{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">After this, wishing to prove that there is no difference\r\nbetween Jews and Christians, and those animals previously\r\nenumerated by him, he asserts that the Jews were “fugitives\r\nfrom Egypt, who never performed anything worthy of note,\r\nand never were held in any reputation or account.”<a id=\"r602\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f602\"><sup>[602]</sup></a> Now,\r\non the point of their not being fugitives, nor Egyptians, but\r\nHebrews who settled in Egypt, we have spoken in the preceding\r\npages. But if he thinks his statement, that “they\r\nwere never held in any reputation or account,” to be proved,\r\nbecause no remarkable event in their history is found recorded\r\nby the Greeks, we would answer, that if one will examine their\r\npolity from its first beginning, and the arrangement of their\r\nlaws, he will find that they were men who represented upon\r\nearth the shadow of a heavenly life, and that amongst them\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_193\">193</span>God is recognised as nothing else, save He who is over all\r\nthings, and that amongst them no maker of images was permitted\r\nto enjoy the rights of citizenship.<a id=\"r603\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f603\"><sup>[603]</sup></a> For neither painter\r\nnor image-maker existed in their state, the law expelling all\r\nsuch from it; that there might be no pretext for the construction\r\nof images,—an art which attracts the attention of\r\nfoolish men, and which drags down the eyes of the soul from\r\nGod to earth. There was, accordingly, amongst them a law to\r\nthe following effect: “Do not transgress the law, and make to\r\nyourselves a graven image, any likeness of male or female;\r\neither a likeness of any one of the creatures that are upon the\r\nearth, or a likeness of any winged fowl that flieth under the\r\nheaven, or a likeness of any creeping thing that creepeth upon\r\nthe earth, or a likeness of any of the fishes which are in the\r\nwaters under the earth.”<a id=\"r604\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f604\"><sup>[604]</sup></a> The law, indeed, wished them to\r\nhave regard to the truth of each individual thing, and not to\r\nform representations of things contrary to reality, feigning the\r\nappearance merely of what was really male or really female,\r\nor the nature of animals, or of birds, or of creeping things, or\r\nof fishes. Venerable, too, and grand was this prohibition of\r\ntheirs: “Lift not up thine eyes unto heaven, lest, when thou\r\nseest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and all the host of\r\nheaven, thou shouldst be led astray to worship them, and serve\r\nthem.”<a id=\"r605\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f605\"><sup>[605]</sup></a> And what a <i>régime</i><a id=\"r606\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f606\"><sup>[606]</sup></a> was that under which the whole\r\nnation was placed, and which rendered it impossible for any\r\neffeminate person to appear in public;<a id=\"r607\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f607\"><sup>[607]</sup></a> and worthy of admiration,\r\ntoo, was the arrangement by which harlots were removed\r\nout of the state, those incentives to the passions of the youth!\r\nTheir courts of justice also were composed of men of the\r\nstrictest integrity, who, after having for a lengthened period\r\nset the example of an unstained life, were entrusted with the\r\nduty of presiding over the tribunals, and who, on account of\r\nthe superhuman purity of their character,<a id=\"r608\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f608\"><sup>[608]</sup></a> were said to be gods,\r\nin conformity with an ancient Jewish usage of speech. Here\r\nwas the spectacle of a whole nation devoted to philosophy; and\r\nin order that there might be leisure to listen to their sacred\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_194\">194</span>laws, the days termed “Sabbath,” and the other festivals which\r\nexisted among them, were instituted. And why need I speak\r\nof the orders of their priests and sacrifices, which contain innumerable\r\nindications [of deeper truths] to those who wish to\r\nascertain the signification of things?</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK IV.","Chapter XXXI."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-250"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"83309a782ed130bcdda7fbee5b2cd071504c1c08f0ce96835742c3e1a89ae990","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-f606","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":"f606","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f606\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r606\">606</a>. </span><span lang=\"grc\">πολιτεία.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f606","text_sha256":"8d4418ba7e480d7adda48ae217c2dbcb4f4d2cc71424c03fed62084f1c7cfae9","verified":false,"work_id":null}