Origen and Christian Naming: Textual Exhaustion and the Boundaries of Gentility in Commentary on John 1

This article examines Origen's exegetical practice in the Commentary on John 1 in the light of issues from Stoic linguistics and cosmology, particularly the problem of delineating complete meaning for any given word and the related problem of cosmic reunification with the divine logos. The technique of exegetical exhaustion, exemplified in Origen's list of divine names, is shown to be, along Stoic lines, a linguistic participation in the unification of the scriptural reader with the divine, to be completed only at the end of the Christian eschatological narrative. Since this exegetical technique emphasizes plenitude of meaning rather than correctness, however, it entails distinctions between readers that the categories of orthodoxy and heresy do not adequately convey.