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QUESTION: The Bible states that the Son is begotten of God the Father. Origen of Alexandria agrees. But he also states that the Son is eternally generated by an active act of the Father’s will. Do you think that, with respect to the Son, the concept of begotten and generation are the same or different? And if the Son is eternally generated by an active act of the Father’s will, would it be possible for and Son to not exist during times where this is the Father’s will?
ORIGEN OF ALEXANDRIA (c.185–253). Origen of Alexandria was an early Christian scholar and theologian who wrote thousands of treatises covering textual criticism, biblical exegesis, hermeneutics, homiletics, and spirituality. Some of the more notable contributions of Origin to theology include: the ransom-to-Satan theory of atonement; an early advocate of libertarian free will and the corresponding rejection of predestined election; the preexistence of souls (later condemned as heretical); a threefold interpretive method of Scripture (later expanded into the Quadriga); and an early defender of the Holy Spirit being part of the Godhead. Origen founded the Christian School of Caesarea, where he taught logic, cosmology, natural history, and theology, and became regarded by the churches of Palestine and Arabia as the ultimate authority on all matters of theology. He was tortured for his faith during the Decian persecution in 250 and died three to four years later from his injuries. Origen wrote the first systematic theology textbook, On First Principles, in which he addresses all aspects of theology including the Trinity. It is from On First Principles that we take our readings.
READING 1: The kind of doctrines which are believed in plain terms through the apostolic teaching are the following: First, that God is one, who created and set in order all things, and who, when nothing existed, caused the universe … This God, in these last days, according to the previous announcements made through his prophets, sent the Lord Jesus Christ, first for the purpose of calling Israel, and secondly, after the unbelief of the people of Israel, of calling the Gentiles also … Then again, Christ Jesus, he who came to earth, was begotten of the Father before every created thing. And after he had ministered to the Father in the foundation of all things, for “all things were made through him” in these last times he emptied himself and was made man, was made flesh, although he was God; and being made man, he still remained what he was, namely, God … Then again, the apostles delivered this doctrine, that the Holy Spirit is united in honor and dignity with the Father and the Son. In regard to him it is not yet clearly known whether he is to be thought of as begotten or unbegotten, or as being himself also a Son of God or not; but these are matters which we must investigate to the best of our power from holy scripture, inquiring with wisdom and diligence. [Origen, On First Principles, Book 1, Preface]
READING 2: God the father, since he is both invisible and inseparable from the Son, generated the Son not, as some suppose, by an act of separation from himself … we do nor say, as the heretics suppose, that a part of God’s substance was changed into the Son, or that the Son was procreated by the Father out of no substance at all, that is, from something external to God’s own substance, so that there was a time when the Son did not exist; but setting aside all thought of a material body, we say that the Word and Wisdom was begotten of the invisible and incorporeal God apart from any bodily feeling, like an act of will proceeding from the mind. [Origen, On First Principles, Book 4, Ch. 4, “Summary of Doctrine Concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and of the Other Matters Discussed in the Foregoing Chapters”]
READING 3: This phrase that we use, however, that there never was a time when he did not exist, must be accepted with a reservation. For the very words, when, or never, have a temporal significance, whereas the statements we make about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit must be understood as transcending all time and all ages and all eternity. For it is this Trinity alone which exceeds all comprehension, not only of temporal but even of eternal intelligence. [Origen, On First Principles, Book 4, Ch. 4, “Summary of Doctrine Concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and of the Other Matters Discussed in the Foregoing Chapters”]
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