Origen: On First Principles

Matt. x. 29 .

Cf. Job vii. 1 . The Septuagint reads, πότερον οὐχὶ πειρατήριον , etc.; the Vulgate, “militia,” the Masoretic text has צָבָא . Cf. Davidson’s Commentary on Job, in loc .

1 Cor. ii. 6–8 .

1 Cor. ii. 7 .

Matt. xii. 42 .

Sapientiarum harum.

Sapientias illas.

De divinitate.

De scientiâ excelsi pollicentium.

Cf. Dan. x .

Cf. Ezek. xxvi .

Ps. ii. 2 .

1 Cor. ii. 6–8 .

Istæ sapientiæ.

Energiæ.

Insania.

Vates.

Divinos.

Magi vel malefici.

Dæmonum.

Id est, industria vita, vel studio amico illis et accepto.

Per vasa opportuna sibi.

Apostatæ et refugæ virtutes.

Propositi.

Penitus ex integro.

Eos quos obsederint.

Energumenos.

John xix. 2 .

[See Oehler’s Old Testament Theology , § 207, “Psychological Definition of the Prophetic State in Ancient Times,” pp. 468, 469. S.]

Jer. i. 5, 6 .

Divinasse.

1 Pet. v. 8 .

Heb. i. 14 .

Hospitium.

Gal. v. 17 .

Lev. xvii. 14 .

Rom. vii. 23 .

Sensum vel sapientiam.

Passiones animæ.

Veneficia. Φαρμακεία . “Witchcraft” (Auth. Version).

Gal. v. 19–21 .

1 Cor. i. 26 .

Gal. v. 17 .

Rom. viii. 9 .

The text here is very obscure, and has given some trouble to commentators. The words are: “Quæ ergo ista est præter hæc voluntas animæ quæ extrinsecus nominatur,” etc. Redepenning understands “extrinsecus” as meaning “seorsim,” “insuper,” and refers to a note of Origen upon the Epistle to the Romans (tom. i. p. 466): “Et idcirco extrinsecus eam (animam, corporis et spiritus mentione factâ, Rom. i. 3, 4 ) apostolus non nominat, sed carnem tantum vel spiritum,” etc. Schnitzer supposes that in the Greek the words were, Τῆς ἔξω καλουμένης , where ἔξω is to be taken in the sense of κάτω , so that the expression would mean “anima inferior.”

In quâ necesse est ex singulis quibusque partibus quæ possunt moveri discutere.

Priusquam—unum efficiatur cum eo.

Passiones.

Quibus nunc quidem arguimur, nunc vero nosmet ipsos amplectimur.

Evacuantur.

Cf. Rom. viii. 2 .

Abusive = improperly used.

Recomponi vult.

Gen. iv. 10 .

Rom. vii. 23 .

Plus studii vel propositi.

Rom. viii. 7 .

Naturaliter.

De ecclesiasticis definitionibus unum.

Consummationem sæculi.

Gen. xlix. 1 . The Vulgate has, “In diebus novissimis;” the Sept. ᾽Επ᾽ ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν : the Masoretic text, תירִחֲאְַבְּ .

Ps. cii. 26, 27 .

Matt. xix. 4 .

Matt. xxiv. 35 .

Rom. viii. 20, 21 .

1 Cor. vii. 31 .

Auctoritate Scripturæ nostræ, vel fidei.

Regulam pietatis.

Cf. Isa. lxvi. 22 .

Cf. Eccles. i. 9, 10 . The text is in conformity with the Septuag.: Τί τὸ γεγονός; Αὐτὸ τὸ γενησόμενον. Καὶ τί τὸ πεποιημένον ; Αὐτὸ τὸ ποιηθησόμενον. Καὶ οὐκ ἔστι πᾶν πρόσφατον ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον. ῝Ος λαλήσει καὶ ἐρεῖ. ῎Ιδε τοῦτο καινόν ἐστιν ἤδη γέγονεν ἐν τοῖς αἰῶσι τοῖς γενομένοις ἀπὸ ἔμτροσθεν ἡμῶν .

Sæcula.

Matt. xxiv. 21 .

Eph. i. 4 .

The following is Jerome’s version of this passage ( Epistle to Avitus ): “A divine habitation, and a true rest above ( apud superos ), I think is to be understood, where rational creatures dwell, and where before their descent to a lower position, and removal from invisible to visible (worlds), and fall to earth, and need of gross bodies, they enjoyed a former blessedness. Whence God the Creator made for them bodies suitable to their humble position and created this visible world, and sent into the world ministers for the salvation and correction of those who had fallen: of whom some were to obtain certain localities, and be subject to the necessities of the world; others were to discharge with care and attention the duties enjoined upon them at all times, and which were known to God, the Arranger (of all things). And of these, the sun, moon, and stars, which are called ‘creature’ by the apostle, received the more elevated places of the world. Which ‘creature’ was made subject to vanity, in that it was clothed with gross bodies, and was open to view, and yet was subject to vanity not voluntarily, but because of the will of Him who subjected the same in hope.” And again: “While others, whom we believe to be angels, at different places and times, which the Arranger alone knows, serve the government of the world.” And a little further on: “Which order of things is regulated by the providential government of the whole world, some powers falling down from a loftier position, others gradually sinking to earth: some falling voluntarily, others being cast down against their will: some undertaking, of their own accord, the service of stretching out the hand to those who fall; others being compelled to persevere for so long a time in the duty which they have undertaken.” And again: “Whence it follows that, on account of the various movements, various worlds also are created, and after this world which we now inhabit, there will be another greatly dissimilar. But no other being save God alone, the Creator of all things, can arrange the deserts (of all), both to the time to come and to that which preceded, suitably to the differing lapses and advances (of individuals), and to the rewards of virtues or the punishment of vices, both in the present and in the future, and in all (times), and to conduct them all again to one end: for He knows the causes why He allows some to enjoy their own will, and to fall from a higher rank to the lowest condition: and why He begins to visit others, and bring them back gradually, as if by giving them His hand, to their pristine state, and placing them in a lofty position” (Ruæus).

[According to Hagenbach ( History of Doctrines , vol. i. p. 167), “Origen formally adopts the idea of original sin, by asserting that the human soul does not come into the world in a state of innocence, because it has already sinned in a former state.…And yet subsequent times, especially after Jerome, have seen in Origen the precursor of Pelagius. Jerome calls the opinion that man can be without sin, Origenis ramusculus .” S.]

Cf. Rom. viii. 20, 21 .

Dispersi.

Exinanivit semet ipsum.

Regendi regnandique.

[Elucidation II.]

1 Cor. xv. 28 .

Cum non solum regendi ac regnandi summam, quam in universam emendaverit creaturam, verum etiam obedientæ et subjectione correcta reparataque humani generis Patri offerat instituta.

By a profession of faith in baptism.

Indubitatam ceperit salutem.

It was not until the third Synod of Toledo, a.d. 589, that the “Filioque” clause was added to the Creed of Constantinople,—this difference forming, as is well known, one of the dogmatic grounds for the disunion between the Western and Eastern Churches down to the present day, the latter Church denying that the Spirit proceedeth from the Father and the Son . [See Elucidation III.]

Finis omnium: “bonorum” understood.

Gen. i. 26 .

Gen. i. 27, 28 .

Imago.

Similitudo.

Cf. 1 John iii. 2 .

Cf. John xvii. 24; cf. 21 .

Ex simili unum fieri.

Jerome, in his Epistle to Avitus , No. 94, has the passage thus: “Since, as we have already frequently observed, the beginning is generated again from the end, it is a question whether then also there will be bodies, or whether existence will be maintained at some time without them when they shall have been annihilated, and thus the life of incorporeal beings must be believed to be incorporeal, as we know is the case with God. And there is no doubt that if all the bodies which are termed visible by the apostle, belong to that sensible world, the life of incorporeal beings will be incorporeal.” And a little after: “That expression, also, used by the apostle, ‘The whole creation will be freed from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God’ ( Rom. viii. 21 ), we so understand, that we say it was the first creation of rational and incorporeal beings which is not subject to corruption, because it was not clothed with bodies: for wherever bodies are, corruption immediately follows. But afterwards it will be freed from the bondage of corruption, when they shall have received the glory of the sons of God, and God shall be all in all.” And in the same place: “That we must believe the end of all things to be incorporeal, the language of the Saviour Himself leads us to think, when He says, ‘As I and Thou are one, so may they also be one in Us’ ( John xvii. 21 ). For we ought to know what God is, and what the Saviour will be in the end, and how the likeness of the Father and the Son has been promised to the saints; for as they are one in Him, so they also are one in them. For we must adopt the view, either that the God of all things is clothed with a body, and as we are enveloped with flesh, so He also with some material covering, that the likeness of the life of God may be in the end produced also in the saints: or if this hypothesis is unbecoming, especially in the judgment of those who desire, even in the smallest degree, to feel the majesty of God, and to look upon the glory of His uncreated and all-surpassing nature, we are forced to adopt the other alternative, and despair either of attaining any likeness to God, if we are to inhabit for ever the same bodies, or if the blessedness of the same life with God is promised to us, we must live in the same state as that in which God lives.” All these points have been omitted by Rufinus as erroneous, and statements of a different kind here and there inserted instead (Ruæus).

Ad unitatis proprietatem.

“Here the honesty of Rufinus in his translation seems very suspicious: for Origen’s well-known opinion regarding the sins and lapses of blessed spirits he here attributes to others. Nay, even the opinion which he introduces Origen as ascribing to others, he exhibits him as refuting a little further on, sec. 6, in these words: ‘And in this condition (of blessedness) we are to believe that, by the will of the Creator, it will abide for ever without any change,’ etc. I suspect, therefore, that all this is due to Rufinus himself, and that he has inserted it, instead of what is found in the beginning of the chapter, sec. 1, and which in Jerome’s Epistle to Avitus stands as follows: ‘Nor is there any doubt that, after certain intervals of time, matter will again exist, and bodies be formed, and a diversity be established in the world, on account of the varying wills of rational creatures who, after (enjoying) perfect blessedness down to the end of all things, have gradually fallen away to a lower condition and received into them so much wickedness that they are converted) into an opposite condition, by their unwillingness to retain their original state, and to preserve their blessedness uncorrupted. Nor is this point to be suppressed, that many rational creatures retain their first condition ( principium ) even