In order, however, to arrive at a fuller understanding of the manner in which the Saviour is the figure of the person or subsistence of God, let us take an instance, which, although it does not describe the subject of which we are treating either fully or appropriately, may nevertheless be seen to be employed for this purpose only, to show that the Son of God, who was in the form of God, divesting Himself (of His glory), makes it His object, by this very divesting of Himself, to demonstrate to us the fullness of His deity. For instance, suppose that there were a statue of so enormous a size as to fill the whole world, and which on that account could be seen by no one; and that another statue were formed altogether resembling it in the shape of the limbs, and in the features of the countenance, and in form and material, but without the same immensity of size, so that those who were unable to behold the one of enormous proportions, should, on seeing the latter, acknowledge that they had seen the former, because it preserved all the features of its limbs and countenance, and even the very form and material, so closely, as to be altogether undistinguishable from it; by some such similitude, the Son of God, divesting Himself of His equality with the Father, and showing to us the way to the knowledge of Him, is made the express image of His person: so that we, who were unable to look upon the glory of that marvellous light when placed in the greatness of His Godhead, may, by His being made to us brightness, obtain the means of beholding the divine light by looking upon the brightness. (Book I, Chapter 2, Part 8)

Jesus is the Mini-Me of the Father?

The Christ is a crystallizaton of the Father. The Christ is a holograph of the Father.

My brush (or more) with disdain for the image offered by Origen is prompted by a sense that Origen is straining where he does not need to strain.

Origen was a contemporary of Plotinus, the great reinterpreter of Plato. Both were Egyptian, both studied philosophy in Alexandria, both studied with Ammonius Saccas. If they did not actually know each other, surely they knew of each other.

Plotinus offers a trinity of the Good, Intellect and Soul. Origen is arguing for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I wonder how much of Origen is a dialogue and debate with Plotinus.