But we have already frequently
said this, that Paul indeed discusses many different kinds of law in this
epistle but very frequently he is speaking here in this passage. For until
natural law enters, which takes place at a certain age when a person begins to
be capable of reason and to be able to discriminate right from wrong and
justice from injustice, at that time sin, which previously was considered as if
dead amongst man, is said to revive. This happens because there is now an
internal law which prohibit; the faculty of reason points out what ought not be
done. (Commentary on Romans 5.1.24 in Thomas P. Scheck, Origen: Commentary
on the Epistle to the Romans, Books 1-5 [The Fathers of the Church;
Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2001], 317; here, Origen
is alluding to Rom 5:13 and 7:9)
