Annotation CLXX

”And the Word was with God.” — John 1:1

Whether Christ suffered for the angels.

Origen, in the first tome on John, writes that Christ suffered not only for men, but also for the angels, and for the stars — in these words: “Since, therefore, he who has so great [things], and is [our] advocate, has had compassion on our infirmities, because he was tempted in all human [things] by [our] likeness, and [yet] without sin — he is a great high priest, since not for men alone, but for every [being] that is partaker of reason, [as] a victim once offered, he offered himself. For, ‘except God, he tasted death for all,’ as it is placed in certain copies of the epistle to the Hebrews, ‘by the gift and grace of God.’ But whether ‘except God he tasted death for all’ — [then] not only for all men did he suffer death, but also for the rest [of beings] which use reason; or [whether] ‘by the grace of God he tasted death for all’ — [then] for all except God he bore death. For ‘by the grace of God he tasted death for all.’ For indeed it is absurd to say that he died for human sins, but not also for some other [being] which, besides man, was in sin — for example, for the stars — since not even the stars are altogether clean before God, as we read in Job:¹ ‘But the stars are not clean before him’ — unless perhaps this was said hyperbolically.” See Annotation 117 of book 5, and below, Annotation 296.