In the first place, then, let us see what reason itself can discover respecting sun, moon, and stars—whether the opinion, entertained by some, of their unchangeableness be correct—and let the declarations of holy Scripture, as far as possible, be first adduced. For Job appears to assert that not only may the stars be subject to sin, but even that they are actually not clean from the contagion of it. The following are his words: The stars also are not clean in Your sight. Nor is this to be understood of the splendour of their physical substance, as if one were to say, for example, of a garment, that it is not clean; for if such were the meaning, then the accusation of a want of cleanness in the splendour of their bodily substance would imply an injurious reflection upon their Creator. For if they are unable, through their own diligent efforts, either to acquire for themselves a body of greater brightness, or through their sloth to make the one they have less pure, how should they incur censure for being stars that are not clean, if they receive no praise because they are so? (Book I, Chapter 7, Part 2)

The book of Job is a poem. The power of poetry is different than that of mathematical formulae. There can be truth in each, but a different kind of truth.

We know with empirical confidence that stars are constantly changing. With no empiricism, but with confidence in Job's poem, Origen discerns this changeableness.

Moving beyond poetry, Origen claims this changeableness has moral implications: change implies choice and invites corruption.