Commentarii in Genesim

BOOK 1 OF THE COMMENTARY ON GENESIS. For God did not begin to be a Father, being hindered, as men who become fathers are, by not yet being able to be fathers. For if God is always perfect, and the power of being a Father is present in him, and it is good for him to be the Father of such a Son, why does he delay, and deprive himself of the good, and, so to speak, from the time when he is able to be the Father of a Son? The same, however, must be said also concerning the Holy Spirit. FROM ORIGEN'S COMMENTARY ON GENESIS. But if anyone is offended, because of human craftsmen, at being unable to accept that God constructs existing things without unbegotten matter lying beneath, since neither can a sculptor make his own work without bronze, nor a carpenter without wood, nor a builder without stones—let him be asked about the power of God, whether God, having willed to bring into being whatever he wishes, since his will is not at a loss nor without strength, is able to bring into being what he wishes. For by the same principle by which he establishes the qualities, according to all who introduce Providence by their own principle, not existing as he wishes for the ordering of the whole, by his ineffable power and wisdom—by this same principle his will is also sufficient to make whatever substance he needs come to be. For we shall raise a difficulty against those who do not wish these things to be so: does it not follow for them that God has been fortunate in finding unbegotten substance, which, if the unbegotten had not been placed beneath him, he would have been able to do no work at all, but would have remained neither creator, nor father, nor benefactor, nor good, nor anything else of the things reasonably said about God.

And from where comes also the measuring of the underlying substance to such an extent, as to suffice for the subsistence of so great a world? For, as it were, a certain providence older than God will have necessarily subjected matter to God, providing that the art existing in him not be in vain, when there is no substance with which, being able to converse, he adorned the beauty of so great a world. And from where has it become receptive of every quality that God wills, if God himself did not make for himself so great and such a substance as he wished to have? At any rate, having accepted by hypothesis that matter is unbegotten, we shall say these things to those who wish this: that if Providence did not subject the substance to God, it has become such as it is; if Providence was subsisting, what more would it have done than the spontaneous? And if he himself, when matter did not exist, wished to construct it, what more would his wisdom and his divinity have done than what subsisted from the unbegotten? For if it is found that the same thing would have come to be by Providence as what also subsisted without Providence, why shall we not also in the case of the world set aside the creator and the craftsman? For just as it is absurd in the case of the world, so artistically constructed, to say that what is of such a sort came to be without a wise craftsman, so also is it irrational to say that matter, so great and such and so fit for the craftsman by the word of God, has subsisted unbegotten. However, against those who compare, saying that no craftsman makes without matter, it must be said that they make an unlike comparison. For Providence supplies matter to every craftsman, coming from a prior art, either human or divine.

These things, then, will for the present suffice against those who, because it is said, "But the earth was invisible and unformed," suppose the bodily nature to be unbegotten. Book 3 of the Commentaries on Genesis. Concerning the luminaries having been made for signs—not other than the sun and moon, and the stars that happen to be—it is most necessary to discuss, not only because many of the nations alien to the faith of Christ are led astray on the topic of fate, by the conjunction of the wandering stars with those in the zodiac, believing that all things on earth happen to them from these, and the affairs of each human being, and perhaps even of irrational animals; but indeed also because many of those who are supposed to have believed are being distracted, wondering whether human affairs are not compelled, and impossible to turn out otherwise than as the stars, in their various configurations, rise. And it follows for those who dogmatize these things to abolish entirely what is in our power; whence also praise and blame, and actions acceptable and again blameworthy—which if this is so, the judgments of God that have been proclaimed are gone, and the threats against those who have sinned, that they will be punished, and the honors again for those who have given themselves over to better things, and the blessings; for none of these will any longer reasonably come to be. And if one looks to what follows from his own doctrines, both faith will be vain, and the advent of Christ accomplishing nothing, and the whole economy through the law and the prophets, and the labors of the apostles for the establishing of the Churches of God through Christ.

Unless, indeed, according to those who dare such things, even Christ, having been born under the necessity of the motion of the stars by having been taken up into generation, would have done and suffered all things—not because God and the Father of all granted him his wondrous powers, but because the stars did. These godless and impious words are followed also by the claim that those who believe are said to believe in God while being led by the stars. But we would ask them: with what intention did God make such a world, so that some men in it suffer the things of women, having in no way been the cause of their own licentiousness, while others, having received the condition of wild beasts, because the motion of the whole has made them such—since God so ordered the universe—give themselves over to the most savage and utterly inhuman deeds, to murders and piracies? And why need we speak of the things that happen among men, and of the countless sins they commit—men whom the champions of these noble doctrines, absolving of every charge, ascribe to God the cause of all things done wickedly and blameworthily? But if some of them, as if making a defense on behalf of God, say that the good one is different, having the origin of none of these things, but attribute such things to the creator of all, first, they will not be able even to demonstrate, as they wish, that he is just; for how could the father of so many things, according to them, reasonably be called just? Second, it must be examined what they will say about themselves.

Are they subject to the motion of the stars, or have they been set free, and while they are in this life, do they have nothing wrought upon them from there? For if they say they are subject to the stars, it is clear that the stars bestowed on them this act of understanding, and the Creator will have been the one who, through the motion of the universe, subordinated the account concerning the God fashioned above—which they do not wish. But if they will answer that they are outside the laws of the Creator of the things that pertain to the stars, so that what is said by them may not be an unproven assertion, let them attempt to bring us a more compelling argument, establishing a difference between a mind that is subject to generation and fate and another that is free from these; for it is clear to those who know such matters that, when asked to give an account, they will in no way be able. And in addition to what has been said, prayers are brought in to no purpose; for if these things have been compelled to happen, and the stars bring them about, and nothing can happen contrary to their interweaving with one another, we are irrationally deeming God worthy to grant us these things. And why must one prolong the argument further, when it demonstrates the impiety of the thoroughly trodden, unexamined commonplace about fate among the many? For what has been said is sufficient for an outline. But let us remind ourselves from where, examining the text "Let the luminaries be for signs," we have come to these matters. Those who learn true things about certain matters, either

Having become eyewitnesses of the events, they declare certain things soundly, either having observed the experience and activity of those who suffered or acted, or having heard from those who in no way were causes of what happened, they know certain things. But let it now be set aside from the argument that those who acted or suffered, by narrating what they did or suffered, can lead one who was not present to knowledge of what was done. If, then, the one being taught by someone who is in no way a cause of what happens does not distinguish that the teacher is not altogether, concerning something as having happened or as going to happen, the cause of the matter being of such a kind, he will suppose that the one who presented the matter about certain things having happened, or certain things going to be, has made or will make the things about which he teaches; and he will suppose this, clearly, in error—as if someone, coming upon a prophetic book that foretells the things concerning Judas the betrayer, should suppose, having learned what was going to be and seeing it fulfilled, that the book is the cause of this thing having happened later, since from the book he learned the things that were going to be done later by Judas; or again, he might suppose that the cause is not the book, but the one who first wrote it, or the one who worked through it—say, God. But just as in the case of the things prophesied about Judas, the very words, when examined, show that God was not the maker of Judas's betrayal, but only declared, having foreknown, the things that were going to be done from his wickedness apart from his own causation—

Thus, if anyone were to delve into the account of God's foreknowledge of all things, and to consider the principles of His foreknowledge which He has, as it were, imprinted upon those in whom they reside, he would understand that neither is the one who foreknows altogether the cause of the things foreknown, nor are those things which have received the impressions of the principles of the foreknowledge of the one who foreknows. That God knows each of the things that will be long before it comes to be is clear, both without Scripture, from the very conception of God, to one who understands the dignity of the power of the mind of God. But if it is necessary to establish this also from the Scriptures, the prophecies are full of such examples; and the events concerning Susanna, since God knows all things before their generation, are spoken of thus: "O eternal God, who knows the hidden things, who knows all things before their generation, you know that these men have borne false witness against me." And most clearly in the third book of Kingdoms both the name of the one who would reign and his deeds were recorded, prophesied many years before they came to be, as follows: "And Jeroboam made a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, according to the feast in the land of Judah. And he went up to the altar in Bethel, which he had made, to sacrifice to the calves which he had made." Then after a little: "And behold, a man of God came from Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel, and Jeroboam was standing at the altar to offer sacrifice. And he called out against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said: Altar, thus says the Lord:

Behold, a son is born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice upon you the priests of the high places who sacrifice upon you, and he shall burn human bones upon you. And he gave on that day a sign, which the Lord spoke, saying: Behold, the altar is split, and the fatness upon it shall be poured out. And after a little it is made clear that the altar was indeed split, and the fatness was poured out from the altar according to the sign which the man gave in the word of the Lord. And in Isaiah, who lived long before the captivity into Babylon—after which captivity Cyrus, the king of the Persians, later arose, having assisted in the building of the temple, which took place in the times of Ezra—these things are prophesied by name concerning Cyrus: Thus says the Lord God to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, that nations may hearken before him, and I will break the strength of kings; I will open doors before him, and gates shall not be shut; I will go before you, and I will level mountains; I will shatter bronze doors, and break in pieces iron bars. And I will give you dark treasures,

I will open to you hidden, invisible things, so that you may know that I am the Lord God, who calls your name, the God of Israel. For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen one, I will call you by your name, and I will receive you. For clearly from these things too it has been shown that because of the people whom Cyrus benefited, God granted to him—though he did not know the religion according to the Hebrews—to rule over more nations; and these things can be learned also from the Greeks who wrote down the accounts concerning the prophesied Cyrus. Moreover, also in Daniel, when the Babylonians were reigning at that time, the kingdoms that were to come after Nebuchadnezzar are shown; and they are shown through the image: the rule of the Babylonians being named gold, that of the Persians silver, that of the Macedonians bronze, and that of the Romans iron. And again in the same prophet the things concerning Darius, and Alexander, and the four successors of Alexander the king of the Macedonians, and Ptolemy who ruled Egypt, the one surnamed Lagus, are thus prophesied: "And behold, a he-goat of goats was coming from the west upon the face of all the earth, and the he-goat had a horn between its eyes. And it came as far as the ram that had the horns, which I saw standing before Ubal, and it ran toward him before his strength. And I saw it reaching as far as the ram, and it was enraged against him, and it struck the ram, and it shattered both its horns, and there was no strength in the ram to stand before it, and it cast it to the ground, and trampled it; and there was no one to rescue the ram from its hand.

And the he-goat of the goats was magnified exceedingly; and when he had grown strong, his great horn was broken; and four other horns came up beneath it toward the four winds of heaven. And from the one, one strong horn came forth, and it was magnified exceedingly toward the south and the west. But what need is there to speak of the prophecies concerning Christ, such as the place of his birth, Bethlehem, and the place of his upbringing, Nazareth, and his withdrawal into Egypt, and the wonders which he performed, and in what manner he was betrayed by Judas, who was called to apostleship? For all these things are signs of God's foreknowledge. But also the Savior himself says, "When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that her desolation has drawn near." For he foretold the end of the destruction of Jerusalem, which came to pass afterward. Since, therefore, it has been demonstrated to us that God is a foreknower, it is not out of place—in order that we may explain how the stars come to be for signs—to understand that the stars have been appointed to move in this way, with the so-called planets moving in opposition to the fixed stars, so that, taking signs from the configuration of all the stars that come about in relation to each one and in general, they may know—not humans (for it is far greater than man's capacity to grasp truly from the motion of the stars the things concerning each one, whatever they are doing or suffering)—but the powers, which it is necessary to know for many reasons, as we shall show to the best of our ability in what follows.

But people, having learned from certain observations, or even from the teaching of angels who had transgressed their own order and who taught certain things about these matters for the ruin of our race, supposed that the beings from whom they think they receive the signs are the causes of these things which the account says are signified—about which matters themselves we shall immediately discuss more carefully, as far as we are able, in summary. These problems, then, will be set before us: how, when God has foreknown from eternity the things that are thought to be done by each person, the "in our power" is preserved; and in what way the stars are not productive of the things that happen among humans, but only significative; and that humans cannot have exact knowledge about these things, but the signs are implanted in powers superior to humans. For what is the reason that God made the signs for the knowledge of the powers? This will be examined fourth. And so let us look at the first point, which many of the Greeks, having been cautious about—supposing that affairs are necessitated and that the "in our power" is in no way preserved if God foreknows future things—dared to accept an impious doctrine rather than admit what those men call glorious concerning God but which destroys the "in our power," and on account of this praise and blame, and the acceptance of virtues and the censure of vices. And they say: If God has known from eternity that this certain person will do injustice and will commit these acts of injustice, and the knowledge of God is unerring, then he will certainly be unjust, doing these acts of injustice—the one who has been foreseen to be such—and it is impossible for him not to do injustice.

But if it is impossible for him not to do wrong, he is compelled to do wrong, and it is impossible for him to do anything other than what God has known. But if it is impossible for him to do anything else, and no one who does what is impossible is blameworthy, we accuse the unjust to no purpose. From the unjust man and his unjust deeds they go on also to other sins; then, conversely, also to the things thought to be right actions; and they say that it follows from God's foreknowledge of future things that the things within our power cannot be preserved. To these it must be said that God, applying himself to the beginning of the creation of the world—since nothing happens without a cause—runs through in his mind each of the things that will be, seeing that, since this has happened, this follows; and if this consequent thing happens, this follows, and once this has come about, this will be; and so, running through to the end of things, he knows what will be, not in every case being the cause of each of the things known coming to pass. For just as if someone, seeing a man reckless through ignorance, and through his recklessness irrationally setting out on a slippery road, and grasping that he will fall after slipping, does not become the cause of that man's slip; so God must be understood to have foreseen what sort of person each will be, and to perceive the causes of his being such a person, and that he will sin in these ways or do right in these ways; and, if one must say it, the foreknowledge is not the cause of the things that happen (for God does not lay hold of the one foreknown when he sins), but—stranger though it is, yet we shall speak the truth—the thing that will be is the cause of the foreknowledge about it being of such a kind. For it is not because it has been known that it happens, but because it was going to happen that it has been known.

But it requires a distinction. For if someone interprets the phrase "it will certainly be" in such a way that what has been foreknown must necessarily come to be, we do not grant this to him. For we will not say that, because it has been foreknown that Judas would become a traitor, it was therefore by every necessity that Judas became a traitor. At any rate, in the prophecies concerning Judas, reproaches and accusations against Judas have been recorded, presenting to everyone his blameworthy character. But reproach would not have been attached to him if he had been a traitor by compulsion, and it had not been possible for him to become like the rest of the apostles. And observe whether these things are not made clear by the words we shall set down, which read as follows: "Let him not be merciful to his orphans, because he did not remember to show mercy, and he persecuted a poor and needy man, and one pricked in heart, to put him to death. And he loved a curse, and it will come upon him, and he did not desire a blessing, and it will be far from him." But if someone will interpret the phrase "it will certainly be" according to its meaning, saying that these particular things will indeed happen, but that it was also possible for them to happen otherwise, we concede this as true. For it is not possible for God to lie; but concerning things that are possible to happen and not to happen, it is possible for him to think both that they will happen and that they will not happen. But we will state this more clearly as follows: If it was possible for Judas to be an apostle like Peter, it was possible for God to conceive concerning Judas that he would remain an apostle like Peter. If it was possible for Judas to become a traitor, it was possible for God to think concerning him that he would be a traitor.

But if Judas will be a traitor, God, by his foreknowledge of the two things previously mentioned—since it is possible for one of them to happen—knowing the truth in advance, will foreknow that Judas will become a traitor; but that about which the knowledge is, can also happen otherwise. And God's knowledge could say: "It is possible for this man to do this, but also the opposite; and since both are possible, I know that he will do this." For just as God would not say, "It is not possible for this particular man to fly," so too, when giving an oracle, say, about someone, he will not say, "It is not possible for this man to become temperate." For there is absolutely no power in man to fly, but there is power to become temperate and to become licentious. Since both powers exist, the one who does not attend to converting and educative words gives himself over to the worse; but the better course is taken by the one who seeks the truth and wishes to live according to it. This man does not seek the truth because he inclines toward pleasure; but that man examines matters concerning them, having been chosen by common notions and by a persuasive argument. And again, in turn, this man chooses pleasure, not because he is unable to look it in the face, but because he does not strive; while that man despises it, seeing the shame that often resides in it. That, however, God's foreknowledge does not impose necessity on those things which it has comprehended, will be said in addition to what has been stated before: that in many places of the Scriptures God commands the prophets to proclaim repentance, not having pretended to know whether those who hear will turn, or will remain in their sins; as it is said in Jeremiah:

Perhaps they will hear and repent." For God, not being ignorant of whether they will hear or not, says, "Perhaps they will hear and repent," but as it were showing from what is said that the balance of powers is equal, so that his foreknowledge, announced beforehand, might not cause those who hear to fall, presenting the appearance of necessity, as though the turning back were not in their power, and so that it might not itself become as it were a cause of sins; or again, for those who from ignorance of the good foreknown could, in struggling, live in virtue and resist evil, foreknowledge might become a cause of slackening, since they no longer stand vigorously against sin, as though what was foretold would certainly come to pass. For in this way foreknowledge of the good that will be could become as it were a stumbling block. In any case, God, managing all things in the world usefully, reasonably blinded us also to future things; for knowledge of them would have released us from struggling against evil, and, seeming to have been grasped, would have permitted us, without wrestling against sin, to become subject to it more quickly. At the same time, it would also conflict with a person's becoming good and noble that foreknowledge should have come to this or that person, that he will certainly be good. For in addition to what we have, there is need of greater intensity and effort to become good and noble; but knowledge grasped beforehand, that one will certainly be good and noble, undermines the practice. Therefore, for our advantage, we do not know whether we will be good or wicked.

Since we have said that God has blinded us to things to come, consider whether we can clarify a certain passage cited from Exodus in this way: "Who made the hard-of-hearing and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? Was it not I, the Lord God?" — so that the same one has made both the blind and the seeing: seeing with respect to things present, but blind with respect to things to come. For the account concerning the hard-of-hearing and the deaf does not belong to the present occasion. That, however, many things among those that are in our power have very many causes among things that are not in our power, we too will acknowledge; and if these had not occurred — I mean the things not in our power — certain of these things that are in our power would not have been done; but certain of these things that are in our power are done as consequences of these preceding things that are not in our power, since it is possible, given the same preceding circumstances, to do other things besides what we do. But if anyone seeks that what is in our power be released from the whole, so that we do not choose these things because of certain circumstances that have befallen us, he has forgotten that he is a part of the world, and is encompassed by the fellowship of human beings and of the surrounding environment. Moderately, then, as in a summary, I think it has been demonstrated that the foreknowledge of God is not coercive of the things foreknown in every respect. But come, let us also contend concerning the stars, that they are in no way productive of what happens among human beings, but only significative. And it is clear that, if some such configuration

Would one think that the stars are productive of certain things that happen concerning man—for let the argument now be examined on this point—then the configuration that comes to be today, say, around this person could not be understood to have made the things that have already passed concerning another or even concerning others. For everything that makes is older than what is made. But according to the mathematics of those who profess such things, the matters concerning men are thought to be foretold as older than the configuration. For they profess, taking the hour of this man in some such way, to grasp how each of the wandering stars was situated at the zenith, or at this or that degree of the zodiac, or of the minute divisions within it, and what star of the zodiac was at the eastern horizon, and what at the western, and what at the meridian, and what at the anti-meridian. And when they set down the stars, which they think have configured themselves in this way at the time of the birth of this or that person, at the time of the delivery of the one they are examining, they inquire not only into things to come but also into things past, and into the matters before the birth and the sowing of the one about whom the account is made—concerning the father, what sort of man he happens to be, rich or poor, sound in body or maimed, better or worse in character, without possessions or possessing much, having this or that occupation; and the same things also concerning the mother, and concerning older brothers, if they happen to exist. But for the present let us concede that they grasp the truth in the matter, about which we will later show that it is not so.

Let us therefore inquire of those who suppose that human affairs are compelled by the stars, in what manner the configuration that exists today, being such as it is, could have produced the things that are older. For if this is impossible—since it is found that what concerns older times is not true—it is clear that the stars, moving as they do in heaven, did not produce the things that have passed and come to be before they were in this state. But if this is so, perhaps one who accepts that they speak truth, having attended to what is said about future things, will say that they speak truth not by producing, but only by signifying. But if someone should claim that the stars do not produce past things, but that other configurations were the causes of the knowledge of those things, and that the present configuration has only signified, while future things are made clear from the present configuration of the nativity of this or that person, let him set forth the difference, so as to show from the stars that these things are understood as true as from things that produce, and those as from things that only signify. But since they cannot give the difference, they will reasonably agree that nothing of human affairs comes to be from the stars, but, as we have said before, if anything is signified, it is as if someone were to receive past and future things not from the stars but from the mind of God, through some prophetic word. For just as we demonstrated earlier that the knowledge by God of what will be done by each person does not harm the argument concerning what is in our power, so neither do the signs that God appointed for signifying hinder what is in our power.

But in a similar way to a book containing future events prophetically, the whole heaven can, as it were being a book of God, contain future events. Therefore, in the Prayer of Joseph, what is said by Jacob can be understood in this way: "For I read in the tablets of heaven all that will happen to you and to your sons." And perhaps also the saying, "The heaven will be rolled up like a book," indicates that the words contained in it, which are significant of future events, will be brought to completion and, so to speak, fulfilled, just as the prophecies are said to have been fulfilled by having come to pass. And in this way the stars will have become for signs, according to the voice that says: "Let them be for signs." But Jeremiah, turning us back to ourselves and removing the fear that arises from things thought to be signified, and perhaps also from things supposed to come from there, says: "From the signs of heaven do not be afraid." Let us also consider a second argument, how the stars cannot be productive, but at most significant. For from as many nativities as possible one can derive the matters concerning a single man; and we say this by way of hypothesis, conceding that the knowledge of them can be acquired by men. For suppose, to take an example, concerning this man's suffering this, and dying after falling in with robbers and being killed, they say it can be derived both from his own nativity, and if he happens to have several brothers, from the nativity of each of them.

For they think that each person's nativity contains his brother, who will die by robbers, and likewise his father's and his mother's, and his wife's, and his sons', and his household slaves', and his dearest friends', and perhaps even those of the very men who do the killing. How then is it possible for one who is encompassed by so many nativities—if this is to be granted them—to be brought into being by the configuration of the stars, [determined] by this nativity rather than by those? For it is also implausible to say that the configuration in this man's own nativity has caused these things, while the configuration in those men's nativities has not caused them but has only signified them. For it is foolish to say that the nativity of all contained, in each individual case, the effective cause of this man's being killed, so that in, say, fifty nativities by hypothesis, this man's being killed is contained. But I do not know how they will be able to maintain that, of those in Judea, nearly all have such a configuration at their nativity that they receive circumcision on the eighth day, being mutilated and wounded, and falling into inflammation and sores, and needing physicians at the very moment of their entry into life; while those among the Ishmaelites in Arabia have such a one that all are circumcised at thirteen years—for this has been recorded concerning them—and again certain of those among the Ethiopians have such a one that their knee-shells are removed, and of the Amazons one of their breasts. For how do the stars produce these things for these nations? I think that, if we were to pay attention, we would not be able even to begin to say anything true about them.

Since such predictive paths are reported, I do not know how people ran aground on the view that augury and sacrifice do not contain the efficient cause but only signify, and likewise astrology, but no longer the casting of nativities. For if a thing is known, so that we may also concede that it is known, and it comes to be from that source from which the knowledge is taken, why will things that come to be be from the stars rather than from the birds? And rather from the birds than from the entrails of the sacrificed victims, or from shooting stars? So much, then, will suffice for the present for refuting the idea that the stars are productive causes of human affairs. But what we have conceded—for it did not trouble the argument—namely that people are able to grasp the celestial configurations and the signs, and the things of which they are signs, let us now examine whether this is true. Those skilled in these matters say, then, that the one who is going to grasp nativity matters truly must know not only in which twelfth-part the so-called star is, but also in which degrees of the twelfth-part, and in which sixtieth; and the more precise ones even in which sixtieth of the sixtieth. And they say one must do this for each of the wandering stars, examining its relation to the fixed stars. Again, in the case of the eastern horizon, they say it will be necessary to see not only what twelfth-part was on it, but also the degree, and the sixtieth of the degree, whether the first or the second sixtieth.

How then, since the hour, broadly speaking, comprises half a twelfth-part, can anyone grasp the sixtieth part, not having the proportion of the division of the hours, so as to know, say, that a certain person was born in the fourth hour, and in half an hour, and in the third, eighth, and sixteenth, and the two-thirtieth? For they say that the significations differ very greatly through ignorance not of the whole hour but even of its fraction. At any rate, in those born under the Twins, the interval is often also a mere instant of an hour, and many variations of the things that happen and are done in their case occur, as those men say, because of the cause of the relation of the stars and the part of the twelfth-part at the horizon, which is not apprehended by those who are thought to have observed the hour accurately. For no one can say that the interval between this man's birth and that man's is a thirtieth of an hour. But let this be conceded to them, at least as regards grasping the hour. Now a theorem is advanced demonstrating that the zodiacal circle is carried, like the wandering stars, from west to east, one degree in a hundred years, and that this by the long passage of time changes the position of the twelfth-parts—the intelligible twelfth-part being one thing, and the so-to-speak figure being another, but from the intelligible sign, which is not at all easy to apprehend. But let this too be conceded, that the intelligible twelfth-part is apprehended, or that the true one can be grasped from the perceptible twelfth-part.

But the so-called "mixture" among them of the things that fall within these configurations, even they themselves will admit, they are unable to preserve in every respect, since the indicated thing is obscured—say, for instance, the worse one by this one, because he is looked upon by this better one, and is obscured to such and such an extent, or to such and such an extent; and often again the obscuring of the worse one is hindered by the looking of the better one, from the fact that another has been configured in such a way as to be significant of worse things. And I think that anyone who has applied himself to these places would despair of the comprehension of these things, which is in no way set out for humans, but if anything reaches only as far as being indicated. But if anyone has had experience of the matters, he will know better the fallibility in conjecturing of those who speak, and indeed of those who have written, than the success that is supposed. And Isaiah, at any rate, as though these things cannot be found out by humans, says to the daughter of the Chaldeans, who above all others especially promise these things: "Let the astrologers of the heaven stand and save you; let them announce to you what is about to come upon you." For through these words we are taught that those who are very devoted to learning about these things cannot foretell what the Lord has wished to bring upon each nation. For now we have expounded the prophetic text according to the letter; but if Jacob says that he read in the tablets of heaven the things that would befall his sons, and as far as this is concerned someone might contradict us, saying that the opposite of what we have said is made clear through the Scripture—for we were saying that man is unable to comprehend the signs—

But Jacob says that he has read in the tablets of heaven. We will reply that the wise men among us, having used a spirit greater than human nature, are taught the hidden things not in a human way but divinely—just as Paul, saying: "I heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to speak." For they know the changes of modes and the alterations of seasons, the cycles of years, and the positions of the stars, not from men, nor through men, but with the Spirit revealing to them and purely, as God wills, declaring the divine things. And in another way Jacob was greater than a man, supplanting his brother, and confessing in this very book, from which we have cited the words "I have read in the tablets of heaven," that he is a chief commander of the power of the Lord, and having long ago acquired the name Israel—which, while serving in the body, he recognizes, as the archangel Uriel reminds him. After these things it remains to examine and to show to those who believe that the luminaries of heaven are appointed for signs; but you will be examined by those who are carried more curiously to these places, as to what is the reason that God has made these signs in heaven. And it is possible to say first, that we believe that the things of the greatness of the mind of God, which has encompassed all knowledge concerning each of existing things,

So that not even the most casual and seemingly least significant thing escapes his divinity, it contains the opinion that he has, as it were, encompassed within himself things infinite in number, though the demonstration is not manifest but held by faith, as befits the unbegotten Mind, which is beyond all nature. In order, then, that this might be grasped by experience by those greater than man, and by holy souls released from the present bondage, God made, as it were, letters and characters in heaven through the circuit of the heavenly bodies, for those who have been taught and will be taught to read the signs of God. And it is no wonder that God does something even for the sake of displaying his power toward the blessed, since the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "For this very purpose I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." For if Pharaoh was preserved for the display of God's power and the proclamation of his name in all the earth, consider how great a display of God's power the heavenly signs contain, since all things from the beginning of the age to its consummation have been imprinted in the worthy book of God, which is heaven. Second, I conjecture that the signs are present in the powers that administer human affairs, so that they know some things only, while they bring others to pass—just as in our own books some things are written that we may know them, such as the accounts of the creation of the world and other mysteries, and others that, knowing them, we may do them, such as the matters concerning the commandments and ordinances of God.

It is possible that the heavenly writings, which angels and divine powers are well able to read, contain some things that will be read by the angels and ministers of God, so that they may rejoice in knowing them, and some things that they, as it were receiving commands, may carry out. And we shall not err in saying, by analogy with what is in the law, that heaven and the stars have such things; but if worse and other activities than man's do something of the things foreknown and signified in heaven, there is no necessity that these too, being reminded by God's writings, do what they do; but just as men who do injustice, not learning that God foreknew that this or that person would be wronged by them, perform the injustice from their own wickedness, so the powers opposed to God, having foreknown the wickedness of men who wish evil things, accomplish it by their own most shameful choice. The holy angels, however, the ministering spirits sent for service, it is likely, receive the commands as written from God's law, and in order, and when it is necessary, and as it is necessary, and as much as is necessary, do the better things; for it is absurd that they, being divine, should come at random and not in a determined way to, say, give an oracle to Abraham, and to do something for Isaac, and to rescue Jacob from danger, or to stand by the spirit of this or that prophet. In order, then, that they may not do this at random nor by chance, they read the book of God; and thus they do what falls to them.

As we said before, we do what we do, or the opposing powers accomplish in us what they do, by our own free choice—disorderly when we sin, but disciplined, not without angels, nor without divine writings, nor without holy ministers, when we do what is pleasing to God. And Clement the Roman, a disciple of the apostle Peter, speaking in agreement with these things on the present question to the father in Laodicea in the Periodoi, says at the end of such discourses something most necessary concerning those things which seem to have come to pass by the reckoning of birth, in the fourteenth discourse: "And the father said: Forgive me, my child; for your words of yesterday, being true, reasoned with me to agree with you; but my conscience, small as it is, like the deficiency of a fever, torments me a little toward unbelief; for I am conscious within myself that all the things of birth have been accomplished for me. And I answered: Consider with me, father, what nature the teaching has, from the things which I advise. When you meet a mathematician, first say to him: These things have turned out badly for me at this time; from what cause, then, for me—

of the stars, I wished to learn. And he will say that the times were received by the maleficent Mars or Cronus, or that one of these was in a restoring position, or that someone observed this year from a square, or a diameter, or in conjunction, or centered, or contrary to sect. Yet he has countless other things to say as well; besides these, either the beneficent was not in composition with the maleficent, or was unobserved, or in aspect, or contrary to sect, or in eclipse, or not in conjunction, or among dim stars. And yet, though there are many pretexts, he has proofs to offer for what he heard. After this astrologer, then, going to another, he said the opposite: that this good happened to me at this time; but you, tell of the same time; and demand from what origin of the nativity this came to be. And yet, as I said before, when you have lied, he himself can find from many configurations one configuration, and a second, and a third, and more, by which it was active, whence he will say the goods came to be; for it is impossible in every nativity of men that not in every hour some of the stars are well placed and others badly; for it is an equal-part circle, varied, having countless pretexts, to which each one can say what he wishes. For in the manner of oblique dreams, sometimes we understand nothing, but when they have turned out we bring the most fitting interpretation; so also the science, before anything is accomplished, can reveal nothing clear to us; but after the history of what has happened, then the cause of the outcome appears evident. Often, then, those who foretell stumble, and after the outcome they blame themselves, saying: This was what did it, and we did not see it.

So then, even the very learned go wrong because they do not know, as I said yesterday, which things are altogether causes of generation, and which are not altogether, and which things we altogether desire to do but do not altogether do. And this cause is clear to us who have learned the mystery: that, having a free reasoning faculty, sometimes when we have resolved to hold this in check, we have conquered. But the astrologers, not knowing this very mystery, having pronounced from the beginning about every choice, when they went wrong devised the climacterics, making choice a matter of uncertainty, as we demonstrated yesterday. But for the rest, if you have anything to say to these things, speak. And having sworn, he answered that nothing is truer than these things which he said. FROM THE THIRD VOLUME OF THE COMMENTARIES ON GENESIS. "And God made the two great lights, the great light for the beginnings of the day, and the lesser light for the beginnings of the night, and the stars. And God set them in the firmament of heaven, so as to shine upon the earth, and to rule the day and the night." One must inquire whether "for the beginnings of the day" is the same as "and to rule the day," and "for the beginnings of the night" the same as "and to rule the night." For Aquila also preserved the analogy, writing "for authority" instead of "for beginnings," and "to have authority" instead of "to rule." Now those who have cared for the examination of meanings say that in passages which have a pairing of appellations and predicates, the things that fall under the appellations pre-exist, and the predicates follow upon the appellations;

And they say that a noun has a predicate, for example prudence, and that to be prudent is a predicate; likewise that prudence is a noun, and to be temperate is a predicate; and they say that prudence pre-exists, then the predicate supervenes, prudence being the source of being prudent. But these things, even if we seem to some to be doing them contrary to the intent of the Scripture, we have observed; since God, who makes the luminaries, makes the greater one for the beginnings of the day, and the lesser one for the beginnings of the night; and he sets them in the firmament of heaven, no longer for the beginnings of the day and of the night, but to rule the day and the night. For the fact that the nouns are set forth in order and in accordance with what is treated technically in the passage, and then the predicates are brought in after them, has moved us to consider whether perhaps the matter has been understood by the servant [of God] also in this way, especially since Aquila, who is most honored for interpreting accurately, has done nothing other than [render] the noun and the predicate. But let the one who finds these things hard to accept consider whether an ethical problem, or a physical one, or a theological one, can be [settled] without precision in meanings and in the things clarified according to the logical topic, in the way it must be set out. For what is absurd about listening to the things used in their proper sense in the dialects, and attending carefully to the meanings? For there are times when, through ignorance of logical matters, we fall into great error by not purifying homonyms, ambiguities, catachreses, proper senses, and distinctions.

For example, because they did not understand the homonymous word, the name of the world, those who have not been purified have fallen into thinking the most impious things about the Creator. They fail to consider in which cases it is said, "The world lies in the evil one," and that this was said there by John in place of earthly and human things. For having supposed that "world" in the literal sense of the word means the system composed of heaven and earth and the things in them, they declare the most reckless and unholy things about God, though they are in no way able to show in fact how the sun and moon and stars, which are moved in such good order, lie in the evil one. Then, if we bring against them the passage, "This is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," showing that "world" here in these words means where sin abounds, that is, in the earthly places, those who are fair-minded will accept what is said, but those who are contentious, behaving foolishly, will persist in the wicked judgments they once made because of their ignorance of the homonymy. And again, if it is said, "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself," they will no longer be able to demonstrate what they have assumed about the whole world, that is, about the things in the whole world, especially according to their own suppositions; for the word must also be examined in this case as homonymous. And there are countless other examples of wicked interpretations arising from ambiguity and from the distinction of punctuations, so that one who is ambitious to do so may take no few of them.

We have made this digression in order to show that even for us who wish not to err concerning the truth in understanding the divine Scriptures, it is most necessary to know the logical matters that fall into use; and these we needed even now in order to discover the difference between the things said to have been made "for beginnings of the night" and "for ruling the day and the night." From the third volume of Origen's Explanations of Genesis. But when the holy apostles and disciples of our Savior had been scattered over the whole inhabited world, Thomas, as tradition holds, received Parthia as his lot, and Andrew Scythia; John Asia, where after dwelling among them he died in Ephesus; Peter seems to have preached in Pontus and Galatia and Bithynia, Cappadocia and Asia to the Jews of the dispersion; and he, having come at the end to Rome, was crucified head downward, having himself asked to suffer in this way. Why need one speak of Paul, who filled up the Gospel of Christ from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum, and later bore witness in Rome under Nero?