Exegesis Volume 07 Issue #039 In This Issue: From: L:Smerillo Subject: [e] Re: exegesis Digest V7 #38
Exegesis Digest Fri, 08 Mar 2002

Date: Fri, 08 Mar 2002 09:06:26 +0100
From: L:Smerillo
Subject: [e] Re: exegesis Digest V7 #38

 > >>From: "JG or DF"
 > >>Circadian cycles have been noted in animals, and I suppose some form of
 > >>this basic material coordination can be expected in humans as well.
 > >
 > >Are you unaware that these were first discovered in human beings several
 > >decades ago, and have been extensively researched since?

Somewhat more aware of this than you perhaps are lacking in an ability to discern obvious irony.

 > >>Origen by the way was not a gnostic

 > >Wrong. Alexandria "produced the great second and third-century Gnostic
 > >masters Carpocrates, Basilides, Valentinus, Clement and Origen". ["The
 > >Jesus Mysteries", T Freke & P Gandy, 1999, p249.]

Take it from someone who has several degrees in theology and classics and is a specialist in Late Antiquity that Origen was not a gnostic. Some of his christological views were later thought (albeit mistakenly) to be dangerously near some views espoused by some gnostic sects and were out of concordance with the accepted orthodox views of the later oecumenical councils, hence he was condemned. The Gnostics were a group of weirdoes who believed in all sorts of odd tomfoolery. Origen was much to bright ( = he had too much gnosis, knowledge) to be one of those, and I have read much in Origen. Your source is a popular book, which often contain errors: caveat emptor! Should you wish to pursue the matter at leisure, I would recommend:

Chadwick, Henery, Early Christian tought and the Classical Traidition, Oxford, Clarendon, 1964.

ed et trans et comm, Origen, Contra Celsus, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1965.

Crouzel, Henri, Origen, (trans. Worrall) San Francisco, Harper and Row, 1989.

and Simonetti, Manilio, Orig ne: Trait des principes, Sources Chr tiennes, Paris, voll. 252,253,268,269, Paris, Cerf, 1978-80. (from which you will be directed to the other dozen or so volumes of the works of Origen in the SC series, Gk. tx with French comm and trans)

Festugi re, A.J., 'De la doctrine 'orig niste' du corps glorieux sph ro de' in RevSciPhilTheol 43(1959):81-86.

Nautin, Pierre, Orig ne: Sa vie et son oeuvre, Paris, du Cerf, 1976.

 > >>I do not see that the extensive quotes of this author further any
 > >>discussion, nor apparently do you.

 > >Discussion normally proceeds on the basis of intelligent feedback that
 > >addresses the issues. I may still get some.

But if the issues are naive?

feliciter,

Lorenzo Smerillo

End of exegesis Digest V7 #39

[Exegesis Top][Table of Contents][Prior Issue][Next Issue]