If you do not know yourself — goats, not sheep
If you do not know yourself, O beautiful among women, go out and follow the tracks of the flocks, and pasture your goats beside the shepherds’ tents. Knowledge of oneself is the beginning of return to God. If the Bride does not know herself, she will pasture among goats — not sheep — and be separated from the Bridegroom. Beautiful among women: the church among souls, or the soul among virtues.
Latin
Nisi cognoveris te, o pulchra inter mulieres, egredere et abi post vestigia gregum, et pasce haedos tuos iuxta tabernacula pastorum. Cognitio sui principium est reversionis ad Deum. Si se nescierit sponsa, inter haedos — non oves — pascetur et a sponso separabitur. Pulchra inter mulieres: ecclesia inter animas, vel anima inter virtutes.
About this text
Origen’s Commentary on the Song of Songs, Liber I (Rufinus’s Latin). Complete on this page: §§1–20.
English follows Baehrens, Origenes Werke VIII (GCS 33, 1925), Rufinus’s Latin of Commentary Liber I. Lawson ACW 26 was not used as wording. This page is Liber I §§1–20 (closeout).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Baehrens, Origenes Werke VIII = GCS 33 (1925) (Latin · Commentary Liber I §§1–20)
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.