ORIGEN ON THERAPEUTIC PUNISHMENT 10.6. There are many other matters, too, which are hidden from us, and are known only to him who is the physician of our souls. For if in regard to bodily health we occasionally find it necessary to take some very unpleasant and bitter medicine as a cure for the ills we have brought on through eating and drinking, and sometimes, if the character of the ill demands it, we need the severe treatment of the knife and a painful operation, yes, and should the disease have extended beyond the reach even of these remedies, in the last resort the ill is burnt out by fire, how much more should we realise that God our physician, in his desire to wash away the ills of our souls, which they have brought on themselves through a variety of sins and crimes, makes use of penal remedies of a similar sort, even to the infliction of a punishment of fire on those who have lost their soul’s health. 10.6. [p.386] Multa sunt etiam alia quae nos latent, quae illi soli cognita sunt, qui est medicus animarum nostrarum. Si enim ad corporis sanitatem pro his uitiis, quae per escam potusque collegimus, necessariam habemus interdum 190 austerioris ac mordacioris medicamenti curam, nonnumquam uero, si id uitii qualitas depoposesrit, rigore [p.388] ferri et sectionis asperitate indigemus, quodsi et haec supergressus fuerit morbi modus, ad ultimum conceptum uitium etiam ignis exurit: quanto magis intellegendum 195 est medicum nostrum deum uolentem diluere uitia animarum nostrarum, quae ex peccatorum et scelerum diuersitate collegerant, uti huiuscemodi poenalibus curis, insuper etiam ignis inferre supplicium his, qui sanitatem animae perdiderunt Allusions to this are found also in the holy scriptures. For instance, in Deuteronomy the divine word threatens that sinners are to be punished with ‘fevers and cold and pallor’, and tortured with ‘feebleness of eyes and insanity and paralysis and blindness and weakness of the reins’.(cf Deut 28. 22,28,29) And so if anyone will gather at his leisure from the whole of scripture all the references to sufferings which in threats against sinners are called by the names [p.144] of bodily sicknesses, he will find that through them allusion is being made to either the ills or the punishments of souls. 200 Cuius rei imagines etiam in scripturis sanctis referuntur. Denique in Deuteronomio sermo diuinus peccatoribus comminatur quod febribus et frigoribus et aurugine puniantur, et occulorum uacillationibus et mentis alienatione et paraplexia et caecitate ac debilitate renium 205 cruciandi sint (Deut 28, 22:28). Si qui ergo ex otio de omni scriptura congreget omnes languorum commemorationes, quae in comminatione peccatoribus uelut corporearum aegritudinum appellationibus memorantur, inueniet quod animarum uel uitia uel supplicia per haec figuraliter indicentur. And to help us understand that as physicians supply aids to sufferers with the object of restoring them to health through careful treatment, so with the same motive God acts towards those who have lapsed and fallen into sin, there is proof in that passage in which, through the prophet Jeremiah, God’s ‘cup of fury’ is commanded ‘to be set before all nations’ that ‘they may drink it and become mad and spew it out’.(see Jer 25. 15,16,27) LATIN TEXT FROM Origen, De Principiis, ed. H. Crouzel and M. Simonetti, Sources Chréteinnes 252 (Paris:Cerf, 1978) 68-413. English: Origen, De principiis, tr. G. W. Butterworth, Origen on First Principles, (London:SPCK, 1936), pp.1-328 (pp. 142-146).
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 12:01:02 +0000
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