| Work | Passage | Greek textual indicators of synoptic / Ammonian-style “unit” coordination | Strength as witness for Ammonius-style unit thinking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Origen, Commentary on Matthew | 12.32 (saying: “some standing here… will not taste death…”; Matt 16:28 // Mark 9:1) | This is not a boundary-marker passage (no “ἕως,” “καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς,” etc.) and not a manuscript/recension passage (no “κατὰ τινα τῶν ἀντιγράφων”). Its interest is that Origen explicitly coordinates two distinct Synoptic formulations as the same semantic unit and signals the evangelist-specific idiom. He places in immediate apposition (i) “ἰδεῖν τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐρχόμενον ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ αὐτοῦ” (Matthean phrasing) and (ii) “ἰδεῖν τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐληλυθυῖαν ἐν δυνάμει” (Markan phrasing), then labels the latter explicitly as Mark’s way of naming it: “(ὡς ὠνόμασεν ὁ Μᾶρκος) ἐν δυνάμει.” That parenthesis is doing real work: Origen is not just citing Mark; he is mapping evangelist diction (ὠνόμασεν) onto a shared referent. The whole paragraph then oscillates between the two phrasings as equivalent handles for the same experiential/theological content (kingdom “in power,” “within us,” etc.). | High-moderate (6.5/10). It strongly supports synoptic coordination at the unit-of-saying level (the kind of equivalence tables presuppose), but it is not “12.15-type” because Mark is not used to correct Matthew, trigger variant-awareness, or force a boundary decision. It’s conceptual alignment rather than synoptic control or pericope mechanics. |
Thursday, January 22, 2026
Origen's Use of Ammonius in Commentary on Matthew [Part Eleven]
Email stephan.h.huller@gmail.com with comments or questions.