But the Word is the one Shepherd of things rational which may have an appearance of discord to those who have not ears to hear, but are truly at perfect concord. For as the different chords of the psalter or the lyre, each of which gives forth a certain sound of its own which seems unlike the sound of another chord, are thought by a man who is not musical and ignorant of the principle of musical harmony, to be inharmonious, because of the dissimilarity of the sounds, so those who are not skilled in hearing the harmony of God in the sacred Scriptures think that the Old is not in harmony with the New, or the Prophets with the Law, or the Gospels with one another, or the Apostle with the Gospel, or with himself, or with the other Apostles. But he who comes instructed in the music of God, being a man wise in word and deed, and, on this account, like another David— which is, by interpretation, skilful with the hand— will bring out the sound of the music of God, having learned from this at the right time to strike the chords, now the chords of the Law, now the Gospel chords in harmony with them, and again the Prophetic chords, and, when reason demands it, the Apostolic chords which are in harmony with the Prophetic, and likewise the Apostolic with those of the Gospels. For he knows that all the Scripture is the one perfect and harmonised instrument (όργανον) of God, which from different sounds gives forth one saving voice to those willing to learn, which stops and restrains every working of an evil spirit, just as the music of David laid to rest the evil spirit in Saul, which also was choking him. (1 Samuel 16:14) [Origen Philocalia 6]And here is the original passage in Clement's Exhortation:
And He who is of David, and yet before him, the Word of God, despising the lyre and harp, which are but lifeless instruments, and having tuned by the Holy Spirit the universe, and especially man—who, composed of body and soul, is a universe in miniature,— makes melody to God on this instrument of many tones; and to this instrument (όργανον) — I mean man— he sings accordant: “For you are my harp, and pipe, and temple.” — a harp for harmony— a pipe by reason of the Spirit— a temple by reason of the word; so that the first may sound, the second breathe, the third contain the Lord. And David the king, the harper whom we mentioned a little above, who exhorted to the truth and dissuaded from idols, was so far from celebrating demons in song, that in reality they were driven away by his music. Thus, when Saul was plagued with a demon, he cured him by merely playing. A beautiful breathing instrument of music the Lord made man, after His own image. And He Himself also, surely, who is the supramundane Wisdom, the celestial Word, is the all-harmonious, melodious, holy instrument (όργανον) of God. What, then, does this instrument— the Word of God, the Lord, the New Song— desire? To open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf, and to lead the lame or the erring to righteousness, to exhibit God to the foolish, to put a stop to corruption, to conquer death, to reconcile disobedient children to their father. The instrument (όργανον) of God loves mankind. The Lord pities, instructs, exhorts, admonishes, saves, shields, and of His bounty promises us the kingdom of heaven as a reward for learning; and the only advantage He reaps is, that we are saved. [Clement Ex. 1]
It doesn't get mentioned often enough that Origen's works have been systematically reworked by his 'defenders.' Notice at once that Clement and Arius's understanding of Jesus as an 'instrument' (όργανον) of God has been whitewashed in the Philocalia - viz. "all the Scripture is the one perfect and harmonised instrument of God." Yuck! Such is the way of ALL Patristic material.
Yet it is not enough to merely dismiss the Philocalia. The glimmer we get of the 'real' Origen does help shine a light on the original sense of Clement's Exhortation cited extensively in a previous post. As I told you, Clement is essentially put forward that Jesus was the instrument which harmonized the public and secret gospels of Mark according to the harmony of the diatessaron.
Not completely convinced yet? Don't worry there is much, much more to come ...
