Origen · a new plain-English translation from the Greek and Latin
On the Solecisms and the Cheap Diction of Scripture. FROM THE FOURTH VOLUME OF THE COMMENTARY ON JOHN. After three folios from the beginning.] He who distinguishes for himself between the utterance, the things signified, and the realities to which the things signified refer, will not stumble over a solecism of language whenever, upon investigation, he finds the realities to which the words refer to be sound — and especially when
the holy men themselves confess that their word and their proclamation are “not with the persuasiveness of wise words, but with a demonstration of Spirit and power.” [Then, having spoken of the evangelist's solecism, he adds:] Since the apostles are not unaware of the points at which they stumble, and of the matters in which they have received no training, they say that they are “unskilled in speech, but not in knowledge.” It must be supposed
that this could be said not only by Paul but by the rest of the apostles as well. And we ourselves have also understood the saying “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power may be God's and not from us,” taking “treasure” to mean that treasure of hidden knowledge and wisdom spoken of elsewhere, and “earthen vessels” to mean
the cheap diction of the scriptures, held in contempt among the Greeks — the surpassing greatness of God's power being truly displayed in this: that the mysteries of the truth and the power of what is said prevailed, unhindered by the cheapness of the expression, to reach the ends of the earth and to bring not only the world's foolish things, but at times even its wise things, under subjection to Christ's word.
For we observe the calling — not that none wise according to the flesh is called, but rather “not many are wise according to the flesh.” Yet Paul is likewise a “debtor” in his proclamation of the gospel, obligated to deliver the word to “Greeks” as well as “barbarians,” and to the “wise” as well as to the foolish who assent more easily; for God had rendered him competent to be a “minister”
“of the new covenant,” employing “proof of Spirit and power,” so that believers’ assent would rest “not on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” For perhaps, had scripture possessed a beauty and elaborateness of diction like the things admired among the Greeks, one might have suspected that it was not the truth that had mastered men, but rather the coherence displayed and the
beauty of the diction that had captivated the hearers, and that it had won them over by deception.