What Origen’s Letter Was Really About

After this introduction about the corruption, by heretics, of the apostles, of both Clements, and of Dionysius, he comes at last to Origen. These are his words: “I have shown from his own words and writings how he himself complains of this and grieves over it. He explains clearly, in the letter he wrote to some of his close friends at Alexandria, what he suffered while he was still living here in the flesh and in full possession of his senses, through the corruption of his books and treatises, or through false editions of them.” He attaches a copy of this letter. And he who charges the heretics with corrupting Origen’s writings begins by corrupting them himself. He does not translate the letter as he finds it in the Greek, and he does not convey to the Latins what Origen says in it. The purpose of the whole letter is to attack Demetrius, the pontiff of Alexandria, and to rail against the bishops throughout the world, and to tell them that their excommunication of him is not valid. He says further that he has no intention of paying back their evil speaking. In fact, he is so afraid of evil speaking that he does not dare to speak evil even of the devil. This gave Candidus, a follower of the Valentinian errors, an opening to misrepresent him as saying that the devil is of a nature that could be saved. But our friend takes no notice of the real point of the letter, and makes up for Origen an argument Origen does not use. So I have translated a part of the letter, beginning a little way after the matters I have just described, and have joined it to the part he translated in a cut-down and dishonest way, so that the reader may see why he suppressed the earlier part. Origen, then, is contending against the bishops of the church in general, because they had judged him unworthy of its communion, and he goes on as follows: [a]

“Why should I speak of the language in which the prophets constantly threaten and rebuke the shepherds, the elders, the priests, and the rulers? You can draw these things out of the Holy Scriptures for yourselves without my help. And you may clearly see that it may well be the present time of which it is said, ‘Do not trust in your friends, and do not hope in rulers,’ and that the prophecy is now being fulfilled, ‘The leaders of my people have not known me; my sons are fools and not wise. They are wise to do evil, but do not know how to do good.’ “We ought to pity them, not hate them; to pray for them, not curse them. For we were created for blessing, not for cursing. That is why even Michael, when he disputed with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation even for so great an evil, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you.’ And we read something similar in Zechariah: ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan; the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you.’ “So we too desire that those who will not humbly accept the rebuke of their neighbors may be rebuked by the Lord. But since Michael says, ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan,’ and Zechariah says the same, the devil knows well whether the Lord rebukes him or not, and must acknowledge the manner of the rebuke.” [b] Then, after a passage too long to insert here, he adds: “We believe that not only those who have committed great sins will be shut out of the kingdom of heaven, such as the sexually immoral, adulterers, men who defile themselves with males, and thieves, but also those who have done wrong of a less glaring kind, since it is written, ‘Neither drunkards nor slanderers will inherit the kingdom of God’; and that the standard by which people will be judged is the goodness of God as much as his severity. So we try to act thoughtfully in everything, in drinking wine and in restraint of speech, so that we do not dare to speak evil of anyone. “Now, because through the fear of God we take care not to utter curses against anyone, remembering that the words ‘He did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him’ are spoken of Michael in his dealing with the devil, as it is also said in another place, ‘They despise authority and slander the glorious ones,’ certain of these men who look for things to quarrel about lay a blasphemy at the door of us and our teaching. (As to that, they should take to heart the words that apply to them, ‘Neither drunkards nor slanderers will inherit the kingdom of God.’) The blasphemy is that the father of wickedness and of the ruin of those who will be shut out of the kingdom of God can be saved: a thing that not even a madman could say.” [c]

In place of the later words of Origen that I have translated, “Now, because through the fear of God we take care not to utter curses against anyone,” and so on, Rufinus has set down the rest of what comes in the same letter. He dishonestly cuts off the earlier part, on which the later part depends, and begins his translation of the letter as though it started with this statement. He says: “Some of those who delight in bringing complaints against their neighbors lay at the door of us and our teaching the crime of a blasphemy we have never spoken. (As to that, they must consider whether they are willing to stand by the decree that says, ‘Slanderers will not inherit the kingdom of God.’) For they say that I assert that the father of wickedness and of the ruin of those who will be shut out of the kingdom of God, that is, the devil, will be saved: a thing that no one could say, even if he had taken leave of his senses and was plainly insane.” [d]