Heracleon on “Go call your husband”: pleroma consort forced onto the text
Heracleon also takes “He says to her” this way: Jesus means, in effect, “If you want this water, go call your husband.” Heracleon thinks the “husband” the Savior names is the Samaritan woman’s pleroma, so that once she comes with that consort to the Savior she may receive power, union, and blending with the pleroma.
As for a worldly husband, Heracleon says, Jesus told her to call one because he knew the man she had was not her lawful husband. But that reading plainly forces the text. If “Call your husband and come here” meant the consort from the pleroma, Jesus would also have had to say how she was to call him so that she might come with him to the Savior.
Heracleon himself says that in the deeper sense she did not know her own husband, while in the plain sense she was ashamed to admit she had an adulterer rather than a husband. How, then, is it not empty for the Savior to tell her, “Call your husband”?
Greek
Ἔτι δὲ ὁ Ἡρακλέων πρὸς τὸ · Λέγει αὐτῇ · φησί · δῆλον ὅτι τοιοῦτό τι λέγων, εἰ θέλεις λαβεῖν τοῦτο τὸ ὕδωρ, ὕπαγε φώνησον τὸν ἄνδρα σου. οἴεται τὸν λεγόμενον ὑπὸ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἄνδρα τῆς Σαμαρείτιδος τὸ πλήρωμα εἶναι αὐτῆς, ἵνα σὺν ἐκείνῳ γενομένη πρὸς τὸν σωτῆρα κομίσασθαι τὴν δύναμιν καὶ τὴν ἕνωσιν καὶ τὴν ἀνάκρασιν τὴν πρὸς τὸ πλήρωμα δυνηθῇ.
περὶ δὲ κοσμικοῦ ἀνδρὸς, φησίν, ἔλεγεν αὐτῇ ἵνα καλέσῃ, ἐπείπερ οὐκ ἠγνόει ὅτι ὃν ἔχει οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτῆς νόμιμος ἀνήρ. προδήλως δὲ ἐνταῦθα βιάζεται, λέγων τὸν σωτῆρα εἰρηκέναι · Φώνησόν σου τὸν ἄνδρα καὶ ἐλθὲ ἐνθάδε · δηλοῦντα τὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ πληρώματος σύζυγον. εἰ γὰρ τοῦθ’ οὕτως εἶχεν, ἐχρῆν καὶ τίνα τρόπον φωνητέον ἔσται αὐτὸν εἰπεῖν, ἵνα σὺν αὐτῷ γένηται πρὸς τὸν σωτῆρα.
ἀλλ’ ἐπεί, ὡς Ἡρακλέων φησί, κατὰ μὲν τὸ νοούμενον ἠγνόει τὸν ἴδιον ἄνδρα, κατὰ δὲ τὸ ἁπλοῦν ἠσχύνετο εἰπεῖν ὅτι μοιχὸν οὐχὶ δὲ ἄνδρα εἶχεν, πῶς οὐχὶ μάτην αὐτῇ ὁ σωτὴρ ἔλεγεν · Φώνησον τὸν ἄνδρα σου;
About this text
Origen’s Commentary on John, Book 13 (later tomoi). Complete on this page: §§1–64.
English follows Preuschen, Origenes Werke IV (GCS 10, 1903). Heine FOTC was not used as wording. This page is Book 13 §§1–64 of the later books (13, 19, 20, 28, 32).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Preuschen, Origenes Werke IV = GCS 10 (1903) (Greek · Book 13 §§1–64)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.