Origen: On First Principles

John xiv. 6 .

[Here, and frequently elsewhere (some two hundred times in all), Origen, in his extant works, ascribes the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews to St. Paul. Eusebius ( Ecclesiastical History , vi. 25) quotes Origen as saying, “My opinion is this: the thoughts are the apostle’s; but the diction and phraseology belong to some one who has recorded what the apostle said, and as one who noted down what his master dictated. If, then, any Church considers this Epistle as coming from Paul, let it be commended for this; for neither did those ancient men deliver it as such without cause. But who it was that committed the Epistle to writing, is known only to God.” S.]

Heb. xi. 24–26 .

2 Cor. xiii. 3 .

Dominationes.

Virtutes.

Species.

John i. 3 .

Innatus. The words which Rufinus has rendered “natus an innatus” are rendered by Jerome in his Epistle to Avitus (94 alias 59), “factus an infectus.” Criticising the errors in the first book of the Principles , he says: “Origen declares the Holy Spirit to be third in dignity and honour after the Father and the Son; and although professing ignorance whether he were created or not (factus an infectus), he indicated afterwards his opinion regarding him, maintaining that nothing was uncreated except God the Father.” Jerome, no doubt, read γενητὸς ἢ ἀγένητος , and Rufinus γεννητὸς ἢ ἀγέννητος .—R.

Substantia.

1 Cor. xv. 42, 43 .

Virtutes.

Sacramentorum.

Eusebius ( Hist. Eccles ., iii. c. 36), treating of Ignatius, quotes from his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna as follows: “Writing to the Smyrnæans, he (Ignatius) has employed words respecting Jesus, I know not whence they are taken, to the following effect: ‘But I know and believe that He was seen after the resurrection; and when He came to Peter and his companions, He said to them, Take and handle Me, and see that I am not an incorporeal spirit.’” Jerome, in his catalogue of ecclesiastical writers, says the words are a quotation from the Gospel of the Nazarenes, a work which he had recently translated. Origen here quotes them, however, from The Doctrine of Peter , on which Ruæus remarks that the words might be contained in both of these apocryphal works.

Dæmonium.

Subtile.

[See note, infra , at end of cap. vi. S.]

Hos. x. 12 . The words in the text are not the rendering of the Authorized Version, but that of the Septuagint, which has φωτίσατε ἑαυτοῖς φῶς γνώσεως . Where the Masoretic text has תע“וְ ( et tempus ) Origen evidently read תעַדַּ ( scientia ), the similarity of Vau and Daleth accounting for the error of the transcriber.

Deut. iv. 24 .

John iv. 24 .

1 John i. 5 .

Ps. xxxvi. 9 .

John xiv. 23 .

2 Cor. iii. 6 .

2 Cor. iii. 15–17 .

Disciplina.

Subsistentia.

John iv. 20 .

John iv. 23, 24 .

“Inæstimabilem.”

“Simplex intellectualis natura.”

“Natura illa simplex et tota mens.”

Some read “visible.”

“Substantia quædam sensibilis propria.”

Col. i. 15 .

John i. 18 .

“Constat inter Patrem et Filium.”

Matt. xi. 27 .

Matt. v. 8 .

Cf. Prov. ii. 5 .

Prov. viii. 22–25 . The reading in the text differs considerably from that of the Vulgate.

Col. i. 15 .

1 Cor. i. 24 .

Aliquid insubstantivum.

Substantialiter.

Ad punctum alicujus momenti.

Omnis virtus ac deformatio futuræ creaturæ.

This work is mentioned by Eusebius, Hist. Eccles ., iii. c. 3 and 25, as among the spurious writings current in the Church. The Acts of Paul and Thecla was a different work from the Acts of Paul . The words quoted, “Hic est verbum animal vivens,” seem to be a corruption from Heb. iv. 12 , ζῶν γὰρ ὁ λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ . [Jones on the Canon , vol. ii. pp. 353–411, as to Paul and Thecla . As to this quotation of our author, see Lardner, Credib ., ii. p. 539.]

Or, “and the Word was God.”

“Quoniam hi qui videntur apud nos hominum filii, vel ceterorum animalium, semini eorum a quibus seminati sunt respondent, vel earum quarum in utero formantur ac nutriuntur, habent ex his quidquid illud est quod in lucem hanc assumunt, ac deferunt processuri.” Probably the last two words should be “deferunt processuris”—“and hand it over to those who are destined to come forth from them,” i.e., to their descendants.

Subsistentia. Some would read here, “substantia.”

Per adoptionem Spiritus. The original words here were probably εἰσποίησις τοῦ πνεύματος , and Rufinus seems to have mistaken the allusion to Gen. ii. 7 . To “adoption,” in the technical theological sense, the words in the text cannot have any reference.— Schnitzer .

Col. i. 15 .

Heb. i. 3 .

ἀπόῤῥοια .

Wisd. vii. 25 .

Gen. v. 3 .

Subsistentia.

John xiv. 9 .

Heb. i. 3 .

Luke vi. 42 .

Heb. i. 3 . Substantiæ vel subsistentiæ.

Wisd. vii. 25, 26 .

“Hujus ergo totius virtutis tantæ et tam immensæ vapor, et, ut ita dicam, vigor ipse in propriâ subsistentiâ effectus, quamvis ex ipsa virtute velut voluntas ex mente procedat, tamen et ipsa voluntas Dei nihilominus Dei virtus efficitur.”

1 Cor. i. 24 .

Ps. civ. 24 .

John i. 3 .

Rev. i. 8 .

John xvii. 10 .

Phil. ii. 10, 11 .

John v. 19 .

[ Luke xviii. 19 .]

Abusive [= improperly used. S.]

Ps. li. 11 .

Dan. iv. 8 .

John xx. 22 .

Luke i. 35 .

1 Cor. xii. 3 .

Acts viii. 18 .

Cf. Matt. xii. 32 and Luke xii. 10 .

Cf. Hermæ Past., Vision v. Mandat. 1. [See vol. ii. p. 20.]

Per quem Spiritus Sanctus factura esse vel creatura diceretur.

Gal. v. 22 .

Gal. iii. 3 .

Isa. xlii. 5 .

Isa. vi. 3 .

Hab. iii. 2 .

Luke x. 22 .

1 Cor. ii. 10 .

Cf. John xvi. 12, 13, and xiv. 26 .

John iii. 8 .

Ex. iii. 14 .

Rom. x. 6–8 .

John xv. 22 .

Jas. iv. 17 .

Luke xvii. 20, 21 .

Gen. ii. 7 .

Gen. vi. 3 .

Ps. civ. 29, 30 .

Terra.

John xx. 22 .

1 Cor. xii. 3 .

Acts i. 8 .

Ps. xxxiii. 6 .

1 Cor. xii. 4–7 .

1 Cor. xii. 11 .

1 Cor. xii. 6 .

Heb. i. 14 .

Officia.

Eph. i. 21 .

Deut. xxxii. 9 .

Deut. xxxii. 8 . The Septuagint here differs from the Masoretic text.

[See note at end of chap. vi. S.]

Simul cum substantiæ suæ prolatione—at the same time with the emanation of their substance.

Conditionis prærogativa.

Substantialiter.

Ezek. xxviii. 11–19 .

Isa. xiv. 12–22 .

Luke x. 18 .

Matt. xxiv. 27 .

1 John v. 19 .

Job xl. 20 [LXX.].

Ps. cx. 1 .

1 Cor. xv. 25 .

Ps. lxii. 1 .

John xvii. 20, 21 .

John xvii. 22, 23 .

Eph. iv. 13 .

1 Cor. i. 10 .

1 Cor. vii. 31 .

Ps. cii. 26 .

[The language used by Origen in this and the preceding chapter affords a remarkable illustration of that occasional extravagance in statements of facts and opinions, as well as of those strange imaginings and wild speculations as to the meaning of Holy Scripture, which brought upon him subsequently grave charges of error and heretical pravity. See Neander’s History of the Christian Religion and Church during the First Three Centuries (Rose’s translation), vol. ii. p. 217 et seqq., and Hagenbach’s History of Doctrines , vol. i. p. 102 et seqq. See also Prefatory Note to Origen’s Works, supra , p. 235. S.]

John i. 1–3 .

Col. i. 16–18 .

Job xxv. 5 .

[See note, supra , p. 262. S.]

Isa. xlv. 12 .

Jer. vii. 18 .

Gen. i. 16 .

Rom. ix. 14 .

Rom. ii. 11 .

Cf. Rom. viii. 20, 21 .

Rom. viii. 19 .

Rom. viii. 22, cf. 23 .

Eccles. i. 1, 14 .

Phil. i. 23 .

Matt. xviii. 10 .

Ps. xxxiv. 7 . Tum demun per singulos minimorum, qui sunt in ecclesiâ, qui vel qui adscribi singulis debeant angeli, qui etiam quotidie videant faciem Dei; sed et quis debeat esse angelus, qui circumdet in circuitu timentium Deum.

1 Cor. xv. 9 .

Cf. Rom. ii. 11 .

[See Exod. xxi. 28, 29 . S.]

De quibusdam repagulis atque carceribus. There is an allusion here to the race-course and the mode of starting the chariots.

The words “in aquis” are omitted in Redepenning’s edition.

The original of this sentence is found at the close of the Emperor Justinian’s Epistle to Menas, patriarch of Constantinople, and, literally translated, is as follows: “The world being so very varied, and containing so many different rational beings, what else ought we to say was the cause of its existence than the diversity of the falling away of those who decline from unity ( τῆς ἑνάδος ) in different ways?”— Ruæus . Lommatzsch adds a clause not contained in the note of the Benedictine editor: “And sometimes the soul selects the life that is in water” ( ἔνυδρον ).

Lit. “into various qualities of mind.”

“Et diversi motus propositi earum (rationabilium subsistentiarum) ad unius mundi consonantiam competenter atque utiliter aptarentur, dum aliæ juvari indigent, aliæ juvare possunt, aliæ vero proficientibus certamina atque agones movent, in quibus eorum probabilior haberetur industria, et certior post victoriam reparati gradus statio teneretur, quæ