Origenes
Late Second Century
From His Various Works, Including Principas
For His Full Treatment of Biblical
Interpretation, See "The Principles" Schaff - "[Origen was] the greatest
scholar of his age, and the most gifted, most industrious, and most
cultivated of all the ante-Nicene fathers."(History of the Christian
Church, vol. II, 790.)
OnThe Significance of A.D. 70"I challenge
anyone to prove my statement untrue if I say that the entire Jewish nation
was destroyed less than one whole generation later on account of these
sufferings which they inflicted on Jesus. For it was, I believe, forty-two
years from the time when they crucified Jesus to the destruction of
Jerusalem." (Contra Celsum, 198-199)
"And a sign that she has received the bill of
divorcement is this, that Jerusalem was destroyed along with what they
called the sanctuary of the things in it which were believed to be holy,
and with the altar of burnt offerings, and all the worship associated with
it.
And a further sign of the bill of divorcement is
this, that they cannot keep their feasts, even though according to the
letter of the law designedly commanded them, in the place which the Lord
God appointed to them for keeping feasts; but there is this also, that the
whole synagogue has become unable to stone those who have committed this
or that sin; and thousands of things commanded are a sign of the bill of
divorcement; and the fact that "there is no more a prophet," and that they
say, "We no longer see signs;" for the Lord says, "He hath taken away from
Judaea and from Jerusalem," according to the word of Isaiah, "Him that is
mighty, and her that is mighty, a powerful giant," etc., down to the
words, "a prudent hearer."
Now, He who is the Christ may have taken the
synagogue to wife and cohabited with her, but it may be that afterwards
she found not favour in His sight; and the reason of her not having found
favour in His sight was, that there was found in her an unseemly thing;
for what was more unseemly than the Circumstance that, when it was
proposed to them to release one at the feast, they asked for the release
of Barabbas the robber, and the condemnation of Jesus?
And what was more unseemly than the fact, that
they all said in His case, "Crucify Him, crucify Him," and "Away with such
a fellow from the earth"? And can this be freed from the charge of
unseemliness, "His blood be upon us, and upon our children"? Wherefore,
when He was avenged, Jerusalem was compassed with armies, and its
desolation was near, and their house was taken away from it, and "the
daughter of Zion was left as a booth in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a
garden of cucumbers, and as a besieged city." (COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL
ACCORDING TO MATTHEW, Book 2., sec. 19.)
"But if "the children of Israel are to sit many
days without a king, or ruler, or altar, or priesthood, or responses;" and
if, since the temple was destroyed, there exists no longer sacrifice, nor
altar, nor priesthood, it is manifest that the ruler has failed out of
Judah, and the leader from between his thighs. And since the prediction
declares that "the ruler shall not fail from Judah, and the leader from
between his thighs, until what is reserved for Him shall come," it is
manifest that He is come to whom (belongs) what is reserved--the
expectation of the Gentiles. And this is clear from the multitude of the
heathen who have believed on God through Jesus Christ. (Principles, 4:1:3)
"This Jew of Celsus continues, after the above,
in the following fashion: "Although he could state many things regarding
the events of the life of Jesus which are true, and not like those which
are recorded by the disciples, he willingly omits them." What, then, are
those true statements, unlike the accounts in the Gospels, which the Jew
of Celsus passes by without mention?
Or is he only employing what appears to be a
figure of speech, in pretending to have something to say, while in reality
he had nothing to produce beyond the Gospel narrative which could impress
the hearer with a feeling of its truth, and furnish a clear ground of
accusation against Jesus and His doctrine? And he charges the disciples
with having invented the statement that Jesus foreknew and foretold all
that happened to Him; but the truth of this statement we shall establish,
although Celsus may not like it, by means of many other predictions
uttered by the Savior, in which He foretold what would befall the
Christians in after generations.
And who is there who would not be astonished at
this prediction: "Ye shall be brought before governors and kings for My
sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles;" and at any others
which He may have delivered respecting the future persecution of His
disciples? For what system of opinions ever existed among men on account
of which others are punished, so that any one of the accusers of Jesus
could say that, foreseeing the impiety or falsity of his opinions to be
the ground of an accusation against them he thought that this would
redound to his credit, that he had so predicted regarding it long before?
Now if any deserve to be brought, on account of their opinions, before
governors and kings, what others are they, save the Epicureans, who
altogether deny the existence of providence?
And also the Peripatetics, who say that prayers
are of no avail, and sacrifices offered as to the Divinity? But some one
will say that the Samaritans suffer persecution because of their religion.
In answer to whom we shall state that the Sicarians, on account of the
practice of circumcision, as mutilating themselves contrary to the
established laws and the customs permitted to the Jews alone, are put to
death. And you never hear a judge inquiring whether a Sicarian who strives
to live according to this established religion of his will be released
from punishment if he apostatizes, but will be led away to death if he
continues firm; for the evidence of the circumcision is sufficient to
ensure the death of him who has undergone it.
But Christians alone, according to the prediction
of their Savior, "Ye shall be brought before governors and kings for My
sake," are urged up to their last breath by their judges to deny
Christianity, and to sacrifice according to the public customs; and after
the oath of abjuration, to return to their homes, and to live in safety.
And observe whether it is not with great authority that this declaration
is uttered: "Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I
confess also before My Father who is in heaven. And whosoever shall deny
Me before men," etc.
And go back with me in thought to Jesus when He
uttered these words, and see His predictions not yet accomplished. Perhaps
you will say, in a spirit of incredulity, that he is talking folly, and
speaking to no purpose, for his words will have no fulfillment; or, being
in doubt about assenting to his words, you will say, that if these
predictions be fulfilled, and the doctrine of Jesus be established, so
that governors and kings think of destroying those who acknowledge Jesus,
then we shall believe that he utters these prophecies as one who has
received great power from God to implant this doctrine among the human
race, and as believing that it will prevail.
And who will not be filled with wonder, when he
goes back in thought to Him who then taught and said, "This Gospel shall
be preached throughout the whole world, for a testimony against them and
the Gentiles," and beholds, agreeably to His words, the Gospel of Jesus
Christ preached in the whole world under heaven to Greeks and Barbarians,
wise and foolish alike? For the word, spoken with power, has gained the
mastery over men of all sorts of nature, and it is impossible to see any
race of men which has escaped accepting the teaching of Jesus.
But let this Jew of Celsus, who does not believe
that He foreknew all that happened to Him, consider how, while Jerusalem
was still standing, and the whole Jewish worship celebrated in it, Jesus
foretold what would befall it from the hand of the Romans. For they will
not maintain that the acquaintances and pupils of Jesus Himself handed
down His teaching contained in the Gospels without committing it to
writing, and left His disciples without the memoirs of Jesus contained in
their works. Now in these it is recorded, that "when ye shall see
Jerusalem compassed about with armies, then shall ye know that the
desolation thereof is nigh."
But at that time there were no armies around
Jerusalem, encompassing and enclosing and besieging it; for the siege
began in the reign of Nero, and lasted till the government of Vespasian,
whose son Titus destroyed Jerusalem, on account, as Josephus says, of
James the Just, the brother of Jesus who was called Christ, but in
reality, as the truth makes clear, on account of Jesus Christ the Son of
God." (Origen Against Celcus, Book 2, ch. 13)
"But when he goes on to say that "those who
inflicted death upon Jesus suffered nothing afterwards through so long a
time," we must inform him, as well as all who are disposed to learn the
truth, that the city in which the Jewish people called for the crucifixion
of Jesus with shouts of "Crucify him, crucify him," preferring to have the
robber set free, who had been cast into prison for sedition and murder and
Jesus, who had been delivered through envy, to be crucified, ? that this
city not long afterwards was attacked, and, after a long siege, was
utterly overthrown and laid waste; for God judged the inhabitants of that
place unworthy of living together the life of citizens.
And yet, though it may seem an incredible thing
to say, God spared this people in delivering them to their enemies; for He
saw that they were incurably averse to any amendment, and were daily
sinking deeper and deeper into evil.
And all this befell them, because the blood of
Jesus was shed at their instigation and on their land; and the land was no
longer able to bear those who were guilty of so fearful a crime against
Jesus. (Origen Against Celcus, Book 8, ch. 42)
On theSeventy Weeks of Daniel"The weeks of
years, also, which the prophet Daniel had predicted, extending to the
leadership of Christ, have been fulfilled" (Principles, 4:1:5).
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