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Translated by Frederick Crombie.
Origen Resources OnLine & in Print
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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 75
Let us now look also to the New Testament, where Satan approaches the Saviour, and tempts Him: wherein also it is stated that evil spirits and unclean demons, which had taken possession of very many, were expelled by the Saviour from the bodies of the sufferers, who are said also to be made free by Him. Even Judas, too, when the devil had already put it in his heart to betray Christ, afterwards received Satan wholly into him; for it is written, that after the sop "Satan entered into him." [2538] And the Apostle Paul teaches us that we ought not to give place to the devil; but "put on," he says, "the armour of God, that ye may be able to resist the wiles of the devil:" [2539] pointing out that the saints have to "wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." [2540] Nay, he says that the Saviour even was crucified by the princes of this world, who shall come to nought, [2541] whose wisdom also, he says, he does not speak. By all this, therefore, holy Scripture teaches us that there are certain invisible enemies that fight against us, and against whom it commands us to arm ourselves. Whence, also, the more simple among the believers in the Lord Christ are of opinion, that all the sins which men have committed are caused by the persistent efforts of these opposing powers exerted upon the minds of sinners, because in that invisible struggle these powers are found to be superior (to man). For if, for example, there were no devil, no single human being [2542] would go astray.
[2538] Cf. John xiii. 27.
[2539] Eph. vi. 13.
[2540] Eph. vi. 12.
[2541] Cf. 1 Cor. ii. 6.
[2542] Nemo hominum omnino.
Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/principiis.asp?pg=75
