In translating what is extant of Origen of Alexandria's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Ronald Heine has once again performed a considerable service for those interested in Origen's life and thought. Heine's extensive efforts at translating Origen's commentaries and homilies have brought Origen the exegete and preacher to life for the modern English-speaking world. This is no accident, for Heine recognises that in writing, teaching and eventually preaching ‘Origen's chief task was the interpretation of Scripture’ (p. 7). The Commentary on Matthew in particular is of great importance first, because it is ‘the largest of all his preserved works’ and second, because it is his ‘last preserved exegetical work’ (p. 1) to which we now have access and is therefore an important resource for understanding his most mature thought.
Heine commences his two-volume translation with an insightful introduction. He introduces Origen's exegesis with selections from the Commentary on Matthew that epitomise thematic, hermeneutical and theological strands perduring across Origen's exegetical writings, and deconstructs conventional reductions in the modern scholarly reception of his vision for interpreting Scripture. Among the various highlights, Heine provides a perceptive analysis of cross-references in Origen's writings, making a compelling case that the Commentary on Matthew comes after Contra Celsum (pp. 26–8).
The arrangement of the translation, for which Heine relies on the 1935 critical text of Erich Klostermann (and Ernst Benz), requires some explanation. Heine has elected to translate in full both the extant Greek and Latin versions. Of the twenty-five books, which originally comprised the Commentary on Matthew, the first nine are lost. In the first volume, Heine translates and annotates what has been preserved in Greek (codex Monacensis 191), which includes books x through xvii (Matthew xiii.36–xxii.33). He completes the first volume with an appendix containing fourth-century fragments (pp. 320–4) attributed to Origen by name, allocated to a particular book of Origen's Commentary on Matthew, and ‘generally trusted as reliable sources for the material they report’ (p. 319); and catena fragments (pp. 324–60) that Klostermann collected from later catena commentaries. For economy and to avoid redundancy, Heine excludes the fragments in Klostermann that are complete in the Greek or Latin transmission of the text and those attributed to multiple authors. In the second volume, he translates and annotates what has been preserved in Latin. This includes the Vetus interpretatio, that is book xii, chapter 9 through book xvii (Matthew xvi.13–xxii.33) running parallel to the extant Greek text, which was already translated in the first volume. Also included in the extant Latin is what Heine takes to be books xviii through xxv of Origen's Commentary on Matthew (Matthew xxii.34–xxvii.66), which is commonly identified as the Series commentatiorum because it is formatted differently without breaks between the books. While at first readers will likely be somewhat disoriented by Heine's organisation of the materials, he has inherited a difficult set of documents attesting Origen's Commentary on Matthew and in my judgement he has made good decisions about how to arrange them, offers sufficient guidelines for accessing them, and provides scholars with that which is most likely to represent the historical Origen, all the while conceding the appropriate level of caution.
The quality of Heine's translation of the Greek and Latin critical editions is noteworthy, for in both cases he simultaneously offers a lucid, easy-to-read translation and shows striking consistency in his translation of technical vocabulary from Origen's corpus. Rather than letting this force him to translate certain passage awkwardly, he will sometimes translate a term differently to fit the context, but when he does so he notes the shift for the reader. For example, although he chooses to translate Λόγος simply as ‘Logos’, he translates it as ‘Word’ when Origen is making a word play between the Word and words (p. 289). Another illuminating example is Heine's consistency in translating Origen's use of language relating to power. Enabling the English reader to analyse Origen's discourses on miracles and on the relationship between divine and human power, he translates terms related to δύναμις and uirtus as ‘power,’ ‘capacity’ or ‘capability’. The same technical awareness can be observed in his recognition of Origen's familiarity with Stoic moral psychology and the importance of technical terms such as ὁρμή or ‘impulse’. While scholars will still need to explore Origen in the original Greek and in Latin translation, Heine's technical precision will aid English-speaking scholars in reading his commentaries and in teaching his exegesis rather than only attending to his speculative theology in the Περί Αρχών.
Concerning Heine's annotations, he does well to use footnotes for ease of use and his scriptural cross-references are accurate and plentiful without being overwrought. Keeping his notes brief, he offers many signposts to the reader. Among these notations can be included useful notes on word play; observable exegetical strategies; justifications for departing from otherwise consistent translation decisions; explanations of differences between the biblical texts at Origen's disposal and modern versions; points of interpretive continuity and discontinuity with Origen's other works; rationales for important word choices; and judgements of some of the Latin translation decisions on the basis of the extant Greek text. Heine also incorporates notes explaining the etymological relationships underlying Origen's terminological discussions; highlighting Origen's use of classical rhetoric; accounting for the ancient views that Origen expresses about topics such as astrology and human medical biology; acknowledging the incorporation of the Latin translation when the Greek is imperfect or unclear; signaling the importance of earlier Jewish and philosophical sources; providing alternative translation options for difficult phrases or sentences; omitting a number of sentences in the catena fragments as coming from Chrysostom, though attributed to Origen; indicating places where the Latin translator may be inserting his own comments about Origen's commentary; noting when the Latin translator follows the Vulgate instead of Origen; pointing out where the Latin translation is missing large portions of text; making known what Greek terms the Latin might be translating in cases for which we do not have the Greek text; and including Greek fragments for texts in the Series otherwise unattested in Greek. Although Heine has not performed the commentatorial work that scholars have come to appreciate in a series like the Sources Chrétiennes, these brief annotations are a considerable resource for readers of this text.
In the Commentary on Matthew Origen puts on display his hermeneutical and theological imagination. He applies his method of interpreting the Gospels by comparing their accounts down to the differences in their wording, deploys the analogia fidei in reading Scripture with Scripture, utilises numerology and indicates the need to recognise the forma serui and the forma Dei when considering Christ in the Gospels. Origen assumes the necessity of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and participation in Christ for the spiritual interpretation of Scripture. He explains false interpretations and shows in commenting on Scripture how he understands the integral relation between the literal and spiritual senses of the text. He attends also to the relationship between the testaments and to the nature and fulfillment of prophecy. Theologically, Origen offers beautiful accounts of the centrality of Christ's death and human mortification, the power of God operative in creation and salvation, and the character of salvation history. There are many other such topics to be studied for those who will read this wonderful commentary completed in Caesarea Maratima near the end of Origen's life.
There is no question that the countless hours that Heine has laboured on this project form a profound act of service to students of Origen, young and old, lay, ecclesial and academic. Heine himself intends – as he attests in the preface – that through reading the Commentary on Matthew people will come to know and to experience the Word made flesh in the light of Origen's effulgent brilliance and Christian devotion. That these volumes form a labour of love is evident in the expression that they give to Origen's exegetical genius and pastoral heart.
