# Quam praecepit Jesus esse reddendam et projiciei



## KsSp

Hello again. 
Here is the second one of today's four questions. 
Another piece from Origen's _Homilies on Luke_:
'Quam praecepit Jesus esse reddendam et projiciei:dam de vultu nostro, assumendamque eam imaginem, juxta quam a principio ad similitudinem Dei conditi sumus.'
This is something completely incomprehensible. 
'After someone accepts Jesus and His image is restored from our face and accepted, we will acquire His likeness from the beginning.' 
Well, it makes no sense at all. 
The context: there are two images of man: the one received from God in the beginning, and the other is that of an 'earthly' man. The latter was received/acquired after the Fall, after he succumbed to the prince of this world. And as the image of the emperor of the world is imprinted on coins, the ones who serve the evil bear the image of the one whose deeds he is the instrument. And then comes this sentence. 
Could you please comment on what all this means? 
Thank you!


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## Scholiast

Hello once more.

Two or three observations to start with: _projiciendam_ needs to be read (7th word). Secondly _quam_ is proleptic, looking forward to _imaginem._ Thirdly, I cannot see here a principal verb. Can something have been inadvertently left out? It might be helpful to have the previous sentence as well.

'That appearance which Jesus taught should be reflected and projected from our countenance, and taken on, beside which from the beginning [of the world] we were created in the likeness of God'.

Σ


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## bearded

Scholiast said:


> _quam_ is proleptic, looking forward to _imaginem._


Hello Scholiast
First of all I hope you don't think that I'm being polemic and contradicting you 'on principle'! But please explain to me why you call _quam _proleptic.
I would rather think that _eam _is proleptic, looking forward to the subsequent _quam_: ''and that _that _(proleptic) image has to be taken on, according to which… we were created''.  Am I wrong?


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## Scholiast

saluete bearded, KsSp et alii!

No grief at all. I think in my # 2 here I misapprehended _iuxta_. In fact in pursuance of another query I looked it up in _OLD_ and must confess I had not realised it could mean 'according to' or 'according with'. bearded is, I now think, right: it must be something like 'That appearance which Jesus taught should be reflected and emanate from our faces, [is] to be taken on in accordance with that with which in the likeness of God we were created at the Beginning [as opposed to our appearance after the Fall]'.

But in the absence of a main verb, I still find the syntax of this sentence puzzling: one ought to be entitled to expect 'assumenda ea imago' in the nominative. There's still something not quite kosher about the text here.

Σ


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## bearded

I had probably misunderstood your #2: I thought you were talking about 'quam' in 'juxta quam', whereas you evidently referred to the initial 'quam'.
Please reconsider my objection in #3 in the light of this -  (objection now null and void).
I agree that something does not work in the text (presumably, some preceding context is missing).


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## KsSp

Hello, bearded and Scholiast! Here is the full version of this part: "Sicut enim nummus sive denarius habet imaginem imperatorum mundi, sic qui facit opera rectoris tenebrarum istarum, portat imaginem eius, cuius habet opera: quam praecepit Jesus esse reddendam et projiciei:dam de vultu nostro, assumendamque eam imaginem, juxta quam a principio ad similitudinem Dei conditi sumus.'


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## Scholiast

saluete de nouo!

I have a suspicion that the punctuation has led to a misapprehension here.

'For just as a coin or _denarius_ bears an image of the [secular] governors of the world [Roman emperors], so he who performs the works of the ruler of those infernal regions bears the likeness of him [Satan] whose functions he performs: [and] the likeness which Jesus has taught should be reflected and emanated from our persons, and taken on, is that in accordance with which from the Creation we were made, in the likeness of God'.

Another intellectually puzzling extract. I hope this rendering is sufficiently clear.

Σ


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## KsSp

Thank you, Scholiast! Another local victory over a confusing sentence.


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