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Translated by Frederick Crombie.
Origen Resources OnLine & in Print
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128 Pages
Page 84
7. Having sketched, then, so far as we could understand, these three opinions regarding the end of all things, and the supreme blessedness, let each one of our readers determine for himself, with care and diligence, whether any one of them can be approved and adopted. [2095] For it has been said that we must suppose either that an incorporeal existence is possible, after all things have become subject to Christ, and through Christ to God the Father, when God will be all and in all; or that when, notwithstanding all things have been made subject to Christ, and through Christ to God (with whom they formed also one spirit, in respect of spirits being rational natures), then the bodily substance itself also being united to most pure and excellent spirits, and being changed into an ethereal condition in proportion to the quality or merits of those who assume it (according to the apostle's words, "We also shall be changed"), will shine forth in splendour; or at least that when the fashion of those things which are seen passes away, and all corruption has been shaken off and cleansed away, and when the whole of the space occupied by this world, in which the spheres of the planets are said to be, has been left behind and beneath, [2096] then is reached the fixed abode of the pious and the good situated above that sphere, which is called non-wandering (aplanes), as in a good land, in a land of the living, which will be inherited by the meek and gentle; to which land belongs that heaven (which, with its more magnificent extent, surrounds and contains that land itself) which is called truly and chiefly heaven, in which heaven and earth, the end and perfection of all things, may be safely and most confidently placed,--where, viz., these, after their apprehension and their chastisement for the offences which they have undergone by way of purgation, may, after having fulfilled and discharged every obligation, deserve a habitation in that land; while those who have been obedient to the word of God, and have henceforth by their obedience shown themselves capable of wisdom, are said to deserve the kingdom of that heaven or heavens; and thus the prediction is more worthily fulfilled, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth;" [2097] and, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall inherit the kingdom of heaven;" [2098] and the declaration in the Psalm, "He shall exalt thee, and thou shalt inherit the land." [2099] For it is called a descent to this earth, but an exaltation to that which is on high. In this way, therefore, does a sort of road seem to be opened up by the departure of the saints from that earth to those heavens; so that they do not so much appear to abide in that land, as to inhabit it with an intention, viz., to pass on to the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, when they have reached that degree of perfection also.
[2095] This passage is found in Jerome's Epistle to Avitus, and, literally translated, is as follows: "A threefold suspicion, therefore, is suggested to us regarding the end, of which the reader may examine which is the true and better one. For we shall either live without a body, when, being subject to Christ, we shall be subject to God, and God shall be all in all; or, as things subject to Christ will be subject along with Christ Himself to God, and enclosed in one covenant, so all substance will be reduced to the best quality and dissolved into an ether, which is of a purer and simpler nature; or at least that sphere which we have called above aplane, and whatever is contained within its circumference (circulo), will be dissolved into nothing, but that one by which the anti-zone (antizone) itself is held together and surrounded will be called a good land; and, moreover, another sphere which surrounds this very earth itself with its revolution, and is called heaven, will be preserved for a habitation of the saints."
[2096] Omnique hoc mundi statu, in quo planetarum dicuntur sphaerae, supergresso atque superato.
[2097] Matt. v. 5.
[2098] Matt. v. 3.
[2099] Ps. xxxvii. 34.
Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/principia.asp?pg=84
