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


LETTER OF ORIGEN TO GREGORY THAUMATURGOS.

[Translated by Allan Menzies, D.D.]


I. GREGORY IS URGED TO APPLY HIS GENTILE LEARNING TO THE STUDY OF
SCRIPTURE.

   All hail to thee in God, most excellent and reverend Sir, son Gregory,
from Origen. A natural quickness of understanding is fitted, as you are
well aware, if it be diligently exercised, to produce a work which may
bring its owner so far as is possible, if I may so express myself, to the
consummation of the art the which he desires to practise, and your natural
aptitude is sufficient to make you a consummate Roman lawyer and a Greek
philosopher too of the most famous schools. But my desire for you has been
that you should direct the whole force of your intelligence to Christianity
as your end, and that in the way of production. And I would wish that you
should take with you on the one hand those parts of the philosophy of the
Greeks which are fit, as it were, to serve as general or preparatory
studies for Christianity, and on the other hand so much of Geometry and
Astronomy as may be helpful for the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.
The children of the philosophers speak of geometry and music and grammar
and rhetoric and astronomy as being ancillary to philosophy; and in the
same way we might speak of philosophy itself as being ancillary to
Christianity.

2. THIS PROCEDURE IS TYPIFIED BY THE STORY OF THE SPOILING OF THE
EGYPTIANS.

   It is something of this sort perhaps that is enigmatically indicated in
the directions God is represented in the Book of Exodus(3) as giving to the
children of Israel. They are directed to beg from their neighbours and from
those dwelling in their tents vessels of silver and of gold, and raiment;
thus they are to spoil the Egyptians, and to obtain materials for making
the things they are told to provide in connection with the worship of God.
For out of the things of which the children of Israel spoiled the Egyptians
the furniture of the Holy of Holies was made, the ark with its cover, and
the cherubim and the mercy-seat and the gold jar in which the manna, that
bread of angels, was stored. These probably were made from the finest of
the gold of the Egyptians, and from a second quality, perhaps, the solid
golden candlestick which stood near the inner veil, and the lamps on it,
and the golden table on which stood the shewbread, and between these two
the golden altar of incense. And if there was gold of a third and of a
fourth quality, the sacred vessels were made of it. And of the Egyptian
silver, too, other things were made; for it was from their sojourn in Egypt
that the children of Israel derived the great advantage of being supplied
with such a quantity of precious materials for the use of the service of
God. Out of the Egyptian raiment probably were made all those requisites
named in Scripture in embroidered work; the embroiderers working(1) with
the wisdom of God,(2) such garments for such purposes, to produce the
hangings and the inner and outer courts. This is not a suitable opportunity
to enlarge on such a theme or to show in how many ways the children of
Israel found those things useful which they got from the Egyptians. The
Egyptians had not made a proper use of them; but the Hebrews used them, for
the wisdom of God was with them, for religious purposes. Holy Scripture
knows, however, that it was an evil thing to descend from the land of the
children of lsrael into Egypt; and in this a great truth is wrapped up. For
some it is of evil that they should dwell with the Egyptians, that is to
say, with the learning of the world, after they have been enrolled in the
law of God and in the Israelite worship of Him. Ader the Edomite, (1) as
long as he was in the land of Israel and did not taste the bread of the
Egyptians, made no idols; but when he fled from the wise Solomon and went
down into Egypt, as one who had fled from the wisdom of God he became
connected with Pharaoh, marrying the sister of his wife, and begetting a
son who was brought up among the sons of Pharaoh. Therefore, though he did
go back to the land of Israel, he came back to it to bring division into
the people of God, and to cause them to say to the golden calf, "These are
thy gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." I have
learned by experience and can tell you that there are few who have taken of
the useful things of Egypt and come out of it, and have then prepared what
is required for the service of God; but Ader the Edomite on the other hand
has many a brother. I mean those who, founding on some piece of Greek
learning, have brought forth heretical ideas, and have as it were made
golden calves in Bethel, which is, being interpreted, the house of God.
This appears to me to be intended to convey that such persons set up their
own images in the Scriptures in which the Word of God dwells, and which
therefore are tropically called Bethel. The other image is said in the word
to have been set up in Dan. Now the borders of Dan are at the extremities
and are contiguous to the country of the heathens, as is plainly recorded
in the Book of Jesus, son of Nave. Some of these images, then, are close to
the borders of the heathen, which the brothers, as we showed, of Ader have
devised.

3. PERSONAL APPEAL.

   Do you then, sir, my son, study first of all the divine Scriptures.
Study them I say. For we require to study the divine writings deeply, lest
we should speak of them faster than we think; and while you study these
divine works with a believing and God-pleasing intention, knock at that
which is closed in them, and it shall be opened to thee by the porter, of
whom Jesus says,(1) "To him the porter openeth." While you attend to this
divine reading seek aright and with unwavering faith in God the hidden
sense which is present in most passages of the divine Scriptures. And do
not be content with knocking and seeking, for what is most necessary for
understanding divine things is prayer, and in urging us to this the Saviour
says not only,(2) "Knock, and it shall be opened to you," and "Seek, and ye
shall find," but also "Ask, and it shall be given you." So much I have
ventured on account of my fatherly love to you. Whether I have ventured
well or not, God knows, and His Christ, and he who has part of the Spirit
of God and the Spirit of Christ. May you partake in these; may you have an
always increasing share of them, so that you may be able to say not only,
"We are partakers of Christ,"(3) but also "We are 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 9, Menzies). The digital version is by The Electronic Bible
Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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