ABOUT THE BEGINNINGS

Preface by Presbyter Rufinus

to the books of Origen "On the Elements"

I know that very many of the brethren, out of love for the study of the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures asked certain men who knew Greek to translate Origen into Latin and make it accessible to the Latins. Of these men, our brother and companion, in fact, translated from Greek into Latin, at the request of Bishop Damasus, two discourses on the Song of Songs, and wrote such an eloquent and splendid preface to his work that he awakened in each of them a desire to read and eagerly study Origen. In this preface, he says that the words "The king brought me into his palaces" (Song of Songs 1:3) can be applied to Origen's soul, and he asserts that Origen, surpassing everyone else in his books, surpassed himself in his commentary on the Song of Songs. Here he promises to translate into Latin not only the commentary on the Song of Songs, but also many other works of Origen. But he, as I see it, in his fascinating style, has a broader goal – he wants to be the father of the word, not just a translator. And so we go on with the work which he began and tried, and we cannot, like him, express in the same elegant eloquence the words of so great a man. Wherefore I am afraid lest, through my skill, this man, whom he justly presents as the second after the Apostles to the Church's teacher of knowledge and wisdom, appear much inferior, because of the poverty of my word. I often thought about this, and therefore I was silent and did not agree to the frequent requests for translation from the brothers. But your perseverance, most faithful brother Macarius, is so great that even my inexperience cannot resist it. And so, in order not to hear any more of your urgent demands, I yielded, but quite contrary to my wishes, and at the same time I made it a rule to follow as far as possible the method of my predecessors in translation, and chiefly the method of the man I mentioned above. He translated into Latin more than seventy works of Origen, which he called discourses, and several of those volumes that were written on the Apostle. In these translations – although there are some tempting passages in the Greek text – he corrected everything in such a way, smoothed it out in translation, that the Latin reader will not find anything in them that would not be in agreement with our faith. It is this which we also follow, as far as possible, not in regard to the qualities of eloquence, but only in the rules of translation: it is we who observe in order not to translate what is in the books of Origen that does not agree and contradicts these same books. And why such a disagreement occurs in them, we have explained to you more fully in the Apology written by Pamphilus in defense of Origen, namely, in that short appendix where, I think, we have proved by obvious arguments that the books of Origen have been corrupted in very many places by heretics and ill-intentioned people, especially the work which you now ask me to translate, that is, the work "On the Elements." or "On the Authorities". In fact, this work is very obscure and very difficult in places. In it, Origen discusses subjects about which philosophers could find nothing in the course of their entire lives; and this philosopher of ours, as far as he could, turned faith in the Creator and the knowledge of creatures, which philosophers had turned to impiety, to piety. When, therefore, we found in his books anything contrary to what he himself had piously defined about the Trinity in other places, we either omitted this passage as distorted and spurious, or expounded it in accordance with the rule which he himself often affirms in his writings. And when he speaks as if to experienced and knowledgeable people, and at the same time expresses his thoughts briefly, and consequently obscurely, in order to clarify such passages more clearly, we have tried to interpret them and added to them what we have read on the same subject in a clearer form in his other books. However, we did not say anything of our own, but only added to his own words what he said in other places. I have expressed all this in the preface, so that the slanderers may not think again of finding a pretext for accusation. However, later it will be seen what wicked and quarrelsome people do. By the way, this great work – of course, on the condition that through your prayers there will be God's help – was undertaken by us not at all with the aim of shutting the mouths of slanderers – this is even impossible, although perhaps God will do this – but in order to give an aid to those who wish to improve themselves in the knowledge of things. Whosoever shall copy or read books, in the presence of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I adjure and beseech by faith in the kingdom to come, and also by the mystery of the resurrection from the dead, by the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (let him not inherit forever the place where weeping and gnashing of teeth, and where their fire is not quenched, and their worm does not die), I adjure and beseech him: let him add nothing to this Scripture, let him not subtract, introduce or change anything in it, but let him compare it with the copies from which he will copy, let him literally correct and compare it, and let him not have a code that is uncorrected or unverified. Otherwise, the defect of the code, with the difficulty of understanding it, will serve as a cause of even greater ambiguity for the readers.

Book 1

(Eusebius "Against Marcellus": "All who believe that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ and that Christ is truth, according to His words: 'I am the truth...'")

All those who believe and are convinced that grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ, and know that Christ is the truth, in His own words: "I am the truth" (John 14:6), will draw the knowledge that calls people to a good and blessed life, not from any other source, but from the words and teachings of Christ. By the words of Christ we do not mean only those which He proclaimed when He became man and took on flesh: for before Christ, the Word of God, was in Moses and the prophets, and without the Word of God, how could they prophesy about Christ? In order to confirm this proposition, it would not be difficult to prove on the basis of the Divine Scriptures that both Moses and the prophets did everything they said and did by the inspiration of the Spirit of Christ, if only we were not hampered by the task of writing this work with all possible brevity. Therefore, I think it is sufficient for us in this case to use one of the testimonies of the Apostle Paul from the Epistle he wrote to the Hebrews, in which he says thus: "By faith Moses, when he came of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and would rather suffer with the people of God than have temporary, sinful pleasure, and considered the reproach of Christ to be greater riches for himself than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked to the recompense" (Hebrews 11:24-26). In the same way, after His ascension to heaven, Christ spoke in His apostles; this is shown by the Apostle Paul in the following way: "You seek proof of whether Christ speaks in me" (2 Corinthians 13:3).

Since many of those who profess to believe in Christ disagree not only on the smallest and most insignificant, but also on the great and the greatest, i.e. in questions either about God, or about the Lord Jesus Christ, or about the Holy Spirit. And not only of these (beings), but also of other creatures, that is, either of dominions or of holy powers, it seems for this reason that it seems necessary first to establish a precise boundary and a definite rule about each of these things, and only then to ask about the rest. It is true that among the Greeks and barbarians many promised the truth; but we, after we had believed that Christ was the Son of God, and having been convinced that we must learn the truth from Him, ceased to seek it from all of them, since they contain the truth together with false opinions. It is also true that there are many people who arrogate to themselves the knowledge of Christian truth, and some of them do not think in agreement with their predecessors; But we must preserve the Church's teaching, handed down from the Apostles through the order of succession and abiding in the Churches even to this day: only that truth must be believed which in no way departs from the Church and Apostolic Tradition.

At the same time, it should be known that the holy apostles, preaching the faith of Christ, communicated very clearly to all about certain subjects exactly what they recognized as necessary, even to those who seemed comparatively less active in the search for divine knowledge; moreover, they left the foundation of their teaching in this case to those who could deserve the highest gifts of the Spirit, and especially to those who were vouchsafed to receive from the Holy Spirit himself the grace of word, wisdom and understanding. As for the other subjects, the Apostles only said that they existed, but – how or why, they kept silent, of course, in order that they might have exercise and thus show the fruits of their minds, the most zealous and wisdom-loving among the successors, those of them who would become worthy and capable of receiving the truth.