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 Unfortunately, this led him into many errors. His great defect was his constant desire to find a hidden mystical meaning in the plain words of Scripture.
Origen was born to Christian parents at Alexandria and trained at the theological school. In 202, his father Leonides was arrested under the persecution of Septimius Severus. Origen wrote to his father in prison, imploring him not to deny Christ for the sake of his family. He desired to give himself up to the heathen authorities also, but his mother prevented him by hiding his clothes.
When Leonides was martyred, his property was confiscated and his wife was left a helpless widow with seven children. Origen supported himself and the family by teaching wealthy pagans, many of who became Christians. His fame spread throughout Egypt, as he taught emperors, princes, and the most influential people in society.
Origen was a strict ascetic refusing the gifts of his pupils, keeping only one coat and no shoes, devoting most of the night to prayer, and sleeping on the bare floor. He even castrated himself to protect himself from temptation with his female students.
Totally devoted to the inspiration and authority of the Bible, Origen wrote the first real systematic theology in Church history as well as a numerous commentaries on books of the Bible. Because he desired to equip the Church in fighting false doctrines, he developed tools for studying the Bible. His great work of scholarship was the Hexapla, a study edition of the OT, presenting Hebrew text, a Greek transliteration, and four Greek translations in six parallel columns. This work took him 28 years to complete; it provided the means for Christians to study the OT with all available references in one book.
The Roman authorities cast Origen into prison during the Decian persecution, tortured him, and condemned him to the stake. But before they could carry out the sentence, Decius died and Origen regained his liberty. Not long after that, he died at the age of sixty-nine, probably because of his prison experience.
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