Now it may be established conjecturally as follows. If the soul of a man, which is certainly inferior while it remains the soul of a man, was not formed along with his body, but is proved to have been implanted strictly from without, much more must this be the case with those living beings which are called heavenly. For, as regards man, how could the soul of him, viz., Jacob, who supplanted his brother in the womb, appear to be formed along with his body? Or how could his soul, or its images, be formed along with his body, who, while lying in his mother's womb, was filled with the Holy Ghost? I refer to John leaping in his mother's womb, and exulting because the voice of the salutation of Mary had come to the ears of his mother Elisabeth. (Book I, Chapter 7, Part 4)

Plato conceived the soul as a the true form of the individual, coincident with the body but in itself incorporeal and eternal.

Aristotle argued that the soul is the true activity of the individual or we might say the best expression of any individual. The Aristotelian soul is cultivated through right living and dies with the body.

The Stoics perceived the soul to be an eternal spark of God shared temporarily with the individual body, but upon the death of the body returning to the divine whole.

Plotinus perceived the soul as that aspect of the individual which desires God.

Not surprisingly, Origen seems to begin with a Platonic notion. I wonder if he is setting-up an argument against Aristotle or the Stoics or Plotinus.

The image is the visitation of Elizabeth and Mary by Jacques Daret.