9. We shall inquire, however, whether the thing which Greek philosophers call asomaton, or "incorporeal," is found in holy Scripture under another name. For it is also to be a subject of investigation how God himself is to be understood,--whether as corporeal, and formed according to some shape, or of a different nature from bodies,--a point which is not clearly indicated in our teaching. And the same inquiries have to be made regarding Christ and the Holy Spirit, as well as respecting every soul, and everything possessed of a rational nature.
10. This also is a part of the teaching of the Church, that there are certain angels of God, and certain good influences, which are His servants in accomplishing the salvation of men. When these, however, were created, or of what nature they are, or how they exist, is not clearly stated. Regarding the sun, moon, and stars, whether they are living beings or without life, there is no distinct deliverance. [1931]
Every one, therefore, must make use of elements and foundations of this sort, according to the precept, "Enlighten yourselves with the light of knowledge," [1932] if he would desire to form a connected series and body of truths agreeably to the reason of all these things, that by clear and necessary statements he may ascertain the truth regarding each individual topic, and form, as we have said, one body of doctrine, by means of illustrations and arguments,--either those which he has discovered in holy Scripture, or which he has deduced by closely tracing out the consequences and following a correct method.
[1915] John xiv. 6.
[1916] [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.]
[1917] Heb. xi. 24-26.
[1918] 2 Cor. xiii. 3.
[1919] Dominationes.
[1920] Virtutes.
[1921] Species.
[1922] John i. 3.
[1923] 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 genetos e agenetos, and Rufinus gennetos e agennetos.--R.
[1924] Substantia.
[1925] 1 Cor. xv. 42, 43.
[1926] Virtutes.
[1927] Sacramentorum.
[1928] 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.
[1929] Dæmonium.
[1930] Subtile.
[1931] [See note, infra, at end of cap. vi. S.]
[1932] Hos. x. 12. The words in the text are not the rendering of the Authorized Version, but that of the Septuagint, which has photisate heautois phos gnoseos. Where the Masoretic text has t"v (et tempus) Origen evidently read td (scientia), the similarity of Vau and Daleth accounting for the error of the transcriber.