History of Dogma Volume II Part 27

4, Lomm. XV., p. 212: [Greek: to apaugasma tes doxes ouchi hapax gegennetai, kai ouchi gennatai ... kai aei gennatai ho soter hupo tou patros]; see also other pa.s.sages.]

[Footnote 739: See Caspari, Quellen, Vol. IV., p. 10.]

[Footnote 740: In [Greek: peri archon] IV. 28 the _prolatio_ is expressly rejected (see also I. 2, 4) as well as the "conversio partis alicuius substantiae dei in filium" and the "procreatio ex nullis substantibus."]

[Footnote 741: L.c. I. 2. 2].

[Footnote 742: L.c. I. 2. 3].

[Footnote 743: De orat. 15: [Greek: Eteros kat' ousian kai hupokeimenon ho huios esti tou patros]. This, however, is not meant to designate a deity of a hybrid nature, but to mark the parsonal distinction.]

[Footnote 744: C. Cels. VIII. 12.: [Greek: duo te hypostasei pragmata].

This was frequently urged against the Monarchians in Origen's commentaries; see in Joh. X. 21: II. 6 etc. The Son exists [Greek: kat'

idian tes ousias perigraphen]. Not that Origen has not yet the later terminology [Greek: ousia, hypostasis, hypokeimenon, prosopon]. We find three hypostases in Joh. II. 6. Lomm. I., p. 109, and this is repeatedly the case in c. Cels.]

[Footnote 745: In Joh. I. 22, Lomm. I., p. 41 sq.: [Greek: ho Theos men oun pante hen esti kai aploun ho de soter hemon dia ta polla]. The Son is [Greek: idea ideon, systema theorematon en auto](Lomm. I., p. 127).]

[Footnote 746: See the remarks on the saying: "The Father is greater than I," in Joh. XIII. 25, Lomm. II., p. 45 sq. and other pa.s.sages. Here Origen shows that he considers the h.o.m.oousia of the Son and the Father just as relative as the unchangeability of the Son.]

[Footnote 747: [Greek: Peri archon] II. 2. 6 has been corrupted by Rufinus; see Jerome ep. ad Avitum.]

[Footnote 748: See [Greek: Peri archon] I. 2. 13 (see above, p. 354, note 3).]

[Footnote 749: Athanasius supplemented this by determining the essence of the Logos from the redeeming work of Christ.]

[Footnote 750: See [Greek: peri archon] praef. and in addition to this Hermas' view of the Spirit.]

[Footnote 751: [Greek: Peri archon] I. 3. The Holy Spirit is eternal, is ever being breathed out, but is to be termed a creature. See also in Job. II. 6, Lomm. I., p. 109 sq.: [Greek: to hagion pneuma dia tou logou egeneto, presbuterou] (logically) [Greek: par' auto tou logou tugchanontos]. Yet Origen is not so confident here as in his Logos doctrine.]

[Footnote 752: See [Greek: peri archon] I. 3, 5-8. Hence Origen says the heathen had known the Father and Son, but not the Holy Spirit (de princip. I. 3: II. 7).]

[Footnote 753: L.c. -- 7.]

[Footnote 754: See Hom. in Num. XII. I, Lomm. X, p. 127: "Est haec trium distinctio personarum in patre et filio et spiritu sancto, quae ad pluralem puteorum numerum revocatur. Sed horum puteorum unum est fons.

Una enim substantia est et natura trinitatis."]

[Footnote 755: [Greek: Peri archon] praef.]

[Footnote 756: From Hermas, Justin, and Athenagoras we learn how, in the 2nd century, both in the belief of uneducated lay-Christians and of the Apologists, Son, Spirit, Logos, and angels under certain circ.u.mstances shaded off into one another. To Clement, no doubt, Logos and Spirit are the only unchangeable beings besides G.o.d. But, inasmuch as there is a series which descends from G.o.d to men living in the flesh, there cannot fail to be elements of affinity between Logos and Spirit on the one hand and the highest angels on the other, all of whom indeed have the capacity and need of development. Hence they have certain names and predicates in common, and it frequently remains uncertain, especially as regards the theophanies in the Old Testament, whether it was a high angel that spoke, or the Son through the angel. See the full discussion in Zahn, Forschungen, III., p. 98 f.]

[Footnote 757: [Greek: Peri archon] I. 5.]

[Footnote 758: So also Clement, see Zahn, l.c.]

[Footnote 759: [Greek: Peri archon] I. 5. 2.]

[Footnote 760: It was of course created before the world, as it determines the course of the world. See Comm. in Matth. XV. 27, Lomm.

III., p. 384 sq.]

[Footnote 761: See Comm. in Joh. XIII. 25, Lomm. II, p. 45: we must not look on the human spirit as [Greek: h.o.m.oousios] with the divine one. The same had already been expressly taught by Clement. See Strom., II. 16.

74: [Greek: ho Theos oudemian echei pros hemas physiken schesin hos hoi ton haireseon ktistai thelousin]. Adumbr., p. 91 (ed. Zahn). This does not exclude G.o.d and souls having _quodammodo_ one substance.]

[Footnote 762: Such is the teaching of Clement and Origen. They repudiated the possession of any natural, essential goodness in the case of created spirits. If such lay in their essence, these spirits would be unchangeable.]

[Footnote 763: [Greek: Peri archon] I. 2. 10: "Quemadmodum pater non potest esse quis, si filius non sit, neque dominus quis esse potest sine possessione, sine servo, ita ne omnipotens quidem deus dici potest, si non sint, in quos exerceat potentatum, et deo ut omnipotens ostendatur deus, omnia subsistere necesse est." (So the Hermogenes against whom Tertullian wrote had already argued). "Nam si quis est, qui velit vel saecula aliqua vel spatia transisse, vel quodcunque aliud nominare vult, c.u.m nondum facta essent, quae facta sunt, sine dubio hoc ostendet, quod in illis saeculis vel spatiis omnipotens non erat deus et postmodum omnipotens factus est." G.o.d would therefore, it is said in what follows, be subjected to a [Greek: prokope], and thus be proved to be a finite being. III. 5. 3.]

[Footnote 764: [Greek: Peri archon] I. 8.]

[Footnote 765: Here, however, Origen is already thinking of the temporary wrong development that is of growth. See [Greek: peri archon]

I. 7. Created spirits are also of themselves immaterial, though indeed not in the sense that this can be said of G.o.d who can never attach anything material to himself.]

[Footnote 766: Angels, ideas (see Phot. Biblioth. 109), and human souls are most closely connected together, both according to the theory of Clement and Origen and also to that of Pantaenus before them (see Clem.

eclog. 56, 57); and so it was taught that men become angels (Clem.

Strom. VI. 13. 107). But the stars also, which are treated in great detail in [Greek: peri archon] I. 7, belong to the number of the angels.

This is a genuinely Greek idea. The doctrine of the preexistence of human souls was probably set forth by Clement in the Hypotyposes. The theory of the transmigration of souls was probably found there also (Phot. Biblioth. 109). In the Adumbrat., which has been preserved to us, the former doctrine is, however, contested and is not found in the Stromateis VI. 16. I. sq.]

[Footnote 767: Phot. Biblioth. 109: [Greek: Klemes pollous pro tou Adam kosmous terateuetai]. This cannot be verified from the Strom. Orig., [Greek: peri archon] II. 3.]

[Footnote 768: [Greek: Peri archon] I. 5 and the whole 3rd Book. The Fall is something that happened before time began.]

[Footnote 769: The a.s.sumption of uncreated matter was decidedly rejected by Origen ([Greek: peri archon] II. 1, 2). On the other hand Clement is said to have taught it in the Hypotyposes (Phot., l.c.: [Greek: hulen archronon doxazei]); this cannot be noticed in the Strom.; in fact in VI. 16. 147 he vigorously contested the view of the uncreatedness of the world. He emphasised the agreement between Plato and Moses in the doctrine of creation (Strom. II. 16. 74 has nothing to do with this).

According to Origen, matter has no qualities and may a.s.sume the most diverse peculiarities (see, e.g., c. Cels. III. 41).]

[Footnote 770: This conception has given occasion to compare Origen's system with Buddhism. Bigg. (p. 193) has very beautifully said: "Creation, as the word is commonly understood, was in Origen's views not the beginning, but an intermediate phase in human history. aeons rolled away before this world was made; aeons upon aeons, days, weeks, months and years, sabbatical years, jubilee years of aeons will run their course, before the end is attained. The one fixed point in this gigantic drama is the end, for this alone has been clearly revealed," "G.o.d shall be all in all." Bigg also rightly points out that Rom. VIII. and 1 Cor. XV.

were for Origen the key to the solution of the problems presented by creation.]

[Footnote 771: The popular idea of demons and angels was employed by Origen in the most comprehensive way, and dominates his whole view of the present course of the world. See [Greek: peri archon] III. 2. and numerous pa.s.sages in the Commentaries and Homilies, in which he approves the kindred views of the Greeks as well as of Hermas and Barnabas. The spirits ascend and descend; each man has his guardian spirit, and the superior spirits support the inferior ([Greek: peri archon] I. 6).

Accordingly they are also to be reverenced ([Greek: therapeuesthai]); yet such reverence as belongs to a Gabriel, a Michael, etc., is far different from the adoration of G.o.d (c. Cels. VIII. 13).]

[Footnote 772: Clement wrote a special work [Greek: peri p.r.o.noias] (see Zahn, Forschungen III., p. 39 ff.), and treated at length of [Greek: p.r.o.noia] in the Strom.; see Orig. [Greek: peri archon] III. 1; de orat.

6 etc. Evil is also subject to divine guidance; see Clem., Strom. I. 17.

81-87: IV. 12. 86 sq. Orig. Hom. in Num. XIV., Lomm. X., p. 163: "Nihil otiosum, nihil inane est apud deum, quia sive bono proposito hominis ut.i.tur ad bona sive malo ad necessaria." Here and there, however, Origen has qualified the belief in Providence, after the genuine fas.h.i.+on of antiquity (see c. Gels. IV. 74).]

[Footnote 773: [Greek: Peri archon] II. 9. 2: "Recedere a bono, non aliud est quam effici in malo. Ceterum namque est, malum esse bono canere. Ex quo accidit, ut in quanta mensura quis devolveretur a bono, in tantam mensuram malitiae deveniret." In the pa.s.sage in Johann. II. 7, Lomm. I., p. 115, we find a closely reasoned exposition of evil as [Greek: anupostaton] and an argument to the effect that [Greek: ta ponera] are--[Greek: me onta].]

[Footnote 774: [Greek: Peri archon] I. 5. 3: III. 6. The devil is the chief of the apostate angels (c. Cels. IV. 65). As a reasonable being he is a creature of G.o.d (l.c., and in Joh. II. 7, Lomm., l.c.).]

[Footnote 775: Origen defended the teleology culminating in man against Celsus' attacks on it; but his a.s.sumption that the spirits of men are only a part of the universal spirit world is, as a matter of fact, quite akin to Celsus' view. If we consider the plan of the work [Greek: peri archon] we easily see that to Origen humanity was merely an element in the cosmos.]

[Footnote 776: The doctrine of man's threefold const.i.tution is also found in Clement. See Paedag. III. 1. 1; Strom V. 14. 94: VI. 16. 134.

(quite in the manner of Plato). Origen, who has given evidence of it in all his main writings, sometimes calls the rational part spirit, sometimes [Greek: psyche logike], and at other times distinguishes two parts in the one soul. Of course he also professes to derive his psychology from the Holy Scriptures. The chief peculiarity of his speculation consists in his a.s.sumption that the human spirit, as a fallen one, became as it were a soul, and can develop from that condition partly into a spirit as before and partly into the flesh (see [Greek: peri archon] III. 4. 1 sq.: II. 8. 1-5). By his doctrine of the preexistence of souls Origen excluded both the creation and traducian hypotheses of the origin of the soul.]

[Footnote 777: Clement (see Strom. II. 22. 131) gives the following as the opinion of some Christian teachers: [Greek: to men kat' eikona eutheos kata ten genesin eilephenai ton anthropon, to kath' h.o.m.oiosin de usteron kata ten peleiosin mellein apolambanein]. Orig. c. Cels. IV. 30: [Greek: epoiete d'o Theos ton anthropon kat' eikona Theos, all' ouchi kath' h.o.m.oiosin ede].]

[Footnote 778: This follows from the fundamental psychological view and is frequently emphasised. One must attain the [Greek: sophorsyne].]

[Footnote 779: This is emphasised throughout. The goodness of G.o.d is shown first in his having given the creature reason and freedom, and secondly in acts of a.s.sistance, which, however, do not endanger freedom.

Clem.; Strom. VI. 12, 96: [Greek: hemas ex hemon auton bouletai sozesthai].]