[Uncle Chip]

You're right ---- Origen did place the deuteros in the fifth column of his Hexapla. Was there a time when he did not consider them to be part of the OT??? Was he the one who put them there in the first place??? Apparently Mellito's Old Testament did not have them. So Origen may have been the "origin" of the OT with deuterocanonicals.

But I am also sure that we all realize that citing Origen as authoritative on anything is fraught with errors as he was a well known heretic and corruptor of the texts of the scriptures.

[jo kus]

Was there a time when he {Origen} did not consider them to be part of the OT??? Was he the one who put them there in the first place???

I do not know if he ever considered them NOT part of Scripture. He was from Alexandria, where the Septuagint was written. Which answers your second question. The Septaugint of the New Testament era contained the Deuterocannonicals, since earlier Church Fathers quote from them as if they were Scriptures.

But I am also sure that we all realize that citing Origen as authoritative on anything is fraught with errors as he was a well known heretic and corruptor of the texts of the scriptures.

Origen obviously had a high respect for Scripture, just by the fact that he wrote the Hexapla. While he had some heretical views about the pre-existence of the soul and whether hell was populated with men or not, that doesn't have a bearing on his opinion of what the Church considered as Scripture. He was probably one of the greatest exegisist on the Scriptures the Church had known for the first 1000 years.

Regards