Benjamin Edsall: A Liturgical Update in Rufinus' translation of Origen's Romans Commentary?

At Comm. in Rom. 5.8.8, Rufinus presents Origen as being concerned with proper baptismal instruction, reading Paul’s comments in Rom 7:1 in relation to “what we see happening now” (nunc fieri uidemus). The question which arises from this is whether the appeal to contemporary praxis originates with Origen’s comments or represents Rufinus’ editorial hand. Elsewhere in his translational work, Rufinus makes reference to differences between Greek and Latin translations (e.g. Comm. in Cant. 3.8. ), thereby signaling his willingness to update Origen for his readers. In the present case, I argue that the comments at Comm. in Rom. 5.8.8 represent just such an updating, in which Rufinus appropriates Origen’s work for his own baptismal context in the late fourth-century. The complaint that some are initiated without knowing the “power and reason” for baptism is directed, then, toward the practice of delaying mystagogical catechesis, which arose as a specific part of Christian initiation in the middle of the fourth-century (e.g., in Cyril of Jerusalem and his successor).