(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all mistakes found.)

Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves
three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing intially
before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi =
ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute =
' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe,
when necessary.

A LETTER FROM ORIGEN TO GREGORY.[1]

   1. GREETING in God, my most excellent sir, and venerable son Gregory,
from Origen. A natural readiness of comprehension, as you well know, may,
if practice be added, contribute somewhat to the contingent end, if I may
so call it, of that which any one wishes to practise. Thus, your natural
good parts might make of you a finished Roman lawyer or a Greek
philosopher, so to speak, of one of the schools in high reputation. But I
am anxious that you should devote all the strength of your natural good
parts to Christianity for your end; and in order to this, I wish to ask you
to extract from the philosophy of the Greeks what may serve as a course of
study or a preparation for Christianity, and from geometry and astronomy
what will serve to explain the sacred Scriptures, in order that all that
the sons of the philosophers are wont to say about geometry and music,
grammar, rhetoric, and astronomy, as fellow-helpers to philosophy, we may
say about philosophy itself, in relation to Christianity. 2. Perhaps
something of this kind is shadowed forth in what is written in Exodus from
the mouth of God, that the children of Israel were commanded to ask from
their neighbours, and those who dwelt with them, vessels of silver and
gold, and raiment, in order that, by spoiling the Egyptians, they might
have material for the preparation of the things which pertained to the
service of God. For from the things which the children of Israel took from
the Egyptians the vessels in the holy of holies were made,--the ark with
its lid, and the Cherubim, and the mercy-seat, and the golden coffer, where
was the manna, the angels' bread. These things were probably made from the
best of the Egyptian gold. An inferior kind would be used for the solid
golden candlestick near the inner veil, and its branches, and the golden
table on which were the pieces of shewbread, and the golden censer between
them.[7] And if there was a third and fourth quality of gold, from it would
be made the holy vessels; and the other things would be made of Egyptian
silver. For when the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt, they gained this
from their dwelling there, that they had no lack of such precious material
for the utensils of the service of God. And of the Egyptian raiment were
probably made all those things which, as the Scripture mentions, needed
sewed and embroidered work, sewed with the wisdom of God, the one to the
other other, that the veils might be made, and the inner and the cuter
courts. And why should I go on, in this untimely digression, to set forth
how useful to the children of Israel were the things brought from Egypt,
which the Egyptians had not put to a proper use, but which the Hebrews,
guided by the wisdom of God, used for God's service? Now the sacred
Scripture is wont to represent as an evil the going down from the land of
the children of Israel into Egypt, indicating that certain persons get harm
from sojourning among the Egyptians, that is to say, from meddling with the
knowledge of this world, after they have subscribed to the law of God, and
the Israelitish service of Him. Ader[2] at least, the Idumaean; so long as
he was in" the land of Israel, and had not tasted the bread of the
Egyptians, made no idols. It was when he fled from the wise Solomon, and
went down into Egypt, as it were flying from the wisdom of God, and was
made a kinsman of Pharaoh by marrying his wife's sister, and begetting a
child, who was brought up with the children of Pharaoh, that he did this.
Wherefore, although he did return to the land of Israel, he returned only
to divide the people of God, and to make them say to the golden calf,
"These be thy gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up from the land of
Egypt."[3] And I may tell you from my experience, that not many take from
Egypt only the useful, and go away and use it for the service of God; while
Ader the Idumaean has many brethren. These are they who, from their Greek
studies, produce heretical notions, and set them up, like the' golden calf,
in Bethel, which signifies "God's house." In these words also there seems
to me an indication that they have set up their own imaginations in the
Scriptures, where the word of God dwells, which is called in a figure
Bethel. The other figure, the word says, was set up in Dan. Now the borders
of Dan are the most extreme, and nearest the borders of the Gentiles, as is
clear from what is written in Joshua, the son of Nun. Now some of the
devices of these brethren of Ader, as we call them, are also very near the
borders of the Gentiles.

   3. Do you then, my son, diligently apply yourself to the reading of the
sacred Scriptures. Apply yourself, I say. For we who read the things of God
need much application, lest we should say or think anything too rashly
about them. And applying yourself thus to the study of the things of God,
with faithful prejudgments such as are well pleasing to God, knock at its
locked door, and it will be opened to you by the porter, of whom Jesus
says, "To him the porter opens."[1] And applying yourself thus to the
divine study, seek aright, and with unwavering trust in God, the meaning of
the holy Scriptures, which so many have missed. Be not satisfied with
knocking and seeking; for prayer is of all things indispensable to the
knowledge of the things of God. For to this the Saviour exhorted, and said
not only, "Knock, and it shall be opened to you; and seek, and ye shall
find,"[2] but also, "Ask, and it shall be given unto you."[3] My fatherly
love to you has made me thus bold; but whether my boldness be good, God
will know, and His Christ, and all partakers of the Spirit of God and the
Spirit of Christ. May you also be a partaker, and be ever increasing your
inheritance, that you may say not only, "We are become partakers of
Christ,"[4] but also partakers of God.


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning in
1867. (ANF 4, Roberts and Donaldson.) The original digital version was by
The Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-
WORD.

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