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Translated by Allan Menzies.
Origen Resources OnLine & in Print
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This Part: 132 Pages
Page 23
12. Heracleon's View of the Voice, and of John the Baptist.
The words, however, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness," etc., may be taken as equivalent to "I am He of whom the `voice in the wilderness' is written." Then John would be the person crying, and his voice would be that crying in the wilderness, "Make straight the way of the Lord." Heracleon, discussing John and the prophets, says, somewhat slanderously, that "the Word is the Saviour; the voice, that in the wilderness which John interpreted; the sound is the whole prophetic order." To this we may reply by reminding him of the text, [4881] "If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle," and that which says that though a man have knowledge of mysteries, or have prophecy but wants love, he is a sounding or a tinkling cymbal. [4882] If the prophetic voice be nothing but sound, how does our Lord come to refer us to it as where He says, [4883] "Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which bear witness," and [4884] "If ye believed Moses, ye would believe Me," and [4885] "Well did Isaiah prophesy concerning you, saying, This people honours me with their lips"? I do not know if any one can reasonably admit that the Saviour thus spoke in praise of an uncertain sound, or that there is any preparation to be had from the Scriptures to which we are referred as from the voice of a trumpet, for our war against opposing powers, should their sound give an uncertain voice. If the prophets had not love, and if that is why they were sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, then how does the Lord send us to their sound, as these writers will have it, as if we could get help from that? He asserts, indeed, that a voice, when well fitted to speech, becomes speech, as if one should say that a woman is turned into a man; and the assertion is not supported by argument.
[4881] 1 Cor. xiv. 8.
[4882] 1 Cor. xiii. 1.
[4883] John v. 39.
[4884] John v. 46.
[4885] Matt. xv. 7; Isa. xxix. 13.
Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/john-commentary-2.asp?pg=23
