Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IX/Origen on John/Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John/From the Fifth Book/From the Preface

From the Fifth Book.

From the Preface.

You are not content to fulfil the office, when I am present with you, of a taskmaster to drive me to labour at theology; even when I am absent you demand that I should spend most of my time on you and on the task I have to do for you. &#160; I, for my part, am inclined to shrink from toil, and to avoid that danger which threatens from God those who give themselves to writing on divinity; thus I would take shelter in Scripture in refraining from making many books.&#160; For Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, &#8220;My son, beware of making many books; there is no end of it, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.&#8221;&#160; For we, except that text have some hidden meaning which we do not yet perceive, have directly transgressed the injunction, we have not guarded ourselves against making many books.

[Then, after saying that this discussion of but a few sentences of the Gospel have run to four volumes, he goes on:]