|
HOME | GREEK LANGUAGE | LIBRARIES | BLOG | HELP | SEARCH | FREEWARE | BOOKSTORE |
|
|
Translated by Allan Menzies.
Origen Resources OnLine & in Print
|
128 Pages
Page 117
4. I feel myself growing dizzy with all this, and wonder whether, in obeying you, I have not been obeying God, nor walking in the footsteps of the saints, unless it be that my too great love to you, and my unwillingness to cause you any pain, has led me astray and caused me to think of all these excuses. We started from the words of the preacher, where he says: "My son, beware of making many books." With this I compare a saying from the Proverbs of the same Solomon, [4791] "In the multitude of words thou shalt not escape sin; but in sparing thy lips thou shalt be wise." Here I ask whether speaking many words of whatever kind is a multitude of words (in the sense of the preacher), even if the many words a man speaks are sacred and connected with salvation. If this be the case, and if he who makes use of many salutary words is guilty of "multitude of words," then Solomon himself did not escape this sin, for "he spoke [4792] three thousand proverbs, and five thousand songs, and he spoke of trees from the cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall, he spoke also of beasts and of fowl, and of creeping things and of fishes." How, I may ask, can any one give any course of instruction, without a multitude of words, using the phrase in its simplest sense? Does not Wisdom herself say to those who are perishing, [4793] "I stretched out my words, and ye heeded not"? Do we not find Paul, too, extending his discourse from morning to midnight, [4794] when Eutychus was borne down with sleep and fell down, to the dismay of the hearers, who thought he was killed? If, then, the words are true, "In much speaking thou wilt not escape sin," and if Solomon was yet not guilty of great sin when he discoursed on the subjects above mentioned, nor Paul when he prolonged his discourse till midnight, then the question arises, What is that much speaking which is referred to? and then we may pass on to consider what are the many books.
[4791] x. 19.
[4792] 1 Kings iv. 32.
[4793] Prov. i. 24.
[4794] Acts xx. 7-9.
Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/john-commentary.asp?pg=117
