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Translated from the Greek original by Frederick Crombie.
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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 36
In this way, if God be called "spirit," [4644] we do not mean that He is a "body." For it is the custom of Scripture to give to "intelligent beings" the names of "spirits" and "spiritual things," by way of distinction from those which are the objects of "sense;" as when Paul says, "But our sufficiency is of God; who hath also made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life," [4645] where by the "letter" he means that "exposition of Scripture which is apparent to the senses," [4646] while by the "spirit" that which is the object of the "understanding." It is the same, too, with the expression, "God is a Spirit." And because the prescriptions of the law were obeyed both by Samaritans and Jews in a corporeal and literal [4647] manner, our Saviour said to the Samaritan woman, "The hour is coming, when neither in Jerusalem, nor in this mountain, shall ye worship the Father. God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." [4648] And by these words He taught men that God must be worshipped not in the flesh, and with fleshly sacrifices, but in the spirit. And He will be understood to be a Spirit in proportion as the worship rendered to Him is rendered in spirit, and with understanding. It is not, however, with images [4649] that we are to worship the Father, but "in truth," which "came by Jesus Christ," after the giving of the law by Moses. For when we turn to the Lord (and the Lord is a Spirit [4650] ), He takes away the veil which lies upon the heart when Moses is read.
[4644] pneuma. There is an allusion to the two meanings of pneuma, "wind" and "spirit."
[4645] 2 Cor. iii. 5, 6.
[4646] ten aistheten ekdochen.
[4647] tupikos here evidently must have the above meaning.
[4648] Cf. John iv. 21, 24.
[4649] en tupois.
[4650] Cf. 2 Cor. iii. 17.
Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/contra-celsum-4.asp?pg=36
