Origen · a new plain-English translation from the Greek and Latin
Our Lord and Savior is born in Bethlehem, and the multitude of the heavenly host praises God and says: "Glory be to God among the highest, and upon earth, peace to men of good will." But the "multitude of the heavenly host" says this because it had already ceased to be able to offer help to human beings, and it saw that it could not accomplish the task entrusted to it without him
who could truly save, and also help the very rulers, so that people might be saved. How then it is written in the Gospel, that certain men rowing and cutting through the sea against contrary winds were already worn out, and though laboring for twenty-five or thirty stadia they could not reach the harbor, and afterward the Lord came upon them and made the surging waves grow calm, and delivered the ship, whose sides were being flooded from both directions,
from the imminent danger, so understand it this way: the angels indeed wished to offer help to human beings and to grant them healing from their sicknesses, since they are all attendant spirits, sent into service for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation, and, to the extent of their own powers, they were helping human beings; but they saw that their own remedy was far inferior to what the disease demanded. Further,
so that you may be able to understand what we are saying from an example, picture for me a city in which very many are sick and the hands of physicians are frequently called upon; let there be diverse wounds, and every day a creeping decay penetrates into the dying flesh, and yet the physicians who have been called in to treat them cannot find any further remedies, and by the knowledge of their art cannot overcome the magnitude of the evil: when things are in such a state,
let some chief physician arrive, who has the highest knowledge in the art, and let those who previously could not heal, seeing the decay of the wounds cease at the master's hand, not envy him, not be tormented with jealousy, but break out into praises of the chief physician and proclaim the God who granted such knowledge both to him and to the sick. It is in the likeness of this, then, that the multitude of the host of angels was heard, saying: "Glory
among the highest to God, and upon earth, peace to men of good will." For after the Lord came to earth, he made peace through the blood of his cross, both for the things that were on earth and for the things that were in heaven. Since the angels, wishing that human beings should remember their creator, when they had done everything that was in their power so that people might be healed, and those people had been unwilling
to receive healing, they see the one who was able to heal, and glorifying him they say: "Glory be to God among the highest, and upon earth, peace." Let the diligent reader of Scripture inquire how the Savior can say: "I have not come to bring peace on earth, but a sword," and yet now, at his birth, the angels sing: "upon earth, peace." Since also in another place, in his own words, it is said:
"My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you: not as the world gives peace do I give it to you." Let him see, then, whether he can resolve the question we are raising. If it had been written "on earth" and the sentence ended there, the question would rightly arise. But as it stands, what is added — that is, what is said after "peace" —
...to men of good will. And the peace that the Lord does not give ‘upon the earth’ is not the peace of good will. For he did not say simply: ‘I have not come to send peace,’ with the addition: ‘upon the earth’; nor conversely did he say: ‘I have not come to send peace upon the earth of good will.’ These things the angels spoke to the shepherds, who not only
were speaking at that time, but even to this day — unless they have spoken to shepherds and joined their own works to them — it is said to them: ‘Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain; unless the Lord guards the city, he who guards it keeps watch in vain.’ It is fitting to speak of the meaning of the Scriptures that follows: in each individual church there are two bishops, one visible, the other
invisible — the one exposed to the sight of the flesh, the other to perception. And just as a man, if he has carried out well the stewardship entrusted to him, is praised by the Lord, but if badly, is liable to blame and fault, so too is the angel. For it is written in the Apocalypse of John: ‘but you have there a few names who have not defiled’ even that; and again: ‘you have there those who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans’; and then: ‘you have’
these or those, ‘committing sins,’ and the angels to whom the churches have been entrusted are accused. But if there is anxiety even for angels as to how the churches are governed, what need is there to speak of men — how much fear they ought to have, so that, laboring together with the laboring angels, they may attain salvation along with them? I think it can be found that both angel and man are together good bishops of the church, and are in a certain way partakers
of one and the same work. Since this is so, let us ask almighty God that the angels and the men who are bishops of the churches may be a help to us, and let us know that both will be judged by the Lord on our account. But if they are judged, and fault and sin are found not in their negligence but in our carelessness, we shall be accused and punished. For while they do everything and strive for
our salvation, we nonetheless remain caught up in sins. Moreover it often happens that, while we labor, they do not fulfill their office and are themselves at fault. ‘And it came to pass,’ he says, ‘when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another: Let us go over to Bethlehem, and see this word that has come to pass, which the Lord has shown us. And they came
in haste, and there they found Joseph and Mary and the child.’ Because they had come in haste, and not step by step, nor with a weary gait, they therefore found Joseph, the steward of the Lord’s birth, and Mary, who brought Jesus forth in childbirth, and the Savior himself lying in a manger. That was the manger of which the prophet spoke in prophecy, saying: ‘the ox knew its owner, and the donkey the manger’
‘of its lord.’ The ox is a clean animal, the donkey an unclean animal. ‘The donkey knew the manger of its lord.’ It was not the people of Israel who knew the manger of its lord, but an unclean animal from among the nations: ‘but Israel,’ he says, ‘has not known me, and my people have not understood me.’ Understanding this manger, let us strive to know the Lord and become worthy
...his knowledge, to embrace not only the birth and resurrection of his flesh, but also the glorious coming of his second majesty: to whom is glory and power for the ages of ages. Amen.