Commentaries on Genesis (fragments)

FROM THE FIRST BOOK OF THE COMMENTARIES ON GENESIS. 12.45 For God did not begin to be Father, being hindered, as men who become fathers are, by not yet being able to be fathers. For if God is always perfect, and the power to be a father is present to him, and it is good for him to be Father of such a Son, why does he delay, and deprive himself of the good, and, so to speak, from when he is able to be Father of a Son? The same must indeed be said also concerning the Holy Spirit. 12.48 FROM ORIGEN'S COMMENTARIES ON GENESIS But if anyone is offended by the inability of human craftsmen to accept that God creates beings without an underlying uncreated matter, since neither a sculptor can make his own work without bronze, nor a carpenter without wood, nor a builder without stones; he must be asked concerning the power of God, whether God, having willed to bring into existence whatever he wills, his will not being at a loss, nor lacking strength, is able to bring into existence what he wills. For by whatever reason he, according to all who introduce Providence by its own principle, brings qualities into existence, which did not exist as he wills for the ordering of the universe by his ineffable power and wisdom, by this same reason his will is also sufficient to make substance, as much as he needs, come into being. For we will be at a loss with those who do not wish for things to be this way, if it does not follow for them that God was fortunate in finding an uncreated substance, which if the uncreated had not been supplied to him, he would not have been able to make any work, but would have remained not a creator, not a father, not a benefactor, not good, not anything else of what is reasonably said concerning God. And from where also the measuring of the underlying substance to be of such an amount, as to suffice for the existence of so great a cosmos? for as it were 12.49 a certain providence older than God will have of necessity supplied the matter to God, providing that the art existing in him should not be in vain, there being no substance, with which he, being able to engage, adorned the beauty of so great a cosmos. And from where also did it become receptive of every quality which God wills, if God himself did not make it for himself so great and of such a kind as he wished it to be? Assuming then for the sake of argument that matter is uncreated, we will say these things to those who wish this to be so, that if it became such without Providence supplying the substance to God, if a Providence had existed, what more would it have done than what came about by chance? and if he himself, there being no matter, wished to construct it, what more would his wisdom and his divinity have done than what came to exist from the uncreated? For if what would have been made by Providence is found to be the same as that which came into existence without Providence, why shall we not also in the case of the cosmos reject the creator and the artisan? For just as it is absurd to say of the cosmos, so artfully constructed, that it became such of itself without a wise artisan, so also it is equally irrational that matter, being so great and of such a kind and so yielding to the artisan word of God, came to exist uncreatedly. Indeed, to those who make the comparison that no creator makes without matter, it must be said that they make the comparison dissimilarly. For Providence supplies matter to every artisan, coming from a prior art, whether human or divine. These things then for the present will suffice for those who, because it is said, "But the earth was invisible and unformed," suppose corporeal nature to be uncreated. FROM THE THIRD BOOK OF THE COMMENTARIES ON GENESIS. Concerning the luminaries having become for signs, being none other than the sun and moon, and the stars, it is among the most necessary things to discuss, not only of many nations alien to the faith of Christ, being mistaken concerning the 12.52

Commentarii in Genesim (fragmenta)

ΤΟΜΟΥ Αʹ ΤΩΝ ΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΓΕΝΕΣΙΝ. 12.45 Οὐ γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς Πατὴρ εἶναι ἤρξατο, κωλυόμενος, ὡς οἱ γινόμενοι πατέρες ἄνθρωποι, ὑπὸ τοῦ μὴ δύνα σθαί πω πατέρες εἶναι. Εἰ γὰρ ἀεὶ τέλειος ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ πάρεστιν αὐτῷ δύναμις τοῦ πατέρα αὐτὸν εἶναι, καὶ καλὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι Πατέρα τοῦ τοιούτου Υἱοῦ, τί ἀναβάλλεται, καὶ ἑαυτὸν τοῦ καλοῦ στερίσκει, καὶ, ὡς ἔστιν εἰπεῖν, ἐξ οὗ δύναται Πατὴρ εἶναι Υἱοῦ; Τὸ αὐτὸ μέντοιγε καὶ περὶ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος λεκτέον. 12.48 ΑΠΟ ΤΩΝ ΩΡΙΓΕΝΟΥΣ ΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΓΕΝΕΣΙΝ Εἰ δέ τινι προσκόπτει διὰ τοὺς ἀνθρωπίνους τε χνίτας μὴ δύνασθαι παραδέξασθαι τὸν Θεὸν χωρὶς ὕλης ἀγεννήτου ὑποκειμένης κατασκευάζειν τὰ ὄντα, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ ἀνδριαντοποιὸς χωρὶς χαλκοῦ τὸ ἴδιον ἔργον ποιῆσαι δύναται, μηδὲ τέκτων χωρὶς ξύλων, μηδὲ οἰκοδόμος χωρὶς λίθων· ζητητέον πρὸς αὐτοῦ περὶ δυνάμεως Θεοῦ, εἰ θελήσας ὑποστῆσαι ὅ τι βούλεται ὁ Θεὸς, τῆς θελήσεως αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἀπορουμένης, οὐδὲ ἀτονούσης, δύναται ὑποστῆσαι ὃ βούλεται. Ὧ γὰρ λόγῳ τὰς ποιότητας, κατὰ πάντας τοὺς Πρόνοιαν εἰσάγοντας τῷ ἰδίῳ λόγῳ, οὐκ οὔσας ὡς βούλεται εἰς διακόσμησιν τοῦ παντὸς ὑφίστησι τῇ ἀφάτῳ αὑτοῦ δυνάμει καὶ σοφίᾳ, τούτῳ τῷ λόγῳ καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν, ὅσης χρῄζει, ἱκανή ἐστιν αὐτοῦ ἡ βούλησις ποιῆσαι γενέσθαι. Ἀπορήσομεν γὰρ πρὸς τοὺς οὐ βουλομένους ταῦθ' οὕτως ἔχειν, εἰ μὴ ἀκολουθεῖ αὐτοῖς εὐτυχη κέναι τὸν Θεὸν, ἀγέννητον εὑρόντα τὴν οὐσίαν, ἣν εἰ μὴ τὸ ἀγέννητον αὐτῷ ὑποβεβληκὸς ἦν, οὐδὲν ἔρ γον δυνατὸς ἦν ποιῆσαι, ἀλλ' ἔμενεν οὐ δημιουργὸς, οὐ πατὴρ, οὐκ εὐεργέτης, οὐκ ἀγαθὸς, οὐκ ἄλλο τι τῶν εὐλόγως λεγομένων περὶ Θεοῦ. Πόθεν δὲ καὶ τὸ μετρεῖν τῆς ὑποκειμένης οὐσίας τὸ τοσόνδε, ὡς διαρ κέσαι τῇ τηλικούτου κόσμου ὑποστάσει; οἱονεὶ γὰρ 12.49 πρόνοιά τις πρεσβυτέρα Θεοῦ, ἀναγκαίως τὴν ὕλην ἔσται ὑποβεβληκυῖα τῷ Θεῷ, προνοουμένη τὴν τέχνην τὴν ἐνυπάρχουσαν αὐτῷ μὴ κενοπαθῆσαι, οὐκ οὔσης οὐσίας, ᾗ ὁμιλῆσαι δυνάμενος κατεκόσμησε τὸ τηλι κοῦτο κόσμου κάλλος. Πόθεν δὲ καὶ δεκτικὴ γεγένη ται πάσης ἧς βούλεται ὁ Θεὸς ποιότητος, μὴ αὐτοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἑαυτῷ τοσαύτην καὶ τοιαύτην ποιήσαντος, ὁποίαν ἔχειν ἐβούλετο; Καθ' ὑπόθεσιν γοῦν ἀποδε ξάμενοι τὸ ἀγέννητον εἶναι τὴν ὕλην, ταῦτα ἐροῦμεν πρὸς τοὺς τοῦτο βουλομένους, ὅτι εἰ Προνοίας οὐχ ὑποβαλλούσης τὴν οὐσίαν τῷ Θεῷ, τοιαύτη γεγένηται, εἰ Πρόνοια ἦν ὑφεστῶσα, τί ἂν πλέον πεποιήκει τοῦ αὐτομάτου; καὶ εἰ αὐτὸς μὴ οὔσης ὕλης ἐβούλετο κατασκευάσαι αὐτὴν, τί ἂν πλέον ἡ σοφία, καὶ ἡ θειότης αὐτοῦ πεποιήκει τοῦ ἐξ ἀγεννήτου ὑποστάντος; Εἰ γὰρ εὑρίσκεται ταυτὸν γενόμενον ἂν ὑπὸ τῆς Προ νοίας, ὅπερ καὶ χωρὶς Προνοίας ὑπέστη, διὰ τί οὐχὶ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ κόσμου ἀθετήσομεν τὸν δημιουργὸν καὶ τὸν τεχνίτην; Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἄτοπον ἐπὶ τοῦ κόσμου εἰ πεῖν οὕτω τεχνικῶς κατεσκευασμένου τὸ χωρὶς τε χνίτου σοφοῦ τὸν αὐτοτοιοῦτον γεγονέναι, οὕτω καὶ τὸ τὴν ὕλην τοσαύτην καὶ τοιαύτην καὶ οὕτως εἰκτικὴν τῷ τεχνίτῃ λόγῳ Θεοῦ, ὑφεστηκέναι ἀγεννήτως, ἐπί σης ἐστὶν ἄλογον. Πρὸς μέντοιγε τοὺς παραβάλλον τας, ὅτι οὐδεὶς δημιουργὸς χωρὶς ὕλης ποιεῖ, λεκτέον, ὅτι ἀνομοίως παραβάλλουσι. Πρόνοια γὰρ παντὶ τε χνίτῃ ὑποβάλλει τὴν ὕλην, ἀπὸ προτέρας τέχνης, ἢ ἀνθρωπίνης, ἢ θείας ἐρχομένην. Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος ἀρκέσει πρὸς τοὺς διὰ τὸ λέγεσθαι· «Ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος,» οἰομέ νους ἀγέννητον εἶναι τὴν σωματικὴν φύσιν. ΤΟΜΟΥ Γʹ ΤΩΝ ΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΓΕΝΕΣΙΝ. Περὶ τοῦ εἰς σημεῖα γεγονέναι τοὺς φωστῆρας οὐκ ἄλλους ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης, καὶ τῶν ἄστρων τυγχάνοντας, τῶν σφόδρα ἀναγκαιοτάτων ἐστὶ δια λαβεῖν, οὐ μόνον πολλῶν ἐθνῶν τῶν τῆς Χριστοῦ πί στεως ἀλλοτρίων, σφαλλομένων εἰς τὸν περὶ τῆς εἱ 12.52