I’ve come to see that early Christian theology is more rabbinic than Platonic. Better: It involves a rabbinic use of Platonism. Early in the third century, Origen, one of the greatest Christian commentators on the Bible, composed On First Principles, the first work of systematic theology in the Christian tradition. The opening sentence states that this marvelous treatise has “no other source but the very words and teachings of Christ.” If we take Origen at his word (and we should), then On First Principles is an exercise in speculative midrash.