Apology for Origen; On the Falsification of the Books of Origen

Preface of Rufinus

35 PREFACE OF RUFINUS ACARIUS,1 O “man of desires,”2 moved by your zeal to know the truth,3 you charge me with a task that will confer upon you to such an extent—as you will see—the benefit4 of truth apprehended.5 But I do not doubt that it will procure for me the extreme displeasure of those who consider themselves injured by anyone who does not think some evil of Origen. And although you have asked not for my opinion about him, but for that of the holy martyr Pamphilus, and you have demanded that his book, which tradition reports he wrote in Greek on Origen’s behalf, be translated for you into Latin, still I do not doubt that there will be certain ones who will consider themselves injured even in this, [namely,] that we should say anything at all on Origen’s behalf, though we do so in the words of another. Nevertheless, we beg even them to do nothing in the spirit of presumption or prejudice. Instead, since we will [all] come to the judgment of God, let them not flee from knowing the truth, lest, perhaps, they transgress through their ignorance. Let them consider that to wound the conscience of weaker brethren by false accusations is to sin against Christ.6 Therefore , they should neither lend their ear to Origen’s accusers nor 1. On Macarius, see Introduction. 2. Cf. Dn 9.23; 10.11. Greek (in both passages): ἀνὴρ ἐπιθυμιῶν. 3. Amacker and Junod, SC 464, 23, n. 1, report that some scholars (notably M. Simonetti) find in these words an allusion to Macarius’s desire to know the truth about the Origenist controversies that have recently taken place in the East. Röwekamp (FC 80, p. 221, n. 3) suggests additionally that the truth about Origen’s orthodoxy may be meant. 4. Gratiam: lit., “grace.” 5. Cf. 2 Pt 3.18. 6. Cf. 1 Cor 8.12. 36 PREFACE OF RUFINUS learn about another man’s faith from a third party, especially since the means of finding this out is at hand, and the confession of one’s own mouth reveals the content and quality of what each one believes. For so it is written: “With the heart one believes unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made for salvation”;7 and: “By his own words will each one be justified, and by his own words will he be condemned.”8 2. So then, let the content of this little book show what sort of opinions Origen held on particular matters.9 And concerning the contradictions that have been found in his writings, we will explain them at the end of this work in the short appended discourse.10 3. But, just as it has been handed down to us from the holy fathers, so we hold that the Holy Trinity is co-eternal, and of one nature, and of one power and substance; and that the Son of God at the end of time11 became man and suffered for our sins, and in the very flesh in which he suffered he rose again from the dead, through which he also imparted the hope of the resurrection to the human race. But we speak of a resurrection of the flesh not through certain illusions, as many slanderously report, but we believe that this very flesh in which we now live will rise again, not one kind of flesh instead of another, nor any other body than the body of this flesh.12 4. Therefore, if we speak of the body that will rise again, we do so in accordance with the Apostle—for he himself made use of this term13 —or if we speak of the flesh, we confess this term 7. Rom 10.10. 8. Cf. Mt 12.37. 9. Rufinus will copy paragraphs 2–7 from this preface into his Apology to Anastasius 13 (NPNF2, 3.440). 10. Rufinus is referring to his work De adulteratione librorum Origenis, “On the Falsification of the Books of Origen,” which he appends as an epilogue to his translation of Pamphilus’s Apology. See pp. 123–37, below. 11. Cf. 1 Pt 1.20. 12. Probably directed against St. Jerome, who accused not only Rufinus but also his own bishop, John of Jerusalem, of heresy respecting the resurrection of the body. See Jerome’s Ep. 51.23–36 (NPNF2, 6.435–43); Rufinus, Apology to Anastasius 2–4, NPNF2, 3.430–32. 13...