“he will obtain the things that were spoken according to the letter of the Gospel to that…”
he will obtain the things that were spoken according to the letter of the Gospel to that Peter, but, as the spirit of the Gospel teaches, to every one who becomes such as that Peter was.
Origen · Commentary on Matthew · ANF IX, Commentary on Matthew, Book XII §11
How Origen holds the two halves together. The words were said to Peter according to the letter of the gospel, and he does not deny it; what he adds is that the spirit of the gospel extends them to anyone who becomes what Peter was at that moment. The distinction between the letter and the spirit is his standing method, applied here to the most contested sentence in Matthew.
How this is known
These words were matched, word for word, against this project’s own copy of the volume cited.
Book XII, section 11 of the Commentary on Matthew, in the region of ANF vol. 9 that carries the twelfth book, in the same section as the question above and a few lines after it.
Read in Patrick, ANF vol. 9 (1897) · John Patrick
Also by
- Origen every saying recorded of this person, and their page