man raised from sleep. For although these things possess a spiritual understanding, the truth of the history must nonetheless remain first, and the spiritual sense must then be received. For although he always heals the blind according to a spiritual understanding, when he illuminates minds blinded by ignorance, yet he also healed the blind corporally at that time. And he always raises the dead; yet he performed such miracles at that time, as when he raised the ruler of the synagogue's daughter, and the widow's son, and Lazarus. And although he is always awakened by the disciples to calm the storms or tempests of the Church, A nonetheless it is certain that those things which are reported in history also happened at that time. Thus, therefore, it is sound to receive the sense of Scripture, nor is it right to incline the ear to those who say that he was born through Mary, and not from Mary; which the Apostle, foreseeing, predicted thus: "But when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, made from a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law." You see that he did not say, "made through a woman," but, "made from a woman."
FROM THE THIRD BOOK OF ORIGEN ON THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS (88)
On that text: "He who loves his own wife, loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church."
We say that the soul should love and nourish that flesh which is destined to see the Savior of God, and should cherish it by instructing it with disciplines, and by fattening it with heavenly bread, and by irrigating it with the blood of Christ, so that, refreshed and bright, it may be able to follow the man in a free course, and not be weighed down by any burden of weakness. Beautifully, too, in the likeness of Christ, who nourishes and cherishes the Church, and who says to Jerusalem: "How often have I willed to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not?" souls also cherish their own bodies, so that B this corruptible may put on incorruption, and, suspended by the lightness of the wings, it may be more easily lifted into the air. Let us, therefore, cherish our wives, and our souls our bodies, so that wives may be brought back into husbands, and bodies into souls, and there may be no diversity of sexes at all; but just as among the angels there is neither man nor woman, so let us, who are to be like the angels, now begin to be what is promised to us in the heavens.
FROM THE THIRD BOOK OF ORIGEN ON THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS (89)
692 The law of Moses was given through angels in C Christ, but before this, before his manifestation in the hand and power of the Mediator Christ, who, when he was in the beginning, was the Word of God, and was with God, and the Word was God, he ministered to the Father in all things. For all things were made through him, that is, not only the creatures, but also the law, and the prophets; and he himself is the Mediator of God and men. This Word was indeed made man at the end of the ages, Jesus, but before this he was indeed the mediator of men, though he was not yet a man. Yet he was even then the Mediator of God and men; whence even the law given through angels is not said to have been given without the hands of the Mediator himself, so that the law might be holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good; and all these things might be sanctified in Christ.
FROM THE THIRD BOOK OF ORIGEN'S *EXEGEMATA* ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS (89*)
Concerning this: "that we who are alive shall not all sleep," etc.
What is it, then, that Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy write to the Thessalonians by the word of God: D "We who are alive, who remain, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep at the coming of the Lord"? Who
are these living ones who say such things? Certainly Paul, an apostle not from men nor through men; and his most beloved son in the faith, Timothy; and Sylvanus, who was united to them both in affection and in virtues. And this can be said not only by them, but by anyone who is similar to Paul in knowledge and conduct: "We who live," whose body is dead because of sin, but whose spirit lives because of righteousness; and whose members have been mortified upon the earth, so that the flesh may in no way lust against the spirit. For if the flesh still desires, it lives; and because it lives, it desires; and its members are not mortified upon the earth. But if they are mortified, they by no means lust against the spirit, since by their mortification they have lost a desire of this kind. Just as, therefore, those who have lacked the present life and have been translated to better things live all the more, having laid aside the body of death and the incentives of all vices; so those who carry about the mortification of Jesus in their body by no means live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit; they live in Him who is Life, and Christ lives in them, of whom it is written: "The Word of God is living and effectual," who is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For they live in whom the power of God lives, all human frailty having been laid aside, and in whom lives the wisdom which is hidden in God, and in whom justice lives and works. For Christ has been made for us not only justice from God, but also wisdom and everything that is virtue. And if indeed in the present passage they were separating themselves from those who are asleep and those who are dead in Christ—those who are writing this Epistle—the annotation would seem superfluous, and the testimony taken from one place would not be valid: but now, with the same sense, because it is also in the same spirit, he speaks in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Since these things are said concerning sleep and death, and we read also in the Apostle, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light," let us swear to the Lord and make a vow to the God of Jacob, everyone saying in his heart: "If I shall ascend into my bed, if I give sleep to my eyes and slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord": there is no doubt that he is preparing in his soul a tabernacle for the God of Jacob, that God may rest in it as an eternal seat. A
It follows: "For the Lord himself shall descend with a commandment," and the rest. For he shall descend as one sent by the Father—not by a diversity of power, but by the dispensation of the judge—and the Word of God, and wisdom, and truth, and justice shall descend to those who are below. And although those to whom he deigns to descend are dead, they are not, however, alien to him; for they are called "dead in Christ." But those who are alive have this privilege, that they are chosen from the many. Yet both companies, both those who are dead in Christ and those who are living, shall together be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ, so that they do not await him until he descends to earthly things, but may B enjoy his presence and company in the heights. And what clemency of Christ, that for our salvation he was not only made flesh, but descended even to the dead, and in death itself has the marks of the living! For water and blood flowed from his side. The divine Word descends, therefore, with the voice of the archangel preceding and preparing for him a way in those who are able to bear his presence.
And then indeed they went out into the wilderness, that they might hear the precursor of the man who was assumed, and might see "a reed shaken with the wind," of which pipes were made—and the vocal reed which in the mouth of children sounds with a sweet melody, of those singing in the streets and saying: "We have sung to you, and you have not danced." Now, however, at the voice of the archangel preceding the Lord descending from the heavens, and at the most clear trumpet, each of the believers is called either to battle or to priestly ministries. We read in the book of Numbers of the trumpets consecrated to God, which sound before sacrifices. But if the voice of the angel and the trumpet and the archangel is great, how much greater shall be the trumpet of God, which prepares the ways of those first asleep and dead in Christ, then of those who are living, and who remain, and await the arrival of the Word of God? Perhaps the clangor of a simple trumpet is necessary for the sleeping and the dead in Christ; but the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God is for those who are living and are reserved in the presence of God. C
That we may be able to understand this, let us know the mysteries of the first advent. It is written of John who was his precursor, that he said in the wilderness: "I am the voice of one crying in the desert," and the rest. What did the voice cry in the desert? "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths." For what prize or what reward? "Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be humbled; and what is crooked shall be into straight, and the rough into smooth ways; and all flesh shall see the Salvation of God." This, however, is because the "Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Now, however, the voice of the prophet will by no means be in the desert, but the voice of the archangel preparing ways not in the humility of flesh. D
Let us see what can be understood by that which follows: "Together with them we shall be caught up." By this word I think is shown a sudden translation to better things, and therefore he wished to say "caught up," so that the speed of the one passing over would exceed the sense of the one thinking. Which also in another place he signified by the property of that same word: "I know a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, whether in the body, I know not, or out of the body, I know not; God knoweth; such an one caught up even to the third heaven. And I know such a man, whether in the body, or out of the body, I know not, God knoweth, that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not granted to man to utter." For others, progressing and, if I may say so, walking, were growing to greater things until they became, according to that which is written, "very great indeed"; and we read of some caught up into heaven. Paul, however, the vessel of election, caught up, ascended into the third heaven, and therefore heard unspeakable words. But how those who are caught up in the clouds are caught up to meet Christ is to be contemplated more diligently. We know the "clouds" are the prophets, to whom God commanded not to rain upon Israel when they had filled the measure of their fathers, and the law and the prophets were until John the Baptist. And because God has placed in the Church first apostles, second prophets, not only the prophets, but also the apostles are to be understood as clouds. If anyone, therefore, is caught up to Christ, he ascends above the clouds of the Law and the Gospel, above the prophets and the apostles; and with the wings of the dove assumed, and lifted by their doctrine to the heights, he meets him, not downwards, but in the air, and in the spiritual understanding of the Scriptures. Meeting him, however, in spiritual things, and leaving earthly ones, whether he be...
A sleeping, or dead in Christ, or living, he will be reserved for His presence, always with Him, and will enjoy the Word of God, and wisdom, truth, and justice.
FROM THE BOOK OF ORIGEN ON THE EPISTLE TO TITUS
On the chapter in which the Apostle says: "A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition avoid; knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself"
The name heresy, as far as I have been able to discover, is designated in the Epistle to the Corinthians in this manner: "For there must be also heresies: that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." And again to the Galatians, the name of heresy is also inscribed among the works of the flesh, as he says: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, idolatry, witchcraft, enmities, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, B dissensions, heresies, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. Of the which I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God." By which we understand that, just as those who are defiled by fornications, or uncleannesses, and immodesties, and the worship of idols, shall not obtain the kingdom of God, so also those who have declined into heresy. For it is not to be thought that such an absolute sentence of so great an Apostle can in any way waver. For the Apostle is chosen by all the Churches of Christ, not from man, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father. Therefore, according to the authority of his sentence, it behooves us, just as we avoid the other evils which he enumerated, so also to avoid the name of heresy, and not to be joined with such people in the fellowship of conversation.
And after these things, a few being inserted in the middle, he added:
What a heretical man truly is, according to our powers and what we can perceive, let us describe. Everyone who confesses that he believes in Christ, and yet says that the God of the Law and the Prophets is one, and the God of the Gospels another, and does not say that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is He who is preached by the Law and the Prophets, but someone else, I know not whom, unknown to all and unheard of by all—such men we designate as heretics, however much they may weave these things with various, diverse, and fabulous figments, such as the followers of Marcion, and Valentinus, and Basilides, and those who call themselves Tethians. But even Apelles, although he does not in all ways deny that the Law or the Prophets are of God, yet he too is designated a heretic, because he proclaims that this Lord who created the world fashioned it for the glory of another unbegotten and good God; but that that unbegotten God, at the consummation of the age, sent Jesus Christ for the amendment of the world, having been asked by that God who C had made him, to send His Son for the correction of the world. And if indeed he alone were to be held a heretic who thinks otherwise about God the Father than the rule of piety demands, what was said above would certainly suffice. But now one and the same belief must also be held regarding him who has thought something false about our Lord Jesus Christ, whether according to those who say He was born of Joseph and Mary, as are the Ebionites and Valentinians; or according to those who deny Him to be the firstborn, and the God of all creation, and the Word, and the Wisdom which is the beginning of the ways of God before He did anything, founded before the ages, and generated before all the hills; but say that He is merely a man: or according to those who indeed confess Him to be God, but yet not to have assumed a soul and an earthly body, who under the guise of, as it were, bringing greater glory to the Lord Jesus, testify that all things which were done by Him were seen to be done rather than truly done: and who do not even confess that He was born of a virgin, but that He appeared in Judea as a man of thirty years. Others, however, believe that He was indeed begotten of a virgin, but confirm that the virgin only thought she had given birth, but did not truly give birth. For they assert that the mystery of a putative generation even hid the virgin. How are these not to be kept far from the Church, when, languishing with the disease of ambition, they have established dogmas by which they might incline disciples to their own name? But also those who say that the Lord Jesus was a pre-known and predestined human being, who before His carnal advent did not substantially and properly exist, but that as a man born of the Father He held only the divinity within Him—not even they can be joined to the number of the Church without danger: just as those also who, more superstitiously than religiously, lest they appear to speak of two gods, and yet again not denying the divinity of the Savior, assert one and the same subsistence of the Father and the Son, that is, receiving two names according to the diversity of causes, yet subsisting as one D hypostasis, that is, one person subject to two names, who are called Patripassians in Latin. But even if there are any who say that the Holy Spirit is one who was in the prophets, and another who...