Half-tribes and the incomplete Trinity
Not three whole tribes under Moses nor nine whole under Jesus, but two and a half and nine and a half — one tribe is split. This signals that those under the law touched knowledge of the Trinity only in part; they still lacked full knowledge of the Only-begotten’s incarnation. Many prophets and righteous longed to see what you see and did not see it. So they are neither two alone — lest the fathers be left outside Trinitarian faith — nor three complete — lest the sacrament seem already fulfilled in them. The altar they built was not the true altar but a type of the true one with Jesus; hence they overthrew few hostile kings — only Sihon and Og. Where Jesus leads the army, five kings fall and are hanged on the tree; twenty-nine are cut down; every uncleanness that held the holy land in malice’s bitterness is wiped out.
Latin
Non tres integrae tribus per Moysen nec novem integrae per Iesum, sed duae semis et novem semis — una tribus dividitur. Indicatur quod priores per legem contigerunt scientiam Trinitatis non integre sed ex parte; deerat de Unigeniti incarnatione cognoscere. Multi prophetae et iusti cupierunt videre quae vos videtis et non viderunt. Ideo neque duae ne patres extra Trinitatis fidem sint, neque tres integrae ne sacramentum iam expletum videretur. Altare quod sibi fecerunt non verum sed typum veri altaris apud Iesum — ideo nec multi reges ab illis deiecti: Seon et Og tantum. Iesus ubi ducit, quinque reges cadunt et suspenduntur in ligno; viginti novem iugulantur; immunditiae de terra sancta exterminantur.
About this text
Origen’s Homilia III on Joshua (Rufinus’s Latin). Complete on this page: §§1–5.
English follows Baehrens, Origenes Werke VII (GCS 30, 1921), Rufinus’s Latin of Homilia III. Bruce FOTC 105 was not used as wording. This page is Homilia III §§1–5 (closeout).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Baehrens, Origenes Werke VII = GCS 30 (1921) (Latin · Homilia III §§1–5)
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.