| Origen (Comm. Matt.) | Greek text (lemma / anchor as cited) | Gospel locus | Ammonian pericope no. | Boundary relation | 1–2 sentence summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ΤΟΜΟΣ Ιʹ 10.1 | «Τότε ἀφεὶς τοὺς ὄχλους ἦλθεν εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν αὐτοῦ… φράσον ἡμῖν τὴν παραβολὴν τῶν ζιζανίων…» (explicitly marked 13,36–43) | Matt 13:36–43 | Matt Ammonian §68 (Canon X) | Start + full pericope (Origen flags the span) | Origen begins exactly at the narrative incipit of the private explanation scene and explicitly supplies the extent (13:36–43). This corresponds precisely to Ammonian §68, which isolates the explanation of the weeds as a standalone, non-synoptic unit. |
| ΤΟΜΟΣ Ιʹ 10.2 | «Μετὰ ταῦτα ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν ἀπὸ τοῦ· ὁ σπείρων τὸ καλὸν σπέρμα ἐστὶν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου…» | Matt 13:37 (within 13:36–43) | Matt Ammonian §68 (same unit) | Interior (not a new boundary) | This is an internal lemma extracted from within Ammonian §68. The formula «ἀπὸ τοῦ» signals close exegesis of a sentence, not the creation of a new pericope-head. |
| ΤΟΜΟΣ Ιʹ 10.4 | «Πάλιν ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν θησαυρῷ κεκρυμμένῳ ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ…» (13,44) | Matt 13:44 | Matt Ammonian §69 (Canon X) | Start of a new pericope | Origen treats “Treasure in the field” as a fresh unit, beginning with its incipit and anchoring it to 13:44. This aligns exactly with Ammonian §69, a discrete Matthean-only parable. |
| ΤΟΜΟΣ Ιʹ 10.7 | «Πάλιν ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ἀνθρώπῳ ἐμπόρῳ ζητοῦντι καλοὺς μαργαρίτας…» (13,45–46) | Matt 13:45–46 | Matt Ammonian §70 (Canon X) | Start of a new pericope | The repetition of the pericope-incpit formula («Πάλιν ὁμοία…») plus verse specification marks a new unit. This corresponds to Ammonian §70, the “Pearl of great price,” separated from §69 despite thematic proximity. |
| ΤΟΜΟΣ Ιʹ 10.8–10.9 | «Μὴ βάλητε τοὺς μαργαρίτας ἔμπροσθεν τῶν χοίρων»; «ζητεῖτε καὶ εὑρήσετε»; «πᾶς ὁ ζητῶν εὑρίσκει»; narrative anchor «ἰδὼν δὲ τοὺς ὄχλους… ἀνέβη εἰς τὸ ὄρος…» | Matt 7:6; 7:7–8; 5:1–2 | Unrelated to Matt 13 Ammonian sequence | Not Matt-13 boundaries; cross-anchors | These citations are cross-textual interpretive anchors drawn from elsewhere in Matthew (primarily the Sermon material). They do not signal the start or end of any Matt 13 Ammonian pericope and should not be mistaken for boundary behavior. |
What this shows, in plain prose, is that Origen is not merely quoting Matthew loosely; in this stretch he is handling discrete, retrievable pericope-units in exactly the way the Ammonian system later formalizes. Matthew 13:36–43 is itself a self-contained unit—Ammonian Section 68 in Matthew, placed in Eusebian Canon X—because Ammonius/Eusebius deliberately separate the private explanation to the disciples from the public parable in 13:24–30. Origen’s practice in Commentary on Matthew 10.1 aligns precisely with that segmentation. He begins from the narrative incipit (“Τότε ἀφεὶς…”) and explicitly supplies the span (13:36–43). That is functionally the entire task of an Ammonian marker: to identify where a unit begins and how far it runs. The absence of a marginal numeral is irrelevant; the pericope logic is already fully operative.
When Origen moves on to 10.4 and 10.7, he repeats the same pericope-head behavior with “Πάλιν ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία…,” anchoring each new unit to its verse locus (13:44; 13:45–46). This formula is not an interior gloss but the incipit of a new parable-unit, and Origen treats it accordingly: new lemma, new block of exposition, new citation frame. Again, this corresponds exactly to how Ammonian sections are defined—by discourse onset and closure, not by modern chapter divisions.
By contrast, 10.2 serves as a control case. “ἀπὸ τοῦ· ὁ σπείρων…” is an internal lemma drawn from within the already-announced 13:36–43 unit (Ammonian Section 68). It selects a sentence for focused exegesis but does not re-found the discourse or create a new pericope boundary. Likewise, when Origen invokes sayings such as “pearls before swine,” “seek and you will find,” or the narrative frame of “seeing the crowds… going up the mountain,” these function as interpretive cross-anchors elsewhere in Matthew. They illustrate how Origen networks Matthean material, but they do not generate new pericope divisions within the Matt 13 sequence.
