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Origen and the Election of Bishops
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
Origen's fullest statement on the selection of church officers occurs in his Homily in Numbers 13.4. The following is a fairly literal translation of the passage:
At the end of his life he prayed to God that He would provide a leader for the people. What are you doing, O Moses? Are not Gersom and Eleazar your sons? Or if you distrust any one of these, are not the sons of your brother great and distinguished men? Why do you not pray to God for them so that He might appoint them leaders of the people? But the leaders in office of the churches should learn not to designate by testimony nor to deliver the leadership of the churches as an inheritance to those who are related to them by blood or are associated with them by fleshly closeness, but to submit to the choice of God and not to choose that one whom human affection commends but to grant entirely to the judgment of God the choice of a successor. Was not Moses able to choose a ruler for the people by a true judgment and to make choice by a correct and just sentence, to whom God had said, “Choose elders for the people, whom you know to be the elders,” and he chose such in whom immediately God's “spirit rested, and they all prophesied.” who therefore is able to choose a leader of the people unless Moses was able? But he did not do it, did not choose, did not dare it. Why did he not dare? That he would not leave to posterity an example of presumption. But listen to what he says, “Let the Lord, the God of spirits and all flesh, provide a man over this congregation, who shall go out and come in before them and who shall lead them forth and lead them back.” If therefore such a one as Moses gives not his judgment in choosing a leader of the people, in appointing a successor, what man would be he who dares to do so, whether of the people who are always accustomed to be moved by shouts for favor or perhaps excited for money, or of the priests themselves who will there be who would judge himself equal to this task, except only him to whom through prayers and petitions it is revealed by God? And just as God says to Moses, “Take to yourself Joshua the son of Nun, a man who has the spirit in him, and lay your hands upon him; and stand him before Eleazar the priest, and command him in the presence of the whole congregation and commission him from yourself before them; and give your honor to him that the children of Israel may hear him.” You hear obviously the ordination of a leader of the people clearly described, so that there is almost no need of exposition. Here there was held no acclamation of the people, no regard of kinship, no consideration of friendship.… The government of the people is delivered to him whom God chose.
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References
1. The text used is that of Baehrens, W. A. in Die griechischen chrietliche Schriftsteller, Origenes Werke 7.Google Scholar
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18. Note the sequence in Cyprian's statement, “Cornelius was made bishop by the judgment of God and His Christ, by the testimony (testimonio) of nearly all the clergy, by the vote of the people who were present, by the company of old priests and good men [the neighboring bishops] ”—Ep. 55.9.
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28. Vita S. Mart. 9.
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35. Müller, p. 278.
36. For the importance of seating in the chair see pp. 16–19 of my article referred to in note 13. Eutychius' account is different: the twelve presbyters elect one of their number and “laying their hands on his head bless him and make him patriarch” and then elect a replacement to keep the number at twelve. Lécuyer, “La succession,” p. 92 suggests that the Arabic may refer to election, not imposition of hands, as in the Latin translation (which I have rendered), but if so there is a redundant second reference to election in the sentence. Severus simply says that the bishop of Alexandria “was in old times appointed by presbyters” but after Nicaea his institution was performed by bishops.
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41. Ibid., p. 153.
42. “When Abba Theonas, the patriarch, went to his rest, the clergy of Alexandria assembled with the people and laid their hands upon Peter the priest, his son and disciple, and seated him upon the episcopal throne of Alexandria,” ibid., p. 383. Even Eutychius' number twelve for the presbyters at Alexandria may reflect an old tradition. Clement of Alexandria Strom. 6.13.107, understands the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse as representing twelve Jewish and twelve gentile (Christian?) elders; and see the twelve elders of the Pseudo-Clementine Hom. 11.36.2.
43. Telfer, p. 10.
44. PL 68, 1036f.
45. Hom. Jer. 12:3: en toutois tois hiereusi (dicknumi de tous presbyterious ēmas).
46. Hom. in Lev. 6.3.
47. Wissowa, Georg, Religion und Kultus der Römer (“Handbuch der Klassischen Altertums-wissenschaft”; zweite Auflage; München, 1912), pp. 487, 495.Google Scholar
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51. Hom. sa Josh. 23.2 comments about the selection of a successor to Judas: “Seeing that prayer precedes, the lot is not by chance but leads to a divine choice by providence.”
52. Origen's word iudicium is also Cyprian's in the passage cited in note 18; see also Ep. 59.5 and 68.2 and Ambrose in the passage cited in note 30.
53. Acts 13:1–3; I Tim. 1:18; 4:14. See Clement, of Alexandria, Quis dives 42.Google Scholar
54. Cyprian, Ep. 48.3Google Scholar; 55.9; 61.3; Vita S. Mart 9;Eusebius H. E. 6.29; Theodoret, H. E. 4.7.4.Google Scholar