Origen · a new plain-English translation from the Greek and Latin
What verbosity is, and what the many books are; and that all divinely inspired scripture is one book. FROM THE FIFTH VOLUME OF THE COMMENTARIES ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. [On the preface.] Since you are not content that I have taken up the present work among God's taskmasters, but even in my absence you think it right that I devote much of my time to you and to what is owed to you, I,
shrinking from the labor and avoiding the danger that besets those who have given themselves over to writing on divine matters, might plead on my own behalf by excusing myself from Scripture for making many books. For Solomon declares in Ecclesiastes: "My son, guard against making many books; there is no end, and much study is a wearying of the flesh." For we, unless
the passage before us has some hidden sense still unclear to us, have plainly transgressed the commandment by not guarding against making many books. [Then, having said that four volumes were completed by him on a few sayings of the Gospel, he adds.] For as far as the wording goes, two things are signified by "My son, guard against making many books": one, that one must not possess many books; the other,
that one must not compose many books. And if not the first, then certainly the second; but if the second, not necessarily the first. Yet from either reading we shall seem to be taught that one must not make more books than necessary. Now I could, standing on the point that has now come before us, write to you citing the saying as a defense and, having built up
the case from the fact that not even the saints occupied themselves with composing many books, cease henceforth — in accordance with the agreements we made with one another — from dictating to you the things that are to be sent; and perhaps you, struck by the saying, would have granted us this for the future. But since Scripture must be examined in good conscience, without rashly indulging oneself in the belief that one has grasped its meaning from
having taken hold of the bare wording, I cannot forbear from setting out the defense that appears to me on my own behalf, which you might use against me were I to act contrary to our agreements. And first, since the historical record seems to support the saying — none of the saints having published a great number of compositions or set out his thought in many books — this must be discussed. But the one who charges me with
proceeding to compose more books will say that so great a man as Moses left behind only five books. [And in the fifth volume of the commentaries on John this same author says the following about the apostles.] Paul, who was made sufficient to become a servant of the new covenant — not of letter, but of spirit — and who fulfilled the gospel from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum, did not
write to all the churches in which he taught; and even to those to which he did write, he sent only a few lines. Peter, meanwhile, the one on whom Christ’s church is built, against whose gates Hades’ own will not prevail, left one epistle that all acknowledge; let there be a second too, since it is disputed. As for the one who leaned back against the breast of Jesus — John, who left one gospel behind, admitting he was able
such great things as even the world could not contain. He also wrote the Apocalypse, having been commanded to keep silent and not write down the voices of the seven thunders, and he has also left behind an epistle of very few lines — let there also be a second and a third, since not everyone calls these genuine — yet both together do not run to a hundred lines . . . . [Then, having enumerated
the prophets and apostles, each having written little or even nothing, he adds after this:] Again after this a dizziness comes over me, as my head spins, wondering whether, in obeying you, I have not obeyed God, nor imitated the saints. If then I am not mistaken in pleading my own case, because I love you very much and wish to grieve you in nothing, I find such excuses as these for the matter. Before
of all these we cited that saying out of Ecclesiastes: "My son, guard yourself against making many books." Against it I set, side by side, a saying drawn from the Proverbs of that same Solomon, who declares: "By much speaking you will not escape sin, but by sparing your lips you will be prudent." And I inquire whether saying many things of whatever kind is "speaking much," even if one is saying many holy and salutary things.
For if this is so, then even one who recounts many beneficial things speaks too much, and Solomon himself has not escaped sin, having spoken "three thousand parables and five thousand songs," and having discoursed concerning the trees, beginning from the cedar planted in Lebanon down to the hyssop springing forth from the wall; and moreover also concerning the cattle and concerning the birds
and concerning the creeping things and concerning the fish. For how can teaching accomplish anything apart from that which, more simply understood, is much speaking - Wisdom herself saying to those perishing, "I extended my sayings, and you paid no heed"? Paul too is seen to have gone on teaching until midnight, when also Eutychus, overcome by deep sleep, fell down and threw the listeners into confusion
as though he were dead. If then it is true that "by much speaking you will not escape sin," and it is also true that Solomon did not sin in speaking at length about the things mentioned above, nor Paul in prolonging his discourse until midnight, then we must inquire what "much speaking" is, and from there move on to see what the many books are. Now the whole word of God, the Word who in the beginning was with
God, is not much speaking; for it does not consist of "words" - for it is one word composed of many considerations, of which each consideration is a part of the whole word. But those things reported outside of this, said to contain a narrative and a report of whatever kind - even if they are discourses concerning truth, and I will say something still more paradoxical, none of them is a word, but each of them is words. For nowhere in them is there unity, and
nowhere is there concord and oneness, but because that which was one has been torn apart and set at war with itself, the one has perished and numbers have come to be, and perhaps infinite numbers; so that on this account we might say that whoever utters anything alien to piety speaks much, but whoever speaks the things of truth, even if he says all things so as to omit nothing, always speaks one single word.
And the saints do not multiply words on any matter, holding fast to the one account. If, then, prolixity is judged by doctrines and not by the delivery of many words, see whether in this way we are able to call all the sacred writings one book, while the writings outside them are many. But since I need testimony from divine scripture,
examine whether I can establish this most forcefully, by showing that what concerns Christ, in our understanding, is not written in one book - if we take "books" in the more common sense. For it is written also in the Pentateuch; it has been spoken also among each of the prophets, in the psalms as well, and, quite simply, as the Savior himself says, in all the scriptures, to which he sends us back, saying: "Search
the scriptures, for you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning me." If, then, he sends us to "the scriptures" as testifying concerning him, he does not send us to this one but not to that one, but to all those that report concerning him — which in the psalms he calls the "head" of a book, saying: "In
the head of the book it is written concerning me." For whoever wishes to take "in the head of the book" simply, as referring to whichever one of the books containing what concerns him, let him explain by what reasoning he prefers this book to another. For should someone suppose that we are referring the statement to the book of Psalms itself, one must say to him that it ought rather to have been said: "in this
book it is written concerning me." But as it is, he says that all is one "head," in that the account concerning himself, which has come to us, is summed up into one. And what of the book that was seen by John, written on the front and on the back, and sealed, which no one was able to read and to loose its seals, except the lion from the tribe of Judah,
the root of David, who holds the key of David, and opens, and no one will shut, and shuts, and no one will open? For the whole of scripture is what is signified by the book - inscribed on its face for the sake of the sense readily grasped, and on its reverse for the sake of the sense withdrawn and spiritual. Alongside these things, one must observe whether it can be demonstrative of the sacred writings being one
book, while those of the opposite sort are many, that in the case of the living there is one book, from which those who have become unworthy of it are blotted out; thus stands the writing: "Let them be blotted out from the book of the living"; while in the case of those subject to judgment, books are brought forward — for Daniel says: "the tribunal sat, and books were opened." And to the singular number of the divine book Moses also
testifies, saying: "If indeed you forgive the people their sin, forgive it; but if not, blot me out of your book which you have written." I also take the passage in Isaiah in the same way; for his prophecy is not alone in having the words of the book sealed, nor in having them read by one who does not know letters, on the ground that he does not know
...letters, nor by one who understands them, because the book has been sealed. But this too holds true of every scripture, which needs the word that closes and the word that opens: "for this one will shut and no one will open"; and once he has opened it, no one can any longer bring a difficulty against the clarity that comes from him — for this reason it is said that "he will open and no one will shut." I take something similar to apply also to the
book spoken of in Ezekiel, where lamentation and song and woe stood written. For every book contains the "woe" concerning those who are perishing, and the "song" concerning those who are being saved, and the "lamentation" concerning those in between. But John too, eating the one little scroll, on which was written "the things behind and the things before," understood the whole of scripture as one
book, seeming sweetest at first, when one chews on it, but appearing bitter through the self-awareness of each person who comes to know it, concerning himself. I will add further, toward proving this point, an apostolic saying not understood by the followers of Marcion, who for this reason reject the gospels: for because the apostle, speaking in Christ Jesus, says "according to my gospel," and does not
say "gospels," they, fastening on this, say that the apostle would not have spoken of "the gospel" in the singular if there were more than one gospel — not understanding that just as he who is preached by the many is one, so too the gospel that has been written by the many is one in power, and the gospel that truly consists of four is one. If, then, these considerations can persuade us what the
one thing is that a book is, and what the many things are, I am now concerned more, not because of the quantity of what is written, but because of the force of what is understood, lest I fall into transgressing the commandment, if I should set down anything contrary to the truth as though it were truth, even in one of the things I write; for there I will have written many books. And now, since the heterodox are rising up under pretense of knowledge
against the holy church of Christ, and bringing forward compositions filling many books, promising an exposition of the sayings both of the gospels and of the apostles, if we keep silent and do not set against them the true and sound doctrines, they will get the upper hand over greedy souls, who for lack of saving food hasten after forbidden and truly unclean and abominable foods. For this reason it seems necessary to me that the one who is able to plead the case, without
falsification, of the ecclesiastical teaching, and to plead it and to refute those who ply the falsely-named knowledge, should take his stand against the fabrications of the heretics, setting over against them the loftiness of the gospel proclamation, filled with the harmony of doctrines common to what is called the old covenant and to what is named the new. You yourself, then, for lack of those pleading the better cause, unable to bear the irrational and unlettered faith, because of your love for Jesus,
had once given yourself over to arguments, from which, later, making use to good purpose of the understanding given you, having condemned them, you departed. I say these things according to what appears to me, pleading on behalf of those able to speak and write, but pleading on my own behalf, lest I perhaps not be of the disposition that the one made sufficient by God as a servant of the new covenant — a covenant not of letter but of spirit — ought more boldly...
I give myself over to dictating.