Origen · a new plain-English translation from the Greek and Latin
"God did not make death, nor does he delight in the destruction of the living; for he created all things to exist, and the generative processes of the world are health-giving, and there is no destructive drug in them, nor is the kingdom of Hades on the earth." Then, going a little beyond the text, I will say from where death entered: "by the envy of the devil death entered into the world." If then
whatever is best about us, God has made it, but we have created for ourselves wickedness and sins. For this reason too, here the beginning of the reading in the prophet spoke, as it were questioningly, to those who had in their soul a bitterness opposed to the sweetness which God had prepared for it: "How have you turned to bitterness, O alien vine?" As if
he were saying: God did not make lameness, but made everyone sound of foot; what, then, has been the cause of those who are lamed? And God made all the members originally healthy, but what has become the cause of someone's suffering? In the same way the soul came to be "according to the image" not only of the first man, but of every man. For "let us make man according to the image and
according to our likeness" extends to all human beings. And that "according to the image" is prior, just as in Adam that which most people understand as the "according to the image" of what was added to him, when because of sin he put on "the image of the man of dust"—so in all people the "according to the image of God" is prior to the inferior image. "We have worn," being sinners, "the image of the man of dust; let us put on," as repentant people,
"the image of the heavenly man." Yet the creation came into being in the image of the heavenly man. Here, then, the word raises a difficulty against sinners, speaking accusingly: "How have you turned to bitterness, O alien vine? For I," it says, "planted you as a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true." This has been said in what precedes, and by taking it up again briefly I will persuade you that God planted a good vine, the
soul of man, but each one, having turned away, has become opposed to the will of the one who created it. "But I planted you as a fruit-bearing vine, wholly" true—not true in part, nor true in one part and false in another, but "I planted you as a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true; how have you turned"—though I planted you as a wholly true vine, how have you turned to bitterness and become an alien vine?
After this let us look at "if you wash yourself with soda and multiply for yourself soapwort, you are stained by your iniquities before me, says the Lord." Did some sinning soul suppose that by taking perceptible soda and washing itself with soda, it ceases from the stain and ceases from sin? And did someone suppose that by taking this plant that springs up from the earth and washing and scouring itself, the
soul is cleansed—because the word here says to the one who has turned to bitterness and become an alien vine: "if you wash yourself with soda and multiply for yourself soapwort, you are stained by your iniquities before me, says the Lord"? But one must know that the word has every power; and just as it has the power of every scripture, so the word has the power of every remedy, and
There is a power in everything that cleanses, and it is most thoroughly scouring. "For living is the word of God, and active, keener than every two-edged blade." And whatever you say is needed, this is present in the power of the word. There is, then, a certain word that is niter, and there is a certain word that is soapwort, which, when spoken, cleanses such filth. But since from the
such word which is niter, and from such word which is soapwort, not every sin is healed. But there are sins that need neither niter nor soapwort; it is said to her who thinks she has sins that can be washed away with niter and soapwort: "Even if you wash yourself with niter and multiply soapwort for yourself, you are stained before me in your iniquities,
says the Lord." And just as some wounds are healed by a poultice, and others are healed by oil, and others need a bandage and so are healed, but there are other wounds concerning which it is said: "There is no poultice to apply, nor oil, nor bandages, but your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire" — so there are certain sins which defile the soul, and
for these sins a person needs the word of niter, the word of soapwort; but there are certain sins which are not healed in this way, for they are not even comparable to filth. For this reason the Lord in Isaiah, knowing the differences among sins, see how he says: "The Lord shall wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and shall cleanse the blood from their midst
by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning." Filth and blood: filth by a spirit of judgment, blood by a spirit of burning. If, though not "unto death," you have nonetheless sinned, you are defiled. "The Lord shall wash away," then, "the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and shall cleanse the blood from their midst." Then the correspondence is: to "the filth," "a spirit of judgment"; to "the blood," "a spirit of burning." And
we, the many, if we sin worse, need not niter, nor the multiplying of soapwort, but the spirit of burning. For this reason Jesus baptizes — perhaps I now find the meaning — "with the Holy Spirit and fire." Not that he baptizes the same person "with the Holy Spirit and fire," but the holy one "with the Holy Spirit," while the one who, after believing, after
being deemed worthy of the Holy Spirit, has sinned again, he washes in "fire" — so that it is not the same person being baptized by Jesus "with the Holy Spirit and fire." Blessed, then, is the one baptized with the Holy Spirit and not needing the baptism that comes from fire. But thrice-wretched is that one who has need to be baptized with fire. Yet Jesus has both. For "a rod shall come forth from the root
of Jesse, and a flower shall rise from the root." "The rod" refers to those being punished, "the flower" to the righteous. Thus "God is a consuming fire," and "God is light": a consuming fire to sinners, light to the righteous and holy. And blessed is he who has a part in the first resurrection, who has kept the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Who is the one
being saved in another resurrection? The one who needs the baptism that comes from fire, when he comes to that fire, and the fire puts him to the test, and that fire finds wood, hay, and — so as to burn them up. Therefore, since these things are said, let us, with all the strength we have, gather together the words of the scriptures and lay them up in our heart, and let us try to live according to them,
if indeed we are able to become pure before our departure, and having prepared our works for that departure, go forth in the midst of them and be taken up among good things themselves, and be saved in Christ Jesus, to whom is the glory and the power for the ages of ages. Amen.