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| A Letter from Origen to Gregory.
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A Letter from
Origen to Gregory.3063
| 3063 This Gregory, styled
the Wonder-worker, (Thaumaturgus) was afterwards bishop of
Neo-Cæsarea. |
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1. Greeting in God,
my most excellent sir, and venerable son Gregory, from Origen. A
natural readiness of comprehension, as you well know, may, if practice
be added, contribute somewhat to the contingent end, if I may so call
it, of that which any one wishes to practise. Thus, your natural
good parts might make of you a finished Roman lawyer or a Greek
philosopher, so to speak, of one of the schools in high
reputation. But I am anxious that you should devote all the
strength of your natural good parts to Christianity for your end; and
in order to this, I wish to ask you to extract from the philosophy of
the Greeks what may serve as a course of study or a preparation for
Christianity, and from geometry and astronomy what will serve to
explain the sacred Scriptures, in order that all that the sons of the
philosophers are wont to say about geometry and music, grammar,
rhetoric, and astronomy, as fellow-helpers to philosophy, we may say
about philosophy itself, in relation to Christianity.
2. Perhaps something of this kind is
shadowed forth in what is written in Exodus from the mouth of God, that
the children of Israel were commanded to ask from their neighbours, and
those who dwelt with them, vessels of silver and gold, and raiment, in
order that, by spoiling the Egyptians, they might have material for the
preparation of the things which pertained to the service of God.
For from the things which the children of Israel took from the
Egyptians the vessels in the holy of holies were made,—the ark
with its lid, and the Cherubim, and the mercy-seat, and the golden
coffer, where was the manna, the angels’ bread. These
things were probably made from the best of the Egyptian gold. An
inferior kind would be used for the solid golden candlestick near the
inner veil, and its branches, and the golden table on which were the
pieces of shewbread, and the golden censer between them. And if
there was a third and fourth quality of gold, from it would be made the
holy vessels; and the other things would be made of Egyptian
silver. For when the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt, they
gained this from their dwelling there, that they had no lack of such
precious material for the utensils of the service of God. And of
the Egyptian raiment were probably made all those things which, as the
Scripture mentions, needed sewed and embroidered work, sewed with the
wisdom of God, the one to the other, that the veils might be made, and
the inner and the outer courts. And why should I go on, in this
untimely digression, to set forth how useful to the children of Israel
were the things brought from Egypt, which the Egyptians had not put to
a proper use, but which the Hebrews, guided by the wisdom of God, used
for God’s service? Now the sacred Scripture is wont to
represent as an evil the going down from the land of the children of
Israel into Egypt, indicating that certain persons get harm from
sojourning among the Egyptians, that is to say, from meddling with the
knowledge of this world, after they have subscribed to the law of God,
and the Israelitish service of Him. Ader3064
at
least, the Idumæan; so long as he was in the land of Israel, and
had not tasted the bread of the Egyptians, made no idols. It was
when he fled from the wise Solomon, and went down into Egypt, as it
were flying from the wisdom of God, and was made a kinsman of Pharaoh
by marrying his wife’s sister, and begetting a child, who was
brought up with the children of Pharaoh, that he did this.
Wherefore, although he did return to the land of Israel, he returned
only to divide the people of God, and to make them say to the golden
calf, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up from
the land of Egypt.”3065
And I may
tell you from my experience, that not many take from Egypt only the
useful, and go away and use it for the service of God; while Ader the
Idumæan has many brethren. These are they who, from their
Greek studies, produce heretical notions, and set them up, like the
golden calf, in Bethel, which signifies “God’s
house.” In these words also there seems to me an indication that they have
set up their own imaginations in the Scriptures, where the word of God
dwells, which is called in a figure Bethel. The other figure, the
word says, was set up in Dan. Now the borders of Dan are the most
extreme, and nearest the borders of the Gentiles, as is clear from what
is written in Joshua, the son of Nun. Now some of the devices of
these brethren of Ader, as we call them, are also very near the borders
of the Gentiles.
3. Do you then, my son, diligently apply
yourself to the reading of the sacred Scriptures. Apply yourself,
I say. For we who read the things of God need much application,
lest we should say or think anything too rashly about them. And
applying yourself thus to the study of the things of God, with faithful
prejudgments such as are well pleasing to God, knock at its locked
door, and it will be opened to you by the porter, of whom Jesus says,
“To him the porter opens.”3066
And applying yourself thus to the
divine study, seek aright, and with unwavering trust in God, the
meaning of the holy Scriptures, which so many have missed. Be not
satisfied with knocking and seeking; for prayer is of all things
indispensable to the knowledge of the things of God. For to this
the Saviour exhorted, and said not only, “Knock, and it shall be
opened to you; and seek, and ye shall find,”3067
but also, “Ask, and it shall be given
unto you.”3068
My fatherly
love to you has made me thus bold; but whether my boldness be good, God
will know, and His Christ, and all partakers of the Spirit of God and
the Spirit of Christ. May you also be a partaker, and be ever
increasing your inheritance, that you may say not only, “We are
become partakers of Christ,”3069
but also
partakers of God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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