INTRODUCTION

Book 15 of Origen’s Commentary on the Gospel according to Matthew covers the following pericopes from Matthew:

§§1-5 – Matt 19.12, on the three types of eunuchs

§§6-9 – Matt 19.13-15, on Jesus’ ministry to the little children brought to him

§§10-27 – Matt 19.16-30, on the rich inheriting the kingdom

§§28-37 – Matt 20.1-16, on the parable of the hired workers

Origen’s Commentary on Matthew originally comprised 25 books (St. Jerome, Ep. 33.4). Of these, apart from various fragments, only Books 10-17 have survived whole in the original Greek. Until recently, with the publication of Ronald Heine’s translation of what remains of Origen’s Commentary on Matthew, to my knowledge no English translation of the Greek text of Books 15-17 was ever produced. The Ante-Nicene Fathers series contains a translation of Books 10-14 (Greek),^[1] and no reason is offered for why the translation was not continued. Aside from that, translations of occasional selections of the commentary can be found in, e.g., Balthasar’s Origen: Spirit & Fire, the Ancient Christian Commentary on Matthew, in The Church’s Bible volume on Matthew, and in other secondary scholarly discussions.

I first made available my translation in 2017, then with revisions in 2019, and in the present iteration I have made several adjustments in light of Ronald Heine’s excellent translation, which are noted in footnotes.^[2] I hope that my side-by-side presentation of text and translation will still be of use and benefit, in any case.

In relationship to Origen’s body of work, the Commentary on Matthew, dating from AD 244 or after,^[3] is one of his latest works, along with Contra Celsum.^[4] These two works, says Heine, “provide Origen’s most mature thinking about the Christian faith”^[5]—they are, as it were, the crowning achievement of Origen’s career.^[6]

While one still encounters in the Commentary of Matthew some of his more daring and, what would later be deemed, more questionable speculations, particularly in the realms of protology and eschatology, they are generally presented in very oblique and reticent ways, with Origen’s constant self-effacing rhetorical conclusions that invite the reader to accept or disregard his readings, or offer a better reading if possible. The following is a list of such subjects:

• A subordinationist account of the Logos’ relationship to God (§10),^[7] to be balanced with a reference to the “the principal Trinity [τῆς ἀρχικῆς τριάδος]” (§31)

• The language of apokatastasis applied particularly to Christ’s “return” to the Father (§24)

• Allusion to the pre-existence of souls (§27)

• The idea of a succession of ages (§31)

These things aside, we do find in this book one of Origen’s most illuminating comments on his massive work of textual criticism, the Hexapla (§14). Likewise, if one is inclined to read them as such, both Origen’s treatment of the question of becoming a eunuch and of selling all one’s possessions and giving them to the poor can be read as indirectly auto-biographical.^[8]

In terms of biblical exegesis, this book comprises a wonderful sample of Origen’s hermeneutical/exegetical vocabulary and method, in his original Greek. One of the primary take-aways from the Commentary is the consistency with which Origen treats the task of interpreting Scripture regardless of the Testament, Old or New. “Allegory”—and the varied synonyms for spiritual interpretation, tropology, anagogy, typology, symbology—is hardly a hermeneutical tool reserved for the Old Testament, for the New Testament is equally enigmatic and its “letter” is as equally able to “kill” the reader as is the Old Testament. The reason for this, of course, is that all of Scripture participates in the mystery of Christ’s incarnation, and thus instantiates a movement from knowledge according to the “flesh/letter” to knowledge according to the “spirit” (Comm. Matt. 15.3, quoting 2 Cor 5.16).

The question of Jewish-Christian relations, likely made urgent by the socio-cultural realities in Caesarea Palestine, frames Origen’s interpretive engagement with Matthew’s Gospel.^[9] Indeed, the question of covenantal and ecclesial continuity/discontinuity emerges several times here in Book 15, particularly at §26 and in his salvation-historical reading of parable of the hired workers (§§28-37).