On the First Principles, Preface

Rufinus’s preface to Macarius

I know that a great many of the fellow Christians, moved by the desire for knowledge of the Scriptures, have asked various learned men skilled in Greek literature to make Origen a Roman and to present him to Latin ears. Among them our brother and colleague, when asked by Bishop Damasus, translated two homilies on the Song of Songs from Greek into Latin, and he prefaced that work so elegantly and splendidly as to stir in anyone the desire to read Origen and to search him out most eagerly. He said that the saying “The king has brought me into his chamber” fits Origen's soul, asserting that “while in his other books he surpasses everyone, in the Song of Songs he has surpassed even himself.” In that same preface he promises that he will give to Roman ears both those books on the Song of Songs and a great many other works of Origen. But he, as I see, taking pleasure in a style of his own, pursues something of greater glory, to be “the father of the word” rather than a translator. We, then, follow a task that he began and approved, but we cannot embellish the words of so great a man with equal powers of eloquence. For this reason I fear that by my fault it may come about that the man whom he rightly showed, by his knowledge and wisdom, to be “the second teacher of the church after the apostles” may appear, through the poverty of our language, far inferior to himself. I often considered this and kept silent, and did not agree to the requests of fellow Christians who frequently asked me for this work. But your insistence, most faithful brother Macarius, is so great that not even lack of skill can withstand it. Therefore, so as not to endure you any longer as so demanding a taskmaster, I yielded even against my intention, but on this condition and in this manner: that as far as possible I follow in translating the rule of my predecessors, and especially of the man I mentioned above. When he had translated into Latin more than seventy of Origen's treatises, which he called homilies, and some of his volumes on the Apostle as well, in which a number of stumbling-blocks are found in the Greek, he so polished and purged everything in translating that the Latin reader finds nothing in them that disagrees with our faith. We too, then, follow him, if not with his powers of eloquence, yet with his rules of method as far as we can, taking care, that is, not to bring forward whatever is found in Origen's books that is inconsistent with itself and contradictory. The cause of this inconsistency I have set out for you more fully in the Apology that Pamphilus wrote for the books of Origen, to which I added a very short booklet of my own, in which I showed, by proofs that are, I think, clear, that his books have been corrupted in a great many places by heretics and ill-wishers, and especially these books which you now require me to translate, namely the Περὶ ἀρχῶν, which may be translated either “On Principles” or “On Principalities”; and they are in fact, apart from this, very obscure and very difficult. For in them he discusses matters in which the philosophers, though they spent their whole lives on them, were able to find nothing. But our author did what he could to redirect toward piety the belief in the Creator and the account of created things which they had dragged into impiety. Wherever, then, we have found in his books anything contrary to what he had elsewhere piously defined concerning the Trinity, we have either passed it over as corrupted and foreign to him, or translated it according to the rule which we frequently find affirmed by him. If, indeed, speaking as to people already expert and knowledgeable, and wishing to pass over a point briefly, he has expressed something rather obscurely, we, to make the passage clearer, have added what we had read more plainly on the same subject in his other books, aiming at explanation; yet we have said nothing of our own, but have given back to him his own words, even though they were said in other places. I have given this warning in the preface for this reason, so that slanderers may not perhaps think they have once again found material for accusation. But let perverse and argumentative people look to what they are doing. For our part, this great work has been undertaken, if only God helps us in answer to your prayers, not to shut the mouths of slanderers, which cannot be done (though perhaps God will do even this), but to provide material for those who wish to advance in the knowledge of things. This indeed I solemnly instruct and bind by oath everyone who will copy or read these books, in the sight of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, by the faith in the kingdom to come, by the mystery of the resurrection from the dead, by the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels (so may he not possess as his eternal inheritance that place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, and where their fire will not be put out and their worm will not die): that he add nothing to the writing, take nothing away, insert nothing, change nothing, but compare it with the copies from which he has written, correct it to the letter and punctuate it, and not keep an uncorrected or unpunctuated copy, so that the difficulty of the meaning does not, if the copy is not punctuated, make it even harder for readers to understand.

All who believe and are convinced that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, and who know that Christ is the truth, according to his own saying, “I am the truth,” receive the knowledge that calls people to live well and happily from no other source than the very words and teaching of Christ. And by the words of Christ we mean not only those which he taught when he had become man and was placed in the flesh; for even before that, Christ, the Word of God, was in Moses and the prophets. For without the Word of God how could they have prophesied of Christ? To prove this it would not be difficult to show from the divine Scriptures how Moses and the prophets, filled with the Spirit of Christ, both spoke and did all that they did, were it not our aim to compress the present work into the greatest brevity we can. I therefore think it sufficient to use this one testimony of Paul, from the letter that he writes to the Hebrews, in which he says: “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin, considering the disgrace of Christ greater riches than the treasures of the Egyptians.” And that after his ascension into heaven he spoke in his apostles, Paul shows in this way: “Or do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ?”

Since, then, many of those who claim to believe in Christ disagree not only in small and very minor matters but also in great and very great ones, that is, about God, or the Lord Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit, and not only about these but also about other created beings, that is, about the dominions and the holy powers, it seems necessary first to lay down a definite line and a clear rule about each of these, and only then to inquire into the rest. For just as, when many among Greeks and barbarians promised the truth, we ceased to seek it among all who claimed it with false opinions, once we had believed that Christ is the Son of God and had become persuaded that we must learn it from him, so, since there are many who think they hold the things of Christ, and some of them think differently from their predecessors, while the church's preaching, handed down from the apostles through the order of succession and remaining in the churches to the present day, is preserved, that alone is to be believed as truth which in no way departs from the church's and the apostles' tradition.

It should be known, however, that the holy apostles, when preaching the faith of Christ, delivered with the utmost clarity to everyone, even to those who seemed rather slow in the investigation of divine knowledge, certain things which they believed to be necessary, leaving the grounds of their statements to be investigated by those who would deserve the excellent gifts of the Spirit, and especially by those who should receive through the Holy Spirit himself the grace of speech, of wisdom and of knowledge. About other things they said that they are, but were silent about how they exist or where they come from, certainly so that the more studious among their successors, who should be lovers of wisdom, might have an exercise in which to show the fruit of their ability: those, that is, who should prepare themselves to be worthy and capable of receiving wisdom.

The particular points clearly handed down through the apostolic preaching are these. First, that there is one God, who created and arranged all things, and who, when nothing existed, made all things to be: God from the first creation and foundation of the world, the God of all the righteous, of Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve patriarchs, Moses and the prophets; and that this God in the last days, as he had promised beforehand through his prophets, sent our Lord Jesus Christ, first to call Israel, and secondly also the Gentiles after the unfaithfulness of the people of Israel. This God, just and good, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, himself gave the law and the prophets and the Gospels; he is also the God of the apostles and of both the Old and the New Testament. Then, that Jesus Christ himself, who came, was born of the Father before all creation. Having served the Father in the founding of all things (for through him all things were made), in the last times he emptied himself and became man; he was made flesh although he was God, and when he was made man he remained what he was, God. He took a body like our body, differing only in that it was born of the Virgin and the Holy Spirit. And since this Jesus Christ was born and suffered in truth and not in appearance, he truly died this common death; for he truly rose from the dead, and after the resurrection, having spent time with his disciples, he was taken up. Next, they handed down that the Holy Spirit is associated in honor and dignity with the Father and the Son. In his case it is not yet clearly determined whether he is to be regarded as begotten or unbegotten, or whether he too is to be considered a Son of God or not. But these things are to be inquired into from holy Scripture as far as our powers allow, and investigated with careful search. That this Spirit inspired each of the saints, whether prophets or apostles, and that there was not one Spirit in those of ancient times and another in those who were inspired at the coming of Christ, is most clearly preached in the churches.

Next, that the soul, having its own substance and life, will be dealt with according to its merits when it departs from this world: either it will obtain the inheritance of eternal life and blessedness, if its deeds have earned this for it, or it will be handed over to eternal fire and punishments, if the guilt of its crimes has turned it that way; and also that there will be a time of the resurrection of the dead, when this body which is now “sown in decay will rise in freedom from decay,” and what “is sown in dishonor will rise in glory.” This too is defined in the church's preaching: that every rational soul has free choice and will; that it also has a struggle against the devil and his angels and the opposing powers, because they strive to burden it with sins, while we, if we live rightly and prudently, try to free ourselves from such a burden. It follows that we are to understand that we are not subject to necessity, so as to be compelled in every way, even against our will, to do either evil or good. For if we are masters of our own choice, some powers may perhaps attack us to draw us toward sin and others help us toward salvation; yet we are not compelled by necessity to act either rightly or wrongly. That is what those think who say that the course and movements of the stars are the cause of human deeds, not only of those which happen outside the freedom of choice but also of those which are placed in our power. But concerning the soul, whether it is derived by transmission from the seed, so that its principle or substance is held to be implanted in the bodily seeds themselves, or whether it has some other beginning, and whether this beginning is begotten or not begotten, or at least whether it is put into the body from outside or not: this is not distinguished with sufficiently clear preaching.

Concerning the devil and his angels and the opposing powers, the church's preaching has taught that these exist; but what they are, or how they exist, it has not set out clearly enough. Among very many, however, the opinion is held that the devil was an angel and, having become an apostate, persuaded as many of the angels as he could to fall away with him, and these even now are called his angels.

This too is in the church's preaching: that this world was made and began at a certain time, and is to be dissolved because of its own corruption. But what existed before this world, or what will exist after it, has not yet become clearly known to many. For no clear statement about these things is set out in the church's preaching.

Then, finally, that the Scriptures were written through the Spirit of God and have not only the meaning that is obvious but also another, hidden from most. For the things that are written are the forms of certain mysteries and the images of divine things. On this the whole Church is of one mind: that the whole law is indeed spiritual, but that what the law breathes is not known to all, but only to those to whom the grace of the Holy Spirit is given in the word of wisdom and knowledge. The term ἀσώματος, that is, “incorporeal,” is unusual and unknown not only among many other writers but also in our Scriptures. If anyone should wish to bring against us from that little book called the Teaching of Peter the passage where the Savior seems to say to his disciples, “I am not an incorporeal demon,” the first answer to him is that that book is not counted among the church's books, and it must be shown that the writing is neither Peter's nor that of anyone else who was inspired by the Spirit of God. And even if this were conceded, the sense indicated there by the word ἀσώματος is not the same as that which Greek and Gentile authors intend when the philosophers discuss incorporeal nature. For in that little book he said “incorporeal demon” because the form or outline of a demonic body, whatever it is, is not like this denser and visible body of ours; but what he said must be understood according to the meaning of the one who composed that writing, namely, that he did not have such a body as demons have, which is naturally fine and thin like air, and for this reason is either thought by many or called incorporeal, but that he had a solid body that could be touched. In ordinary human usage everything that is not of this kind is called incorporeal by the simpler or less learned, as if someone were to call this air we breathe incorporeal, since it is not a body of a kind that can be grasped and held and resists pressure.

We will, however, investigate whether the thing itself which the Greek philosophers call ἀσώματον, that is, incorporeal, is found in the holy Scriptures under another name. It must also be inquired how God himself is to be understood: whether as bodily and formed into some shape, or as of another nature than bodies, a point which is certainly not clearly indicated in our preaching. The same questions are also to be asked about Christ and the Holy Spirit, and they must likewise be asked about every soul and every rational being.

This too is in the church's preaching: that there are certain angels of God and good powers who serve him in accomplishing the salvation of human beings; but when they were created, or of what kind they are, or how they exist, is not stated clearly enough. Concerning the sun, moon and stars, whether they are living beings or without soul, nothing is clearly handed down. Everyone, therefore, who desires to construct out of the reasoning of all these things a connected sequence and an organized whole must use points of this kind as elements and foundations, according to the command that says, “Enlighten yourselves with the light of knowledge,” so that by clear and necessary statements he may search out the truth about each particular, and form, as we have said, one organized whole by examples and affirmations, whether those which he finds in the holy Scriptures or those which he discovers by tracing their consequences and by right reasoning.