Commentary on Romans 8.7–8.9
Latin text: Migne, PG 14 (Latin text: Migne, Patrologia Graeca vol. 14 (1862), transcribed from library-scan OCR of the printed volume).English: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), public domain (CC0).
Chapter 8
8.7PG 14:1175a–1179a
Dico igitur : Nunquid repulit Deus plebem suam? Absit. Nam et ego Israelita sum ex semine Abrahae, et tribu Beniamin. Non repulit Deus plebem suam quam praescivit. An nescitis in Elia quid dicit Scriptura : quomodo interpellat Deum adversum Israel? Domine , prophetas tuos occiderunt, altaria tua suffoderunt, et ego relictus sum solus, et quaerunt animam meam. Sed quid dicit illi responsum divinum? Reliqui mihi septem millia virorum qui non curvaverunt genua Baal. Sic igitur et in hoc tempore reliquiae secundum electionem gratiae salvae factae sunt. Si autem gratia, jam non ex operibus: alioquin gratia jam non fit gratia. Quoniam ex his quae supra dicta sunt, videretur forsitan populus Judaeorum repulsus esse a Deo, nec aliquid spei gerere, si quidem in aemulationem induxerit eum Deus in non gentem , et in iram , in gentem insensatam, et manifestus factus sit his qui eum non quaerebant, et inventus sit ab his qui de eo non interrogabant: propterea Apostolus, volens ista curare, et ostendere quia supersit salutis via populo Israel si credant, et quia non idcirco repulsi sunt quia genus sint Israel,sed quia increduli fuerint, ait: Non repulit Deus plebem suam quam praescivit. Et ut hoc praesenti probaret exemplo , subiungit : ‹ Nam et ego Israelita sum ex semine Abraham, et tribu Benjamin, et tamen fidem Jesu doceo, et annuntio quia ipse est Christus. Quod si mihi non obfuit quia sum Israelita ex semine Abraham, quominus Christo crederem , et ex fide ejus justificarer; certum est quia non repulit Deus plebem suam quam praescivit. Quomodo autem quos praescivit, illos et vocavit; et quos vocavit, illos et justificavit, supra jam dictum est: et quod praescire Deus, non tantum praenoscere futura (quod nec dubitari potest), sed probare, et scientia sua digna ducere, in Scripturis ponatur. Verum ne parvum videretur quod exemplo sui non esse repulsam plebem Dei docebat Apostolus, validiora requirit exempla, et dicit : An nescitis in Elia quid dicit Scriptura? Quomodo interpellat Deum adversum Israel? Domine, prophetas tuos occiderunt , altaria tua suffoderunt, et ego relictus sum solus, et quaerunt animam meam. Sed quid dicit illi responsum divinum? In quibus docetur propheta aliquando zelo Dei repletus, cum apud Deum querelam populi praevaricatoris exponeret , qui non solum prophetas occidisset, et altaria subvertisset, verum et Eliam qui videbatur solus superesse et prophetis Domini, conaretur exstinguere. Et hoc Elia apud Deum deplorante. audi quid ad eum oracula divina respondeant : Reliqui mihi septem millia virorum qui non curvaverunt genua Baal. Baal idoli nomen est. ad cujus cultum populus ille, relicta Dei lege, deciderat. Haec sunt quae Apostolus ad exemplum temporis praesentis adducit. Et addit: Sic igitur et in hoc tempore reliquiae secundum electionem gratiae salvae factae sunt. Si autem gratia, jam non ex operibus ; alioquin gratia jam non fit gratia. Ostendendum ergo pro viribus nobis est, quomodo sicut factum est sub Elia , ubi omnem populum propheta simul putaverat refutatum, inveniuntur septem millia viri, qui permanserint in testamento Dei; sic factum est etiam in adventu Christi, et his temporibus quibus praedicabat Paulus. Et vide si forte possumus Joannem Baptistam, qui Salvatoris praecessit adventum, ponere loco Eliae: quandoquidem et Evangelium tale ei testimonium perhibet, quia in spiritu et virtute venerit Eliae; et ipse Dominus dixerit de eo: Et si vultis scire , ipse est Elias. Qui habet aures audiendi, audiat. Hic ergo qui in spiritu et virtute venerat Eliae, in tantum desperaverat de populo illo, ut non eos diceret esse generationem Abrahae , sed generationem viperarum; et his adderet: Nolite dicere quia patrem habemus Abraham. Dico enim vobis, quia potens est Deus de lapidibus istis suscitare filios Abrahae. Huic ergo ista de populo conquerenti respondeatur a Domino et Salvatore nostro: Ego scio quos elegerim; et iterum : ‹ Oves meae vocem meam audiunt, et ego praecedo eas, et sequuntur me meae; et iterum: Habeo alias oves quae non sunt de hoc ovili: oportet me et illas adducere. Quid autem et ipse numerus septem millia virorum indicet videamus. Septenarius numerus ad requiem pertinet. In septima enim die requievit Deus. Audi ergo et Christus credentes sibi quomodo ad requiem invitat, et dicit: Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis, et onerati estis : et invenietis requiem animabus vestris. Ad istum ergo septenarium numerum pertinet omnis qui veniens ad Christum deposuit onera peccati, et requiem salutis invenit. Recte ergo Apostolus dicit, quia sic et in hoc tempore reliquiae secundum electionem gratiae salvae factae sunt; reliquias dicens eos qui ex circumcisione crediderunt, tam apostolos cum quibus se quoque annumerat, quam et ceteros qui cum ipsis secuti sunt fidem Jesu Christi. Sed quod dicit, secundum electionem gratiae salvas factas esse reliquias, haec mihi non videtur superflua esse electionis adiectio. Potuit enim dicere: Reliquiae per gratiam salvae factae sunt; sed ostendit per haec esse gratiam et sine electione, et cum electione. Nam omnes quidem qui per fidem salvantur, per gratiam sine dubio salvantur: qui autem per electionem gratiae salvantur, perfectioris animae mihi videntur ostendi. Sicut enim Israel dicitur omnis qui descendit de genere Israel: ille autem verus Israel est, qui mente pura et corde sincero videt Deum: ita et de hoc accipere possumus, quod omnes quidem qui ad fidem veniunt Christi, per gratiam veniunt: qui vero donum gratiae operibus virtutis et puritate cordis exornat, iste non solum per gratiam, sed per electionem gratiae salvari dicetur a Christo. Denique et ipse apostolus Paulus , si quis eum in verbis suis diligenter observet videt quomodo hujusmodi distinctionibus utitur; alibi secundum carnem nominans Israel, alibi super eo carnis omnino non faciens mentionem, sicut in praesenti loco , ubi cum diceret, quia ς non repulit Deus plebem suam, et nobilitatem Israelitica: animae vellet exponere , ait : Nam et ego Israelita sum. › In secunda vero ad Corinthios, ubi quibusdam de Israelitico genere secundum carnem gloriantibus cogitur respondere, vide quae praemisit: Quae loquor, inquit, non secundum Deum loquor, sed quasi in insipientia in hac substantia gloriandi. Quoniam quidem multi gloriantur secundum carnem; et ego gloriabor. Et post aliquanta dicit: r Hebraei sunt, et ego; Israelitae sunt, et ego; semen Abrahae sunt, et ego. Sic ergo ubi de Israel loquebatur, illo interiore homine (talis enim est plebs illa quam praescivit Deus, et non repulit), non dicit secundum carnem Israel; ad eos vero qui. in carnis genere gloriabantur praemisit, quod de hujusmodi gloriatione neque secundum Deum loqueretur, neque in sapientia; sed, ut ipse dicit, in insipientia. Tales sunt ergo reliquiae quae secundum electionem gratiae salvae factae sunt. Et addidit : ‹ Si autem gratia, jam non ex operibus. Sciendum est opera quae Paulus repudiat, et frequenter vituperat, non esse opera iustitiae quae mandantur in lege, sed ea quidem in quibus hi qui secundum carnem legem custodiunt, gloriantur, id est, vel circumcisio carnis, vel sacrificiorum ritus, vel observatio sabbatorum et neomeniarum. Haec et huiusmodi ergo sunt opera ex quibus dicit neminem potuisse salvari, et de quibus in praesenti loco dicit, quia non ex operibus: alioquin gratia , jam non fit gratia. Si enim per haec quis justificatur, non gratis justificatur. Qui autem per gratiam justificatur, ista quidem opera ab eo minime quaeruntur; sed observare debet ne accepta gratia inanis fiat in eo, sicut et Paulus dicit, quia gratia ejus in me inanis non fuit, sed amplius quam omnes illi laboravi. Et iterum addit tanquam memor gratiae: Non ego, inquit, sed gratia Dei mecum.» Non facit ergo inanem gratiam ille qui digna ei opera subiungit, et gratiae Dei non exsistit ingratus. Qui enim post consecutam gratiam peccat, ingratus fit ei qui praestitit gratiam. Si autem non inanem feceris gratiam , multiplicabitur tibi gratia, et tanquam mercedem boni operis gratiarum multitudinem consequeris, sicut et ipse scribit, et Petrus in Epistola sua dicit: Gratia vobis et pax multiplicetur in recognitione Dei "; et iterum alibi : Ut boni dispensatores multiplicis gratiae Dei .
“I say, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I too am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Or do you not know what Scripture says in Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have dug down your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. But what does the divine answer say to him? I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So, then, at this present time too a remnant has been saved according to the election of grace. But if by grace, it is no longer from works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.” Since, from what was said above, the people of the Jews might perhaps seem to have been rejected by God and to have no hope at all, if indeed God has provoked them to jealousy with a no-nation, and to anger with a foolish nation, and has been made manifest to those who did not seek him, and found by those who did not ask about him: therefore the Apostle, wishing to remedy this and to show that a way of salvation remains for the people of Israel if they believe, and that they were not rejected because they are the race of Israel but because they were unbelieving, says, “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.” And to prove this by a present example, he adds, “For I too am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin,” and yet I teach the faith of Jesus and announce that he is the Christ. But if it did not hinder me from believing in Christ and being justified by faith in him that I am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, it is certain that God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. How “those whom he foreknew he also called, and those whom he called he also justified” has already been discussed above; and also that “to foreknow,” as said of God in the Scriptures, means not only to know future things beforehand (which cannot be doubted) but to approve and to count worthy of his knowledge.
But lest it seem a small thing that the Apostle was teaching by his own example that the people of God had not been rejected, he seeks stronger examples and says, “Or do you not know what Scripture says in Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have dug down your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. But what does the divine answer say to him?” In these words we are taught that the prophet, once filled with zeal for God, laid before God a complaint against a transgressing people, which had not only killed the prophets and overthrown the altars but was also trying to destroy Elijah, who seemed to be the only one left of the prophets of the Lord. And as Elijah was lamenting this before God, hear what the divine oracles answer him: “I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Baal is the name of an idol to whose worship that people, having abandoned God’s law, had fallen away. These are the things the Apostle brings forward as an example for the present time. And he adds, “So, then, at this present time too a remnant has been saved according to the election of grace. But if by grace, it is no longer from works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.” We must show, then, as far as we can, how, just as it happened under Elijah, when the prophet had thought that the whole people was rejected at once, seven thousand men were found who had remained in God’s covenant, so it happened also at the coming of Christ and in the times in which Paul was preaching. And see whether perhaps we can put John the Baptist, who went before the coming of the Savior, in the place of Elijah, since the Gospel bears him such witness, that he came in the spirit and power of Elijah, and the Lord himself said of him, “And if you are willing to know, he is Elijah. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” He, then, who had come in the spirit and power of Elijah had so despaired of that people that he would not call them the offspring of Abraham, but the offspring of vipers, and added to these words, “Do not say, We have Abraham as our father. For I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” To him, as he makes this complaint about the people, our Lord and Savior may answer, “I know whom I have chosen,” and again, “My sheep hear my voice, and I go before them, and they follow me,” and again, “I have other sheep which are not of this fold; I must bring them also.” But let us see what the very number of seven thousand men indicates. The number seven pertains to rest; for on the seventh day God rested. Hear, then, how Christ too invites to rest those who believe in him, and says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and you will find rest for your souls.” To this number seven, then, belongs everyone who comes to Christ, lays down the burdens of sin, and finds the rest of salvation. Rightly, then, the Apostle says that so at this present time too a remnant has been saved according to the election of grace, calling “remnant” those from the circumcision who believed, both the apostles, among whom he counts himself as well, and all the others who with them followed the faith of Jesus Christ.
But as to his saying that the remnant was saved according to the election of grace, this addition of “election” does not seem to me superfluous. For he could have said, “The remnant was saved by grace”; but by this he shows that there is grace both without election and with election. For all who are saved through faith are without doubt saved by grace; but those who are saved through the election of grace seem to me to be shown to be of a more perfect soul. For just as everyone who descends from the race of Israel is called Israel, but that one is the true Israel who sees God with a pure mind and a sincere heart, so we can take this also: that all who come to the faith of Christ come by grace, but one who adorns the gift of grace with works of virtue and purity of heart will be said to be saved by Christ not only by grace, but by the election of grace. Indeed, the apostle Paul himself, if one observes him carefully in his words, sees how he uses distinctions of this kind: in one place naming Israel according to the flesh, in another making no mention of the flesh at all regarding it, as in the present place, where, when he was saying that God has not rejected his people and wished to set forth the nobility of the Israelite soul, he says, “For I too am an Israelite.” But in the second letter to the Corinthians, where he is compelled to answer certain people who were boasting of the Israelite race according to the flesh, see what he puts first: “What I say,” he says, “I do not say according to God, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast.” And after a little he says, “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I.” So, where he was speaking of Israel in the inner man (for such is that people which God foreknew and did not reject), he does not say “Israel according to the flesh”; but to those who boasted of the race of the flesh he said beforehand that he spoke of such boasting neither according to God nor in wisdom, but, as he himself says, in foolishness. Such, then, is the remnant which has been saved according to the election of grace.
And he added, “But if by grace, it is no longer from works.” It must be understood that the works which Paul rejects and often censures are not the works of righteousness that are commanded in the law, but those in which people who keep the law according to the flesh boast: that is, circumcision of the flesh, or the rites of sacrifices, or the observance of sabbaths and new moons. These, then, and works of this kind are the works from which he says no one could be saved, and of which he says in the present place, “not from works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.” For if someone is justified through these, he is not justified freely. But from one who is justified by grace these works are by no means required; yet he must take care that the grace he has received does not become void in him, as Paul too says, “His grace in me was not void, but I labored more abundantly than all of them.” And again he adds, as one mindful of grace, “Not I,” he says, “but the grace of God with me.” He does not make grace void, then, who joins to it works worthy of it and is not ungrateful for the grace of God. For one who sins after obtaining grace becomes ungrateful to him who bestowed the grace. But if you do not make grace void, grace will be multiplied to you, and as a reward of good work you will obtain a multitude of graces, as he himself writes, and as Peter says in his letter, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God,” and again elsewhere, “as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
Rom 11:1 (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 11:2 (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 11:3 (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 11:4 (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 11:5 (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 11:6 (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 10:19 (allusion, high confidence) · Rom 10:20 (allusion, high confidence) · Rom 8:30 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Kgs 19:10 (allusion, high confidence) · 1 Kgs 19:18 (quotation, high confidence) · Luke 1:17 (allusion, high confidence) · Matt 11:14 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 11:15 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 3:7 (allusion, high confidence) · Matt 3:9 (quotation, high confidence) · John 13:18 (quotation, high confidence) · John 10:27 (quotation, high confidence) · John 10:4 (quotation, high confidence) · John 10:16 (quotation, high confidence) · Gen 2:2 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 11:28 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 11:29 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 5:8 (allusion, medium confidence) · 2 Cor 11:17 (quotation, high confidence) · 2 Cor 11:18 (quotation, high confidence) · 2 Cor 11:22 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Cor 15:10 (quotation, high confidence) · 2 Pet 1:2 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Pet 4:10 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: God has not rejected Israel, as Paul himself and the remnant, like Elijah's seven thousand, show; the 'election of grace' marks those who adorn grace with virtue, and the works Paul excludes are circumcision, sacrifices and sabbaths, not the works of righteousness, while grace must not be made void by sin.
- Lemma: Rom 11:1–6. Cited: Rom 10:19–20; Rom 8:30; 1 Kgs 19:10, 14, 18; Luke 1:17; Matt 11:14–15; Matt 3:7, 9; John 13:18; John 10:27, 4, 16; Gen 2:2; Matt 11:28–29; Matt 5:8; 2 Cor 11:17–18, 22; 1 Cor 15:10; 2 Pet 1:2; 1 Pet 4:10.
- Grace and works: Origen limits the excluded “works” to circumcision, sacrifices, sabbaths and new moons, and insists that grace must be joined by worthy works; translated exactly.
- Foreknowledge (praescire) is explained as approval, not mere knowledge of the future; cf. his comment on Rom 8:29–30 in Book 7.
- Israel: Origen holds that Israel was not rejected for its race but for unbelief, and that a way of salvation remains if they believe.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (Migne column number; stray mark; OCR slip; OCR slip and Migne note number; OCR slips; OCR slips (letters lost at the left edge of the column); OCR slips and Migne column number; OCR slips and stray marks; OCR slips; removed Migne note number and footnote references inside a hyphenated word; stray mark): ex semine Abrahte → ex semine Abrahae; Au nescitis in Elia → An nescitis in Elia; altaria tua sufl'oderunt , et ego relictus sum solus. et quaerunt animam meant → altaria tua suffoderunt, et ego relictus sum solus, et quaerunt animam meam; septem mil- Iia virorum qui non curvaveruut → septem millia virorum qui non curvaverunt; salvae facta: sunt. Si autem gratia, jam non ex operibus: alioquin gratia jam non tit gratia '3. Quoniam ex bis quze supra → salvae factae sunt. Si autem gratia, jam non ex operibus: alioquin gratia jam non fit gratia. Quoniam ex his quae supra; populus .Iudzeorum → populus Judaeorum; in gentem insensatam τ’, et manifestus fartus sit → in gentem insensatam, et manifestus factus sit; plebem suam quant pt'arscivit. Ει ut hoc → plebem suam quam praescivit. Et ut hoc; et tamen fidem .Iesu doceo. → et tamen fidem Jesu doceo,; ex fide elus Justiticarer → ex fide ejus justificarer; illos et justificavit ο, supra → illos et justificavit, supra; et scicntia sua digna → et scientia sua digna; quod exctnplo sui → quod exemplo sui; validiora requirit exempia → validiora requirit exempla; altaria tua sufl'oderunt , et ego relictus sum solus , et quaerunt animam meam. Sed quid dicit illi responsum divinum? 1η quibus docetur prepheta → altaria tua suffoderunt, et ego relictus sum solus, et quaerunt animam meam. Sed quid dicit illi responsum divinum? In quibus docetur propheta; verum et Eliatn qui → verum et Eliam qui; σ Reliqui mihi septem millia virorum qui non curvavrrunt genua Baal. t Baal → Reliqui mihi septem millia virorum qui non curvaverunt genua Baal. Baal; Ilaec sunt quae Apostolus ad exetnplum → Haec sunt quae Apostolus ad exemplum; in hoc ternpore reliquia: secundum eiectionem gratia: salva: facta). sunt. Si autem gratia, jamuton ex operibus → in hoc tempore reliquiae secundum electionem gratiae salvae factae sunt. Si autem gratia, jam non ex operibus; ubi omnem pupulum 630 propheta simul potaverat refutatum, inveniuntur scptetn millia → ubi omnem populum propheta simul putaverat refutatum, inveniuntur septem millia; sic factum est etiam inadvemu Christi → sic factum est etiam in adventu Christi; Joannem Baptistam, qui SaI' vatoris praecessit adventum, ponere loco Elis: quandoquidem et Evangelium (δεῖ) tale ei teatimo- Rom. Χ, 19, 20. Rom. vm, 50. 11,1, seq. tium perhibet, quia in spiritu et virtute venerit Elia: 3‘; et ipse Dominus dixerit de eo : Et ivultis scire → Joannem Baptistam, qui Salvatoris praecessit adventum, ponere loco Eliae: quandoquidem et Evangelium tale ei testimonium perhibet, quia in spiritu et virtute venerit Eliae; et ipse Dominus dixerit de eo: Et si vultis scire; aures auliendi, audiat”. llic ergo qui in spiritu et virute venerat Elize,in tantum desperaverat de populo llo , ut non eos diceretesse generationem Abraιω → aures audiendi, audiat. Hic ergo qui in spiritu et virtute venerat Eliae, in tantum desperaverat de populo illo, ut non eos diceret esse generationem Abrahae; et his adleret : ε Nolite dicere quia patrem habemus Abraιειιιι. Dico enim vobis , quia potens est Deus de apitlibns istis suscitare filios Abraha: . Huic rgo ista de populo conquerenti respondeatur a loutino et Salvatore nostro : Ego scio quos eleeritn δδς → et his adderet: Nolite dicere quia patrem habemus Abraham. Dico enim vobis, quia potens est Deus de lapidibus istis suscitare filios Abrahae. Huic ergo ista de populo conquerenti respondeatur a Domino et Salvatore nostro: Ego scio quos elegerim;; Oves meae vocem meam udiuut, et ego prascedo eas, et sequuntur me nec 8'; et iterum: ς Habeo alias oves quae non unt de hoc ovili : oportet me et illas adducere".i laid autem et ipse numerus septem millia virorum udicet → Oves meae vocem meam audiunt, et ego praecedo eas, et sequuntur me meae; et iterum: Habeo alias oves quae non sunt de hoc ovili: oportet me et illas adducere. Quid autem et ipse numerus septem millia virorum indicet; ad equiem pertinet. In septima enim die requieit Deus . Audi ergo et Christus credentes sibi (nomodo ad requiem invitat , et dicit : Venite ad ne omnes → ad requiem pertinet. In septima enim die requievit Deus. Audi ergo et Christus credentes sibi quomodo ad requiem invitat, et dicit: Venite ad me omnes; et invelietis requiem animabus vestris . Ad istum ergo eptenarium numerum pertinet omnis qui veniens ό Christum deposuit onera peccati, et requiem alutis invenit. Recte ergo Apostolus dicit, mia sic et in hoc tempore reliquiae secundum lectionem gratia: salva: facta: sunt; reliquias diens eos qui ex circumcisione crediderunt, tam postolos cum quibus se quoque annumerat, quam t ceteros qui cum ipsis secuti sunt fidem Jesu iitristi. Sed quod dicit, secundum electionem ratia: salvas factas esse reliquias, haec mihi non "aletur superflua esse electionis adiectio. Ροuit enim dicere: Reliquias per gratiam salelactae sunt; sed ostendit per haec esse graiam et sine electione, et cum electione. Nam omles quidem qui per fidem salvantur, per gratiam ine dubio salvantur : qni autem per electionem gratiae salvantur, perfectioris anima: mihi 'idenlur ostendi. Sicut enim Israel dicitur omnis (ui descendit de genere Israel : ille autem verus srael est, qui tuente pura et corde sincero videt leum : ita et de hoc accipere possumus, quod mnes quidem qui ad fidem veniunt Christi , per :ratiam veniunt : qui vero donum gratize operibus 'irtutis et puritate cordis exornat , iste tton solum → et invenietis requiem animabus vestris. Ad istum ergo septenarium numerum pertinet omnis qui veniens ad Christum deposuit onera peccati, et requiem salutis invenit. Recte ergo Apostolus dicit, quia sic et in hoc tempore reliquiae secundum electionem gratiae salvae factae sunt; reliquias dicens eos qui ex circumcisione crediderunt, tam apostolos cum quibus se quoque annumerat, quam et ceteros qui cum ipsis secuti sunt fidem Jesu Christi. Sed quod dicit, secundum electionem gratiae salvas factas esse reliquias, haec mihi non videtur superflua esse electionis adiectio. Potuit enim dicere: Reliquiae per gratiam salvae factae sunt; sed ostendit per haec esse gratiam et sine electione, et cum electione. Nam omnes quidem qui per fidem salvantur, per gratiam sine dubio salvantur: qui autem per electionem gratiae salvantur, perfectioris animae mihi videntur ostendi. Sicut enim Israel dicitur omnis qui descendit de genere Israel: ille autem verus Israel est, qui mente pura et corde sincero videt Deum: ita et de hoc accipere possumus, quod omnes quidem qui ad fidem veniunt Christi, per gratiam veniunt: qui vero donum gratiae operibus virtutis et puritate cordis exornat, iste non solum; per electionem gratim salvari dicetur (9'2) a Christo → per electionem gratiae salvari dicetur a Christo; sicut in prtesenti loco → sicut in praesenti loco; secundum carnem gloriantibns cogitur respondere, vide quae pnemisit : ‹ Qua: loquor → secundum carnem gloriantibus cogitur respondere, vide quae praemisit: Quae loquor; multi gleriantur secundum carnem; et ego gloriabor . › Ει post → multi gloriantur secundum carnem; et ego gloriabor. Et post; Israelita: sunt, et ego; semen Abraha: sunt, et ego 9°. › → Israelitae sunt, et ego; semen Abrahae sunt, et ego.; talis enim eSt plebs illa quam praescivit Deus, et nott repulit) , non dicit c secundum → talis enim est plebs illa quam praescivit Deus, et non repulit), non dicit secundum; gloriabantur prtemisit, quod de lmjusmodi gloriatione neque secundutn Deum → gloriabantur praemisit, quod de hujusmodi gloriatione neque secundum Deum; quae c secundum electionem gratia: salva: facta: sunt. Ει addidit → quae secundum electionem gratiae salvae factae sunt. Et addidit; opera qua: Paulus repudiat → opera quae Paulus repudiat; Opera iustitiae quat mandantur in lege, sed ea quidem in quilms → opera iustitiae quae mandantur in lege, sed ea quidem in quibus; Iltec et huiusmodi ergosunt opera ex quibus dicit neminem potuisse salvari, etde quibus → Haec et huiusmodi ergo sunt opera ex quibus dicit neminem potuisse salvari, et de quibus; Si enim per lucc quis justificatur → Si enim per haec quis justificatur; Qui autein per gratiam justificatur, ista quidem Opera ab eo minimequzeruntur → Qui autem per gratiam justificatur, ista quidem opera ab eo minime quaeruntur; sicut et Paulus dicit. 631 quia ε gratia ejus → sicut et Paulus dicit, quia gratia ejus; laboravi ". i Et iterum addit tanquam memor gratiae: ε Νοιι ego, inquit, sed ο gratia Dei → laboravi. Et iterum addit tanquam memor gratiae: Non ego, inquit, sed gratia Dei; et gratia: Dei non exsistit ingratus. Qui enim pOst consecutam granam peccat, ingratus lit ei → et gratiae Dei non exsistit ingratus. Qui enim post consecutam gratiam peccat, ingratus fit ei; sicut et ipse seribit → sicut et ipse scribit; Gratia Vobis et pax → Gratia vobis et pax.
Cite (SBL): Origen, Comm. Rom. 8.7 (PG 14:1175a–1179a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-commentarius-romanos/8-7/#p-8-7). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from Rufinus's Latin translation of Origen's lost Greek (Migne PG 14, from the library scan's OCR, slips corrected as logged; lines lost in the scan are marked and noted); no public-domain English translation exists, so each batch was checked afterwards privately against a modern translation (never quoted or copied); the Latin decides.
8.8PG 14:1179a–1184a
Quid ergo est? Quod quaerebat Israel, hoc non … ; electio autem consecuta est; caeteri vero excaecati sunt; sicut scriptum est : Dedit illis Deus spiritum compunctionis; oculos ut non videant, et aures ut non audiant, usque in hodiernum diem. Et David dicit: Fiat mensa eorum in laqueum, et in captionem, et in scandalum, et in retributionem illis. Obscurentur oculi eorum ne videant, et dorsum illorum semper incurva ’. In his Apostolus Israel in duas dividit partes :quarum unam electionem vocat, quae consecuta sit quod quaerebat; aliam caeteros appellat qui non solum consecuti non sunt quod quaerebant, sed excaecati sunt spiritu compunctionis. Quibus etiam Deum dedisse dicit ‹ oculos, ut non videant, et aures ut non audiant, usque in hodiernum diem, hoc est, usque ad consummationem saeculi. Sed quaestio nobis movetur quomodo de bono Deo digne dictum videatur quod ipse dederit oculos residuo Israel quibus non videat, et aures quibus non audiat. Et vide ne forte haec magis retributio sit et merces incredulitatis, secundum ea quae in superioribus exposuimus, ubi dieitur, quia non probaverunt Deum habere in notitiam, tradidit eos Deus in reprobum sensum. Et hic enim oculos et aures cordis, non corporis dicit, quibus excaecati sunt et non audiunt hi utique qui Christum videntes in corpore, et audientes doctrinam ejus, neque credere operibus quae videbant,neque verbo quod audiebant obedire voluerunt. Verum de hac ipsa quaestione sufficienter a nobis in primis hujus Epistolas partibus dictum est. Ubi tamen scriptum sit hoc ipsum quod dicit Apostolus: Sicut scriptum est : Dedit illis Deus spiritum compunctionis, oculos ut non videant, et aures ut non audiant, usque in hodiernum diem; ego hactenus invenire non potui. Si quis vero diligentius quam nos intendit in Scripturis divinis, si invenerit manifestet. Puto tamen hoc modo dixisse Apostolum: Caeteri vero excaecati sunt; et sicut scriptum est de eis : Dedit illis Deus spiritum compunctionis; ut suis verbis dicere videatur dedisse eis Deum spiritum compunctionis, secundum ea quae de caecitate oculorum, et auditu aurium per Isaiam dicta sunt. Isaias enim ita dicit : Vade, et dic populo huic: Auditu audietis, et non intelligetis: et videntes videbitis, et non videbitis. Incrassatum est enim cor populi hujus, et auribus suis graviter audierunt: et oculos suos clauserunt, ne forte videant oculis, et auribus audiant, et corde intelligant, et convertantur, et sanem eos. Nunc ergo sensum Isaiae videtur Apostolus suis quidem sermonibus protulisse; sed quia prophetae sensum dicebat, addidisse : Sicut scriptum est. Similiter autem et de his facit quae per David dicta esse pronuntiat. Ait enim: Et David dicit: Fiat mensa eorum in laqueum, etin captionem, et in scandalum, et in retributionem illis. Obscurentur oculi eorum ne videant, et dorsum illorum semper incurva. Quod enim dicit: ς Fiat mensa eorum in laqueum, et in captionem. et in scandalum; in captionem in Psalmo non habetur scriptum, neque in nostris Septuaginta Interpretum exemplaribus, neque in Hebraeorum. Et rursum in Psalmo habetur : Fiat mensa eorum coram ipsis in laqueum. Apostolus autem non posuit coram ipsis. Haec de sermonum ordine et assumptorum testimoniorum qualitate memoravimus, ut ostendamus per singula, quod auctoritas apostolica nequaquam Hebraeorum exemplaribus fidem facit, nec verbis semper interpretum servit, sed Scripturarum sensum verbis quibus competit explicat. Nunc ergo videamus quomodo propositi capituli sensus debeat explanari. Caecitatem cordis, qua reliquus Israel, hoc est, qui non credidit, excaecatus est, duobus propheticis testimoniis probat, vel quod ex Isaia, vel quod ex David videtur … deant. Et quomodo haec digne credantur dici, et maxime ex persona Christi in psalmo, non otiosum videtur ostendere. Vide ergo si hoc modo possumus explicare quod quaeritur. Sicut oculis corporeis utitur unusquisque ad videndum sive bona, sive mala, et in potestate habet vel elevare oculos ad caelum, et per id quod videt, conditorem ejus agnoscere, et collaudare creatorem, vel conferre ad spectacula circi, vel theatri, vel quarumlibet sordidarum oblectamenta visionum, quibus aut ad libidinem. aut ad rapacitatem, vel alia quaeque vitia animus inflammetur; ita mihi intellige etiam animae oculos, quibus alii utuntur quidem ut verbum Dei et doctrinam veritatis agnoscant, ac sapientiae ejus quotidie capiant profectum ; alii vero utuntur his oculis in contrarium, exercentes scilicet semetipsos quotidie, et inquirentes quomodo dogmata veritatis infringant, et fidem Christi quantum ipsis videtur impugnent. Ponamus ergo aliquem orare pro his qui perspicaces et argumentosi sunt in falsa scientia, et dicere : Det illis Deus oculos ut non videant perversi sensus acumina, et aures ut non audiant mendacii scilicet magistros, et obscurentur oculi eorum ne videant; non tibi videtur amplectendus is qui haec optat eis per quae eorum peccata minuantur? Multo enim melius est non sapere, quam male sapere. Non, inquam, tibi videtur quod Marcion, qui adversum creatorem Deum blasphema scripta composuit, vel Basilides, vel Valentinus. vel caeteri auctores pravorum dogmatum, beati fuissent, si non illos, quibus male stupuerunt, cordis oculos habuissent? De his enim Isaias dicit: Vae scribentibus! Scribentes enim nequitiam scribunt’. Similiter autem et pro his qui male docent, et male loquuntur, orat David in Psalmis, et dicit’ : Muta efficiantur labia iniqua, quae loquuntur adversus justum, scelus in superbia et contemptu. Sic ergo et de Israel dicitur: Obscurentur oculi eorum ne videant’,» et, Det eis Deus oculos ut non videant. Haec, quantum ad oculorum caecitatem pertinet quae male videnti incredulo Israel tanquam pro remedio quodam dari a Deo videtur, dicta sint. Nunc etiam de mensa quae in laqueum, et in captionem, et in scandalum,et in retributionem eis fieri dicitur, videamus. Sed primo ad eos pauca dicenda sunt qui allegorias in Scripturis divinis refutant, et ridere solent eos qui non in omnibus sequuntur historicum sensum. Dicant ergo nobis si mensam hic Judaeorum illam dicit Propheta in qua prandere vel coenare solent, ut ipsa eis fiat in laqueum ut capiat eos: vel si ipsa mensa efficiatur eis in retributionem, ut ab ipsa pro his quae deliquerunt recipiant ultionem : vel quomodo eis in scandalum sit exponant. Quod si de his singulis explicare se non valent, et risum suum in confusionem viderint versum, tunc nobiscum pariter veniant, et requirant de Scripturis divinis qualiter mensa haec Israel possit intelligi. Nobis igitur pro captu sensus nostri ita videtur, quod omnes Scripturae quae ante adventum Domini erant apud Israel (primis enim illis credita sunt eloquia Dei), et omne quod appellatur Vetus Testamentum, mensa est Israel : in qua mensa si quis volebat edere verbum Dei. appositis sibi legis et prophetarum sermonibus pascebatur. Et hanc puto esse mensam de qua dicit Salomon : Si sederis coenare ad mensam potentis, intelligibiliter intellige quae apponuntur tibi, et mitte manum tuam, sciens quia talia te parare oportet .) Sed et Salvator ubi dicit: Cum manducaveritis et biberitis ad mensam meam ; quid aliud mensam ejus intelligimus, nisi ubi dignos, et eos qui capere possunt verbum sapientiae, et rerum scientiam, docet? Hoc et in Proverbiis Salomon de Sapientia protestatur dicens: Sapientia aedificavit sibi domum, et supposuit septem columnas: immolavit victimas suas, miscuit in cratere vinum suum, et paravit mensam suam '. Omnis ergo Scriptura mensa est Sapientiae. Sed videamus quomodo hanc mensam orat David fieri lsraelitis incredulis in conspectu eorum in laqueum, et in captionem, et in scandalum, et in retributionem. Fit eis in laqueum Scriptura divina, cum legunt ea quae de Christo prophetata sunt: Hic aedificabit civitatem meam, et captivitatem populi mei convertet : et dicunt non esse haec sub Jesu completa. Neque enim aedificavit, aiunt, civitatem Dei, neque captivitatem populi revocavit. Sed haec dicunt, quia sedentes ad mensam potentis non faciunt illud quod admonuit Salomon, ut intelligibiliter intelligant quae apposita sunt eis. Non enim visibiliter haec, sed intelligibiliter, hoc est, spiritaliter facturus prophetatus est Christus. Nam aedificavit vere civitatem Dei, sed ex lapidibus vivis, ex quibus suscitavit filios Abrahae, et ex ipsis aedificavit Ecclesiam Dei ; et convertit captivitatem populi, eorum quos in peccatis captos diabolus detinebat. illis ergo non ita intelligentibus, mensa haec Scripturae divinae facta est in laqueum, et in captionem. Potest autem et illa captio mensae hujus videri, qua Dominus eos cepit cum dixit ad eos : Quid vobis videtur de Christo? Cujus Filius est? At illi responderunt : David. Et Dominus : Quomodo ergo, inquit, David Dominum eum vocat, dicens : Dixit Dominus Domino meo : Sede a dextris meis? Et non poterant ei respondere verbum. Fit autem et in retributionem eis haec mensa, ut breviter dicam, secundum verbum Domini quo ait: Putatis quia ego accusem vos apud Patrem? Est qui vos accuset Moyses ; et secundum illud quod Apostolus dicit : Quotquot per legem peccaverunt, per legem iudicabuntur. Fit autem et in scandalum eis mensa haec hoc modo. Ex Scripturis didicerant Judaei, quia Christus in aeternum manet “; Jesum vero videntes in carne, et non solum in carne, sed et in morte, et morte crucis, scandalizabantur in eum, nescientes quia etsi passus est ex infirmitate carnis, sed vivit ex virtute Dei . Haec ergo singula quia non intelligibiliter acceperunt, quae apposita sunt eis ad mensam potentis, scandalizati sunt, et ipsa mensa Scripturarum divinarum facta est eis in scandalum, et obscurati sunt oculi eorum secundum ea quae supra diximus, et dorsum … immundis et sordidis vestimentis, id est, corpore aut corde polluto ad mensam sapientiae consideamus; sed speciem futuri in caelis convivii jam nunc meditantes, per conversionem et poenitentiam indumenta quotidie mundiora et nuptialia praeparemus, quibus utentes, aulam sapientiae, et thalamos filii regis intrare mereamur.
“What then? What Israel was seeking, it did not obtain; but the elect obtained it, and the rest were blinded; as it is written, God gave them a spirit of compunction, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day. And David says, Let their table become a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a retribution for them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see, and bend their back always.” In these words the Apostle divides Israel into two parts, one of which he calls the election, which obtained what it was seeking; the other he names the rest, who not only did not obtain what they were seeking but were blinded by a spirit of compunction. To them, he says, God also gave “eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day,” that is, until the consummation of the age. But a question is raised for us: how can it seem fittingly said of the good God that he himself gave to the rest of Israel eyes with which they should not see and ears with which they should not hear? And see whether this is not rather a retribution and wage for unbelief, according to what we expounded earlier, where it is said that, because they did not see fit to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind. For here too he speaks of the eyes and ears of the heart, not of the body, in which they were blinded and do not hear: those, namely, who saw Christ in the body and heard his teaching, and were willing neither to believe the works they saw nor to obey the word they heard. But of this question we have spoken sufficiently in the first parts of this letter. Yet where the very words the Apostle quotes are written, “As it is written, God gave them a spirit of compunction, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day,” I have so far been unable to find. If anyone who attends to the divine Scriptures more diligently than we do finds it, let him make it known. I think, however, that the Apostle spoke in this way: “But the rest were blinded; and, as it is written of them, God gave them a spirit of compunction,” so that he seems to say in his own words that God gave them a spirit of compunction, according to what was said through Isaiah about the blindness of the eyes and the hearing of the ears. For Isaiah says thus: “Go and say to this people: Hearing you will hear and not understand, and seeing you will see and not see. For the heart of this people has grown fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and they have closed their eyes, lest perhaps they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I heal them.” Here, then, the Apostle seems to have set out the sense of Isaiah in his own words, but, because he was stating the prophet’s sense, to have added, “as it is written.” And he does likewise with what he declares was said through David. For he says, “And David says, Let their table become a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a retribution for them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see, and bend their back always.” For in what he says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap and a stumbling block,” “a trap” is not found written in the Psalm, either in our copies of the Seventy Translators or in those of the Hebrews. And again, in the Psalm we have, “Let their table become a snare before them”; but the Apostle did not set down “before them.” We have mentioned these things about the order of the words and the character of the testimonies he adopts, to show in each case that apostolic authority by no means puts its trust in the copies of the Hebrews, nor always serves the words of the translators, but explains the sense of the Scriptures in words that suit it.
Now, then, let us see how the sense of the section before us should be explained. The blindness of heart with which the rest of Israel, that is, those who did not believe, were blinded, he proves by two prophetic testimonies, which seem to be taken one from Isaiah and the other from David … that they may not see. And it does not seem idle to show how these things can be believed to be said fittingly, and above all in the Psalm in the person of Christ. See, then, whether we can explain what is asked in this way. Just as each person uses his bodily eyes to see either good things or evil, and has it in his power either to lift his eyes to heaven and, through what he sees, recognize its Maker and praise the Creator, or to turn them to the shows of the circus or the theater, or to the delights of any filthy sights by which the mind is inflamed to lust or to greed or to any other vices: so, I ask you, understand the eyes of the soul too. Some use them to recognize the word of God and the teaching of truth and to make daily progress in his wisdom; but others use these eyes for the opposite, exercising themselves daily and inquiring how they may break down the doctrines of truth and attack, as far as they can, the faith of Christ. Let us suppose, then, that someone prays for those who are sharp and full of arguments in a false knowledge, and says: May God give them eyes that they may not see the subtleties of a perverse mind, and ears that they may not hear the teachers, namely, of falsehood; and may their eyes be darkened so that they do not see. Does not the one who wishes them things by which their sins are lessened seem to you worthy to be embraced? For it is much better not to be wise than to be wise wrongly. Does it not seem to you, I say, that Marcion, who composed blasphemous writings against God the Creator, or Basilides or Valentinus or the other authors of perverse doctrines, would have been blessed if they had not had those eyes of the heart with which they were so wrongly dazzled? For of them Isaiah says, “Woe to those who write! For writing they write wickedness.” And likewise for those who teach wrongly and speak wrongly David prays in the Psalms and says, “Let the lying lips be made dumb, which speak iniquity against the righteous in pride and contempt.” So too it is said of Israel, “Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see,” and, “May God give them eyes that they should not see.” Let these things be said as far as concerns the blindness of the eyes, which seems to be given by God, as a kind of remedy, to unbelieving Israel, which sees wrongly.
Now let us look also at the table which is said to become for them a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a retribution. But first a few things must be said to those who reject allegories in the divine Scriptures and are accustomed to laugh at those who do not follow the historical sense in everything. Let them tell us, then, whether the prophet here means that table of the Jews at which they are accustomed to lunch or dine, so that it becomes a snare to them to catch them; or whether that table becomes a retribution to them, so that from it they receive vengeance for the things in which they have sinned; or let them explain how it is a stumbling block to them. But if they cannot give an explanation of each of these, and see their laughter turned to confusion, then let them come with us and inquire from the divine Scriptures how this table of Israel can be understood. To us, then, according to the capacity of our understanding, it seems that all the Scriptures which were with Israel before the coming of the Lord (for to them first were entrusted the oracles of God), and all that is called the Old Testament, is Israel’s table; at this table, if anyone wished to eat the word of God, he was fed by the words of the law and the prophets set before him. And I think this is the table of which Solomon says, “If you sit down to dine at the table of a mighty man, understand intelligently what is set before you, and put out your hand, knowing that you must prepare such things.” And when the Savior says, “When you eat and drink at my table,” what else do we understand by his table but the place where he teaches the worthy, those who can receive the word of wisdom and the knowledge of things? Solomon too testifies to this in Proverbs concerning Wisdom, saying, “Wisdom has built herself a house and set up seven pillars; she has slaughtered her victims, mixed her wine in the bowl, and prepared her table.” All Scripture, then, is the table of Wisdom. But let us see how David prays that this table may become for the unbelieving Israelites, in their sight, a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a retribution. Divine Scripture becomes a snare for them when they read what was prophesied about Christ, “He will build my city and turn back the captivity of my people,” and say that these things were not fulfilled in Jesus; for, they say, he neither built the city of God nor brought back the captivity of the people. But they say this because, sitting at the table of the mighty one, they do not do what Solomon advised, to understand intelligently the things set before them. For Christ was prophesied as one who would do these things not visibly but intelligibly, that is, spiritually. For he truly built the city of God, but from living stones, from which he raised up children to Abraham, and from them he built the church of God; and he turned back the captivity of the people, of those whom the devil held captive in sins. For them, then, since they do not understand it so, this table of divine Scripture has become a snare and a trap. And the trap of this table can also be seen in the way the Lord caught them when he said to them, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he? And they answered, David’s. And the Lord said, How then does David call him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand? And they could not answer him a word.” And this table also becomes a retribution for them, to put it briefly, according to the word of the Lord in which he says, “Do you think that I will accuse you before the Father? There is one who accuses you, Moses”; and according to what the Apostle says, “As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.” And this table also becomes a stumbling block for them in this way. The Jews had learned from the Scriptures that the Christ remains forever; but seeing Jesus in the flesh, and not only in the flesh but in death, and the death of the cross, they stumbled over him, not knowing that though he suffered from the weakness of the flesh, yet he lives by the power of God. Because, then, they did not take intelligently each of these things which were set before them at the table of the mighty one, they stumbled, and the very table of the divine Scriptures became for them a stumbling block, and their eyes were darkened according to what we said above, and their back … with unclean and filthy garments, that is, with a defiled body or heart, sit down at the table of Wisdom; but, meditating even now on the form of the banquet to come in heaven, let us through conversion and repentance prepare garments daily cleaner and fit for a wedding, clothed in which we may be worthy to enter the hall of Wisdom and the bridal chambers of the King’s Son.
Textual problem in this passage: see the notes.
Rom 11:7 (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 11:8 (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 11:9 (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 11:10 (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 1:28 (quotation, high confidence) · Isa 6:9 (quotation, high confidence) · Isa 6:10 (quotation, high confidence) · Deut 29:4 (allusion, low confidence) · Isa 29:10 (allusion, low confidence) · Ps 69:22 (68:23 LXX) (quotation, high confidence) · Ps 69:23 (68:24 LXX) (quotation, high confidence) · Isa 10:1 (quotation, high confidence) · Ps 31:18 (30:19 LXX) (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 3:2 (quotation, high confidence) · Prov 23:1 (quotation, high confidence) · Prov 23:2 (quotation, high confidence) · Luke 22:30 (quotation, high confidence) · Prov 9:1 (quotation, high confidence) · Prov 9:2 (quotation, high confidence) · Isa 45:13 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Pet 2:5 (allusion, high confidence) · Matt 3:9 (allusion, high confidence) · Matt 22:42 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 22:43 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 22:44 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 22:46 (quotation, high confidence) · Ps 110:1 (109:1 LXX) (quotation, high confidence) · John 5:45 (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 2:12 (quotation, high confidence) · John 12:34 (allusion, high confidence) · Phil 2:8 (allusion, medium confidence) · 2 Cor 13:4 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 22:11 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: God's giving the rest of Israel eyes that do not see is a retribution and even a remedy, since it is better not to be wise than to be wise wrongly; Israel's 'table' is the Old Testament, which becomes a snare to those who will not understand it spiritually, and Christians must not come to Wisdom's table defiled.
- Lemma: Rom 11:7–10. Cited: Rom 1:28; Isa 6:9–10; Ps 69:22–23 (68:23–24 LXX); Isa 10:1; Ps 31:18 (30:19 LXX); Rom 3:2; Prov 23:1–2; Luke 22:30; Prov 9:1–2; Isa 45:13; 1 Pet 2:5; Matt 3:9; Matt 22:42–46; John 5:45; Rom 2:12; John 12:34; 2 Cor 13:4; Matt 22:11–12.
- The first words of the lemma (Rom 11:7) are partly lost in the scan; the translation gives the verse as the commentary repeats it.
- Origen says he cannot find the quotation “God gave them a spirit of compunction” in Scripture and suggests Paul gives the sense of Isa 6:9–10 (modern editors also compare Deut 29:4 and Isa 29:10).
- Lines are lost in the Migne scan at two points, marked “…”: after “from David” (the sense is that both testimonies express one meaning, eyes that do not see and a table that becomes a snare); and after “their back” (the sense is that their back is always bent, that those who sinned against the Creator of heaven should no longer look up to heaven, and that each of us must fear lest the table of Scripture become a snare to us, and must take care not to sit down at it with unclean garments).
- Marcion, Basilides and Valentinus are named as teachers of perverse doctrine; the Jews' reading of the prophecies is described from Origen's standpoint and translated as written.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (Migne column number; stray marks; Migne note number; stray mark; OCR slip; OCR slip and Migne note number; OCR slips; OCR slips and Migne note number; OCR slips; Migne column number; the scan has lost lines here, marked …; OCR slips; words lost in the lemma (Rom 11:7), marked …; OCR: Greek letters; stray mark; stray marks; stray marks; the scan has lost lines here, marked …): Quod qumrebat Israel, hoc non electio autem CORSBCUIR εειε caeteri vero exczecati sunt → Quod quaerebat Israel, hoc non … ; electio autem consecuta est; caeteri vero excaecati sunt; spiritum contpunetionis; oculos utnon videant → spiritum compunctionis; oculos ut non videant; Sed qumstio nobis → Sed quaestio nobis; tradidit eos Deus iu reprobum sensum . » Et hic enim oculos et aures cordis, non corporis dicit, quibus excmcati → tradidit eos Deus in reprobum sensum. Et hic enim oculos et aures cordis, non corporis dicit, quibus excaecati; Ubi tamen (I) scriptum sithoc ipsum quod dicit Apustolus : ς Sicut → Ubi tamen scriptum sit hoc ipsum quod dicit Apostolus: Sicut; usque in Itodiernum diem → usque in hodiernum diem; Puto lamen hoc modo dixisse Apostolum : ‹ Caeteri vero excaeati sunt → Puto tamen hoc modo dixisse Apostolum: Caeteri vero excaecati sunt; spiritum compunctionis; ιιι suis verbis dio cere videatur → spiritum compunctionis; ut suis verbis dicere videatur; de eaacitate oculorum, et auditu auriunt → de caecitate oculorum, et auditu aurium; ε Vade, et dic populo huic : Audita aadietis → Vade, et dic populo huic: Auditu audietis; Incrassatum est enim eor populi hujus, et auribus suis graviter audierunt: etoctdo. suos clauserunt → Incrassatum est enim cor populi hujus, et auribus suis graviter audierunt: et oculos suos clauserunt; et convertantur,et sanem eos ’. Nunc ergo ('5) sensum Isaia: videtur → et convertantur, et sanem eos. Nunc ergo sensum Isaiae videtur; sed quia propheta! sensum → sed quia prophetae sensum; Ait enim (ι) : Et David dicit ς Fiat → Ait enim: Et David dicit: Fiat; Obscureutur oeuli eorum → Obscurentur oculi eorum; in captionem in Pssimo " non habetur scriptum, neque iit nostris Septuaginta Interpretum exemplaribus, neque in Hebr-eorum → in captionem in Psalmo non habetur scriptum, neque in nostris Septuaginta Interpretum exemplaribus, neque in Hebraeorum; coram ipsis in laqueum ε» Apostolus autem nea posuit coram ipsis. Hme de sermonum → coram ipsis in laqueum. Apostolus autem non posuit coram ipsis. Haec de sermonum; memoravimus, χ ut ostendamus → memoravimus, ut ostendamus; verbis quibus competit cxplicat → verbis quibus competit explicat; qui non credidit, cxeaseatus est, duobus propheticis testimoniis probat, χ vel quod ex Isaia, vel quod ex David videtur 632 deant. Et quomodo lttec digne credantur dici', et tnaxime → qui non credidit, excaecatus est, duobus propheticis testimoniis probat, vel quod ex Isaia, vel quod ex David videtur … deant. Et quomodo haec digne credantur dici, et maxime; elevare oculos ad cmlnm → elevare oculos ad caelum; vitia anintns inllammetttrt ita mihi → vitia animus inflammetur; ita mihi; doctrinam veritatis agttoscztnt, ac sapientia: ejus → doctrinam veritatis agnoscant, ac sapientiae ejus; dogmata veritatis itil'ringant, et fidem Christi quantum ipsis videtur impugttent → dogmata veritatis infringant, et fidem Christi quantum ipsis videtur impugnent; Det illis Deus ncnlos ut. non videant → Det illis Deus oculos ut non videant; non tibi videtur amplectendtts is qui hate optat → non tibi videtur amplectendus is qui haec optat; pravorum dogtnatum → pravorum dogmatum; De bis enim Isaias dicit ε «νςιε scribentibus! → De his enim Isaias dicit: Vae scribentibus!; Muta elliciautur labia iniqua, quze loquuntur → Muta efficiantur labia iniqua, quae loquuntur; Sic ergo et delsrael dicitur : Obscurenttir oculi → Sic ergo et de Israel dicitur: Obscurentur oculi; Det eis lieus ‹ oculos nt non videant . Ilaec, quantum → Det eis Deus oculos ut non videant. Haec, quantum; et in retributionem eis lieri dicitur ', videantus → et in retributionem eis fieri dicitur, videamus; et ridere solet-tt ('13) eos → et ridere solent eos; mensam hic Judteorum illam dicit Propheta in qua prandere vel camare solent, ut ipsa eis liat in laqueum → mensam hic Judaeorum illam dicit Propheta in qua prandere vel coenare solent, ut ipsa eis fiat in laqueum; vel si ipsa mensa elliciatur eis in retributionem. ut → vel si ipsa mensa efficiatur eis in retributionem, ut; Quod si de bis singulis explicare se non valent, et risutn suum → Quod si de his singulis explicare se non valent, et risum suum; et rt-quirant dc Scripturis → et requirant de Scripturis; Quod omnes Scriptum quae ante adventum Domini erant apud Israel ( primis) enim illis credita sunt eloquia Dei ι), et omne qttod → quod omnes Scripturae quae ante adventum Domini erant apud Israel (primis enim illis credita sunt eloquia Dei), et omne quod; t Si sederis cmnare ad mensam potentis → Si sederis coenare ad mensam potentis; Sed et Salvator ubi'dicit → Sed et Salvator ubi dicit; nisi ubi (11gnos → nisi ubi dignos; Iloc et in Proverbiis → Hoc et in Proverbiis; et supposuit seplem columnas → et supposuit septem columnas; in conspectu eorum 633 in laqueum, et in captionem, et in scandaa lum, et in retributionem θ’. → in conspectu eorum in laqueum, et in captionem, et in scandalum, et in retributionem.; llic aedilicabit civitatem meam → Hic aedificabit civitatem meam; Neque enim Ι) aedificavit, aiunt. → Neque enim aedificavit, aiunt,; Sed hair. dicunt → Sed haec dicunt; illud quod admonuit (~20) Salomon “, ut intelligibiliter intelligant quas apposita → illud quod admonuit Salomon, ut intelligibiliter intelligant quae apposita; prophetatns est Christus. Nam :cdilicavit vere → prophetatus est Christus. Nam aedificavit vere; suscitavit lilios Abrahae, et ex ipsis aedificavit Eeclesi‘atn Dei → suscitavit filios Abrahae, et ex ipsis aedificavit Ecclesiam Dei; mensa haec Scriptura; divina: facta est → mensa haec Scripturae divinae facta est; illa captio mensa: hujus → illa captio mensae hujus; respondere verbum ι’. Fit autem et in retributionem eis inec mensa → respondere verbum. Fit autem et in retributionem eis haec mensa; Fit autem et in scandalum eis mensa huic hoc modo. Ex Scripturis didicerant Judzei. quia → Fit autem et in scandalum eis mensa haec hoc modo. Ex Scripturis didicerant Judaei, quia; in carne. sed et in morte, et morte erucis, scandalizabantur in eum :n-scientes → in carne, sed et in morte, et morte crucis, scandalizabantur in eum, nescientes; ad mensam potentis, scandaliιιιιί sunt, et ipsa mensa Seripturarum → ad mensam potentis, scandalizati sunt, et ipsa mensa Scripturarum; secundum ea quae supra diximus. et dorsum immundis et’ sordidis → secundum ea quae supra diximus, et dorsum … immundis et sordidis; per conversionem et ιπιειιίιειιιὶιιιι indumenta quotidie mundiora ct nuptialia preparemus → per conversionem et poenitentiam indumenta quotidie mundiora et nuptialia praeparemus; thalamos lilii regis intrare mereamur ιτ. → thalamos filii regis intrare mereamur..
Topics: Scripture and canon, Heresy
Cite (SBL): Origen, Comm. Rom. 8.8 (PG 14:1179a–1184a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-commentarius-romanos/8-7/#p-8-8). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from Rufinus's Latin translation of Origen's lost Greek (Migne PG 14, from the library scan's OCR, slips corrected as logged; lines lost in the scan are marked and noted); no public-domain English translation exists, so each batch was checked afterwards privately against a modern translation (never quoted or copied); the Latin decides.
8.9PG 14:1184a–1187a
Dico ergo: Nunquid sic offenderunt ut caderent? Absit. Sed illorum delicto salus gentibus, ut illos aemulentur. Quod si delictum illorum divitiae mundi, et diminutio eorum divitiae gentium: quanto magis plenitudo eorum? Cum exposuisset Apostolus ea in quibus repudiatus est Israel, et introductae sunt gentes; et enumerasset etiam prophetias quae de caecitate ipsorum, et laqueo, et retributione, scandaloque praedixerant; ne rursum gentibus insultandi causas et elationis materiam praeberet, ipsum Israelis lapsum dicit talem fuisse, non ut illi caderent, sed ut delicto suo salutem gentibus darent: et ait : Dico ergo: Nunquid sic offenderunt ut caderent? Absit. Sed illorum delicto, salus gentibus. Et quomodo ex illorum delicto salus gentibus detur, ostendit : Ut illos, inquit, aemulentur: hoc est, ut conversionem gentium videntes, et testamentum Dei. quod ipsi prius acceperant, illis traditum, et legem ac prophetas apud eos majore et digniore haberi observantia, zelum capiant etiam ipsi in novissimis saltem temporibus : et sicut nunc illorum lapsus salutem gentibus dedit, ita gentium fides et conversatio Israeli aemulationem conversionis conferat et salutis. Observandum tamen est, quod aliud ponit Paulus offendere ac delinquere, et aliud cadere: et offensioni quidem vel delicto remedium ponit ; cecidisse autem eos, quasi desperatio in hoc sit aliqua, non recipit. Dicit enim: Nunquid sic offenderunt, ut caderent? Absit. Sed illorum delicto salus gentibus. Et est mirum quomodo in tot et talibus quae de eis omnis Epistulae textus exponit, cecidisse tamen eos neget Apostolus. Sed videtur mihi quod Paulus cadendi differentias bene noverit, et aliud sciat esse cadere, secundum illud quod scriptum est: Septies cadet justus, et resurget; et iterum: Noli mihi insultare, inimica mea, quia cecidi : et resurgam ; et secundum quod Jeremias dicit : Nunquid qui cadit, non adjiciet ut resurgat? aut qui aversus est, non convertatur? Sed et Job de semetipso dicit : Tempore constituto paratum est ei cadere sub aliis. et domum ejus diripi ab alienis ; et in quarto Regnorum libro scriptum est: Cecidit Ezechias ab elatione cordis sui “. Et omnes hi casus de quibus in supradictis sermonibus Scripturatn pronuntiasse memoravimus, habent utique resurrectionem; et aversio eorum habet conversionem. In praesenti vero capitulo, quasi sciens Apostolus quia si cecidissent, resurgere omnino non possent, ita negat eos cecidisse, et valde excusat in eo quod dicit : Nunquid sic offenderunt ut caderent? Absit. Ne forte ergo ad alium casum respiciens Apostolus, Israel excuset et abneget cecidisse; illum fortasse de quo dicebat Dominus et Salvator noster, quia videbam Satanam sicut fulgur cecidisse de caelo: sed et illum de quo Isaias dicit: ‹ Quomodo cecidit de caelo Lucifer, qui mane oriebatur? Hic ergo tali casu negat cecidisse Israel. Illorum enim vel in fine saeculi conversio erit tunc cum plenitudo gentium subintraverit. et omnis Israel salvus fiet; istius autem qui de caelo cecidisse dicitur nec in fine saeculi erit ulla conversio. Hunc ergo casum quem superius diximus, id est, in quo qui cadet adjiciet ut resurgat ”, similem esse huic quem in ipso loco offensionem nominat Apostolus advertamus, et quem delictum appellat: quod mihi tale videtur esse. Si quando justus in uno aliquo victus, … scientiam. Et propterea dicit Apostolus, quia non sic offenderunt ut caderent; hoc est, ut ab omni legis Dei observantia, vel meditatione penitus declinarent. Et hujusmodi casum delictum nominavit. Illorum enim, inquit, delicto salus gentibus. Propterea ergo et David, sciens hujusmodi esse delicta, in quibus qui ceciderit surgat; et esse alia, in quibus qui ceciderit non resurgat, nec in consummatione saeculi, dicebat: Delicta, sive lapsus, quis intelligit? Sequitur post haec: Quod si delictum illorum divitiae mundi, et diminutio eorum divitiae gentium; quanto magis plenitudo eorum? Considera in his Dei sapientiam , quomodo apud eum ne ipsa quidem delicta et lapsus inutilitati cedunt : sed cum unusquisque ex propositi sui libertate delinquat, dispensatio divinae sapientiae hoc ipso in quo illi damno suae negligentiae pauperes fiunt, alios divites facit. Etenim cum divideret Deus gentes, et dispergeret filios Adam, constituit terminos gentium juxta numerum angelorum Dei. Facta est tunc pars Domini Jacob, et funiculus haereditatis ejus Israel. Illis autem angelis, quibus pars gentium fuerat distributa, seducentibus quodammodo singulos quosque de parte Domini ac depravantibus, fecerunt eos offendere, ita ut diceret Dominus per prophetam: Facta est mihi portio mea desiderabilis in exsecratione "z necessarium fuit ut illa refutata ac repudiata, esset alia pars Domini super terram, quae gloriam, testamenta, et legislationem, et obsequium … susciperet, et pars Domini pro illa parte quae offenderat vocaretur. Idcirco delictum illorum fit divitiae mundi. Nunc enim jam non una Hebraeorum gens, sed totus mundus pars Domini effecta est. Si enim ipse Salvator dicit: Quia ego veni non ut judicem mundum, sed ut salvetur mundus per me . Et ne ambiguum videretur mundi nomen, quoniam quidem saepe ad caelum et terram, saepe ad solam terram, interdum vero etiam ad omnes hornines mundi appellatio refertur : idcirco repetit Apostolus, et manifestius in quo dixerit mundum designat. Ait enim: Et diminutio eorum, divitiae gentium. Quod enim illis qui offenderunt diminutum est et ablatum, ad divitias gentium collatum est, qui per fidem pars Domini et hereditas ejus effecti sunt. Bene autem ad diminutionem reddidit plenitudinem, et non sine profundo quodam sensu populum Israel Paulus plenitudinem vocat. In quo ego pro viribus meis tale aliquid intelligo: Nunc quidem donec omnes gentes veniunt ad salutem, congregantur divitiae Dei ex credentium multitudine : sed donec Israel in incredulitate persistit, nondum plenitudo portionis Domini dicetur esse completa. Deest enim ad integrum populus Israel. Cum vero plenitudo gentium subintraverit, et Israel in novissimo tempore per fidem venerit ad salutem, ipse erit populus qui prior quidem fuerat; sed novissimus veniens ipsam quodammodo haereditatis et portionis Domini plenitudinem complebit. Et ideo plenitudo appellatur, quia quod deerat in portione Dei, in novissimis ipse complebit : et ita omnipotentis et boni Dei dispensatio delicta aliorum fructuosa aliis efficit, sicut in praesenti delicta Israel divitias mundi facit, et diminutionem eorum divitias gentium. Jam sane si et ex gentium delictis quae necessario delinquunt, tale aliquid faciat omnium dispensator, et aliquibus ex eis divitias conferat, ne hoc quasi speciale solius Israel fuisse videatur, sed aequitas apud justum et bonum Deum super omnibus habeatur, etiam tu apud temetipsum qui legis, requirito.
“I say then, have they so stumbled as to fall? By no means! But by their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their trespass is the riches of the world, and their diminishing the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!” The Apostle had set out the things in which Israel was rejected and the Gentiles brought in, and had also listed the prophecies which had foretold their blindness and snare and retribution and stumbling block. Lest he should in turn give the Gentiles occasion for insulting and matter for pride, he says that Israel’s lapse was such, not that they should fall, but that by their trespass they should give salvation to the Gentiles; and he says, “I say then, have they so stumbled as to fall? By no means! But by their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles.” And he shows how salvation is given to the Gentiles from their trespass: “to make them,” he says, “jealous”; that is, that seeing the conversion of the Gentiles, and the covenant of God which they themselves had received first handed over to them, and the law and the prophets held among them in greater and worthier observance, they too may take up zeal, at least in the last times; and that, as now their lapse has given salvation to the Gentiles, so the faith and conduct of the Gentiles may bestow on Israel a jealousy for conversion and salvation. It must be observed, however, that Paul puts “to stumble” and “to trespass” as one thing and “to fall” as another; and for stumbling or trespass he sets a remedy, but that they have fallen, as though there were some despair in this, he does not admit. For he says, “Have they so stumbled as to fall? By no means! But by their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles.” And it is a wonder how, among so many and such things as the text of the whole letter sets out about them, the Apostle nevertheless denies that they have fallen. But it seems to me that Paul knew well the differences of falling, and knew that to fall is one thing according to what is written, “The righteous man falls seven times and rises again”; and again, “Do not rejoice over me, my enemy, because I have fallen; I shall rise again”; and according to what Jeremiah says, “Does he who falls not rise again? Or does he who has turned away not turn back?” Job too says of himself, “At the appointed time it was prepared for him to fall under others, and for his house to be plundered by strangers”; and in the fourth book of Kingdoms it is written, “Hezekiah fell from the pride of his heart.” And all these falls, of which we have mentioned that Scripture speaks in the passages above, have of course a rising again, and their turning away has a turning back. But in the present section the Apostle, as if knowing that if they had fallen they could not rise again at all, so denies that they have fallen, and strongly excuses them in saying, “Have they so stumbled as to fall? By no means!” Perhaps, then, the Apostle, looking to another fall, excuses Israel and denies that they have fallen: perhaps that fall of which our Lord and Savior spoke, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven,” and also the one of which Isaiah says, “How Lucifer has fallen from heaven, who rose in the morning!” With such a fall, then, he denies that Israel has fallen. For theirs will be a conversion even at the end of the age, then when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and all Israel will be saved; but for him who is said to have fallen from heaven there will be no conversion even at the end of the age. Let us notice, then, that the fall we spoke of above, that is, the one in which he who falls rises again, is like what the Apostle in this very place calls stumbling and what he calls trespass; which seems to me to be such as this. If ever a righteous man, overcome in some one thing, … knowledge. And therefore the Apostle says that they have not so stumbled as to fall, that is, as to turn away entirely from all observance or meditation of God’s law. And a fall of this kind he named a trespass: “For by their trespass,” he says, “salvation has come to the Gentiles.” Therefore David too, knowing that there are trespasses of this kind, in which one who has fallen may rise, and that there are others in which one who has fallen does not rise, not even at the consummation of the age, said, “Trespasses,” or lapses, “who understands?”
There follows after this: “Now if their trespass is the riches of the world, and their diminishing the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?” Consider in this the wisdom of God, how with him not even trespasses and lapses turn out useless; but while each person sins by the freedom of his own choice, the dispensation of divine wisdom makes others rich by the very thing in which those become poor through the loss of their negligence. For when God divided the nations and dispersed the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God; and then Jacob became the Lord’s portion and Israel the lot of his inheritance. But since those angels, to whom the portion of the Gentiles had been distributed, in a way seduced and corrupted one by one those of the Lord’s portion, they made them stumble, so that the Lord said through the prophet, “My desirable portion has become for me an object of cursing”; it was necessary that, that portion being rejected and repudiated, there should be another portion of the Lord upon the earth, which should take up the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service … and be called the Lord’s portion in place of the portion that had stumbled. Therefore their trespass became the riches of the world. For now not the one nation of the Hebrews, but the whole world has been made the Lord’s portion; if indeed the Savior himself says, “For I came not to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through me.” And lest the name “world” seem ambiguous, since the term “world” is often applied to heaven and earth, often to the earth alone, and sometimes also to all the people of the world, therefore the Apostle repeats it and indicates more plainly what he meant by “world.” For he says, “and their diminishing the riches of the Gentiles.” For what was diminished and taken away from those who stumbled was added to the riches of the Gentiles, who through faith were made the Lord’s portion and his inheritance. And well he set “fullness” over against “diminishing”; and not without some deep meaning does Paul call the people of Israel a fullness. In which, as far as I am able, I understand something like this. Now indeed, until all the nations come to salvation, the riches of God are gathered from the multitude of believers; but while Israel persists in unbelief, the fullness of the Lord’s portion will not yet be said to be complete, for the people of Israel is lacking to the whole. But when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and Israel in the last time has come to salvation through faith, it will be the people which was indeed first, but, coming last, will in a way complete the very fullness of the Lord’s inheritance and portion. And it is called a fullness for this reason, that in the last days it will fill up what was lacking in God’s portion; and so the dispensation of the almighty and good God makes the trespasses of some fruitful for others, as at present it makes the trespasses of Israel the riches of the world, and their diminishing the riches of the Gentiles. Now whether the Dispenser of all things does something of this kind also from the trespasses of the Gentiles, which they necessarily commit, and confers riches on some from them, so that this may not seem to have been special to Israel alone, but equity may be kept by the just and good God over all, you who read must inquire for yourself.
Textual problem in this passage: see the notes.
Rom 11:11 (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 11:12 (quotation, high confidence) · Prov 24:16 (quotation, high confidence) · Mic 7:8 (quotation, high confidence) · Jer 8:4 (quotation, high confidence) · Job 12:5 (quotation, medium confidence) · 2 Chr 32:25 (allusion, medium confidence) · Luke 10:18 (quotation, high confidence) · Isa 14:12 (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 11:25 (allusion, high confidence) · Rom 11:26 (allusion, high confidence) · Ps 19:12 (18:13 LXX) (quotation, high confidence) · Deut 32:8 (quotation, high confidence) · Deut 32:9 (quotation, high confidence) · Jer 12:10 (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 9:4 (allusion, high confidence) · John 12:47 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Israel has stumbled but not fallen beyond recovery, as the devil has; its trespass enriches the world and the Gentiles, God turning even sins to others' profit, and Israel's coming to faith at the end will complete the fullness of the Lord's portion.
- Lemma: Rom 11:11–12. Cited: Prov 24:16; Mic 7:8; Jer 8:4; Job 12:5 (LXX); 2 Chr 32:25–26 (Origen says “the fourth book of Kingdoms”); Luke 10:18; Isa 14:12; Rom 11:25–26; Ps 19:12 (18:13 LXX); Deut 32:8–9 (LXX “angels of God”); Jer 12:10; Rom 9:4; John 12:47.
- “If ever a righteous man, overcome in some one thing, … knowledge”: a passage is lost in the scan here; the sense is that such a man, though he has fallen, does not abandon all observance of the law, and that the Jews, though they denied their redeemer, still keep meditation on the law and a zeal for God, though not according to knowledge.
- “the service …”: the scan garbles a few words after “obsequium” (Migne: probably the service of the worship of God, in which the riches of the Lord's portion consisted); left untranslated.
- The statement that there will be no conversion for the one who fell from heaven (the devil) is translated as it stands; scholars dispute whether it reflects Origen or Rufinus.
- Deut 32:8–9 is quoted in the Septuagint form (“according to the number of the angels of God”), on which Origen builds his account of the nations' angels.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (Migne column number; OCR slip; Migne column number; OCR slips; OCR slip; OCR slip and Migne note number; OCR slips; OCR slips (aequitas read as Greek letters); OCR slips and Migne note number; OCR slips and stray marks; OCR slips; the scan has lost lines here, marked …; OCR: Greek letters; stray mark; the scan garbles a few words after obsequium (illegible; marked …); OCR slips): Dico ergo: Nunquid sic ofl‘enderunt ut caderent? Absit. Sed illorum delicto salus gentibus, ut → Dico ergo: Nunquid sic offenderunt ut caderent? Absit. Sed illorum delicto salus gentibus, ut; Quod si delictum illorum dititiae mundi → Quod si delictum illorum divitiae mundi; plenitudo eorum “? Cum exocsuisset Apostolus ea in quibus repudiatus estlsrael, et introducta: sunt gentes ; et enumerasset etiam prnpltetias quae de caecitate ipsorum, et laqueo, et retributione, scandaloque prazdixerant ; ne rursum gentibus insultandi causas et elationis inateriam prwberet, ipsum lsraelis → plenitudo eorum? Cum exposuisset Apostolus ea in quibus repudiatus est Israel, et introductae sunt gentes; et enumerasset etiam prophetias quae de caecitate ipsorum, et laqueo, et retributione, scandaloque praedixerant; ne rursum gentibus insultandi causas et elationis materiam praeberet, ipsum Israelis; Nunquid sic oll'enderunt ut caderent? Absit. Sed illorum delicto, salus gentibus. Ει quomodo → Nunquid sic offenderunt ut caderent? Absit. Sed illorum delicto, salus gentibus. Et quomodo; Ct illos, inquit, :emulentur: hoc est, ut cono versionem → Ut illos, inquit, aemulentur: hoc est, ut conversionem; et lcgem ac pr0pbetas apud eos majore et digniore liaberi observantia. zelum capiant → et legem ac prophetas apud eos majore et digniore haberi observantia, zelum capiant; conversatio lsraeli aemulationem → conversatio Israeli aemulationem; aliud ponit Paulus oll‘endere ac delinquere, et aliud cadere : et oll‘ensioni quidem vel delictoremedium → aliud ponit Paulus offendere ac delinquere, et aliud cadere: et offensioni quidem vel delicto remedium; Dicit 635 enim : Nunquid sic oll'enderunt → Dicit enim: Nunquid sic offenderunt; omnis Epistula: textus → omnis Epistulae textus; cadendi dill'erentias → cadendi differentias; et resurget 'M'; et iterum : Noli milii insultare → et resurget; et iterum: Noli mihi insultare; ut resurgat ἰ aut qui aversas est, non convertatur ι’? → ut resurgat? aut qui aversus est, non convertatur?; pronuntiasse memoravimus (δέ), habent utique resurrectionem; et aversio eoritm → pronuntiasse memoravimus, habent utique resurrectionem; et aversio eorum; In praesenti vero capi- Iulo, quasi sciens Apostolus quia si cecidissent, rcsurgere omnino non possenl,ita → In praesenti vero capitulo, quasi sciens Apostolus quia si cecidissent, resurgere omnino non possent, ita; Nunquid sic ofl‘enderunt ut caderent ἲ Absit. Ne forte ergo → Nunquid sic offenderunt ut caderent? Absit. Ne forte ergo; et almeget cecidisse → et abneget cecidisse; Dominus ct Salvator noster “, quia ‹ videbam → Dominus et Salvator noster, quia videbam; Quomodo cecidit de calo Lucifer, qui mane oriebatur "? .Ilic ergo tali casu (SI) negat → Quomodo cecidit de caelo Lucifer, qui mane oriebatur? Hic ergo tali casu negat; Illorum enim rel in line saeculi → Illorum enim vel in fine saeculi; et omnislsrael salvus fiet ’7; → et omnis Israel salvus fiet;; Ilunc ergo casum → Hunc ergo casum; in ipso loco odensionem nominat → in ipso loco offensionem nominat; quod milii tale videtur esse. Si quando justus in uno aliquo victus, scientiam ο. Et propterea dicit Apostolus, quia non sic olfenderunt → quod mihi tale videtur esse. Si quando justus in uno aliquo victus, … scientiam. Et propterea dicit Apostolus, quia non sic offenderunt; inquibus qtti ceciderit surgat; et ‘ esse alia. in quibus qui ceciderit non resurgat.‘ nec in consummatione saeculi, dicebat : Delicta, “ sive lapsus, α quis intelligit “‘2 → in quibus qui ceciderit surgat; et esse alia, in quibus qui ceciderit non resurgat, nec in consummatione saeculi, dicebat: Delicta, sive lapsus, quis intelligit?; quanto magis plenitudo eorum? ν Considera → quanto magis plenitudo eorum? Considera; delicta et lapsus inntilitati cedunt → delicta et lapsus inutilitati cedunt; dispensatio divinae sa. pientiae hoc ipso in quo illi damno sua: negligentiae pauperes llunt → dispensatio divinae sapientiae hoc ipso in quo illi damno suae negligentiae pauperes fiunt; Etenim α cum divideret Deus gentes. et dispergeret fllios Adam, constituit terminos gentium juxta numerum auge- Iormn Dei. Facta est tunc pars Domini Jacob. et funiculus haereditatis ejus Israel ".tlllis autem angelis, quibus pars gentium fuerat (Η) distributa. → Etenim cum divideret Deus gentes, et dispergeret filios Adam, constituit terminos gentium juxta numerum angelorum Dei. Facta est tunc pars Domini Jacob, et funiculus haereditatis ejus Israel. Illis autem angelis, quibus pars gentium fuerat distributa,; fecerunt eos oll‘endere, ita ut diceretDotninus per prophetam : ε Facta est → fecerunt eos offendere, ita ut diceret Dominus per prophetam: Facta est; et obsc- ,εΔ , ,με ,_-__ ‘1“ia ’ cum“ Del ((Ιυω οηηιίδ (milia? "an" υπtis Domini) susciperet, et pars Domini pro illa parte quae'oll‘enderat vocaretur. Idcirco delictum illorum Iit divitiae mundi.1Nunc → et obsequium … susciperet, et pars Domini pro illa parte quae offenderat vocaretur. Idcirco delictum illorum fit divitiae mundi. Nunc; Si enim ipse 635 Salvator dicitaaQuia egoveninon ut judicem → Si enim ipse Salvator dicit: Quia ego veni non ut judicem; saepe ad cmlum et terram → saepe ad caelum et terram; idcirco repetit Δροstolas, et manifestius → idcirco repetit Apostolus, et manifestius; Ait enim : t Et diminutio eorum, divitiae gentium. Quod enim illis qui oifeudernnt dintinutum est → Ait enim: Et diminutio eorum, divitiae gentium. Quod enim illis qui offenderunt diminutum est; qui per fidem pars Domiuiet hereditas ejus cfi'ecti sunt → qui per fidem pars Domini et hereditas ejus effecti sunt; lu quo ego pro viribus meis tale aliquid intelligo: Nunc quidem donec onmes gentes → In quo ego pro viribus meis tale aliquid intelligo: Nunc quidem donec omnes gentes; plenitudo por-tionis Domini → plenitudo portionis Domini; Cum vero plenitudo gentium subintra verit . et Isr: in nOVissimo tempore → Cum vero plenitudo gentium subintraverit, et Israel in novissimo tempore; omnipotentis et boui Dei dispensatio delicta aliorum fructuosa aliis eflicit, sicut in praesenti delicta Israel tlivitias mundi facit → omnipotentis et boni Dei dispensatio delicta aliorum fructuosa aliis efficit, sicut in praesenti delicta Israel divitias mundi facit; tale aliquid faciat ontnium dispensator, etaliqnibus ex eisdivitias conferat, ne hoc quasi speciale solitis Israel fuisse videatur, sed ξιιῗιιιιιὶιιειε,1 apud justum et honttm Deum super α omnibus habeatur, etiam tu apud ‘temetipsum qui ν iegis, requirite. → tale aliquid faciat omnium dispensator, et aliquibus ex eis divitias conferat, ne hoc quasi speciale solius Israel fuisse videatur, sed aequitas apud justum et bonum Deum super omnibus habeatur, etiam tu apud temetipsum qui legis, requirito..
Topics: Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Origen, Comm. Rom. 8.9 (PG 14:1184a–1187a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-commentarius-romanos/8-7/#p-8-9). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from Rufinus's Latin translation of Origen's lost Greek (Migne PG 14, from the library scan's OCR, slips corrected as logged; lines lost in the scan are marked and noted); no public-domain English translation exists, so each batch was checked afterwards privately against a modern translation (never quoted or copied); the Latin decides.