The following excerpts come from:
Origen,
Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans Books 6-10 (trans. Thomas P.
Scheck; The Fathers of the Church 104; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University
of America Press, 2002)
Book
7, Chapter 12:
(4) But let us consider whether it
might be possible to admit as well the following interpretation. The “death”
which he speaks of is to be understood to be called that which, as we have explained
above, is the last enemy of Christ to be destroyed. It is assuredly called “death”
from the fact that, just as the common death separates the soul from the body,
so also it strives to separate the sol from the love of God; and this surely is
the death of the soul. It is possible, then, that there may also be from part
of the soul another “life” that acts with it in order to separate us from the
love of God. This is the life of sin. For unless this life were evil, the
Apostle would never have urged us to die to sin and be baptized into the death
of Christ and be buried together with him. It can be, then, that it is this
life of sin that longs to separate us from the love of God. Yet I am of the opinion
that every single sin has another life of its own within us; for each of the
vices is a life of sin. So then the more the vices are found within us, so much
the more were the lives of sin manifest within us. Ans for this reason perhaps it
is said, “Your mercy is better than lives.” (p. 101)
Book
7, Chapter 13:
(9) What amazes me is how certain persons
who read what the same Apostle says elsewhere, “There is one God, the Father, from
whom are all things, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things,”
should deny that the Son of God ought to be confessed to be God, lest they
should appear to speak of two gods. What will they do about this passage of the
Apostle in which Christ is explicitly recorded to be “God over all”? But those
who interpret these things this way fail to observe that he has not called the
Lord Jesus Christ “one Lord” in such a way that therefore God the Father may
not be called Lord. Likewise, he has not called God the Father “one God” in a
sense in which the Son would not be believed to be God. For that scripture is
true that says, “now that the Lord himself is God.” Buy both [M1141] are one
God, since there is no other source of deity for the Son than the Father, but
of that one paternal fountain, as wisdom says, the Son is “the purest emanation.”
Christ, therefore, is “God over all.” But over “all” of what? Doubtless, over
those things we spoke about a short while ago, “over principalities and authorities
and powers and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the
future.” He who is over all has no one over himself. For he himself is not
later than the Father, but from the Father. But the wisdom of God has granted
that this same thing be understood of the Holy Spirit as well as it says, “The Spirit
of the Lord filled the earth, and he who contains all things, has knowledge of his
voice.” If, therefore, the Son is called “God over all” and the Holy Spirit is
recorded to contain all things, but God is the Father “from whom are all things,”
then clearly the nature and essence of the Trinity, which his over all things,
are shown to be one. (pp. 109-10)
Commenting
on the above, Scheck wrote:
Origen used the term homoousios, “of
one substance or essence,” to describe the relation between the Father and the
Son. According to J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds 3d ed. (New
York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1972), p. 245, by this term he was apparently
claiming “not that the Father and Son were identical in substance, but that
they participated in the same kind of essence.” (Ibid., 110 n. 352)
Book
7, Chapter 18:
(3) On the other hand “for the vessels
of mercy,” i.e., those who have cleansed themselves from every defilement of
sin, from which “no one is pure, even if his life should be one day long,” he
makes known the riches of his glory. He has prepared these vessels for glory
not through some arbitrary or fortuitous grace, but because they have purged themselves
from the aforementioned defilements. (p. 122)
Book
8, Chapter 7:
[on
Rom 11:1-6]
(2) On the basis of what has been said
above, it could perhaps seem that the people of the Jews have been disowned by
God and no longer have any hope, if indeed God made them jealous of those who
are not a nation, and angry at a foolish nation. And he became manifest to
those who were not seeking him and he was found by those who were not asking
about him. In light o this, the Apostle wants to tend to these things and show
that a way of salvation remains for the people of Israel if they believe. And
since they were disowned not because they are the race of Israel but because
they became unbelievers he says, “God has not disowned his people whom he foreknew.”
And in order that he might prove this by means of a current example, he adds, “For
even I myself am an Israelite from the seed of Abraham, the tribe of Benjamin,”
and yet I am teaching faith in Jesus and I am announcing that he is the Crist.
But in the fact that I am an Israelite and am from the seed of Abraham did not
stand in the way for me, [M1176] that I would believe in Christ and would be
justified by faith in him, it is certain that “God has not disowned his people
whom he foreknew.” Now how “those whom he foreknew, these he also called; and
those whom he called, these he also justified,” has already been said above. In
the Scriptures it is recorded that God foreknows not so much that he knows the
future in advance—which cannot be doubted—but that he approves of an deems
people worth of knowledge of himself. (pp. 155-56)
Book
10, Chapter 8:
(3) Or [there may be] another manner
that Christ may be said to have become a minister of that circumcision,
concerning which the same Apostle says, “For he is not a Jew who is one
outwardly, not is circumcision something visible in the flesh, but he is a Jew
who is one in secret and by the circumcision of the heart, who is one in the
spirit, not the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God.” And the
same Apostle also speaks in accordance with this in another passage, “In whom
also you were circumcised with a circumcision not done with hands by the
depriving of the body of flesh, but in the circumcision of Christ, having been
buried with him in baptism.” It is certain that the promises of the fathers are
fulfilled through this kind of circumcision. (pp. 272-73)
Book
10, Chapter 12:
(3) But what he says, “reminding you
through the grace given me,” indicates that indeed there have already been words
in him about such things that that he had repeatedly discussed the mysteries,
but because forgetfulness could easily snatch away things that had been
expressed in a single phrase, through these few things that I have written, he
says, and through the grace given to me, I am calling back to your recollection
those things that have already been repeatedly been discussed quite extensively.
Concerning the grace that Paul recalls has been given to him we have already
spoken above. He says that this grace was given to him for this reason: “that I
might be ministering to Christ Jesus among the Gentiles, sanctifying the gospel
of God.” What we have as “sanctifying the gospel of God” the Greeks express
more excellently as ιερουργων, which could be said by us, though
not completely as, “sacrificing the gospel of God,” through which it is being
made known that proclaiming the gospel is a high priestly work. (p. 278)
Book
10, Chapter 37:
37. But the God of peace will crush
Satan under your feet swiftly. It is asked in this passage of which Satan was
he speaking who is to be swiftly crushed by God under his feet of those to whom
he is writing. For if it is referred to one person, namely, that one concerning
which it is said in the Gospel, “Behold I see Satan falling like lightning from
heaven,” and who is disclosed as Satan, the adversary o the human race, it will
certainly seem, if Paul speaks truthfully when he says that he is to be swiftly
crushed under the feet of those to whom he was writing at that time, that Satan
no longer exists, he who stirs up struggles and battles and persecutions for
believers, which assuredly the reliability of the facts do not admit.
(2) But it seems to me that in this
passage he has called every spirit that is opposed to believers a “satan.” For satanas
is translated int our language, “adversary.” So then, whatever opposes and
is adverse to a soul and is striving after God, and whatever is contrary to its
peace, this is named a “satan” to it. After all, this is the reason he
introduced it by saying, “the God of peace”; that is, the God to whom peace is
pleasing, will crush him who is contrary to peace and who produces dissensions.
In this way, after all, we also read in the Book of Kingdoms, that “God raised
up a satan to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite,” that is, to Solomon, who was a peacemaker,
he raised up an adversary who is the contrary of peace.
(3) But just as to those whom the
Apostle is teaching, if they behave thus and exhibit themselves such as his
words have described, for the amendment of life, he promises that Satan will swiftly
be crushed under their feet by the God of peace, thus the God of peace no less
raises up a “satan,” i.e., an adversary to the one who does not preserve his peace
with a pure heart and clean conscience; that whoever has neglected the good of
peace may endure the bitterness of assaults, [M1287] and thus only then, while
place in the fight, would he call to mind the sweetness of the peace that he
had defiled. So then, let us be edified by both passages of Holy Scripture,
either that God is said to raise up a “satan” to the negligent or to crush and
to subdue one for the zealous, that he might spur the former on to struggles
[and] to the latter that he might grant the psalm of victory from a defeated
adversary and might give out rewards of virtue. Through each of the individual struggles,
if we fight according to the rules, few can say that God will crush a “satan”
under our feet swiftly.
(4) For example, if anyone takes up
the struggle for chastity, if he holds out with a stainless conscience until
the end, it can be said of him that God has crushed a “satan” under his feet,
i.e., the spirit that was contrary to chastity. Likewise, as well, anyone who
takes up the struggle of faith, if he, while standing before kings and rulers,
should faithfully confess the Lord Jesus Christ and should endure until the end
in the confession, God has crushed a “satan” under his feet when he has
conquered the spirit of infidelity. Moreover, anyone who cultivates concord
perseveringly will crush the demon of dissension under the feet; anyone who
preserves gentleness tramples upon the “satan” of wrath with the footsteps of
patience. This is certainly what the Lord says in the Gospel, “Behold, I have
given you authority to trample upon serpents and scorpions and upon all the
power of the enemy.” (pp. 302-3)
