Bible and Cosmos in the Psalms Construcion of the Origins

The combination of exegesis and philosophy is fundamental for Origen's concept of theology. According to a methodological and hermeneutical notice in Origen's commentary on the Psalms preserved in Philocalia 2,4f., where Origen deals with the obscurity and unclarity of many passages in the Scripture, a basic link between both realms is provided by an analogy between the Bible and the world: both depend upon the divine Logos, who is the creative and redemptive principle in every single word of the Bible and in each created being down to the smallest animal and material thing. In every word and in every created being, Origen states on the background of his Christological concept of the epinoiai Wisdom and Word, traces of the divine Wisdom are sown. In this way, God reveals himself in creation and in Scripture. Understanding the Bible and understanding the world therefore bear on the same principle of rationality (logos) upon which both are built. Because of this common principle, analogies can be drawn from one to the other. Hence, explaining the world by means of philosophy can contribute to understand the Bible by means of exegesis and vice versa. Both the visible text of the Bible and the visible created beings refer to the invisible reality behind them, for which they stand as signs and symbols. Both attempts to understand man and world are also confronted with the same problems and limits, mainly the question of justice and theodicy. Consequently, Origen uses all non-biblical knowledge available to him to explain the often unclear text of the Bible. This combination of exegesis and philosophy is not arbitrary but hermeneutically necessary to get to a rational understanding of the Bible: because of the common principle, the divine Logos, underlying exegetical enterprise and philosophical thinking, this methodological and hermeneutical approach is not to be regarded as a falsification of Scripture by means of introducing too much philosophy into it but as a fully legitimate interpretation of the Bible within the horizon of a common knowledge and paideia.