Primary source · Greek original; Latin version

Origen, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

Origen of Alexandria (surviving whole in the Latin of Rufinus of Aquileia) · c. AD 246 (Caesarea); Latin abridgement c. 406

What this text is

The first full commentary on Romans — and, at chapter 16, the earliest sustained prosopography of the Roman church. Origen weighs who Phoebe, Andronicus, Rufus, and the rest were, records the tradition that Gaius became bishop of Thessalonica, and identifies the Hermas of Romans 16:14 as author of The Shepherd. As with On First Principles, every citation carries the Rufinus caveat: what survives is Origen through his translator's abridgement.

Profile of Origen of Alexandria →

Public-domain translations

Working translation (from Rufinus's Latin, PG 14)

This passage teaches, by apostolic authority, that women also are appointed in the ministry of the church; in which office Phoebe was placed at the church which is at Cenchreae. (X.17, on Romans 16:1) ... I think that this Hermas is the author of the little book which is called The Shepherd. (X.31, on Romans 16:14)

Manuscript witnesses

Tura papyrus (Cairo, 1941 find)

6th–7th c.

Greek excerpts of the commentary recovered at Tura — the only substantial Greek control on Rufinus's Latin.

EARLIEST WITNESS (GREEK EXCERPTS)

Carolingian Latin tradition

9th c. onward

Rufinus's ten-book Latin survives in an abundant medieval tradition, the base of all printed texts.

LATIN TRADITION

Merlin's Origen (Paris)

1512

First collected printing of Origen's works in Latin, carrying the commentary into early-modern citation.

PRINTED PROXY

Provenance

Caesarea; condensed from fifteen Greek books to ten Latin ones by Rufinus

Editions & scholarship

Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.

Figures named in this text (32)