Therefore the young women loved you
Therefore the young women have loved you. The young women are souls lately come to faith, drawn by the fragrance of Christ’s name to love the Bridegroom, yet not yet arrived at perfect charity. They have loved — not yet do they love perfectly in the present; it is promise and beginning. As far as the fragrance of the ointment reaches, so far the young women run; when the name has been emptied out in the passion, then they love more abundantly.
Latin
Propterea adulescentulae dilexerunt te. Adulescentulae sunt animae nuper ad fidem venientes, quae odore nominis Christi attractae diligunt sponsum, nondum tamen ad perfectam caritatem pervenerunt. Dilexerunt, non diligunt in praesenti perfecte; promissio est et inchoatio. Quantum odor unguenti porrigitur, tantum adulescentulae currunt; cum exinanitum fuerit nomen in passione, tunc abundantius diligunt.
About this text
Origen’s Commentary on the Song of Songs, Liber I (Rufinus’s Latin). Complete on this page: §§1–20.
English follows Baehrens, Origenes Werke VIII (GCS 33, 1925), Rufinus’s Latin of Commentary Liber I. Lawson ACW 26 was not used as wording. This page is Liber I §§1–20 (closeout).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Baehrens, Origenes Werke VIII = GCS 33 (1925) (Latin · Commentary Liber I §§1–20)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.