A note on translations
A Note on Translations
In the translations below I have tried to provide a readable English text as faithful as possible to Origen’s intentions. In line with the first aim, I have often altered the sentence structure of the original. In line with the second, I have sought to avoid technical terms from later eras. On occasions where a reference to the original Greek wording has seemed helpful, I have included the original (transliterated) in the notes. (This is most often the case with logos, perhaps the most heavily freighted word in the Greek language.) Origen’s work does not lend itself well to being excerpted. Although he often wrote at length, he wrote carefully and sparingly, characteristically accumulating arguments to lead his reader step by step to a logical conclusion. Except in the case of the Commentary on Lamentations, I have therefore presented integral works, or self-contained sections, with no omissions. Triple asterisks indicate gaps in the manuscript tradition. I have sought to make available works that reflect Origen’s entire career, giving roughly equal weight to his Alexandrian and Caesarean periods. I have also sought to present works not previously translated into English or accessible only on expensive or out-of-print editions. These last two considerations militated against including texts from Origen’s best-known works, On First Principles, Contra Celsum, and the occasional treatises, although I cite them generously in .
The chapter and section numbers (arabic and roman) in my translations and in references to Origen’s works do not come from Origen himself. Like the chapter and verse numbers in the Bible, most of these were added for convenience in reference when these works were edited in the Renaissance. I use those commonly employed in modern editions. Pierre Nautin’s Origène: sa vie et son œuvre provides a comprehensive list of these editions up to 1976. The most important addition to Nautin’s list appeared in 1990. Edited by the late Caroline Hammond Bammel, it is the first of a projected four volumes of a new critical edition of the Commentary on Romans. Other editions have appeared in the French series of texts and translations Sources chrétiennes, and in newer Italian and German series modeled on it, Biblioteca Patristica and Fontes Christianae.
In order to convey the sense of the text as Origen read and understood it, translations from Scripture are my own. No single modern translation could possibly convey the way Origen makes Scripture his own, often making brief allusions to passages or adapting their grammar to integrate them into a new context. In the commentaries on John and Lamentations, I have included a translation of the text in bold type before the passage that comments on it. In the case of the latter, my translations are from Rahlf’s edition of the Septuagint. Unless he indicated otherwise, Origen’s Old Testament citations are from this early translation by Greek-speaking Jews. His references may seem odd or unfamiliar because the Septuagint often translated the Hebrew differently from the way we would understand it or translated a different (and not necessarily inferior) Hebrew text from the traditional Masoretic text we have received. Sometimes, as in the case of the “angel of great counsel” (the Septuagint version of the phrase translated “wonderful counsellor” in the King James Version), it is hard to know whether we are dealing with an eccentric translation or a different text. Origen’s New Testament text, to which he is an early and important witness, was essentially the same as ours. Even in this case, though, Origen often understood the text differently from the way modern translators do. An example is the familiar phrase in 1 Corinthians 13:12 translated “now we see through a glass, darkly.” There, as we shall see, Origen understood in a precise technical sense the Greek phrase en ainigmati (in an enigma) – vaguely rendered as “darkly” in the King James Version. Likewise, in John 13:2, referring to the Devil’s having given Judas the intention to betray Christ, Origen understood the Greek verb ballô, describing the Devil’s action in a precise sense. Where modern versions usually translate this word as “put,” Origen found in it an image of the Devil piercing Judas’ heart with this intention as with an arrow. My translations also reflect Origen’s own inconsistencies in his citations (from memory, it should be remembered) of biblical verses. Thus, for example, in Book 1 of the Commentary on John, Origen cites Revelation 22:13 – “I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” – in three different ways, none of which is quite the way we have received it.
I have indicated citations, references, and allusions to Scripture in parentheses. Where, in Origen’s citations, the Septuagint text differs radically from the Hebrew text as we have received it, I indicate this by the abbreviation LXX. These references, of course, are not Origen’s own. Most of these are identified by the editions I translate, although I have added a few of my own. Origen could only refer to a particular passage by giving the name of the book and citing a few words, as he does frequently, or by summarizing its contents, as he does below at the beginning of his Homily 12 on 1 Samuel. The names Origen uses for books of the Bible in our selections are the same as ours except in the case of the books we know from their Hebrew titles as 1–2 Samuel and 3–4 Kings, which he referred to by their Septuagint titles as 1–4 Kingdoms. In the case of the Psalms, where Origen could refer to something smaller than a whole book, he used the Septuagint numbering. References to Psalms maintain the Septuagint numbering Origen used and include in brackets the Masoretic (Hebrew) numbering we commonly use, when this differs. Abbreviations for biblical references are as used in the Revised Standard Version.