Origen's "Homily on Romans"

[Fides_et_Ratio]

[quote]"For this reason, moreover, the Church received from the apostles the tradition of baptizing infants too."
Origen, Homily on Romans, V:9(A.D. 244),in JER,65[/quote]
For what reason?

... I can't find this quote in context anywhere. In fact, this is all I can manage to pick up of this quote!

I tried ccel.org, but with no luck. Any chance anyone actually owns Origen's "Homily on Romans"??

[Apotheoun]

I don't know if there is an English translation of the whole text of Origen's "Commentary on Romans" available, but there is a larger excerpt of the text in the [u]Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament VI, Romans[/u], which reads as follows:

[quote][i]Romans 6:6:[/i] "We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin."

[i]Origen's Commentary:[/i]  "The sinful body is our body, for it is written that Adam did not know his wife Eve, nor did he father Cain, until after he had sinned.  In the law it is commanded that sacrifices of a pair of turtledoves or two pigeons shall be offered for a newborn child.  One of these is a sin offering and the other is a burnt offering.  For what sin is this first pigeon offered?  How can a newborn child have sinned already?  And yet the child has sin, for which the sacrifice is commanded to be offered.  . . . For the same reason the Church has received a tradition from the Apostles to baptize even infants.  For they, to whom the secrets of the divine mysteries had been committed, knew that there are real stains of sin in everyone which must be cleansed by water and the Spirit." [Thomas C. Oden, editor; [u]Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament VI, Romans[/u]; page 158][/quote]

Of course it should be borne in mind that some elements of Origen's theology can be problematic, including his understanding of the nature of the fall, as a fall from a pre-existent spiritual state of being to a temporal material state of existence.

[phatcatholic]

holy cow, i need that book........

[Fides_et_Ratio]

Apotheoun... you are awesome.

THANKS! I think I had figured out the passage (and I was right.. or at least in the ballpark! .. whoohoo!) but that helps a LOT!

[phatcatholic]

his ability to reference relevant books and church documents is amazing