The Commentary of Origen on S. John's Gospel

Volume 1 of this historic commentary contains Origen's efforts at biblical interpretation over the views of the Gnostics.

In this two-volume 1896 work, Alan E. Brooke (1863–1939) edited the revised Greek text of Origen's landmark Commentary on John, a work originally written to rescue the gospel from the divergent interpretations of the Gnostics. Volume 1 discusses the manuscript tradition and provides some of the extant chapters.Origen (c. 186–255 CE) was one of the great thinkers and writers of the third-century Church. His Commentary on John, written between 226 and 229, represents the height of his biblical scholarship. In it, he combated rising Gnostic interpretations of the Johannine gospel that asserted doctrines such as the existence of two gods. Unfortunately, only nine books of the original work are extant. In this 1896 publication, biblical scholar Alan England Brooke (1863–1939) of Cambridge University provides the revised Greek text. Volume 1 includes an introductory discussion of extant manuscripts and text critical matters together with Books 1, 2, 6, 10 and 13. Origen's efforts in this work are an important reminder of the contested role of the Bible in Christian theological debate, and the Commentary will be useful to scholars of both patristic studies and the history of Christian biblical interpretation.