Preface to Origen on Three Psalms

Addressed to Apronianus, either at Rome or at Aquileia, sometime between the years 398 and 407. [a]

The whole commentary on the thirty-sixth, thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth Psalms is moral in character, designed to press home better ways of living. At one point it teaches the way of conversion and repentance, at another the way of purification and of progress. So I have thought it well to translate it into Latin for you, my dearest son Apronianus. I first arranged it into nine of the short sermons that are called homilies in Greek and brought it together as one whole, so that this discourse, which in every part aims at correcting and advancing the moral life, is gathered into a single volume. My translation will at any rate be useful this far: it will put the reader, without effort, in possession of the author’s meaning, which is laid fully open here, and it will bring home to him the simplicity of life that the author urges, with clear thought and in plain words. In this way the voice of prophecy may reach not men only but also God-fearing women, and lend subtlety to the minds of the simple. Yet I am afraid that devout lady, who is my daughter but your sister in Christ, may think she owes me no thanks for my work if it brings her nothing but puzzling thoughts and thorny questions. For the human body could hardly hold together if divine providence had formed it of bones and muscles alone, without blending in the ease and grace of the softer tissues. [b]