Annotatio XXXIII

”God had planted a Paradise.” — Genesis 2:8

Origen, in the Tomes on Genesis, is said to have subverted the whole history of Paradise which is narrated in this second chapter.¹ Methodius, in the dialogue whose title is Aglaophon, and Epiphanius, in the book Anchoratus and in the Epistle to John, Bishop of Jerusalem, charge him with having denied that Paradise is on the earth, and with having placed it in the third heaven — understanding by the trees the angelic powers, and by the rivers the waters which are above the back of the firmament. Some strive to show that Origen was not of this mind, from certain words written by him in the thirty-first homily on Numbers. These are they: “Adam, after sin, is thrust down into the dry land; for before, he was not in the dry land, but in the [good] earth — for Paradise is not in the dry land, but in the earth.” Which words, how much they avail, let those weigh who wish. Read the six following Annotations.