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In 235 ad, following an explosion of tensions with his bishop Demetrius, Origen
left his home city of Alexandria for Caesarea in Palestine. As he fled Egypt, he
would have been acutely aware that his journey mirrored the biblical exodus of
the ancient Israelites led by Moses, an event which he frequently employed as a
metaphor in his sermons and letters.1 So hasty was his departure that he left behind
part of the manuscript of a work he had been writing for much of his life, the
monumental Commentary on John. He had, as he somewhat acerbically remarks
in a later book of the Commentary, to wait a long time before he could find and
employ stenographers to resume his writing.
Origen had lived all of his life up to that point—some fifty years—in
Alexandria.2 He had survived persecution and poverty to become a renowned
teacher and scholar. During the long and tedious journey to Palestine, he must
have worried about his future. He lived in an uncertain and vacillating age. As a
young man he saw his father martyred; as an old man, he was himself arrested and
tortured for his Christian faith. Despite these violent bookends to his life, Origen
also experienced mainstream cultural acceptance: he was much in demand as a
visiting teacher and travelled widely, even to lecture in the court of Julia Mamaea,
the mother of the emperor Severus Alexander.
Many people in the ancient world would have consulted a prophet or diviner
before embarking on a journey such as Origen’s. For many in the ancient—and
indeed, the modern—world, the job of a prophet was to foretell the future, to
1 In particular, he often uses the metaphor of the ‘Egyptian Gold’: when the Israelites left Egypt
they took a great deal of gold from the Egyptians. Origen describes this as an apt analogy for how
Christians should view pagan philosophy; the analogy structures much of his thinking about his pagan
predecessors. Letter to Gregory Thaumaturgus 1–2: ‘I wish to ask you to extract from Greek philosophy
whatever is a preparation for Christianity . . . And perhaps something of this kind is foreshadowed in
what is written in Exodus from the mouth of God, that the Israelites were ordered to seek from their
neighbours silver and gold vessels and clothing—so that, by stealing from the Egyptians, they might
have material for the journey in preparation for the service of God.’ For a complete history of this
metaphor in patristic thought, cf. Allen (2008).
2 In his vast corpus of work, Origen gives us few autobiographical details. Much of our information
comes instead from his followers, particularly Gregory Thaumaturgus, whose Panegyric gives us some
vital details about his teaching in later life, and Eusebius, who wrote a short biography of Origen. Other
sources include his translators, Jerome and Rufinus, and various later historians, including Socrates
Scholasticus, Epiphanius, and the Byzantine patriarch Photius. The careful work of Pierre Nautin has
sorted through those reliable—and those less reliable—elements of Eusebius’s account. cf. Nautin
(1977). Scholarly biographies since have refined our knowledge of Origen’s life further. cf. Crouzel
(1989), Heine (2010), and Trigg (1983).
Origen and Prophecy: Fate, Authority, Allegory, and the Structure of Scripture. Claire Hall, Oxford University Press.
© Claire Hall 2021. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192846648.003.0001
2 origen and prophecy
provide a little certainty in a harsh and changeable world. I suspect Origen did
not consult anyone. He would have considered scripture to be all the guidance he
needed. For him, prophecy was a serious force: sometimes it involved straight-
forward prediction, but it also included the fire and brimstone of Jeremiah and
Samuel, aimed at turning errant human beings back to God; it encompassed
the great messianic proclamations of Isaiah and Moses, too grand to be mere
forecasting, and the mystic revelations of Daniel and John of Patmos. For Origen,
prophecy was no less than the ‘knowledge through reason of the cosmos and of the
functioning of the elements and of time’—an extraordinary definition to which I
will return several times in the course of this book.
As somebody who had been trained in Classics, I was not prepared for this
cosmic dimension to prophecy in Origen’s thinking. I had thought of prophecy
as an analogue of divination: a spontaneous prediction of the future, exemplified
by the prophetesses at oracle sites. While there are occasional examples in Greco-
Roman antiquity of prophets who claim to know everything—‘things that were,
that were to be, and that had been’3—they are the exception, not the rule. And
while Origen mostly discusses prophecy in relation only to biblical prophets,
sometimes he also refers to forms of pagan prophecy or divination, such as
oracles or astrology, and his discussions move across a wide range of philosophical
concerns related to prophecy.
Origen is frequently hailed as the most important Christian writer of his period,
and the first systematic theologian. When I began this work, I wanted to know
whether there was a system to his thinking about prophecy. How were all of these
quite different topics—future-telling, moral leadership, mystical revelation—
contained in the single word ‘prophecy’ (προφητεία)? This book attempts to
answer that question. I present a new account of Origen’s concept of prophecy
which takes its cue from Origen’s own testimony of the structure of his thought.
In his major philosophical work, On First Principles, Origen sets out a method for
reading scripture which he believed other Christians should adopt. He argues that
scripture can be read as having three different senses: the straightforward, or what
he calls ‘somatic’ (bodily) sense; the moral, or what he calls ‘psychic’ (soul-ish)
sense; and the mystical, or ‘pneumatic’ (spiritual) sense. This threefold structure,
says Origen, underpins the whole structure of scripture and is intimately linked
through Christ with the structure of the Holy Trinity.
In this book, I want to illustrate how Origen thought about prophecy using
the same threefold structure, with somatic (future-telling), psychic (moral),
and pneumatic (mystical revelatory) senses. This may seem an arcane piece of
archaeopsychology: after all, why does it matter how somebody in the third
3 Iliad 1.70: ὃς ᾔδη τά τ᾽ ἐόντα τά τ᾽ ἐσσόμενα πρό τ᾽ ἐόντα. Calchas, the Argive seer, is described
in these terms; while Homer never elaborates on what exactly this means, Calchas does seem to have
access to knowledge of the will of the gods as well as being able to predict the future.
introduction 3
century taxonomized an already abstract concept? The answer will take us through
several centuries of Greek, Jewish, and Christian thinking about prophecy,
divination, time, human nature, autonomy and freedom, allegory and metaphor,
and the role of the divine in the order and structure of the cosmos. Origen’s way
of thinking about prophecy was unique, certainly, but it built on philosophical
changes already underway in the writings of his predecessors and contemporaries,
including Plutarch, Philo, Philostratus, Alexander of Aphrodisias, Justin Martyr,
Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria.
To study a concept of prophecy in the thought of somebody like Origen allows
us access to a great number of debates that were, in the third century, at the
cutting edge of philosophy and theology. But it also serves as a stark reminder that
the way we as modern people divide intellectual and religious history can bear
little resemblance to the categories—such as ‘prophecy’—used by thinkers on the
ground. Origen lived in a period in which the Roman Empire was undergoing huge
political, social, and religious upheaval. Over the course of the third century ad,
a total of thirty different emperors claimed the title, many of whose reigns only
lasted a few months.⁴ Many religious institutions and practices were undergoing
profound change, and concepts like sacrifice, divination, prophecy, and holiness
were in flux. Through the course of his life, there was a great increase in the
popularity of mystery cults and solar-based religions.⁵ By and large these were
seen by the traditional pagan elite—and have been seen by scholars since—as a
degeneration of religious customs, a weakening of traditional religious life. Texts
such as Plutarch’s On Why the Oracles Are Silent have traditionally been read as
a narrative of the unstoppable decline of pagan prophecy. Yet other—not much
later—works dealing with the subject of prophecy tell a different story: for example,
Origen’s near-contemporary Philostratus, writing about Apollonius of Tyana, an
itinerant prophet of the previous century, portrays him as a true prophet, able to
discern ‘everything that is and will be, like a reflection in a mirror’.⁶
It is not just Origen’s life that is hard to place in context. Posthumously, he
was also an ambiguous figure, particularly following his condemnation in 553 ad.
From the middle ages onwards, his huge significance for Christian philosophy has
always been tacitly acknowledged, but it is only in the last century or so that his
work has been openly defended within the Church.⁷ His difficult status has had
a major effect on the way in which he is studied; scholars have scrutinized his
philosophical background more closely and sceptically than those of other early
Christian writers. On the one hand, there are those who argue that Origen was,
in essence, a Platonist with a veneer of Christianity, and on the other, those who
argue that his work has little in common with Platonism and should be understood
instead in a tradition of mystic Christian spirituality.⁸ While the debate has largely
run its course⁹ it has left its mark on the way in which philosophical concepts in
Origen’s work are studied.
Origen also sits at an awkward meeting-place of different academic disciplines.
For those working in Theology or Religious Studies, it is natural to focus on
Origen’s approach to scripture and his investigation of key theological concepts,
such as the nature of God, Christ, good, and evil. But these topics—especially
the fact that much of his work consists of line-by-line exegesis of the Bible—
have meant that he remains underappreciated by those working in Classics and
Ancient Philosophy while not being late enough to fit into Late Antique Studies.
He therefore tends to appear—with some notable exceptions—only in footnotes to
works on more squarely Classical (i.e. pagan) thinkers. In this book, I try to move
past these categorizations of Origen. I am interested in how Origen’s thinking
about prophecy relates to the wider structures and themes in his work, and in
how it fits into a rapidly changing landscape of pagan, Jewish, and early Christian
religiosity.
⁸ The former view prevailed for much of the early twentieth century, especially in German-language
scholarship, cf. Miura-Stange (1926), Campenhausen (1955), Ivanka (1964), and still occasionally
today, e.g. John Paul II (1998). The latter view was more popular in French scholarship, particularly in
French monographs of the first half of the twentieth century. cf. De Faye (1926) and Daniélou (1948).
It also gained ground in the latter half of the century, particularly following the work of Henri Crouzel.
See Crouzel (1961). cf. also Trigg (1983), Alviar (1993), and Laporte (1995).
⁹ Thanks mostly to Mark Edwards’ reframing of the terms at stake; Edwards emphatically argues
that Origen was not in any meaningful sense a Platonist despite his deep knowledge of Platonism, as
well as Stoic and Peripatetic philosophy. cf. Edwards (2002). I will start from this third position, with
the assumption that both Origen’s piety and his background of Platonic education are moot. To frame
discussions of Origen’s thought solely around this dichotomy seems to me to vastly oversimplify the
religious milieu of third century Alexandria, where a complex set of worldviews was combined and
contested in the academies and on the streets.
1
Defining Prophecy
Origen and Prophecy: Fate, Authority, Allegory, and the Structure of Scripture. Claire Hall, Oxford University Press.
© Claire Hall 2021. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192846648.003.0002
8 origen and prophecy
⁴ Nasrallah (2003b), p. 1.
⁵ There is a set of source and methodological problems which complicates much scholarship written
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries on the history of prophecy in the early Church. Several
major histories from before the 1960s that are still in use base their narratives on a problematic claim
that it is a universal anthropoligical truth that ‘primitive’ societies go through a phase of shamanistic
prophecy which becomes increasingly institutionalized within bureaucratic structures—such as the
Christian Church. e.g. Campenhausen (1955) identifies the relationship between individual prophets
and the Church as the focal point of study of Christian prophecy in the first three centuries. Adolf
von Harnack’ work and that of E. R. Dodds take the same line. cf. Harnack (1908) and Dodds (1965).
These histories tend to rely on problematic central assumptions, often relying on outdated and racist
anthropological literature such as e.g. Tylor (1871). For a further discussion of the problems of this
literature, see Nasrallah (2003b).
⁶ An excellent account of the so-called ‘Montanist’ or Phrygian movement is Nasrallah (2003b). The
most comprehensive work on the Marcionite movement, which rejected prophecy, is Lieu (2015).
defining prophecy 9
1.1 Terminology
In a long and varied life, Origen wrote an enormous quantity. While not all of his
work has survived—much was destroyed after his condemnation in 553—we do
have a large number of his texts. Of those works that did make it, a number survive
only in translations made from Greek into Latin by Rufinus of Aquilea (c.340–410)
and by Jerome (347–420). A lot of Origen’s work is exegetical: we know of 574
homilies (of which we have 250 in Latin translations and fifty in the original Greek)
and four long commentaries. Other works include philosophical disquisitions (one
long, On First Principles, and three shorter), works of polemic (including Against
Celsus, a lengthy rebuttal of a long-dead pagan critic), and a large textual critical
work, the Hexapla, which does not survive.
Just as English does not distinguish between prophecy as a concrete and abstract
noun, neither do Greek or Latin, the languages in which we have Origen’s texts. The
lack of clarity over the term ‘prophecy’ in all three languages makes it very hard to
see exactly which concept is being employed in different texts and contexts, both
in Origen’s own work and in the secondary literature. To aid with clarity, below is
a short summary of the terminology in use in Greek and Latin texts, including the
terms used by Origen and his translators.
1.1.1 Greek
The prefix προ is used in nearly all verbs of prophesying, and straightforwardly
has the sense of ‘before’, both spatially and in time.⁷ The most usual verbs for
1.1.2 Latin
As in Greek, the prefix pro (or, related, prae) begins most Latin verbs that
explicitly denote prophetic activity; the most common of these verbs include
praedico,⁴⁶ profor,⁴⁷ and praenosco.⁴⁸ Less frequently used but still attested are
3⁴ LSJ p. 1474, e.g. Plutarch, Moralia 2.398d. 3⁵ LSJ p. 1474, e.g. [Plato] Definitions 414b.
3⁶ LSJ p. 2006, e.g. Herodotus Histories 1.62. 3⁷ LSJ p. 467, e.g. Hippocrates Epidemics 5.63.
3⁸ LSJ p. 520, e.g. Aristotle Categories 10a1.
3⁹ LSJ p. 595. Used in the Bible for ‘lose consciousness’, cf. Judges 4:21.
⁴⁰ LSJ p. 1078, e.g. Plato, Philebus 45e.
⁴1 e.g. Commentary on Corinthians 55 or Commentary on John 2.208.
⁴2 e.g. Homilies on Luke 6.2. ⁴3 e.g. On Prayer 6.4. ⁴⁴ e.g. Against Celsus 7.3.
⁴⁵ e.g. Commentary on John 28.12. ⁴⁶ OLD p. 1428, e.g. Cicero On the Orator 3.37.
⁴⁷ OLD p. 1477, e.g. Lucretius, On the Nature of Things 1.739.
⁴⁸ OLD p. 1435, e.g. Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.86.
12 origen and prophecy
[A prophet is] a person who, because he is conscious of having been specially chosen
and called, feels forced to perform actions and proclaim ideas which, in a mental
state of intense inspiration or real ecstasy, have been indicated to him in the form of
divine revelations.⁶⁴
second, that the prophet acts as some sort of (possibly self-conscious) gateway
between the divine and the human; and third, that the prophet delivers his or her
message to others. Alexander Jassen particularly emphasizes this final element in
his definition: ‘what distinguishes a prophet from any other alleged recipient of
divine revelation is his or her status as a spokesperson to a larger body of people’.⁶⁷
Similarly, Eugene Boring gives the following definition of Christian prophecy:
The early Christian prophet was an immediately inspired spokesperson for the risen
Jesus, who received intelligible messages that he or she felt impelled to deliver to
the Christian community or, as a representative of the community, to the general
public.⁶⁸
However, as mentioned above, the term ‘prophecy’ is sometimes used to refer not
just to the phenomenon of message-giving, but also might include a set of texts
or even the related processes for reading those texts. The above definitions, which
focus only on the activity of messengers in prophecy, do not capture this element.
In the Greco-Roman context, a further complication arises more readily than
in the Jewish context: what is the difference between prophecy and divination?
The Old Testament is very clear that divination of all forms excepting a kind
of priestly lot-casting is prohibited.⁶⁹ Yet, even in the Jewish context, the lines
between prophecy, divination, magic, and various other practices were blurred:
for example, the interpretation of prophetic dreams was not considered a form of
divination in ancient Israel, which it certainly was in Greece and Rome.⁷⁰
Both in Greco-Roman writers and in Classical scholarship, sometimes a
divide is posited between ‘natural’ and ‘technical’ or ‘inspired’ and ‘inductive’
divination.⁷1 Technical or inductive divination involves divination by means of
some sort of skill—sometimes using specialist equipment—which a practitioner
can learn. Natural or inspired divination is seen as an inbuilt and unwilled ability
which a practitioner does not have to learn. Some scholars apply this distinction
to demarcate between inspired Israelite-Jewish prophets and inductive Greek
seers.⁷2 However, as David Aune points out, the distinction does not always apply
neatly. A number of Greco-Roman prophetic figures are clearly inspired diviners—
such as the Pythia at Delphi. Additionally, it is not clear that the Jewish-Israelite
prophets never use deductive methods. For example, some prophets attached to
temple sites in ancient Israel were involved in group stimulation of prophetic
trances through the ritual and performative use of music, movement, and even
I return in much greater detail to Plato, the Stoics, and Plutarch at various points
throughout this book. This section is intended to give the reader a flavour of
the lack of clear definition in Greek philosophy of ‘prophecy’ as distinct from
divination. Indeed, the word προφητεία does not appear at all in Plato or Aristotle.
Plato uses προφήτης, but only rarely,⁷⁶ and Aristotle does not use it at all. Plato
does refer to divination frequently. While he does not provide any particular
overarching definitions, many Platonic dialogues make reference to future-telling.
For example, in Phaedrus, Socrates takes it as obvious that oracles can tell the future
and that they frequently do so:
And if we should speak of the Sibyl and others, who have by prophecy (μαντικῇ)
foretold many things to many people and directed their future, it is clear we shall be
speaking for a long time.⁷⁷
For Aristotle, prophecy was a bit more ambiguous. His On Divination in Sleep uses
dream interpretation as a case study for thinking about divinatory foreknowledge
more generally. Aristotle examines the widespread acceptance of prophetic dreams
as a legitimate form of knowledge of the future; he concludes that in most cases,
prophetic dreams are coincidental.⁷⁸
Some other Greek philosophical traditions were more explicit in their
support for divination. In particular, the Stoics endorsed divination. Chrysippus
(280–206 bc) does use the term προφητεία but he does so interchangeably with
other terms for divination.⁷⁹ The position of Poseidonius (c.135–c.50 bc), a later
Stoic thinker, can be more clearly gleaned from Cicero’s On Divination.⁸⁰ Two
definitions appear in Cicero’s On Divination where he discusses Stoic views of
divination.⁸1
The prophetic art deals with that future which is to come out of things present or
things past. Things which come into being follow things which have been, things
which are to be follow things which now are coming into being, all bound in one
continuous chain of development. Therefore he who knows how to link causes
together into one, and combine them into a natural process, can also declare
beforehand things.⁸2
Theon’s argument is that the EI stands for the ‘if ’ of a protasis in a syllogism—and
by it, Apollo is showing us that knowledge of the future, gained through oracles, is
really a form of dialectic reasoning.
The Bible
There is no explicit definition of prophecy in the Old Testament, despite the
centrality of the concept to the various books, stories, and people. While New
First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy (προφητεία) of scripture is a
matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will,
but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.⁸⁴
Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, ‘You must not do
that! I am a fellow servant with you and your comrades who hold the testimony of
Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (πνεῦμα τῆς
προφητείας).’⁸⁹
The author of Revelation’s view of prophecy here clearly focuses very heavily on
Christ, a view which Origen will pick up and to which I will return in Chapter 8.
Finally, let us turn to the more extensive definitions and discussions of prophecy
given in the letters of Paul. There is a short comment about prophecy in Romans,
and a much more extensive discussion of it in 1 Corinthians. Both passages discuss
prophecy in the context of a wider discussion about spiritual gifts, and both discuss
prophecy very much as a current and ongoing phenomenon. First, the passage
from Romans:
⁸3 e.g. Matthew 13:14: ‘In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah’, in reference to Isaiah 6:9.
⁸⁴ 2 Peter 1:20–21.
⁸⁵ Eusebius Church History 6.25.8, quoting a lost work of Origen: ‘Peter, on whom the Church of
Christ is built . . . has left one acknowledged epistle; perhaps also a second, but this is doubtful.’
⁸⁶ Revelation 22:7: ‘Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.’
⁸⁷ Revelation 22:10. ⁸⁸ Revelation 2:18–19. ⁸⁹ Revelation 19:10.
defining prophecy 17
We have different gifts (χαρίσματα), according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift
is prophesying (προφητείαν), let him use it in proportion to his faith.⁹⁰
The passage from 1 Corinthians goes into further detail on the term ‘gift’, which
Paul describes as ‘the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good’. Other
gifts—alongside prophecy—include ‘the utterance of wisdom’, the ‘utterance of
knowledge’, faith, ‘gifts of healing’, miracle-working, the ‘discernment of spirits’,
‘various kinds of tongues’, and finally the ‘interpretation of tongues’.⁹1 These gifts
are, according to Paul, manifestations of one and the same Holy Spirit, who allots
them to individuals as he chooses. These gifts, however, come with a caveat, found
in Paul’s famous disquisition on the importance of love, where he claims that any
gift of the Holy Spirit still leaves its recipient as ‘nothing’ without love.⁹2 Similarly,
Paul cautions that although individual gifts come from the Spirit, they are neither
complete nor eternal:
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they
will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and
we prophesy only in part (ἐκ μέρους προφητεύομεν).⁹3
of prophecy in the earliest Christian communities, and may not have been so
straightforwardly endorsed by Christians as it is now.⁹⁵ Unfortunately, we do not
have Origen’s comments on either of these verses. In what follows, I assume that
while the definition from 2 Peter is not of much interest to Origen, both the Pauline
and Johannine definitions are pertinent to his understanding of prophecy.
Prophecy is the prediction of the future, that is, those things which come afterwards,
through presignification.⁹⁶
There existed, long before this time, certain men more ancient than all those who are
esteemed philosophers, both righteous and beloved by God, who spoke by the Divine
Spirit, and foretold events which would take place, and which are now taking place.
They are called prophets.⁹⁷
While Justin’s definition has some focus on the character of the prophet (‘righ-
teous’), it is—like that of Irenaeus—primarily focused on the future. However,
some definitions in patristic texts are less about seeing the future than seeing things
hidden to others. Thus Tatian:
God’s spirit is not given to all, but dwelling among some who behaved justly and
being intimately connected with the soul it revealed by predictions to the other souls
what had been hidden.⁹⁸
In this vein, Clement also claims that knowledge of the future as well as the
revelation of mysteries are part of the remit of the prophet:
⁹⁵ Nasrallah (2003b), pp. 61–94. ⁹⁶ Against Heresies 4.34.5. ⁹⁷ Dialogue with Trypho 7.
⁹⁸ Tatian Oration 13.3.
defining prophecy 19
All the prophets who had foretold the coming of the Lord and the holy mysteries that
accompanied him were persecuted and killed, just like the Lord himself, who made
their Scriptures manifest.⁹⁹
Patristic authors also take a range of views on prophetic ecstasy. Athenagoras uses
an image of a divine flautist to distinguish between the insights of a philosopher
and the inspiration of a prophet:
You . . . cannot be ignorant of the writings of Moses or of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and
the other prophets, who, lifted in ecstasy above the natural operations of their minds
by the impulses of the Divine Spirit, uttered the things with which they were inspired,
the Spirit making use of them as a flute-player breathes into a flute.1⁰⁰
From this brief summary we can see that there is a great deal of variety in what
early Christian thinkers consider the fundamental or essential characteristics of a
prophet. Some take prophecy simply to be prediction of the future, some focus on
hidden knowledge, and others highlight the importance of prophetic ecstasy.
1.2.2 Origen
Origen gives two explicit definitions of prophecy, and several explicit definitions
of what a prophet is. One definition of prophecy appears in the catena fragments
of his Commentary on Corinthians and is quite unlike any of the early Christian
definitions explored above:
προφητεία ἐστιν ἡ διὰ λόγου τῶν ἀφανῶν σημαντικὴ γνῶσις, ἡ εἴδησις τῆς τοῦ
κόσμου συστάσεως καὶ ἐνεργείας στοιχείων καὶ χρόνων.1⁰1
Prophecy is knowledge which can signify obscure things through reason [or speech],
the understanding of the structure of the cosmos and of the functioning of the
elements and of time.
I will return to this definition in some detail later in the book. For now, we
may note the breadth of its scope (the structure of the cosmos, functioning of
time), its primary focus on cosmic metaphysical questions, and its use of the
term λόγος, that most versatile of all words in Christian texts, which spans several
possible meanings: speech, dialogue, reason, or Christ. In fact, Origen’s definition
⁹⁹ Stromata 6.15.127.3–128.1. Clement also uses the term ‘prophecy’ to refer to the whole
Septuagint, e.g. Pedagogue 1.11.96.3.
1⁰⁰ Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians 9. 1⁰1 Commentary on Corinthians 55.
20 origen and prophecy
Prophecy is the art of indicating things that are unseen by means of words. Gnosis is
the knowledge of the composition of the universe and of the activity of the elements
and times.1⁰⁵
I do not think this can stand. First, it is not clear why Origen would define these
two terms together in such a way, if not to draw very close links between prophecy
and γνῶσις: this point is all the more acute given the quotation from the Wisdom
of Solomon. Second, as I go on to argue in the rest of this book, prophecy is a type
of knowledge for Origen.1⁰⁶ I believe, therefore, that this definition is deliberately
drawing together notions of wisdom, knowledge, and prophecy.
Origen’s second definition of prophecy, from the catenae of the Fragments on
Matthew, is as follows:
This definition, with its focus on telling the future, is much more in line with
the other definitions given by patristic writers. It differs insofar as it contains an
important caveat about causality—prophecies do not make things happen, but
are made because the events will happen.1⁰⁸ It is, however, important to note
that understanding Origen’s view of prophecy relies on taking both definitions
1⁰2 Wisdom 7:17–18. I will return to the importance of Origen’s use of this definition for ‘prophecy’
as opposed to ‘wisdom’ in Chapter 8.
1⁰3 Bammel (1989). Harnack rather unhelpfully comments only that this definition is short and
probably originated in Origen’s lessons, cf. Harnack (1919), 123n1: ‘eine kurze Definition, wie sie
Origenes wohl in seinem Unterricht gegeben’.
1⁰⁴ Bammel (1989), p. 489. 1⁰⁵ Bammel (1989), p. 490.
1⁰⁶ I return to Origen’s ideas about knowledge and epistemology in detail in Chapter 8.
1⁰⁷ Fragment 21 on Matthew 1.22, catenae.
1⁰⁸ I return to this issue in detail in Chapter 4.
defining prophecy 21
together: Origen does not count all prediction of the future as prophetic.1⁰⁹
Origen’s definitions of prophets themselves are less abstract, and more in line with
his contemporaries. They include the following, from the Selections on Ezekiel:
We see in this definition the link between prophets and teaching, a link which
Origen also draws in other definitions:
Both definitions [of prophecy, and of prophets] emphasize that the prophet is a
teacher. Prophecy is σημαντική, it takes place διὰ λόγου and consists in admin-
istering τῷ λόγῳ τῆς διδασκαλίας.112
The prophet in Origen’s writings is, then, a person ὁρῶν θεόν [seeing God]. His most
important equipment is consequently the ‘eye of the soul’.113
εὶ ἐνορῶντες τῷ θεῷ καὶ τοῖς ἀοράτοις τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ μὴ βλεπομένοις αἰσθητῶς καὶ
διὰ τοῦτο οὔσιν αἰωνίοις.11⁵
[The Israelite prophets were] those who were always looking at God and his blessings,
which are not to be perceived by the senses and because of this are eternal.
1⁰⁹ Against Celsus 4.95: ‘It is necessary to realise that foreknowledge of the future is not necessarily
divine; for in itself it is morally neutral and happens to bad and good.’
11⁰ Selections on Ezekiel 13. 111 Commentary on Matthew Commentary Series 49.
112 Hällström (1985), pp. 24–25. 113 Hällström (1985), p. 16.
11⁴ pseudo-Clementine Homilies 6.1. It is highly contested whether the Clementine homilies were
written before Origen’s lifetime. cf. Chapman (1902). For an overview of the debate, see Carlson (2013).
11⁵ Against Celsus 7.7.
22 origen and prophecy
Origen has also shown, through these definitions, that he does not follow the general
view of (OT) prophecy in early Christianity. Knowledge of the future and of the
human heart are not constituent of this kind of prophecy.
This fits with Hällström’s overall thesis about prophecy in Origen’s thought, which
is that there were two tiers of prophets: the major scriptural prophets, who dealt
with knowledge of Christ, the future of Israel, and major eschatological points; and
the minor ‘second-class’ prophets, who had only local importance and prophesied
on matters of conventional community importance (including prediction of the
future). While prophecy technically culminated in Christ, in reality, Christians
inherited this twofold structure, with the apostles and subsequent ‘charismatic’
teachers—including Origen himself—taking a role like that of the scriptural
prophets, while a large structure of second-class prophets and teachers beneath
them supported them through treatment of less spiritually pressing matters.
Hällström’s taxonomy into first- and second-class prophets rests upon Against
Celsus 1.37, which he uses to argue a strong distinction between the two types of
prophecy in Origen’s thought, not only among Jews, but later, among Christians.
Since this passage of Origen is important for understanding both Hällström’s thesis
and my criticisms, I quote it in full:
It seems to me to have been well established that there were prophets among the Jews
who spoke not only general predictions about the future (προλέγοντες οὐ μόνον τὰ
καθολικὰ περὶ μελλόντων)—such as things about Christ and the kingdoms of the
world and about the events which would happen to Israel, and those peoples that
would believe in the saviour and many other things about him—but also specific
predictions (ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ καθ᾽ ἕνα), such as how the lost donkeys of Kish would be
found, and about the disease that had made the son of the king of Israel ill, and any
other things like this which have been recorded.11⁷
Hällström takes the statement ‘there were prophets among the Jews’ to indicate
two separate statements, each pertaining to one of the two types of prophecy
mentioned in this passage (‘general predictions about the future’ and ‘specific
predictions’). That is to say, he reads ‘there were prophets among the Jews who
uttered general predictions about the future’ and ‘there were prophets among the
Jews who uttered prophecies respecting particular events’, and (implicitly) that
these are two separate groups of people. I think this is stretching the text. The
phrase ‘not only . . . but also’ (οὐ μόνον . . . ἀλλὰ καὶ) is conjunctive, making it clear
that the prophets who utter the general prophecies are the same people as the
prophets who utter the specific prophecies.11⁸ Additionally, Origen emphasizes
this conjunction by claiming that ‘it has been well established’—that is, he feels that
what he is claiming is neither unique to him nor particularly controversial. It would
be unusual if Origen felt that proposing a strict dichotomous hierarchy of prophets
was ‘well established’, given that we see no such claim in any other Christian or
Jewish writer prior to him. Origen’s Against Celsus is a detailed rebuttal of the
work of a previous pagan thinker, Celsus—in places it contains point-by-point
rebuttal. Given this polemical context, I think it is more likely that Origen is, with
this emphatic formulation, rebutting a specific criticism put by Celsus. To me it
seems most likely that Celsus’ objection here is one or both of the following points:
The question of prophetic knowledge is central to what holds pagan and Christian
apart, and indeed, is an important facet of late antique religious thought.12⁰
11⁹ There have been a number of other examinations of prophecy in Against Celsus. They include:
Sena (2007); Méhat (1987); Gasparro (1995).
12⁰ Hauck (1989), p. 3.
121 Thus Hällström: ‘ecstasy [is] a dividing line between Christianity and paganism’. (Hällström
[1985], p. 15). For further discussion of this feature see pp. 102–104 on prophetic ecstasy in Platonic
philosophy, and Chapter 6 for the lines of demarcation that Origen himself draws between pagan and
Judaeo-Christian prophecy.
defining prophecy 25
of Tyana, a self-proclaimed prophet and sage whose critics did not focus on
questions of ecstasy, but of magic and charlatanry.122 As Hauck shows, pagan and
Christian critics alike formulated arguments about the morality of those persons
claimed as prophets, often using the criterion of immorality as a way of deriding a
prophet’s claim to legitimacy and authority. While this line of argument is, I think,
a profitable and sound approach to the rhetorical context, the point can at times
become reductive. This is especially the case when dealing with a lot of polemical
and apologetic works, as Hauck does in his later chapters. He does not, for example,
consider issues like the question of fate or free will, prophecy’s interaction with
time, or the relationship between prophecy and scripture.
Hauck devotes a chapter to Origen’s doctrine on the question of prophecy. He
concludes in this chapter that the usual scholarly spectrum of rationalism/mysti-
cism does not apply very well to Origen’s thought about inspiration and prophecy;
instead, Hauck frames the question, as he has in previous chapters, as one of
demonology:
This conflict addresses a pressing spiritual issue of its world: which side has the
spiritual effectiveness sufficient to break the encompassing power of the daemons
and to make available knowledge of God?123
You must ascertain of what thing in the New Testament each sign
(σημεῖον) in the Old Testament is a type (τύπος). And that which is
called a sign in the new scripture is indicative of something either in
the future age, or in later generations after the sign has happened.
—Commentary on Matthew 12.3
1 For the full documents cf. price (2009). On the difficulties of the phrase ‘pre-existence of souls’,
which does not occur in any Greek equivalent in Origen’s work, see Behr (2017), p. lxxx.
2 For analysis of the controversy and its rhetorical construction, see Clark (1992). I will return to the
controversy in more detail at pp. 31–32.
Origen and Prophecy: Fate, Authority, Allegory, and the Structure of Scripture. Claire Hall, Oxford University Press.
© Claire Hall 2021. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192846648.003.0003
exegesis 27
has circled. This chapter will engage with this problem, and with the relationship
between exegesis and prophecy in Origen’s thought.
An enormous amount has been written about Origen’s approach to reading
scripture.3 All scholars agree that Origen has an exegetical hermeneutic—that
is, a stated set of principles for reading—which promotes reading scripture in a
straightforward or literal way, and also in an allegorical or metaphorical way. In
fact, Origen himself sets out in On First Principles not just two but three senses
in this hermeneutic. In addition to the literal (‘somatic’) reading, he distinguishes
between two different types of allegorical reading, one which focuses on moral
concerns (‘psychic’) and one which focuses on mystical concerns (‘pneumatic’).
Most scholars therefore believe that this tripartite hermeneutic structured most
of Origen’s writing and thinking about scripture; some have expressed scepticism
about whether he actually employs it in practice.⁴
Scholarship so far has focused entirely on the application of this tripartite
hermeneutic to scripture.⁵ However, in this chapter I will show that Origen means
the hermeneutic to be applicable to other subjects as well—in particular, for the
‘reading’ of philosophical constructs or branches of knowledge. The evidence for
this is to be found in the Commentary on Song of Songs where Origen applies
the tripartite hermeneutic to traditional Greek intellectual training, arguing that
different branches and methods of knowledge correspond to different readings
or layers in the hermeneutic. I think Origen’s use of the hermeneutic in this way
shows that he may well have understood other concepts and phenomena using the
same taxonomy. I propose in the second half of this chapter that prophecy was
one such concept. The tripartite hermeneutic applies to prophecy in two ways.
First, and most straightforwardly, it applies to prophecy as scripture. Origen takes
scriptural verses that are explicitly prophecies as particularly conducive to analysis
under the tripartite hermeneutic. Additionally, Origen appears to consider each
and every verse of scripture to be, in at least one of its three readings, a prophecy.
We can find excellent examples of this type of exegesis both in Origen’s own
work and in the Prophetic Extracts of his successor Eusebius. The second mode
3 In the first half of the twentieth century, work on the subject was largely polemic in nature,
condemning Origen’s exegesis as inappropriately allegorical and thus subjective when judged against
the standards of the historical-critical method. cf. De Faye (1926), pp. 37–52; Hanson (1959), 246ff.
However, other scholars focus instead on the question of the consistency of Origen’s exegetical
method—that is to say, not whether Origen was right, according to some historical-critical standard,
but whether his theory and his own exegetical practice were consistent with one another. cf. de Lubac
(1950); Daniélou (1973); Crouzel (1989). For later work on the topic, see Torjesen (1986) and Greer
(1996) pp. 107–208.
⁴ cf. e.g. Torjesen (1985).
⁵ While the majority of work on this topic has focused on trying to explain the hermeneutic, a
number of more interesting directions have been explored. The work of Peter W. Martens e.g. examines
Origen’s exegetical hermeneutic through a biographical lens of his life as an exegete and teacher. cf.
Martens (2012). Morwenna Ludlow’s work examines Origen’s approach to exegesis and reading in
terms of the history of reading and textuality from antiquity to postmodern literary theory. cf. Ludlow
(2011). For more on Origen’s view of time, see Chapter 8, p. 187ff.
28 origen and prophecy
of application is more general and has wider implications. As with the Greek
intellectual arts, Origen’s tripartite hermeneutic applies to prophecy, not just as the
sum of all prophecies, but also as a phenomenon of related methods and branches
of knowledge.
The object of typology is the research of the correspondences between the events, the
institutions, and the persons of the Old Testament and those of the New Testament,
which is inaugurated by the coming of Christ and will be consummated by his
parousia [second coming].⁷
By contrast, he argued that allegory was a more general term, which derived
from pagan and Jewish traditions of non-literal readings. And in fact, the term
ἀλληγορία did originate in the Greek philological vocabulary to describe the
practices of the grammarians. Allegorizing was understood as a tool in the gram-
marian’s toolbox for the explication of passages, alongside detail-focused technical
practices such as textual criticism (διορθωτικόν), investigation of the meaning of
words (γλωσσηματικόν), and metrical analysis (μετρικόν), but also alongside other
forms of literary and formal criticism, including historical analysis (ἱστορικόν)
and aesthetic and moral evaluation (κρίσις ποιημάτων).⁸ Allegory in the Greek
tradition was always part of a wider set of interpretive tools and layers of reading
for making sense of a text; in its technical sense allegory was a category of the
Hellenistic grammarians.
Typology is, on the other hand, an easier term to define. In Romans 5:14, Paul
refers to Adam as a ‘type’ (τύπος) of the one who was to come, Christ. Many
early Christians also took Paul’s words in Colossians 2:16–17 of the ‘shadow of
⁶ A compact and very sensible article by Peter Martens traces the history of this debate in the
scholarship on Origen and examines some of the evidence from Origen’s own writings. See Martens
(2008).
⁷ Daniélou (1951), p. 199. See also Daniélou (1946).
⁸ Martens (2012), p. 42. For studies of the methods of the grammarians, see Kaster (1988) and
Morgan (1998).
exegesis 29
⁹ SBLGNT. 1⁰ The type in question is the survival of Noah’s family in the ark pericope.
11 Origen uses the term ‘type’ reasonably frequently. e.g. Homilies on Luke fragment 121: ‘One should
not conceal the burning, intelligible lamp of the soul, but place it on a lampstand. Moses “placed” a type
of this lampstand “in the tent of witness”. ’
12 cf. Frances Young, on the Antiochene origins of typology and Alexandrian origins of allegory,
Young (1997). See also Walter Bienert, who argues that the distinction works along both axes, Bienert
(1972). For some sensible reflections on the rhetorical seeds of this distinction in patristic texts,
particularly in relation to Origen, see Mitchell (2005).
13 ἀλληγορία appears more than forty times in Origen’s corpus with a handful of extra uses of its
cognate verb; τύπος appears around sixty times.
1⁴ See Theagenes 8 fragment 2 (Diels-Kranz).
1⁵ See Pépin (1958), Détienne (1962), Lamberton (1986), Buffière (1956). 1⁶ Republic 378D.
30 origen and prophecy
of Odysseus was sometimes read as a moral allegory for the progress of the soul.1⁷
Origen himself was aware of the tradition of Pythagorean allegorical exegesis of
Homer.1⁸
The Stoic school also had a huge influence on Origen and on early Christian
practices of allegorical exegesis more generally. We know that one of the authors
Origen read in some detail was Lucius Annaeus Cornutus:
[Origen] was always consorting with Plato, and was conversant with the writings
of Numenius, Cronius, Apollophanes, Longinus, Moderatus, Nicomachus, and the
distinguished men among the Pythagoreans; and he made use of the books of
Chaeremon the Stoic and Cornutus, from which he learnt the allegorical mode of
the Greek mysteries and applied this to Jewish writings.1⁹
Cornutus was a first century Stoic figure whose theoretical work on the allegorical
interpretation of Greek mythology was highly influential. He was part of an
established Stoic allegorical tradition. As George Boys-Stones has shown, this
tradition was quite specifically motivated by the belief that the very earliest human
beings had a highly advanced philosophy, traces of which remained—whether
accidentally or through deliberate concealment—in traditional mythology. They
claimed that these traces could be found in mythological accounts, both of the
Greeks and other cultures of great antiquity such as the Egyptians and the Jews.2⁰
Jewish and Christian exegetes inherited some of these beliefs about the rev-
elatory potential of allegory. Although they all operated under the same basic
assumption that scripture was an epistemic authority,21 they nonetheless found
a broad range of ways to allegorize. Christians, in particular, instructed in these
approaches to allegory as part of their participation in traditional intellectual
curricula, applied them to examination of scripture from a very early period.22
Due to the influence of Philo and the grammarians, this fondness for the use
of allegorical readings was particularly associated with Alexandria in the first
centuries of Christian thought. Following his Alexandrian predecessors Philo
and Clement, Origen advised a particularly ambitious educational syllabus for
1⁷ cf. e.g. Porphyry On the Cave of the Nymphs which is one of the most elaborate allegorical readings
of Odyssey 13. For its wider context, see Edwards (1996).
1⁸ cf. Against Celsus 7.7. 1⁹ Eusebius Church History 6.19.8.
2⁰ Whether the Jews were included in this designation is a complicated matter. Boys-Stones makes
the case that Chaeremon, another Stoic philosopher on Origen’s reading list, while often quite
sympathetic to the Jews, took the view that the Jews were Egyptian in origin. This view, which seems
to be quite common, encompasses both a version that claims that Jews were ethnically Egyptian, and
another version that, while they might have been ethnically distinct, theologically their beliefs were a
derivative—and thus corrupt—version of Egyptian religion. This view is shared by Apion, the target of
Josephus’s apologetic work Against Apion. For the full argument, see Boys-Stones (2001).
21 For more on this, see Chapters 7 and 8.
22 The texts of the Apostolic Fathers (particularly the Shepherd of Hermas) are rich in allegorical
understandings. See e.g. Tagliabue (2017).
exegesis 31
23 For more on this curriculum, see Martens (2012), pp. 25–40. 2⁴ de Lubac (1998), p. 16.
2⁵ For a summary of the debates, see Clark (1992).
2⁶ For discussion of Justinian’s relationship to the Church, particularly to the Bishop of Rome, as
context for Origen’s condemnation, see Meyendorff (1968).
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© 9Dec46; M1612. Universal Pictures (PWH); 10Jan74; R570411.
R570412.
Storm warning. By Universal Pictures Company, Inc. 1 reel. ©
31Dec46; M2325. Universal Pictures (PWH); 10Jan74; R570412.
R570415.
Universal newsreel. Vol. 19, no. 549. By Universal Pictures
Company, Inc. 1 reel. © 29Oct46; M1331. Universal Pictures (PWH);
17Jan74; R570415.
R570416.
So goes my love. 10 reels. © 21Mar46; L456. Skirball Manning
Productions, Inc. (PWH); 11Feb74; R570416.
R570429.
News of the day. Vol. 18, issue no. 233. By Hearst Metrotone News,
Inc. 1 reel. © 1Jan47; M1597. Hearst Metrotone News, a division of
The Hearst Corporation (PWH); 11Feb74; R570429.
R570430.
News of the day. Vol. 18, issue no. 234. By Hearst Metrotone News,
Inc. 1 reel. © 3Jan47; M1598. Hearst Metrotone News, a division of
The Hearst Corporation (PWH); 11Feb74; R570430.
R570431.
News of the day. Vol. 18, issue no. 235. By Hearst Metrotone News,
Inc. 1 reel. © 8Jan47; M1618. Hearst Metrotone News, a division of
The Hearst Corporation (PWH); 11Feb74; R570431.
R570432.
News of the day. Vol. 18, issue no. 236. By Hearst Metrotone News,
Inc. 1 reel. © 10Jan47; M1619. Hearst Metrotone News, a division of
The Hearst Corporation (PWH); 11Feb74; R570432.
R570433.
News of the day. Vol. 18, issue no. 237. By Hearst Metrotone News,
Inc. 1 reel. © 15Jan47; M1659. Hearst Metrotone News, a division of
The Hearst Corporation (PWH); 11Feb74; R570433.
R570434.
News of the day. Vol. 18, issue no. 238. By Hearst Metrotone
News, Inc. 1 reel. © 17Jan47; M1660. Hearst Metrotone News, a
division of The Hearst Corporation (PWH); 11Feb74; R570434.
R570435.
News of the day. Vol. 18, issue no. 239. By Hearst Metrotone News,
Inc. 1 reel. © 22Jan47; M1661. Hearst Metrotone News, a division of
The Hearst Corporation (PWH); 11Feb74; R570435.
R570436.
News of the day. Vol. 18, issue no. 240. By Hearst Metrotone
News, Inc. 1 reel. © 24Jan47; M1662. Hearst Metrotone News, a
division of The Hearst Corporation (PWH); 11Feb74; R570436.
R570437.
News of the day. Vol. 18, issue no. 241. By Hearst Metrotone News,
Inc. 1 reel. © 28Jan47; M1709. Hearst Metrotone News, a division of
The Hearst Corporation (PWH); 11Feb74; R570437.
R570438.
News of the day. Vol. 18, issue no. 242. By Hearst Metrotone
News, Inc. 1 reel. © 31Jan47; M1710. Hearst Metrotone News, a
division of The Hearst Corporation (PWH); 11Feb74; R570438.
R570569.
Night in paradise. By Universal Pictures Company, Inc. 10 reels. ©
11Apr46; L288. Leo A. Gutman, Inc. (PWH); 15Feb74; R570569.
R570570.
Paramount news. No. 47. By Paramount Pictures, Inc. 1 reel. ©
8Feb47; M1734. Major News Library (PWH); 15Feb74; R570570.
R570571.
Paramount news. No. 48. By Paramount Pictures, Inc. 1 reel. ©
12Feb47; M1735. Major News Library (PWH); 15Feb74; R570571.
R570573.
Paramount news. No. 46. By Paramount Pictures, Inc. 1 reel. ©
5Feb47; M1727. Major News Library (PWH); 11Feb74; R570573.
R570574.
Bedelia. By Eagle Lion Films, Inc. 85 min. © 15Feb47; L829.
Raymond Rohauer (PWH); 20Feb74; R570574.
R570576.
Paramount news. No. 49. By Paramount Pictures. Inc. 1 reel. ©
15Feb47; M1784. Major News Library (PWH); 20Feb74; R570576.
R570577.
Paramount news. No. 50. By Paramount Pictures. Inc. 1 reel. ©
19Feb47; M1785. Major News Library (PWH); 20Feb74; R570577.
R570603.
Cat fishin’. By Loew’s, Inc. 1 reel. © 12Feb47; L831. Metro
Goldwyn Mayer, Inc. (PWH); 15Feb74; R570603.
R570604.
It happened in Brooklyn. By Loew’s, Inc. 11 reels. © 12Feb47;
L848. Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Inc. (PWH); 15Feb74; R570604.
R570608.
Mighty Mouse in My old Kentucky home. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1
reel. © 29Mar46; L439. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 15Feb74;
R570608.
R570609.
Mighty Mouse in The Wicked wolf. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. ©
8Mar46; L532. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 15Feb74;
R570609.
R570610.
Gandy Goose in It’s all in the stars. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. ©
12Apr46; L634. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 15Feb74;
R570610.
R570686.
Clown of the jungle. 1 reel. © 31Dec46; L1131. Walt Disney
Productions (PWH); 4Feb74; R570686.
R571260.
Wanted for murder. 10 reels. © 1Nov46; L727. Twentieth Century
Fox Film Corporation (PWH); 10Jan74; R571260.
R571439.
Undercover Maisie. By Loew’s, Inc. 9 reels. © 20Feb47; L863.
Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Inc. (PWH); 25Feb74; R571439.
R571689.
The Man I love. By Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. 10 reels. ©
11Jan47; L776. United Artists Television, Inc. (PWH); 27Feb74;
R571689.
R571690.
Humoresque. By Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. 10 reels. ©
25Jan47; L793. United Artists Television, Inc. (PWH); 27Feb74;
R571690.
R571691.
The Beast with five fingers. By Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. 10
reels. © 8Feb47; L819. United Artists Television, Inc. (PWH);
27Feb74; R571691.
R571692.
Nora Prentiss. By Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. 11 reels. ©
22Feb47; L845. United Artists Television, Inc. (PWH); 27Feb74;
R571692.
R571693.
One meat brawl. By The Vitaphone Corporation. 1 reel. © 9Jan47;
M1548. United Artists Television, Inc. (PWH); 27Feb74; R571693.
R571694.
Let’s go swimming. By Vitaphone Corporation. 1 reel. © 25Jan47;
M1617. United Artists Television, Inc. (PWH); 27Feb74; R571694.
R571695.
Melody of youth. By Vitaphone Corporation. 1 reel. © 27Jan47;
M1732. United Artists Television, Inc. (PWH); 27Feb74; R571695.
R571696.
Circus horse. By Vitaphone Corporation. 1 reel. © 21Jan47;
M2201. United Artists Television, Inc. (PWH); 27Feb74; R571696.
R572004.
13 Rue Madeleine. 10 reels. © 15Jan47; L942. Twentieth Century
Fox Film Corporation (PWH); 1Mar74; R572004.
R572005.
Monkey tone news. 1 reel. © 17Jan47; L944. Twentieth Century
Fox Film Corporation (PWH); 1Mar74; R572005.
R572006.
Fantasy of Siam. 1 reel. © 3Jan47; M1642. Twentieth Century Fox
Film Corporation (PWH); 1Mar74; R572006.
R572007.
Michigan Kid. By Universal Pictures Company, Inc. 8 reels. ©
18Feb47; L877. Universal Pictures (PWH); 1Mar74; R572007.
R572008.
Song of Scheherazade. By Universal Pictures Company, Inc. 12
reels. © 18Feb47; L878. Universal Pictures (PWH); 1Mar74;
R572008.
R572009.
I’ll be yours. By Universal Pictures Company, Inc. 93 min. ©
18Feb47; L879. Universal Pictures (PWH); 1Mar74; R572009.
R572010.
Universal newsreel. Vol. 20, no. 9. By Universal Pictures Company,
Inc. 1 reel. © 4Feb47; M1800. Universal Pictures (PWH); 1Mar74;
R572010.
R572011.
Universal newsreel. Vol. 20, no. 10. By Universal Pictures
Company, Inc. 1 reel. © 6Feb47; M1801. Universal Pictures (PWH);
1Mar74; R572011.
R572012.
Universal newsreel. Vol. 20, no. 11. By Universal Pictures
Company, Inc. 1 reel. © 11Feb47; M1804. Universal Pictures (PWH);
1Mar74; R572012.
R572013.
Universal newsreel. Vol. 20, no. 12. By Universal Pictures
Company, Inc. 1 reel. © 13Feb47; M1805. Universal Pictures (PWH);
1Mar74; R572013.
R572014.
Universal newsreel. Vol. 20, no. 13. By Universal Pictures
Company, Inc. 1 reel. © 18Feb47; M1806. Universal Pictures (PWH);
1Mar74; R572014.
R572015.
Universal newsreel. Vol. 20, no. 14. By Universal Pictures
Company, Inc. 1 reel. © 20Feb47; M1807. Universal Pictures (PWH);
1Mar74; R572015.
R572016.
Pelican pranks. By Universal Pictures Company, Inc. 1 reel. ©
18Feb47; M1884. Universal Pictures (PWH); 1Mar74; R572016.
R572017.
Rhumba holiday. By Universal Pictures Company, Inc. 1 reel. ©
18Feb47; M1885. Universal Pictures (PWH); 1Mar74; R572017.
R572018.
Wild West chimp. By Universal Pictures Company, Inc. 1 reel. ©
18Feb47; M1886. Universal Pictures (PWH); 1Mar74; R572018.
R572019.
Universal newsreel. Vol. 20, no. 15. By Universal Pictures
Company, Inc. 1 reel. © 25Feb47; M1904. Universal Pictures (PWH);
1Mar74; R572019.
R572020.
Universal newsreel. Vol. 20, no. 16. By Universal Pictures
Company, Inc. 1 reel. © 27Feb47; M1905. Universal Pictures (PWH);
1Mar74; R572020.
R572096.
Neighbor pests. By Loew’s, Inc. 1 reel. © 26Feb47; L931. Metro
Goldwyn Mayer, Inc. (PWH); 1Mar74; R572096.
R572097.
Calling on Costa Rica. By Loew’s, Inc. 1 reel. © 26Feb47; M1795.
Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Inc. (PWH); 1Mar74; R572097.
B572099.
Gandy Goose in Peace time football. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. ©
19Jul46; L612. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74;
R572099.
R572100.
Mighty Mouse in The Jail break. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. ©
20Sep46: L613. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74;
R572100.
R572101.
Gandy Goose in The Golden hen. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. ©
24May46; L614. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74;
R572101.
R572102.
Mighty Mouse in The Johnstown Flood. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel.
© 28Jun46; L615. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74;
R572102.
R572103.
Mighty Mouse in The Trojan horse. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. ©
26Jul46; L616. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74;
R572103.
R572104.
The Tortoise wins again. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. © 30Aug46:
L617. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74; R572104.
R572105.
Mighty Mouse in The Electronic mouse trap. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1
reel. © 6Sep46; L618. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74;
R572105.
R572106.
Mighty Mouse in Winning the West. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. ©
16Aug46; L635. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74;
R572106.
R572107.
Dinky finds a home. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. © 7Jun46; L637.
Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74; R572107.
R572108.
Mighty Mouse in Throwing the bull. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. ©
3May46: L752. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74;
R572108.
R572109.
The Housing problem. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. © 25Oct46;
L772. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74; R572109.
R572110.
The Snow man. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. © 11Oct46; L773.
Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74; R572110.
R572111.
Mighty Mouse in The Crackpot king. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. ©
15Nov46; L814. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74;
R572111.
R572112.
Heckle and Jeckle the Talking Magpies in The Uninvited pests. By
Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. © 29Nov46; L815. Viacom International, Inc.
(PWH); 14Mar74; R572112.
R572113.
Mighty Mouse and the hep cat. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. ©
6Dec46; L884. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74;
R572113.
R572114.
Beanstalk Jack. By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. © 20Dec46; L885.
Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74; R572114.
R572115.
Mighty Mouse in Crying “wolf.” By Terrytoons, Inc. 1 reel. ©
10Jan47; L941. Viacom International, Inc. (PWH); 14Mar74;
R572115.
R572286.
Paramount news. No. 52. By Paramount Pictures, Inc. 1 reel. ©
26Feb47; M1812. Major News Library (PWH); 5Mar74; R572286.
R572287.
Paramount news. No. 53. By Paramount Pictures, Inc. 1 reel. ©
1Mar47; M1823. Major News Library (PWH); 5Mar74; R572287.
R572325.
Mister District Attorney. By Columbia Pictures Corporation. 9
reels. © 19Feb47; L835. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (PWH);
15Mar74; R572325.
R572326.
Johnny O’Clock. By Columbia Pictures Corporation. 10 reels. ©
20Feb47; L836. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (PWH); 15Mar74;
R572326.
R572327.
Cigarette girl. By Columbia Pictures Corporation. 7 reels. ©
13Feb47; L852. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (PWH); 15Mar74;
R572327.
R572328.
Dead reckoning. By Columbia Pictures Corporation. 11 reels. ©
15Feb47; L853. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (PWH); 15Mar74;
R572328.
R572329.
Mystery of the cosmic ray. By Columbia Pictures Corporation. 3
reels. (Jack Armstrong, chap. 1) © 6Feb47; L854. Columbia Pictures
Industries, Inc. (PWH); 15Mar74; R572329.
R572330.
Blind spot. By Columbia Pictures Corporation. 7 reels. © 6Feb47;
L855. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (PWH); 15Mar74; R572330.
R572331.
The Far world. By Columbia Pictures Corporation. 2 reels. (Jack
Armstrong, chap. no. 2) © 13Feb47; L861. Columbia Pictures