"When these, therefore, and other similar princes of this world, each having his own individual wisdom and formulating his own doctrines and peculiar opinions, saw our Lord and Savior promising and proclaiming that that he had come into the world for the purpose of destroying all the doctrines, whatever they might be, of the 'knowledge falsely so called ' (1 Tm 6:20), they immediately laid snares for him, not knowing who was concealed within him. For 'the kings of the earth stood up , and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ' (Ps.2:2). But their snares became known and the plots which they had contrived against the Son of God were understood when they 'crucified the Lord of glory.' Therefore the Apostle says, 'We speak a wisdom among the perfect; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world , which are coming to naught,...a knowledge which none of the rulers of this world knew. For has they known it, they never would have crucified the Lord of glory' (1 Cor. 2:6-8).
"The question indeed arises whether these varieties of wisdom which belonged to the rulers of the world and with which they strive to indoctrinate men are introduced into our minds by the opposing powers with the desire of ensnaring and injuring us, or whether they are offered to us simply in consequence of an error, that is, not with a view to injuring men, but because the rulers of the world themselves think their wisdom to be true and are therefore anxious to teach others what in their opinion is the truth. The latter is, I think, more likely. For example, just as the Greek authors or the leaders of the various heresies have themselves first accepted a false doctrine for the truth and decided in their own mind that it was the truth, and then afterwards have tried to persuade others to accept this same doctrine which they have determined is the true one, so we must suppose the rulers of the world also to have acted, those beings, namely, that are called by this title because they are spiritual powers who have been appointed to rule over certain definite nations in this world."
P. 293-294, ON FIRST PRINCIPLES by Origen (2013)
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
ON FIRST PRINCIPLES by Origen
"When these, therefore, and other similar princes of this world, each having his own individual wisdom and formulating his own doctrines and peculiar opinions, saw our Lord and Savior promising and proclaiming that that he had come into the world for the purpose of destroying all the doctrines, whatever they might be, of the 'knowledge falsely so called ' (1 Tm 6:20), they immediately laid snares for him, not knowing who was concealed within him. For 'the kings of the earth stood up , and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ' (Ps.2:2). But their snares became known and the plots which they had contrived against the Son of God were understood when they 'crucified the Lord of glory.' Therefore the Apostle says, 'We speak a wisdom among the perfect; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world , which are coming to naught,...a knowledge which none of the rulers of this world knew. For has they known it, they never would have crucified the Lord of glory' (1 Cor. 2:6-8).
"The question indeed arises whether these varieties of wisdom which belonged to the rulers of the world and with which they strive to indoctrinate men are introduced into our minds by the opposing powers with the desire of ensnaring and injuring us, or whether they are offered to us simply in consequence of an error, that is, not with a view to injuring men, but because the rulers of the world themselves think their wisdom to be true and are therefore anxious to teach others what in their opinion is the truth. The latter is, I think, more likely. For example, just as the Greek authors or the leaders of the various heresies have themselves first accepted a false doctrine for the truth and decided in their own mind that it was the truth, and then afterwards have tried to persuade others to accept this same doctrine which they have determined is the true one, so we must suppose the rulers of the world also to have acted, those beings, namely, that are called by this title because they are spiritual powers who have been appointed to rule over certain definite nations in this world."
P. 293-294, ON FIRST PRINCIPLES by Origen (2013)