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De Principiis
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[2199] These words are found in Jerome’s Epistle to Avitus, and, literally translated, are as follows: “Whence infinite caution is to be employed, lest perchance, after souls have obtained salvation and come to the blessed life, they should cease to be souls. For as our Lord and Saviour came to seek and to save what was lost, that it might cease to be lost; so the soul which was lost, and for whose salvation the Lord came, shall, when it has been saved, cease for a soul. This point in like manner must be examined, whether, as that which has been lost was at one time not lost, and a time will come when it will be no longer lost; so also at some time a soul may not have been a soul, and a time may be when it will by no means continue to be a soul.” A portion of the above is also found, in the original Greek, in the Emperor Justinian’s Letter to Menas, Patriarch of Constantinople.
[2204] Cf. Jer. i. 9. The word “fire” is found neither in the Hebrew nor in the Septuagint.
[2206] Cf. Ezek. xxxii. 2 seqq.
[2209] Job xli. 34 [LXX.].
[2211] Ecclesiasticus 43.20.
[2212] ψυχή from ψύχεσθαι.
[2213] Ecclesiasticus 6.4.
[2216] “By falling away and growing cold from a spiritual life, the soul has become what it now is, but is capable also of returning to what it was at the beginning, which I think is intimated by the prophet in the words, ‘Return, O my soul, unto thy rest,’ so as to be wholly this.”—Epistle of Justinian to Patriarch of Constantinople.
[2218] “The understanding (Νοῦς) somehow, then, has become a soul, and the soul, being restored, becomes an understanding. The understanding falling away, was made a soul, and the soul, again, when furnished with virtues, will become an understanding. For if we examine the case of Esau, we may find that he was condemned because of his ancient sins in a worse course of life. And respecting the heavenly bodies we must inquire, that not at the time when the world was created did the soul of the sun, or whatever else it ought to be called, begin to exist, but before that it entered that shining and burning body. We may hold similar opinions regarding the moon and stars, that, for the foregoing reasons, they were compelled, unwillingly, to subject themselves to vanity on account of the rewards of the future; and to do, not their own will, but the will of their Creator, by whom they were arranged among their different offices.”—Jerome’s Epistle to Avitus. From these, as well as other passages, it may be seen how widely Rufinus departed in his translation from the original.
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