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Basileia bei Origenes: Historisch-semantische Untersuchungen im Matthäuskommentar. By Angelica Dinger

2022; Oxford University Press; Volume: 73; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/jts/flac096

1477-4607

Joseph S. O’Leary,

Byzantine Studies and History

This is a substantial study of a still-neglected major work of Origen. The introduction lays out the author’s positions on the interpretation of Origen and especially of his biblical exegesis; they are sensible and well documented, and the presentation is impeccable. Her discussion of the Commentary on Matthew proceeds in six steps: 1. The concept of basileia in pagan use, in Matthew, in Alexandria, and in Origen’s Commentary. Some may cavil that there should have been a discussion of the concept in Judaism and in all of Origen’s other texts, but the chosen topic is enough of a handful without looking further afield. 2. Descriptions of basileia, notably in connections with parables: the kingdom is Scripture and spiritual things; it is described as the vineyard of Israel, and then of the Church, but also of reason implanted in the soul with virtues as its grapes (p. 207); Christ is perhaps the autobasileia (XIV, 7). From this it already emerges that Origen is not tightly bound to what the Gospel says of the kingdom. 3. Participation in the basileia: through knowledge of doctrine, and through virtue. The question of riches. 4. The disciples. 5. ‘This chapter will place Origen’s statements about “the Jews” within his theology of basileia and would like thus to make a contribution to processing Christian anti-Judaism and to sensitizing people over against anti-Jewish statements transmitted in Christianity’ (p. 198). It is heartening to see the defensiveness that used to surround this topic subside. Dinger notes the contradiction between Origen’s appreciative interchange with Jewish scholars living and dead and his polemic against Jews as blind literalists in his homilies (p. 201). The most fateful text is found on the lips of Jesus, ‘The kingdom of God will be taken from them’ (Matt. 21:43), often cited by Origen as the basic charter for his interpretation of the Jews’ situation. Their eschatological liberation will mean their entire absorption into an ‘all embracing unity’ (p. 213). The Jews were not given, but merely lent, the vineyard, and their election seems to be conditional and ‘for a time’. Dinger rejects Theresia Heither’s effort to make Origen sound like Vatican II (p. 218). Origen’s unconvincing arguments are due to his inability to admit contradictions in Scripture (p. 219). Regrettably, she does not cite Giuseppe Sgherri, Chiesa e sinagoge nelle opere di Origene (Milan, 1982). 6. A counter-probe: Origen’s use of the basileia concept.