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Chapter III.—On the Beginning of the World, and Its
Causes.
1. The next subject of inquiry is, whether there
was any other world before the one which now exists; and if so, whether
it was such as the present, or somewhat different, or inferior; or
whether there was no world at all, but something like that which we
understand will be after the end of all things, when the kingdom shall
be delivered up to God, even the Father; which nevertheless may have
been the end of another world,—of that, namely, after which this
world took its beginning; and whether the various lapses of
intellectual natures provoked God to produce this diverse and varying
condition of the world. This point also, I think, must be
investigated in a similar way, viz., whether after this world there
will be any (system of) preservation and amendment, severe indeed, and
attended with much pain to those who were unwilling to obey the word of
God, but a process through which, by means of instruction and rational
training, those may arrive at a fuller understanding of the truth who
have devoted themselves in the present life to these pursuits, and who,
after having had their minds purified, have advanced onwards so as to
become capable of attaining divine wisdom; and after this the end of
all things will immediately follow, and there will be again, for the
correction and improvement of those who stand in need of it, another
world, either resembling that which now exists, or better than it, or
greatly inferior; and how long that world, whatever it be that is to
come after this, shall continue; and if there will be a time when no
world shall anywhere exist, or if there has been a time when there was
no world at all; or if there have been, or will be several; or if it
shall ever come to pass that there will be one resembling another, like
it in every respect, and indistinguishable from it.
2. That it may appear more clearly, then,
whether bodily matter can exist during intervals of time, and whether,
as it did not exist before it was made, so it may again be resolved
into non-existence, let us see, first of all, whether it is possible
for any one to live without a body. For if one person can live
without a body, all things also may dispense with them; seeing our
former treatise has shown that all things tend towards one end.
Now, if all things may exist without bodies, there will undoubtedly be
no bodily substance, seeing there will be no use for it. But how
shall we understand the words of the apostle in those passages, in
which, discussing the resurrection of the dead, he says, “This
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality. When this corruptible shall have put on
incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall
be brought to pass the saying which is written, Death is swallowed up
in victory! Where, O death, is thy victory? O death, thy
sting has been swallowed up: the sting of death is sin, and the
strength of sin is the law.”2078
2078 1 Cor. xv. 53–56; cf. Hos. xiii. 14 and
Isa. xxv. 8. | Some
such meaning, then, as this, seems to be suggested by the
apostle. For can the expression which he employs, “this
corruptible,” and “this mortal,” with the gesture, as
it were, of one who touches or points out, apply to anything else than
to bodily matter? This matter of the body, then, which is now
corruptible shall put on incorruption when a perfect soul, and one
furnished with the marks2079
2079 Dogmatibus.
Schnitzer says that “dogmatibus” here yields no
sense. He conjectures δείγμασι, and
renders “proofs,” “marks.” | of incorruption,
shall have begun to inhabit it. And do not be surprised if we
speak of a perfect soul as the clothing of the body (which, on account
of the Word of God and His wisdom, is now named incorruption), when
Jesus Christ Himself, who is the Lord and Creator of the soul, is said
to be the clothing of the saints, according to the language of the
apostle, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.”2080 As Christ, then, is the clothing of
the soul, so for a kind of reason sufficiently intelligible is the soul
said to be the clothing of the body, seeing it is an ornament to it,
covering and concealing its mortal nature. The expression, then,
“This corruptible must put on incorruption,” is as if the
apostle had said, “This corruptible nature of the body must
receive the clothing of incorruption—a soul possessing in itself
incorruptibility,” because it has been clothed with Christ, who
is the Wisdom and Word of God. But when this body, which at some
future period we shall possess in a more glorious state, shall have
become a partaker of life, it will then, in addition to being immortal,
become also incorruptible. For whatever is mortal is necessarily
also corruptible; but whatever is corruptible cannot also be said to be
mortal. We say of a stone or a piece of wood that it is
corruptible, but we do not say that it follows that it is also
mortal. But as the body partakes of life, then because life may
be, and is, separated from it, we consequently name it mortal, and
according to another sense also we speak of it as corruptible.
The holy apostle therefore, with remarkable insight, referring to the
general first cause of bodily matter, of which (matter), whatever be
the qualities with which it is endowed (now indeed carnal, but by and
by more refined and pure, which are termed spiritual), the soul makes
constant use, says, “This corruptible must put on
incorruption.” And in the second place, looking to the
special cause of the body, he says, “This mortal must put on
immortality.” Now, what else will incorruption and
immortality be, save the wisdom, and the word, and the righteousness of
God, which mould, and clothe, and adorn the soul? And hence it
happens that it is said, “The corruptible will put on
incorruption, and the mortal immortality.” For although we
may now make great proficiency, yet as we only know in part, and
prophesy in part, and see through a glass, darkly, those very things
which we seem to understand, this corruptible does not yet put on
incorruption, nor is this mortal yet clothed with immorality; and as
this training of ours in the body is protracted doubtless to a longer
period, up to the time, viz., when those very bodies of ours with which
we are enveloped may, on account of the word of God, and His wisdom and
perfect righteousness, earn incorruptibility and immortality, therefore
is it said, “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this
mortal must put on immortality.”
3. But, nevertheless, those who think that
rational creatures can at any time lead an existence out of the body,
may here raise such questions as the following. If it is true
that this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal put on
immortality, and that death is swallowed up at the end; this shows that
nothing else than a material nature is to be destroyed, on which death
could operate, while the mental acumen of those who are in the body
seems to be blunted by the nature of corporeal matter. If,
however, they are out of the body, then they will altogether escape the
annoyance arising from a disturbance of that kind. But as they
will not be able immediately to escape all bodily clothing, they are
just to be considered as inhabiting more refined and purer bodies,
which possess the property of being no longer overcome by death, or of
being wounded by its sting; so that at last, by the gradual
disappearance of the material nature, death is both swallowed up, and
even at the end exterminated, and all its sting completely blunted by
the divine grace which the soul has been rendered capable of receiving,
and has thus deserved to obtain incorruptibility and immortality.
And then it will be deservedly said by all, “O death, where is
thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? The sting of
death is sin.” If these conclusions, then, seem to hold
good, it follows that we must believe our condition at some future time
to be incorporeal; and if this is admitted, and all are said to be
subjected to Christ, this (incorporeity) also must necessarily be
bestowed on all to whom the subjection to Christ extends; since all who
are subject to Christ will be in the end subject to God the Father, to
whom Christ is said to deliver up the kingdom; and thus it appears that
then also the need of bodies will cease.2081
2081 This passage is
found in Jerome’s Epistle to Avitus; and, literally
translated, his rendering is as follows: “If these (views)
are not contrary to the faith, we shall perhaps at some future time
live without bodies. But if he who is perfectly subject to Christ
is understood to be without a body, and all are to be subjected to
Christ, we also shall be without bodies when we have been completely
subjected to Him. If all have been subjected to God, all will lay
aside their bodies, and the whole nature of bodily things will be
dissolved into nothing; but if, in the second place, necessity shall
demand, it will again come into existence on account of the fall of
rational creatures. For God has abandoned souls to struggle and
wrestling, that they may understand that they have obtained a full and
perfect victory, not by their own bravery, but by the grace of
God. And therefore I think that for a variety of causes are
different worlds created, and the errors of those refuted who contend
that worlds resemble each other.” A fragment of the Greek
original of the above is found in the Epistle of Justinian to the
patriarch of Constantinople. “If the things subject to
Christ shall at the end be subjected also to God, all will lay aside
their bodies; and then, I think, there will be a dissolution
(ἀνάλυσις) of the
nature of bodies into non-existence (εἰς τὸ μὴ
ὄν), to come a second time into existence, if
rational (beings) should again gradually come down (ὑποκαταβῇ).” | And if it ceases, bodily matter
returns to nothing, as formerly also it did not exist.
Now let us see what can be said in answer to those who
make these assertions. For it will appear to be a necessary
consequence that, if bodily nature be annihilated, it must be again
restored and created; since it seems a possible thing that rational
natures, from whom the faculty of free-will is never taken away, may be
again subjected to movements of some kind, through the special act of
the Lord Himself, lest perhaps, if they were always to occupy a
condition that was unchangeable, they should be ignorant that it is by
the grace of God and not by their own merit that they have been placed
in that final state of happiness; and these movements will undoubtedly
again be attended by variety and diversity of bodies, by which the
world is always adorned; nor will it ever be composed (of anything)
save of variety and diversity,—an effect which cannot be produced
without a bodily matter.
4. And now I do not understand by what proofs they
can maintain their position, who assert that worlds sometimes come into
existence which are not dissimilar to each other, but in all respects
equal. For if there is said to be a world similar in all respects
(to the present), then it will come to pass that Adam and Eve will do
the same things which they did before: there will be a second
time the same deluge, and the same Moses will again lead a nation
numbering nearly six hundred thousand out of Egypt; Judas will also a
second time betray the Lord; Paul will a second time keep the garments
of those who stoned Stephen; and everything which has been done in this
life will be said to be repeated,—a state of things which I think
cannot be established by any reasoning, if souls are actuated by
freedom of will, and maintain either their advance or retrogression
according to the power of their will. For souls are not driven on in a cycle which returns after
many ages to the same round, so as either to do or desire this or that;
but at whatever point the freedom of their own will aims, thither do
they direct the course of their actions. For what these persons
say is much the same as if one were to assert that if a medimnus of
grain were to be poured out on the ground, the fall of the grain would
be on the second occasion identically the same as on the first, so that
every individual grain would lie for the second time close beside that
grain where it had been thrown before, and so the medimnus would be
scattered in the same order, and with the same marks as formerly; which
certainly is an impossible result with the countless grains of a
medimnus, even if they were to be poured out without ceasing for many
ages. So therefore it seems to me impossible for a world to be
restored for the second time, with the same order and with the same
amount of births, and deaths, and actions; but that a diversity of
worlds may exist with changes of no unimportant kind, so that the state
of another world may be for some unmistakeable reasons better (than
this), and for others worse, and for others again intermediate.
But what may be the number or measure of this I confess myself
ignorant, although, if any one can tell it, I would gladly learn.
5. But this world, which is itself called an
age, is said to be the conclusion of many ages. Now the holy
apostle teaches that in that age which preceded this, Christ did not
suffer, nor even in the age which preceded that again; and I know not
that I am able to enumerate the number of anterior ages in which He did
not suffer. I will show, however, from what statements of Paul I
have arrived at this understanding. He says, “But now once
in the consummation of ages, He was manifested to take away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself.”2082 For He says
that He was once made a victim, and in the consummation of ages was
manifested to take away sin. Now that after this age, which is
said to be formed for the consummation of other ages, there will be
other ages again to follow, we have clearly learned from Paul himself,
who says, “That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace in His kindness towards us.”2083 He has not said, “in the age to
come,” nor “in the two ages to come,” whence I infer
that by his language many ages are indicated. Now if there is
something greater than ages, so that among created beings certain ages
may be understood, but among other beings which exceed and surpass
visible creatures, (ages still greater) (which perhaps will be the case
at the restitution of all things, when the whole universe will come to
a perfect termination), perhaps that period in which the consummation
of all things will take place is to be understood as something more
than an age. But here the authority of holy Scripture moves me,
which says, “For an age and more.”2084
2084 In sæculum et
adhuc. | Now this word “more”
undoubtedly means something greater than an age; and see if that
expression of the Saviour, “I will that where I am, these also
may be with Me; and as I and Thou are one, these also may be one in
Us,”2085
2085 Cf. John xvii. 24, 21, 22. | may not seem to
convey something more than an age and ages, perhaps even more than ages
of ages,—that period, viz., when all things are now no longer in
an age, but when God is in all.
6. Having discussed these points regarding
the nature of the world to the best of our ability, it does not seem
out of place to inquire what is the meaning of the term world, which in
holy Scripture is shown frequently to have different
significations. For what we call in Latin mundus, is
termed in Greek κόσμος, and κόσμος
signifies not only a world, but also an ornament. Finally,
in Isaiah, where the language of reproof is directed to the chief
daughters of Sion, and where he says, “Instead of an ornament of
a golden head, thou wilt have baldness on account of thy
works,”2086
2086 Cf. Isa. iii. 24. Origen here quotes the
Septuagint, which differs both from the Hebrew and the Vulgate:
καὶ
ἀντὶ τοῦ
κόσμου τῆς
κεφαλῆς τοῦ
χρυσίου
φαλάκρωμα
ἕξεις διὰ τὰ
ἔργά σου. | he employs the same
term to denote ornament as to denote the world, viz.,
κόσμος. For the
plan of the world is said to be contained in the clothing of the high
priest, as we find in the Wisdom of Solomon, where he says, “For
in the long garment was the whole world.”2087 That earth of ours, with its
inhabitants, is also termed the world, as when Scripture says,
“The whole world lieth in wickedness.”2088 Clement indeed, a disciple of the
apostles, makes mention of those whom the Greeks called
᾽Αντίχθονες
, and other parts of the earth, to which no one of our people can
approach, nor can any one of those who are there cross over to us,
which he also termed worlds, saying, “The ocean is impassable to
men; and those are worlds which are on the other side of it, which are
governed by these same arrangements of the ruling God.”2089
2089 Clemens Rom., Ep. i.,
ad Cor., c. 20. [See vol. i. p. 10, of this series.
S.] | That universe which is bounded by
heaven and earth is also called a world, as Paul declares:
“For the fashion of this world will pass away.”2090 Our Lord and Saviour also points out a
certain other world besides this visible one, which it would indeed be
difficult to describe and make known. He says, “I am not of
this world.”2091 For, as if He
were of a certain other world, He says, “I am not of this
world.” Now, of this world we have said beforehand, that
the explanation was difficult; and for this reason, that there might
not be afforded to any an occasion of entertaining the supposition that
we maintain the existence of certain images which the Greeks call
“ideas:” for it is certainly alien to our (writers)
to speak of an incorporeal world existing in the imagination alone, or
in the fleeting world of thoughts; and how they can assert either that
the Saviour comes from thence, or that the saints will go thither, I do
not see. There is no doubt, however, that something more
illustrious and excellent than this present world is pointed out by the
Saviour, at which He incites and encourages believers to aim. But
whether that world to which He desires to allude be far separated and
divided from this either by situation, or nature, or glory; or whether
it be superior in glory and quality, but confined within the limits of
this world (which seems to me more probable), is nevertheless
uncertain, and in my opinion an unsuitable subject for human
thought. But from what Clement seems to indicate when he says,
“The ocean is impassable to men, and those worlds which are
behind it,” speaking in the plural number of the worlds which are
behind it, which he intimates are administered and governed by the same
providence of the Most High God, he appears to throw out to us some
germs of that view by which the whole universe of existing things,
celestial and super-celestial, earthly and infernal, is generally
called one perfect world, within which, or by which, other worlds, if
any there are, must be supposed to be contained. For which reason
he wished the globe of the sun or moon, and of the other bodies called
planets, to be each termed worlds. Nay, even that pre-eminent
globe itself which they call the non-wandering (ἀπλανῆ), they nevertheless desire
to have properly called world. Finally, they summon the book of
Baruch the prophet to bear witness to this assertion, because in it the
seven worlds or heavens are more clearly pointed out.
Nevertheless, above that sphere which they call non-wandering
(ἀπλανῆ), they will have
another sphere to exist, which they say, exactly as our heaven contains
all things which are under it, comprehends by its immense size and
indescribable extent the spaces of all the spheres together within its
more magnificent circumference; so that all things are within it, as
this earth of ours is under heaven. And this also is believed to
be called in the holy Scriptures the good land, and the land of the
living, having its own heaven, which is higher, and in which the names
of the saints are said to be written, or to have been written, by the
Saviour; by which heaven that earth is confined and shut in, which the
Saviour in the Gospel promises to the meek and merciful. For they
would have this earth of ours, which formerly was named
“Dry,” to have derived its appellation from the name of
that earth, as this heaven also was named firmament from the title of
that heaven. But we have treated at greater length of such
opinions in the place where we had to inquire into the meaning of the
declaration, that in the beginning “God made the heavens and the
earth.” For another heaven and another earth are shown to
exist besides that “firmament” which is said to have been
made after the second day, or that “dry land” which was
afterwards called “earth.” Certainly, what some say
of this world, that it is corruptible because it was made, and yet is
not corrupted, because the will of God, who made it and holds it
together lest corruption should rule over it, is stronger and more
powerful than corruption, may more correctly be supposed of that world
which we have called above a “non-wandering” sphere, since
by the will of God it is not at all subject to corruption, for the
reason that it has not admitted any causes of corruption, seeing it is
the world of the saints and of the thoroughly purified, and not of the
wicked, like that world of ours. We must see, moreover, lest
perhaps it is with reference to this that the apostle says,
“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the
things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are unseen are eternal. For we know that if
our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens.”2092 And when he
says elsewhere, “Because I shall see the heavens, the works of
Thy fingers,”2093 and when God said,
regarding all things visible, by the mouth of His prophet, “My
hand has formed all these things,”2094 He
declares that that eternal house in the heavens which He promises to
His saints was not made with hands, pointing out, doubtless, the
difference of creation in things which are seen and in those which are
not seen. For the same thing is not to be understood by the
expressions, “those things which are not seen,” and
“those things which are invisible.” For those things
which are invisible are not only not seen, but do not even possess the
property of visibility, being what the Greeks call ἀσώματα, i.e., incorporeal;
whereas those of which Paul says, “They are not seen,”
possess indeed the property of being seen, but, as he explains, are not
yet beheld by those to whom they are promised.
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
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 ἀπλανῆ, and whatever is contained
within its circumference (circulo), will be dissolved into
nothing, but that one by which the anti-zone (ἀντιζώνη) 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.” | 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
2096 Omnique hoc mundi
statu, in quo planetarum dicuntur sphæræ, supergresso atque
superato. | then is reached the
fixed abode of the pious and the good situated above that sphere, which
is called non-wandering (ἀπλανής), 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
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