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Translated by Frederick Crombie.
Origen Resources OnLine & in Print
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This Part: 66 Pages
Page 22
22. Being taught, then, by him that there is one Israel according to the flesh, and another according to the Spirit, when the Saviour says, "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," [2799] we do not understand these words as those do who savour of earthly things, i.e., the Ebionites, who derive the appellation of "poor" from their very name (for "Ebion" means "poor" in Hebrew [2800] ); but we understand that there exists a race of souls which is termed "Israel," as is indicated by the interpretation of the name itself: for Israel is interpreted to mean a "mind," or "man seeing God." The apostle, again, makes a similar revelation respecting Jerusalem, saying, "The Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." [2801] And in another of his Epistles he says: "But ye are come unto mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, and to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, and to the Church of the first-born which is written in heaven." [2802] If, then, there are certain souls in this world who are called Israel, and a city in heaven which is called Jerusalem, it follows that those cities which are said to belong to the nation of Israel have the heavenly Jerusalem as their metropolis; and that, agreeably to this, we understand as referring to the whole of Judah (of which also we are of opinion that the prophets have spoken in certain mystical narratives), any predictions delivered either regarding Judea or Jerusalem, or invasions of any kind, which the sacred histories declare to have happened to Judea or Jerusalem. Whatever, then, is either narrated or predicted of Jerusalem, must, if we accept the words of Paul as those of Christ speaking in him, be understood as spoken in conformity with his opinion regarding that city which he calls the heavenly Jerusalem, and all those places or cities which are said to be cities of the holy land, of which Jerusalem is the metropolis. For we are to suppose that it is from these very cities that the Saviour, wishing to raise us to a higher grade of intelligence, promises to those who have well managed the money entrusted to them by Himself, that they are to have power over ten or five cities.
[2799] Matt. xv. 24.
[2800] Ebion, Heb. N%W+J+B+#, (from H+B+o#o, to desire), lit. "wishing," "desiring;" secondarily, "poor."
[2801] Gal. iv. 26.
[2802] Cf. Heb. xii. 22, 23.
Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/principles.asp?pg=22
