The Ancient Witnesses

194 • The Ancient Witnesses: A Journey to Discover Our Sacred Roots

“Listen, my children to this blasphemous corruption of Holy Scripture! Does the devil really want our Lord to display the Father’s glory by throwing himself from the Temple? —No, I tell you, he wishes to diminish his glory—as if the Son of God needed any help from the angels!” he added, with disgust in his voice. “This is like the heretics who ensnare those who grasp only a simplistic, literal reading of Holy Scripture,” added Origen. “Marcion, Basilides and Valentinius—all these insist on the simple, literal sense in order to destroy those who are friends of the letter.” 49 Puzzled by this saying, we all looked to Father Greg. “The friends of the letter were those who took a literal approach to interpretation,” he said, “but Master Origen prefers allegorical readings.” “ Spiritual interpretation is what we practice,” said Origen, correcting Father Greg. 50 “What does he mean by that?” I whispered to our professor. Father Greg shook his head and said nothing for a moment, then quietly added, “He means discovering deeper meaning in the passage, but I can’t explain how.” 49 Adapted from Joseph T. Lienhard, Origen Homilies on Luke , Homily 31 in The Fathers of the Church, vol. 94, 126; and Patrologia Graeca 13, 1880). 50 Origen represents Alexandrian exegesis which employed allegory in the interpretation of Scripture. Antiochene interpretation (“friends of the letter”), on the other hand, emphasized historical, contextual interpretation. Both schools practiced “spiritual interpretation,” searching for deeper meaning beyond the basic narrative.