{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">And if it be necessary for us to offer a defence of our refusal\r\nto recognise as gods, equally with angels, and sun, and moon,\r\nand stars, those who are called by the Greeks “manifest and\r\nvisible” divinities, we shall answer that the law of Moses knows\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_277\">277</span>that these latter have been apportioned by God among all the\r\nnations under the heaven, but not amongst those who were\r\nselected by God as His chosen people above all the nations of\r\nthe earth. For it is written in the book of Deuteronomy:\r\n“And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou\r\nseest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of\r\nheaven, shouldst be driven to worship them, and serve them,\r\nwhich the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under\r\nthe whole heaven. But the Lord hath taken us, and brought\r\nus forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto\r\nHim a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.”<a id=\"r864\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f864\"><sup>[864]</sup></a> The Hebrew\r\npeople, then, being called by God a “chosen generation, and a\r\nroyal priesthood, and a holy nation, and a purchased people,”<a id=\"r865\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f865\"><sup>[865]</sup></a>\r\nregarding whom it was foretold to Abraham by the voice of\r\nthe Lord addressed to him, “Look now towards heaven, and\r\ntell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and He said\r\nunto him, So shall thy seed be;”<a id=\"r866\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f866\"><sup>[866]</sup></a> and having thus a hope\r\nthat they would become as the stars of heaven, were not likely\r\nto bow down to those objects which they were to resemble as a\r\nresult of their understanding and observing the law of God.\r\nFor it was said to them: “The Lord our God hath multiplied\r\nus; and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for\r\nmultitude.”<a id=\"r867\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f867\"><sup>[867]</sup></a> In the book of Daniel, also, the following\r\nprophecies are found relating to those who are to share in the\r\nresurrection: “And at that time thy people shall be delivered,\r\nevery one that has been written in the book. And many of\r\nthem that sleep in the dust<a id=\"r868\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f868\"><sup>[868]</sup></a> of the earth shall awake; some to\r\neverlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.\r\nAnd they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament,\r\nand [those] of the many righteous<a id=\"r869\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f869\"><sup>[869]</sup></a> as the stars for ever\r\nand ever,”<a id=\"r870\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f870\"><sup>[870]</sup></a> etc. And hence Paul, too, when speaking of the\r\nresurrection, says: “And there are also celestial bodies, and\r\nbodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the\r\nglory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the\r\nsun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the\r\nstars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. So\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_278\">278</span>also is the resurrection of the dead.”<a id=\"r871\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f871\"><sup>[871]</sup></a> It was not therefore\r\nconsonant to reason that those who had been taught sublimely<a id=\"r872\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f872\"><sup>[872]</sup></a>\r\nto ascend above all created things, and to hope for the enjoyment\r\nof the most glorious rewards with God on account of their\r\nvirtuous lives, and who had heard the words, “Ye are the light\r\nof the world,”<a id=\"r873\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f873\"><sup>[873]</sup></a> and, “Let your light so shine before men, that\r\nthey, seeing your good works, may glorify your Father who is\r\nin heaven,”<a id=\"r874\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f874\"><sup>[874]</sup></a> and who possessed through practice this brilliant\r\nand unfading wisdom, or who had secured even the “very\r\nreflection of everlasting light,”<a id=\"r875\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f875\"><sup>[875]</sup></a> should be so impressed with the\r\n[mere] <i>visible</i> light of sun, and moon, and stars, that, on account\r\nof that sensible light of theirs, they should deem themselves\r\n(although possessed of so great a rational light of knowledge,\r\nand of the true light, and the light of the world, and the light\r\nof men) to be somehow inferior to them, and to bow down to\r\nthem; seeing they ought to be worshipped, if they are to receive\r\nworship at all, not for the sake of the sensible light which is\r\nadmired by the multitude, but because of the rational and true\r\nlight, if indeed the stars in heaven are rational and virtuous\r\nbeings, and have been illuminated with the light of knowledge\r\nby that wisdom which is the “reflection of everlasting light.”\r\nFor that sensible light of theirs is the work of the Creator of\r\nall things, while that rational light is derived perhaps from the\r\nprinciple of free-will within them.<a id=\"r876\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f876\"><sup>[876]</sup></a></p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK V.","Chapter X."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-337"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"b3913192545f3a5ae3073ec6e1a3f807a655803fc98f243936937d50bccb9800","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie","W. H. Cairns"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"GEN","chapter":15,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Gen. xv. 5","verse":5,"verse_end":5}],"headings":[],"id":"pg70693-f866","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1872 English edition; listed translators died 1889 and 1872. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f866","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f866\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r866\">866</a>. </span><abbr class=\"spell\">Cf.</abbr> <abbr title=\"Genesis\">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title=\"fifteen\">xv.</abbr> 5.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f866","text_sha256":"a66b626078e79a96efa07a10f55a21f8b7d2af1f6a19320db1470505c0e0cf48","verified":false,"work_id":null}