And witnesses to his success in these matters are the very Greeks, the philosophers who flourished in his day, in whose writings we have found much mention of the man—at one time dedicating their own discourses to him, at another referring their own labours to him as to a teacher for his judgment.
Why need one say these things, when even Porphyry, who in our own time settled in Sicily, having composed writings against us and in them attempted to slander the divine Scriptures, and having made mention of those who had expounded them, being able in no way at all to bring any base charge against the doctrines, for lack of arguments turns to reviling and to slandering the expositors, and most of all Origen?
Saying that he had known him in his early youth, he attempts to slander him, but unawares actually commended the man—speaking truth in those things in which he could not speak otherwise, and lying in those in which he thought he would escape notice; at one time accusing him as a Christian, at another describing his proficiency in the philosophic studies.
Hear, then, what he says in these very words: 「Some, in their eagerness to find a solution—not an abandonment—of the worthlessness of the Jewish Scriptures, betook themselves to interpretations that are incoherent and ill-fitted to what is written, bringing not so much a defence on behalf of the foreign matter as acceptance and praise for what is their own. For having vaunted that the things plainly spoken by Moses are riddles, and having treated them as divine utterances full of hidden mysteries, and having through their pretentiousness bewitched the critical faculty of the soul, they bring forward interpretations.」
Then, after some other matters, he says: 「But this manner of absurdity must be referred to a man with whom I too, while still quite young, became acquainted, one who was held in very high repute and who is still held in repute through the writings he has left behind—Origen, whose renown has been widely spread abroad among the teachers of these doctrines.」
「For this man, having been a hearer of Ammonius, who had attained the greatest proficiency in philosophy in our times, in respect of experience in discourse gained much profit from his teacher; but in respect of the right choice of life he took the opposite course to him.」
「For Ammonius, being a Christian brought up by Christian parents, when he laid hold of understanding and of philosophy, straightway changed over to the manner of life ordered by the laws; but Origen, a Greek educated in Greek learning, drove headlong into barbarian recklessness; to which, carrying himself and his proficiency in discourse, he prostituted them—in his manner of life living as a Christian and contrary to the laws, but in his opinions about realities and the Deity playing the Greek and slipping the things of the Greeks under foreign fables.」
「For he was ever in the company of Plato, and was conversant with the writings of Numenius and Cronius, of Apollophanes and Longinus and Moderatus and Nicomachus and the men of repute among the Pythagoreans; and he made use also of the books of Chaeremon the Stoic and of Cornutus, from whom, having learned the figurative method of the mysteries among the Greeks, he applied it to the Jewish Scriptures.」
These things were said by Porphyry in the third treatise of those written by him against the Christians; speaking truth concerning the man's discipline and much learning, but lying plainly—for what would the man who wrote against the Christians not do?—in those passages in which he says that the one (Origen) had crossed over from the Greeks, while Ammonius had fallen away from a life of godliness to the heathen manner.
For to Origen the things of the teaching according to Christ had been preserved from his forefathers, as the foregoing history also made clear; while for Ammonius the things of his inspired philosophy remained pure and unfallen even down to the last end of his life, as indeed the man's labours still testify even now, through the writings which he left behind, held in repute among very many—such as the one entitled 「On the Harmony of Moses and Jesus,」 and as many others as are found among the lovers of the beautiful.
Let these things, then, be set down for a demonstration both of the false slanderer's calumny and of Origen's wide experience even in the studies of the Greeks; concerning which, in defending himself to certain persons who found fault with him for his zeal about those things, he writes thus in a certain letter:
「Since, as I was devoted to the word, and as the report concerning our proficiency ran abroad, there came to me at one time heretics, at another those from the Greek studies, and especially those in philosophy, it seemed good to examine both the doctrines of the heretics and the things which the philosophers profess to say concerning the truth.」
「And this we did, imitating both Pantaenus, who before us benefited many and had no small preparation in those matters, and Heraclas, who now sits in the presbytery of the Alexandrians, whom I found with the teacher of philosophic studies, having already persevered five years with him before I began to hear those discourses.」
「Wherefore also, having before used the common dress, he put it off and took up a philosopher's garb, which he keeps up to this present, and does not cease, as far as he is able, to study the books of the Greeks.」 And these things were said by him in defending himself concerning his Greek discipline.
About this time, while he was making his sojourn at Alexandria, one of the military men came and presented letters to Demetrius the bishop of the community, and to the then prefect of Egypt, from the governor of Arabia, to the effect that they should send Origen with all speed to share discourse with him. Accordingly, having been escorted by them, he came to Arabia; and, having brought to a conclusion not long after the business of his coming, he returned again to Alexandria.
But after some time had passed in the interval, no small war having been fanned up in the city, he stole away from Alexandria; and, deeming the sojourn in Egypt no longer safe for himself, he came to Palestine and made his sojourn in Caesarea, where the bishops of that place asked him to discourse and to interpret the divine Scriptures in the common assembly of the church, although he had not yet attained to the ordination of the presbyterate.
And this very thing would become manifest from what Alexander the bishop of Jerusalem and Theoctistus the bishop of Caesarea, writing to Demetrius about this matter, plead in some such way as this. He added in his letters that this had never been heard of, nor was it done even now—that laymen should preach when bishops were present—in which, I know not how, he plainly does not speak the truth.
「For wherever there are found men fit to benefit the brethren, they are exhorted by the holy bishops to address the people—as at Laranda Euelpis by Neon, and at Iconium Paulinus by Celsus, and at Synnada Theodorus by Atticus, our blessed brethren. And it is likely that this is being done in other places as well, though we do not know it.」 This man, while still young, the person we have mentioned was thus honoured not only by the bishops of his own acquaintance but also by those abroad.
But when Demetrius again recalled him by letters, and through men who were deacons of the church urged him to hasten back to Alexandria, he came and accomplished his customary labours.