Page 74 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

BIBLE VERSIONS

Christianity. He is called “a Christian philosopher of the determine the text of Scripture. The following example
Stoic sect” (McClintock & Strong Cyclopedia). is from The Causes of the Corruption of the Traditional
Clement of Alexandria (his full name was Titus Text of the Holy Scriptures by John Burgon and Edward
Flavius Clement) (115-215 A.D.), a student of Miller (1896): “In this Commentary Origen, the leading
Pantaenus, taught at Alexandria from about 190-202 Christian critic of antiquity, gives us an insight into the
A.D. Clement also intermingled Christianity with pagan arbitrary and highly subjective manner in which New
philosophy; he was one of fathers of purgatory; he Testament textual criticism was carried on at Alexandria
taught baptismal regeneration; he taught that most men about 230 AD. In his comment on Matthew 19:17-21
will be saved; he accepted apocryphal books as divinely (Jesus’ reply to the rich young man) Origen reasons that
inspired; he believed that men could become God. Jesus could not have concluded his list of God’s
Clement “saw Greek philosophy as a preliminary commandments with the comprehensive requirement,
discipline, a schoolmaster, to point the pagan world the Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. For the reply of
way to Christ” (Sightler, Tabernacle Essays on Bible the young man was, All these things have I kept from
Translation, 1992, p. 7). my youth up, and Jesus evidently accepted this
Another heretic associated with Alexandria was statement as true. But if the young man had loved his
Origen (185-254 A.D.), who succeeded Clement. He laid neighbor as himself, he would have been perfect, for
the foundation for modern versions with his Paul says that the whole law is summed up in this
commentaries and textual changes. Philip Schaff saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But
admitted that Origen’s “predilection for Plato (the pagan Jesus answered, If thou wilt be perfect etc., implying,
philosopher) led him into many grand and fascinating that the young man was not yet perfect. Therefore,
errors.” The Lutheran historian Johann Mosheim Origen argued, the commandment, Thou shalt love thy
describes him as “a compound of contraries, wise and neighbor as thyself, could not have been spoken by
unwise, acute and stupid, judicious and injudicious; the Jesus on this occasion and was not part of the original
enemy of superstition, and its patron; a strenuous text of Matthew. The clause had been added, Origen
defender of Christianity, and its corrupter; energetic and concluded, by some tasteless scribe.” Thus, Origen made
irresolute; one to whom the Bible owes much, and from crucial textual decisions based on his own faulty
who it has suffered much” (An Ecclesiastical History, reasoning. Contrary to Origen’s claim, it is very obvious
Ancient and Modern, from the Birth of Christ to the that the Lord Jesus did not accept the rich young ruler’s
Beginning of the Eighteenth Century, 1840). profession that he had kept the law from his young up,
Origen held the following doctrinal errors, among for the simple reason that no man has done such a thing
(Ro. 3:19-23; Ga. 3:10; Ja. 2:10-11). In His reply to the
others. He denied the infallible inspiration of Scripture. rich young ruler, the Christ was exposing the sinful
He rejected the literal history of the early chapters in condition of the young man’s heart and his deceit in
Genesis and of Satan taking the Lord Jesus up to a high thinking that he was righteous. Christ was using the law
mountain and offering him the kingdoms of the world for its divinely-intended purpose, which is to reveal
(Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. III, p. 614). man’s sin and to lead him to repentance and faith in the
He accepted infant baptism and taught baptismal Gospel.
regeneration and salvation by works. He believed the
Holy Spirit was possibly a created being of some sort. Origen brazenly tampered with the text of Scripture.
He believed in a form of purgatory and universalism, Consider the testimony of Presbyterian scholar Robert
denying the literal fire of hell and believing that even Dabney:
Satan would be saved eventually. He believed that men’s “Origen exercised a powerful influence over the
souls are preexistent and that stars and planets possibly transmission of the Greek text in the period before
have souls. He believed that Jesus was a created being some of the most ancient copies now in existence were
and not eternal. He denied the bodily resurrection, written. ... HE WAS THE GREAT CORRUPTER, AND
THE SOURCE, OR AT LEAST THE CHANNEL, OF
claiming that the resurrection body is spherical, non- NEARLY ALL THE SPECULATIVE ERRORS WHICH
material, and does not have members. Origen PLAGUED THE CHURCH IN AFTER AGES. Nolan
allegorized the Bible saying, “The Scriptures have little asserts that the most characteristic discrepancies
use to those who understand them literally.” between the common Greek text and the texts current
Origen was the first textual critic. “To Origen is in Palestine and Egypt in Origen’s day are distinctly
attributed the earliest substantial work in the field of traceable to a Marcionite or Valentinian source, and
textual criticism” (Kenneth I. Brown, The Church Fathers that ORIGEN’S WAS THE MEDIATING HAND FOR
and the Text of the New Testament, p. 21). He produced INTRODUCING THESE CORRUPTIONS INTO THE
LATTER TEXTS. IT IS HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT THAT
the Hexapla, which consisted of six translations of the IMPORTANT TEXTS BEARING ON THE TRINITARIAN
Old Testament. Origen used his own faulty reason to DOCTRINE, WHICH APPEAR IN THE GREEK AND

74 Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity