Philocalia or Selections from the works of Origen made by Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus (ch. 23, 25-27)

 of those concerning the stars, so that what is said by them may not be an unproven declaration, let them try to bring us more compellingly, by present

 to her a sign, saying: This is the sign which the Lord spoke, saying: Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the fat that is upon it shall be poured out

 of certain observations, or also from the teaching of angels who had transgressed their own order and, for the ruin of our race, taught certain things

 to be mistaken, but it is possible concerning things that are contingent to happen and not to happen to think that they happen and that they do not ha

 these past events are not in our power, it being possible on the basis of the same past events to do other things than what we do. But if anyone seeks

 It is fated for you to have children or not to have children in vain then you have relations with a woman. For just as in this case, since it is impo

 they will reasonably agree that nothing concerning human affairs comes from the stars, but, as we have said before, if anything, they are signified A

 argument, that humans are able to comprehend the heavenly configurations and the signs and what they are signs of, let us now examine if this is true.

 of human nature, not in a human way but in a divine way they are taught the secrets just as Paul, saying: I heard unspeakable words, which it is not

 they read the book of God and thus they do what is incumbent upon them. But as we said before, what we do, or what the opposing energies accomplish i

 they do away with sayings, also using the one: “The sinners were estranged from the womb,” spoken in the psalms. Now to this it is easy to reply, by a

 troubling our argument since Paul says: “But we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called accordin

 the deeds foreknown beforehand but happening later, each from the apostolic preparation and choice. But now to apply this to the saying from the psalm

 Health, of course, and bodily strength are a good. The text reads thus: ‘If you will not hearken to do all the words of this law that are written in t

 it is necessary to raise a further question to those who suppose, whether the prophets, whose sins are not spoken against, have kept the law for exam

 of whom the prophet also finds fault with those who are in such states, saying: 'From the feet to the head, there is neither wound, nor bruise, nor fe

 who was once the morning star, rising in the morning, but later was shattered upon the earth. For not only among the sons of men, if one is perfect, i

 that the sound account concerning this Scripture is also among the hidden things. But those who claim there is another god besides the creator wish hi

 they suppose concerning God, nor to what they dogmatize concerning natures, does the argument from the reading now under examination contribute, as th

 leading him into the open and perhaps exhausting him through the action, so that having brought to completion all the outbursts of his indwelling wick

 chasten me” the one praying these things is asking not to need the reproof that comes through the wrath of God and the chastisement that comes throug

 Good masters, being long-suffering toward their sinning servants, are accustomed to say: I have ruined you and: I have made you wicked showing with

 the heart of Pharaoh” whether they believe that these things are said truly by God through the inspired Moses or falsely. For if falsely, then accord

Philocalia or Selections from the works of Origen made by Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus (ch. 23, 25-27)

23.1n Concerning fate, and how, while God has foreknowledge of the things done by each person, that which is in our power is preserved; and in what way the stars are not the cause of things among men, but only signify them; and that men cannot have precise knowledge concerning these things, but the signs are set forth by divine powers; and what is the reason for these things. From the third book of the commentary on Genesis. "And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years." Concerning the luminaries, being none other than the sun and moon and the stars, having been made for signs, it is most necessary to discuss; not only because many of the nations, who are strangers to the faith of Christ, are deceived in the matter of fate, believing that all things on earth, and concerning each man, and perhaps also irrational animals, happen to them by the conjunction of the so-called wandering stars with those in the zodiac; but also because many of those who are supposed to have believed are distracted, wondering whether human affairs are not compelled, and it is impossible for them to happen otherwise than as the stars bring about according to their various configurations. It follows for those who hold these doctrines that they completely do away with that which is in our power; and therefore also praise and blame, and actions that are acceptable and again blameworthy. And if this is so, the proclaimed judgment of God is gone, and the threats against those who have sinned that they will be punished, and again the honors and blessings for those who have given themselves to better things; for none of these things will any longer happen with good reason. And if someone were to look at the consequences for himself of what he dogmatizes, faith will be in vain, and the coming of Christ will accomplish nothing, and the whole dispensation through the Law and the Prophets, and the labors of the apostles to establish the churches of God through Christ; unless perhaps, according to those who dare such things, Christ also, having come under the necessity of the movement of the stars by having assumed a birth, did and suffered all things, not because God and the Father of all gave him his miraculous powers, but because of the stars. And it follows from these arguments, which are atheistic and impious, that believers are said to believe in God because they are led by the stars. We might ask them, with what intention did God make such a world, so that some, being men in it, should suffer the things of women, being in no way the cause of their own licentiousness, while others, having assumed the state of wild beasts, because the motion of the universe has made them so, because God has so ordered the universe, give themselves over to the most cruel and utterly inhuman deeds and murders and piracies? And why must we speak of the things that happen among men and are sinned by them, being countless in number, when the proponents of these noble doctrines, acquitting them of every charge, ascribe to God the cause of all things that are done evilly and blameworthily? 23.2 But if some of them, as if making a defense for God, say that the good one is another, having no part in any of these things, but attribute all such things to the demiurge; first, not even so will they be able to prove what they wish, that he is just; for how could the father of so many evils, according to them, be reasonably declared just? Second, it must be examined what they will say about themselves: whether they are subject to the motion of the stars, or have been freed and, while living in this life, have nothing from thence acting upon them? For if they say they are subject to the stars, it is clear that the stars granted this understanding to them, and the demiurge will have suggested, through the motion of the universe, the doctrine concerning the fabricated god above, which is not what they wish. But if they should answer that they are outside the laws of the demiurge

Philocalia sive Ecloga de operibus Origenis a Basilio et Gregorio Nazianzeno facta (cap. 23, 25-27)

23.1n Περὶ εἱμαρμένης, καὶ πῶς προγνώστου ὄντος τοῦ θεοῦ τῶν ὑφ' ἑκάστου πραττομένων τὸ ἐφ' ἡμῖν σῴζεται· καὶ τίνα τρόπον οἱ ἀστέρες οὐκ εἰσὶ ποιητικοὶ τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις, σημαντικοὶ δὲ μόνον· καὶ ὅτι ἄνθρωποι τὴν περὶ τούτων γνῶσιν ἀκριβῶς ἔχειν οὐ δύνανται, ἀλλὰ δυνάμεσι θείαις τὰ σημεῖα ἔκκειται· καὶ τίς ἡ τούτων αἰτία. Τόμου τρίτου τῶν εἰς τὴν Γένεσιν. «Καὶ ἔστωσαν εἰς σημεῖα καὶ εἰς καιροὺς καὶ εἰς ἡμέρας καὶ εἰς ἐνιαυτούς.» Περὶ τοῦ εἰς σημεῖα γεγονέναι τοὺς φωστῆρας, οὐκ ἄλλους ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης καὶ τῶν ἀστέρων τυγχάνοντας, τῶν σφόδρα ἀναγκαιοτάτων ἐστὶ διαλαβεῖν· οὐ μόνον πολλῶν ἐθνῶν τῶν τῆς Χριστοῦ πίστεως ἀλλοτρίων σφαλλο μένων εἰς τὸν περὶ τῆς εἱμαρμένης τόπον, τῇ τῶν καλουμένων πλανωμένων ἀστέρων ἐπιπλοκῇ πρὸς τοὺς ἐν τῷ ζωδιακῷ πάντων αὐτοῖς νομιζομένων συμβαίνειν τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, καὶ τῶν περὶ ἕκαστον ἄνθρωπον, τάχα δὲ καὶ ἀλόγων ζῴων· ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ πολλῶν τῶν πεπιστευκέναι ὑπολαμ βανομένων περισπωμένων μὴ ἄρα ἠνάγκασται τὰ ἀνθρώπων πράγματα, καὶ ἀμήχανον ἄλλως γενέσθαι ἢ ὡς οἱ ἀστέρες κατὰ τοὺς διαφόρους σχηματισμοὺς ἐπιτελοῦσιν. Ἕπεται δὲ τοῖς ταῦτα δογματίζουσιν ἐξ ὅλων τὸ ἐφ' ἡμῖν ἀναιρεῖν· διόπερ καὶ ἔπαινον καὶ ψόγον καὶ πράξεις ἀποδεκτὰς πάλιν τε αὖ ψεκτάς. Ἅπερ εἰ οὕτως ἔχει, τὰ τῆς κεκηρυγμένης τοῦ θεοῦ κρίσεως οἴχεται, καὶ ἀπειλαὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἡμαρτηκότας ὡς κολασθησομένους, τιμαί τε αὖ πρὸς τοὺς τοῖς κρείττοσιν ἑαυτοὺς ἐπιδεδωκότας καὶ μακαριότητες· οὐδὲν γὰρ ἔτι τούτων εὐλόγως ἔσται γινόμενον. Καὶ εἰ τὰ ἀκόλουθά τις ἑαυτῷ ἐφ' οἷς δογματίζει βλέποι, καὶ ἡ πίστις ἔσται μάταιος, ἥ τε Χριστοῦ ἐπιδημία οὐδὲν ἀνύουσα, καὶ πᾶσα ἡ διὰ νόμου καὶ προφητῶν οἰκονομία, κάματοί τε ἀποστόλων ὑπὲρ τοῦ συστῆσαι τὰς τοῦ θεοῦ διὰ Χριστοῦ ἐκκλησίας· εἰ μὴ ἄρα κατὰ τοὺς οὕτω τολμῶντας καὶ Χριστός, ὑπὸ τὴν ἀνάγκην τῆς τῶν ἄστρων κινήσεως τῷ γένεσιν ἀνειλη φέναι γενόμενος, πάντα πεποιήκοι τε καὶ πάθοι, οὐ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρὸς τῶν ὅλων αὐτῷ τὰς παραδόξους δυνάμεις δωρησαμένου, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἀστέρων. Οἷς ἀθέοις καὶ ἀσεβέσι τυγχάνουσι λόγοις ἀκολουθεῖ καὶ τὸ τοὺς πιστεύοντας ὑπὸ τῶν ἀστέρων ἀγομένους πιστεύειν εἰς θεὸν λέγεσθαι. Πυθοίμεθα δ' ἂν αὐτῶν, τί ὁ θεὸς βουλόμενος τοιοῦτον ἐποίει κόσμον, ἵν' οἱ μὲν ἐν αὐτῷ ἄνδρες ὄντες τὰ γυναικῶν πάσχωσιν, οὐδαμῶς ἑαυτοῖς αἴτιοι τῆς ἀσελγείας γεγενημένοι, ἕτεροι δὲ ἀγρίων ζῴων κατάστασιν ἀνειληφότες, τῷ τὴν φορὰν τοῦ παντὸς τοιούτους αὐτοὺς πεποιηκέναι, διὰ τὸ τὸν θεὸν οὕτω κεκοσμηκέναι τὸ πᾶν, ἐπιδιδόασιν ἑαυτοὺς ὠμοτάτοις καὶ σφόδρα ἀπανθρώποις πράγμασιν καὶ ἀνδρο φονίαις καὶ πειρατείαις; καὶ τί δεῖ λέγειν ἡμᾶς περὶ τῶν συμβαινόντων ἐν ἀνθρώποις καὶ ἁμαρτανομένων ὑπ' αὐτῶν, μυρίων ὅσων τυγχανόντων, οὕστινας οἱ τῶν γενναίων προϊστάμενοι τούτων λόγων ἀπολύοντες παντὸς ἐγκλήματος, τῷ θεῷ προσγράφουσι πάντων τῶν κακῶς καὶ ψεκτῶς πραττομένων τὴν αἰτίαν; 23.2 Ἐὰν δέ τινες αὐτῶν, ὡς ἀπολογούμενοι περὶ θεοῦ, ἕτερον μὲν εἶναι λέγωσι τὸν ἀγαθόν, οὐδενὸς τούτων ἔχοντα τὴν ἀρχήν, τῷ δὲ δημιουργῷ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα προσάπτωσι· πρῶτον μὲν οὐδ' ὣς ὃ βούλονται δυνήσονται ἀποδεικνύναι, ὅτι ἐστὶ δίκαιος· πῶς γὰρ ὁ τοσούτων κακῶν κατ' αὐτοὺς πατὴρ εὐλόγως δογματίζοιτο δίκαιος; ∆εύτερον δέ, περὶ ἑαυτῶν τί φήσουσιν, ἐξεταστέον· πότερον ὑπόκεινται τῇ φορᾷ τῶν ἀστέρων, ἢ ἠλευθέρωνται καὶ ἐν τῷ βίῳ τυγ χάνοντες οὐδὲν ἐνεργούμενον εἰς ἑαυτοὺς ἔχουσιν ἐκεῖθεν; Εἰ μὲν γὰρ φήσουσιν ὑποκεῖσθαι τοῖς ἄστροις, δῆλον ὅτι τὰ ἄστρα τὸ νοηθῆναι αὐτοῖς τοῦτο ἐχαρίσατο, καὶ ὁ δημι ουργὸς ὑποβεβληκὼς ἔσται διὰ τῆς τοῦ παντὸς κινήσεως τὸν λόγον τὸν περὶ τοῦ ἀνωτέρω ἀναπεπλασμένου θεοῦ, ὅπερ οὐ βούλονται. Εἰ δὲ ἀποκρινοῦνται ὅτι ἔξω τυγ χάνουσι τῶν νόμων τοῦ δημιουργοῦ