{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/201/2010195.htm","path":"chr/ecf/201/2010195.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/201/2010195.htm","text":"Chapter XXV.\u2014His Review of the Canonical Scriptures.\n1. When expounding the first Psalm, 1970 he gives a catalogue of the sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament 1971 as follows:\n\u201cIt should be stated that the canonical books, as the Hebrews have handed them down, are twenty-two; corresponding with the number of their letters.\u201d Farther on he says:\n2. \u201cThe twenty-two books of the Hebrews are the following: That which is called by us Genesis, but by the Hebrews, from the beginning of the book, Bresith, 1972 which means, \u2018In the beginning\u2019; Exodus, Welesmoth, 1973 that is, \u2018These are the names\u2019; Leviticus, Wikra, \u2018And he called\u2018; Numbers, Ammesphekodeim; Deuteronomy, Eleaddebareim, \u2018These are the words\u2019; Jesus, the son of Nave, Josoue ben Noun; Judges and Ruth, among them in one book, Saphateim; the First and Second of Kings, among them one, Samouel, that is, \u2018The called of God\u2019; the Third and Fourth of Kings in one, Wammelch David, that is, \u2018The kingdom of David\u2019; of the Chronicles, the First and Second in one, Dabre\u00efamein, that is, \u2018Records of days\u2019; Esdras, 1974 First and Second in one, Ezra, that is, \u2018An assistant\u2019; the book of Psalms, Spharthelleim; the Proverbs of Solomon, Meloth; Ecclesiastes, Koelth; the Song of Songs (not, as some suppose, Songs of Songs), Sir Hassirim; Isaiah, Jessia; Jeremiah, with Lamentations and the epistle in one, Jeremia; Daniel, Daniel; Ezekiel, Jezekiel; Job, Job; Esther, Esther. And besides these there are the Maccabees, which are entitled Sarbeth Sabanaiel.\u201d 1975 He gives these in the above-mentioned work.\np. 273 3. In his first book on Matthew\u2019s Gospel, 1976 maintaining the Canon of the Church, he testifies that he knows only four Gospels, writing as follows:\n4. \u201cAmong the four Gospels, 1977 which are the only indisputable ones in the Church of God under heaven, I have learned by tradition that the first was written by Matthew, who was once a publican, but afterwards an apostle of Jesus Christ, and it was prepared for the converts from Judaism, and published in the Hebrew language. 1978\n5. The second is by Mark, who composed it according to the instructions of Peter, 1979 who in his Catholic epistle acknowledges him as a son, saying, \u2018The church that is at Babylon elected together with you, saluteth you, and so doth Marcus, my son.\u2019 1980\n6. And the third by Luke, the Gospel commended by Paul, 1981 and composed for Gentile converts. Last of all that by John.\u201d 1982\n7. In the fifth book of his Expositions of John\u2019s Gospel, he speaks thus concerning the epistles of the apostles: 1983 \u201cBut he who was \u2018made sufficient to be a minister of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit,\u2019 1984 that is, Paul, who \u2018fully preached the Gospel from Jerusalem and round about even unto Illyricum,\u2019 1985 did not write to all the churches which he had instructed and to those to which he wrote he sent but few lines. 1986\n8. And Peter, on whom the Church of Christ is built, \u2018against which the gates of hell shall not prevail,\u2019 1987 has left one acknowledged epistle; perhaps also a second, but this is doubtful. 1988\n9. Why need we speak of him who reclined upon the bosom of Jesus, 1989 John, who has left us one Gospel, 1990 though he confessed that he might write so many that the world could not contain them? 1991 And he wrote also the Apocalypse, but was commanded to keep silence and not to write the words of the seven thunders. 1992\n10. He has left also an epistle of very few lines; perhaps also a second and third; but not all consider them genuine, and together they do not contain hundred lines.\u201d\n11. In addition he makes the following statements in regard to the Epistle to the Hebrews 1993 in his Homilies upon it: \u201cThat the verbal style of the epistle entitled \u2018To the Hebrews,\u2019 is not rude like the language of the apostle, who acknowledged himself \u2018rude in speech\u2019 1994 that is, in expression; but that its diction is purer Greek, any one who has the power to discern differences of phraseology will acknowledge.\n12. Moreover, that the thoughts of the epistle are admirable, and not inferior to the acknowledged apostolic writings, any one who carefully examines the apostolic text 1995 will admit.\u2019\n13. Farther on he adds: \u201cIf I gave my opinion, I should say that the thoughts are those of the apostle, but the diction and phraseology are those of some one who remembered the apostolic teachings, and wrote down at his leisure what had been said by his teacher. Therefore if any church holds that this epistle is by Paul, let it be commended for this. For not without reason have the ancients handed it down as Paul\u2019s.\n14. But who wrote the epistle, in truth, God knows. The statement of some who have gone before us is that Clement, bishop of the Romans, wrote the epistle, and of others that Luke, the author of the Gospel and the Acts, wrote it.\u201d But let this suffice on these matters.\nOn Origen\u2019s commentary on Psalms, see the previous chapter, note 3. The first fragment given here by Eusebius is found also in the Philocalia, chap. 3, where it forms part of a somewhat longer extract. The second fragment is extant only in this chapter of Eusebius\u2019 History.\n272:1971\nOn the Hebrew canon of the Old Testament, see Bk. III. chap. 10, note 1. Upon Origen\u2019s omission of the twelve minor prophets and the insertion of the apocryphal epistle of Jeremiah, see the same note.\n272:1972\nI have reproduced Origen\u2019s Greek transliteration of this and the following Hebrew words letter by letter. It will be seen by a comparison of the words with the Hebrew titles of the books, as we now have them, that Origen\u2019s pronunciation of Hebrew, even after making all due allowance for a difference in the pronunciation of the Greek and for changes in the Hebrew text, must have been, in many respects, quite different from ours.\n272:1973\n\u039f\u1f50\u03b5\u03bb\u03b5\u03c3\u03bc\u03ce\u03b8. I represent the diphthong \u03bf\u1f50 at the beginning of a word by \u201cw.\u201d\n272:1974\nThe first and second books of Esdras here referred to are not the apocryphal books known by that name, but Ezra and Nehemiah, which in the Hebrew canon formed but one book, as Origen says here, but which in the LXX were separated (see above, Bk. III. chap. 10, note 4). Esdras is simply the form which the word Ezra assumes in Greek.\n272:1975\nWhether this sentence closed Origen\u2019s discussion of the Hebrew canon, or whether he went on to mention the other apocryphal books, we cannot tell. The latter seems intrinsically much more probable, for it is difficult to understand the insertion of the Maccabees in this connection, and the omission of all the others; for the Maccabees, as is clear from the words \u017e\u03be\u03c9 \u03b4\u1f72 \u03c4\u03bf\u03cd\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd \u1f10\u03c3\u03c4\u1f76 \u03c4\u1f70 \u039c\u03b1\u03ba\u03ba\u03b1\u03b2\u03b1\u03ca\u03ba\u20ac, are not reckoned by Origen among the twenty-two books as a part of the Hebrew canon. At the same time, it is hardly conceivable that Eusebius should have broken off thus, in the midst of a passage, without any explanation; though it is, of course, not impossible that he gives only the first sentence of the new paragraph on the books of the LXX, in order to show that the discussion of the Hebrew canon closes, and a new subject is introduced at this point. But, however that may be, it must be regarded as certain that Origen did not reckon the books of the Maccabees as a part of the Hebrew canon, and on the other hand, that he did reckon those books, as well as others (if not all) of the books given in the LXX, as inspired Scripture. This latter fact is proved by his use of these books indiscriminately with those of the Hebrew canon as sources for dogmatic proof texts, and also by his express citation of at least some of them as Scripture (cf. on this subject, Redepenning, p. 235 sq.). We must conclude, therefore, that Origen did not adopt the Hebrew canon as his own, but that he states it as clearly as he does in this place, in order to bring concretely before the minds of his readers the difference between the canon of the Jews and the canon of the Christians, who looked upon the LXX as the more authoritative form of the Old Testament. Perhaps he had in view the same purpose that led him to compare the Hebrew text and the LXX in his Hexapla (see chap. 16, note 8).\n273:1976\nOn Origen\u2019s Commentary on Matthew, see chap. 36, note 4. The fragment given here by Eusebius is all that is extant of the first book of the commentary.\n273:1977\nCompare Origen\u2019s Hom. I. in Lucam: Ecclesia quatuor habet evangelia, h\u00e6resea plurima; and multi conati sunt scribere, sed et multi conati sunt ordinare: quatuor tantum evangelia sunt probata, &c. Compare also Iren\u00e6us, Adv. H\u00e6r. III. 11, 8, where the attempt is made to show that it is impossible for the Gospels to be either more or fewer in number than four; and the Muratorian Fragment where the four Gospels are named, but the number four is not represented as in itself the necessary number; also Tertullian\u2019s Adv. Marc. IV. 2, and elsewhere.\n273:1978\nSee Bk. III. chap. 24, note 5.\n273:1979 273:1980 273:1981\nSee Bk. III. chap. 4, notes 12 and 15. Origen refers here to 2 Cor. viii. 18, where, however, it is clear that the reference is not to any specific Gospel any more than in the passages referred to above, III. 4, note 15.\n273:1982 273:1983\nThis fragment from the fifth book of Origen\u2019s commentary on John is extant only in this chapter. The context is not preserved.\n273:1984 273:1985 273:1986\nSee Bk. III. chap. 24, note 2.\n273:1987 273:1988\nOn the first and second Epistles of Peter, see Bk. III. chap. 3, notes 1 and 4.\n273:1989\nSee John xiii. 23.\n273:1990\nOn John\u2019s Gospel, see Bk. III. chap. 24, note 1; on the Apocalypse, note 20; and on the epistles, notes 18 and 19 of the same chapter.\n273:1991\nSee John xxi. 25\n273:1992\nSee Rev. x. 4\n273:1993\nUpon the Epistle to the Hebrews, and Origen\u2019s treatment of it, see Bk. III. chap. 3, note 17. The two extracts given here by Eusebius are the only fragments of Origen\u2019s Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews now extant. Four brief Latin fragments of his commentary upon that epistle are preserved in the first book of Pamphilus\u2019 Defense of Origen, and are printed by Lommatzsch in Vol. V. p. 297 sq. The commentaries (or \u201cbooks,\u201d as they are called) are mentioned only in that Defense. The catalogue of Jerome speaks only of \u201ceighteen homilies.\u201d We know nothing about the extent or the date of composition of these homilies and commentaries.\n273:1994 273:1995\n\u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03ad\u03c7\u03c9\u03bd, \u03c4\u1fc7 \u1f00\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03bd\u03ce\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9 \u03c4\u1fc7 \u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03bb\u03b9\u03ba & 135\u00b7\u03bd\u20ac\u03b3\u03bd\u03c9\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2 meant originally the act of reading, then also that which is read. It thus came to be used (like \u1f00\u03bd\u20ac\u03b3\u03bd\u03c9\u03c3\u03bc\u03b1) of the pericope or text or section of the Scripture read in church, and in the plural to designate the church lectionaries, or service books. In the present case it is used evidently in a wider sense of the text of Paul\u2019s writings as a whole. This use of the two words to indicate, not simply the selection read in church, but the text of a book or books as a whole, was not at all uncommon, as may be seen from the examples given by Suicer, although he does not mention this wider signification among the uses of the word. See his Thesaurus, s.v.","title":"Nicene and Ante-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol I: The Church History of Eusebius.: Chapter XXV","type":"page"}