{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c005\">17. And if we come to the legislation of Moses, many of\r\nthe laws manifest the irrationality, and others the impossibility,\r\nof their literal<a id=\"r948\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f948\"><sup>[948]</sup></a> observance. The irrationality [in this],\r\nthat the people are forbidden to eat vultures, although no one\r\neven in the direst famines was [ever] driven by want to have\r\nrecourse to this bird; and that children eight days old,\r\nwhich are uncircumcised, are ordered to be exterminated\r\nfrom among their people, it being necessary, if the law were\r\nto be carried out at all literally with regard to these, that\r\ntheir fathers, or those with whom they are brought up, should\r\nbe commanded to be put to death. Now the Scripture says:\r\n“Every male that is uncircumcised, who shall not be circumcised\r\non the eighth day, shall be cut off from among his\r\npeople.”<a id=\"r949\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f949\"><sup>[949]</sup></a> And if you wish to see impossibilities contained\r\nin the legislation, let us observe that the goat-stag is one of\r\nthose animals that cannot exist, and yet Moses commands us\r\nto offer it as being a clean beast; whereas a griffin, which is\r\nnot recorded ever to have been subdued by man, the lawgiver\r\nforbids to be eaten. Nay, he who carefully considers [the\r\nfamous injunction relating to] the Sabbath, “Ye shall sit\r\neach one in your dwellings; let no one go out from his place\r\non the seventh day,”<a id=\"r950\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f950\"><sup>[950]</sup></a> will deem it impossible to be literally\r\nobserved: for no living being is able to sit throughout a\r\nwhole day, and remain without moving from a sitting position.\r\nAnd therefore those who belong to the circumcision,\r\nand all who desire that no meaning should be exhibited,\r\nsave the literal one, do not investigate at all such subjects\r\nas those of the goat-stag and griffin and vulture, but\r\nindulge in foolish talk on certain points, multiplying words\r\nand adducing tasteless<a id=\"r951\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f951\"><sup>[951]</sup></a> traditions; as, for example, with\r\nregard to the Sabbath, saying that two thousand cubits is\r\neach one’s limit.<a id=\"r952\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f952\"><sup>[952]</sup></a> Others, again, among whom is Dositheus\r\nthe Samaritan, condemning such an interpretation, think that\r\nin the position in which a man is found on the Sabbath-day,\r\nhe is to remain until evening. Moreover, the not carrying\r\nof a burden on the Sabbath-day is an impossibility; and\r\ntherefore the Jewish teachers have fallen into countless absurdities,<a id=\"r953\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f953\"><sup>[953]</sup></a>\r\nsaying that a shoe of such a kind was a burden,\r\nbut not one of another kind; and that a sandal which had\r\nnails was a burden, but not one that was without them; and\r\nin like manner what was borne on one shoulder [was a load],\r\nbut not that which was carried on both.</p>","headings":["The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2","ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS.","BOOK IV.","FROM THE GREEK."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70561-paragraph-321"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"1cd5c5bbbe03558f41a53c57998f1130c6fc558c8d42ed8c5eec9fac5733dd95","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg70561-f952","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":"f952","source_ebook":70561,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f952\">\n<p class=\"c006\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r952\">952</a>. </span><span lang=\"grc\">τόπον ἑκάστῳ εἶναι δισχιλίους πήχεις.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"de125e213d16053354f22b34a1c8d477ac23f201e660e4f4841b2ed7e05bb367","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70561/pg70561-images.html#f952","text_sha256":"48d024be92177824cb6049873126b8950f916bdcfcc04d2ac55c84f78b3b27c0","verified":false,"work_id":null}