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Translated by Frederick Crombie.
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This Part: 66 Pages
Page 18
17. In the passages containing the commandments also, similar things are found. For in the law Moses is commanded to destroy every male that is not circumcised on the eighth day, which is exceedingly incongruous; [2777] since it would be necessary, if it were related that the law was executed according to the history, to command those parents to be punished who did not circumcise their children, and also those who were the nurses of little children. The declaration of Scripture now is, "The uncircumcised male, i.e., who shall not have been circumcised, shall be cut off from his people." [2778] And if we are to inquire regarding the impossibilities of the law, we find an animal called the goat-stag, [2779] which cannot possibly exist, but which, as being in the number of clean beasts, Moses commands to be eaten; and a griffin, [2780] which no one ever remembers or heard of as yielding to human power, but which the legislator forbids to be used for food. Respecting the celebrated [2781] observance of the Sabbath also he thus speaks: "Ye shall sit, everyone in your dwellings; no one shall move from his place on the Sabbath-day." [2782] Which precept it is impossible to observe literally; for no man can sit a whole day so as not to move from the place where he sat down. With respect to each one of these points now, those who belong to the circumcision, and all who would have no more meaning to be found in sacred Scripture than what is indicated by the letter, consider that there should be no investigation regarding the goat-stag, and the griffin, and the vulture; and they invent some empty and trifling tales about the Sabbath, drawn from some traditional sources or other, alleging that everyone's place is computed to him within two thousand cubits. [2783] Others, again, among whom is Dositheus the Samaritan, censure indeed expositions of this kind, but themselves lay down something more ridiculous, viz., that each one must remain until the evening in the posture, place, or position in which he found himself on the Sabbath-day; i.e., if found sitting, he is to sit the whole day, or if reclining, he is to recline the whole day. Moreover, the injunction which runs, "Bear no burden on the Sabbath-day," [2784] seems to me an impossibility. For the Jewish doctors, in consequence of these (prescriptions), have betaken themselves, as the holy apostle says, to innumerable fables, saying that it is not accounted a burden if a man wear shoes without nails, but that it is a burden if shoes with nails be worn; and that if it be carried on one shoulder, they consider it a burden but if on both, they declare it to be none.
[2777] Inconsequens.
[2778] Cf. Gen. xvii. 14.
[2779] Tragelaphus; "wild goat," Auth. Vers. Deut. xiv. 5; Heb. W+Q+u#a, hapax leg.
[2780] Gryphus; "ossifrage," Auth. Vers. Lev. xi. 13; Heb. S+R+P+.
[2781] Opinatissima.
[2782] Cf. Ex. xvi. 29.
[2783] Ulnas.
[2784] Jer. xvii. 21.
Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/Elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/principles.asp?pg=18
