"But God, who is the beginning of all things, is not to be regarded as a composite being, lest perchance there should be found to exist elements prior to the beginning itself, out of which everything is composed, whatever that be which is called composite"
About this Quote
The subtext is a polemic against the intellectual air he breathed in Alexandria, where Platonist and gnostic cosmologies often pictured reality as layered, graded, assembled: emanations, intermediaries, divine parts. Origen wants a God who is not a cosmic object among other objects, not a being with components that could be rearranged, divided, improved, or diminished. A composite can come apart; it can change. A God who can change is a God who can be acted upon, and a God acted upon is no longer sovereign.
Notice the rhetorical hedge “lest perchance”: he’s not merely asserting doctrine, he’s preempting a trap. The argument is less “mystery” than engineering. Define God as simple (non-composite), and you secure several downstream claims: creation ex nihilo, God’s immutability, and the sense that worship isn’t directed at the highest piece of the universe but at what makes “universe” intelligible at all.
It’s also an early warning about language itself. Call something “composite” and you’ve already reduced it to a category built for furniture and flesh. Origen is trying to keep theology from becoming bad metaphysics.
Quote Details
| Topic | God |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Origen. (2026, January 15). But God, who is the beginning of all things, is not to be regarded as a composite being, lest perchance there should be found to exist elements prior to the beginning itself, out of which everything is composed, whatever that be which is called composite. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-god-who-is-the-beginning-of-all-things-is-not-153940/
Chicago Style
Origen. "But God, who is the beginning of all things, is not to be regarded as a composite being, lest perchance there should be found to exist elements prior to the beginning itself, out of which everything is composed, whatever that be which is called composite." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-god-who-is-the-beginning-of-all-things-is-not-153940/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"But God, who is the beginning of all things, is not to be regarded as a composite being, lest perchance there should be found to exist elements prior to the beginning itself, out of which everything is composed, whatever that be which is called composite." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-god-who-is-the-beginning-of-all-things-is-not-153940/. Accessed 2 Mar. 2026.
