Origen, COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Complete

Translated by Allan Menzies.

Origen Resources OnLine & in Print

128 Pages

Page 21

18. (3) of Substance.

In the third place a beginning may be that out of which a thing comes, the underlying matter from which things are formed. This, however, is the view of those who hold matter itself to be uncreated, a view which we believers cannot share, since we believe God to have made the things that are out of the things which are not, as the mother of the seven martyrs in the Maccabees teaches, [4538] and as the angel of repentance in the Shepherd inculcated. [4539]

19. (4) of Type and Copy.

In addition to these meanings there is that in which we speak of an arche, [4540] according to form; thus if the first-born of every creature [4541] is the image of the invisible God, then the Father is his arche. In the same way Christ is the arche of those who are made according to the image of God. For if men are according to the image, but the image according to the Father; in the first case the Father is the arche of Christ, and in the other Christ is the arche of men, and men are made, not according to that of which he is the image, but according to the image. With this example our passage will agree: "In the arche was the Word."

[4538] 2 Macc. vii. 28.

[4539] Herm. Sim. viii.

[4540] We must here reproduce the Greek word, as Origen passes to meanings of it which the English "beginning" does not cover.

[4541] Coloss. i. 15.

Previous Page / First / Next Page of Origen - COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

Origen Home Page ||| More Church Fathers

Elpenor's Free Greek Lessons

Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/john-commentary.asp?pg=21