Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John
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Translated by John Patrick, D.D.
Text edited by Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson and
first published by T&T Clark in Edinburgh in 1867. Additional
introductionary material and notes provided for the American
edition by A. Cleveland Coxe, 1886.
.
Book I.
1. How Christians are the Spiritual Israel.
That people which was called of old the people of God was divided into
twelve tribes, and over and above the other tribes it had the
levitical order, which itself again carried on the service of God in
various priestly and levitical suborders. In the same manner, it
appears to me that the whole people of Christ, when we regard it in
the aspect of the hidden man of the heart, [4455] that people which is
called "Jew inwardly," and is circumcised in the spirit, has in a more
mystic way the characteristics of the tribes. This may be more
plainly gathered from John in his Apocalyse, though the other prophets
also do not by any means conceal the state of matters from those who
have the faculty of hearing them. John speaks as follows: [4456]
"And I saw another angel ascending from the sunrising, having the seal
of the living God, and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels
to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not
either the earth, or the sea, or the trees, till we have sealed the
servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of
them that were sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand who were
sealed, out of every tribe of the children of Israel; of the tribe of
Juda were sealed twelve thousand, of the tribe of Roubem twelve
thousand." And he mentioned each of the tribes singly, with the
exception of Dan. Then, some way further on, [4457] he continues:
"And I saw, and behold the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him a
hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His
Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven as
the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder. And
the voice which I heard was as the voice of harpers harping with their
harps; and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four
beasts and the elders, and no one could learn the song but the hundred
and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth. These
are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.
These are they who follow the Lamb whithersover He goeth. These were
purchased from among men, a first fruits to God and to the Lamb; and
in their mouth was found no lie, for they are without blemish." Now
this is said in John with reference to those who have believed in
Christ, for they also, even if their bodily descent cannot be traced
to the seed of the Patriarchs, are yet gathered out of the tribes.
That this is so we may conclude from what is further said about them:
"Hurt not," he says, "the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we
have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard
the number of them that were sealed, a hundred and forty-four
thousand, sealed from every tribe of the children of Israel."
Footnotes
[4455] Rom. ii. 29.
[4456] Apoc. vii. 2-5.
[4457] Apoc. xiv. 1-5.
2. The 144,000 Sealed in the Apocalypse are Converts to Christ from
the Gentile World.
These, then, who are sealed on their foreheads [4458] from every tribe
of the children of Israel, are a hundred and forty-four thousand in
number; and these hundred and forty-four thousand are afterwards said
in John to have the name of the Lamb and of His Father written on
their foreheads, and to be virgins, not having defiled themselves with
women. What else could the seal be which is on their foreheads but
the name of the Lamb and the name of His Father? In both passages
their foreheads are said to have the seal; in one the seal is spoken
of, in the other it appears to contain the letters forming the name of
the Lamb, and the name of His Father. Now these taken from the tribes
are, as we showed before, the same persons as the virgins. But the
number of believers is small who belong to Israel according to the
flesh; one might venture to assert that they would not nearly make up
the number of a hundred and forty-four thousand. It is clear,
therefore, that the hundred and forty-four thousand who have not
defiled themselves with women must be made up of those who have come
to the divine word out of the Gentile world. In this way the truth of
the statement may be upheld that the first fruits of each tribe are
its virgins. For the passage goes on: "These were brought from among
men to be a first fruits to God and to the Lamb; and in their mouth
was found no guile, for they are without blemish." The statement
about the hundred and forty-four thousand no doubt admits of mystical
interpretation; but it is unnecessary at this point, and would divert
us from our purpose, to compare with it those passages of the prophets
in which the same lesson is taught regarding those who are called from
among the Gentiles.
Footnotes
[4458] Apoc. vii. 3, 4.
3. In the Spiritual Israel the High-Priests are Those Who Devote
Themselves to the Study of Scripture.
But what is the bearing of all this for us? So you will ask when you
read these words, Ambrosius, thou who art truly a man of God, a man in
Christ, and who seekest to be not a man only, but a spiritual man.
[4459]The bearing is this. Those of the tribes offer to God,
through the levites and priests, tithes and first fruits; not
everything which they possess do they regard as tithe or first fruit.
The levites and priests, on the other hand, have no possessions but
tithes and first fruits; yet they also in turn offer tithes to God
through the high-priests, and, I believe, first fruits too. The same
is the case with those who approach Christian studies. Most of us
devote most of our time to the things of this life, and dedicate to
God only a few special acts, thus resembling those members of the
tribes who had but few transactions with the priest, and discharged
their religious duties with no great expense of time. But those who
devote themselves to the divine word and have no other employment but
the service of God may not unnaturally, allowing for the difference of
occupation in the two cases, be called our levites and priests. And
those who fulfil a more distinguished office than their kinsmen [4460]
will perhaps be high-priests, according to the order of Aaron, not
that of Melchisedek. Here some one may object that it is somewhat too
bold to apply the name of high-priests to men, when Jesus Himself is
spoken of in many a prophetic passage as the one great priest, as
[4461] "We have a great high-priest who has passed through the
heavens, Jesus, the Son of God." But to this we reply that the
Apostle clearly defined his meaning, and declared the prophet to have
said about the Christ, "Thou [4462] art a priest for ever, according
to the order of Melchisedek," and not according to the order of Aaron.
We say accordingly that men can be high-priests according to the
order of Aaron, but according to the order of Melchisedek only the
Christ of God.
Footnotes
[4459] 1 Cor. ii. 14.
[4460] Reading with Neander and Lommatzsch (note), diapheron ti for
diapherontes.
[4461] Heb. iv. 14.
[4462] Ps. cx. 4; Heb. v. 6. Cf. vii. 11.
4. The Study of the Gospels is the First Fruits Offered by These
Priests of Christianity.
Now our whole activity is devoted to God, and our whole life, since we
are bent on progress in divine things. If, then, it be our desire to
have the whole of those first fruits spoken of above which are made up
of the many first fruits, if we are not mistaken in this view, in what
must our first fruits consist, after the bodily separation we have
undergone from each other, but in the study of the Gospel? For we may
venture to say that the Gospel is the first fruits of all the
Scriptures. Where, then, could be the first fruits of our activity,
since the time when we came to Alexandria, but in the first fruits of
the Scriptures? It must not be forgotten, however, that the first
fruits are not the same as the first growth. For the first fruits
[4463] are offered after all the fruits (are ripe), but the first
growth [4464] before them all. Now of the Scriptures which are
current and are believed to be divine in all the churches, one would
not be wrong in saying that the first growth is the law of Moses, but
the first fruits the Gospel. For it was after all the fruits of the
prophets who prophesied till the Lord Jesus, that the perfect word
shot forth.
Footnotes
[4463] aparche, Exod. xxii. 29.
[4464] protogennema, Exod. xxiii. 16.
5. All Scripture is Gospel; But the Gospels are Distinguished Above
Other Scriptures.
Here, however, some one may object, appealing to the notion just put
forward of the unfolding of the first fruits last, and may say that
the Acts and the letters of the Apostles came after the Gospels, and
that this destroys our argument to the effect that the Gospel is the
first fruits of all Scripture. To this we must reply that it is the
conviction of men who are wise in Christ, who have profited by those
epistles which are current, and who see them to be vouched for by the
testimonies deposited in the law and the prophets, [4465] that the
apostolic writings are to be pronounced wise and worthy of belief, and
that they have great authority, but that they are not on the same
level with that "Thus sayeth the Lord Almighty." [4466]Consider on
this point the language of St. Paul. When he declares that [4467]
"Every Scripture is inspired of God and profitable," does he include
his own writings? Or does he not include his dictum, [4468] "I say,
and not the Lord," and [4469] "So I ordain in all the churches," and
[4470] "What things I suffered at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra," and
similar things which he writes in virtue of his own authority, and
which do not quite possess the character of words flowing from divine
inspiration. Must we also show that the old Scripture is not Gospel,
since it does not point out the Coming One, but only foretells Him and
heralds His coming at a future time; but that all the new Scripture is
the Gospel. It not only says as in the beginning of the Gospel,
[4471] "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world;" it also contains many praises of Him, and many of His
teachings, on whose account the Gospel is a Gospel. Again, if God set
in the Church [4472] apostles and prophets and evangelists
(gospellers), pastors and teachers, we must first enquire what was the
office of the evangelist, and mark that it is not only to narrate how
the Saviour cured a man who was blind from his birth, [4473] or raised
up a dead man who was already stinking, [4474] or to state what
extraordinary works he wrought; and the office of the evangelist being
thus defined, we shall not hesitate to find Gospel in such discourse
also as is not narrative but hortatory and intended to strengthen
belief in the mission of Jesus; and thus we shall arrive at the
position that whatever was written by the Apostles is Gospel. As to
this second definition, it might be objected that the Epistles are not
entitled "Gospel," and that we are wrong in applying the name of
Gospel to the whole of the New Testament. But to this we answer that
it happens not unfrequently in Scripture when two or more persons or
things are named by the same name, the name attaches itself most
significantly to one of those things or persons. Thus the Saviour
says, [4475] "Call no man Master upon the earth;" while the Apostle
says that Masters [4476] have been appointed in the Church. These
latter accordingly will not be Masters in the strict sense of the
dictum of the Gospel. In the same way the Gospel in the Epistles will
not extend to every word of them, when it is compared with the
narrative of Jesus' actions and sufferings and discourses. No: the
Gospel is the first fruits of all Scripture, and to these first fruits
of the Scriptures we devote the first fruits of all those actions of
ours which we trust to see turn out as we desire.
Footnotes
[4465] This passage is difficult and disputed.
[4466] 2 Cor. vi. 18.
[4467] 2 Tim. iii. 16.
[4468] 1 Cor. vii. 12.
[4469] 1 Cor. vii. 17.
[4470] 2 Tim. iii. 11.
[4471] John i. 29.
[4472] Ephes. iv. 11.
[4473] John ix. 1.
[4474] John xi. 39.
[4475] Matt. xxiii. 8, 9.
[4476] didaskaloi, Ephes. iv. 11.
6. The Fourfold Gospel. John's the First Fruits of the Four.
Qualifications Necessary for Interpreting It.
Now the Gospels are four. These four are, as it were, the elements of
the faith of the Church, out of which elements the whole world which
is reconciled to God in Christ is put together; as Paul says, [4477]
"God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself;" of which world
Jesus bore the sin; for it is of the world of the Church that the word
is written, [4478] "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin
of the world." The Gospels then being four, I deem the first fruits
of the Gospels to be that which you [4479] have enjoined me to search
into according to my powers, the Gospel of John, that which speaks of
him whose genealogy had already been set forth, but which begins to
speak of him at a point before he had any genealogy. For Matthew,
writing for the Hebrews who looked for Him who was to come of the line
of Abraham and of David, says: [4480]"The book of the generation of
Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." And Mark,
knowing what he writes, narrates the beginning of the Gospel; we may
perhaps find what he aims at in John; in the beginning the Word, God
the Word. But Luke, though he says at the beginning of Acts, "The
former treatise did I make about all that Jesus began to do and to
teach," yet leaves to him who lay on Jesus' breast the greatest and
completest discourses about Jesus. For none of these plainly declared
His Godhead, as John does when he makes Him say, "I am the light of
the world," "I am the way and the truth and the life," "I am the
resurrection," "I am the door," "I am the good shepherd;" and in the
Apocalypse, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end,
the first and the last." We may therefore make bold to say that the
Gospels are the first fruits of all the Scriptures, but that of the
Gospels that of John is the first fruits. No one can apprehend the
meaning of it except he have lain on Jesus' breast and received from
Jesus Mary to be his mother also. Such an one must he become who is
to be another John, and to have shown to him, like John, by Jesus
Himself Jesus as He is. For if Mary, as those declare who with sound
mind extol her, had no other son but Jesus, and yet Jesus says to His
mother, "Woman, behold thy son," [4481] and not "Behold you have this
son also," then He virtually said to her, "Lo, this is Jesus, whom
thou didst bear." Is it not the case that every one who is perfect
lives himself no longer, [4482] but Christ lives in him; and if Christ
lives in him, then it is said of him to Mary, "Behold thy son
Christ." What a mind, then, must we have to enable us to interpret in
a worthy manner this work, though it be committed to the earthly
treasure-house of common speech, of writing which any passer-by can
read, and which can be heard when read aloud by any one who lends to
it his bodily ears? What shall we say of this work? He who is
accurately to apprehend what it contains should be able to say with
truth, [4483] "We have the mind of Christ, that we may know those
things which are bestowed on us by God." It is possible to quote one
of Paul's sayings in support of the contention that the whole of the
New Testament is Gospel. He writes in a certain place: [4484]
"According to my Gospel." Now we have no written work of Paul which
is commonly called a Gospel. But all that he preached and said was
the Gospel; and what he preached and said he was also in the habit of
writing, and what he wrote was therefore Gospel. But if what Paul
wrote was Gospel, it follows that what Peter wrote was also Gospel,
and in a word all that was said or written to perpetuate the knowledge
of Christ's sojourn on earth, and to prepare for His second coming, or
to bring it about as a present reality in those souls which were
willing to receive the Word of God as He stood at the door and knocked
and sought to come into them.
Footnotes
[4477] 2 Cor. v. 19.
[4478] John i. 29.
[4479] Ambrosius.
[4480] Matt. i. 1.
[4481] John xix. 26.
[4482] Gal. ii. 20.
[4483] 1 Cor. ii. 12, 16.
[4484] Rom. ii. 16.
7. What Good Things are Announced in the Gospels.
But it is time we should inquire what is the meaning of the
designation "Gospel," and why these books have this title. Now the
Gospel is a discourse containing a promise of things which naturally,
and on account of the benefits they bring, rejoice the hearer as soon
as the promise is heard and believed. Nor is such a discourse any the
less a Gospel that we define it with reference to the position of the
hearer. A Gospel is either a word which implies the actual presence
to the believer of something that is good, or a word promising the
arrival of a good which is expected. Now all these definitions apply
to those books which are named Gospels. For each of the Gospels is a
collection of announcements which are useful to him who believes them
and does not misinterpret them; it brings him a benefit and naturally
makes him glad because it tells of the sojourn with men, on account of
men, and for their salvation, of the first-born of all creation,
[4485] Christ Jesus. And again each Gospel tells of the sojourn of
the good Father in the Son with those minded to receive Him, as is
plain to every believer; and moreover by these books a good is
announced which had been formerly expected, as is by no means hard to
see. For John the Baptist spoke in the name almost of the whole
people when he sent to Jesus and asked, [4486] "Art thou He that
should come or do we look for another?" For to the people the Messiah
was an expected good, which the prophets had foretold, and they all
alike, though under the law and the prophets, fixed their hopes on
Him, as the Samaritan woman bears witness when she says: [4487]"I
know that the Messiah comes, who is called Christ; when He comes He
will tell us all things." Simon and Cleopas too, when talking to each
other about all that had happened to Jesus Christ Himself, then risen,
though they did not know that He had risen from the dead, speak thus,
[4488] "Dost thou sojourn alone in Jerusalem, and knowest not the
things which have taken place there in these days? And when he said
what things? they answered, The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth,
[4489] which was a prophet, mighty in deed and in word before God and
all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him
up to be sentenced to death and crucified Him. But we hoped that it
was He which should redeem Israel." Again, Andrew the brother of
Simon Peter found his own brother Simon and said to him, [4490] "We
have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, Christ." And a
little further on Philip finds Nathanael and says to him, [4491] "We
have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote,
Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth."
Footnotes
[4485] Col. i. 15.
[4486] Matt. xi. 3.
[4487] John iv. 25.
[4488] Luke xxiv. 18-21.
[4489] Nazarenou.
[4490] John i. 42.
[4491] John i. 46.
8. How the Gospels Cause the Other Books of Scripture Also to Be
Gospel.
Now an objection might be raised to our first definition, because it
would embrace books which are not entitled Gospels. For the law and
the prophets also are to our eyes books containing the promise of
things which, from the benefit they will confer on him, naturally
rejoice the hearer as soon as he takes in the message. To this it may
be said that before the sojourn of Christ, the law and the prophets,
since He had not come who interpreted the mysteries they contained,
did not convey such a promise as belongs to our definition of the
Gospel; but the Saviour, when He sojourned with men and caused the
Gospel to appear in bodily form, by the Gospel caused all things to
appear as Gospel. Here I would not think it beside the purpose to
quote the example of Him who...a few things...and yet all. [4492]
For when he had taken away the veil which was present in the law and
the prophets, and by His divinity had proved the sons of men that the
Godhead was at work, He opened the way for all those who desired it to
be disciples of His wisdom, and to understand what things were true
and real in the law of Moses, of which things those of old worshipped
the type and the shadow, and what things were real of the things
narrated in the histories which "happened to them in the way of type,"
[4493] but these things "were written for our sakes, upon whom the
ends of the ages have come." With whomsoever, then, Christ has
sojourned, he worships God neither at Jerusalem nor on the mountain of
the Samaritans; he knows that God is a spirit, and worships Him
spiritually, in spirit and in truth; no longer by type does he worship
the Father and Maker of all. Before that Gospel, therefore, which
came into being by the sojourning of Christ, none of the older works
was a Gospel. But the Gospel, which is the new covenant, having
delivered us from the oldness of the letter, lights up for us, by the
light of knowledge, [4494] the newness of the spirit, a thing which
never grows old, which has its home in the New Testament, but is also
present in all the Scriptures. It was fitting, therefore, that that
Gospel, which enables us to find the Gospel present, even in the Old
Testament, should itself receive, in a special sense, the name of
Gospel.
Footnotes
[4492] Text defective here. The words as they stand would yield the
sense, "the formula, little and yet all."
[4493] 1 Cor. x. 11.
[4494] guosis.
9. The Somatic and the Spiritual Gospel.
We must not, however, forget that the sojourning of Christ with men
took place before His bodily sojourn, in an intellectual fashion, to
those who were more perfect and not children, and were not under
pedagogues and governors. In their minds they saw the fulness of the
time to be at hand--the patriarchs, and Moses the servant, and the
prophets who beheld the glory of Christ. And as before His manifest
and bodily coming He came to those who were perfect, so also, after
His coming has been announced to all, to those who are still children,
since they are under pedagogues and governors and have not yet arrived
at the fulness of the time, forerunners of Christ have come to
sojourn, discourses (logoi) suited for minds still in their childhood,
and rightly, therefore, termed pedagogues. But the Son Himself, the
glorified God, the Word, has not yet come; He waits for the
preparation which must take place on the part of men of God who are to
admit His deity. And this, too, we must bear in mind, that as the law
contains a shadow of good things to come, which are indicated by that
law which is announced according to truth, so the Gospel also teaches
a shadow of the mysteries of Christ, the Gospel which is thought to be
capable of being understood by any one. What John calls the eternal
Gospel, and what may properly be called the spiritual Gospel, presents
clearly to those who have the will to understand, all matters
concerning the very Son of God, both the mysteries presented by His
discourses and those matters of which His acts were the enigmas. In
accordance with this we may conclude that, as it is with Him who is a
Jew outwardly and circumcised in the flesh, so it is with the
Christian and with baptism. Paul and Peter were, at an earlier
period, Jews outwardly and circumcised, but later they received from
Christ that they should be so in secret, too; so that outwardly they
were Jews for the sake of the salvation of many, and by an economy
they not only confessed in words that they were Jews, but showed it by
their actions. And the same is to be said about their Christianity.
As Paul could not benefit those who were Jews according to the flesh,
without, when reason shows it to be necessary, circumcising Timothy,
and when it appears the natural course getting himself shaved and
making a vow, and, in a word, being to the Jews a Jew that he might
gain the Jews--so also it is not possible for one who is responsible
for the good of many to operate as he should by means of that
Christianity only which is in secret. That will never enable him to
improve those who are following the external Christianity, or to lead
them on to better and higher things. We must, therefore, be
Christians both somatically and spiritually, and where there is a call
for the somatic (bodily) Gospel, in which a man says to those who are
carnal that he knows nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, so we
must do. But should we find those who are perfected in the spirit,
and bear fruit in it, and are enamoured of the heavenly wisdom, these
must be made to partake of that Word which, after it was made flesh,
rose again to what it was in the beginning, with God.
10. How Jesus Himself is the Gospel.
The foregoing inquiry into the nature of the Gospel cannot be regarded
as useless; it has enabled us to see what distinction there is between
a sensible Gospel and an intellectual and spiritual one. What we have
now to do is to transform the sensible Gospel into a spiritual one.
For what would the narrative of the sensible Gospel amount to if it
were not developed to a spiritual one? It would be of little account
or none; any one can read it and assure himself of the facts it
tells--no more. But our whole energy is now to be directed to the
effort to penetrate to the deep things of the meaning of the Gospel
and to search out the truth that is in it when divested of types. Now
what the Gospels say is to be regarded in the light of promises of
good things; and we must say that the good things the Apostles
announce in this Gospel are simply Jesus. One good thing which they
are said to announce is the resurrection; but the resurrection is in a
manner Jesus, for Jesus says: [4495]"I am the resurrection." Jesus
preaches to the poor those things which are laid up for the saints,
calling them to the divine promises. And the holy Scriptures bear
witness to the Gospel announcements made by the Apostles and to that
made by our Saviour. David says of the Apostles, perhaps also of the
evangelists: [4496]"The Lord shall give the word to those that
preach with great power; the King of the powers of the beloved;"
teaching at the same time that it is not skilfully composed discourse,
nor the mode of delivery, nor well practised eloquence that produces
conviction, but the communication of divine power. Hence also Paul
says: [4497]"I will know not the word that is puffed up, but the
power; for the kingdom of God is not in word but in power." And in
another passage: [4498]"And my word and my preaching were not
persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of
power." To this power Simon and Cleophas bear witness when they say:
[4499]"Was not our heart burning within us by the way, as he opened
to us the Scriptures?" And the Apostles, since the quantity of the
power is great which God supplies to the speakers, had great power,
according to the word of David: "The Lord will give the word to the
preachers with great power." Isaiah too says: [4500]"How beautiful
are the feet of them that proclaim good tidings;" he sees how
beautiful and how opportune was the announcement of the Apostles who
walked in Him who said, "I am the way," and praises the feet of those
who walk in the intellectual way of Christ Jesus, and through that
door go in to God. They announce good tidings, those whose feet are
beautiful, namely, Jesus.
Footnotes
[4495] John xi. 25.
[4496] Ps. lxvii. 11, 12.
[4497] 1 Cor. iv. 19, 20 (with a peculiar reading).
[4498] 1 Cor. ii. 4.
[4499] Luke xxiv. 32.
[4500] Isa. lii. 7; Rom. x. 15.
11. Jesus is All Good Things; Hence the Gospel is Manifold.
Let no one wonder if we have understood Jesus to be announced in the
Gospel under a plurality of names of good things. If we look at the
things by the names of which the Son of God is called, we shall
understand how many good things Jesus is, whom those preach whose feet
are beautiful. One good thing is life; but Jesus is the life.
Another good thing is the light of the world, when it is true light,
and the light of men; and all these things the Son of God is said to
be. And another good thing which one may conceive to be in addition
to life or light is the truth. And a fourth in addition to time is
the way which leads to the truth. And all these things our Saviour
teaches that He is, when He says: [4501]"I am the way and the truth
and the life." Ah, is not that good, to shake off earth and
mortality, and to rise again, obtaining this boon from the Lord, since
He is the resurrection, as He says: [4502]"I am the resurrection."
But the door also is a good, through which one enters into the highest
blessedness. Now Christ says: [4503]"I am the door." And what
need is there to speak of wisdom, which "the Lord created [4504] the
first principle of His ways, for His works," in whom the father of her
rejoiced, delighting in her manifold intellectual beauty, seen by the
eyes of the mind alone, and provoking him to love who discerns her
divine and heavenly charm? A good indeed is the wisdom of God,
proclaimed along with the other good foresaid by those whose feet are
beautiful. And the power of God is the eighth good we enumerate,
which is Christ. Nor must we omit to mention the Word, who is God
after the Father of all. For this also is a good, less than no
other. Happy, then, are those who accept these goods and receive them
from those who announce the good tidings of them, those whose feet are
beautiful. Indeed even one of the Corinthians to whom Paul declared
that he knew nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, should he
learn Him who for our sakes became man, and so receive Him, he would
become identified with the beginning of the good things we have spoken
of; by the man Jesus he would be made a man of God, and by His death
he would die to sin. For "Christ, [4505] in that He died, died unto
sin once." But from His life, since "in that He liveth, He liveth
unto God," every one who is conformed to His resurrection receives
that living to God. But who will deny that righteousness, essential
righteousness, is a good, and essential sanctification, and essential
redemption? And these things those preach who preach Jesus, saying
[4506] that He is made to be of God righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Hence we shall have writings about Him without
number, showing that Jesus is a multitude of goods; for from the
things which can scarcely be numbered and which have been written we
may make some conjecture of those things which actually exist in Him
in whom [4507] "it pleased God that the whole fulness of the Godhead
should dwell bodily," and which are not contained in writings. Why
should I say, "are not contained in writings"? For John speaks of the
whole world in this connection, and says: [4508]"I suppose that not
even the world itself would contain the books which would be
written." Now to say that the Apostles preach the Saviour is to say
that they preach these good things. For this is He who received from
the good Father that He Himself should be these good things, so that
each man receiving from Jesus the thing or things he is capable of
receiving may enjoy good things. But the Apostles, whose feet were
beautiful, and those imitators of them who sought to preach the good
tidings, could not have done so had not Jesus Himself first preached
the good tidings to them, as Isaiah says: [4509]"I myself that
speak am here, as the opportunity on the mountains, as the feet of one
preaching tidings of peace, as one preaching good things; for I will
make My salvation to be heard, saying, God shall reign over thee, O
Zion!" For what are the mountains on which the speaker declares that
He Himself is present, but those who are less than none of the highest
and the greatest of the earth? And these must be sought by the able
ministers of the New Covenant, in order that they may observe the
injunction which says: [4510]Go up into a high mountain, thou that
preachest good tidings to Zion; thou that preachest good tidings to
Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength!" Now it is not wonderful
if to those who are to preach good tidings Jesus Himself preaches good
tidings of good things, which are no other than Himself; for the Son
of God preaches the good tidings of Himself to those who cannot come
to know Him through others. And He who goes up into the mountains and
preaches good things to them, being Himself instructed by His good
Father, [4511] who "makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust," He does not despise
those who are poor in soul. To them He preaches good tidings, as He
Himself bears witness to us when He takes Isaiah [4512] and reads:
"The spirit of the Lord is upon me, for the Lord hath anointed me to
preach good tidings to the poor, He hath sent me to proclaim liberty
to the captives, and sight to the blind. For closing the book He
handed it to the minister and sat down. And when the eyes of all were
fastened upon Him, He said, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in
your ears."
Footnotes
[4501] John xiv. 6.
[4502] John xi. 25.
[4503] John x. 9.
[4504] Prov. viii. 22.
[4505] Rom. vi. 10.
[4506] 1 Cor. i. 30.
[4507] Col. i. 19; ii. 9.
[4508] John xxi. 25.
[4509] Isa. lii. 6.
[4510] Isa. xl. 9.
[4511] Matt. v. 45.
[4512] Luke iv. 18 sq.
12. The Gospel Contains the Ill Deeds Also Which Were Done to Jesus.
It ought not to be forgotten that in such a Gospel as this there is
embraced every good deed which was done to Jesus; as, for example, the
story of the woman [4513] who had been a sinner and had repented, and
who, having experienced a genuine recovery from her evil state, had
grace to pour her ointment over Jesus so that every one in the house
smelt the sweet savour. Hence, too, the words, "Wherever this Gospel
shall be preached among all the nations, there also this that she has
done shall be spoken of, for a memorial of her." And it is clear that
whatever is done to the disciples of Jesus is done to Him. Pointing
to those of them who met with kind treatment, He says to those who
were kind to them, [4514] "What ye did to these, ye did to Me." So
that every good deed we do to our neighbours is entered in the Gospel,
that Gospel which is written on the heavenly tablets and read by all
who are worthy of the knowledge of the whole of things. But on the
other side, too, there is a part of the Gospel which is for the
condemnation of the doers of the ill deeds which have been done to
Jesus. The treachery of Judas and the shouts of the wicked crowd when
it said, [4515] "Away with such a one from the earth," and "Crucify
Him, crucify Him," the mockings of those who crowned Him with thorns,
and everything of that kind, is included in the Gospels. And as a
consequence of this we see that every one who betrays the disciples of
Jesus is reckoned as betraying Jesus Himself. To Saul, [4516] when
still a persecutor it is said, "Saul Saul, why persecutest thou Me?"
and, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." There are those who still
have thorns with which they crown and dishonour Jesus, those, namely,
who are choked by the cares, and riches, and pleasures of life, and
though they have received the word of God, do not bring it to
perfection. [4517]We must beware, therefore, lest we also, as
crowning Jesus with thorns of our own, should be entered in the Gospel
and read of in this character by those who learn the Jesus, who is in
all and is present in all rational and holy lives, learn how He is
anointed with ointment, is entertained, is glorified, or how, on the
other side, He is dishonoured, and mocked, and beaten. All this had
to be said; it is part of our demonstration that our good actions, and
also the sins of those who stumble, are embodied in the Gospel, either
to everlasting life or to reproach and everlasting shame.
Footnotes
[4513] Matt. xxvi. 6-13, combined with Luke vii. 36-50.
[4514] Matt. xxv. 40.
[4515] John xix. 6, 15.
[4516] Acts ix. 4, 5.
[4517] Luke viii. 14.
13. The Angels Also are Evangelists.
Now if there are those among men who are honoured with the ministry of
evangelists, and if Jesus Himself brings tidings of good things, and
preaches the Gospel to the poor, surely those messengers who were made
spirits by God, [4518] those who are a flame of fire, ministers of the
Father of all, cannot have been excluded from being evangelists also.
Hence an angel standing over the shepherds made a bright light to
shine round about them, and said: [4519]"Fear not; behold I bring
you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people; for
there is born to you, this day, a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in
the city of David." And at a time when there was no knowledge among
men of the mystery of the Gospel, those who were greater than men and
inhabitants of heaven, the army of God, praised God, saying, "Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men." [4520]
And having said this, the angels go away from the shepherds into
heaven, leaving us to gather how the joy preached to us through the
birth of Jesus Christ is glory in the highest to God; they humbled
themselves even to the ground, and then returned to their place of
rest, to glorify God in the highest through Jesus Christ. But the
angels also wonder at the peace which is to be brought about on
account of Jesus on the earth, that seat of war, on which Lucifer,
star of the morning, fell from heaven, to be warred against and
destroyed by Jesus.
Footnotes
[4518] Ps. civ. 4.
[4519] Luke ii. 10, 11.
[4520] Origen, however, appears also to have read eudokias: "among
men of good will."
14. The Old Testament, Typified by John, is the Beginning of the
Gospel.
In addition to what we have said, there is also this to be considered
about the Gospel, that in the first instance it is that of Christ
Jesus, the head of the whole body of the saved; as Mark says, [4521]
"The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." Then also it is the
Gospel of the Apostles; whence Paul [4522] says, "According to my
Gospel." But the beginning of the Gospel--for in respect of its
extent it has a beginning, a continuation, a middle, and an end--is
nothing but the whole Old Testament. John is, in this respect, a type
of the Old Testament, or, if we regard the connection of the New
Testament with the Old, John represents the termination of the Old.
For the same Mark says: [4523]"The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold I send my
messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way. The voice of
one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His
paths straight." And here I must wonder how the dissentients [4524]
can connect the two Testaments with two different Gods. These words,
were there no others, are enough to convict them of their error. For
how can John be the beginning of the Gospel if they suppose he belongs
to a different God, if he belongs to the demiurge, and, as they hold,
is not acquainted with the new deity? And the angels are not
entrusted with but one evangelical ministry, and that a short one, not
only with that addressed to the shepherds. For at the end an exalted
and flying angel, having the Gospel, will preach it to every nation,
for the good Father has not entirely deserted those who have fallen
away from Him. John, son of Zebedee, says in his Apocalypse: [4525]
"And I saw an angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the Eternal
Gospel, to preach it to those who dwell upon the earth, and to every
nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people, saying, with a loud voice,
Fear God and give Him glory, for the hour of His judgment hath come,
and worship Him that made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and
the fountains of waters."
Footnotes
[4521] Mark i. 1.
[4522] Rom. ii. 16.
[4523] i. 2, 3.
[4524] heterodoxoi.
[4525] Apoc. xiv. 6, 7.
15. The Gospel is in the Old Testament, and Indeed in the Whole
Universe. Prayer for Aid to Understand the Mystical Sense of the Work
in Hand.
As, then, we have shown that the beginning of the Gospel, according to
one interpretation, is the whole Old Testament, and is signified by
the person of John, we shall add, lest this should be called a mere
unsupported assertion, what is said in the Acts [4526] about the
eunuch of the queen of the Ethiopians and Philip. Philip, it is said,
began at the passage of Isaiah: "He was led as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer is dumb," and so preached
to him the Lord Jesus. How can he begin with the prophet and preach
Jesus, if Isaiah was not a part of the beginning of the Gospel? From
this we may derive a proof of the assertion made at the outset, that
every divine Scripture is Gospel. If he who preaches the Gospel
preaches good things, and all those who spoke before the sojourn of
Jesus in the flesh preach Christ, who is as we saw good things, then
the words spoken by all of them alike are in a sense a part of the
Gospel. And when the Gospel is said to be declared throughout the
whole world, we infer that it is actually preached in the whole world,
not, that is to say, in this earthly district only, but in the whole
system of heaven and earth, or from heaven and earth. And why should
we discuss any further what the Gospel is? What we have said is
enough. Besides the passages we have adduced, passages by no means
inept or unsuited for our purpose,--much to the same effect might be
collected from the Scriptures, so that it is clearly seen what is the
glory of the good things in Jesus Christ shed forth by the Gospel, the
Gospel ministered by men and angels, and, I believe, also by
authorities and powers, [4527] and thrones and dominions, and every
name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the world to
come, and indeed even by Christ Himself. Here, then, let us bring to
a close what has to be said before proceeding to read the work
itself. And now let us ask God to assist us through Jesus Christ by
the Holy Spirit, so that we may be able to unfold the mystical sense
which is treasured up in the words before us.
Footnotes
[4526] Acts viii. 26, sqq.
[4527] Ephes. i. 21.
16. Meaning of "Beginning." (1) in Space.
"In the beginning was the Word." [4528]It is not only the Greeks
who consider the word "beginning" to have many meanings. Let any one
collect the Scripture passages in which the word occurs, and with a
view to an accurate interpretation of it note what it stands for in
each passage, and he will find that the word has many meanings in
sacred discourse also. We speak of a beginning in reference to a
transition. Here it has to do with a road and with length. This
appears in the saying: [4529]"The beginning of a good way is to do
justice." For since the good way is long, there have first to be
considered in reference to it the question connected with action, and
this side is presented in the words "to do justice;" the contemplative
side comes up for consideration afterwards. In the latter the end of
it comes to rest at last in the so-called restoration of all things,
since no enemy is left them to fight against, if that be true which is
said: [4530]"For He must reign until He have placed His enemies
under His feet. But the last enemy to be destroyed is death." For
then but one activity will be left for those who have come to God on
account of His word which is with Him, that, namely, of knowing God,
so that, being found by the knowledge of the Father, they may all be
His Son, as now no one but the Son knows the Father. For should any
one enquire carefully at what time those are to know the Father to
whom He who knows the Father reveals Him, and should he consider how a
man now sees only through a glass and in a riddle, never having
learned to know as he ought to know, he would be justified in saying
that no one, no apostle even, and no prophet had known the Father, but
when he became one with Him as a son and a father are one. And if any
one says that it is a digression which has led us to this point, our
consideration of that one meaning of the word beginning, we must show
that the digression is necessary and useful for the end we have in
view. For if we speak of a beginning in the case of a transition, and
of a way and its length, and if we are told that the beginning of a
good way is to do justice, then it concerns us to know in what manner
every good way has for its beginning to do justice, and how after such
beginning it arrives at contemplation, and in what manner it thus
arrives at contemplation.
Footnotes
[4528] John i. 1.
[4529] Prov. xvi. 5.
[4530] 1 Cor. xv. 25, 26.
17. (2) in Time. The Beginning of Creation.
Again, there is a beginning in a matter of origin, as might appear in
the saying: [4531]"In the beginning God made the heaven and the
earth." This meaning, however, appears more plainly in the Book of
Job in the passage: [4532]"This is the beginning of God's creation,
made for His angels to mock at." One would suppose that the heavens
and the earth were made first, of all that was made at the creation of
the world. But the second passage suggests a better view, namely,
that as many beings were framed with a body, the first made of these
was the creature called dragon, but called in another passage [4533]
the great whale (leviathan) which the Lord tamed. We must ask about
this; whether, when the saints were living a blessed life apart from
matter and from any body, the dragon, falling from the pure life,
became fit to be bound in matter and in a body, so that the Lord could
say, speaking through storm and clouds, "This is the beginning of the
creation of God, made for His angels to mock at." It is possible,
however, that the dragon is not positively the beginning of the
creation of the Lord, but that there were many creatures made with a
body for the angels to mock at, and that the dragon was the first of
these, while others could subsist in a body without such reproach.
But it is not so. For the soul of the sun is placed in a body, and
the whole creation, of which the Apostle says: [4534]"The whole
creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now," and
perhaps the following is about the same: "The creation was made
subject to vanity, not willingly, but on account of Him who subjected
it for hope;" so that bodies might be in vanity, and doing the things
of the body, as he who is in the body must. [4535] ...One who is in
the body does the things of the body, though unwillingly. Wherefore
the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but he who
does unwillingly the things of the body does what he does for the sake
of hope, as if we should say that Paul desired to remain in the flesh,
not willingly, but on account of hope. For though he thought it
better [4536] to be dissolved and to be with Christ, it was not
unreasonable that he should wish to remain in the flesh for the sake
of the benefit to others and of advancement in the things hoped for,
not only by him, but also by those benefited by him. This meaning of
the term "beginning," as of origin, will serve us also in the passage
in which Wisdom speaks in the Proverbs. [4537]"God," we read,
"created me the beginning of His ways, for His works." Here the term
could be interpreted as in the first application we spoke of, that of
a way: "The Lord," it says, "created me the beginning of His ways."
One might assert, and with reason, that God Himself is the beginning
of all things, and might go on to say, as is plain, that the Father is
the beginning of the Son; and the demiurge the beginning of the works
of the demiurge, and that God in a word is the beginning of all that
exists. This view is supported by our: "In the beginning was the
Word." In the Word one may see the Son, and because He is in the
Father He may be said to be in the beginning.
Footnotes
[4531] Gen. i. 1.
[4532] Job xl. 19.
[4533] Job iii. 8.
[4534] Rom. viii. 22, 20.
[4535] The text is defective here.
[4536] Phil. i. 23.
[4537] viii. 22.
18. (3) of Substance.
In the third place a beginning may be that out of which a thing comes,
the underlying matter from which things are formed. This, however, is
the view of those who hold matter itself to be uncreated, a view which
we believers cannot share, since we believe God to have made the
things that are out of the things which are not, as the mother of the
seven martyrs in the Maccabees teaches, [4538] and as the angel of
repentance in the Shepherd inculcated. [4539]
Footnotes
[4538] 2 Macc. vii. 28.
[4539] Herm. Sim. viii.
19. (4) of Type and Copy.
In addition to these meanings there is that in which we speak of an
arche, [4540] according to form; thus if the first-born of every
creature [4541] is the image of the invisible God, then the Father is
his arche. In the same way Christ is the arche of those who are made
according to the image of God. For if men are according to the image,
but the image according to the Father; in the first case the Father is
the arche of Christ, and in the other Christ is the arche of men, and
men are made, not according to that of which he is the image, but
according to the image. With this example our passage will agree:
"In the arche was the Word."
Footnotes
[4540] We must here reproduce the Greek word, as Origen passes to
meanings of it which the English "beginning" does not cover.
[4541] Coloss. i. 15.
20. (5) of Elements and What is Formed from Them.
There is also an arche in a matter of learning, as when we say that
the letters are the arche of grammar. The Apostle accordingly says:
[4542]"When by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, you
have need again that some one teach you what are the elements of the
arche of the oracles of God." Now the arche spoken of in connection
with learning is twofold; first in respect of its nature, secondly in
its relation to us; as we might say of Christ, that by nature His
arche is deity, but that in relation to us who cannot, for its very
greatness, command the whole truth about Him, His arche is His
manhood, as He is preached to babes, "Jesus Christ and Him
crucified." In this view, then, Christ is the arche of learning in
His own nature, because He is the wisdom and power of God; but for us,
the Word was made flesh, that He might tabernacle among us who could
only thus at first receive Him. And perhaps this is the reason why He
is not only the firstborn of all creation, but is also designated the
man, Adam. For Paul says He is Adam: [4543]"The last Adam was made
a life-giving spirit."
Footnotes
[4542] Heb. v. 12.
[4543] 1 Cor. xv. 45.
21. (6) of Design and Execution.
Again we speak of the arche of an action, in which there is a design
which appears after the beginning. It may be considered whether
wisdom is to be regarded as the arche of the works of God because it
is in this way the principle of them.
22. The Word Was in the Beginning, I.e., in Wisdom, Which Contained
All Things in Idea, Before They Existed. Christ's Character as Wisdom
is Prior to His Other Characters.
So many meanings occur to us at once of the word arche. We have now
to ask which of them we should adopt for our text, "In the beginning
was the Word." It is plain that we may at once dismiss the meaning
which connects it with transition or with a road and its length. Nor,
it is pretty plain, will the meaning connected with an origin serve
our purpose. One might, however, think of the sense in which it
points to the author, to that which brings about the effect, if, as we
read, [4544] "God commanded and they were created." For Christ is, in
a manner, the demiurge, to whom the Father says, "Let there be light,"
and "Let there be a firmament." But Christ is demiurge as a beginning
(arche), inasmuch as He is wisdom. It is in virtue of His being
wisdom that He is called arche. For Wisdom says in Solomon: [4545]
"God created me the beginning of His ways, for His works," so that the
Word might be in an arche, namely, in wisdom. Considered in relation
to the structure of contemplation and thoughts about the whole of
things, it is regarded as wisdom; but in relation to that side of the
objects of thought, in which reasonable beings apprehend them, it is
considered as the Word. And there is no wonder, since, as we have
said before, the Saviour is many good things, if He comprises in
Himself thoughts of the first order, and of the second, and of the
third. This is what John suggested when he said about the Word:
[4546]"That which was made was life in Him." Life then came in the
Word. And on the one side the Word is no other than the Christ, the
Word, He who was with the Father, by whom all things were made; while,
on the other side, the Life is no other than the Son of God, who says:
[4547]"I am the way and the truth and the life." As, then, life
came into being in the Word, so the Word in the arche. Consider,
however, if we are at liberty to take this meaning of arche for our
text: "In the beginning was the Word," so as to obtain the meaning
that all things came into being according to wisdom and according to
the models of the system which are present in his thoughts. For I
consider that as a house or a ship is built and fashioned in
accordance with the sketches of the builder or designer, the house or
the ship having their beginning (arche) in the sketches and reckonings
in his mind, so all things came into being in accordance with the
designs of what was to be, clearly laid down by God in wisdom. And we
should add that having created, so to speak, ensouled [4548] wisdom,
He left her to hand over, from the types which were in her, to things
existing and to matter, the actual emergence of them, their moulding
and their forms. [4549]But I consider, if it be permitted to say
this, that the beginning (arche) of real existence was the Son of God,
saying: [4550]"I am the beginning and the end, the A and the O, the
first and the last." We must, however, remember that He is not the
arche in respect of every name which is applied to Him. For how can
He be the beginning in respect of His being life, when life came in
the Word, and the Word is manifestly the arche of life? It is also
tolerably evident that He cannot be the arche in respect of His being
the first-born from the dead. And if we go through all His titles
carefully we find that He is the arche only in respect of His being
wisdom. Not even as the Word is He the arche, for the Word was in the
arche. And so one might venture to say that wisdom is anterior to all
the thoughts that are expressed in the titles of the first-born of
every creature. Now God is altogether one and simple; but our
Saviour, for many reasons, since God [4551] set Him forth a
propitiation and a first fruits of the whole creation, is made many
things, or perhaps all these things; the whole creation, so far as
capable of redemption, stands in need of Him. [4552]And, hence, He
is made the light of men, because men, being darkened by wickedness,
need the light that shines in darkness, and is not overtaken by the
darkness; had not men been in darkness, He would not have become the
light of men. The same thing may be observed in respect of His being
the first-born of the dead. For supposing the woman had not been
deceived, and Adam had not fallen, and man created for incorruption
had obtained it, then He would not have descended into the grave, nor
would He have died, there being no sin, nor would His love of men have
required that He should die, and if He had not died, He could not have
been the first-born of the dead. We may also ask whether He would
ever have become a shepherd, had man not been thrown together with the
beasts which are devoid of reason, and made like to them. For if God
saves man and beasts, He saves those beasts which He does save, by
giving them a shepherd, since they cannot have a king. Thus if we
collect the titles of Jesus, the question arises which of them were
conferred on Him later, and would never have assumed such importance
if the saints had begun and had also persevered in blessedness.
Perhaps Wisdom would be the only remaining one, or perhaps the Word
would remain too, or perhaps the Life, or perhaps the Truth, not the
others, which He took for our sake. And happy indeed are those who in
their need for the Son of God have yet become such persons as not to
need Him in His character as a physician healing the sick, nor in that
of a shepherd, nor in that of redemption, but only in His characters
as wisdom, as the word and righteousness, or if there be any other
title suitable for those who are so perfect as to receive Him in His
fairest characters. So much for the phrase "In the beginning."
Footnotes
[4544] Ps. cxlviii. 5.
[4545] Prov. viii. 22.
[4546] John i. 3, 4.
[4547] John xiv. 6.
[4548] Opp. to embodied.
[4549] Mr. Brooke, T. and S. I. iv. p. 15, discusses this corrupt
passage and suggests an improved text which would yield the sense,
that wisdom was to give to things and matter, "it might be rash to say
bluntly their essences, but their moulding and their forms."
[4550] Apoc. xxii. 13.
[4551] Rom. iii. 25.
[4552] Passage obscure and probably corrupt.
23. The Title "Word" Is to Be Interpreted by the Same Method as the
Other Titles of Christ. The Word of God is Not a Mere Attribute of
God, But a Separate Person. What is Meant When He is Called the Word.
Let us consider, however, a little more carefully what is the Word
which is in the beginning. I am often led to wonder when I consider
the things that are said about Christ, even by those who are in
earnest in their belief in Him. Though there is a countless number of
names which can be applied to our Saviour, they omit the most of them,
and if they should remember them, they declare that these titles are
not to be understood in their proper sense, but tropically. But when
they come to the title Logos (Word), and repeat that Christ alone is
the Word of God, they are not consistent, and do not, as in the case
of the other titles, search out what is behind the meaning of the term
"Word." I wonder at the stupidity of the general run of Christians in
this matter. I do not mince matters; it is nothing but stupidity.
The Son of God says in one passage, "I am the light of the world," and
in another, "I am the resurrection," and again, "I am the way and the
truth and the life." It is also written, "I am the door," and we have
the saying, "I am the good shepherd," and when the woman of Samaria
says, "We know the Messiah is coming, who is called Christ; when He
comes, He will tell us all things," Jesus answers, "I that speak unto
thee am He." Again, when He washed the disciples' feet, He declared
Himself in these words [4553] to be their Master and Lord: "You call
Me Master and Lord, and you say well, for so I am." He also
distinctly announces Himself as the Son of God, when He says, [4554]
"He whom the Father sanctified and sent unto the world, to Him do you
say, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God?" and
[4555] "Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son also
may glorify Thee." We also find Him declaring Himself to be a king,
as when He answers Pilate's question, [4556] "Art Thou the King of the
Jews?" by saying, "My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were
of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be
delivered to the Jews, but now is My kingdom not from hence." We have
also read the words, [4557] "I am the true vine and My Father is the
husbandman," and again, "I am the vine, ye are the branches." Add to
these testimonies also the saying, [4558] "I am the bread of life,
that came down from heaven and giveth life to the world." These texts
will suffice for the present, which we have picked up out of the
storehouse of the Gospels, and in all of which He claims to be the Son
of God. But in the Apocalypse of John, too, He says, [4559] "I am the
first and the last, and the living One, and I was dead. Behold, I am
alive for evermore." And again, [4560] "I am the A and the O, and the
first and the last, the beginning and the end." The careful student
of the sacred books, moreover, may gather not a few similar passages
from the prophets, as where He calls Himself [4561] a chosen shaft,
and a servant of God, [4562] and a light of the Gentiles. [4563]
Isaiah also says, [4564] "From my mother's womb hath He called me by
my name, and He made my mouth as a sharp sword, and under the shadow
of His hand did He hide me, and He said to me, Thou art My servant, O
Israel, and in thee will I be glorified." And a little farther on:
"And my God shall be my strength, and He said to me, This is a great
thing for thee to be called My servant, to set up the tribes of Jacob
and to turn again the diaspora of Israel. Behold I have set thee for
a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation to the
end of the earth." And in Jeremiah too [4565] He likens Himself to a
lamb, as thus: "I was as a gentle lamb that is led to the
slaughter." These and other similar sayings He applies to Himself.
In addition to these one might collect in the Gospels and the Apostles
and in the prophets a countless number of titles which are applied to
the Son of God, as the writers of the Gospels set forth their own
views of what He is, or the Apostles extol Him out of what they had
learned, or the prophets proclaim in advance His coming advent and
announce the things concerning Him under various names. Thus John
calls Him the Lamb of God, saying, [4566] "Behold the Lamb of God
which taketh away the sins of the world," and in these words he
declares Him as a man, [4567] "This is He about whom I said, that
there cometh after me a man who is there before me; for He was before
me." And in his Catholic Epistle John says that He is a Paraclete for
our souls with the Father, as thus: [4568]"And if any one sin, we
have a Paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous," and he
adds that He is a propitiation for our sins, and similarly Paul says
He is a propitiation: [4569]"Whom God set forth as a propitiation
through faith in His blood, on account of forgiveness of the forepast
sins, in the forbearance of God." According to Paul, too, He is
declared to be the wisdom and the power of God, as in the Epistle to
the Corinthians: [4570]"Christ the power of God and the wisdom of
God." It is added that He is also sanctification and redemption: "He
was made to us of God," he says, "wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption." But he also teaches us, writing to
the Hebrews, that Christ is a High-Priest: [4571]"Having,
therefore, a great High-Priest, who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." And the
prophets have other names for Him besides these. Jacob in his
blessing of his sons [4572] says, "Judah, thy brethren shall extol
thee; thy hands are on the necks of thine enemies. A lion's whelp is
Judah, from a shoot, my son, art thou sprung up; thou hast lain down
and slept as a lion; who shall awaken him?" We cannot now linger over
these phrases, to show that what is said of Judah applies to Christ.
What may be quoted against this view, viz., "A ruler shall not part
from Judah nor a leader from his loins, until He come for whom it is
reserved;" this can better be cleared up on another occasion. But
Isaiah knows Christ to be spoken of under the names of Jacob and
Israel, when he says, [4573] "Jacob is my servant, I will help Him;
Israel is my elect, my soul hath accepted Him. He shall declare
judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall
any one hear His voice on the streets. A bruised rod shall He not
break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He bring forth
judgment from victory, and in His name shall the nations hope." That
it is Christ about whom such prophecies are made, Matthew shows in his
Gospel, where he quotes from memory and says: [4574]"That the
saying might be fulfilled, He shall not strive nor cry," etc. David
also is called Christ, as where Ezekiel in his prophecy to the
shepherds adds as from the mouth of God: [4575]"I will raise up
David my servant, who shall be their shepherd." For it is not the
patriarch David who is to rise and be the shepherd of the saints, but
Christ. Isaiah also called Christ the rod and the flower: [4576]
"There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower
shall spring out of this root, and the spirit of God shall rest upon
Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and
of might, the spirit of knowledge and of godliness, and He shall be
full of the spirit of the fear of the Lord." And in the Psalms our
Lord is called the stone, as follows: [4577]"The stone which the
builders rejected is made the head of the corner. It is from the
Lord, and it is wonderful in our eyes." And the Gospel shows, as also
does Luke in the Acts, that the stone is no other than Christ; the
Gospel as follows: [4578]"Have ye never read, the stone which the
builders rejected is made the head of the corner. Whosoever falls on
this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will
scatter him as dust." And Luke writes in Acts: [4579]"This is the
stone, which was set at naught of you the builders, which has become
the head of the corner." And one of the names applied to the Saviour
is that which He Himself does not utter, but which John records;--the
Word who was in the beginning with God, God the Word. And it is worth
our while to fix our attention for a moment on those scholars who omit
consideration of most of the great names we have mentioned and regard
this as the most important one. As to the former titles, they look
for any account of them that any one may offer, but in the case of
this one they proceed differently and ask, What is the Son of God when
called the Word? The passage they employ most is that in the Psalms,
[4580] "My heart hath produced a good Word;" and they imagine the Son
of God to be the utterance of the Father deposited, as it were, in
syllables, and accordingly they do not allow Him, if we examine them
farther, any independent hypostasis, nor are they clear about His
essence. I do not mean that they confuse its qualities, but the fact
of His having an essence of His own. For no one can understand how
that which is said to be "Word" can be a Son. And such an animated
Word, not being a separate entity from the Father, and accordingly as
it, having no subsistence. is not a Son, or if he is a Son, let them
say that God the Word is a separate being and has an essence of His
own. We insist, therefore, that as in the case of each of the titles
spoken of above we turn from the title to the concept it suggests and
apply it and demonstrate how the Son of God is suitably described by
it, the same course must be followed when we find Him called the
Word. What caprice it is, in all these cases, not to stand upon the
term employed, but to enquire in what sense Christ is to be understood
to be the door, and in what way the vine, and why He is the way; but
in the one case of His being called the Word, to follow a different
course. To add to the authority, therefore, of what we have to say on
the question, how the Son of God is the Word, we must begin with those
names of which we spoke first as being applied to Him. This, we
cannot deny, will seem to some to be superfluous and a digression, but
the thoughtful reader will not think it useless to ask as to the
concepts for which the titles are used; to observe these matters will
clear the way for what is coming. And once we have entered upon the
theology concerning the Saviour, as we seek with what diligence we can
and find the various things that are taught about Him, we shall
necessarily understand more about Him not only in His character as the
Word, but in His other characters also.
Footnotes
[4553] John xiii. 13.
[4554] John x. 36.
[4555] John xvii. 1.
[4556] John xviii. 33, 36.
[4557] John xv. 1, 5.
[4558] John vi. 35, 41, 33.
[4559] Apoc. i. 18.
[4560] Apoc. xxii. 13.
[4561] Isa. xlix. 2.
[4562] Isa. xlii. 1, etc.
[4563] Isa. xlix. 6.
[4564] Isa. xlix. 1, 2, 3.
[4565] Jerem. xi. 19.
[4566] John i. 29.
[4567] John i. 30, 31.
[4568] 1 John ii. 1, hilasmos
[4569] Rom. iii. 25, 26, hilasterion
[4570] 1 Cor. i. 24, 30.
[4571] Heb. iv. 14.
[4572] Gen. xlix. 10.
[4573] Isa. xlii. 1-4.
[4574] Matt. xii. 17, 19.
[4575] Ezek. xxxiv. 23.
[4576] Isa. xi. 1-3.
[4577] Ps. cxviii. 22, 23.
[4578] Matt. xxi. 42, 44.
[4579] Acts iv. 11.
[4580] Ps. xlv. 1.
24. Christ as Light; How He, and How His Disciples are the Light of
the World.
He said, then, that He was the light of the world; and we have to
examine, along with this title, those which are parallel to it; and,
indeed, are thought by some to be not merely parallel, but identical
with it. He is the true light, and the light of the Gentiles. In the
opening of the Gospel now before us He is the light of men: "That
which was made," [4581] it says, "was life in Him, and the life was
the light of men; and the light shines in darkness, and the darkness
did not overtake it." A little further on, in the same passage, He is
called the true light: [4582]"The true light, which lightens every
man, was coming into the world." In Isaiah, He is the light of the
Gentiles, as we said before. "Behold, [4583] I have set Thee for a
light of the Gentiles, that Thou shouldest be for salvation to the end
of the earth." Now the sensible light of the world is the sun, and
after it comes very worthily the moon, and the same title may be
applied to the stars; but those lights of the world are said in Moses
to have come into existence on the fourth day, and as they shed light
on the things on the earth, they are not the true light. But the
Saviour shines on creatures which have intellect and sovereign reason,
that their minds may behold their proper objects of vision, and so he
is the light of the intellectual world, that is to say, of the
reasonable souls which are in the sensible world, and if there be any
beings beyond these in the world from which He declares Himself to be
our Saviour. He is, indeed, the most determining and distinguished
part of that world, and, as we may say, the sun who makes the great
day of the Lord. In view of this day He says to those who partake of
His light, "Work [4584] while it is day; the night cometh when no man
can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the
world." Then He says to His disciples, [4585] "Ye are the light of
the world," and "Let your light shine before men." Thus we see the
Church, the bride, to present an analogy to the moon and stars, and
the disciples have a light, which is their own or borrowed from the
true sun, so that they are able to illuminate those who have no
command of any spring of light in themselves. We may say that Paul
and Peter are the light of the world, and that those of their
disciples who are enlightened themselves, but are not able to
enlighten others, are the world of which the Apostles were the light.
But the Saviour, being the light of the world, illuminates not bodies,
but by His incorporeal power the incorporeal intellect, to the end
that each of us, enlightened as by the sun, may be able to discern the
rest of the things of the mind. And as when the sun is shining the
moon and the stars lose their power of giving light, so those who are
irradiated by Christ and receive His beams have no need of the
ministering apostles and prophets--we must have courage to declare
this truth--nor of the angels; I will add that they have no need even
of the greater powers when they are disciples of that first-born
light. To those who do not receive the solar beams of Christ, the
ministering saints do afford an illumination much less than the
former; this illumination is as much as those persons can receive, and
it completely fills them. Christ, again, the light of the world, is
the true light as distinguished from the light of sense; nothing that
is sensible is true. Yet though the sensible is other than the true,
it does not follow that the sensible is false, for the sensible may
have an analogy with the intellectual, and not everything that is not
true can correctly be called false. Now I ask whether the light of
the world is the same thing with the light of men, and I conceive that
a higher power of light is intended by the former phrase than by the
latter, for the world in one sense is not only men. Paul shows that
the world is something more than men when he writes to the Corinthians
in his first Epistle: [4586]"We are made a spectacle unto the
world, and to angels, and to men." In one sense, too, it may be
considered, [4587] the world is the creation which is being delivered
from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the
children of God, whose earnest expectation is waiting for the
manifestation of the sons of God. We also draw attention to the
comparison which may be drawn between the statement, "I am the light
of the world," and the words addressed to the disciples, "Ye are the
light of the world." Some suppose that the genuine disciples of Jesus
are greater than other creatures, some seeking the reason of this in
the natural growth of these disciples, others inferring it from their
harder struggle. For those beings which are in flesh and blood have
greater labours and a life more full of dangers than those which are
in an ethereal body, and the lights of heaven might not, if they had
put on bodies of earth, have accomplished this life of ours free from
danger and from error. Those who incline to this argument may appeal
to those texts of Scripture which say the most exalted things about
men, and to the fact that the Gospel is addressed directly to men; not
so much is said about the creation, or, as we understand it, about the
world. We read, [4588] "As I and Thou are one, that they also may be
one in Us," and [4589] "Where I am, there will also My servant be."
These sayings, plainly, are about men; while about the creation it is
said that it is delivered from the bondage of corruption into the
liberty of the glory of the children of God. It might be added that
not even when it is delivered will it take part in the glory of the
sons of God. Nor will those who hold this view forget that the
first-born of every creature, honouring man above all else, became
man, and that it was not any of the constellations existing in the
sky, but one of another order, appointed for this purpose and in the
service of the knowledge of Jesus, that was made to be the Star of the
East, whether it was like the other stars or perchance better than
they, to be the sign of Him who is the most excellent of all. And if
the boasting of the saints is in their tribulations, since [4590]
"tribulation worketh patience, and patience probation, and probation
hope, and hope maketh not ashamed," then the afflicted creation cannot
have the like patience with man, nor the like probation, nor the like
hope, but another degree of these, since [4591] "the creation was made
subject to vanity, not willingly, but on account of Him who subjected
it, for hope." Now he who shrinks from conferring such great
attributes on man will turn to another direction and say that the
creature being subjected to vanity groans and suffers greater
affliction than those who groan in this tabernacle, for has she not
suffered for the utmost extent of time in her service of vanity--nay,
many times as long as man? For why does she do this not willingly,
but that it is against her nature to be subject to vanity, and not to
have the best arrangement of her life, that which she shall receive
when she is set free, when the world is destroyed and released even
from the vanity of bodies. Here, however, we may appear to be
stretching too far, and aiming at more than the question now before us
requires. We may return, therefore, to the point from which we set
out, and ask for what reason the Saviour is called the light of the
world, the true light, and the light of men. Now we saw that He is
called the true light with reference to the sensible light of the
world, and that the light of the world is the same thing as the light
of men, or that we may at least enquire whether they are the same.
This discussion is not superfluous. Some students do not take
anything at all out of the statement that the Saviour is the Word; and
it is important for us to assure ourselves that we are not chargeable
with caprice in fixing our attention on that notion. If it admits of
being taken in a metaphorical sense we ought not to take it literally.
[4592]When we apply the mystical and allegorical method to the
expression "light of the world" and the many analogous terms mentioned
above, we should surely do so with this expression also.
Footnotes
[4581] John i. 3-5.
[4582] John i. 9.
[4583] Isa. xlix. 6.
[4584] John ix. 4, 5.
[4585] Matt. v. 14, 16.
[4586] 1 Cor. iv. 9.
[4587] Rom. viii. 24, 19.
[4588] John xvii. 21.
[4589] John xii. 26.
[4590] Rom. v. 3-5.
[4591] Rom. viii. 20.
[4592] Text corrupt. The above seems to be the meaning. Cf. chap. 23
init. p. 306.
25. Christ as the Resurrection.
Now He is called the light of men and the true light and the light of
the word, because He brightens and irradiates the higher parts of men,
or, in a word, of all reasonable beings. And similarly it is from and
because of the energy with which He causes the old deadness to be put
aside and that which is par excellence life to be put on, so that
those who have truly received Him rise again from the dead, that He is
called the resurrection. And this He does not only at the moment at
which a man says, [4593] "We are buried with Christ through baptism
and have risen again with Him," but much rather when a man, having
laid off all about him that belongs to death, walks in the newness of
life which belongs to Him, the Son, while here. We always [4594]
"carry about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus," and thus we
reap the vast advantage, "that the life of the Lord Jesus might be
made manifest in our bodies."
Footnotes
[4593] Rom. vi. 4.
[4594] 2 Cor. iv. 10.
26. Christ as the Way.
But that progress too, which is in wisdom and which is found by those
who seek their salvation in it to do for them what they require both
in respect of exposition of truth in the divine word and in respect of
conduct according to true righteousness, it lets us understand how
Christ is the way. In this way we have to take nothing with us,
[4595] neither wallet nor coat; we must travel without even a stick,
nor must we have shoes on our feet. For this road is itself
sufficient for all the supplies of our journey; and every one who
walks on it wants nothing. He is clad with a garment which is fit for
one who is setting out in response to an invitation to a wedding; and
on this road he cannot meet anything that can annoy him. "No one,"
Solomon says, [4596] "can find out the way of a serpent upon a rock."
I would add, or that of any other beast. Hence there is no need of a
staff on this road, on which there is no trace of any hostile
creature, and the hardness of which, whence also it is called rock
(petra), makes it incapable of harbouring anything hurtful.
Footnotes
[4595] Matt. x. 10.
[4596] Prov. xxx. 19.
27. Christ as the Truth.
Further, the Only-begotten is the truth, because He embraces in
Himself according to the Father's will the whole reason of all things,
and that with perfect clearness, and being the truth communicates to
each creature in proportion to its worthiness. And should any one
enquire whether all that the Father knows, according to the depth of
His riches and His wisdom and His knowledge, is known to our Saviour
also, and should he, imagining that he will thereby glorify the
Father, show that some things known to the Father are unknown to the
Son, although He might have had an equal share of the apprehensions of
the unbegotten God, we must remind him that it is from His being the
truth that He is Saviour, and add that if He is the truth complete,
then there is nothing true which He does not know; truth must not limp
for the want of the things which, according to those persons, are
known to the Father only. Or else let it be shown that some things
are known to which the name of truth does not apply, but which are
above the truth.
28. Christ as Life.
It is clear also that the principle of that life which is pure and
unmixed with any other element, resides in Him who is the first-born
of all creation, taking from which those who have a share in Christ
live the life which is true life, while all those who are thought to
live apart from this, as they have not the true light, have not the
true life either.
29. Christ as the Door and as the Shepherd.
But as one cannot be in the Father or with the Father except by
ascending from below upwards and coming first to the divinity of the
Son, through which one may be led by the hand and brought to the
blessedness of the Father Himself, so the Saviour has the inscription
"The Door." And as He is a lover of men, and approves the impulse of
human souls to better things, even of those who do not hasten to
reason (the Logos), but like sheep have a weakness and gentleness
apart from all accuracy and reason, so He is the Shepherd. For the
Lord saves men and beasts, [4597] and Israel and Juda are sowed with
the seed not of men only but also of beasts. [4598]
Footnotes
[4597] Ps. xxxvi. 6.
[4598] Jer. xxxi. 27.
30. Christ as Anointed (Christ) and as King.
In addition to these titles we must consider at the outset of our work
that of Christ, and we must also consider that of King, and compare
these two so as to find out the difference between them. Now it is
said in the forty-fourth Psalm, [4599] "Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity, whence Thou art anointed (Christ) above Thy
fellows." His loving righteousness and hating iniquity were thus
added claims in Him; His anointing was not contemporary with His being
nor inherited by Him from the first. Anointing is a symbol of
entering on the kingship, and sometimes also on the priesthood; and
must we therefore conclude that the kingship of the Son of God is not
inherited nor congenital to Him? But how is it conceivable that the
First-born of all creation was not a king and became a king afterwards
because He loved righteousness, when, moreover, He Himself was
righteousness? We cannot fail to see that it is as a man that He is
Christ, in respect of His soul, which was human and liable to be
troubled and sore vexed, but that He is conceived as king in respect
of the divine in Him. I find support for this in the seventy-first
Psalm, [4600] which says, "Give the king Thy judgment, O God, and Thy
righteousness to the king's Son, to judge Thy people in righteousness
and Thy poor in judgment." This Psalm, though addressed to Solomon,
is evidently a prophecy of Christ, and it is worth while to ask to
what king the prophecy desires judgment to be given by God, and to
what king's Son, and what king's righteousness is spoken of. I
conceive, then, that what is called the King is the leading nature of
the First-born of all creation, to which judgment is given on account
of its eminence; and that the man whom He assumed, formed and moulded
by that nature, according to righteousness, is the King's Son. I am
the more led to think that this is so, because the two beings are here
brought together in one sentence, and are spoken of as if they were
not two but one. For the Saviour made both one, [4601] that is, He
made them according to the prototype of the two which had been made
one in Himself before all things. The two I refer to human nature,
since each man's soul is mixed with the Holy Spirit, and each of those
who are saved is thus made spiritual. Now as there are some to whom
Christ is a shepherd, as we said before, because of their meek and
composed nature, though they are less guided by reason; so there are
those to whom He is a king, those, namely, who are led in their
approach to religion rather by the reasonable part of their nature.
And among those who are under a king there are differences; some
experience his rule in a more mystic and hidden and more divine way,
others in a less perfect fashion. I should say that those who, led by
reason, apart from all agencies of sense, have beheld incorporeal
things, the things which Paul speaks of as "invisible," or "not seen,"
that they are ruled by the leading nature of the Only-begotten, but
that those who have only advanced as far as the reason which is
conversant with sensible things, and on account of these glorify their
Maker, that these also are governed by the Word, by Christ. No
offence need be taken at our distinguishing these notions in the
Saviour; we draw the same distinctions in His substance.
Footnotes
[4599] Ps. xlv. 8.
[4600] Ps. lxxii. 1, 2.
[4601] Ephes. ii. 14.
31. Christ as Teacher and Master.
It is plain to all how our Lord is a teacher and an interpreter for
those who are striving towards godliness, and on the other hand a
master of those servants who have the spirit of bondage to fear,
[4602] who make progress and hasten towards wisdom, and are found
worthy to possess it. For [4603] "the servant knoweth not what the
master wills," since he is no longer his master, but has become his
friend. The Lord Himself teaches this, for He says to hearers who
were still servants: [4604]"You call Me Master and Lord, and you
say well, for so I am," but in another passage, [4605] "I call you no
longer servants, for the servant knoweth not what is the will of his
master, but I call you friends," because [4606] "you have continued
with Me in all My temptations." They, then, who live according to
fear, which God exacts from those who are not good servants, as we
read in Malachi, [4607] "If I am a Master, where is My fear?" are
servants of a master who is called their Saviour.
Footnotes
[4602] Rom. viii. 15.
[4603] John xv. 15; thelei for potei.
[4604] John xiii. 13.
[4605] John xv. 15.
[4606] Luke xxii. 28.
[4607] i. 6.
32. Christ as Son.
None of these testimonies, however, sets forth distinctly the
Saviour's exalted birth; but when the words are addressed to Him,
"Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee," [4608] this is
spoken to Him by God, with whom all time is to-day, for there is no
evening with God, as I consider, and there is no morning, nothing but
time that stretches out, along with His unbeginning and unseen life.
The day is to-day with Him in which the Son was begotten, and thus the
beginning of His birth is not found, as neither is the day of it.
Footnotes
[4608] Mark i. 11; Ps. ii. 7; Heb. i. 5.
33. Christ the True Vine, and as Bread.
To what we have said must be added how the Son is the true vine.
Those will have no difficulty in apprehending this who understand, in
a manner worthy of the prophetic grace, the saying: [4609]"Wine
maketh glad the heart of man." For if the heart be the intellectual
part, and what rejoices it is the Word most pleasant of all to drink
which takes us off human things, makes us feel ourselves inspired, and
intoxicates us with an intoxication which is not irrational but
divine, that, I conceive, with which Joseph made his brethren merry,
[4610] then it is very clear how He who brings wine thus to rejoice
the heart of man is the true vine. He is the true vine, because the
grapes He bears are the truth, the disciples are His branches, and
they, also, bring forth the truth as their fruit. It is somewhat
difficult to show the difference between the vine and bread, for He
says, not only that He is the vine, but that He is the bread of life.
May it be that as bread nourishes and makes strong, and is said to
strengthen the heart of man, but wine, on the contrary, pleases and
rejoices and melts him, so ethical studies, bringing life to him who
learns them and reduces them to practice, are the bread of life, but
cannot properly be called the fruit of the vine, while secret and
mystical speculations, rejoicing the heart and causing those to feel
inspired who take them in, delighting in the Lord, and who desire not
only to be nourished but to be made happy, are called the juice of the
true vine, because they flow from it.
Footnotes
[4609] Ps. civ. 15.
[4610] Gen. xliii. 34.
34. Christ as the First and the Last; He is Also What Lies Between
These.
Further, we have to ask in what sense He is called in the Apocalypse
the First and the Last, and how, in His character as the First, He is
not the same as the Alpha and the beginning, while in His character as
the Last He is not the same as the Omega and the end. It appears to
me, then, that the reasonable beings which exist are characterized by
many forms, and that some of them are the first, some the second, some
the third, and so on to the last. To pronounce exactly, however,
which is the first, what kind of a being the second is, which may
truly be designated third, and to carry this out to the end of the
series, this is not a task for man, but transcends our nature. We
shall yet venture, such as we are, to stand still a little at this
point, and to make some observations on the matter. There are some
gods of whom God is god, as we hear in prophecy, [4611] "Thank ye the
God of gods," and [4612] "The God of gods hath spoken, and called the
earth." Now God, according to the Gospel, [4613] "is not the God of
the dead but of the living." Those gods, then, are living of whom God
is god. The Apostle, too, writing to the Corinthians, says: [4614]
"As there are gods many and lords many," and so we have spoken of
these gods as really existing. Now there are, besides the gods of
whom God is god, certain others, who are called thrones, and others
called dominions, lordships, also, and powers in addition to these.
The phrase, [4615] "above every name that is named, not only in this
world, but also in that which is to come," leads us to believe that
there are yet others besides these which are less familiar to us; one
kind of these the Hebrews called Sabai, from which Sabaoth was formed,
who is their ruler, and is none other than God. Add to all these the
reasonable being who is mortal, man. Now the God of all things made
first in honour some race of reasonable beings; this I consider to be
those who are called gods, and the second order, let us say, for the
present, are the thrones, and the third, undoubtedly, the dominions.
And thus we come down in order to the last reasonable race, which,
perhaps, cannot be any other than man. The Saviour accordingly
became, in a diviner way than Paul, all things to all, that He might
either gain all or perfect them; it is clear that to men He became a
man, and to the angels an angel. As for His becoming man no believer
has any doubt, but as to His becoming an angel, we shall find reason
for believing it was so, if we observe carefully the appearances and
the words of the angels, in some of which the powers of the angels
seem to belong to Him. In several passages angels speak in such a way
as to suggest this, as when [4616] "the angel of the Lord appeared in
a flame of fire. And he said, I am the God of Abraham and of Isaac
and of Jacob." But Isaiah also says: [4617] "His name is called
Angel of Great Counsel." The Saviour, then, is the first and the
last, not that He is not what lies between, but the extremities are
named to show that He became all things. Consider, however, whether
the last is man, or the things said to be under the earth, of which
are the demons, all of them or some. We must ask, too, about those
things which the Saviour became which He speaks of through the prophet
David, [4618] "And I became as a man without any to help him, free
among the dead." His birth from the Virgin and His life so admirably
lived showed Him to be more than man, and it was the same among the
dead. He was the only free person there, and His soul was not left in
hell. Thus, then, He is the first and the last. Again, if there be
letters of God, as such there are, by reading which the saints may say
they have read what is written on the tablets of heaven, these
letters, by which heavenly things are to be read, are the notions,
divided into small parts, into A and so on to O, the Son of God.
Again, He is the beginning and the end, but He is this not in all His
aspects equally. For He is the beginning, as the Proverbs teach us,
inasmuch as He is wisdom; it is written: "The Lord founded Me in the
beginning of His ways, for His works." In the respect of His being
the Logos He is not the beginning. "The Word was in the beginning."
Thus in His aspects one comes first and is the beginning, and there is
a second after the beginning, and a third, and so on to the end, as if
He had said, I am the beginning. inasmuch as I am wisdom, and the
second, perhaps, inasmuch as I am invisible, and the third in that I
am life, for "what was made was life in Him." One who was qualified
to examine and to discern the sense of Scripture might, no doubt, find
many members of the series; I cannot say if he could find them all.
"The beginning and the end" is a phrase we usually apply to a thing
that is a completed unity; the beginning of a house is its foundation
and the end the parapet. We cannot but think of this figure, since
Christ is the stone which is the head of the corner, to the great
unity of the body of the saved. For Christ the only-begotten Son is
all and in all, He is as the beginning in the man He assumed, He is
present as the end in the last of the saints, and He is also in those
between, or else He is present as the beginning in Adam, as the end in
His life on earth, according to the saying: "The last Adam was made a
quickening spirit." This saying harmonizes well with the
interpretation we have given of the first and the last.
Footnotes
[4611] Ps. cxxxvi. 2.
[4612] Ps. l. 1.
[4613] Matt. xx. 2.
[4614] 1 Cor. viii. 5.
[4615] Ephes. i. 21.
[4616] Exod. iii. 2, 6.
[4617] Isa. ix. 6.
[4618] Ps. lxxxviii. 4, 5.
35. Christ as the Living and the Dead.
In what has been said about the first and the last, and about the
beginning and the end, we have referred these words at one point to
the different forms of reasonable beings, at another to the different
conceptions of the Son of God. Thus we have gained a distinction
between the first and the beginning, and between the last and the end,
and also the distinctive meaning of A and O. It is not hard to see
why he is called [4619] "the Living and the Dead," and after being
dead He that is alive for evermore. For since we were not helped by
His original life, sunk as we were in sin, He came down into our
deadness in order that, He having died to sin, we, [4620] bearing
about in our body the dying of Jesus. might then receive that life of
His which is for evermore. For those who always carry about in their
body the dying of Jesus shall obtain the life of Jesus also,
manifested in their bodies.
[4619] Apoc. i. 17, 18.
[4620] 2 Cor. iv. 10.
36. Christ as a Sword.
The texts of the New Testament, which we have discussed, are things
said by Himself about Himself. Isaiah, however, He said [4621] that
His mouth had been set by His Father as a sharp sword, and that He was
hidden under the shadow of His hand, made like to a chosen shaft and
kept close in the Father's quiver, called His servant by the God of
all things, and Israel, and Light of the Gentiles. The mouth of the
Son of God is a sharp sword, for [4622] "The word of God is living,
and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing to the
dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to
discern the thoughts and intents of the heart." And indeed He came
not to bring peace on the earth, that is, to corporeal and sensible
things, but a sword, and to cut through, if I may say so, the
disastrous friendship of soul and body, so that the soul, committing
herself to the spirit which was against the flesh, may enter into
friendship with God. Hence, according to the prophetic word, He made
His mouth as a sword, as a sharp sword. Can any one behold so many
wounded by the divine love, like her in the Song of Songs, who
complained that she was wounded: [4623]"I am wounded with love,"
and find the dart that wounded so many souls for the love of God, in
any but Him who said, "He hath made Me as a chosen shaft."
Footnotes
[4621] Isa. xlix. 2, 3.
[4622] Heb. iv. 12.
[4623] Song ii. 5.
37. Christ as a Servant, as the Lamb of God, and as the Man Whom John
Did Not Know.
Again, let any one consider how Jesus was to His disciples, not as He
who sits at meat, but as He who serves, and how though the Son of God
He took on Him the form of a servant for the sake of the freedom of
those who were enslaved in sin, and he will be at no loss to account
for the Father's saying to Him: [4624]"Thou art My servant," and a
little further on: "It is a great thing that thou shouldst be called
My servant." For we do not hesitate to say that the goodness of
Christ appears in a greater and more divine light, and more according
to the image of the Father, because [4625] "He humbled Himself,
becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," than if He
had judged it a thing to be grasped to be equal with God, and had
shrunk from becoming a servant for the salvation of the world. Hence
He says, [4626] desiring to teach us that in accepting this state of
servitude He had received a great gift from His Father: "And My God
shall be My strength. And He said to Me, It is a great thing for Thee
to be called My servant." For if He had not become a servant, He
would not have raised up the tribes of Jacob, nor have turned the
heart of the diaspora of Israel, and neither would He have become a
light of the Gentiles to be for salvation to the ends of the earth.
And it is no great thing for Him to become a servant, even if it is
called a great thing by His Father, for this is in comparison with His
being called with an innocent sheep and with a lamb. For the Lamb of
God became like an innocent sheep being led to the slaughter, that He
may take away the sin of the world. He who supplies reason (logos) to
all is made like a lamb which is dumb before her shearer, that we
might be purified by His death, which is given as a sort of medicine
against the opposing power, and also against the sin of those who open
their minds to the truth. For the death of Christ reduced to
impotence those powers which war against the human race, and it set
free from sin by a power beyond our words the life of each believer.
Since, then, He takes away sin until every enemy shall be destroyed
and death last of all, in order that the whole world may be free from
sin, therefore John points to Him and says: [4627]"Behold the Lamb
of God which taketh away the sin of the world." It is not said that
He will take it away in the future, nor that He is at present taking
it, nor that He has taken it, but is not taking it away now. His
taking away sin is still going on, He is taking it away from every
individual in the world, till sin be taken away from the whole world,
and the Saviour deliver the kingdom prepared and completed to the
Father, a kingdom in which no sin is left at all, and which,
therefore, is ready to accept the Father as its king, and which on the
other hand is waiting to receive all God has to bestow, fully, and in
every part, at that time when the saying [4628] is fulfilled, "That
God may be all in all." Further, we hear of a man who is said to be
coming after John, who was made before him and was before him. This
is to teach us that the man also of the Son of God, the man who was
mixed with His divinity, was older than His birth from Mary. John
says he does not know this man, but must he not have known Him when he
leapt for joy when yet a babe unborn in Elisabeth's womb, as soon as
the voice of Mary's salutation sounded in the ears of the wife of
Zacharias? Consider, therefore, if the words "I know Him not" may
have reference to the period before the bodily existence. Though he
did not know Him before He assumed His body, yet he knew Him when yet
in his mother's womb, and perhaps he is here learning something new
about Him beyond what was known to him before, namely, that on
whomsoever the Holy Spirit shall descend and abide on him, that is he
who is to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He knew him
from his mother's womb, but not all about Him. He did not know
perhaps that this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with
fire, when he saw the Spirit descending and abiding on Him. Yet that
He was indeed a man, and the first man, John did not know.
Footnotes
[4624] Isa. xlix. 3, 6.
[4625] Philipp. ii. 6, 8.
[4626] Isa. xlix. 5, 6.
[4627] John i. 29.
[4628] 1 Cor. v. 28.
38. Christ as Paraclete, as Propitiation, and as the Power of God.
But none of the names we have mentioned expresses His representation
of us with the Father, as He pleads for human nature, and makes
atonement for it; the Paraclete, and the propitiation, and the
atonement. He has the name Paraclete in the Epistle of John: [4629]
"If any man sin, we have a Paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous." And He is said in the same epistle to be the atonement
[4630] for our sins. Similarly, in the Epistle to the Romans, He is
called a propitiation: [4631]"Whom God set forth to be a
propitiation through faith." Of this proportion there was a type in
the inmost part of the temple, the Holy of Holies, namely, the golden
mercy-seat placed upon the two cherubim. But how could He ever be the
Paraclete, and the atonement, and the propitiation without the power
of God, which makes an end of our weakness, flows over the souls of
believers, and is administered by Jesus, who indeed is prior to it and
Himself the power of God, who enables a man to say: [4632]"I can do
all things through Jesus Christ who strengtheneth me." Whence we know
that Simon Magus, who gave himself the title of "The power of God,
which is called great," was consigned to perdition and destruction, he
and his money with him. We, on the contrary, who confess Christ as
the true power of God, believe that we share with Him, inasmuch as He
is that power, all things in which any energy resides.
Footnotes
[4629] 1 John ii. 1, 2.
[4630] hilasmhos.
[4631] hilasterion, Rom. iii. 25.
[4632] Philipp. iv. 13.
39. Christ as Wisdom and Sanctification and Redemption.
We must not, however, pass over in silence that He is of right the
wisdom of God, and hence is called by that name. For the wisdom of
the God and Father of all things does not apprehend His substance in
mere visions, like the phantasms of human thoughts. Whoever is able
to conceive a bodiless existence of manifold speculations which extend
to the rationale of existing things, living and, as it were, ensouled,
he will see how well the Wisdom of God which is above every creature
speaks of herself, when she says: [4633]"God created me the
beginning of His ways, for His works." By this creating act the whole
creation was enabled to exist, not being unreceptive of that divine
wisdom according to which it was brought into being; for God,
according to the prophet David, [4634] made all things in wisdom. But
many things came into being by the help of wisdom, which do not lay
hold of that by which they were created: and few things indeed there
are which lay hold not only of that wisdom which concerns themselves,
but of that which has to do with many things besides, namely, of
Christ who is the whole of wisdom. But each of the sages, in
proportion as he embraces wisdom, partakes to that extent of Christ,
in that He is wisdom; just as every one who is greatly gifted with
power, in proportion as he has power, in that proportion also has a
share in Christ, inasmuch as He is power. The same is to be thought
about sanctification and redemption; for Jesus Himself is made
sanctification to us and redemption. Each of us is sanctified with
that sanctification, and redeemed with that redemption. Consider,
moreover, if the words "to us," added by the Apostle, have any special
force. Christ, he says, "was made to us of God, wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." In other
passages, he speaks about Christ as being wisdom, without any such
qualification, and of His being power, saying that Christ is the power
of God and the wisdom of God, though we might have conceived that He
was not the wisdom of God or the power of God, absolutely, but only
for us. Now, in respect of wisdom and power, we have both forms of
the statement, the relative and the absolute; but in respect of
sanctification and redemption, this is not the case. Consider,
therefore, since [4635] "He that sanctifies and they that are
sanctified are all of one," whether the Father is the sanctification
of Him who is our sanctification, as, Christ being our head, God is
His head. But Christ is our redemption because we had become
prisoners and needed ransoming. I do not enquire as to His own
redemption, for though He was tempted in all things as we are, He was
without sin, and His enemies never reduced Him to captivity.
Footnotes
[4633] Prov. viii. 22.
[4634] Ps. civ. 24.
[4635] Heb. ii. 11.
40. Christ as Righteousness; As the Demiurge, the Agent of the Good
God, and as High-Priest.
Having expiscated the "to us" and the "absolutely"--sanctification and
redemption being "to us" and not absolute, wisdom and redemption both
to us and absolute--we must not omit to enquire into the position of
righteousness in the same passage. That Christ is righteousness
relatively to us appears clearly from the words: "Who was made to us
of God wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption."
And if we do not find Him to be righteousness absolutely as He is the
wisdom and the power of God absolutely, then we must enquire whether
to Christ Himself, as the Father is sanctification, so the Father is
also righteousness. There is, we know, no unrighteousness with God;
[4636] He is a righteous and holy Lord, [4637] and His judgments are
in righteousness, and being righteous, He orders all things
righteously.
The heretics drew a distinction for purposes of their own between the
just and the good. They did not make the matter very clear, but they
considered that the demiurge was just, while the Father of Christ was
good. That distinction may, I think, if carefully examined, be
applied to the Father and the Son; the Son being righteousness, and
having received power [4638] to execute judgment, because He is the
Son of Man and will judge the world in righteousness, but the Father
doing good to those who have been disciplined by the righteousness of
the Son. This is after the kingdom of the Son; then the Father will
manifest in His works His name the Good, when God becomes all in all.
And perhaps by His righteousness the Saviour prepares everything at
the fit times, and by His word, by His ordering, by His chastisements,
and, if I may use such an expression, by His spiritual healing aids,
disposes all things to receive at the end the goodness of the Father.
It was from His sense of that goodness that He answered him who
addressed the Only-begotten with the words "Good Master," [4639] and
said, "Why callest thou Me good? None is good but one, God, the
Father." This we have treated of elsewhere, especially in dealing
with the question of the greater than the demiurge; Christ we have
taken to be the demiurge, and the Father the greater than He. Such
great things, then, He is, the Paraclete, the atonement, the
propitiation, the sympathizer with our weaknesses, who was tempted in
all human things, as we are, without sin; and in consequence He is a
great High-Priest, having offered Himself as the sacrifice which is
offered once for all, and not for men only but for every rational
creature. For without [4640] God He tasted death for every one. In
some copies of the Epistle to the Hebrews the words are "by the grace
of God." Now, whether He tasted death for every one without God, He
died not for men only but for all other intellectual beings too, or
whether He tasted death for every one by the grace of God, He died for
all without God, for by the grace of God He tasted death for every
one. It would surely be absurd to say that He tasted death for human
sins and not for any other being besides man which had fallen into
sin, as for example for the stars. For not even the stars are clean
in the eyes of God, as we read in Job, [4641] "The stars are not clean
in His sight," unless this is to be regarded as a hyperbole. Hence he
is a great High-Priest, since He restores all things to His Father's
kingdom, and arranges that whatever defects exist in each part of
creation shall be filled up so as to be full of the glory of the
Father. This High-Priest is called, from some other notion of him
than those we have noticed, Judas, that those who are Jews secretly
[4642] may take the name of Jew not from Judah, son of Jacob, but from
Him, since they are His brethren, and praise Him for the freedom they
have attained. For it is He who sets them free, saving them from
their enemies on whose backs He lays His hand to subdue them. When He
has put under His feet the opposing power, and is alone in presence of
His Father, then He is Jacob and Israel; and thus as we are made light
by Him, since He is the light of the world, so we are made Jacob since
He is called Jacob, and Israel since He is called Israel.
Footnotes
[4636] John vii. 18.
[4637] Apoc. xvi. 5, 7.
[4638] John v. 27.
[4639] Heb. ii. 9.
[4640] choris for chariti, a widely diffused early variant.
[4641] Job xxv. 5.
[4642] Rom. ii. 29.
41. Christ as the Rod, the Flower, the Stone.
Now He receives the kingdom from the king whom the children of Israel
appointed, beginning the monarchy not at the divine command and
without even consulting God. He therefore fights the battles of the
Lord and so prepares peace for His Son, His people, and this perhaps
is the reason why He is called David. Then He is called a rod; [4643]
such He is to those who need a harder and severer discipline, and have
not submitted to the love and gentleness of God. On this account, if
He is a rod, He has to "go forth;" He does not remain in Himself, but
appears to go beyond His earlier state. Going forth, then, and
becoming a rod, He does not remain a rod, but after the rod He becomes
a flower that rises up, and after being a rod He is made known as a
flower to those who, by His being a rod, have met with visitation.
For "God will visit their iniquities with a rod," [4644] that is,
Christ. But "His mercy He will not take from him," for He will have
mercy on him, for on whom the Son has mercy the Father has mercy
also. An interpretation may be given which makes Him a rod and a
flower in respect of different persons, a rod to those who have need
of chastisement, a flower to those who are being saved; but I prefer
the account of the matter given above. We must add here, however,
that, perhaps, looking to the end, if Christ is a rod to any man He is
also a flower to him, while it is not the case that he who receives
Him as a flower must also know Him as a rod. And yet as one flower is
more perfect than another and plants are said to flower, even though
they bring forth no perfect fruit, so the perfect receive that of
Christ which transcends the flower. Those, on the other hand, who
have known Him as a rod will partake along with it, not in His
perfection, but in the flower which comes before the fruit. Last of
all, before we come to the word Logos, Christ was a stone, [4645] set
at naught by the builders but placed on the head of the corner, for
the living stones are built up as on a foundation on the other stones
of the Apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself our Lord being the
chief corner-stone, because He is a part of the building made of
living stones in the land of the living; therefore He is called a
stone. All this we have said to show how capricious and baseless is
the procedure of those who, when so many names are given to Christ,
take the mere appellation "the Word," without enquiring, as in the
case of His other titles, in what sense it is used; surely they ought
to ask what is meant when it is said of the Son of God that He was the
Word, and God, and that He was in the beginning with the Father, and
that all things were made by Him.
Footnotes
[4643] Isa. xi. 1.
[4644] Ps. lxxxix. 32, 33.
[4645] Ps. cxviii. 22.
42. Of the Various Ways in Which Christ is the Logos.
As, then, from His activity in enlightening the world whose light He
is, Christ is named the Light of the World, and as from His making
those who sincerely attach themselves to Him put away their deadness
and rise again and put on newness of life, He is called the
Resurrection, so from an activity of another kind He is called
Shepherd and Teacher, King and Chosen Shaft, and Servant, and in
addition to these Paraclete and Atonement and Propitiation. And after
the same fashion He is also called the Logos, [4646] because He takes
away from us all that is irrational, and makes us truly reasonable, so
that we do all things, even to eating and drinking, to the glory of
God, and discharge by the Logos to the glory of God both the commoner
functions of life and those which belong to a more advanced stage.
For if, by having part in Him, we are raised up and enlightened,
herded also it may be and ruled over, then it is clear that we become
in a divine manner reasonable, when He drives away from us what in us
is irrational and dead, since He is the Logos (reason) and the
Resurrection. Consider, however, whether all men have in some way
part in Him in His character as Logos. On this point the Apostle
teaches us that He is to be sought not outside the seeker, and that
those find Him in themselves who set their heart on doing so; "Say not
[4647] in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? That is to bring
Christ down; or, Who shall descend into the abyss? That is to bring
Christ up from the dead. But what saith the Scripture? The Word is
very nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart," as if Christ Himself
were the same thing as the Word said to be sought after. But when the
Lord Himself says [4648] "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they
had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin," the only
sense we can find in His words is that the Logos Himself says that
those are not chargeable with sin to whom He (reason) has not fully
come, but that those, if they sin, are guilty who, having had part in
Him, act contrary to the ideas by which He declares His full presence
in us. Only when thus read is the saying true: "If I had not come
and spoken to them, they had not had sin." Should the words be
applied, as many are of opinion that they should, to the visible
Christ, then how is it true that those had no sin to whom He did not
come? In that case all who lived before the advent of the Saviour
will be free from sin, since Jesus, as seen in flesh, had not yet
come. And more--all those to whom He has never been preached will
have no sin, and if they have no sin, then it is clear they are not
liable to judgment. But the Logos in man, in which we have said that
our whole race had part, is spoken of in two senses; first, in that of
the filling up of ideas which takes place, prodigies excepted, in
every one who passes beyond the age of boyhood, but secondly, in that
of the consummation, which takes place only in the perfect. The
words, therefore, "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would
not have had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin," are to be
understood in the former sense; but the words, [4649] "All that ever
came before me are thieves and robbers, and the sheep did not hear
them," in the latter. For before the consummation of reason comes,
there is nothing in man but what is blameworthy; all is imperfect and
defective, and can by no means command the obedience of those
irrational elements in us which are tropically spoken of as sheep.
And perhaps the former meaning is to be recognized in the words "The
Logos was made flesh," but the second in "The Logos was God." We must
accordingly look at what there is to be seen in human affairs between
the saying, "The Word (reason) was made flesh" and "The Word was
God." When the Word was made flesh can we say that it was to some
extent broken up and thinned out, and can we say that it recovered
from that point onward till it became again what it was at first, God
the Word, the Word with the Father; the Word whose glory John saw, the
verily only-begotten, as from the Father. But the Son may also be the
Logos (Word), because He reports the secret things of His Father who
is intellect in the same way as the Son who is called the Word. For
as with us the word is a messenger of those things which the mind
perceives, so the Word of God, knowing the Father, since no created
being can approach Him without a guide, reveals the Father whom He
knows. For no one knows the Father save the Son, [4650] and he to
whomsoever the Son reveals Him, and inasmuch as He is the Word He is
the Messenger of Great Counsel, [4651] who has the government upon His
shoulders; for He entered on His kingdom by enduring the cross. In
the Apocalypse, [4652] moreover, the Faithful and True (the Word), is
said to sit on a white horse, the epithets indicating, I consider, the
clearness of the voice with which the Word of truth speaks to us when
He sojourns among us. This is scarcely the place to show how the word
"horse" is often used in passages spoken for our encouragement in
sacred learning. I only cite two of these: "A horse is deceitful for
safety," [4653] and "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we
will rejoice in the name of the Lord our God." [4654]Nor must we
leave unnoticed a passage in the forty-fourth Psalm, [4655] frequently
quoted by many writers as if they understood it: "My heart hath
belched forth a good word, I speak my works to the King." Suppose it
is God the Father who speaks thus; what is His heart, that the good
word should appear in accordance with His heart? If, as these writers
suppose, the Word (Logos) needs no interpretation, then the heart is
to be taken in the natural sense too. But it is quite absurd to
suppose God's heart to be a part of Him as ours is of our body. We
must remind such writers that as when the hand of God is spoken of,
and His arm and His finger, we do not read the words literally but
enquire in what sound sense we may take them so as to be worthy of
God, so His heart is to be understood of His rational power, by which
He disposes all things, and His word of that which announces what is
in this heart of His. But who is it that announces the counsel of the
Father to those of His creatures who are worthy and who have risen
above themselves, who but the Saviour? That "belched forth" is not,
perhaps, without significance; a hundred other terms might have been
employed; "My heart has produced a good word," it might have been
said, or "My heart has spoken a good word." But in belching, some
wind that was hidden makes its way out to the world, and so it may be
that the Father gives out views of truth not continuously, but as it
were after the fashion of belching, and the word has the character of
the things thus produced, and is called, therefore, the image of the
invisible God. We may enter our agreement, therefore, with the
ordinary acceptation of these words, and take them to be spoken by the
Father. It is not, however, a matter of course, that it is God
Himself who announces these things. Why should it not be a prophet?
Filled with the Spirit and unable to contain himself, he brings forth
a word about his prophecy concerning Christ: "My heart hath belched
forth a good word, I speak my works to the King, my pen is the tongue
of a ready writer. Excellent in beauty is He beyond the sons of
men." Then to the Christ Himself: "Grace is poured out on Thy
lips." If the Father were the speaker, how could He go on after the
words, "Grace is poured out on thy lips," to say, "Therefore God hath
blessed thee for ever," and a little further on, "Therefore God, thy
God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
Some of those who wish to make the Father the speaker may appeal to
the words, "Hear, O daughter, and behold and incline thine ear, and
forget thy people and thy father." The prophet, it may be said, could
not address the Church in the words, "Hear, O daughter." It is not
difficult, however, to show that changes of person occur frequently in
the Psalms, so that these words, "Hear, O daughter," might be from the
Father, in this passage, though the Psalm as a whole is not. To our
discussion of the Word we may here add the passage, [4656] "By the
word of the Lord were the heavens founded, and all the power of them
by the breath of His mouth." Some refer this to the Saviour and the
Holy Spirit. The passage, however, does not necessarily imply any
more than that the heavens were founded by the reason (logos) of God,
as when we say that a house is built by the plan (logos) of the
architect, or a ship by the plan (logos) of the shipbuilder. In the
same way the heavens were founded (made solid) by the Word of God, for
they are [4657] of a more divine substance, which on this account is
called solid; [4658] it has little fluidity for the most part, nor is
it easily melted like other parts of the world, and specially the
lower parts. On account of this difference the heavens are said in a
special manner to be constituted by the Word of God.
The saying then stands, first, "In the beginning was the Logos;" we
are to place that full in our view; but the testimonies we cited from
the Proverbs led us to place wisdom first, and to think of wisdom as
preceding the Word which announces her. We must observe, then, that
the Logos is in the beginning, that is, in wisdom, always. Its being
in wisdom, which is called the beginning, does not prevent it from
being with God and from being God, and it is not simply with God, but
is in the beginning, in wisdom, with God. For he goes on: "He was in
the beginning with God." He might have said, "He was with God;" but
as He was in the beginning, so He was with God in the beginning, and
"All things were made by Him," being in the beginning, for God made
all things, as David tells us, in wisdom. And to let us understand
that the Word has His own definite place and sphere as one who has
life in Himself (and is a distinct person), we must also speak about
powers, not about power. "Thus saith the Lord of powers, (A.V.
hosts)" we frequently read; there are certain creatures, rational and
divine, which are called powers: and of these Christ was the highest
and best, and is called not only the wisdom of God but also His
power. As, then, there are several powers of God, each of them in its
own form, and the Saviour is different from these, so also Christ,
even if that which is Logos in us is not in respect of form outside of
us, will be understood from our discussion up to this point to be the
Logos, who has His being in the beginning, in wisdom. This for the
present may suffice, on the word: "In the beginning was the Logos."
Footnotes
[4646] It is impossible to render by any one English word the Greek
logos as used by Origen in the following discussion. We shall
therefore in many passages leave it untranslated.
[4647] Rom. x. 6-8.
[4648] John xv. 22.
[4649] John x. 8.
[4650] Matt. xi. 27.
[4651] Isa. ix. 5, 6.
[4652] xix. 11.
[4653] Ps. xxxiii. 17.
[4654] Ps. xx. 7.
[4655] Ps. xlv. 1.
[4656] Ps. xxxiii. 6.
[4657] Reading tunchanomtas.
[4658] stereos, of which the sterheoma, firmament, is made.
.
Book II.
1. "And the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
In the preceding section, my revered brother Ambrosius, brother formed
according to the Gospel, we have discussed, as far as is at present in
our power, what the Gospel is, and what is the beginning in which the
Word was, and what the Word is which was in the beginning. We now
come to consider the next point in the work before us, How the Word
was with God. To this end it will be of service to remember that what
is called the Word came to certain persons; as "The Word of the Lord
[4659] which came to Hosea, the son of Beeri," and "The Word [4660]
which came to Isaiah, the son of Amos, concerning Judah and concerning
Jerusalem," and "The Word which came to Jeremiah [4661] concerning the
drought." We must enquire how this Word came to Hosea, and how it
came also to Isaiah the son of Amos, and again to Jeremiah concerning
the drought; the comparison may enable us to find out how the Word was
with God. The generality will simply look at what the prophets said,
as if that were the Word of the Lord or the Word, that came to them.
May it not be, however, that as we say that this person comes to that,
so the Son, the Word, of whom we are now theologizing, came to Hosea,
sent to him by the Father; historically, that is to say, to the son of
Beeri, the prophet Hosea, but mystically to him who is saved, for
Hosea means, etymologically, Saved; and to the son of Beeri, which
etymologically means wells, since every one who is saved becomes a son
of that spring which gushes forth out of the depths, the wisdom of
God. And it is nowise marvellous that the saint should be a son of
wells. From his brave deeds he is often called a son, whether, from
his works shining before men, of light, or from his possessing the
peace of God which passes all understanding, of peace, or, once more,
from the help which wisdom brings him, a child of wisdom; for wisdom,
[4662] it says, is justified of her children. Thus he who by the
divine spirit searches all things, and even the deep things of God, so
that he can exclaim, [466