But in Micah we find a parallel passage, which is almost word for word: "And in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall hasten unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and they will teach us His way, and we will walk in His paths: for a law shall go forth from Zion, and a word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." [3059]
Again, in First Chronicles, the psalm which is put in the hands of Asaph and his brethren to praise the Lord, beginning, "Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name," [3060] is in the beginning almost identical with Psalm cv., down to "and do my prophets no harm;" and after that it is the same as Psalm xcvi., from the beginning of that psalm, which is something like this, "Praise the Lord all the earth," down to "For He cometh to judge the earth." (It would have taken up too much time to quote more fully; so I have given these short references, which are sufficient for the matter before us.) And you will find the law about not bearing a burden on the Sabbath-day in Jeremias, as well as in Moses. [3061] And the rules about the passover, and the rules for the priests, are not only in Moses, but also at the end of Ezekiel. [3062] I would have quoted these, and many more, had I not found that from the shortness of my stay in Nicomedia my time for writing you was already too much restricted.
Your last objection is, that the style is different. This I cannot see.
This, then, is my defence. I might, especially after all these accusations, speak in praise of this history of Susanna, dwelling on it word by word, and expounding the exquisite nature of the thoughts. Such an encomium, perhaps, some of the learned and able students of divine things may at some other time compose. This, however, is my answer to your strokes, as you call them. Would that I could instruct you! But I do not now arrogate that to myself. My lord and dear brother Ambrosius, who has written this at my dictation, and has, in looking over it, corrected as he pleased, salutes you. His faithful spouse, Marcella, and her children, also salute you. Also Anicetus. Do you salute our dear father Apollinarius, and all our friends.
[3028] [See Dr. Pusey's Lectures on Daniel the Prophet, lect. vi. p. 326, 327; also The Uncanonical and Apocryphal Scriptures, by Rev. R. W. Churton, B.D. (1884), pp. 389-404. S.]
[3029] "The Song of the Three Holy Children" (in the Apocrypha).
[3030] This should probably be corrected, with Pat. Jun., into, "Nor are the letters, neither," etc.
[3031] 1 Cor. vi. 20; Rom. xiv. 15.
[3032] Rom. viii. 32.
[3033] Prov. xxii. 28.
[3034] Origen's most important contribution to biblical literature was his elaborate attempt to rectify the text of the Septuagint by collating it with the Hebrew original and other Greek versions. On this he spent twenty-eight years, during which he travelled through the East collecting materials. The form in which he first issued the result of his labours was that of the Tetrapla, which presented in four columns the texts of the LXX., Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. He next issued the Hexapla, in which the Hebrew text was given, first in Hebrew and then in Greek letters. Of some books he gave two additional Greek versions, whence the title Octapla; and there was even a seventh Greek version added for some books. Unhappily this great work, which extended to nearly fifty volumes, was never transcribed, and so perished (Kitto, Cycl.).
[3035] Jer. xxix. 22, 23.
[3036] Luke xii. 45, 46.
[3037] Susanna 52, 53.
[3038] Susanna 56.
[3039] Et utrumque sigillatim in quamcunque mulierem incidebat, et cui vitium afferre cupiebat, ei secreto affirmasse sibi a Deo datum e suo semine progignere Christum. Hinc spe gignendi Christum decepta mulier, sui copiam decipienti faciebat, et sic civium uxores stuprabant seniores Achiab et Sedekias.
[3040] Heb. xi. 37.
[3041] [See note supra, p. 239. S.]
[3042] Matt. xxiii. 29-38.
[3043] Matt. xxiii. 30.
[3044] Acts vii. 52.
[3045] 1 Thess. ii. 14, 15.
[3046] Isa. i. 10.
[3047] Heb. i. 1.
[3048] Gen. xxxi. 10-13.
[3049] Gen. xxxii. 24-31.
[3050] Gen. xlix. 1-4.
[3051] 1 Kings iii. 16-28.
[3052] 1 Kings iii. 28.
[3053] Ps. cxvi. 13.
[3054] Ps. i. 1.
[3055] Tob. i. 12-14.
[3056] Tob. i. 19.
[3057] Tob. i. 22.
[3058] Isa. ii. 2-4.
[3059] Mic. iv. 1-3.
[3060] 1 Chron. xvi. 8.
[3061] Ex. xxxv. 2; Num. xv. 32; Jer. xvii. 21-24.
[3062] In Levit. passim; Ezek. xliii.; xliv.; xlv.; xlvi.
A Letter from Origen to Gregory. [3063]
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1. Greeting in God, my most excellent sir, and venerable son Gregory, from Origen. A natural readiness of comprehension, as you well know, may, if practice be added, contribute somewhat to the contingent end, if I may so call it, of that which any one wishes to practise. Thus, your natural good parts might make of you a finished Roman lawyer or a Greek philosopher, so to speak, of one of the schools in high reputation. But I am anxious that you should devote all the strength of your natural good parts to Christianity for your end; and in order to this, I wish to ask you to extract from the philosophy of the Greeks what may serve as a course of study or a preparation for Christianity, and from geometry and astronomy what will serve to explain the sacred Scriptures, in order that all that the sons of the philosophers are wont to say about geometry and music, grammar, rhetoric, and astronomy, as fellow-helpers to philosophy, we may say about philosophy itself, in relation to Christianity.
2. Perhaps something of this kind is shadowed forth in what is written in Exodus from the mouth of God, that the children of Israel were commanded to ask from their neighbours, and those who dwelt with them, vessels of silver and gold, and raiment, in order that, by spoiling the Egyptians, they might have material for the preparation of the things which pertained to the service of God. For from the things which the children of Israel took from the Egyptians the vessels in the holy of holies were made,--the ark with its lid, and the Cherubim, and the mercy-seat, and the golden coffer, where was the manna, the angels' bread. These things were probably made from the best of the Egyptian gold. An inferior kind would be used for the solid golden candlestick near the inner veil, and its branches, and the golden table on which were the pieces of shewbread, and the golden censer between them. And if there was a third and fourth quality of gold, from it would be made the holy vessels; and the other things would be made of Egyptian silver. For when the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt, they gained this from their dwelling there, that they had no lack of such precious material for the utensils of the service of God. And of the Egyptian raiment were probably made all those things which, as the Scripture mentions, needed sewed and embroidered work, sewed with the wisdom of God, the one to the other, that the veils might be made, and the inner and the outer courts. And why should I go on, in this untimely digression, to set forth how useful to the children of Israel were the things brought from Egypt, which the Egyptians had not put to a proper use, but which the Hebrews, guided by the wisdom of God, used for God's service? Now the sacred Scripture is wont to represent as an evil the going down from the land of the children of Israel into Egypt, indicating that certain persons get harm from sojourning among the Egyptians, that is to say, from meddling with the knowledge of this world, after they have subscribed to the law of God, and the Israelitish service of Him. Ader [3064] at least, the Idumæan; so long as he was in the land of Israel, and had not tasted the bread of the Egyptians, made no idols. It was when he fled from the wise Solomon, and went down into Egypt, as it were flying from the wisdom of God, and was made a kinsman of Pharaoh by marrying his wife's sister, and begetting a child, who was brought up with the children of Pharaoh, that he did this. Wherefore, although he did return to the land of Israel, he returned only to divide the people of God, and to make them say to the golden calf, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up from the land of Egypt." [3065] And I may tell you from my experience, that not many take from Egypt only the useful, and go away and use it for the service of God; while Ader the Idumæan has many brethren. These are they who, from their Greek studies, produce heretical notions, and set them up, like the golden calf, in Bethel, which signifies "God's house." In these words also there seems to me an indication that they have set up their own imaginations in the Scriptures, where the word of God dwells, which is called in a figure Bethel. The other figure, the word says, was set up in Dan. Now the borders of Dan are the most extreme, and nearest the borders of the Gentiles, as is clear from what is written in Joshua, the son of Nun. Now some of the devices of these brethren of Ader, as we call them, are also very near the borders of the Gentiles.
3. Do you then, my son, diligently apply yourself to the reading of the sacred Scriptures. Apply yourself, I say. For we who read the things of God need much application, lest we should say or think anything too rashly about them. And applying yourself thus to the study of the things of God, with faithful prejudgments such as are well pleasing to God, knock at its locked door, and it will be opened to you by the porter, of whom Jesus says, "To him the porter opens." [3066] And applying yourself thus to the divine study, seek aright, and with unwavering trust in God, the meaning of the holy Scriptures, which so many have missed. Be not satisfied with knocking and seeking; for prayer is of all things indispensable to the knowledge of the things of God. For to this the Saviour exhorted, and said not only, "Knock, and it shall be opened to you; and seek, and ye shall find," [3067] but also, "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." [3068] My fatherly love to you has made me thus bold; but whether my boldness be good, God will know, and His Christ, and all partakers of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. May you also be a partaker, and be ever increasing your inheritance, that you may say not only, "We are become partakers of Christ," [3069] but also partakers of God.
[3063] This Gregory, styled the Wonder-worker, (Thaumaturgus) was afterwards bishop of Neo-Cæsarea.
[3064] Origen evidently confounds Hadad the Edomite, of 1 Kings xi. 14, with Jeroboam.
[3065] [1 Kings xii. 28. S.]
[3066] John x. 3.
[3067] Matt. vii. 7.
[3068] Luke xi. 9.
[3069] Heb. iii. 14.
Elucidation.
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This golden letter, doubtless genuine, was attended with very great consequences, of which we shall gather more hereafter. It is worthy of the solemn consideration of young students to whom this page may come. Gregory was unbaptized when Origen (circa a.d. 230) thus addressed his conscience.
On the letters here inserted, let me refer the student to Routh, Reliqu., ii. pp. 312-327; also same vol., pp. 222-228; also iii. 254-256.
For the facts concerning this letter to Gregory, see Cave, i. p. 400.
origen against_celsus anf04 origen-against_celsus Origen Against Celsus /ccel/schaff/anf04.vi.ix.html
Origen Against Celsus
Origen Against Celsus.
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