EN XXVIIa: ὁ πᾶς λόγος τῆς προνοίας (‘the entire teaching about providence’)

The idea that ‘providence’ (πρόνοια) is the force responsible for the ‘government’ (διοίκησις) of the world is a Christian borrowing from Stoicism, which was treated by Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Didymus. This is also used in the Pseudo-Clementine writings. At a particular point where the ‘teaching about providence’ is discussed, one should notice that Didymus appears to copy Eusebius commenting on Psalm 103:13. In fact, however, this is actually an ascription to Didymus by later catenists. By the same token, both the idea and vocabulary occur in passages ascribed to Origen, yet the abundance of references is perhaps partially due to those (Didymus, Evagrius) who inserted a specific formulations into excerpts from his work.

EN XXVIIb: ἡδέα καὶ ἀηδῆ (‘things either pleasant or unpleasant’)

The formula originates in Hellenistic literature. The first-century BC Alexandrian grammarian Philoxenus refers to the ancients who made a distinction between ἡδέα καὶ τερπνά, which are things ‘pleasant’ and ‘warm’ (ἀπὸ τῶν θερμῶν), distinguished from those that are ἀηδῆ καὶ λυπηρά (‘cool’ and ‘depressing’, ἀπὸ τῶν ψυχρῶν). Galen classified all things that fall within the scope of the five senses into ἡδέα and ἀηδῆ, as Alexander of Aphrodisias also did. Sextus Empiricus employed the same distinction, too.