{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">Mark now, whether he who charges us with having committed\r\nerrors of the most impious kind, and with having\r\nwandered away from the [true meaning] of the divine enigmas,\r\nis not himself clearly in error, from not observing that\r\nin the writings of Moses, which are much older not merely\r\nthan Heraclitus and Pherecydes, but even than Homer, mention\r\nis made of this wicked one, and of his having fallen\r\nfrom heaven. For the serpent<a id=\"r1238\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1238\"><sup>[1238]</sup></a>—from whom the Ophioneus\r\nspoken of by Pherecydes is derived—having become the cause\r\nof man’s expulsion from the divine Paradise, obscurely shadows\r\nforth something similar, having deceived the woman<a id=\"r1239\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1239\"><sup>[1239]</sup></a> by a\r\npromise of divinity and of greater blessings; and her example\r\nis said to have been followed also by the man. And, further,\r\nwho else could the destroying angel mentioned in the Exodus\r\nof Moses<a id=\"r1240\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1240\"><sup>[1240]</sup></a> be, than he who was the author of destruction\r\nto them that obeyed him, and did not withstand his wicked\r\ndeeds, nor struggle against them? Moreover, [the goat],\r\nwhich in the book of Leviticus<a id=\"r1241\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1241\"><sup>[1241]</sup></a> is sent away [into the wilderness],\r\nand which in the Hebrew language is named Azazel,\r\nwas none other than this; and it was necessary to send it away\r\ninto the desert, and to treat it as an expiatory sacrifice, because\r\non it the lot fell. For all who belong to the “worse” part, on\r\naccount of their wickedness, being opposed to those who are\r\nGod’s heritage, are deserted by God. Nay, with respect to the\r\nsons of Belial in the book of Judges,<a id=\"r1242\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1242\"><sup>[1242]</sup></a> whose sons are they said\r\nto be, save his, on account of their wickedness? And besides\r\nall these instances, in the book of Job, which is older even\r\nthan Moses himself, the devil is distinctly described as presenting\r\nhimself before God,<a id=\"r1243\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1243\"><sup>[1243]</sup></a> and asking for power against Job,\r\nthat he might involve him in trials<a id=\"r1244\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1244\"><sup>[1244]</sup></a> of the most painful kind;\r\nthe first of which consisted in the loss of all his goods and of\r\nhis children, and the second in afflicting the whole body of\r\nJob with the so-called disease of elephantiasis.<a id=\"r1245\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1245\"><sup>[1245]</sup></a> I pass by\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_384\">384</span>what might be quoted from the Gospels regarding the devil\r\nwho tempted the Saviour, that I may not appear to quote in\r\nreply to Celsus from more recent writings on this question.\r\nIn the last [chapter]<a id=\"r1246\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1246\"><sup>[1246]</sup></a> also of Job, in which the Lord utters to\r\nJob amid tempest and clouds what is recorded in the book\r\nwhich bears his name, there are not a few things referring to\r\nthe serpent. I have not yet mentioned the passages in Ezekiel,<a id=\"r1247\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1247\"><sup>[1247]</sup></a>\r\nwhere he speaks, as it were, of Pharaoh, or Nebuchadnezzar,\r\nor the prince of Tyre; or those in Isaiah,<a id=\"r1248\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1248\"><sup>[1248]</sup></a> where lament is\r\nmade for the king of Babylon, from which not a little might\r\nbe learned concerning evil, as to the nature of its origin and\r\ngeneration, and as to how it derived its existence from some\r\nwho had lost their wings,<a id=\"r1249\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1249\"><sup>[1249]</sup></a> and who had followed him who was\r\nthe first to lose his own.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK VI.","Chapter XLIII."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-438"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"ac6409e7b2c57978dc23fca17a1d4f39a915b735235b37315e2d3edc317c52fd","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie","W. H. Cairns"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg70693-f1239","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":"f1239","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f1239\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r1239\">1239</a>. </span><span lang=\"grc\">τὸ θηλύτερον γένος.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f1239","text_sha256":"c0f5c50a2bacacfeab538387cad8fbcf1cb38f5fab1dccb3e6e4c79aab8749a8","verified":false,"work_id":null}