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"description": "I continue from where I left off from Book II of Origen’s commentary on John: Origen: Trinity, Creatio Ex Nihilo & the Church as Spiritual Israel.\n\n22. The Word Was in the Beginning, I.e., in Wisdom, Which Contained All Things in Idea, Before They Existed. Christ's Character as Wisdom is Prior to His Other Characters.\n\nSo many meanings occur to us at once of the word arche. We have now to ask which of them we should adopt for our text, In the beginning was the Word. It is plain that we may at on",
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"publishedAt": "2026-05-24T06:47:42.000Z",
"site": "https://answeringislam.blog",
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"Origen on God’s Uncreated Firstborn Son",
"Origen’s Trinitarianism Summarized",
"Athanasius on Origen’s Christology",
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"textContent": "I continue from where I left off from Book II of Origen’s commentary on John: Origen: Trinity, Creatio Ex Nihilo & the Church as Spiritual Israel.\n\n22. The Word Was in the Beginning, I.e., in Wisdom, Which Contained All Things in Idea, Before They Existed. Christ's Character as Wisdom is Prior to His Other Characters.\n\nSo many meanings occur to us at once of the word _arche_. We have now to ask which of them we should adopt for our text, _In the beginning was the Word_. It is plain that we may at once dismiss the meaning which connects it with transition or with a road and its length. Nor, it is pretty plain, will the meaning connected with an origin serve our purpose. One might, however, think of the sense in which it points to the author, to that which brings about the effect, if, as we read, God commanded and they were created. ** _For Christ is, in a manner, the_** demiurge**_, to whom the Father says,_Let there be light,_ and _Let there be a firmament_. But Christ is _**demiurge**_as a beginning (_arche_), inasmuch as He is wisdom_**. It is in virtue of His being wisdom that He is called _arche_. For Wisdom says in Solomon: Proverbs 8:22 God_created me the beginning of His ways, for His works_ , **so that the Word might be in an _arche_ , namely, in wisdom**. Considered in relation to the structure of contemplation and thoughts about the whole of things, it is regarded as wisdom; but in relation to that side of the objects of thought, in which reasonable beings apprehend them, it is considered as the Word. And there is no wonder, since, as we have said before, the Saviour is many good things, if He comprises in Himself thoughts of the first order, and of the second, and of the third. This is what John suggested when he said about the Word: John 1:3-4 _That which was made was life in Him_. **Life then came in the Word. And on the one side the Word is no other than the** Christ**, the Word, He who was with the** Father**, by whom all things were made; while, on the other side, the Life is no other than the** Son of God**, who says** : John 14:6 _I am the way and the_ truth_and the life_. **As, then, life came into being in the Word, so the Word in the _arche_**.\n\nConsider, however, if we are at liberty to take this meaning of _arche_ for our text: _In the beginning was the Word_ , so as to obtain the meaning that all things came into being according to wisdom and according to the models of the system which are present in his thoughts. For I consider that as a house or a ship is built and fashioned in accordance with the sketches of the builder or designer, the house or the ship having their beginning (_arche_) in the sketches and reckonings in his mind, so all things came into being in accordance with the designs of what was to be, clearly laid down by God in wisdom. And we should add that having created, so to speak, ensouled wisdom, He left her to hand over, from the types which were in her, to things existing and to matter, the actual emergence of them, their moulding and their forms. But I consider, if it be permitted to say this, **_that the beginning (_arche_) of real _**existence**_was the_** Son of God**_, saying:_** Revelation 22:13**__I am the beginning and the end, the Α and the Ω, the first and the last__**. We must, however, remember that He is not the _arche_ in respect of every name which is applied to Him**. For how can He be the beginning in respect of His being life, when life came in the Word, and the Word is manifestly the _arche_ of life?** It is also tolerably evident that He cannot be the _arche_ in respect of His being the first-born from the dead. **_And if we go through all His titles carefully we find that He is the _arche_ only in respect of His being wisdom. Not even as the Word is He the _arche_ , for the Word was in the _arche__. And so one might venture to say that wisdom _IS ANTERIOR TO ALL_ the thoughts that are expressed in the titles of the **first-born**of every creature. Now God is altogether one and simple** ; but our Saviour, for many reasons, since God Romans 3:25 set Him forth a propitiation and a first fruits of the whole creation, is made many things, or perhaps all these things; the whole creation, so far as capable of redemption, stands in need of Him. And, hence, He is made the light of men, because men, being darkened by wickedness, need the light that shines in darkness, and is not overtaken by the darkness; had not men been in darkness, He would not have become the light of men. The same thing may be observed in respect of His being the first-born of the dead. For supposing the woman had not been deceived, and Adam had not fallen, and man created for incorruption had obtained it, **_then He would not have descended into the grave, nor would He have died, there being no_** sin**_, nor would His_** love**_of men have required that He should die, and if He had not died, He could not have been the_** first-born**_of the dead_**. We may also ask whether He would ever have become a shepherd, had man not been thrown together with the beasts which are devoid of reason, and made like to them. For if God saves man and beasts, He saves those beasts which He does save, by giving them a shepherd, since they cannot have a king. Thus if we collect the titles of Jesus, the question arises **_which of them were conferred on Him later, and would never have assumed such importance if the_** saints**_had begun and had also persevered in blessedness. Perhaps Wisdom would be the only remaining one, or perhaps the Word would remain too, or perhaps the Life, or perhaps the Truth, not the others, which He took for our sake_**. And happy indeed are those who in their need for the Son of God have yet become such persons as not to need Him in His character as a physician healing the sick, nor in that of a shepherd, nor in that of redemption, but only in His characters as wisdom, as the word and righteousness, or if there be any other title suitable for those who are so perfect as to receive Him in His fairest characters. So much for the phrase _In the beginning._\n\n23. The Title _Word_ Is to Be Interpreted by the Same Method as the Other Titles of Christ. The Word of God is Not a Mere Attribute of God, But a Separate Person. What is Meant When He is Called the Word.\n\nLet us consider, however, a little more carefully what is the Word which is in the beginning. I am often led to wonder when I consider the things that are said about Christ, even by those who are in earnest in their belief in Him. Though there is a countless number of names which can be applied to our Saviour, they omit the most of them, and if they should remember them, they declare that these titles are not to be understood in their proper sense, but tropically. But when they come to the title Logos__(Word), and repeat that Christ alone is the Word of God, they are not consistent, **and do not, as in the case of the other titles, search out what is behind the meaning of the term _Word._ _I wonder at the stupidity of the general run of_** Christians**_in this matter. I do not mince matters; it is nothing but stupidity_**. The Son of God says in one passage, _I am the light of the world_ , and in another _, I am the resurrection_ , and again, _I am the way and the_ truth_and the life_. It is also written, _I am the door_ , and we have the saying, _I am the good shepherd_ , and when the woman of Samaria says, _We_ know_the Messiah is coming, who is called Christ; when He comes, He will tell us all things_ , Jesus answers, _I that speak unto you am He_. Again, when He washed the disciples' feet, He declared Himself in these words John 13:13 to be their Master and Lord: _You call Me Master and Lord, and you say well, for so I am_. He also distinctly announces Himself as the Son of God, when He says, John 10:36 _He whom the Father sanctified and sent unto the world, to Him do you say, You_ blaspheme_, because I said, I am the_ Son of God_?_ and John 17:1 _Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son also may glorify You_. We also find Him declaring Himself to be a king, as when He answers Pilate's question, John 18:33, 36 _Are You the King of the_ Jews_?_ by saying, _My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the_ Jews_, but now is My kingdom not from hence_. We have also read the words, _I am the_ true_vine and My Father is the husbandman, and again, I am the vine, you are the branches_. Add to these testimonies also the saying, _I am the bread of life, that came down from heaven and gives life to the world_. These texts will suffice for the present, which we have picked up out of the storehouse of the Gospels, and in all of which He claims to be the Son of God. **But in the Apocalypse of John, too, He says,** Revelation 1:18**_I am the first and the last, and the living One, and I was dead. Behold, I am alive for evermore_. _And again,_** Revelation 22:13**__I am the Α and the Ω, and the first and the last, the beginning and the end__**. The careful student of the sacred books, moreover, may gather not a few similar passages from the prophets, as where He calls Himself Isaiah 49:2 a chosen shaft, and a servant of God, and a light of the Gentiles. Isaiah 49:6 Isaiah also says, _From my mother's womb has He called me by my name, and He made my mouth as a sharp sword, and under the shadow of His hand did He hide me, and He said to me, You are My servant, O_ Israel_, and in you will I be_ glorified_. And a little farther on: And my God shall be my strength, and He said to me, This is a great thing for you to be called My servant, to set up the tribes of Jacob and to turn again the diaspora of_ Israel_. Behold I have set you for a light of the_ Gentiles_, that you should be for_ salvation_to the end of the earth_. And in Jeremiah too Jeremiah 11:19 He likens Himself to a lamb, as thus: _I was as a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter_. These and other similar sayings He applies to Himself.\n\nIn addition to these one might collect in the Gospels and the Apostles and in the prophets a countless number of titles which are applied to the Son of God, as the writers of the Gospels set forth their own views of what He is, or the Apostles extol Him out of what they had learned, or the prophets proclaim in advance His coming advent and announce the things concerning Him under various names. Thus John calls Him the Lamb of God, saying, John 1:29 _Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the_ sins_of the world_ , and in these words he declares Him as a man, John 1:30-31 _This is He about whom I said, that there comes after me a man who is there before me; for He was before me_. And in his Catholic Epistle John says that He is a Paraclete for our souls with the Father, as thus: _And if any one_ sin_, we have a Paraclete with the_ Father_,_ Jesus Christ_the righteous_ , and he adds that _He is a propitiation for our_ sins, and similarly Paul says He is a propitiation: _Whom God set forth as a propitiation through_ faith_in His blood, on account of forgiveness of the forepast_ sins_, in the forbearance of_ God. According to Paul, too, He is declared to be the wisdom and the power of God, as in the Epistle to the Corinthians: _Christ the power of_ God_and the wisdom of_ God. It is added that He is also sanctification and redemption: _He was made to us of_ God_, he says, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption_. But he also teaches us, writing to the Hebrews, that Christ is a High-Priest: Hebrews 4:14 _Having, therefore, a great High-Priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the_ Son of God_, let us hold fast our profession_. And the prophets have other names for Him besides these. Jacob in his blessing of his sons Genesis 49:10 says, _Judah, your brethren shall extol you; your hands are on the necks of your enemies. A lion's cub is Judah, from a shoot, my son, are you sprung up; you have lain down and slept as a lion; who shall awaken him?_ We cannot now linger over these phrases, to show that what is said of Judah applies to Christ. What may be quoted against this view, viz., _A ruler shall not part from Judah nor a leader from his loins, until He come for whom it is reserved_ ; this can better be cleared up on another occasion. But Isaiah knows Christ to be spoken of under the names of Jacob and Israel, when he says, Isaiah 42:1-4 _Jacob is my servant, I will help Him;_ Israel_is my elect, my_ soul_has accepted Him. He shall declare judgment to the_ Gentiles_. He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any one hear His voice on the streets. A bruised rod shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He bring forth judgment from victory, and in His name shall the nations hope_. That it is Christ about whom such prophecies are made, Matthew shows in his Gospel, where he quotes from memory and says: _That the saying might be fulfilled, He shall not strive nor cry_ , etc. David also is called Christ, as where Ezekiel in his prophecy to the shepherds adds as from the mouth of God: Ezekiel 34:23 _I will raise up David my servant, who shall be their shepherd_. **For it is not the patriarch David who is to rise and be the shepherd of the** saints**, but Christ**. Isaiah also called Christ the rod and the flower: Isaiah 11:1-3 _There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall spring out of this root, and the spirit of God shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of_ knowledge_and of godliness, and He shall be full of the spirit of the_ fear_of the Lord_. And in the Psalms our Lord is called the stone, as follows: _The stone which the builders rejected is made the head of the corner. It is from the Lord, and it is wonderful in our eyes_. And the Gospel shows, as also does Luke in the Acts, that the stone is no other than Christ; the Gospel as follows: Matthew 21:42, 44 _Have ye never read, the stone which the builders rejected is made the head of the corner. Whosoever falls on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will scatter him as dust_. And Luke writes in Acts: Acts 4:11 _This is the stone, which was set at naught of you the builders, which has become the head of the corner_. And one of the names applied to the Saviour is that which He Himself does not utter, but which John records — _the Word who was in the beginning with_ God, God the Word. And it is worth our while to fix our attention for a moment on those scholars who omit consideration of most of the great names we have mentioned and regard this as the most important one. As to the former titles, they look for any account of them that any one may offer, but in the case of this one they proceed differently and ask, _What is the_ Son of God_when called the Word?_ **The passage they employ most is that in the** Psalms**,_My heart has produced a good Word_** ; and they imagine the Son of God to be the utterance of the Father deposited, **as it were, in syllables** , and accordingly **they do not allow Him** , if we examine them farther, **any independent hypostasis** , nor are they clear about His essence. I do not mean that they confuse its qualities, but the fact of His having an essence of His own. For no one can understand how that which is said to be _Word_ can be a Son. And such an animated Word, not being a separate entity from the Father, and accordingly as it, having no subsistence, is not a Son, or if he is a Son, let them say that God the Word is a separate being and has an essence of His own. We insist, therefore, that as in the case of each of the titles spoken of above we turn from the title to the concept it suggests and apply it and demonstrate how the Son of God is suitably described by it, the same course must be followed when we find Him called the Word. What caprice it is, in all these cases, not to stand upon the term employed, **but to enquire in what sense Christ is to be understood to be the door, and in what way the vine, and why He is the way; but in the one case of His being called the Word, to follow a different course**. To add to the authority, therefore, of what we have to say on the question, how the Son of God is the Word, we must begin with those names of which we spoke first as being applied to Him. This, we cannot deny, will seem to some to be superfluous and a digression, but the thoughtful reader will not think it useless to ask as to the concepts for which the titles are used; to observe these matters will clear the way for what is coming. And once we have entered upon the theology concerning the Saviour, as we seek with what diligence we can and find the various things that are taught about Him, we shall necessarily understand more about Him not only in His character as the Word, but in His other characters also.\n\n28. Christ as Life.\n\nIt is clear also that the principle of that life which is pure and unmixed with any other element, **resides in Him who is the** first-born**of all creation** , taking from which those who have a share in Christ live the life which is true life, while all those who are thought to live apart from this, as they have not the true light, have not the true life either.\n\n32. Christ as Son.\n\nNone of these testimonies, however, sets forth distinctly the Saviour's exalted birth; but when the words are addressed to Him, _You are My Son, this day have I begotten You_ , **this is spoken to Him by** God**,__with whom all time is today, for there is no evening with__** God, as I consider, **__and there is no morning__ , nothing but time that stretches out, along with His unbeginning and unseen life. The day is today with Him in which the Son was begotten, __and thus the beginning of His birth is not found__ , as neither is the day of it**.\n\n34. Christ as the First and the Last; He is Also What Lies Between These.\n\nFurther, we have to ask in what sense He is called in the Apocalypse the First and the Last, and how, in His character as the First, He is not the same as the Alpha and the beginning, while in His character as the Last He is not the same as the Omega and the end. It appears to me, then, that the reasonable beings which exist are characterized by many forms, and that some of them are the first, some the second, some the third, and so on to the last. To pronounce exactly, however, which is the first, what kind of a being the second is, which may truly be designated third, and to carry this out to the end of the series, this is not a task for man, but transcends our nature. We shall yet venture, such as we are, to stand still a little at this point, and to make some observations on the matter. There are some gods of whom God is god, as we hear in prophecy, _Thank ye the_ God_of gods_ , and _The God of gods has spoken, and called the earth_. Now God, according to the Gospel, Matthew 20:2 _is not the_ God_of the dead but of the living._ Those gods, then, are living of whom God is god. The Apostle, too, writing to the Corinthians, says: 1 Corinthians 8:5 _As there are gods many and lords many_ , and so we have spoken of these gods as really existing. Now there are, besides the gods of whom God is god, certain others, who are called thrones, and others called dominions, lordships, also, and powers in addition to these. The phrase, Ephesians 1:21 _above every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come_ , leads us to believe that there are yet others besides these which are less familiar to us; **one kind of these the Hebrews called Sabai, from which Sabaoth was formed, who is their ruler, and is none other than God**. Add to all these the reasonable being who is mortal, man. **Now the** God**of all things made first in** honour**some race of reasonable beings; this I consider to be those who are called gods, and the second order, let us say, for the present, are the thrones, and the third, undoubtedly, the dominions. And thus we come down in order to the last reasonable race, which, perhaps, cannot be any other than man**. The Saviour accordingly became, **in a diviner way than** Paul, all things to all, that He might either gain all or perfect them; **it is clear that to men He became a** man**, and to the** angels**an** angel**. As for His becoming man no believer has any** doubt**,_but as to His becoming an_** angel**_, we shall find reason for believing it was so, if we observe carefully the appearances and the words of the_** angels**_, in some of which the powers of the_** angels**_seem to belong to Him_**. In several passages angels speak in such a way as to suggest this, as when _the_ angel_of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire. And he said, I am the_ God_of_ Abraham_and of Isaac and of Jacob._ But Isaiah also says: Isaiah 9:6 _His name is called Angel of Great Counsel_. ** _The Saviour, then, is the first and the last, not that He is not what lies between, but the extremities are named to show that He became all things_**. Consider, however, whether the last is man, or the things said to be under the earth, of which are the demons, all of them or some.\n\nWe must ask, too, about those things which the Saviour became which He speaks of through the prophet David, _And I became as a man without any to help him_ , free among the dead. His birth from the Virgin and His life so admirably lived showed Him to be more than man, and it was the same among the dead. He was the only free person there, and His soul was not left in hell. Thus, then, He is the first and the last. Again, if there be letters of God, as such there are, by reading which the saints may say they have read what is written on the tablets of heaven, these letters, by which heavenly things are to be read, are the notions, divided into small parts, into Α and so on to Ω, the Son of God. Again, He is the beginning and the end, but He is this not in all His aspects equally. For He is the beginning, as the Proverbs teach us**, inasmuch as He is wisdom** ; it is written: _The Lord founded Me in the beginning of His ways, for His works_. In the respect of His being the Logos He is not the beginning. _The Word was in the beginning._ Thus in His aspects one comes first and is the beginning, and there is a second after the beginning, and a third, and so on to the end, as if He had said, **I am the beginning. inasmuch as I am wisdom, and the second, perhaps, inasmuch as I am invisible, and the third in that I am life, for _what was made was life in Him_**. One who was qualified to examine and to discern the sense of Scripture might, no doubt, find many members of the series; I cannot say if he could find them all. ** _The beginning and the end_ is a phrase we usually apply to a thing that is a completed unity; the beginning of a house is its foundation and the end the parapet**. We cannot but think of this figure, since Christ is the stone which is the head of the corner, to the great unity of the body of the saved. For Christ the only-begotten Son is all and in all, He is as the beginning in the man He assumed, He is present as the end in the last of the saints, and He is also in those between, or else He is present as the beginning in Adam, as the end in His life on earth, according to the saying: _The last_ Adam_was made a quickening spirit._ This saying harmonizes well with the interpretation we have given of the first and the last.\n\n35. Christ as the Living and the Dead.\n\nIn what has been said about the first and the last, and about the beginning and the end, we have referred these words at one point to the different forms of reasonable beings, at another to the different conceptions of the Son of God. Thus we have gained a distinction between the first and the beginning, and between the last and the end, and also the distinctive meaning of Α and Ω . It is not hard to see why he is called Revelation 1:17-18 _the Living and the Dead, and after being dead He that is alive for evermore_. For since we were not helped by His original life, sunk as we were in sin, **He came down into our deadness in order that** , He having died to sin, we, 2 Corinthians 4:10 bearing about in our body the dying of Jesus. **might then receive that life of His which is for evermore**. For those who always carry about in their body the dying of Jesus shall obtain the life of Jesus also, manifested in their bodies.\n\n36. Christ as a Sword.\n\nThe texts of the New Testament, which we have discussed, are things said by Himself about Himself. **Isaiah, however, He said** Isaiah 49:2-3**that His mouth had been set by His Father as a sharp sword, and that He was hidden under the shadow of His hand, made like to a chosen shaft and kept close in the Father's quiver** , called His servant by the God of all things, and Israel, and Light of the Gentiles. **The mouth of the** Son of God**is a sharp sword,_for_** Hebrews 4:12**_The word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing to the dividing of_** soul**_and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart_**. And indeed He came not to bring peace on the earth, that is, to corporeal and sensible things, but a sword, and to cut through, if I may say so, the disastrous friendship of soul and body, so that the soul, committing herself to the spirit which was against the flesh, may enter into friendship with God. Hence, according to the prophetic word, He made His mouth as a sword, as a sharp sword. Can any one behold so many wounded by the divine love, like her in the Song of Songs, who complained that she was wounded: Song of Songs 2:5 _I am wounded with_ love_,_ and find the dart that wounded so many souls for the love of God, in any but Him who said, _He has made Me as a chosen shaft._\n\n42. Of the Various Ways in Which Christ is the Logos.\n\nAs, then, from His activity in enlightening the world whose light He is, Christ is named the Light of the World, and as from His making those who sincerely attach themselves to Him put away their deadness and rise again and put on newness of life, He is called the Resurrection, so from an activity of another kind He is called Shepherd and Teacher, King and Chosen Shaft, and Servant, and in addition to these Paraclete and Atonement and Propitiation. And after the same fashion He is also called the Logos, **because He takes away from us all that is irrational, and makes us** truly**reasonable** , so that we do all things, even to eating and drinking, to the glory of God, and discharge by the Logos to the glory of God both the commoner functions of life and those which belong to a more advanced stage. For if, by having part in Him, we are raised up and enlightened, herded also it may be and ruled over, then it is clear that we become in a divine manner reasonable, when He drives away from us what in us is irrational and dead, since He is the Logos (reason) and the Resurrection. Consider, however, whether all men have in some way part in Him in His character as Logos. On this point the Apostle teaches us that He is to be sought not outside the seeker, and that those find Him in themselves who set their heart on doing so; _Say not_ Romans 10:6-8 _in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down; or, Who shall descend into the abyss? That is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what says the_ Scripture_? The Word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart_ , as if Christ Himself were the same thing as the Word said to be sought after. But when the Lord Himself says John 15:22 _If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had_ sin_; but now they have no cloak for their_ sin, the only sense we can find in His words is that the Logos Himself says that those are not chargeable with sin to whom He (reason) has not fully come, but that those, if they sin, are guilty who, having had part in Him, act contrary to the ideas by which He declares His full presence in us. Only when thus read is the saying true: _If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had_ sin. Should the words be applied, as many are of opinion that they should, to the visible Christ, then how is it true that those had no sin to whom He did not come? In that case all who lived before the advent of the Saviour will be free from sin**, since Jesus, as seen in flesh, had not yet come**. And more — all those to whom He has never been preached will have no sin, and if they have no sin, then it is clear they are not liable to judgment.\n\nBut the Logos in man, in which we have said that our whole race had part, is spoken of in two senses; first, in that of the filling up of ideas which takes place, prodigies excepted, in every one who passes beyond the age of boyhood, but secondly, in that of the consummation, which takes place only in the perfect. The words, therefore, _If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had_ sin_, but now they have no cloak for their_ sin, are to be understood in the former sense; but the words, John 10:8 _All that ever came before me are thieves and_ robbers_, and the sheep did not hear them_ , in the latter. For before the consummation of reason comes, there is nothing in man but what is blameworthy; all is imperfect and defective, and can by no means command the obedience of those irrational elements in us which are tropically spoken of as sheep. And perhaps the former meaning is to be recognized in the words _The_ Logos_was made flesh_ , but the second in _The_ Logos_was God_. We must accordingly look at what there is to be seen in human affairs between the saying, _The Word (reason) was made flesh_ and _The Word was God_. When the Word was made flesh can we say that it was to some extent broken up and thinned out, and can we say that it recovered from that point onward till it became again what it was at first, God the Word**, the Word with the Father** ; the Word whose glory John saw, the verily only-begotten, as from the Father. But the Son may also be the Logos (Word), because He reports the secret things of His Father who is intellect in the same way as the Son who is called the Word. **For as with us the word is a messenger of those things which the mind perceives, so the** Word of God**,** knowing**the** Father**,_since no created being can approach Him without a guide_ , reveals the Father whom He **knows. _For no one_ knows_the Father save the_ Son, Matthew 11:27 _and he to whomsoever the Son reveals Him_ , **and inasmuch as He is the Word He is _the Messenger of Great Counsel_ ,** Isaiah 9:5-6 _who has the government upon His shoulders_ ; for He entered on His kingdom by enduring the cross. In the Apocalypse, moreover, _the Faithful and True (the Word), is said to sit on a white horse_ , the epithets indicating, I consider, the clearness of the voice with which the Word of truth speaks to us when He sojourns among us. This is scarcely the place to show how the word _horse_ is often used in passages spoken for our encouragement in sacred learning. I only cite two of these: _A horse is deceitful for safety,_ and _Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will_ rejoice_in the name of the Lord our God_. Nor must we leave unnoticed a passage in the forty-fourth Psalm, **frequently quoted by many writers as if they understood it** : _My heart has belched forth a good word, I speak my works to the King_. Suppose it is God the Father who speaks thus; what is His heart, that the good word should appear in accordance with His heart? If, as these writers suppose, the Word (Logos) needs no interpretation, then the heart is to be taken in the natural sense too. **_But it is quite absurd to suppose God's heart to be a part of Him as ours is of our body. We must remind such writers that as when the hand of God is spoken of, and His arm and His finger, we do not read the words literally but enquire in what sound sense we may take them so as to be worthy of_** God**, so His heart is to be understood of His rational power, by which He disposes all things, and His word of that which announces what is in this heart of His**.\n\nBut who is it that announces the counsel of the Father to those of His creatures who are worthy and who have risen above themselves, who but the Saviour? That _belched forth_ is not, perhaps, without significance; a hundred other terms might have been employed; _My heart has produced a good word,_ it might have been said, or _My heart has spoken a good word._ But in belching, **some wind that was hidden makes its way out to the world** , and so it may be that the Father gives out views of truth not continuously, but as it were after the fashion of belching, and the word has the character of the things thus produced, and is called, therefore, the image of the invisible God. We may enter our agreement, therefore, with the ordinary acceptation of these words, and take them to be spoken by the Father. It is not, however, a matter of course, that it is God Himself who announces these things. Why should it not be a prophet? Filled with the Spirit and unable to contain himself, he brings forth a word about his prophecy concerning Christ: _My heart has belched forth a good word, I speak my works to the King, my pen is the tongue of a ready writer. Excellent in beauty is He beyond the sons of men_. Then to the Christ Himself: _Grace is poured out on Your lips_. If the Father were the speaker, how could He go on after the words, _Grace is poured out on your lips_ , to say, _Therefore God has blessed you for ever_ , and a little further on, _Therefore_ God_, your_ God_, has anointed you with the oil of_ gladness_above your fellows_. Some of those who wish to make the Father the speaker may appeal to the words, _Hear, O daughter, and behold and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father_. The prophet, it may be said, could not address the Church in the words, _Hear, O daughter_. It is not difficult, however, to show that changes of person occur frequently in the Psalms, so that these words, _Hear, O daughter_ , might be from the Father, in this passage, though the Psalm as a whole is not. To our discussion of the Word we may here add the passage, _By the word of the Lord were the heavens founded, and all the power of them by the breath of His mouth_. ** _Some refer this to the Saviour and the_** Holy Spirit. The passage, however, does not necessarily imply any more than that the heavens were founded by the reason (_logos_) of God, as when we say that a house is built by the plan (l _ogos_) of the architect, or a ship by the plan (_logos_) of the shipbuilder. In the same way the heavens were founded (made solid) by the Word of God, for they are of a more divine substance, which on this account is called solid; it has little fluidity for the most part, nor is it easily melted like other parts of the world, and specially the lower parts. On account of this difference the heavens are said in a special manner to be constituted by the Word of God.\n\nThe saying then stands, first, _In the beginning was the_ Logos; we are to place that full in our view; but the testimonies we cited from the Proverbs **led us to place wisdom first, and to think of wisdom as preceding the Word which announces her**. We must observe, then, **_that the_** Logos**_is in the beginning, that is, in wisdom,_ALWAYS__. Its being in wisdom, which is called the beginning, does not prevent it from being with God and from being **God**, and it is not simply with** God**, but is in the beginning, in wisdom, with** God. For he goes on: _He was in the beginning with_ God. He might have said, _He was with_ God; but as He was in the beginning, so He was with God in the beginning, and _All things were made by Him_ , being in the beginning**, for God made all things, as David tells us, in wisdom**. And to let us understand that the Word has His own definite place and sphere as one who has life in Himself (**and is a distinct person**), we must also speak about powers, not about power. _Thus says the Lord of powers_ , (A.V. hosts) we frequently read; there are certain creatures, rational and divine, which are called powers: **and of these Christ was the highest and best, and is called not only the wisdom of God but also His power**. As, then, there are several powers of God, each of them in its own form, and the Saviour is different from these, so also Christ, even if that which is Logos in us is not in respect of form outside of us, will be understood from our discussion up to this point to be the Logos, who has His being in the beginning, in wisdom. This for the present may suffice, on the word: _In the beginning was the_ Logos.\n\n**Further Reading**\n\nOrigen on God’s Uncreated Firstborn Son\n\nOrigen’s Trinitarianism Summarized\n\nAthanasius on Origen’s Christology\n\nOrigen – Dialog with Heracleides\n\nOrigen: Monarchia & the Filioque\n\nEusebius on Origen ",
"title": "Origen: Trinity, Creatio Ex Nihilo & the Church as Spiritual Israel Pt. 2",
"updatedAt": "2026-05-24T06:47:43.390Z"
}