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Translated by Allan Menzies.
Origen Resources OnLine & in Print
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This Part: 132 Pages
Page 119
In the first Book of Chronicles, [5111] certainly, David the king says to all the congregation, "Solomon my son, whom the Lord hath chosen, is young and tender, and the work is great, because he is not to build for man but for the Lord God. According to my whole power I have prepared for the house of my God, gold, silver, brass, and iron, wood, stones of Soom, and stones for filling up, and precious stones of many kinds, and all sorts of precious wood, and a large quantity of Parian marble. And besides this, for the pleasure I have taken in the house of my God, the gold and the silver I possess, lo, I have given it for the house of my Lord, to the full; from such supplies [5112] I prepared for the house of the saints, three thousand talents of gold from Suphir, and seven thousand talents of stamped silver. that the houses of God may be overlaid with them by the hands of artificers." For David reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem; [5113] so that if it could be shown that the beginning of the preparations for the temple and of David's collecting the necessary material, was in the fifth year of his reign, then, with some forcing, the statement about forty-six years might stand. But some one else will say that the temple spoken of was not that built by Solomon, for that it was destroyed at the period of the captivity, but the temple built at the time of Ezra, [5114] with regard to which the forty-six years can be shown to be quite accurate. But in this Maccabean period things were very unsettled with regard to the people and the temple, and I do not know if the temple was really built in that number of years. Heracleon pays no attention to the history, but says that in that he was forty-six years preparing the temple, Solomon was an image of the Saviour. The number six he connects with matter, that is, the image, and the number forty, which he says is the tetrad, not admitting of combination, he connects with the inspiration and the seed in the inspiration. Consider if the forty cannot be taken as due to the four elements of the world arranged in the building of the temple at the points at issue, [5115] and the six to the fact that man was created on the sixth day.
[5111] 1 Chron. xxix. 1-5.
[5112] LXX. reads "besides what;" neither reading yields a good sense.
[5113] 1 Kings ii. 11.
[5114] Ezra vi. 1.
[5115] Reading egonismenois. Another suggested reading is gegoniomenois, which might give the sense "at the corners." Neither is satisfactory.
Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/Elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/john-commentary-2.asp?pg=119
