{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">8. But perhaps these declarations may seem to have less\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_16\">16</span>weight with those who wish to be instructed in divine things\r\nout of the holy Scriptures, and who seek to have it proved\r\nto them from that source how the nature of God surpasses\r\nthe nature of bodies. See, therefore, if the apostle does not\r\nsay the same thing, when, speaking of Christ, he declares,\r\nthat “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born\r\nof every creature.”<a id=\"r35\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f35\"><sup>[35]</sup></a> Not, as some suppose, that the nature\r\nof God is visible to some and invisible to others: for the\r\napostle does not say “the image of God invisible” to men or\r\n“invisible” to sinners, but with unvarying constancy pronounces\r\non the nature of God in these words: “the image\r\nof the invisible God.” Moreover, John in his Gospel, when\r\nasserting that “no one hath seen God at any time,”<a id=\"r36\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f36\"><sup>[36]</sup></a> manifestly\r\ndeclares to all who are capable of understanding, that\r\nthere is no nature to which God is visible: not as if He were\r\na being who was visible by nature, and merely escaped or\r\nbaffled the view of a frailer creature, but because by the\r\n<i>nature</i> of His being it is impossible for Him to be seen.\r\nAnd if you should ask of me what is my opinion regarding\r\nthe Only-begotten Himself, whether the nature of God, which\r\nis naturally invisible, be not visible even to Him, let not such\r\na question appear to you at once to be either absurd or impious,\r\nbecause we shall give you a logical reason. It is one\r\nthing to see, and another to know: to see and to be seen is a\r\nproperty of bodies; to know and to be known, an attribute of\r\nintellectual being. Whatever, therefore, is a property of\r\nbodies, cannot be predicated either of the Father or of the\r\nSon; but what belongs to the nature of deity is common to\r\nthe Father and the Son.<a id=\"r37\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f37\"><sup>[37]</sup></a> Finally, even He Himself, in the\r\nGospel, did not say that no one has <i>seen</i> the Father, save the\r\nSon, nor any one the Son, save the Father; but His words\r\nare: “No one <i>knoweth</i> the Son, save the Father; nor any\r\none the Father, save the Son.”<a id=\"r38\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f38\"><sup>[38]</sup></a> By which it is clearly shown,\r\nthat whatever among bodily natures is called seeing and being\r\nseen, is termed, between the Father and the Son, a knowing\r\nand being known, by means of the power of knowledge, not\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_17\">17</span>by the frailness of the sense of sight. Because, then, neither\r\nseeing nor being seen can be properly applied to an incorporeal\r\nand invisible nature, neither is the Father, in the\r\nGospel, said to be seen by the Son, nor the Son by the Father,\r\nbut the one is said to be known by the other.</p>","headings":["The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2","ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS.","BOOK I.","CHAPTER I. ON GOD."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70561-paragraph-73"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"e50902303bd3ddc6c7e6fbc245dab915170d4708596988869345dbefd6ec44d1","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"MAT","chapter":11,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Matt. xi. 27","verse":27,"verse_end":27}],"headings":[],"id":"pg70561-f38","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 1869 English translation; translator died 1889. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f38","source_ebook":70561,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f38\">\n<p class=\"c006\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r38\">38</a>. </span><abbr title=\"Matthew\">Matt.</abbr> <abbr title=\"eleven\">xi.</abbr> 27.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"de125e213d16053354f22b34a1c8d477ac23f201e660e4f4841b2ed7e05bb367","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70561/pg70561-images.html#f38","text_sha256":"2c1a892eb8fd51dd73a63386e1df244e142b2ec85725034c2bfaf42901dfff79","verified":false,"work_id":null}