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

 

Work	Passage	Greek textual indicators of Ammonian-style pericope / unit use	Strength as witness for Ammonius-style unit thinking
Origen, Commentary on Matthew	10.4 (Matt 13:44, with 13:45–46 grouped)	Origen anchors the discussion on a fixed incipit: «Πάλιν ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν…», treating Matt 13:44 as a discrete saying-unit identifiable by its opening formula. He immediately groups it with “the next two” («ταύτην δὲ καὶ τὰς ἑξῆς αὐτῆς δύο»), indicating conscious block-formation rather than linear exposition. The grouping is justified by a scene-setting marker (“ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ… πρὸς τοὺς μαθητάς”), which functions as a unit-boundary criterion separating these sayings from those spoken to the crowds. Origen then performs rubric analysis: earlier items are explicitly labeled παραβολή, whereas these are not («ἐπὶ δὲ τούτων τὸ αὐτὸ οὐ πεποίηκεν»). This is an argument from editorial tagging consistency, treating the Gospel as a document with stable internal classification habits. He resolves the classification problem by cross-Gospel lexical control, citing Mark’s juxtaposition of ὁμοίωσις and παραβολή («Τίνι ὁμοιώσωμεν… ἢ ἐν τίνι αὐτὴν παραβολῇ θῶμεν;») to demonstrate that the two terms denote distinct though related categories. The ensuing genus/species and homonymy discussion formalizes this as a taxonomy of unit-types, not merely semantic nuance.	High — Although no explicit boundary formula like καὶ ἐγένετο appears, Origen is clearly operating with pericope-level control: isolating an incipit-defined unit, grouping adjacent sayings into a single block, using scene shifts as segmentation markers, and deciding unit identity by rubric practice and cross-Gospel comparison. This is exactly the kind of classificatory reasoning presupposed by Ammonius-style unit thinking.