{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">He proceeds to repeat himself, and after saying a great deal\r\nwhich he had said before, and ridiculing the birth of God from\r\na virgin,—to which we have already replied as we best could,—he\r\nadds the following: “If God had wished to send down His\r\nSpirit from Himself, what need was there to breathe it into the\r\nwomb of a woman? For as one who knew already how to\r\nform men, He could also have fashioned a body for this person,\r\nwithout casting His own Spirit into so much pollution;<a id=\"r1396\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1396\"><sup>[1396]</sup></a> and in\r\nthis way He would not have been received with incredulity, if\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_416\">416</span>He had derived His existence immediately from above.” He\r\nhas made these remarks, because he knows not the pure and\r\nvirgin birth, unaccompanied by any corruption, of that body\r\nwhich was to minister to the salvation of men. For, quoting\r\nthe sayings of the Stoics,<a id=\"r1397\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1397\"><sup>[1397]</sup></a> and affecting not to know the doctrine\r\nabout “things indifferent,” he thinks that the divine nature\r\nwas cast amid pollution, and was stained either by being in the\r\nbody of a woman, until a body was formed around it, or by\r\nassuming a body. And in this he acts like those who imagine\r\nthat the sun’s rays are polluted by dung and by foul-smelling\r\nbodies, and do not remain pure amid such things. If, however,\r\naccording to the view of Celsus, the body of Jesus had been\r\nfashioned without generation, those who beheld the body would\r\nat once have believed that it had not been formed by generation;\r\nand yet an object, when seen, does not at the same time\r\nindicate the nature of that from which it has derived its origin.\r\nFor example, suppose that there were some honey [placed before\r\none] which had not been manufactured by bees, no one\r\ncould tell from the taste or sight that it was not their workmanship,\r\nbecause the honey which comes from bees does not\r\nmake known its origin by the senses,<a id=\"r1398\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1398\"><sup>[1398]</sup></a> but experience alone can\r\ntell that it does not proceed from them. In the same way, too,\r\nexperience teaches that wine comes from the vine, for taste\r\ndoes not enable us to distinguish [the wine] which comes from\r\nthe vine. In the same manner, therefore, the visible<a id=\"r1399\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1399\"><sup>[1399]</sup></a> body\r\ndoes not make known the manner of its existence. And you\r\nwill be induced to accept this view,<a id=\"r1400\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1400\"><sup>[1400]</sup></a> by [regarding] the heavenly\r\nbodies, whose existence and splendour we perceive as we gaze\r\nat them; and yet, I presume, their appearance does not suggest\r\nto us whether they are created or uncreated; and accordingly\r\ndifferent opinions have existed on these points. And yet those\r\nwho say that they are created are not agreed as to the manner\r\nof their creation, for their appearance does not suggest it,\r\nalthough the force of reason<a id=\"r1401\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1401\"><sup>[1401]</sup></a> may have discovered that they\r\nare created, and how their creation was effected.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK VI.","Chapter LXXIII."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-468"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"9bf407176eee1bcd9f4f884147349485ff137523cd83115a8c3abbecbe69f8d2","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-f1401","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":"f1401","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f1401\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r1401\">1401</a>. </span><span lang=\"grc\">κἂν βιασάμενος ὁ λόγος εὕρῃ.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f1401","text_sha256":"3daa4a84318e18ae0794211ef832089bd493acf8bf24c87962d422ad41490be6","verified":false,"work_id":null}