3.1. But let us hear what he
announces to him: “God is not frustrated as a man, nor as a son of man is he
terrified.” You should not hold this opinion about God, he says, that you think
that he is like a man who could be frustrated in the things he says. For on
many occasions men are prevented by their vices from saying what is true. For
either they speak while angry, and when the anger abates, they have spoken in
frustration, or they may speak out of emotions, greed, boasting and other
similar things. It will turn out that everything they said while these vices
were in control is frustrated and pointless. But all that God speaks, in whom
there is no passion, no weakness, he speaks for well-deserving reasons; and
therefore, he can never be frustrated, since whatever is brought forth by
reason cannot lack reason. “Therefore God is not like man who speaks in
frustration, nor is he terrified like a son of man,” or, as we read in some
copies, “nor does he terrify like a son of man.” Among men, terror sometimes changes
one’s opinion, but with God, who is above all things, how can he be terrified
into changing his opinion?
3.2. But if we receive this in
accordance with what we said is read in other copies, that is, “nor does he
terrify as a son of man,” this will seem to be said because men sometimes make
terrors and threats for the sake of boasting, even sometimes to those whom they
are not able to harm. But God does not terrify men in this way, as if he could
not punish; moreover, if he terrifies, he terrifies with a reason; for he
terrifies in order to correct man by the affliction of what he is hearing, so
that, when the one who is acting badly has been completely terrified by the
threatening word, he may cleanse himself, and the very vengeance due to his own
evilly done actions will not reach him. Thus God does not terrify like this, as
a man; for man, as we have said, terrifies for the sake of boasting, but God
does it for the sake of correction. (Origen, Homilies on Numbers
[trans. Thomas P. Scheck; Ancient Christian Texts; Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP
Academic, 2009], 92–93)
