Origen, ON THE PRINCIPLES (PERI ARCHON - DE PRINCIPIIS), Third Part, Complete

Translated by Frederick Crombie.

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This Part: 66 Pages

Page 27

2. And if we observe how powerful the word has become in a very few years, notwithstanding that against those who acknowledged Christianity conspiracies were formed, and some of them on its account put to death, and others of them lost their property, and that, notwithstanding the small number of its teachers, [2813] it was preached everywhere throughout the world, so that Greeks and Barbarians, wise and foolish, gave themselves up to the worship that is through Jesus, [2814] we have no difficulty in saying that the result is beyond any human power, [2815] Jesus having taught with all authority and persuasiveness that His word should not be overcome; so that we may rightly regard as oracular responses [2816] those utterances of His, such as, "Ye shall be brought before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles;" [2817] and, "Many shall say unto Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not eaten in Thy name, and drunk in Thy name, and in Thy name cast out devils? And I shall say unto them, Depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you." [2818] Now it was perhaps (once) probable that, in uttering these words, He spoke them in vain, so that they were not true; but when that which was delivered with so much authority has come to pass, it shows that God, having really become man, delivered to men the doctrines of salvation. [2819]

[2813] oude ton didaskalon pleonazonton.

[2814] te dia 'Iesou theosebeia.

[2815] meizon e kata anthropon to pragma einai.

[2816] chresmous.

[2817] Matt. x. 18.

[2818] Cf. Matt. vii. 22, 23.

[2819] soteria dogmata.

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