Firmament — spiritual heaven and bodily heaven
God said: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water. Though God had already made heaven, he now makes the firmament — that is, the bodily heaven. For every body is firm and solid. The first heaven, spiritual substance, is our mind, the spiritual human who sees God. The firmament, the bodily heaven, is our outer human. If one can divide the upper waters from the lower, that one too will be called a heavenly human: Our citizenship is in heaven.
Latin
Et dixit Deus: Fiat firmamentum in medio aquae. Cum iam antea Deus fecisset coelum, nunc firmamentum facit, id est corporeum coelum. Omne enim corpus firmum est et solidum. Primum coelum, spiritalis substantia, est mens nostra, spiritalis homo qui videt Deum. Firmamentum, corporale coelum, exterior homo est. Si dividere potuerit aquas superiores et inferiores, etiam ipse caelestis homo appellabitur: Nostra autem conversatio in caelis est.
About this text
Origen’s Homilia I on Genesis (Rufinus’s Latin). Complete on this page: §§1–17.
English follows Baehrens, Origenes Werke VI (GCS 29, 1920), Rufinus’s Latin of Homilia I. Heine FOTC 71 was not used as wording. This page is Homilia I §§1–17 (closeout).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Baehrens, Origenes Werke VI = GCS 29 (1920) (Latin · Homilia I §§1–17)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.