Gary Pollard
[This is a continuing translation of Origen’s systematic theology in modern language]
If our opponents think they can refute us by appealing to expressions in the Old Testament where God is said to be angry, to repent, or to experience other human emotions or passions (and on that basis deny our claim that God is incapable of these emotions and completely free from that kind of disorder) we must point out that similar language appears even in the parables of the Gospel.
For example, in the parable of the vineyard the owner plants a vineyard and leases it to tenants. When they beat and kill the servants he sends, and finally murder even his son, the owner is said to act “in anger,” to take the vineyard away from them, destroy the wicked tenants, and give it to others who will take care of it. In the parable of the nobleman who went away to receive a kingdom, the citizens sent him a message that said, “We do not want this man to reign over us.” When he receives the kingship, he comes back angry, has them executed in front of him, and then burns their city to the ground.
But whenever we read that God is angry (whether Old Testament or New), we do not take the language literally. Instead, we seek its spiritual meaning so we can conceive of God properly. And when we previously studied the words of the second Psalm, “He speaks to them in anger, and it fills them with fear,” we explained, as best we could, how such expressions are to be understood—not as strong emotions in God, but as accommodative language adapted to human understanding.
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