

  • Blavatsky:

  • * Origen maintains that not only men, but even devils ( by which term he meant disembodied human sinners), after a certain duration of punishment shall be pardoned and finally restored to heaven (Isis Unveiled , by H.P. Blavatsky Vol 2 Page 13)

  • # Plato. Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, the Eleatic schools of Greece, as well as the old Chaldean colleges, all taught the doctrine of the transmigration of souls referring only to the the progress of man from world to world, after death here. Every philosophy worthy of the name, taught that the spirit of man, if not the soul, was pre-existent. "The Essenes," says Josephus, "believed that souls were immortal, and that they desended from the ethereal spaces to be chained to bodies." Philo says the "air is full of them [of souls]; those which are nearest the earth, desending to be tied to mortal bodies." Even the Apostle Paul said: 1 Cor 15: 47 The first man is of the earth earthy, the second man from heaven . [Authors note:] Blavatsky is quoting Westcott and Horts New Greek Text, see page 125 concordance in this book.

  • + And of these souls the moon is the element, because souls resolve into her, as the bodies of the deceased do into the earth. ... Blavatsky said that Kepler the forerunner of Newton shared the kabalistic belief that the spirits of the stars are so many "intelligences." He firmly believes that each planet is the seat of an intelligent principle, and that they are all inhabited by spiritual beings, who exercise influences over other beings inhabitng more gross and material spheres than their own and especially over our earth. ...Kepler, the eminent astronomer, fully credited the idea that the stars and all heavenly bodies, even our earth, are endowed with living and thinking souls.(Isis Unveiled , by H.P. Blavatsky Vol 2 P. 280,282 & 285 & Vol 1 P. 208, 253)

  • Westcott stands at odds with the church saying. [Origen] conclusions remain unshaken." (New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger page 529.)

    Origen

    Hell is "figurative".The devil and fallen angels will exit hell and return to heaven.(De Civit Dei, I, xxi, c. 17.)

    Origen maintained that not only men, but even devils (by which term he meant disembodied human sinners), after a certain duration of punishment shall be pardoned and finally restored to heaven . (Isis Unveiled By H.P. Blavatsky Vol 2 page 13)

    It is evidenced in the fact that, in spite of Hort's admission of 'heresy' he WAS hired as chaplain. His son writes:

    For the next six years (he) lectured to the theological students at Emmanuel College. The subjects were Origen...Clement...etc...(h)is lecturing which exercised a kind of spell over the more thoughtful listener....There has grown up ...a kind of cult around him. There is something mysterious about those lectures. (New Age Bible Version, By Gail Riplinger p. 629)

    Hort evidently went to one too many Ghostly Guild meetings. Dr. Louis Talbot comments, "Some...including Origen...conceived that the ransom was given to Satan...this mythological tale had a strong appeal...but not to anyone who believes God’s word." ( What’s Wrong With Unity School of Christianity by Dr. Louis T. Talbot, Page 34)

    SPURGEON ON ARIAN & SOCINIANISM

    Authors note ARIAN (Collins English Dictionary: Arius of Alexandria , who denied Christ's divinity. A follower of Arius - Arianism the heretical doctrine of the Arians.) Westcott and Hort followers of Origen, were all Arian in belief. Origen rejected the deity of Christ and claimed Christ was a created being. (Encyclopedia Britannica 1936 Vol. 16, pages 900 - 902 . says Origen taught that the Lord Jesus Christ is a created being who did not have eternal existence as God.) Socinianism (Collins English Dictionary:)

    Return to Navigation