Commentary on 1 Corinthians — Fragments from the Greek Catenae
Greek source: Origen's commentary on 1 Corinthians survives only as fragments in the medieval Greek exegetical catenae, from the reading text constituted by Claude Jenkins, "Origen on I Corinthians," Journal of Theological Studies 9 (1908), Parts I–III (pp. 231–247, 353–372, 500–514), and 10 (1909), Part IV (pp. 29–51); base manuscript Vatican gr. 762, with 29 fragments (marked with an asterisk, e.g. § LVI*) drawn from Athos, Pantocrator 28. A selective catena of 90 fragments (§§ I–XC) on 1 Corinthians i 2 – xvi 14. This English translation is released into the public domain.§ I — 1 Corinthians i 2
To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours.
[Of Origen]
If all were the church, what further need was there to add "with all who call upon"? If all alike were calling upon, what need was there to write not merely to all who call upon, but, beyond them, "to the church of God"? We have shown that only the praiseworthy are the ones who ought to be designated a church, whereas the blameworthy — not indeed apostates, but still wrestling with sin and yet still calling upon him — are not yet also a church. Let us hasten, therefore, from calling upon to ascend to the church that is spotless "and without blemish".
§ II — 1 Corinthians i 4–10
I give thanks to my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed among you, so that you come short in no spiritual gift, awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; who will also confirm you unto the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is God, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I exhort you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be knit together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
[Of Origen]
Neither do these things suit sinners nor those things the righteous — I mean the words Now I exhort you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same things and that there be no divisions among you and all such things. The church, then, was a mixed body, if indeed one ought to call "church" this whole thing compounded of the righteous and the unrighteous. At any rate, those who were gathered together were mixed; and for this reason the Apostle, being about to reprove for their sins those who were gathering together with wickedness, necessarily first makes his praises of those who well "come together unto the same place". I give thanks to my God always: it is fitting to give thanks for those things which he calls praiseworthy, and not to give thanks at one time and not at another, but to give thanks always. If I ever see someone at one time doing well and at another time sinning, I give thanks concerning him not always, but when he does well; and so also concerning myself. And in what will Paul, who gives thanks, give thanks? For his own hearers, of whom he has become father according to God. Just as, then, a father gives thanks over his sons whenever they are in health, whenever they do well, in the same manner whenever a teacher sees his hearers "fervent in spirit", rich in the word "of wisdom", worthy to be praised, he gives thanks always concerning them.
Let us behold, then, the grace of the praiseworthy ones in Corinth, that we may be zealous for it. That in everything you were enriched in him. Blessed are those who are rich in everything and come short in nothing of the things that are according to God, but who practice every virtue and enjoy the gifts from him ungrudgingly and richly, in all speech and all knowledge: so that they are at a loss for no scripture, but everywhere "seek and find", and, when it is necessary to expound a scripture, employ every kind of discourse — both the so-called discursive kind and that which proceeds by question and answer — and are prepared to speak also against every heresy, and to stand firm in the doctrine of the truth, and to fulfil what was said by the Apostle: "always ready for a defense to everyone who demands of you an account concerning the faith that is in you". So indeed also the phrase in all knowledge: not only according to the scriptures, but so that one may also say "for he himself gave me the unerring knowledge of the things that are" and what follows upon these things. For knowledge indicates only the knowing, but speech also interprets that which is known.
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed among you: Christ, that I may so name him, is the chief martyr, and, there being many martyrs unto Christ through their death, he is that ruler of the martyrs. This testimony of Christ, then, in some is firm, but in some it is not firm but is shaken. For if the faith concerning the testimony is such that one is able from a true disposition to say "I am persuaded" that "neither death nor life" and what follows "shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord", the testimony is firm in such a one; but if we are not such but are shaken by the things that befall us, the testimony of Christ has not yet been confirmed in us. And again we shall take the saying in another way: every scripture that testifies concerning Christ is a testimony of Christ; it is good, therefore, to be confirmed also in the testimony of Christ that comes from the scriptures. And in yet another way: behold the testimony of Christ, it being "borne joint witness to" "by signs and wonders and manifold powers and distributions of the Holy Spirit according to his own will"; and the testimony of Christ is firm in the saints.
so that you come short in no spiritual gift: seeing that the spiritual gifts are many, he treats of them also in what follows in the epistle. awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ: the righteous man does not have his hopes in this age, but, suffering, being in danger, he awaits the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ — that is, the one which Christ Jesus reveals.
Who will also confirm you unto the end: who confirms? Christ Jesus, the Word, the Wisdom; and the testimony that is confirmed is not for days, but unto the end. blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ: until we come thither, we do not yet have blamelessness; for we do not know what the morrow will bring forth, even if someone seems to have blamelessness at the present time — in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
§ III — 1 Corinthians i 9
Faithful is God, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
[Of Origen]
Believe in him always; for you were called that we might simply be under Jesus. Great is what God bestows upon the saints: we were called into the fellowship of his Son; wherefore we are "heirs indeed of God, but joint-heirs with Christ".
§ IV — 1 Corinthians i 10
and that there be no divisions among you.
[Of Origen]
He who in all things agrees with right reason and with the ecclesiastical teaching concerning both the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and further concerning the dispensation that touches us, and concerning "resurrection" and judgment, and who moreover follows the ecclesiastical canons, is not in a division.
§ V — 1 Corinthians i 14, 17
I give thanks that I baptized none of you . . . for Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel, not in wisdom of word, lest the cross of Christ be made void.
[Of Origen]
To preach the gospel is a greater thing than to baptize; and since Paul knew that certain men had been set apart for baptizing, he gives thanks that he has the better portion, above baptizing. In the Acts of the Apostles it appears which are the works of the apostles: for instance, Philip used to baptize, but Philip did not minister the Spirit to the one being baptized; rather Peter laid hands on those baptized by him, and the Spirit came upon them. And Philip baptized with water those "who were being regenerated out of water and" the Holy "Spirit", but Peter with the Spirit.
[Of Origen]
There is need not so much of word as of power; wherefore it is written, "The Lord will give a word to those who preach the gospel with great power, the king of the powers of the beloved". So Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel, not in wisdom of word — not in polished diction; for if I do this and wish to deliver the word in that way, the power of Christ does not reach the soul of the hearers, and I empty out and pull down the grace of the power.
§ VI — 1 Corinthians i 18
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
[Of Origen]
The name of Christ seems to be a stumbling-block; but if anyone lends his ears to the word of God and to his grace, he will see that "this too is a great mystery". Even the pagans have handed down that often, when great plagues occurred, or torrential rains, or droughts, these came to an end when a man gave himself up on behalf of the common good. What wonder, then, if, when the whole world was plague-stricken with error, it was necessary, for the sake of the true plague, that "one should die" in order to dissolve the plague of ignorance and of darkness and of destruction? And who was able to undertake this? Not a prophet, not an apostle, nor any other righteous man; but there had to come down from heaven a divine power able to undertake to die on behalf of "all" with a certain public display, so that through that death a trophy might be raised against the devil. For indeed those in the world who celebrate a triumph over their enemies are accustomed to set up their trophies against the vanquished in the form of a cross. The cross of Christ, therefore, is a trophy against Satan; for this reason I say, "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross"—I who have come to know what the power of the cross is; because I have been set free from evils through him who died in order to rescue me from death: "Except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world". A great good it is that to me "the world has been crucified"; through what has this good come to me? "Through the cross of Christ". A great good it is for me that I "am crucified to the world"; for if I have died to the world, I have been crucified to the world together with Christ; but if I live to my sins, I have not yet been counted worthy of the good that comes through the cross. And at the same time let us also prepare ourselves for trials, for martyrdoms, knowing that whoever denies has no salvation.
§ VII — 1 Corinthians i 19–21
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of the prudent I will set at nought. Where is the wise man? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this age? Did not God make foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.
[Of Origen]
To be wise and to be wise in this age are not the same thing; for the former, without any such addition, comprises the true wisdom. And you will understand foolishness in a like manner: to be foolish and to be foolish in this age are not the same; for the man who is such without the addition 'in this age' is truly foolish. And so we too, who believe the words of wisdom, are bidden to become foolish in this age; for such we seem to be to men — believing in Christ Jesus crucified, and believing in a resurrection of bodies, and believing that we shall live (not only we who are now upon the earth living afterward in the heavens), but also that, even if we sin, we shall be handed over to eternal fire. That we seem to men to be such . . . .
§ VIII — 1 Corinthians i 23–31
But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those themselves who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. . . . For behold your calling, brethren, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many well-born. But the foolish things of the world God chose, that he might shame the wise, and the weak things of the world God chose, that he might shame the strong things, and the ignoble things of the world and the things despised God chose, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh might boast before God. And from him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom for us from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that, as it is written, "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."
[Of Origen]
We received power from believing in Jesus Christ crucified; and however much we fall short in this faith, by so much do we fall short in the power of having in ourselves the things that come from God. But if you wish to understand what I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the understanding of the intelligent I will set aside means, consider for me someone quite formidable in heretical arguments—say, for instance, Marcion or Basilides—and one arguing on behalf of heretical doctrines with such power that no ordinary person could withstand him; then consider someone competent according to the truth, one who says "who also made us competent as ministers of a new covenant", and who shows that all those things in which the deceived man had put his trust are foolishness. It is the wisdom of those men, then, that he destroys, not that of the truly wise—of Isaiah, of Jeremiah, or of Solomon; it is the wisdom that seems to be wisdom that he destroys, not the true wisdom.
And how too is it that In the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom? The wisdom of God is in the law and the prophets; the world did not know Christ, who was proclaimed in the law and the prophets. For this reason, "at the consummation" of the ages he sent Jesus Christ, to be crucified on behalf of the race of men, so that those who came to believe in Jesus Christ crucified might believe through the foolishness of the preaching.
He added to the Not many wise the phrase according to the flesh, knowing that there are differences among the wise, and that some are wise according to the flesh, others according to the spirit; and wise according to the flesh are those who have practiced only petty turns of phrase (λεξείδια) and dress up whatever it may be as truth, though it is not truth. Nevertheless, not even so did he shut out the wise according to the flesh from the faith; for he did not say, No one wise according to the flesh comes to the word, but that very few do. And powerful according to the flesh are those who hold the offices of authority; but you will understand 'according to the spirit' if you observe the Savior—in what manner he was not powerful according to the flesh; for he was indeed betrayed and "was crucified out of weakness"; yet he was powerful according to the spirit, "healing every disease and every sickness among the people". So too consider the case of the apostles, in what manner they were powerful according to the spirit. He too is powerful according to the spirit who lives according to the spirit and "by the spirit puts to death the deeds of the body". Likewise you will understand in the case of the well-born; well-born according to the flesh are those descended from wealthy and illustrious fathers; but well-born according to the spirit are the sons of God, concerning whom it is written "But as many as received him, he gave them authority to become children of God".
What, then, did God choose? Not simply the foolish things, but with the addition of of the world; we who believe are foolish as regards the world. So they laugh at us and call us foolish, saying, 'The Christians speak of a resurrection of the dead, and that we live after death, and that Jesus whom the Jews crucified was born of a virgin,' and all such things. Let those men, then, laugh at us and call us foolish; for "the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit; for they are foolishness to him".
The foolish things of the world, then, God chose, that he might shame the wise. Not simply the wise, but taking 'of the world' in common; so that he means the foolish things of the world God chose, that he might shame the wise of the world; for truly the wise of the world are shamed, when they themselves worship idols, while the unlettered and the untrained die rather than commit idolatry.
And the ignoble things of the world and the things despised God chose; again here with the addition of of the world. For what is more noble than a soul that abandons the idols and says "How false the idols our fathers acquired, and there is none among them that sends rain". The ignoble things of the world, then—but noble things of God—God chose; only let us live rightly, so that as a result we shall not be set at nought before God—concerning whom it is written "the evildoer is set at nought before him".
And the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are; by 'the things that are not' he named the foolish things of the world, the weak, the ignoble, the despised; by 'the things that are,' the well-born of the world; for in the world these are somebodies, whereas we are not, being worn down by all and despised. the things that are not God chose now, that he might bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh might boast and say, 'For this reason I was chosen, because I am well-born.'
And from him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom for us from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption; for on this account Christ is all these things for us, so that what is written might come to pass: Let him who boasts boast in the Lord. For if he who boasts must boast in wisdom, and Christ is wisdom, it is clear that he who boasts boasts in Christ; and likewise in the case of the rest—I mean of sanctification and of righteousness.
§ IX — 1 Corinthians ii 4–7
And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Yet we speak wisdom among the perfect, a wisdom not of this age nor of the rulers of this age who are being brought to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God foreordained before the ages unto our glory; which none of the rulers of this age has known, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
[Of Origen]
Lest anyone should say, "Then, since he brought forward the proofs of the faith in power and in the Spirit, did he have no wisdom at all, but is this alone "the mystery of godliness", merely to believe?" — and lest there be no promise of wisdom in him, he adds and says, But we speak wisdom among the perfect, a wisdom not of this age nor of the rulers of this age who are being brought to nothing. For it is one thing to lead certain people into the faith, and another to reveal the wisdom of God. We unfold, then, the wisdom of God not to those being introduced, nor to those just beginning, nor to those who have not yet given proof of a sound life; but whenever a man, having "exercised" in the way one ought "his faculties for the discernment of good and evil", becomes fit also for hearing wisdom, then we speak wisdom among the perfect; and I mean a wisdom not of this age, nor akin to the wisdom of the rulers of this age. And at the same time he has shown that the branches of learning current among the others are not, in their origin, of men, but of invisible powers who are being brought to nothing. And I would say that poetry is a wisdom of this age, and perhaps rhetoric also; and a wisdom too is that which professes to speak about heaven and earth and about the administration of the universe. We, therefore, if we speak wisdom and say that it is among the perfect, do not mean the wisdom of this age; for it is neither through poems nor through any such art.
[Of Origen]
But we speak wisdom in a mystery, things which have not been known to the rulers of this age who work "the wisdom of the wise" of this world; and thus they did not know: they plotted against our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ and crucified him; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. We must therefore seek wisdom also in the word, but after the faith, after the manner of life, according to what is written: "You have desired wisdom, keep the commandments".
§ X — 1 Corinthians ii 9–11
But as it is written: "What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and what has not come up into the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him. But to us God has revealed it through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? So also the things of God no one has known except the Spirit of God."
[Of Origen]
Scripture knows a difference between those who love God and those who fear God, and it knows that those who love far surpass those who fear. Something, then, has indeed been prepared even for those who fear; yet he has prepared something greater for those who love than the things prepared for those who fear.
For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. There is a Spirit which is able to search all things; the soul of man cannot search all things, but a better spirit had to come to be in us, so that, when that one has come to be within us searching all things, even the depths of God, and has been commingled with us, we together with that one might search out all things, even the depths of God.
§ XI — 1 Corinthians ii 12–15
We, however, received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, that we might know the things that have been graciously given to us by God; which things also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot know that they are spiritually discerned. But the spiritual man discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no one.
[Of Origen]
Let us consider the things that have been graciously given to us by God; for unless the Spirit that is from God comes to be in us, teaching us, we cannot say that we know the things that have been graciously given to us by God, for indeed no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
Which things also we speak, he says, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, and what follows. All the forms of wisdom of this world are words taught by men, things which one learns in each of the rational arts; but they do not teach the things taught by the Spirit. Nor could you say that the teacher, having been taught by the Spirit concerning the things of which he speaks, taught them. For the Spirit, coming to be in the one who seeks and searches out the truth, illumines him, and thus he always, by the "renewal of the mind," finds the things he has not learned from men. For this reason the Savior says, "Do not seek a teacher upon the earth; for one is your teacher, the Father who is in the heavens, or one is your guide, the Christ." A man supplies a few small things—suppose, for instance, Paul teaching Timothy—and Timothy, having received his starting points, comes himself also to the spring to which Paul has come, and draws from it, and Timothy becomes equal to Paul.
But how one is taught by the Spirit must be considered from the apostolic words; for by comparing spiritual things with spiritual, by examining this expression together with that expression and gathering the like ones together, the mind, as it were, of the Scripture is uncovered. For thus do I understand the things of God and become taught by the Spirit; not only by having learned the things of the Spirit who moved Isaiah, but also by having had the same Spirit which shut and sealed the words of Isaiah. For unless the Spirit open the words of the prophets, the things that are shut cannot be opened.
And since he said these things, he necessarily adds that there are some men who do not admit the things of the Spirit of God, not on account of their nature, as the heterodox suppose, but on account of not having prepared themselves. For the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit, for he was natural; but when he inclined toward the worship of God and admitted the Spirit, he became spiritual.
And the natural man cannot know that they are spiritually discerned; on this account he does not know that what he hears is spiritually discerned, and indeed the "power," when "tested," convicts the foolish—for instance, if I speak having been taught by the Spirit, and I speak with power, and the hearer, testing the power, may form an opinion and not give his assent, the "power," when "tested, convicts the foolish." And it is not so much that that man, having rejected what was said, has rejected what was said, as that what was said has rejected that man; for into a "malicious soul wisdom will not enter, nor will it dwell in a body enslaved to sin."
But the spiritual man discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no one. He who no longer walks "according to the flesh" but "according to the Spirit," and who by his diligence is always increasing it and "rekindling the gracious gift of God" to a greater degree, prepares for himself the becoming spiritual; and having become so, he is competent to discern all things—the things of the Greeks, the things of the barbarians, the things of the wise, the things of the foolish; but no one can discern him, on account of the greatness of his understanding and of his reasonings. But if you wish to recognize the spiritual man, "by their fruits you shall recognize them." And what are the fruits of the Spirit from which one must discern who the spiritual man is? Hear the Apostle saying, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control"; where these are, there is the Spirit, that man is spiritual; but where any of these is lacking, that man is not yet spiritual.
§ XII — 1 Corinthians iii 1–3 a
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men but as to fleshly ones, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, and not food, for you were not yet able, but neither even now are you able.
[Of Origen]
Of those who hear, some are perfect, the spiritual, concerning whom we were speaking earlier; but those who are not spiritual, yet believe in Christ, are, as the Apostle says, babes in Christ and fleshly in Christ — for I take 'In Christ' as applying to both in common. There is need, therefore, of teachings for those who are not more perfect and not yet "exercised" in the sacred Scriptures, of the more elementary sort, which the Apostle named to be milk: for he says, I gave you milk to drink, not food; for you were not yet able, but neither even now are you able. And I think there is a correspondence in the spiritual Scriptures of milk, of food, of "true eating", of "solid nourishment", of the "flesh" of the word, and of a spiritual "herb". And these things I dare to say, being persuaded by the Scriptures; for he did not say that all spiritual nourishment is true "eating", when he says "My flesh is true eating". What sort of things, then, are not "solid nourishment"? The more ethical matters, and whatever among the ethical matters is rather weak, spoken according to "concession" not according to "command", dispensed on account of the weakness of the hearers. But whatever teaching among ethical matters is more perfect, given among hearers who love learning and are diligent, these I would call, among ethical matters, "solid nourishment" — that concerning perfect purity, that concerning virginity or self-control, that concerning martyrdom; these are "solid nourishment". And there is "solid nourishment" in mystical matters, or concerning the Father and the Son. And so too the law, at one time delivers "solid nourishment", and at another more elementary fare. For instance, we come to the account concerning the serpents that destroyed the sons of Israel because of the murmuring; if we read it more simply, we say "Neither let us murmur, just as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the serpents". But if the hearer is able to hear a mystical account, we say who the serpents are and who is the serpent that was hung upon the wood, and how one is saved by looking to that serpent, and so with each spiritual Scripture.
And who those are that are given milk to drink, Peter will make clear in his epistle when he says "as newborn babes, long for the reasonable, guileless milk"; and in the epistle to the Hebrews also "you have become such as have need of milk and not of solid nourishment"; "for everyone who partakes of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe"; but "solid nourishment" belongs to the perfect, "to those who through habit have their faculties exercised for the discernment of both good and evil".
§ XIII — 1 Corinthians iii 3–5
For where there is jealousy and strife and dissensions among you, are you not fleshly and walking according to man? For whenever someone says, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos — are you not men?
[Of Origen]
Among the sins in men the lesser are jealousy and strife. If someone is in fornication, such a one is no longer fleshly but worse than fleshly. But what such a one might be, let us see. I hold that there is a difference between the fleshly man and the earthy (χοϊκός): "As we have borne", he says, "the image of the earthy, let us bear also the image of the heavenly". If, then, you commit the sins that are unto death, you are not fleshly but earthy; but if you sin, yet not unto death, you are not wholly earthy nor fallen away from the grace of Christ, but then you are fleshly. And of our walks too, the one is according to man, the other according to God. If we walk as the many among men walk, we walk according to man; but if according to the "let your light shine before men", we differ from the many and do not walk according to man. Clear, then, to him who is able to see, is the life — of what sort is the one according to man and of what sort the one according to God.
For whenever someone says, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas — let us attend to these things too — we shall see that we sometimes are not even men, but are worse than men. For he who then said, I am of Apollos, was speaking about a man of repute and holy and blessed; and he who says, I am of Paul, speaks about a man who is an apostle, sacred and blessed. But sometimes there arise attachments not like the attachment to Paul or Apollos, but someone attaches himself sometimes to a sinner and to a heterodox person. If, then, these are men and walk "according to the flesh" — those who say, I am of Apollos and I of Paul — whenever you say that you belong to someone more inferior, it is plain that you are no longer even a man, but even worse than a man; and perhaps it will be said to you, "Serpents, offspring of vipers".
§ XIV — 1 Corinthians iii 6–8
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase; so that neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. . . . But each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.
[Of Origen]
If Paul planted, he planted together with God who plants in the first place; if Apollos watered, he watered together with Christ who watered in the first place. For God plants; wherefore it is written, "Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up"; and again, "My Father is the husbandman". Let us therefore "bear fruit", lest we be cut down like the barren "fig tree". For "every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire". Let us take heed lest it be said concerning us, "I waited" that "it should produce a grape cluster, but it produced thorns". For if he says these things concerning us, he will also say what follows: Now therefore "I will declare what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it shall be for plunder, and I will pull down its wall, and it shall be for trampling".
§ XV — 1 Corinthians iii 9–15
For God we are fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, as a wise master-builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds upon it. But let each one look how he builds upon it; for no one can lay another foundation besides the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if anyone builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest; for the Day will make it clear, because it is revealed in fire, and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work remains, which he has built upon it, he will receive a reward; if anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
[Of Origen]
Since we are not only a field but also God's building, I inquire after the master-builder of the building and those who work together with him. For it is with this in mind that the Apostle says, according to the grace given to me, as a wise master-builder I have laid a foundation; for the church in Corinth, which in no way existed before the Apostle, Paul brought into being. And since there were divisions among them, he says that, grace having been given me by God, as a wise master-builder I laid the foundation, and another builds upon it; for if another has come along and builds upon the foundation of the church, that man is not the master-builder of the church but builds upon the church. If, then, you wish to see that Paul is a wise master-builder, hear him say: "From Jerusalem and as far round as Illyricum I have fulfilled the gospel of God, making it my ambition to preach the gospel not where Christ has been named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation." And not only did he lay a foundation as a wise master-builder, but he also wrote, as it were, master-builder's manuals — how the "master-builder must build" a house, "what sort the bishop must be," and presbyters and deacons and the remaining fullness of the church; for all these were, as it were, the laws of the master-builder's craft.
Another, then, he says, builds upon it; but let each one look how he builds upon it. For this he says to me too, that I may not build carelessly, knowing that the fire itself will test the work which I build upon it, of what sort it is, on that Day. And I take care lest, in building, I build wood, hay, straw. For if I bring paltry souls indiscriminately into the church, I have brought to the good foundation, Christ Jesus, wood, and others hay, and others straw; just as, again, if certain ones shine forth from the building, and shine forth to such a degree that some are found corresponding to what is written concerning Jerusalem and the temple — "chosen stones" and "stones of crystal" and stones of "sapphire" and all the stones he named there — it is plain that I have built upon the foundation precious stones. And since the temple of God and the building must have also gold, just as the temple which Solomon built was a symbol of a temple having gold and much silver, if some other person come who is built upon it, more precious than silver he would be found: gold. But I am wary lest through me there enter wood and hay and straw, and lest I, wretched man (even if in another respect I be judged worthy of salvation, since it is written but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire), be so saved as having become the cause — by not having made room for the grace nor having built well — of the building's having been filled with wood, hay, straw, which the word of God does not will; for the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.
But I wish to record in yet another way the saying For no one can lay another foundation besides the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ, and what follows. From the time my Lord Jesus Christ sojourned here, he has been proclaimed as a foundation unto the world; and this foundation the apostles laid in Judaea, but among the nations it was the apostle of the nations and his fellow worker Barnabas: "For they gave to me and to Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go to the nations and they to the circumcision." Since, then, Jesus Christ the Word of God has been proclaimed, and this foundation has been laid, no one can lay another foundation besides Jesus Christ; and those who build upon it, if indeed they hold right doctrine through eternal teachings and divine conceptions and good words and holy deeds, build upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stone. For gold has often been observed to be taken in place of mind and conceptions; if I speak well, I build silver; if I expound fittingly and rightly urge my hearers toward the way of life, I build precious stones. Those, however, among the teachers of Jesus Christ who have swerved from the truth have built upon the foundation wood, hay, straw; and I would say that of all those from the heresies, the more blasphemous are wood, those who have erred less in doctrine hay, and those whose faults are slight and, so to name them, of lesser account straw.
But come, let us look also according to the literal sense. What is now to be said touches each single one of us. Each of us, having received the word of the gospel, received Jesus Christ as a foundation, so that in all he does and says and thinks he might build upon this foundation. If, then, we think and consider good things, we build gold; if, speaking purely, we speak every word that is spoken in a holy manner, we build as silver; if every deed we do is good, we build as precious stone — but the value of the stones and their quality God judges. If, however, I sin after the foundation, the great of my sins will be wood for me, the lesser hay, and those still lesser straw. And I inquire whether perhaps †the roots† and the conceptions, whenever they are erroneous, are wood; for the conceptions are the fount of evils; and the words are hay, and the deed straw; for the worth of the deed is lesser than that of the reasoning; but he who plants and he who waters are one.
§ XVI — 1 Corinthians iii 16–20
Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone corrupts the temple of God, God will corrupt this man; for the temple of God is holy, which you are. Let no one deceive himself; if anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God; for it is written, He who catches the wise in their craftiness; and again, The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain.
[Of Origen]
If you wish to learn what the true temple of God is, seek "living stones", pure and hewn out, laid by the word, and standing four-square, having nothing unstable nor rolling; for even if "holy stones roll upon the earth", yet the stone-cutters do not allow them to roll to the end. You therefore, as "living stones, are built up a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ". And in the Apostle too it is said that "we are a temple", all of us one, each of us being some stone of the temple. And he says thus in the epistle to the Ephesians: "So then you are not strangers and sojourners, but fellow-citizens with the saints and members of the household of God; built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone; in whom the whole building, fitly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit". It is necessary, therefore, that no stone be unfitted to the building; for "if", he says, "two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them by my Father who is in heaven". How much more, then, if all the stones agree into one harmony and the heart and soul of all become one, will their prayer be able and have power? It is good, therefore, that we all say the same thing, that we may be "perfected in the same mind and the same judgment"; for thus you are "a building fitly framed together into a holy temple in the Lord".
But each of us can also be a temple by himself in another sense; for if a temple is that which has the glory of God, everyone who has in himself the glory of God is in this respect a temple of God. And he has more or less glory who causes the name of the Father in heaven to be glorified through his deeds; wherefore it is written, "Those who glorify me I will glorify".
Then, therefore, shall we most be a temple of God, if we prepare ourselves capable of the Spirit of God. One who has a spirit of some sin cannot, however, be a temple of God, since the Spirit of God dwells only in that in which it judges to dwell.
If anyone corrupts the temple of God, God will corrupt this man. So far as in him lies, each one, even if he be a stone, corrupts the temple of God by sinning, and he who provides some stumbling-block to the Church corrupts the temple of God; but more properly he who commits fornication corrupts the temple of God, since "your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God". Therefore he who is pure is called incorrupt, but she who is no longer a virgin is called corrupted, since indeed this deed alone corrupts. If, then, this is a deed of corruption, let us guard against this most of all. Since also the Lord "is with all those who love God in incorruption".
And these things have had their own delimitation; but since the Corinthians thought highly of themselves on account of the wisdom of the world, therefore he says to them If anyone among you thinks he is wise (not 'if anyone is wise' but 'thinks he is wise among you'), let him become a fool in this age; he did not say simply 'a fool', but 'in this age', for it is with regard to this age that they call us fools. Let him therefore become a fool in this age, that from having become a fool with regard to this age he may become truly wise; for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For how is he not a fool who says there is no providence, or that all things are composed of atoms and void, or that pleasure is the end of goods, and who says all the other things that are the nonsense and trifles of the external and seeming wisdom? For this man is truly a fool, and these doctrines are foolishness. And, quite simply, examining every Greek and barbarian philosophy you will say that in whatever points it disagrees with the teaching of Christ it is foolishness.
For it is written "He who catches the wise in their craftiness".
I say that it is no great matter if God, as God, catches the wise in their craftiness, but rather in Paul who says "for though living in the flesh we do not wage war according to the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but powerful for God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God". And that you may understand this more clearly, look for me at Paul, when he had come to Athens and was disputing with those he met, so that even some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers engaged with him; for then by the grace of Christ he grasped them all around and exposed their sophisms; and here I think the wise are named the sophists, all who speak entangled sophisms but do not teach the truth. And again "The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain". It is not marvelous if the Lord knows in himself the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain; but I wish the Lord, having come to be in me, to know the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain. For if Christ comes to be in me, he can demonstrate to me how the reasonings of the wise of the world are vain, and how the wisdom of God alone shines, conquering and trampling down every seeming wisdom.
§ XVII — 1 Corinthians iii 21–23
So let no one boast in men; for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
[Of Origen]
He who is able to renounce all men and to become wholly worthy of the boasting that is in Christ, this man does not boast in man.
But how is death mine? That I may die to sin; that I may say "If we also died together, we shall also live together". For the other death, according to which "the soul that sins, it shall itself die", is not mine. And things present too are ours: because we are gathered together in the present age, because we hear the sacred scriptures, because we pray. And things to come: "for when that which is perfect comes, then that which is in part shall be done away". And it is not possible to come to things to come unless things present first become mine. all things are yours: a certain saying spoken among the Greeks is admired, of this kind: 'All things belong to the wise man and nothing to the base man'; but these things the word of God taught first, that All things belong to the holy man. To the believer, then, he says, belongs the whole world of goods, but to the unbeliever not even an obol; for the unbeliever has what he has as a robber does; for since he does not know how to use them, nor knows the God who created these things, nor listens to him who says "Mine is the silver and mine is the gold", he does not have those things as his own. But we see that all things are ours; and to the believer belongs the whole world of goods, but to the unbeliever not even an obol.
§ XVIII — 1 Corinthians iv 1–5
So let a man account of us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, what you further seek in the stewards is that someone be found faithful. But to me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you or by man's day; nay, neither do I examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not thereby justified; but he that examines me is the Lord. Wherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both illuminate the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall the praise come to each one from God.
[Of Origen]
He who has not advanced in the word to the comprehension of the mysteries hidden in Scripture can indeed be a servant of Christ, but cannot be a steward of the mysteries of God; for he who is a steward possesses the things stewarded and knows the "mysteries" of God. Perhaps, then, the servant of Christ is understood as one set over the more common ministry, while the steward of the mysteries of God is understood according to the administration concerning the mysteries that have been made known, so that he may not cast these things aside at random nor deliver them without examination; but having first purified, first prepared, first withdrawn from the world the one who is about to hear supramundane teachings, then he speaks them. We, he says, are servants of Christ; and the Apostle served for the most part rather in the service of Christ than in the stewardship of the mysteries of God; but he stewards the mysteries of God, for example, toward Luke, that he might be able to write the Gospel; toward Timothy, that he might become able to rule over those in Ephesus who had received more, and to steward the mysteries of God. And I dare even to say that in Corinth he became a servant of Christ, but in Ephesus a steward of the mysteries of God.
And Paul, having learned from the words of the Saviour, "Who then is the faithful and prudent steward, whom the lord will set over his household, to give the measure of grain in due season to his fellow-servants", says, But what is further sought in stewards is that a man be found faithful. For neither does knowing suffice, nor ought the one who has come to know to speak at random, but, understanding the "giving of the measure of grain in due season" to his fellow-servants, he must see which of the fellow-servants ought to receive a greater "measure of grain" of the mysteries of God or a lesser one, and when; for if he administers the stewardship well and blamelessly, what promise has he? "Over all" he says "his possessions the master of the house will set him". But if Paul is afraid and says these things concerning himself and concerning Cephas and Apollos, how much more must the stewards among us fear, that they may be found faithful stewards.
Then concerning himself he says, But to me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you or by man's day. Those in Corinth were examining, so far as in them lay, though not examining truly. For it belonged to one examining to say that Paul is superior to Cephas and Apollos, and to another to say, Peter far surpasses Paul; for in the Gospel Paul is not called an apostle. So Paul says, To me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you. He was conscious in himself of the noblest things, and that he was not subject to the Corinthians as though they were able to examine him, for the "spiritual man examines all things, but he himself is examined by no one"; just as elsewhere he says, "I have become a fool; you compelled me"; having some such thing in mind here too, he speaks. There is a certain human day, and there is a certain divine day, concerning which countless things are written, including this: "Behold, the incurable day of the Lord comes". My examination, therefore, he says, cannot take place in a human day, for a human day does not contain my examination; if I am to be examined, I shall be examined in the day of the Lord.
Then, conscious in himself of something more paradoxical, he says, Nay, neither do I examine myself; for I am conscious of nothing against myself. Here the conscience of the Apostle appears to have become greatly pure, so that he dared to write not only to those then living but also that the generations up to the consummation might read what is said. Paul, then, is truthful when he says, "Become imitators of me, as I also am of Christ"; and how Paul imitated Christ, hear: "The ruler of this world comes, and in me he has nothing"; and Paul says, I am conscious of nothing against myself; and he did not say, I am conscious in myself of no evil deed; for if he had said this, we might say that he had been cleansed in his deeds but not yet in his words; or again, that he had been cleansed in these but his heart was sinning. But as it is, he seems to be conscious in himself of purity to an extraordinary degree—not formerly, when he was persecuting, or when he came to the faith, but now, when he was saying these things.
Then, that he may not seem to have spoken beyond man, he adds and says, Yet I am not thereby justified; for I, he says, am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not thereby justified. For it is possible that I be conscious of nothing against myself, yet that something sinned by me escape my notice; for many such things occur in human nature, so that one sins not according to reason, not with comprehension or by consent, not with the observing that we have sinned. That man, then, who in all things is conscious of nothing against himself, says, Yet I am not thereby justified, but he that examines me is the Lord.
For as one who has passed beyond the examination of the angels and of the other powers, he says this: Until the Lord come. Since, then, a judgment is at hand, and that alone is true—the judgment of the Lord, who knows both how to weigh the reasonings and to set the words in the balance and to search out all the deeds and to render to each of us what is due—for this reason, even if we find fault with someone, let us not condemn; for we do not know by what measure he sinned, nor do we know with what disposition he sinned, and whether he has good things counterbalancing his sin. For if we become cautious, we shall not judge anything before the time, but shall refer all things to the judgment of God through our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Here it is said, Judge nothing before the time, and what follows; but in another place of the epistle, "Do you not judge those within, while those outside God judges?". Do the Scriptures, then, contain contradictions, and must we both judge and not judge according to the same signification of judgment? If you who are entrusted with judging those within do not judge those within, the Church is about to become, instead of a Church of God, a "synagogue of evildoers"; then, if those within are being judged, how is it true, "Judge not, that you be not judged"? We say, then: Those entrusted with judging those within are not so foolish as, when judging those within, to say, We judge the judgment of God, but they make their judgment with a view to the administration of what is beneficial to the Church. If it is beneficial that such a one be put out of the assembly, having so judged, they do it; and again, with a view to what is beneficial they will reinstate him, not judging the judgment of God but the one given to them; for it is impossible for us to judge the judgment which God will judge in Christ; for we neither search hearts nor know with what reasonings the deeds done by each have been done. For "the hidden things" the judges according to the Gospel yield "to the Lord God", but "the manifest things", as it is said, "to you and to your children"; whatever has reached them and is known among them, these things they judge. Let us therefore never, anticipating the judgment of God, say, So-and-so is perishing, nor, blessing him, say, So-and-so is being saved; for we do not know how to measure and compare deeds against deeds, or reasonings, or thoughts. Judge nothing, then, before the time, until the Lord come, who will both illuminate the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts.
Since two things are mentioned, there ought to be some difference between them; for some he named hidden things of darkness, and others counsels of hearts. Consider, then, whether our sins are the hidden things of darkness, and our brave good deeds the counsels of the hearts; for whatever we do well, we do with counsel, but whatever we sin, we sin being in darkness. Since, then, some have either these or those, and a man does not know these things, let us not judge anything before the time, until the Lord come, who will both illuminate the hidden things of darkness and will reveal the counsels of the hearts; "For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ, that each may receive the things done through the body according to what he did, whether good or evil". I have found a Gospel saying to expound similarly to this: "There is nothing hidden that shall not be made manifest, and nothing covered that shall not be revealed"; you see the Saviour giving a distinction between hidden things being made manifest and covered things being revealed. What, then, are the hidden things that are made manifest, but the good things? And what are the covered things that are revealed, but the evil things?
One of those who search out everything might say: Why did he not say, And then the praise shall come—or the blame—to each from God, but only the praise? Now one person will explain it thus: that he attached the more auspicious thing to God, passing over in silence the rest as not fitting for Him; but I will dare and would say that God praises and accepts our good things, while the father of evils, the devil, [claims] our evil things; and the praise comes from God to the saints, but the blame to those who have done things worthy of blame comes from the devil. For this reason it is said to you by the Apostle, "that the one on the opposing side may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us".
§ XIX — 1 Corinthians iv 6–8
Now these things, brethren, I have applied in a figure to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you may learn the lesson, Not to think beyond what is written, that you be not puffed up one on behalf of the one against the other. For who distinguishes you? And what have you that you did not receive? But if you also received it, why do you boast as though you had not received it? Already you are filled full; already you have grown rich; without us you have come to reign. And would that you had indeed come to reign, that we too might reign together with you.
[Of Origen]
These things, he says, are written in a figure adapted to the affairs of that time, not that we should learn these things about Paul and Apollos only, but that in each generation, looking upon the things that happen as analogous to these, we may rightly take heed lest we too fall into such things, and lest, as in theatres where men are split into factions over the entertainments, we too be split into factions over our teachers.
But let us look at that in us you may learn the lesson, Not beyond what is written. If anyone, having an inferior condition, wishes, before he has fulfilled the things that are written, to ascend to the things beyond what is written, he will not even understand the things that are written. For just as it is impossible for anyone to climb a ladder unless he ascends by the way from the lower rungs so far as he is able, in the same manner it is with the divine teachings. Not understanding this well, those from the heresies proclaim traditions and say, These are beyond the things that are written; for these our Saviour delivered to the apostles in secret, and the apostles to this or that man; and thus "by this mythology they deceive the hearts of the guileless". But the rest say, It is written, "Why do you behold the mote that is in your brother's eye, but the beam that is in your own eye you do not consider"; and "Judge not, that you be not judged". For if we are one and are bound together with one another, we ought not to rise up against one another. For "He that humbles himself shall be exalted", and "Whoever wishes to be first among you, let him be last of all", and "Let each one remain in that in which he was called".
These and such things are the things that are written, that you be not puffed up on behalf of the one against the other; for those who divided themselves up, some wishing to be called after this man and some after that, fought with one another, each side contending to set their own teachers above the others, and then, further, against the teachers themselves. For who distinguishes you? Who appointed you over a part? Why are you not called the teacher of all alike? And what have you that you did not receive? And on what do you pride yourself? On eloquence? But God has granted you this. But on knowledge? This too is a divine gift. But on works of wonder? This too is the working of the Spirit. But if you also received it, why do you boast as though you had not received it? No one prides himself on deposits belonging to another, but keeps vigilant watch over them so as to guard them for the one who gave them.
It will be necessary to gather from the Scriptures what to distinguish signifies, that we may thus fit it to what is now being said. "God stood", he says, "in the assembly of gods, and in the midst he will distinguish gods"; in this it appears that to distinguish is a work of God; for, judging being another matter, which happens concerning those worthy of judgment, it is a good thing to be found a god in the "assembly" of gods, so that one may no longer be judged but be distinguished and, as it were, entrusted with some one rank of those with which the gods in the "assembly" are entrusted. But also in the passage "Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others distinguish", to distinguish there seems to be taken in the sense of articulating, as it were, "Let them make clear" the things spoken and distinguish them and understand them. But in the passage "He that distinguishes, if he eat, is condemned, because it is not of faith", distinguishes appears to be said in a sense of blame. And again, "Receive" one another, "not sinning unto the distinguishing of thoughts"; the word was thus found from Scripture set at one time upon the better things and at another upon their opposites. Here, then, to distinguish is said in place of: No one of those in Corinth distinguishes you nor judges you; but you distinguish "stewards of the mysteries of God", and you say, I am of Paul, and you assert, I am of Cephas, or you say, I am of Apollos. It is a work of God to distinguish the apostles, not yours. As, then, you ought not to judge, neither ought you to distinguish the servants of the gospel; for in the distinguishing by which you distinguish the apostles, you yourself distinguish and separate yourself, sinning. For Christ came to unite the things that had been distinguished, that we might no longer be divided. If we are perfected so that the "flesh" no longer "lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh", by the mortifying of "the members that are upon the earth", we shall no longer be in distinction but, as it were, in a fusion and in our gathering together into one. But let it also be understood more simply, with reference to the various divisions.
But let us look also at And what have you that you did not receive? For the phrase is ambiguous; for it can be understood that every possession we have, we have received from God and so have it; and again, Why do you pretend to have what you did not receive? as, for instance, if someone who has not received a gift from above from God pretends to be in possession of a gift, it is said to such a one who has not received, And what have you that you did not receive? But if you also received it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?
Already you are filled full; already you have grown rich; without us you have come to reign? "He that hungers and thirsts after the righteousness" that comes of the oracles of truth is not satisfied with one teacher, but if he finds a second he makes use of him too, for he is insatiable for good things; and if he is well supplied with a third, he comes to the third also; he does not, cutting off one for himself, say, I am of Paul, or of Cephas, or of Apollos. Since, then, being filled full signifies — when there are several teachers, both Paul teaching and Cephas and Apollos — that the one who inclines to a single one gains no benefit from all of them, for this reason he says to the Corinthians, Are you already filled full? And consequent upon this is Have you already grown rich? as, for instance, Have you gathered together the wealth that comes from the teachings from Paul, and no longer have need of the things from Apollos or the things from Cephas? Or do you despise them all, as being sated and rich "in all utterance and in all knowledge"? And consequently also Without us you have come to reign; for, so far as in you lay, you have separated me from the kingdom, and yourselves too, having inclined to some single one apart from the rest; and he does not say without me but without us, that he may include others and make it common.
And would that you had indeed come to reign, that we too might reign together with you. And at the same time perhaps he also intimates a certain mystery at this point. For the inferior come more quickly into the promise, while the more perfect receive the promises more slowly; and this I shall show from Scripture. Those who received their inheritance under Moses received the promise first, while those who receive their inheritance under Joshua received it later; but also concerning all the righteous it is said, "These all, having obtained witness through faith, did not receive the promise, God having foreseen some better thing concerning us, that they should not be made perfect without us". Is it for this reason that he says without us you have come to reign? And would that you had indeed come to reign, that we too might reign together with you. For when you, the disciples and hearers, reign, then it is necessary that we too attain to the perfect kingdom of God and of the Lord Jesus.
§ XX — 1 Corinthians iv 9–10
For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as men doomed to death; for we have become a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are honorable, but we are despised.
[Of Origen]
In proportion as anyone lays claim to the true and heavenly primacy, so much the more, out of humility, does he become last of all men. And I think the Apostle too had something of this sort in mind when he said, "To me, who am less than the least of all saints, this grace was given"—not that in respect of sanctification he was less than all the saints, for this he neither thought, nor, if he had said it, would he have been speaking the truth; but he made himself more humble than all who believe, becoming "gentle in the midst of all, as when a nurse cherishes her own children". Since, then, the apostles made it their endeavor by their own choice to be last, and since for every good endeavor, unless God bears witness and fulfills the will of the one endeavoring, the good end does not follow through the one endeavoring—for this reason perhaps the Apostle has said, For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as men doomed to death. For even if I too, he says, and the apostles have acted so that we might become last, yet we needed the demonstration and the grace from God, so that we might be perfected in being last to the world. And the I think is as elsewhere he said, "But I think that I too have the Spirit of God".
And it is fitting that those set forth as last by God should become first with God; for it is true that the last become first. And it is fitting for them also to be doomed to death. For in proportion as one lives out Christianity more perfectly, so much the more is he doomed to death. For when is he not in danger—reproving the sinner who is often more powerful in life and able to punish, sojourning in places "where Christ has not been named", and laying a foundation that is strange and disturbing to those who hear? For truly Paul said, "I die daily, by your boasting which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord". But it appears to me, as I examine the passage, that the one doomed to death can be taken in two ways: in one, the manner already stated, according to which one must "always carry about the dying of Jesus in the body"; in the other, the righteous man is doomed to death as being conformed to the death of Christ, ever dying to the world. And thus it is fitting that God should set forth the apostles of Christ as being both last and doomed to death.
Then it is necessary to see the meaning of we have become a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. If Paul contends, and Peter, the angels of God hasten to this new spectacle, that they may see a man clothed with flesh wrestling "against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places"; and men too came to see a new sight, a herald and teacher of a new word. Thus Paul was a spectacle of all those on earth and of the angels who rejoice "over one sinner who repents".
Then, so great a man, as last in the world, rebukes those who are "puffed up", and says to them, We are fools for Christ's sake. For Paul, who gives me a commandment and says, "If anyone among you thinks himself to be wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise", much more did he himself keep to becoming a fool in this world. For how was he not a fool in this world, proclaiming the "crucified one" and "the resurrection of the dead" and the things concerning the age to come, and persuading men to despise the present life?
Then with irony he says, You are wise in Christ; for they were not truly wise in Christ, but in saying these things ironically he was urging them to become wise in Christ. You are honorable, but we are despised: he no longer added You are honorable, in Christ. For if you see many of those who seem to believe possessing worldly dignities, say to them, if you are lowly in the world, You are honorable, but we are despised; we are weak, but you are strong: for nothing is weaker than a true Christian as regards this world.
§ XXI — 1 Corinthians iv 15
For if you should have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus through the gospel I begot you.
[Of Origen]
These things seem to be perfectly simple and to require no exposition; yet they hold hidden meanings. No grown man is placed under a tutor, but only one who is an infant and immature; and he would not have written this to the Ephesians but to the Corinthians, to whom he says, "I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able. But neither even now are you able, for you are still fleshly. And I was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men but as to fleshly, as to infants in Christ." And this too must be considered: even if we do have need of a tutor, at all events let the one who has been entrusted with this give a pattern — his word, his life — to our good ordering. The father, then, is the one who first sowed Christianity in the soul; while the tutor is the one who after him takes over the child and leads him along.
[iv 16] I exhort you therefore, brothers, become imitators of me.
That is: As I practice moderation, practice moderation; as I suffer, suffer; take your pride in the sufferings, not in the spiritual gifts.
[iv 17] For this reason I sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in Christ; who will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every church.
Both his disposition toward them he showed by sending Timothy, and his affection toward Timothy by naming him a beloved child; and his further excellence he has made clear by calling him faithful in the Lord. This man, he says, will narrate my deeds; for by ways he means the deeds. And of these he did not say He will teach, but that He will remind. Now the word charges them with forgetfulness; for they had been eyewitnesses of the apostolic excellence. And he has added that to all the churches too he is accustomed to bring forward this same teaching.
Having accused all of them in common with these things, he now proceeds to bring forth the verdict against the one who had committed fornication.
[iv 18] But as though I were not coming to you, some were puffed up.
Foreseeing his repentance, the divinely-inspired Paul does not set down the name, so that the man might not become manifest to all people, but he said indefinitely, some.
§ XXII — 1 Corinthians iv 19–20
And I shall know not the speech of those who are puffed up but the power; for the kingdom of God is not in speech but in power.
[Of Origen]
By speech he means eloquence, as also elsewhere: "even if I am unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge"; and by power the power that is from God. For whenever the word is from God, it has power; wherefore it is written: "The Lord will give a word to those who preach the good tidings with much power". And the apostles, trusting in power rather than in speech, took up residence among the churches and the cities. For it is not that, if someone expresses himself finely, he on that account has the kingdom of God; but where there is power in words, there is the kingdom of God, which both banishes the "sin that reigns" in souls and makes ready for the "kingdom of God to come to be within us".
§ XXIII — 1 Corinthians iv 21–v 2
What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness? It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even named among the Gentiles, that a man should have his father's wife. And you are puffed up, and did not rather mourn, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.
[Of Origen]
Neither God nor his inspired disciples always use kindly words toward those who hear, nor always severe ones, but sometimes the one and sometimes the other. Since, then, Paul's word had a rod, but had also a spirit of gentleness and of kindliness, he inquires of the Corinthians, not wishing too rashly and too quickly to employ the more severe course; not that the rod comes to be apart from love, but that the love is hidden in the one who holds the rod, and he does not display the love in the severity of the rebuke. Then he adds the reason for such an inquiry, saying, It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, such as is not even among the Gentiles. We learn that we need to have a charm chanted over us concerning fornication so that we may not fall; and we must learn another thing as well, that even those who are not conscious in themselves of fornication, but who are aware that those gathering with them commit fornication, should not be puffed up, knowing that they too are sinners in that he who gathers with them is a sinner. For he brings a charge against the whole Church on account of one man who has committed fornication, and he charges their being puffed up as something occurring not according to reason, especially because there was still a fornicator among them. And thirdly we learn that there are also differences of fornications, so that there is a certain most grievous fornication, and another lesser, and another still lesser. Therefore in the judgment of God the fornicators are not judged without distinction, nor will they receive the same condemnation for having committed fornication, but both the quantity and the quality increase the punishment, and so too the deliberate choice and the time. In Corinth, then, a certain man contracted an unlawful marriage; for he took his stepmother to wife; but such a marriage the Apostle calls fornication, and such as is not even to be heard of among the Gentiles, in order to teach us that, if ever we marry unlawfully, what is supposed to be a marriage is not reckoned to us as a marriage but as fornication.
Then, leaving this man aside, he brings his accusation against this man's company: And you are puffed up, and did not rather mourn, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. He rebukes them all as having wrongly received him. For whenever, while the one who has sinned is in our midst, we who think we are conscious in ourselves of better things are puffed up, then the words are spoken, And you are puffed up.
§ XXIV — 1 Corinthians v 3–5
For I, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged, as though present, the man who has so committed this deed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
[Of Origen]
Not for the destruction of the soul, not for the destruction of the spirit, but for the destruction of the flesh; for he is delivered over that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. For Paul cast out such a man, not knowing that "he will repent and turn back," but wishing to discipline him. For it is one thing to cut someone off as incapable of repentance and conversion, and another to set him aside for the present and to expel him from the flock, as a shepherd expels a sheep that has the scab, so that the spread of that wound may not be grazed abroad over the whole flock.
Let those, then, who are living badly, having been put outside the flock, be healed, confessing and mourning their own sins, offering the things of repentance in fastings and mournings and weepings and the like. For they are delivered over that they may be disciplined, so that their flesh may be destroyed — that is, the "mind of the flesh"; not that he may touch their soul, not that he may drive them out of their senses, not that he may do anything else, but that he may receive authority over their flesh alone — I not giving the authority, but the power of Jesus which is in me.
From its better part he named the whole salvation, so that he does not say Both the spirit and the soul and the body may be saved in the day of the Lord, but that the spirit may be saved, naming the salvation of the whole man from the better part. For he commands, as of one who is to be saved, that he be received back into the Church in the second epistle.
To be absent in body and to be present in spirit belongs to Paul and to those like him; for he said also elsewhere: "For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, rejoicing and beholding the firmness of your faith in Christ." But none of us is able to say, I am present and I behold the excellences of the Church, or "the order and the firmness of the faith in Christ." Such was Elisha; for even though he was not present in body, in spirit he went along with Gehazi and says to him: "Was not my heart with you when you took the two talents of silver and took the garments from Naaman the Syrian?" Was it, then, that Elisha had this grace, while Paul the apostle of Christ, who "is zealous for the greater gifts, but rather that he may prophesy," did not have such a grace? No — I declare, and say confidently, that Paul was not only an apostle but also a prophet. Such was he when he says: "Men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boasters, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents"; for he said these things not as an apostle but as a prophet. And "The Spirit," he says, "says expressly that in the last times some shall depart from the faith." And what Spirit? As if he were saying, The Spirit that is in me. Having, then, this grace, even if he was absent in body, he was present in spirit wherever he wished; for it was not he alone who was present in spirit, but also the power of Jesus.
§ XXV — 1 Corinthians v 7–8
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For indeed our Passover, Christ, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
[Of Origen]
He who has put off "the old man with his deeds" and has nothing of the old leaven in himself, but has made a new lump according to Christ Jesus, this man has kept the feast of unleavened bread; then, after the feast of unleavened bread, the new leaven appears. Jesus the Christ is the new leaven. Let us therefore first eat unleavened bread, abstaining from all malice and wickedness. Teaching about these things the Apostle says, Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened: just as happens among the Jews — if the day of unleavened bread is dawning, they purge out all old leaven, searching around every place of the house lest leaven be found anywhere there — so also do you examine the storerooms within you, lest leaven be anywhere there, that you may be a new lump.
As you are unleavened. Since in Corinth there were some who were holy and some who were not such but sinners, as we said earlier in the opening of the epistle, on account of the praiseworthy ones he says as you are unleavened.
For indeed our Passover, Christ, was sacrificed. Seeing that according to the law of Moses the Passover comes first and the lamb is sacrificed, and then after the lamb they eat unleavened bread, for this reason he said Already the Passover, Christ, has been sacrificed.
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Of sincerity, in respect of conduct; of truth, in respect of knowledge; for in both of these the true unleavened bread is characterized.
§ XXVI — 1 Corinthians v 9–11
I wrote to you in the letter not to mix with fornicators, and not at all with the fornicators of this world or the covetous or robbers or idolaters; since then you would have to go out of the world. But now I wrote to you not to mix, if anyone named a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or a robber—with such a one not even to eat.
[Of Origen]
Some have supposed from this saying that before the former letter to the Corinthians another letter had been written by the Apostle, one which is now not preserved; and that he wrote to them not to mix with fornicators so far as concerns the present wording, but that, having heard that the Corinthians were troubled, supposing it was said not to mix with fornicators nor with those of the world—which is impossible, that a man living in this life should not associate with heathen fellow-workers, tradesmen, and certain other such people—he clarifies, they say, what had then been left unsaid: I do not speak, he says, about the fornicators of this world, but about those who are indeed named brothers yet are not respectable. But those who do not wish there to have been another letter before this one will say that this wording refers to this very letter, namely, that "in this letter I wrote you not to mix with fornicators, and by fornicators I mean these, not those."
The Apostle seems, by a comparison of fornicators, to say that the fornicators among us are far worse; for he who fornicates from outside does not corrupt the "temple of God", does not, taking away the "members of Christ", make them "members of a harlot", does not leaven the whole lump; and that one, when he wills, repents and has forgiveness of sins, but he who has fornicated after the faith, even if he afterward repents again, does not have forgiveness of sins, yet is able to cover over the sin. For "Blessed", he says, "are those whose sins were forgiven"—those who came from the nations; "and those whose sins were covered over"—those who sin after the faith but cover them over with good works, as for instance intemperance by much self-control.
And not at all with the fornicators of this world or the covetous or robbers or idolaters. As there are fornicators of the world and fornicators who have been called to Christ, so also there are the covetous, some of this world and some of the Church. Let us therefore guard, down to the very least degree, against covetousness; for it too is yoked together with the sin of fornication. And thirdly he names certain robbers, when they seize what belongs to their neighbors. And there are also certain idolaters among us alongside the idolaters of this world, those who wish to teach that to commit idolatry is a matter of indifference; and this sin is found especially among those in military service: "Necessity," they say to me, "lies upon me"; the army demands this; I risk my head if I do not sacrifice, or if I do not, robed in white, place the incense according to the customs of the army of the world; and besides all this, such a man calls himself a Christian—with such a one, he says, not even to eat. There is also the God-denier in time of persecution, an idolater among us. I wrote therefore, he says, to such a one, who is not yet gone out of the world, not to mix, since then you would have to go out of the world. But now I wrote to you not to mix, if anyone is named a brother. Well did he say that such a one is no longer indeed a brother, but a brother only as far as the name.
But these things most of us can recognize in ourselves, that we do not have these evils; yet regarding what follows I fear even for myself, lest somehow I am liable to the other sins. For he says or a reviler or a drunkard or a robber—with such a one not even to eat. With how great evils did he number the reviler—with the fornicator, with the covetous, with the idolater; therefore the reviler too is already an enemy of the Church. For this reason we hear the Lord saying "Bless those who curse you", and the Apostle saying "Being reviled, we bless"; for a reviler "does not inherit the kingdom of God". One must therefore keep the mouth pure; for what is it to me to judge those outside? Let the drunkards be outside; shall I eat with fornicators and spend my time with them? Does their "little leaven" not harm me? Does it not "leaven this whole lump"?
[v 12] For what have I to do with judging those outside? Do you not judge those within? But those outside God will judge?
He has permitted all of us to judge those within who sin. We ourselves refer the sin to the bishop, so that such a one may be lawfully cast out from the Church.
[v 13] And you shall put away the evil one from among your own selves.
And from among these too put away the evil one; but consider, lest, while wishing to put away the evil one from outside, you have the evil one within yourself. Therefore do everything so that you may put away the evil one from yourself; for when he has gone out, Christ Jesus will dwell in you.
§ XXVII — 1 Corinthians vi 1–3
If any one of you, having a matter against another, dare to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy of the smallest tribunals? Do you not know that we shall judge angels, not to speak of things pertaining to this life?
[Of Origen]
He shames those in Corinth who are sinning and busying themselves about law-courts and the affairs and hardships of this life, and he says: You were called for this purpose, that being made perfect you might judge angels; and shall you not rather be able, if ever a brother goes to law with a brother, to judge the things of this life of the brethren?
[vi 4] If then you have tribunals for the things of this life and what follows.
Truly, sometimes the matters of those going to law are such that they have no need of a wise man to judge them, but rather you set those who are least esteemed in the Church to judge; yet there might sometimes be matters of those at law such as to need even a wise judge. And what I mean will become clear in this way: if those at law have need of worldly laws and experienced judges — not of Scripture nor of the law that is in Scripture, but as it were of those who seem to be "more prudent sons of this age" — then those who are least esteemed in the Church will be trustworthy judges; and it will be a reproach to those at law when they have need even of the least esteemed rather than of the wise. For he who follows reason, even if he needs a judge, needs rather a wise one, so that he may be admonished by the wisdom of the wise man who brings to him words that build up.
[vi 4–5] Set therefore these who are least esteemed in the Church to judge; I say it to your shame: Is it so, that there is not among you even one wise man who shall be able to give judgment between his brother?
He brings a charge against the Church of the Corinthians, that although they were seated in the midst of Greece they had no true wise men, and this though he had said before that many among them profess wisdom — on whose account also he said, "He who catches the wise in their craftiness". But some are wise men of this age, and others are wise according to God. And Paul knew those first ones; therefore he says, Is it so, that there is not among you a wise man who shall be able to give judgment between his brother?
[vi 6] But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?
We have rulers of the Church to whom we ought to refer our judgments, that we may not be laughed at in the courts of the nations.
[vi 7] Now therefore there is a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another,
not being mindful of the words Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Let us stand aloof from the judgments of the tribunals of the nations, from having lawsuits and disputes. For he who has lawsuits with a brother is already defeated, and he who is wronged has conquered; he who is struck and reviled and yet does not requite the one who does these things has conquered, for he keeps the commandment which says, Why do you not rather suffer wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
[vi 8] But you do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren.
Now everyone who does these things sins; but by so much as the person wronged is more honorable, by so much the graver is the sin. For indeed, if someone wrongs the blessed one, in effect he wrongs Christ and defrauds Christ.
[vi 9] Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
If the kingdom of God is in Christ, and Christ is "Righteousness", then the righteous man inherits the kingdom of God in Christ, who is "Righteousness"; and accordingly he who is in the opposite condition, this man does not inherit the kingdom of God.
[vi 9] Be not deceived: neither fornicators;
"Let no one deceive you" with plausible words: ‘God is merciful, kind, loving to men; he forgives sins.’ "We must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done through the body according to what he has done, whether good or evil". Let no one make the excuse: I was young, I was unmarried, before taking a wife I committed fornication. And why did you not take a wife? Do you not believe that "If anyone corrupts the temple of God, him will God corrupt"? But do you take the "members of Christ" and make them "members of a harlot"? He who commits fornication acts impiously against the God of all.
[Of Origen]
[vi 9–10] Be not deceived, therefore: neither fornicators nor idolaters will inherit the kingdom of God; and so neither adulterers.
He who commits fornication corrupts the "temple of God"; but he who commits adultery, besides this, also offends against the husband. So neither adulterers; but neither the effeminate. We exhort you also, O children, to keep your own prime of life pure and not to be "defiled" with such womanish defilement. Neither shall those who lie with males inherit the kingdom of God; but far be it that even one such be found in the Church.
Then he descends also to the sins that seem to be lesser, saying Nor thieves; and this sin of theft nearly all who serve as soldiers commit, not "being content with their wages", as the Gospel taught, but "extorting by intimidation and bringing false accusation". But also those who are liars in their business dealings are thieves, not inheriting the kingdom of God; and so too those who take advantage in their business dealings are the covetous; and others are drunkards; but he says also that revilers do not inherit the kingdom of God. Let sin therefore "reign" over no one; for the kingdom of God must be pure from all sins and faults, that God may reign.
§ XXVIII — 1 Corinthians vi 12
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of anything.
[Of Origen]
One must be above the things over which one has received authority; and even in doing these we shall not sin. For this is how those who conduct their lives more ambitiously conduct themselves. For, says the Apostle, "have we not authority to eat and to drink? have we not authority to take about with us a sister as wife, as also the rest of the apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas? or is it I alone and Barnabas who have not authority to refrain from working?" But we did not use this authority. Therefore all these things were lawful for the Apostle in the passages I have cited; but examining them alongside his own profit and the stewardship of the Church, he saw that it is lawful—if he does it, he will not sin—yet he does better by not using the authority. And again: for every virgin it is lawful to be married; but the fair and good woman abstains from marrying, not as though marrying were not lawful, but having raised the authority higher and wishing to be pure both in "body and in spirit", she keeps her virginity. But also, when a husband has died, a second marriage is not altogether forbidden; for, he says, "If the husband die, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord". Yet the good woman, having heard the "she is more blessed if she so remain, according to my judgement", does not use the authority.
All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of anything: the saying has something more exalted in it. For if "our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but against the principalities or against the powers", then when the power prevails, I have been brought under the power of it; but if I conquer every power, I shall not be brought under the power of anything.
§ XXIX — 1 Corinthians vi 13–14
Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods; but God will bring to nought both this and these. But the body is not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body; but God both raised the Lord and raised us up through his power.
[Of Origen]
Do not think that, just as the belly came to be for foods and foods for the belly, so too the body came to be for the sake of sexual intercourse. If you wish to learn the primary purpose for which it came to be, listen: that it may be a temple for the Lord, and that the soul, being holy and blessed, ministering as it were to the Holy Spirit, may become a priest of the Holy Spirit that is within you. For Adam too had a body in paradise, yet even so, while in paradise itself, Adam did not know "Eve his wife", but only when he had been cast out after the disobedience. But I say these things not to circumscribe marriage; for I know that if anyone "does not exercise self-control", he ought to marry; for "it is better to marry than to burn". But even if the thing is conceded, it is not as a primary matter but on account of weakness. For the primary thing is to be chaste and pure and to "devote oneself to prayer".
For the body of one who has already been raised with Christ and has "become conformed to his resurrection and to the newness of life" ought to belong to none other than the Lord.
§ XXX — 1 Corinthians vi 15
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
[Of Origen]
The bodies of human beings are instruments of the soul; and, the soul being the ruler, the body serves and is used by it for whatever it wishes. But in the proper sense the argument intends that our bodies should no longer be actuated by our own soul, but by Christ himself; therefore Paul says, "And it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me". They then become members of Christ when we move all things according to his word.
§ XXXI — 1 Corinthians vi 18
Flee fornication. Every sin which a man may commit is outside the body, but he who fornicates sins against his own body.
[Of Origen]
Someone will inquire whether every sin is outside the body. For someone will say: To be drunk is a sin; it is a sin to take oneself out of life by hanging, by a precipice — is then this sin also outside the body? But one must hear in a fair-minded way how this is said; and we shall take a starting-point for understanding the matters concerning this passage from Leviticus, for there it is said that "his body is composed out of the flux". Since, then, the composition of the body is from seeds, for this reason he who sins with respect to the flowing-forth of the seeds sins against his own body; and this sin is the one that comes about from those same things from which is also the beginning of the composition of the body.
§ XXXII — 1 Corinthians vi 19–20
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit that is in you, which you have from God? And you are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Glorify God, then, in your body.
[Of Origen]
Well did he, foreseeing an objection and guarding against it in advance, say You are not your own. For someone will say, I sin against my own body; I have authority over my own body. Then he says, Or do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit that is in you, which you have from God? We act impiously against the Holy Spirit, and through him against the Father and the Son — into whom we have been baptized — if we commit fornication: against Christ, when "taking the members of Christ I make them members of a harlot"; against the Holy Spirit, when one corrupts the temple of the Holy Spirit that is in us; against the Father, when I corrupt the "temple of God". Besides these things, then, however much we may sin — even if we commit murders, yet remain uncorrupted (ἄφθοροι), not having tasted the corruption (φθορά) that comes through intercourse — we are not said to have been corrupted from having committed murder. But since both incorruption (ἀφθαρσία) and corruption have to do with the nature that has not tasted the intercourse pertaining to sexual acts — for we say, 'The virgin has been corrupted,' and again, 'The young man is uncorrupted,' or 'has been corrupted' — every sin that a man may commit is outside the body. Since, then, the blood of Christ was given as a ransom for you and took you from the authority of the devil, glorify God in your body, so that your body may become worthy of blessedness, as belonging to those who have loved incorruption, as the Apostle also says: "the grace of God be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption".
§ XXXIII — 1 Corinthians vii 1–4
Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman; but because of fornications, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to the wife the debt owed, and likewise also the wife to the husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
[Of Origen]
Human beings, when they sin, generally speaking sin in two ways: by falling short of the commandments or by overstepping them. For when we do not order our lives from knowledge, and go astray without knowing the measures of righteousness, and sometimes even by overstepping the rule, in the imagination of doing something better, we fall away from what is set before us. A "weight," then — which is neither "great" nor "small" but well-proportioned — is to know how one ought to live. You are bound together with a wife; you make one great weight, you take no thought for the wife but say, I am able to practice self-control and to live more purely; but see that your wife "perishes," being unable to bear your purity — she for whom "Christ died."
Something of this sort happened in Corinth, and there was disorder in the households of the brethren, in some cases the men and in others the women attempting to practice self-control and rising up against one another. So those in Corinth wrote a letter about this to the Apostle, and in reply to this letter the Apostle writes back the words set out above; and he neither pressed the teaching about chastity so as to do away with that about marriage, nor, preferring that about marriage, did he do away with that about virginity, being "a good steward," but throughout the whole discourse he keeps his purpose in a certain way and exhorts to be pure; and having conceded to make allowance, he exhorts again to practice chastity; and having exhorted to practice chastity, again he brings the matter round to the necessity of making allowance for the weakness of the weaker. And he began not from the inferior matters — for that would not have been fitting — but from the more perfect matters, saying Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman; as if to say: I praise you insofar as those who have withdrawn from intercourse with a wife have willed to be chaste, but consider "not your own" only, but also that of the wife; for "love does not seek its own"; therefore, because of the fornications, let each man have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. Let the stronger one have his own wife not because of his own fornication, but lest somehow the wife commit fornication through the self-control of the husband, or the husband through the self-control of the wife. For it is more desirable that the two be saved, being found in the works of marriage, than that, on the pretext of the one, the other should fall away from the hope that is in Christ; for how shall he even be saved, being guilty of the death of his wife? The dignity of the husband, then, is not pure when the discipline is not undertaken by both from the agreement of the wife, for the sake of devoting themselves to prayers according to God.
[vii 3] Let the husband render to the wife the debt owed, and likewise also the wife to the husband. He took forethought both to heal human weakness and to arrange most decorously the matter concerning the local circumstances; wherefore he said that a debt is owed by the husband, and to the husband by the wife. Then, so that he might not shame those in marriage, as being one another's slaves, he says that they should not come to the discipline of purity apart from agreement: The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. The husband, then, has authority over the body of the wife, and, having authority, if he wishes, let him not use the authority; but "we did not use this authority," says the Apostle, teaching this, I think, by saying, "Have we not authority to lead about a sister as a wife", as also the rest of the apostles and the brethren of the Lord and "Cephas"? Does the wife, then, have authority over the body of the husband, and yet cannot refrain from using the authority?
The word likewise, placed twice, gives us to understand that the husband must not think that in the matters concerning marriage he is superior to the wife; there is likeness and equality for those who are married toward one another.
§ XXXIV — 1 Corinthians vii 5
Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and again be together in the same place.
[Of Origen]
For you both ought to know that the prayer which comes from the purity of a husband and wife is not the same as the prayer which comes from intercourse. For if even in the case of their idols the Greeks sometimes keep themselves chaste, how much more should you, who pray to the God of all things? It is good, then, to make allowance on account of weakness, but to abstain on account of prayers. And Moses too purifies the people and says, "For three days do not approach a woman," so that from having purified themselves beforehand they might be able to become hearers of God. And in the Books of Kingdoms, Abiathar — or Abimelech — the priest wishes to set "holy loaves" before David as he was fleeing the plot of Saul, and, wishing to set out the "holy loaves," what does he say except, "Are the young men pure from a woman?" — not, that is, from a strange woman, but from a wife. So then, in order that one may receive "loaves of the presentation", one ought to be pure from "a woman"; but in order that one may receive the loaves greater than those of the presentation, over which the name of God and of Christ and of the Holy Spirit has been invoked, ought one not to be far more pure, so that he may truly receive the loaves unto salvation and not "unto judgment"?
[Of Origen]
Most people suppose that to deprive is said only with reference to gold or silver or something of that kind; but the Apostle clearly named it deprivation also in the case of those who are in marriage and who practice chastity unseasonably and without agreement. And, quite simply, whoever does not render back what is owed deprives the one to whom he owes it, by not rendering what is owed. But sometimes a person is hemmed in so that he cannot render two debts at the same time; therefore it is written that he should render the necessary debt. And what I say will become clear thus: it is not possible for the married man both to render his prayers to God as he ought and to render the debt to his wife; therefore, if the debt toward God presses upon him, he must deprive the other. For listen to him saying, Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and again be together in the same place — inasmuch as the prayer sent up by those who have come together is not pure, even if they have come together lawfully. But one must abstain from a woman also at the time of her menstruation, and it is reckoned a great charge to come together with a woman who is in her menstruation. At any rate, in the catalogue of good deeds and in the catalogue of sins in Ezekiel it is recorded that "he shall not approach a woman in" her separation. And one must be altogether pure, even from one's own wife, at the time of prayer and fasting.
[vii 5–6] And again, he says, be together in the same place, lest Satan tempt you through your incontinence. But this I say by way of concession, not by way of command.
Everywhere he relaxes the word on account of weakness, and again he tightens it, in order to turn back those who hear the word.
[vii 7] But I wish all men to be as I myself am. But each has his own spiritual gift from God, the one in this way, the other in that.
Marriage breathes of a spiritual gift when the measures are kept — the gift that comes from agreement. And truly it may be said of certain people that for this one marriage is a spiritual gift, when there is no disorder, when there is all peace, all agreement. But to say that the marriage of a believer to a heathen woman, or of a heathen man to a believing woman, is a spiritual gift from God — this I would not say. For the spiritual gift of God cannot reach as far as the heathen; if she believes, if she is saved, then she will receive the beginning of the spiritual gift.
The followers of Marcion also use this saying, and senselessly they forbid marriage, saying that chastity is a command of the other god whom they have fabricated alongside the Creator. Yet from the saying itself one can bring them to admit that they wrongly forbid marriage, and wrongly too divide the Godhead. For if it is a spiritual gift to the one in this way and to the other in that, then marriage too is a spiritual gift; and if marriage too is a spiritual gift, then wrongly is the spiritual gift, marriage, forbidden; and if the one in this way and the other in that are from God, it is clear that one God is he who has given chastity and he who has given marriage, and one is the God of the Law and of the Gospel, whom the prophets proclaimed formerly and Christ Jesus later.
§ XXXV — 1 Corinthians vii 8–12
Now I say to the unmarried and to the widows, it is good for them if they remain as I also am; but if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn. But to those who have married I charge—not I, but the Lord—that a wife not be separated from her husband—but if she is indeed separated, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband—and that a husband not put away his wife. But to the rest I say, not the Lord.
[Of Origen]
Some among us teach "beyond the things that are written"; and thinking that they are doing something—whereas they ought to exhort to monogamy without laying a "noose" upon those who are not able—this they do not do, but they impose a compulsion and wish not to gather in the twice-married nor to have fellowship with them, as with transgressors, having no shame even before the words of the Apostle. For he who says to the unmarried and to the widows, if they do not have self-control let them marry, plainly permitted, after the first marriage, after a woman has been widowed, that she marry—yet with a reproach of the man who marries, with a reproach of the woman who is married; for he said If they do not have self-control, let them marry; for consider whether the not having self-control is not already an accusation, such as it is for Christian people to be told It is better to marry than to burn, since he named as burning "the desire of the flesh" not quenched by the word but prevailing over the soul of the sinner.
We, therefore, having been taught by the Apostle, do not forbid the twice-married state, for in comparison with burning the twice-married state is the more choiceworthy; but when a thing that is compared with evils is reckoned to be better, that thing plainly is not good. The second marriage is not chastity; it is not according to nature as with Adam the first-formed, for it cannot be said to the second wife "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." Abraham had Hagar as well, and he was also with Keturah; but when he died, none was laid with him but the wife by nature; for Abraham and Sarah were in the tomb. And Jacob too, †though he was with Rachel and with Leah† and was also with the maidservants, yet in the tomb Leah alone was with him.
†With the being of a mystical dispensation of the fathers;† yet surely not even now does the man who takes a second wife say that "I am accomplishing a mystical dispensation." For Paul will come saying "tell me, you who read the law, do you not hear the law?" for it is written "Such-and-such a one had two sons", and what follows; is it not going to be said of him too "Which things are allegorized", and "for these are two covenants"; "for these things happened to them figuratively, and were written" for our sake "upon whom the ends of the ages have arrived."
But I say to the widows and to the unmarried, it is good for them if they remain as I also am. This is a second good; for there is another good prior to this: it is good for a man not to touch a woman. What is the second good? It is good for them if they remain as I also am; but if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn. For this reason let those who are in first marriages and have not yet made trial of second ones practice purity, so that, if anything human should happen, they may not, being caught untrained, behave disgracefully. It is better, then, to marry a second marriage—for he does not speak here of the first, as is clear from the word to burn.
From here he passes over to another legislation: But to those who have married I charge—not I, but the Lord: the legislation directed to those who have married is not from me, but from the Lord. And at the same time he keeps a necessary observation, that he named as "those who have married" the case when both are believers, both the husband and the wife. And that he did not name among "those who have married" the others, as many as "are unequally yoked", is clear from his adding But to the rest I say, not the Lord. Are the rest, then, not married? For he does not count them as married; for in their case a wife is not joined to a husband by God; but in the case of believers, when both share both in prayers and in holy begetting of children and in all things in which Christians must share, he says that marriage is not alien to God.
I charge, then—not I, but the Lord—that a wife not be separated from her husband. The chief point is this: that a conjugal union already formed, "being bound, is not to be loosed".
But if she is indeed separated: for many things might become causes even of being separated; for instance, if fornication should occur in the wife, it is a sin to retain the wife who has committed fornication. If, then, she is indeed separated and some cause of separation should occur, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And likewise I wish the husband too to be such a one, that he not put away his wife.
But to the rest I say, not the Lord. To those who have married it is not I who legislate, but the Lord; but to those who have not married but "are unequally yoked" with unbelievers I have no law to give from God; for they are not even worthy of the laws of God; but let them hear us. And I will make use, for the understanding of the matters relating to this place, of things written in the law. The laws according to Moses—some are God's, and some are Moses'. And knowing this, the Lord, in marking a difference between laws of God and laws of Moses, said, concerning the things legislated by God, "For God" he said "Honor your father and your mother", but concerning the things by Moses, "Moses, because of your hardness of heart, permitted you to put away your wives." At any rate, if you attend to the matters of the "book" of "divorcement", you will find the law written not from a command of the Lord. Moses, then, serving God, gave secondary laws beside the laws of God; and Paul, serving the gospel, gave secondary laws to the men of the Church after the laws that are from God through Jesus Christ. And it is good to hear laws from the Lord rather than to hear laws of Paul the apostle. For even if he is holy, yet he has laws far inferior to the laws of the Lord.
§ XXXVI — 1 Corinthians vii 14
For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified in the brother.
[Of Origen]
As a kind of mixture comes to be of the two, husband and wife, "into one flesh," just as of wine and water; and just as the believer imparts sanctification to the Gentile spouse, or conversely the believing wife to the unbelieving husband, so also the unbeliever imparts defilement to the believing wife, or the unbelieving wife to the believing husband. For why does he say The unbelieving wife or the unbelieving husband has been sanctified by receiving something from the believer, whether man or woman, and is not profaned by receiving something from the unbelieving party? For each one, conversing with the other out of "the abundance of the heart," either imparts or receives, and in time altogether the one prevails over the other. And what need is there, he says, of such a struggle and such danger? For either he will succeed or he will fail, and either he will lose his own soul besides, or, after much labor, he will scarcely be able to gain. For this reason it is good, before a person is caught unawares, carefully to consider not only this present matter but also what is to come, and, having considered, either not to marry or, if marrying, to marry "in the Lord." For "a wife is bound for as long a time as the husband lives; but if" the husband "dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord." We do not hear the "only in the Lord," but we read the "she is free to be married to whom she wishes," while we no longer join to it the "only in the Lord." And yet there too, when he had said "only in the Lord," he again checked the statement by saying "but she is more blessed if she so remains, according to my judgment." Therefore the Apostle, having spoken the more auspicious word, the For she is sanctified, left it to us to understand the other.
§ XXXVII — 1 Corinthians vii 18–20
Was anyone called circumcised? Let him not remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of God's commandments. Let each remain in the calling in which he was called.
[Of Origen]
It will seem that he has inserted this out of season into the discourse concerning marriage and chastity, since no inquiry had arisen about the fact that believers from circumcision ought not to remove the marks of circumcision, and again that those in uncircumcision ought not to be circumcised, together with the matter concerning "Wast thou called a slave?" "Let it not concern thee", and what follows. Perhaps, then, he took slavery and freedom as an illustration of the married and the unmarried, calling circumcised the man who has cast off his wife, and uncircumcised the man who has married? For as "the two shall be one flesh" and the woman and the man are one flesh, and the circumcised man has cast off what belongs to the flesh, so too the man who has cast off his wife has, as it were, circumcised his own flesh; so also he calls him a slave. For since he says also in other places "the brother or the sister is not enslaved in such cases", as though the married were slaves, for this reason here too he names a slave the one called after marriage, and free the unmarried.
So then the things said upon this passage are spoken as concerning circumcision and concerning slaves. Nevertheless it is not out of place at times to use the text against those who think that after coming to faith one ought to be circumcised out of scrupulousness—a scrupulousness that is "not according to knowledge"—because of the things written in the Old Testament concerning circumcision. Again, is it not fitting, on account of certain believers from circumcision who think that circumcision brings shame upon them and who wish to draw uncircumcision over themselves, to use the text which says Was anyone called circumcised? Let him not remove the marks of circumcision? And indeed it stands to reason to say to such people that, taken in itself, circumcision is an indifferent matter. So the present passage is neither about circumcision nor about uncircumcision, but about the unmarried and the married man. Was anyone called circumcised? Let him not remove the marks of circumcision—as though he said, Let him not draw a wife to himself; he has already been circumcised, he has cast off a wife; let him not marry another. Was anyone called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised—that is: Wast thou called in marriage? Do not cast off thy wife. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing. Since some think that the unmarried man has in this respect something more than the married, and that the married has something less than the unmarried by the very fact of being married, we wish, he says, to teach that in its own account celibacy is indifferent, and in its own account marriage is indifferent. For it is possible that a man who is unmarried and truly keeps himself pure from all intercourse, but who otherwise lives badly, should derive no benefit from his celibacy; and it is possible that someone, though in marriage and doing the things of marriage, yet doing them in due order and in due season, and preserving the rest of his manner of life, should be no less than the unmarried. For that celibacy, and purity itself, are indifferent, we shall demonstrate thus. If only those of the Church practiced celibacy, one might say that celibacy in its own account is something pure and divine; but as it is, one can find people unmarried even with a wicked purpose. The followers of Marcion, at any rate, themselves also practice celibacy and purity, but not as those of the Church do; for the latter do so in order to please the God who created the world, whereas the former do so in order not to cooperate with the God of the world. But celibacy is adorned by a churchly life and doctrine, by pure knowledge and by truth. So too the unmarried man is indifferent in his own account; and it is possible, even while being in marriage, to be blameless, as we have already shown above. Circumcision therefore is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, both according to the literal text and according to the matters set before us. But what is it that saves? The keeping of God's commandments. For everyone "who shall loose one of these least commandments and shall teach men so"—he did not say "He shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven", but "he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven." And if the one who has loosed "one of the least commandments shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven", where shall the one who has loosed two commandments be found? Let each one, therefore, in the calling in which he was called, in this remain. Wast thou called in marriage? Do not envy the unmarried. Wast thou called unmarried? By no means draw a wife to thyself, if thou art able to live more purely.
§ XXXVIII — 1 Corinthians vii 21–24
Were you called as a slave? Let it not concern you; but even if you can become free, rather make use of it. For the one who was called in the Lord as a slave is the Lord's freedman; likewise also the one called as free is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. Let each one, brothers, in that state in which he was called, therein remain with God.
[Of Origen]
He necessarily called the married man a slave; for the husband is a slave of the wife, not having authority "over his own body", and the wife of the husband; for "she does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does". Were you then called as a slave? Let it not concern you; but even if you can become free, rather make use of it; that is, if you do not transgress the law according to reason, you can be free; how? "by agreement", so that "you may devote yourselves to prayer" with all concord.
For the one who was called in the Lord as a slave is the Lord's freedman; as, for instance: Were you called as a slave? Know this, that not only are you not a slave, but you also have something of freedom through the Lord. For the freedman is neither purely free nor any longer a slave, so that the pure man is in every way free, but the man in marriage is a slave; yet when he is a slave in the Lord, then we say that he is the Lord's freedman. And the one called as free is a slave — not of a wife, but of the word of God.
You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. As far as your power allows, understand the Word of God who "bought us out"; let us propitiate "the blood that was poured out" for us. We were saying, in the discourse concerning the unmarried and the married, that he tightens and slackens his argument. So here too he has done, saying Do not become slaves of men; for, as it were, he tightens and makes his argument more vehement, urging on those who are able, so far as possible, to keep themselves pure, and urging each one to keep himself pure in the calling in which he was called.
It should be known that the rest of the interpreters have rendered the sense concerning uncircumcision and circumcision according to the literal wording; for customarily, they say, he passes over from the subject at hand to other matters, laying down for all what is fitting.
§ XXXIX — 1 Corinthians vii 25
Now concerning virgins I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be faithful.
[Of Origen]
Of the commandments, some are enjoined, but others are not enjoined but are left to free choice and entrusted by God to the will. For some of them, without which one cannot be saved, are the ones that are ordained; but those that are greater than the ordained ones, which even if we do not perform them we are saved, are not a command of God. For hear, he says, the gospel of Jesus Christ teaching in him and saying, "When you have done all the things ordained for you, you ought to say, We are unprofitable servants, we have done what we ought to do." And if, when I have done all the things ordained, I am an unprofitable servant, when shall I escape being an unprofitable servant? If, being more zealous for honor, you ascend beyond the things ordained; for example: If I keep the "you shall not commit adultery" and the not looking "at a woman so as to desire her," I have done what I ought to do. But if I remain a virgin, not being ordered nor ordained to do so, I no longer say, concerning the right achievement of virginity, "We are unprofitable servants, we have done what we ought to do." So also with the rest of the commandments: if I do not steal or defraud, we ought to say, "we are unprofitable servants." But if I sell all my possessions and give to the poor, I no longer say, "I am unprofitable," I have done what I ought to do. Therefore the Apostle says, Now concerning virgins I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be faithful. For when the Lord says to the disciples, "Not all receive this saying, but those to whom it has been given," he also adds, "Let him who is able to receive it receive it"; he did not command, but left it to free choice. Therefore, says the Apostle, I give my opinion, and in order to establish that the Lord speaks in him, he said, as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be faithful.
[vii 26] I think therefore that this is good because of the present necessity, that it is good for a man to be so.
By necessity he means the sojourn in the body, as also elsewhere he says, "but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake." Four times in this passage the Apostle named the "good": for first he says, "it is good for a man not to touch a woman;" second, "it is good for them if they remain as I also am;" third, I think therefore that this is good because of the present necessity; fourth, It is good for a man to be so. You see, whatever has been said concerning chastity, these things have been named together with the good; but whatever concerns marriage, together with the one who marries not sinning.
[vii 27] Are you bound to a woman? Do not seek release. Are you released from a woman? Do not seek a woman.
Throughout the whole passage, as has been said, he tightens and relaxes, so that the hearer, taking it into his own authority, may judge whether he is able to do anything and to what discipline he may be able to give himself. So then here also he turned him away from dissolving the marriage, but again exhorts him to be pure. Accordingly he called the man who has married bound; and if to be bound is a circumstance, one must also flee such circumstances as far as one is able. And the being bound to a woman—do not seek to dissolve it; but he who is not bound ought to guard himself lest he be bound; for truly you will find them bound by the marital love-charm. It is not permitted, therefore, for one who has been caught beforehand in marriage to seek untimely freedom, but to remain in the servitude; and if one is released, not to seek a woman.
[vii 28 a] But if you also marry, he says, you have not sinned. He did not say, If you marry, it is good; but, If you marry, you have not sinned; observe the difference. And if the virgin marries, she has not sinned; again he did not say, Good, but, she has not sinned.
[vii 28 b] But such will have tribulation in the flesh.
For how will they not have tribulation when the things said to the woman come upon her who has married: "In pains you shall bear children, and toward your husband shall be your turning, and he shall rule over you." But from all these the virgin is free, freed by purity, awaiting the bridegroom of blessing. Every marriage takes place in darkness, wherefore not "in chamberings and licentiousness"; but the marriage of Christ, when he receives back his Church for himself, takes place in the light. For why do the virgins enter into the marriage with lamps and oil that lasts? Because that marriage is one of seemliness. He who "cleaves" to flesh "is one body"; but he who "cleaves" to spirit "is one spirit." And what is more seemly than a soul cleaving to the spirit and being united to it, and no longer being a soul but becoming that which the spirit is? For concerning marriage it is said, "the two shall be one flesh;" but concerning the other, "he who cleaves to the Lord shall be one spirit."
§ XL — 1 Corinthians ix 7–9
Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not eat of the milk of the flock? Do I speak these things as a man? Or does not the law also say these things? For in the law of Moses it is written, You shall not muzzle an ox that treads out the grain.
[Of Origen]
As a God-fearing soldier the Apostle says Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense?; but as one entrusted with God's "tillage" and tilling the Church, Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit?; and as a disciple of the good shepherd, who also laid down "his life for the sheep," Who tends a flock and does not eat of the milk of the flock? And as a soldier he teaches us too to serve as soldiers, saying, "No one serving as a soldier entangles himself in the affairs of this life, that he may please the one who enlisted him"; and as a farmer he teaches us too to farm: "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." And concerning shepherds the prophets have taught us, recounting the rewards of the good ones and announcing the punishments of those who shepherd otherwise.
And it will seem, to one who does not attend to the Scripture, that the Apostle has through these things forgotten the matter before him; but the truth is not so — rather, he keeps to his argument. It is set before him to teach concerning things sacrificed to idols, so that even if someone who professes to have knowledge should assert that he takes no harm from the use of things sacrificed to idols, yet becomes the cause of harm to others, he ought to have taken thought for his neighbor, lest through his pretext others perish; to this end he takes up the examples and says: Not necessarily, if we have authority over something, "ought we to make full use of the authority." For if he is a soldier, he does not serve as a soldier so as to gain nothing for himself from the wages; if a farmer, he is not content with his wage but eats of the cluster; if a shepherd, along with his wage he partakes of the milk. So I too ought, besides the promises laid up for me from having served well as a soldier or farmed or shepherded, to partake in this world of the things needful from the soldiers under me, from those farmed, from those shepherded. But nevertheless, even if I have authority over the things needful, looking to the edification of men I do not make full use of the authority, taking care not to give any hindrance "to the gospel of Christ," or even to give a pretext to those "who walk disorderly and do nothing but are busybodies." As therefore I do not use the authority which I received from the word, in the same manner you also who claim to be wise ought not to use the authority but to provide for the edification of your neighbors. And if the argument is thought by some to be without witness and to be spoken according to human reasoning, let him hear the law saying, "You shall not muzzle an ox that treads out the grain," and what follows.
§ XLI — 1 Corinthians ix 9–11
Is it for the oxen that God cares? Or does he say it entirely for our sake? For it was written for our sake, that the plower ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to partake in hope. If we sowed spiritual things for you, is it a great matter if we shall reap your fleshly things?
[Of Origen]
Therefore these things have been said for our sake, who have received the new covenant, and it is written concerning men, the letter being understood spiritually according to the divine Apostle. But what is the sense? That the plower ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to partake in hope. Paul the farmer plows the soul of a catechumen, making "new-broken ground" in his soul according to the divine Jeremiah, who declares to them, "Break up for yourselves fresh ground" — with a view, clearly, to the reception of seeds, concerning which it is written, "The sower went out to sow." And after sowing the new-broken ground, I watch over, he says, the seeds, lest "the birds" of heaven, "coming," carry off the seed; and when it bears fruit and produces fruits of righteousness, and when it is "already white for harvest," then at last it is permitted to me to take. For he will not be made to stumble whenever he remembers all that I have toiled, that I might plow his soul, that I might sow, how I persevered until his crop came, brought to completion, upon the threshing floor. And for this reason it is permitted to me to receive food from him. But I do not by all means make use of the authority; rather, I do this in hope, to present the produce to the master of the house — for I am a farmer — not that I may take into my own storehouses the things that are owed to be rendered to God. Then the Apostle, teaching something concerning the same matter, says, If we sowed spiritual things for you, is it a great matter? and what follows.
§ XLII — 1 Corinthians ix 16
For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of; for necessity is laid upon me; but woe is me if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if unwillingly, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
[Of Origen]
We are taught that whatever we do out of necessity has no boasting; but whatever we do by choice, when no necessity is laid upon us, this has boasting. For example: the one who does not commit adultery or murder does not have boasting, but the one who keeps virginity does; for he came to virginity not out of necessity but from choice. But where the Woe lies alongside it if I do not act, I have no boasting. For this reason he says, If I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if unwillingly, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. Again we are taught a general point. Some things we do willingly, with the whole soul; but some things we do indeed, yet not willingly, nor even with the whole soul, but out of grief or out of necessity. For of the things done by us voluntarily there is a reward; but of the things that are done indeed, yet as out of grief, there is neither reward nor punishment. For example: I give alms; if willingly, I have a reward; but if unwillingly, I am not charged along with those who hear, "I was hungry and you did not give me to eat" and what follows. This, then, is the reward: that where I have the liberty [to act], I should not do it.
§ XLIII — 1 Corinthians ix 19–23
For being free from all, I made myself a slave to all, that I might gain the more; and I became to the Jews as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those under the law as under the law, though not myself being under the law, that I might gain those under the law; to those without the law as without the law, not being without law to God but under the law of Christ, that I might gain those without the law; I became to the weak as weak, that I might gain the weak; to all I have become all things, that I might by all means save some. And I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I might become a fellow-partaker of it.
[Of Origen]
To be free from all things belongs to a perfect apostle. For someone can be free from fornication but a slave to anger, free from love of money but a slave to vainglory; he can be free from one sin, but a slave to another sin. But to say Being free from all belongs to a perfect apostle; such as Paul was. And according to the passage before us it has this sense: I became to the Jews as a Jew, that I might gain Jews. For being free from Judaism, I enslaved myself to Jews, that I might gain Jews; being free from being under the law I made myself as under the law, that I might gain those under the law. For Paul condescended to go into the synagogues of the Jews, he entered in among them, he acted according to their customs without harm, not playing the hypocrite along with them but hunting for some of them.
Some have inquired what the difference is between those under the law and the Jews; we say, then, that those under the law are others than the Jews, like the Samaritans.
To those without the law as without the law: he came to Athens; he found philosophers there; he used neither prophetic words nor legal ones, but if anywhere there was some Greek learning from his prior education, being reminded of this he would say to the Athenians; for he says, "As also some of the poets among you have said, For we too are his offspring." There to those without the law he became as without the law, that he might gain those without the law. And again he says, "Passing through and observing your objects of worship, I found also an altar on which was inscribed, To an Unknown God. Whom therefore you worship in ignorance, this one I proclaim to you." And through these words he begins to hand down reverence for God. To those without the law, then, as without the law, not being without law to God. Not by condescending to them did I commit any lawlessness, but I kept myself under the law of Christ, that I might gain those without the law. And at the same time he also preserves his precision: I became to the Jews as a Jew; he did not say here, Not being a Jew. For he was a Jew in secret, no longer in the open. And again, To those under the law as under the law, not being myself under the law; necessarily here he placed the Not being under the law; "For Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us;" as if he had said, Not being a Samaritan.
But to those without the law as without the law, not being without law to God. But someone will suppose that I have become an apostate from the law and lawless to God; but I say that even if I do not keep the law according to the letter, I am not lawless to God, but I am under the law of Christ, keeping the way of life that is according to the gospel, that I might gain those without the law.
I became to the weak as weak; he did not say here, Not being myself weak; for that would have been boastful, it would have been arrogant, it was not for the apostle to say, Not being myself weak—he who had heard from the Lord that "my power is perfected in weakness" and on account of this "boasted in weaknesses". But how weak to the weak? When he permits those who burn to marry, when he suffers together with the women who have lost their husbands, when he says, "But because of fornications let each man have his own wife and let each woman have her own husband" and the rest. In these things he became weak to the weak, that he might gain the weak.
Then after these things he says, To all I have become all things, that I might save all or some. Whatever man you take, he is one of five; for either he is a Jew, or under the law, or without the law, or weak, or he is all things. The perfect man is all things; to all, then—that is, to the perfect—I became perfect, that I might gain all. For "We speak wisdom" he says "among the perfect" and what follows. This man can say, "To Greeks and to barbarians, to the wise and to the foolish, I am a debtor."
[Of Origen]
Only the perfect man can speak the utterance of the perfect apostle in the Lord, the I do all things for the sake of the gospel. For the one who sins cannot say this. And if the one who does all things for the sake of the gospel is a partner of the gospel, while the one who commits fornication is a partner of the fornication of the spirit, likewise also with the other passions. Each one, then, becomes a partner of that in which he has partaken. But one of the hearers will say, My life is mixed; I neither do all things for the sake of the gospel, nor do all things on account of sin and pleasure. To this we will say, These things God has as his judgments; according to the many judgments he renders varied things.
§ XLIV — 1 Corinthians ix 24
Do you not know that those who run in a stadium all run, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may attain.
[Of Origen]
Do we then all run, and one receives the prize, while the rest of us perish? For he said that the one receiving the prize is one, though many run. All who are being saved "are one, and one body;" for "we all are one bread and partake of the same bread, and you all are the body of Christ." Therefore, of all who are being saved, the one receiving the prize is one. In the stadium, then, all run, as many as order their life toward a doctrine; and those from the heresies order their life toward a doctrine, and perhaps the Jews too, and those who, philosophizing in the manner of the Greeks, order their life toward a doctrine. And all these are those who run in the stadium; the Church also runs; but one receives the prize, the one man, concerning whom the Apostle says "Until we attain to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." And every judgment of God must be found concerning all who run in the stadium, so that one may receive the first place, and thereafter each according to his own worth.
§ XLV — 1 Corinthians x 5
But God was not well pleased with the greater part of them, for they were laid low in the wilderness.
[Of Origen]
The Apostle wishes to set before us that it is not the mere obtaining of a gift of God that saves the one who has obtained it, but, along with the obtaining of the gift, to abide in it, having become worthy of it. For indeed the sons of Israel, though they had received so many benefits, since they did not become worthy of the benefaction of God, were not saved. For God was not well pleased with the greater part of them; "for they were laid low in the wilderness." For indeed, since the sinners were the more numerous and the righteous the fewer, on that account God was not well pleased with the greater part, the sinners, over against the few righteous.
§ XLVI — 1 Corinthians x 6
Now these things happened as types of us, that we should not be desirers of evil things, as they also desired.
[Of Origen]
Now these things, he says, became types of us, that we should not be desirers of evil things, as they also desired. Those things were written figuratively for us, so that we, reading of the sins on account of which those people suffered these things, may guard ourselves against falling into the same desires as they did.
§ XLVII — 1 Corinthians xii 3
Wherefore I make known to you that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says "Anathema to Jesus"; and no one can say "Lord Jesus" except in the Holy Spirit.
[Of Origen]
There are many differences among spirits, which no one will know with precision unless he has the gift of the discernment of the spirit. And so that we may not too rashly either reject the spirits that are in those who speak, or approve them, John says in his epistle: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God; every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ having come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God." And he teaches us, whenever we hear people speaking, neither to assent haphazardly nor rashly to deny the things spoken as though they were not from a divine spirit, but so that each of the hearers, knowing that he stands in danger in the very act of approving or rejecting, may attend carefully neither to believe the false nor to disbelieve the true.
Concerning this the Apostle also adds, next after these words: "If anyone among you is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things I write are of God; but if anyone is ignorant, he is ignored." Not only, then, is the one who is ignorant of the Apostle's words ignored by God, but also, if anyone is ignorant—speaking by a divine spirit and yet saying that he does not speak by a divine spirit—he is ignored by God. And through these words the Apostle seems to teach that there is no man who does not have another spirit in him besides the spirit of the man that is in him. For whether he is a stranger to the faith or belongs to it, he has a spirit of his own from God. But how we who hear the divine word need to learn that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says "Anathema to Jesus," let us see. Some can be a matter of doubt, to those who do not accurately know the facts, as to whether they speak in the Spirit of God or not, while anathematizing Jesus. If ever you should behold some Jew expounding the divine scriptures and setting forth prophetic sayings to the multitude in no contemptible fashion, perhaps one would doubt whether perhaps the Spirit of God is also in that man. Therefore, so that you may not be thrown into perplexity over such a person, whether the Holy Spirit is in him or not, he teaches that, since every Jew says "Anathema" to Jesus, and no one speaking in the Spirit of God says "Anathema to Jesus," the one who claims to know the law and the prophets but anathematizes Jesus does not have the Spirit of God. There is a certain heresy which does not receive the one who approaches unless he anathematizes Jesus. And that heresy is worthy of the name which it has loved; for it is the heresy of those called Ophians, who say unlawful things in praise of the serpent, which is "accursed" by God.
§ XLVIII — 1 Corinthians xii 8–10 (+ xii 27–28)
[[For to one is given through the Spirit a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings in the one Spirit, to another workings of powers, to another prophecy, to another discernments of spirits, to another kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues.]] … Now you are the body of Christ and members individually. And those whom God appointed in the Church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then powers, then gifts of healings, helps, governings, kinds of tongues.
[Of Origen]
There he has rather kept the discourse in order, but here he proceeds as if at random and mentions the spiritual gifts according to what has come to his mind; nevertheless even so, from the second saying he declares that the gifts effected among the powers are less than the gift that is according to apostleship and prophecy and teaching — unless indeed someone should grant two kinds of prophecy, so that here too he may keep the order preserved, so that there is a certain prophecy that has surpassed and a certain prophecy that has risen up. For the more universal one, which imitates the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, he will call the second rank after apostleship, but this other one, ranked in the last place after the gifts that have been mentioned, is of such a kind: "And if" you should prophesy, "and there come in someone unbelieving or unlearned, he is reproved by all, he is examined by all, the hidden things of his heart become manifest, and thus, falling upon his face, he will worship God and declare that God is truly among you". For this is not far from the "working of powers" and the "gift of healings" which come to pass for the astonishment of those who behold, so that the one prophesying may say: This you have in your heart; From this sin you have come to the Church. And this prophecy itself can be later in rank than the former things, while that more divine and greater one is second, concerning which he says: God appointed in the Church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers. For the establishing of the point that two things are signified by the name of prophecy, I set forth beforehand the things aforesaid which I stated. See whether I am still able to set out more clearly what is said: God appointed in the Church first apostles; but not all are apostles, for if all are apostles, to whom is the apostleship ministered? Second prophets; not all are prophets; but according to the other prophecy, "if all" you should prophesy, "and there come in an unbeliever or an unlearned person", not as though it were impossible but as being possible for all to prophesy in this way. There are, therefore, two things signified by the name of prophecy. Wherefore here too the order has been preserved by the Apostle, which says first apostles, second prophets and what follows. These things, then, are said concerning the order, since the phrase and to another prophecy, ranked last in another passage, seemed to press upon us.
§ XLIX — 1 Corinthians xiii 1–2
And still I show you a way beyond all measure. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. Even if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, even if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
[Of Origen]
We inquire here whether anyone in this life can both have prophecy and know all the mysteries apart from love, and in general whether it is given to anyone to know all the mysteries; for Paul says, "If anyone thinks he has known something, he has not yet known as he ought to know"; and again he says, "In part we know and in part we prophesy; but when the perfect comes, that which is in part shall be done away". And his saying these things about himself and the apostles who were like him makes clear that it is not possible to know all the mysteries and all knowledge. How then does he say these things as though it were possible to know all knowledge and to understand all the mysteries? If we look at the preface of his words, in which he says And still I show you a way beyond all measure (kath' hyperbolēn, "by way of excess"), and understand what hyperbolē ("excess," an overstatement) is, all these things will be made clear. Hyperbolē, then, is, as the Greeks too have defined it, a manner of speech that for the sake of emphasis exceeds the truth; and they use an example, that certain persons are said to be whiter than snow — not that anything can be whiter than snow, but it is said by way of excess (kath' hyperbolēn). And again: certain horses run like the wind — not that such a thing is possible, but for the sake of emphasis, that the swiftness of the horses may be set forth, such a thing is said about them. And in the scripture of the Psalms too it is said concerning the sea, "Its waves go up to the heavens and go down to the depths"; which is impossible, but is said for the sake of emphasis. And in the law also you will find written this manner of hyperbolē, where it is written, "We saw cities great and walled up to the heaven". But how can this be? It is said hyperbolically, the statement not at all setting forth the very thing indicated, but in order to make clear the greatness of the waves or their lowness, and the greatness of the walls, or something similar to these. So here too the Apostle takes a supposition for the sake of examining the nature of spiritual gifts, the nature of love — not that it is possible for there to be a spiritual gift, and one so great, apart from love; nor that it is possible in this life for anyone to know all knowledge apart from love, or to have faith so great as to remove mountains; but wishing to set forth that, if love be placed on the scale, the statement is made by way of supposition. He says, then, that one must above all "be zealous for" love.
Now do angels, when they converse with one another, converse in these same tongues in which men also do, so that some of the angels are perhaps Greeks and some Hebrews and others Egyptians? Or is it absurd to say this about the higher angelic orders? May it not be, then, that just as among men there are many languages, so there are also among the angels? And if God grants us to be ranked from the human nature into the angelic — my Lord Jesus Christ declaring the promise when he says, "They shall be equal to the angels and sons of God of the resurrection" — being sons thereof, shall we no longer use the language of men but the angelic language? And just as the language of little children is one thing and that of those whose speech is articulate is another, so is every language among men, as it were, a language of little children; while the angelic is, as it were, that of grown and articulate men? And perhaps there too, according to the analogy of the condition, there are also languages. If then I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. Just as the sounding brass gives an indistinct sound, just as the clanging cymbal gives nothing clear, in the same way, apart from love, a tongue — even if it be, by supposition, the tongue of angels among men — is inarticulate; for nothing makes the things of men, or indeed of angels, articulate and clear as love does; and when love is not present, that which is spoken is nothing.
But what is the difference between knowledge and the knowing of the mysteries? For the Apostle speaks about two things. I consider, then, that to know about the manifest things is knowledge, being more generic than the mysteries; for the understanding is in a part of knowledge or of the mysteries; while to know about the more ineffable and more divine things, this is to know the mystery, so that there is a generic account of knowledge, but the apprehension of mysteries no longer belongs to all knowledge — those mysteries concerning which it has been said, "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God foreordained before the ages unto our glory". For when I know these things, then I have the knowledge of the mysteries.
Even if I have all faith so as to remove mountains. It is written in the Gospel, "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Be lifted up and cast into the sea, and it will pass over, and nothing will be impossible for you". For he who has faith as a grain of mustard seed has the whole of faith.
§ L — 1 Corinthians xiii 3
And though I dole out all my goods in food, and though I hand over my body that I may boast, but have not love, I gain nothing.
[Of Origen]
And though I dole out all my goods in food — not for love's sake; and though I hand over my body that I may boast — inasmuch as it is possible for someone to dole out his goods in food not for love's sake but out of vainglory, and inasmuch as it is possible for someone even to bear witness as a martyr for the sake of boasting and of the glory with which the martyrs are glorified in the churches.
§ LI — 1 Corinthians xiii 4–5
Love is patient, is kind; love is not jealous, love is not boastful, is not puffed up, does not behave unseemly, does not seek its own.
[Of Origen]
He goes through the praises of love, which surpasses the spiritual gifts. For he had to teach both what love is and what sort of person the one who has love is. Love is patient: if you have "patience", which is "a fruit of the Spirit", you have it because of love. Is kind: what is contrary to kindness? Wickedness. If you act wickedly against someone, you do not have love. If you are kind and sweet toward all people, you have love. Love is not jealous: if there is in you jealousy such as was in Cain toward Abel, or such as was in the brothers of Joseph toward Joseph, you do not have love. Loving and being jealous are things at war with each other. Love is not boastful: when someone is rash, professing to know either about an art or about a science or about knowledge, this is the one who is boastful, from not having love. Does not behave unseemly: no one who has love does anything unseemly; if therefore at some time our brethren, a man and a woman, claiming to love one another according to God, should through weakness fall under the pretext of love, let us tell them that they do not have love; for love does not behave unseemly. Does not seek its own: no one who has love seeks his own things; for example a mother in loving her son, or a father, does not seek her own as she does the son's; for to have love is not self-loving. If the Savior, "being in the form of God" and being "equal to God", had sought his own, he would have remained in that form; but as it is, wishing to save a perishing world, he "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant; and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross". Come also to the saints; see the love of Moses: "If you will forgive them the sin, forgive it; but if not, blot me also out of your book which you have written". And the Apostle also says, "Even as I too please all in all things, not seeking my own profit but that of the many, that they may be saved", and "I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh". He prays to be accursed from Christ for the salvation of others.
§ LII — 1 Corinthians xiii 8
"Whether there are tongues, they shall cease."
[Of Origen]
Tongues shall cease, when I shall converse with the mind with which I wish to hold discourse.
§ LIII — 1 Corinthians xiii 9–12
Now we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect comes, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child; but when I became a man, I did away with the things of the child. For now we see through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face.
[Of Origen]
He who seems to be making progress here makes progress as among little children; but when that which is perfect comes "and we attain to a perfect man", then we shall have room for the things of grown men—both knowledge and prophecy and the vision of God, which the "blessed" "shall see", those blessed on account of the purity of the heart.
§ LIV* — 1 Corinthians xiv 5
For greater is he who prophesies than he who speaks in tongues, except if he interprets, that the Church may receive edification.
[Of Origen]
The one who has the edifying gift is greater than the one who does not have such a gift, inasmuch as he who has the edifying gift is more beneficial to the community; but if one who speaks in tongues should also have the gift to interpret, for the building up of the Church, then he who prophesies is no longer greater. For there are times when he speaks lofty things, and he speaks to himself and to God, so that the Church is unable to "hear".
§ LV* — 1 Corinthians xiv 6
But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what shall I profit you, unless I speak to you either in revelation or in prophecy or in knowledge or in teaching?
[Of Origen]
Prophecy is the knowledge that signifies, through speech, the things unseen — the awareness of the constitution of the world and of the working of the elements and the times. Teaching is the instructive word distributed among the many. Revelation is when the mind comes to be outside earthly things and puts away every fleshly activity by the power of God; the one who has attained this has come to be in revelation. And perhaps the knowledge concerning things to come can also be called revelation; but he who has grasped the strict meaning of each term is permitted to use the names in a looser, more extended way.
§ LVI* — 1 Corinthians xiv 7–9 a
Likewise things without soul that give a sound, whether flute or harp, if they give no distinction to the notes, how shall what is fluted or what is harped be known? For indeed if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for war? So also you, if through the tongue you do not give a well-marked word, how shall what is spoken be known?
[Of Origen]
He wishes to shame those who speak with a tongue into "keeping silence in the church", if there be no "interpreter", and he says The things without soul, flute and harp, for the musicians. And giving no distinction to the notes, it is not known in what rhythm one has played; and the soldier does not arm himself for war, unless the trumpet sends forth the rousing sound for war; and those who speak with a tongue and do not interpret ought not to speak, inasmuch as they give no distinction to their words so that they may be understood. The doctrines of contemplation, then, he called flute and harp, as displaying nothing ethical, but the teachings that exhort toward virtue a trumpet; and by this it is possible to say that the obscure parts of Scripture, such as those concerning the sacrifices in Leviticus and the tabernacle in Exodus, ought not to be read aloud, unless someone makes clear their meaning by exposition.
§ LVII* — 1 Corinthians xiv 9 b
For you will be speaking into the air.
[Of Origen]
He who speaks in a tongue speaks in God; and even if human beings do not understand, still the powers about the air do hear.
§ LVIII* — 1 Corinthians xiv 10
There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is voiceless.
[Of Origen]
"Even things without soul," then, "give forth a voice" — some of them with this distinction of notes, and others again with a different one; for every body has its own peculiar sound, when it is struck against another body.
§ LIX* — 1 Corinthians xiv 11
If then I do not know the power of the voice, I shall be a barbarian to the one speaking, and the one speaking will be a barbarian in me.
[Of Origen]
Everyone who speaks to someone things which the other does not understand — the hearer seems to him to be a barbarian, and he in turn to the hearer.
§ LX* — 1 Corinthians xiv 12
So too you also, since you are zealous for spirits, seek that you may abound for the building up of the Church.
[Of Origen]
Abounding comes about through the excellence of spiritual gifts, from seeking the things that are for the building up of the Church, in the sense that he does not abound in spiritual gifts who does not seek the common good. For it is likely that the working of a spiritual gift lies idle whenever it does not shine "before men". Therefore, if we wish to increase our spiritual gifts, we will give ourselves to the benefit of the greater number.
§ LXI* — 1 Corinthians xiv 13–14
Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
[Of Origen]
If the one who speaks in a tongue does not have the gift of interpreting, then, even if the others do not understand, he himself nonetheless understands the things put into him by the Spirit so as to be moved to speak. But whenever what is spoken should be understood by others, then this is held to be a fruit of the speaker toward those who understand.
§ LXII* — 1 Corinthians xiv 15–17
What then is it? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray also with the mind; I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing also with the mind. Since, if you bless with the spirit, how shall he who fills the place of the unlearned say the Amen at your thanksgiving? Since he does not know what you are saying; for you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not built up.
[Of Origen]
And through these words we are taught to seek what is of common benefit to the Church.
§ LXIII* — 1 Corinthians xiv 18–19
I give thanks to my God, that I speak with tongues more than you all. But in the Church I would rather speak five words with my mind, that I may instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
[Of Origen]
And to speak the perceptible words spiritually — the five senses — is to seek what is of common benefit; but the word of instruction, which comes through the five senses, is appointed for those who hear in the Church, since they too are instructed by the five words. For those who do not know the distinctness of the things spoken, but attend only to the bare resounding of the Scriptures, are designated as those under instruction; whereas those who hear from the Scripture the "distinction of the sounds" — these are not under instruction, but are the faithful.
§ LXIV* — 1 Corinthians xiv 20
Brothers, do not become children in your understanding, but in evil be as infants, and in your understanding become mature.
[Of Origen]
Since the things He commands are possible, it is possible for us to become mature in our understanding. And this very nearly interprets the saying "Unless you turn and become as the little children"; for the one who is an infant in evil, by turning, becomes as a little child.
§ LXV* — 1 Corinthians xiv 21
In the law it is written that "With men of other tongues and with other lips will I speak to this people, and not even so will they listen to me," says the Lord.
[Of Origen]
He gave the name law to the prophetic word as well; and these words we found in Aquila and the remaining editions, though not indeed in the Seventy.
§ LXVI* — 1 Corinthians xiv 24–25
But if all prophesy, and someone enters who is an unbeliever or uninstructed, he is convicted by all, he is examined by all, and thus the hidden things of his heart become manifest; and so, falling upon his face, he will worship God, declaring that God is truly among us.
[Of Origen]
Since the prophetic gift makes one "to know" the hidden things of the heart of the unbeliever and of the uninstructed man and of the one who draws near to them, it is clear that "when that which is perfect is come" they will know perfectly the hidden things of every uninstructed and unbelieving man; and it is likely that then also the hidden things of the holy man become manifest to the prophets—perhaps the things of the lesser to the greater. And the one who is benefited "is afraid to look upon the face of God"; wherefore, when he pictures God to himself, he falls upon his face, giving to Him both preeminence and glory, and thus he "worships" God. And the convicting and examining of the hidden things of the heart—which is to make them manifest—marks out that God is in the spirit of such men. But if the remaining spiritual gifts also are signs that God truly exists, in what is it to be sought?
§ LXVII* — 1 Corinthians xiv 26–27
What then is it, brethren? When you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation; let all things be done for edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let it be by two, or at the most three, and each in turn, and let one interpret.
[Of Origen]
When we come together, all who have spiritual gifts must be permitted to speak — that is, those who are able to teach.
§ LXVIII* — 1 Corinthians xiv 29
And let two or three prophets speak, and let the others discern.
[Of Origen]
By others he means those who have the gift of making clear the spiritual words of the prophets, if indeed the prophesiers themselves did not possess the gift of discernment; for insofar as they do not have this, it is likely that they have been deceived by some evil spirit that "transforms himself into an angel of light", as though they had attained prophetic rank.
§ LXIX* — 1 Corinthians xiv 30–31
But if a revelation comes to another who is seated, let the first keep silence. For you can all prophesy one by one.
[Of Origen]
Therefore the prophets were not out of their senses; for it lay within their power to fall silent and to hold in check the spirit that was upon them.
§ LXX* — 1 Corinthians xiv 32
And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
[Of Origen]
For this reason he shows, judiciously and through silence, the matter of subjection: that the spirits are subject to the prophets, yet it is the souls of the prophets that prophesy.
§ LXXI* — 1 Corinthians xiv 34–35
Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted them to speak, but to be in subjection, as the Law also says. And if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home.
[Of Origen]
Since the men had authority from the beginning to speak and to benefit those who heard, while the women asked questions about the things they were puzzled over. And by the Law he means what is said in Genesis: "Your turning shall be to your husband".
§ LXXII* — 1 Corinthians xiv 37–38
The one who thinks himself to be a prophet or a spiritual man, let him recognize that the things I am writing to you are the Lord's commandments; but if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant.
[Of Origen]
A spiritual man is one able to test every word and every meaning, even one that, through the great depth of meaning, is so hard to discern that it cannot be examined. Now it does not belong to any chance person to know that the things written by Paul are the Lord's, but to a prophet or a spiritual man; therefore he who does not know that they are the Lord's is neither a prophet nor a spiritual man. And it is one thing to believe and another to know; therefore he who is ignorant that they are the Lord's is ignorant, since he has not yet attained to being properly God's. For the one who is known is, in a certain manner, blended together with the one who knows him.
§ LXXIII — 1 Corinthians xiv 31
For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be exhorted.
[Of Origen]
There is danger for those who read in making pronouncements carelessly, and likewise for those who hear. Hear, then, Paul saying: "If anyone among you thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things I write are God's"—implying that not everyone recognizes the things of God unless he be "a prophet or spiritual". And the Apostle delineated the spiritual man when he said: "But the spiritual man discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no one". And who is the one who discerns all things but he who is able to examine and judge every argument? And this man is discerned by no one, not being comprehended because of the depth of his thoughts. For the spiritual man has "the mind" "of the Lord". As, then, a small child cannot discern the mind of a man and examine his thoughts—for the little boy does not even begin to follow the thoughts of the man—in the same way neither "can the natural man" know which things are "of God" and which are not; but this work belongs to the spiritual man alone. I have often inquired within myself why ever it was that, when there were both prophets of God and false prophets, the false prophets were held in higher esteem by their kings than the prophets; and the books of the false prophets were neither written down nor preserved among the people, whereas those of the prophets—who were condemned, hated, and suffered what we know—came forth into public view and have been honored. What was the origin of these things, I state, taking my starting points from the Apostle: that there was a spiritual gift among the people, just as to prophesy, so also to discern prophets. For you can all prophesy one by one; there was then an abundance of those who spoke and of those who were permitted to speak. For on this account the Apostle permitted all to speak in the Church; he all but permitted even the women to speak, had he not said what follows.
§ LXXIV — 1 Corinthians xiv 34–35
Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted them to speak, but to be in subjection, as also the law says. And if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in the church.
[Of Origen]
For as though all were speaking and able to speak, if a revelation should come to them, he says, Let the women keep silence in the churches. But of this commandment those women's disciples were not observers — those who were made disciples of Priscilla and Maximilla, and not of Christ, the husband of the bride. Yet let us nonetheless be fair, and meet even their plausible arguments. Philip the evangelist, they say, had four daughters, and they prophesied. And if they prophesied, what is out of place in our own women too — as those people say — prophesying, being prophetesses? These things we shall resolve. First, saying: 'Our women prophesied — then show the signs of prophecy in them'; second, even if the daughters of Philip did prophesy, still they did not speak in the churches — for we do not have this in the Acts of the Apostles. But neither in the Old Testament: Deborah is attested to be a prophetess, and "Miriam the sister of Aaron, taking the timbrel," took the lead of the women. But you will not find that Deborah delivered a public address to the people as Jeremiah and Isaiah did; you will not find that Huldah, being a prophetess, spoke to the people, but to some one man who came to her. And in the Gospel too it is written, "Anna a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher"; but she did not speak in the church. So that even if it be granted, from a prophetic sign, that a woman is a prophetess, still she is not permitted to speak in the church. When Miriam the prophetess spoke, she was leading certain women; for it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church, and "I do not permit a woman to teach" — not merely that, but "neither to have authority over a man".
And from elsewhere too I shall establish this — even though that other passage is more securely stated concerning the woman not becoming a leader of the man by speech: "aged women in demeanor reverent, teachers of what is good, that they may train the young women to be sober-minded," not simply that they may teach. For let women too be teachers of what is good, yet not so that men should sit and listen to women, as though there were a lack of men able to serve as ambassadors of the word of God.
And if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in the church. It seems to me that their own husbands does not refer to the wedded husbands only; for the virgins will either speak in the church or will not have those who teach them, and the widowed women likewise. But perhaps their own husbands means, for instance, the brother too, and the household member, and the son? Once for all, let a woman simply inquire of a man of her own, according to the generic name of "man" as distinguished from "woman"; for it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church — whatever she may speak, even if she should speak marvelous things, even if holy things, if only they come forth from a woman's mouth. A woman in the church is spoken of, clearly, according to what is shameful, to the reproach of the whole church.
xiv 36 Or did the word of God go out from you, or did it reach to you only?
As though this disorder existed in Corinth along with the other sins as well. This, then, is what he says: that God sent his word into the world. Did then the truth and the ecclesiastical rule reach to you only, the Corinthians?
§ LXXV — 1 Corinthians xiv 37–38
If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things I write to you are the Lord's commandments; but if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant.
[Of Origen]
In order, then, that we may recognize the things of God, let us entreat the one who gives gifts of grace, that he may give us a prophetic gift and make us spiritual by the Spirit that governs; and so we may be equipped to judge which things are God's or which are not his. For he who has been deprived of this grace cannot comprehend; whence he added But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant.
§ LXXVI — 1 Corinthians xv 1–2
Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved—with what word I preached to you, if you hold it fast, unless you believed in vain.
[Of Origen]
He calls gospel what he proclaims as good news, for this is also what he handed down; and that man stands in the gospel who has his own soul mounted upon it, as upon a boat, upon that very thing through which also he is saved. And he says that the one has "believed" in vain who does not "hold fast the word" of the gospel, but has heard it irrationally and by chance and without examination.
[Of Origen]
The Jews do not stand in the gospel, since they have not received Jesus; those from the heresies stand ill, since they do not understand the gospel but interpret it in their own private way; those who sin do not stand, since they do not live according to the gospel. Who, then, stand in the gospel but those who have received it and accepted it and live according to it? But if With what word I preached to you, if you hold it fast be understood, and if what is reasonably appended to these words be understood—unless you believed in vain—we shall know that it is impossible for the one who has believed in vain to have thus believed something false; rather, to have believed, and that indeed a truth, is no achievement—but to believe with discernment is. "Those who believe for a time and in a time of trial fall away" believe in vain; and yet they have not believed something false but the truth, but since they have not believed firmly, for this reason "in a time of trial they fall away." For one who believes rightly will not fall.
§ LXXVII* — 1 Corinthians xv 5
And that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
[Of Origen]
By He appeared to the twelve he means the Lord after the resurrection; for it was likely that Matthias too was present, who had been appointed an apostle in place of Judas.
§ LXXVIII* — 1 Corinthians xv 9
For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.
[Of Origen]
Being conscious to himself of the sins from which he had been set free, he says, I am not fit to be called an apostle.
§ LXXIX* — 1 Corinthians xv 10
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace which was toward me was not in vain; rather, I labored more than they all — yet not I, but the grace of God which is with me.
[Of Origen]
When he said that his grace was not in vain toward me, he taught that those who live unworthily of the grace have obtained it in vain. Yet it is not the grace that labors; rather it is to be understood thus: It is not I who have done these things, but the grace that is with me.
§ LXXX* — 1 Corinthians xv 11
Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
[Of Origen]
Since all the apostles have been fully assured concerning the resurrection of Christ from the dead, the demonstration is firm; and therefore we say the same things. For you too so believed.
§ LXXXI* — 1 Corinthians xv 12–13
Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised.
[Of Origen]
From the text before us the resurrection of Christ is clear, having come about together with the flesh which he had; but they, the heterodox, wish to allegorize the resurrection of human beings. Then let them allegorize the Savior's resurrection also, wickedly annulling the text by their own [device]. [[He means the Manichaeans, those who say that the one who is set free from sins has in this way risen from the dead.]]
§ LXXXII* — 1 Corinthians xv 14
But if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching too is empty, and your faith too is empty.
[Of Origen]
Since neither is the preaching empty nor is the faith empty, it is clear that Christ has been raised. And we have noted these points to show that, even though Paul was acquainted with dialectical argumentation, he nevertheless used it naturally; for it is from nature and common usage that the art of dialectic was given its bodily form by those who practice philosophy.
§ LXXXIII* — 1 Corinthians xv 15–16
And we are also found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if indeed, then, the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised.
[Of Origen]
If he testifies falsely against God — the one who says that Christ has risen — then so too does everyone who says that there is a resurrection of the dead; but if Christ has risen as "the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep," it is clear that the dead too are raised.
§ LXXXIV — 1 Corinthians xv 20–23
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, he became the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since through a man came death, through a man also comes the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order.
[Of Origen]
Since those from the heresies, while professing the faith of the Church and yet sneering at it as the faith of fools, reject it in deed, even if not in word, saying that the resurrection does not come to pass as the Church believes—see how they must be answered from this apostolic text and from countless others. Did Christ rise from the dead, or not? On this point every heresy has agreed. If Christ rose from the dead, and he is "the firstborn from the dead", and no one is "firstborn" of another kind, then his resurrection must be of the same kind as the resurrection of those who rise. For example: Reuben is firstborn, being a son of Jacob, his brothers being of the same kind; for Reuben is not of one nature and Simeon or Levi and the rest of another nature. And the same holds for the other firstborn. If therefore Jesus too is firstborn from the dead, the resurrection of those who rise must be of the same kind. But if he wore a body, and his resurrection was with a body—so that he even ate, as is written in the Gospel according to John—whereas those of the believers in Christ who rise are raised in another manner, as those from the heresies suppose, then they cannot show how Jesus is "the firstborn from the dead". For if we "have become conformed" to the death of Christ, we shall be conformed "also to his resurrection"; and consider how Paul teaches, saying, "Who will transform the body of our humiliation into conformity with the body of the glory" of Christ.
Shamelessly, then, do certain people accept that "Christ has been raised from the dead, yet say that there is no resurrection of the dead". Therefore the Apostle says, "But if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?" Even if a man does not say it with his mouth, but says in his heart "There is no resurrection of the dead", he in effect rejects also the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For if the universal statement is false, it is clear that the one who rose from the dead is also included in the universal. For if "the dead are not raised", and Jesus too was among the dead, then "neither has" Jesus "been raised"; but if he has been raised, through him the resurrection of the dead is made manifest—unless we disbelieve because of the impossibility of the matter in itself, forgetting who it is that has promised. For what, among things impossible—so to speak—is more impossible: that the body be made alive, or that heaven come to be out of things that are not, or the sun, or the rest of created things?
Come now to the very beginning of man; go back over his origin. There is shown to you the seed of a man. If someone said, 'This seed will become a man, it will be formed, there will be bones, from it flesh, sinews, veins; it will walk about; from this small, paltry seed a man raised upright upon the earth will make use of his organs'—would we not have called the one proclaiming these things to us a fool, had we not had experience of it? So then, let me be bold and set before you the resurrection, that you may the more accept it, having put your trust in the perfection of God. As that seed stood in relation to this present body—the body that now stands present, the generative one, the one that sows, that has become the instrument of words and deeds done according to righteousness—so this body comes to stand in relation to that one: "The grain of wheat, unless it falls into the ground and dies, remains alone by itself"; but if it falls into the ground and dies and rots away, out of the rotting of the grain of wheat an ear grows a hundredfold. For that your body is the seed of that which is to rise, hear Paul saying: "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body". You see how there, in the case of the seed, something paltry and of no account was sown, and there has risen a comely and beautiful man; in the same way this dead thing is a grain of wheat to God, as that which is to rise up beforehand. So then, just as God found the means to make an ear from the grain of wheat—not from resources apart from those in the small seed; for from that seed he raised the ear, and from each seed he raises what is present potentially in the seed—so from the seed of a man, at the beginning, this man came to be. But if his body dies, it becomes the seed of that which is to rise from the dead "in glory" in Christ Jesus. And the Apostle reckoned disbelief in the resurrection from the dead to be equivalent to not believing that we shall exist at all after our departure. Therefore, to those who do not believe that there will be a resurrection of the dead—since according to them there is no other life beyond the present one—he says, "If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied". And in what follows too, as against those who say there is no resurrection of the dead, there being no life beyond this present existence, he says, "Why do we too endanger ourselves every hour? I die daily, by your boasting, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord", and so on. The sect of the Sadducees too, who reject the resurrection of the dead, makes clear that it follows for them that you do not even live after the present life. Wherefore the Savior, in answering them, takes an example from the Law alone concerning the existence of the resurrection from the dead, quoting the express text, saying: "But concerning" the "resurrection of the dead, have you not read" that "God said at" the "Bush, saying, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead but of the living".
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. The firstfruits are the firstfruits of many. And as we have seen by way of the example of the things in the Law: a firstfruit of grain is offered up by those who have reaped grain; and, say, of wine by those who have harvested wine; and of oil from those who have pressed the olive; so, if our Lord Jesus Christ is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, there must be many of whom he is the firstfruits; and we inquire whether he is the firstfruits of all or of many. For he says, Christ the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. If, then, we did not have the wording from the outset, we might indeed have said—thinking it something ill-omened in this passage to say that he is the firstfruits of all—that he is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, of the righteous only and not of the rest. But now the Apostle himself says, For since through a man came death, through a man also comes the resurrection of the dead; how could he be speaking of some, when he speaks of all? For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ—he did not say The righteous shall be made alive, but all shall be made alive. Then, lest you be troubled and say, 'Has, then, all this great toil been drained out by me in vain, if indeed Christ, risen from the dead, is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep of all, and in Christ all shall be made alive?'—he says, But each in his own order. All, then, died in Adam, and all shall be made alive in Christ; but even if all died in Adam, none the less Abraham was righteous, Isaac was a patriarch, Jacob—who begot the twelve patriarchs—was Israel; and thus you will proceed to the rest of the righteous as well. I make bold to say that, whereas the Apostle said that Christ Jesus is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, I, alongside him, would put it thus: This one is the firstfruits unto life of those who are to live, while Adam has become the firstfruits of the death of men; for in Adam all die, since he received the firstfruits of death; but the Savior, wishing to take up the firstfruits of life, first took up the death of those who have died, so that, having abolished death, he might become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep and are alive.
§ LXXXV* — 1 Corinthians xv 31
I die, by your boasting which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, daily.
[Of Origen]
It must be inquired whether he did not transgress the evangelical command that says "Do not swear at all".
§ LXXXVI* — 1 Corinthians xv 32
If, after the manner of men, I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what is the profit to me?
[Of Origen]
There are also intelligible wild beasts.
§ LXXXVII — 1 Corinthians xv 35–38
But someone will say, How are the dead raised, and with what body do they come? Fool, what you sow is not brought to life unless it dies; and what you sow, you do not sow the body that shall come to be, but a bare grain — of wheat, it may be, or of some one of the rest; but God gives it a body as he willed, and to each of the seeds its own body.
[Of Origen]
Is then the seed of man, alone of all those bodies, useless to the Creator — so that one may hope there is a resurrection of the dead, if one may so speak, in the manner of the olive and of the vine and of the wheat? And from the tiny seed-kernel of the fig there rises so great a fig tree, and you do not laugh at this which you behold in actual experience? And if someone tells you that from this little thing there rises up a fig tree bearing fruit, having learned it by experience you do not laugh it to scorn. But since the season has not yet come for that which is to rise from the human body — in the resurrection from the dead — to spring up, are you unwilling to wait, that you may see this too? Or do you not know that in the case of all the other seeds as well, not every season is suitable for the seeds to spring up? Rather, a grain of wheat rises up at this season of the year; the grape-stone rises up at this hour of the year; the stone of the olive in this month, not at every time. But do you wish, in the case of the body of man — so that you may believe — that the dead should rise year by year, like the grape-stone, like the olive, and will you not behold one extraordinary season, that you may know the resurrection of the dead? What is the one season? At the consummation of the age. So that after the resurrection from the dead you may no longer be in the present evil age. For Jesus Christ suffered "that he might deliver us out of the present evil age"; and "redeeming the time, because the days are evil". Well, then, did God dispense this too, together with the rest.
§ LXXXVIII* — 1 Corinthians xv 51
Behold, I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
[Of Origen]
Paul, in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, calls all those like himself "the living"; for the "God of the living" is the God both of Paul and of those like him.
§ LXXXIX — 1 Corinthians xvi 10–12
If Timothy comes, see to it that he is with you without fear, for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I also am; let no one, then, despise him. Send him on his way in peace, that he may come to me, for I am awaiting him along with the brethren. Now concerning Apollos the brother, I urged him much to come to you with the brethren; and it was by no means willed that he come now; but he will come whenever he has opportunity.
[Of Origen]
Toward the beginning of the epistle he said, "I hear that there are divisions "among you""; for "each one "of you"," he says, ""says, I indeed am of Paul, and I of Apollos""—this being the Apollos concerning whom he speaks, when such faction and disturbance existed in the Church of the Corinthians. This admirable Apollos, being bishop of the people of that time, took refuge with the Apostle as with a judge. Paul was doing the work of his apostolate; the affairs pressing upon him while he was then staying in Asia did not permit him to leave the affairs in Asia and go to Corinth; but in his own stead he chose Timothy and sent him to set right the affairs in Corinth, and necessarily, in sending him with the letter, to commend him to the Church. For when the saints visited a place and benefited those who heard them, they came neither ""in weakness"" nor ""in fear"" nor ""in trembling""; but when they came to those who were weaker, they visited ""in weakness and in fear and in trembling""; such were the Corinthians, so that it was not Paul the great who visited them, but the weak one, according as he said, ""I became to the weak as weak, that I might gain the weak"." And for this reason he said, ""And I was with you in weakness""; for this reason too he came to be ""in fear and in much trembling"," so that he might prevail over his hearers. Since, then, to visit in fear and in trembling belongs to the one who is going to be of benefit to his hearers, he now exhorts the Corinthians that Timothy may be with them without fear; for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I also am; that is, what I would have done had I visited you, this Timothy does for you. Let no one, then, despise him; for if you despise him, you despise me also; for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I also am. Send him on his way in peace, that he may come to me; now indeed he comes to you to make peace. For he finds faction among you in the Church; but when you have come to concord and have been set right by the things spoken by him, and have taken up peace, send him on his way in your concord and peace, that he may come to me. For I am awaiting him along with the brethren; what brethren? Those concerning whom he said before, ""Whomever you approve, these I will send by letter"." I await him, then, hearing that he will return, reporting to me your affairs.
Now concerning Apollos the brother, I urged him to come to you; and it was by no means willed that he come now. He was, as is likely, a holy man, a friend of peace, and, seeing faction and disturbance in the Church under his charge, he did not lay claim to the place but yielded. Then the Apostle urges him, after showing patience, to return to his own community. But this man had not so much as seen Corinth, not because he disobeyed the Apostle; for he would not otherwise have thus commended his own judgment, as though it were not subordinate; for he says, It was by no means willed that he come now; as if to say: it was not without the will of God that he acted in not coming to you; but he will come whenever he has opportunity. And when does he have opportunity? If you are at peace, if you do not despise Timothy.
§ XC — 1 Corinthians xvi 13–14
Watch, stand fast in the faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all your affairs be done in love.
[Of Origen]
For there is a certain sleep of the soul, and a wakefulness; and therefore, turning the soul away from slumbering, the word through Solomon says, "Give not sleep to your eyes, nor drowsiness to your eyelids, that you may be saved like a gazelle from the snares and like a bird from the trap." And the Savior says, "Watch at every season and pray that you may be able to escape the trials that are about to come." Stand fast: be not shaken, but become steadfast. The double-minded man does not stand in the faith, nor does he who is in doubt about the matters pertaining to the faith. Be courageous: he speaks as to soldiers; for he says, "put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." Be strong: as if to say, "Take up strength," that, having been strengthened, you may be able to say, "I can do all things in Christ Jesus who strengthens me." Let all your affairs be done in love: for beginners it belongs to act in fear, but for the perfect to act in love.