Origen's Use of Ammonius in his Commentary on Matthew [Part Two]

 

Work	Passage	Greek textual indicators of Ammonian-style pericope / unit use	Strength as witness for Ammonius-style unit thinking
Origen, Commentary on Matthew	10.16 (Matt 13:53–58: close of the parable block and transition to Nazareth)	Origen opens by quoting and isolating a formal Matthean seam-marker: «Καὶ ἐγένετο, ὅτε ἐτέλεσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς τὰς παραβολὰς ταύτας, μετῆρεν ἐκεῖθεν». He treats this not devotionally but structurally, asking what textual material the demonstrative «ταύτας» actually delimits. The entire discussion turns on the scope of a closure formula, exactly the sort of phrase that defines a pericope boundary. Origen explicitly frames the problem as documentary: either (a) prior distinctions must be abandoned, or (b) there are two genera of παραβολαί, or (c) παραβολή is homonymous, or (d) the closure applies only to a subset of the preceding material. This is segmentation analysis, not theology. He then constrains the boundary by appeal to another Matthean control statement («ὑμῖν δέδοται γνῶναι… τοῖς δὲ λοιποῖς ἐν παραβολαῖς»), using it to rule out certain boundary-extensions as textually impossible. After fixing the end of the teaching-unit, Origen checks the transition against Mark: «Καὶ ἦλθεν εἰς τὴν πατρίδα αὐτοῦ», confirming that Matthew’s movement-seam corresponds to a Markan seam at the same narrative joint. The Mark citation functions as external confirmation of the pericope break, not as casual harmonization. Even the subsequent discussion of “πατρίδα” (Nazareth vs. Bethlehem vs. Judaea) presupposes a stable, shared narrative slot whose wording choice is meaningful precisely because the unit is fixed.	Very high — This is one of the clearest witnesses to Ammonius-style unit thinking. Origen explicitly treats «καὶ ἐγένετο, ὅτε ἐτέλεσεν…» as a boundary rubric, debates its range, tests competing segmentations, and then verifies the boundary by alignment with Mark. The reasoning only works if Matthew is already read as a text articulated into discrete pericopes whose closures and transitions are analytically significant.