Travis Fernald has been doing an MA at Pittsburg Theological Seminary, on Origen’s views on human wisdom as expressed in his Commentary on Proverbs (CPL 1430); or rather, on what now remains of it – some 17 columns in the Patrologia Graeca 13. He wrote to tell me about this, and has very kindly made the translation available to us all online. Here it is:
As may quickly be seen, it contains some interesting material, such as Origen’s answer to the question “what is a parable”:
Therefore a parable is a story about some event which did not literally happen, but could have happened and which figuratively shows matters through participation in the words of the parable. It did not really happen according to the words “A sower went out…” as we would say historical events do, but nevertheless it could have happened exactly as it is written.
All these little translations have value, and it is great to see people arranging for them to appear online. Thank you, Mr. Fernald!