Editing Origen (section)

===First Origenist Crisis===
{{main|Origenist Crises}}
[[File:Domenico Ghirlandaio - St Jerome in his study.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''[[St Jerome in His Study (Ghirlandaio)|St. Jerome in His Study]]'' (1480), by [[Domenico Ghirlandaio]]. Although initially a student of Origen's teachings, [[Jerome]] turned against him during the First Origenist Crisis.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}}{{sfn|Trigg|1983|pp=252–253}} He nonetheless remained influenced by Origen's teachings for his entire life.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}}{{sfn|Trigg|1983|p=253}}]]

The First Origenist Crisis began in the late fourth century, coinciding with the beginning of monasticism in Palestine.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=163}} The first stirring of the controversy came from the [[Cyprus|Cyprian]] bishop [[Epiphanius of Salamis]], who was determined to root out all heresies and refute them.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=163}} Epiphanius attacked Origen in his anti-heretical treatises {{lang|la|Ancoratus}} (375) and {{translit|grc|[[Panarion]]}} (376), compiling a list of teachings Origen had espoused that Epiphanius regarded as heretical.{{sfn|Harding|2004|pp=163–164}}{{sfn|Kim|2015|p=19}}{{sfn|Trigg|1983|pp=249–250}}{{sfn|Chadwick|2017}} Epiphanius's treatises portray Origen as an originally orthodox Christian who had been corrupted and turned into a heretic by the evils of "Greek education".{{sfn|Kim|2015|p=19}} Epiphanius particularly objected to Origen's subordinationism, his "excessive" use of allegorical hermeneutic, and his habit of proposing ideas about the Bible "speculatively, as exercises" rather than "dogmatically".{{sfn|Harding|2004|pp=163–164}}

Epiphanius asked [[John II, Bishop of Jerusalem|John, the bishop of Jerusalem]], to condemn Origen as a heretic. John refused on the grounds that a person could not be retroactively condemned as a heretic after that person had already died.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}} In 393, a monk named Atarbius advanced a petition to have Origen and his writings censured.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}} [[Tyrannius Rufinus]], a priest at the monastery on the [[Mount of Olives]] who had been ordained by John of Jerusalem and was a longtime admirer of Origen, rejected the petition outright.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}}{{sfn|Trigg|1983|p=252}} Rufinus's close friend and associate [[Jerome]], who had also studied Origen, however, came to agree with the petition.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}}{{sfn|Trigg|1983|p=252}} Around the same time, [[John Cassian]], an Eastern monk, introduced Origen's teachings to the West.{{sfn|Trigg|1983|pp=248–249}}{{sfn|Chadwick|2017}}

In 394, Epiphanius wrote to John of Jerusalem, again asking for Origen to be condemned, insisting that Origen's writings denigrated human sexual reproduction and accusing him of having been an [[Encratites|Encratite]].{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}} John once again denied this request.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}} By 395, Jerome had allied himself with the anti-Origenists and begged John of Jerusalem to condemn Origen, a plea which John once again refused.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}} Epiphanius launched a campaign against John, openly preaching that John was an Origenist deviant.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}} He successfully persuaded Jerome to break communion with John and ordained Jerome's brother Paulinianus as a priest in defiance of John's authority.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}}

In 397, Rufinus published a Latin translation of Origen's ''On First Principles''.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}}{{sfn|Heine|2010|p=125}}{{sfn|Trigg|1983|pp=252–253}}{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=36}} Rufinus was convinced that Origen's original treatise had been interpolated by heretics and that these interpolations were the source of the heterodox teachings found in it.{{sfn|Heine|2010|p=125}} He therefore heavily modified Origen's text, omitting and altering any parts which disagreed with contemporary Christian orthodoxy.{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=36}}{{sfn|Heine|2010|p=125}} In the introduction to this translation, Rufinus mentioned that Jerome had studied under Origen's disciple [[Didymus the Blind]], implying that Jerome was a follower of Origen.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}}{{sfn|Trigg|1983|p=252}} Jerome was so incensed by this that he resolved to produce his own Latin translation of ''On the First Principles'', in which he promised to translate every word exactly as it was written and lay bare Origen's heresies to the whole world.{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=36}}{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}}{{sfn|Trigg|1983|pp=252–253}} Jerome's translation has been lost in its entirety.{{sfn|McGuckin|2004|p=36}}

In 399, the Origenist crisis reached Egypt.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}} Pope [[Theophilus I of Alexandria]] was sympathetic to the supporters of Origen{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=164}} and the church historian, [[Sozomen]], records that he had openly preached the Origenist teaching that God was incorporeal.{{sfn|Wessel|2004|p=24}} In his ''Festal Letter'' of 399, he denounced those who believed that God had a literal, human-like body, calling them illiterate "simple ones".{{sfn|Wessel|2004|p=24}}{{sfn|Harding|2004|pp=164–165}}{{sfn|Trigg|1983|p=253}} A large mob of Alexandrian monks who regarded God as anthropomorphic rioted in the streets.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=165}} According to the church historian [[Socrates Scholasticus]], in order to prevent a riot, Theophilus made a sudden about-face and began denouncing Origen.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=165}}{{sfn|Trigg|1983|p=253}} In 400, Theophilus summoned a council in Alexandria, which condemned Origen and all his followers as heretics for having taught that God was incorporeal, which they decreed contradicted the only true and orthodox position, which was that God had a literal, physical body resembling that of a human.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=165}}{{sfn|MacGregor|1982|p=57}}{{sfn|Wessel|2004|pp=24–25}}{{efn|[[Socrates Scholasticus]] describes this condemnation as a deception to gain the confidence of the Alexandrian monastic community, which vehemently upheld the teaching of an anthropomorphic Deity.{{sfn|Wessel|2004|p=24}}}}

Theophilus labeled Origen as the "hydra of all heresies"{{sfn|MacGregor|1982|p=57}} and persuaded [[Pope Anastasius I]] to sign the letter of the council, which primarily denounced the teachings of the [[Nitria (monastic site)|Nitrian monks]] associated with [[Evagrius Ponticus]].{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=165}} In 402, Theophilus expelled Origenist monks from Egyptian monasteries and banished the four monks known as the "[[Tall Brothers]]", who were leaders of the Nitrian community.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=165}}{{sfn|Trigg|1983|p=253}} [[John Chrysostom]], the [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|patriarch of Constantinople]], granted the Tall Brothers asylum, a fact which Theophilus used to orchestrate John's condemnation and removal from his position at the [[Synod of the Oak]] in July 403.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=165}}{{sfn|Trigg|1983|p=253}} Once John Chrysostom had been deposed, Theophilus restored normal relations with the Origenist monks in Egypt and the first Origenist crisis came to an end.{{sfn|Harding|2004|p=165}}