Introduction to This Volume

How this book is arranged

This is the eighth volume of a series that gathers the writings of the early Church in order of date, from the generation after the apostles down to the eighth century. This volume holds a group of early third-century writers, and begins the writings of Origen of Alexandria.

Within each work the text is divided into chapters and numbered sections, so that any passage can be found again and cited. The small bold figures in the text are the section numbers.

The translations

The text is in English only. Wherever a modern English version has been prepared for SermonIndex it is used here; otherwise the book prints an older public-domain translation. In both cases the wording is the translator’s own: older translations have not been altered beyond dividing them into sections. The sources for every work are listed at the back of the book, together with the licence under which each text is released. All the works in this volume are printed in older public-domain translations.

In this volume

The first part gathers three writers of the early third century. Julius Africanus, a Christian scholar from Palestine, wrote a chronicle of the world; only fragments of it remain, with letters and short pieces that go with it. Minucius Felix, a Latin writer, composed the Octavius, a dialogue between a pagan and a Christian that is among the most polished defences of the faith in Latin. Commodian wrote a Latin poem of instruction for Christians. The date and place of Commodian are debated: the older editions followed here place him in the third century, though some scholars date him later.

The second part begins Origen, who was born in Alexandria about AD 185 and taught there before settling at Caesarea in Palestine, where he wrote most of his later work. He died about AD 253 after suffering in the persecution under Decius. His On First Principles, which survives mainly in the Latin translation of Rufinus, is the first systematic Christian theology. On Prayer is a treatise on the Lord’s Prayer and on how to pray. The Philocalia is an anthology of passages from Origen’s writings on Scripture, put together in the fourth century.

Some of Origen’s speculations, especially on the pre-existence of souls and on the final restoration of all things, were disputed in his own time and were later condemned in the sixth century. The reader will meet them in First Principles. The remaining writings of Origen follow in the next four volumes.

Dates and authorship

Dates are approximate and are debated by scholars. Each work begins with a short introduction that states what is known about its author and its date, and what is uncertain.