Eclogae on Exodus through Judges 397–803

[Lev 4:2] “And if one soul sins unwillingly.” Unwilling is whatever evil one does … It should be noted that Scripture calls unwilling ignorance sin. The blessed Paul also mentions some other things, saying, “For the law had a shadow of the things to come.” [Of the same.] “If a soul sins unwillingly,” it says, “and does anything of all the commandments of the Lord”: this makes good sense. For there are perhaps also some ordinances of the Lord which one ought not to do, according to “I gave them ordinances that were not good.” A soul, then, sins unwillingly when, under pretext of piety, it keeps what it ought not; and it needs a sacrifice for forgiveness. The one who acts so deliberately does not need a sacrifice, like the man who became a Jew to win Jews and circumcised Timothy. [Lev 5:2] “That soul which touches any unclean thing, or a carcass.” By “carcass” he means the man who is dead to God, with whom one must not even eat; for whoever touches him is unclean. And this is unclean: what has been caught by our adversary the devil. Unclean cattle would be those who came to the word in a beastly way, but sinned unto death and did not become worthy to be saved even with the cattle, according to the text that says, “Men and cattle you will save, Lord.” [Lev 6:27] “Whoever touches them shall be sanctified.” Some take “shall be sanctified” to mean “shall be defiled”; not because of the sacrifice, I think, but because of the boldness of the one who touches. For Haggai says, “Whoever touches will be defiled.” [Of the same.] We say that the sacrifices were rather a means of maintenance for the priests and a shadow of piety. And the gain from sacrificing is twofold: honour is offered to God, and one would not worship what one sacrifices, nor think it a god. [Lev 10:9] “And you shall not die.” The word seems to threaten death to priests who drink wine and strong drink when they enter the tabernacle. For the bishops who pray for the people must turn away from drunkenness, not only from wine, but also from that of affairs and of human reasonings. He does not forbid this as absurd in itself, but because he knew the intemperance of the Israelites, that whenever they touched wine they went to excess; so that when they enter the holy places they may keep the soul's precision sober and a clear remembrance of God. [Lev 10:17] “Why did you not eat the sin offering in a holy place?” He shows that if the priests do not eat, the sacrifice is incomplete and the sin remains; for some of the blood should have been brought in, and they themselves should have eaten. [Lev 10:19] “If today they have offered their sin offerings.” Since it happened, he says, that Nadab and Abihu offended God and died, when

it was time for them to eat the sin offering of the people, that what the people had sinned might be forgiven, how shall we, who have today been convicted of being in sins, procure forgiveness by eating? For the priest must first make atonement for himself. [Lev 11:2] “These are the animals which you shall eat.” Wild beasts are in no way clean; for all are unclean according to the law that says, “Everything that goes on its paws among all the wild beasts shall be unclean to you.” In general, the wild beasts would be all the most savage of men, of whom the prophet says, “When evildoers drew near me to eat my flesh,” and so on. [Lev 11:3] “Every animal that divides the hoof.” He calls dividing the hoof the one who lives piously in this age and, for the sake of the age to come, hastens toward it; and besides dividing the hoof, parting the claws, removing what is superfluous and dead from the hands, that is, from his deeds, and from the feet, that is, from his conduct. Besides these, chewing the cud: not only storing up the spiritual food, but also recalling it and meditating on it continually. [Lev 11:46] “This is the law concerning the animals and the birds and every soul.” He makes much account of clean and unclean, first to train the soul to be holy. For if what is natural, such as came to be by God's command, is unclean, how much more what comes from a wicked choice and not from God's command? If anyone should think unclean that of which God is the maker, how much more what is contrary to God's will and does what he has forbidden? [Lev 13:2] “If anyone has on the skin of his flesh a scar …” These things are referred to certain blemishes of the soul. And just as with wounds of the body, after healing, a trace of the places that suffered sometimes remains, in what is called a scar, in the same way the soul that has received a wound of sin, even if it obtains healing, sometimes has, as it were, a scar remaining. One must also know the manner of its cleansing or non-cleansing. [Lev 13:29] “A man or a woman in whom there is a plague of leprosy.” It should be observed in which cases “men” are spoken of: “If anyone has on the skin of his flesh,” and “A man or a woman in whom there is a plague of leprosy”; and in which “flesh”: “Flesh, if there is in its skin an ulcer,” and “Flesh, if there is in its skin a burn of fire.” These are wounds. [Lev 13:45] “His garments shall be loosened.” By this he hints that the one whose soul is leprous must not hide his sins and cover them. Just as the nakedness of one whose garments are loosened is not covered, so he wishes him to be exposed to all, and not to become a whitewashed tomb. The

covering of the mouth is to have no freedom to open the mouth; and departing from the camp, to dwell no longer with the choirs of the saints. [Lev 14:5] “And they shall kill the one bird into an earthen vessel.” The bird is sacrificed into an earthen vessel into which living water has first been put, so that the cleansing may be by water and blood, which indeed came out of the Saviour's side. By the cedar wood he means the wood of our salvation. The spun scarlet was a type of the precious blood by which the whole world is cleansed. I think that the hyssop shows the warmth that comes through the Spirit, and the scarlet thread the Word's union with flesh. [Lev 14:9] “He shall shave his head and his beard.” He shaves his head in respect of the more principal and ruling doctrines; his beard, which is a symbol of the man, by putting off the sins of the man; and his eyebrows, by putting off all conceit and, so to speak, haughtiness. These, he says, are symbols, which have grown on the soul and blossomed there, and are called hairs of deadness. [Lev 14:10] “He shall take two lambs without blemish, a year old.” The word divides the offerings into three: one for the release of earlier sins; one for the whole to be offered up to God; and another offered for the one being cleansed, for what is done by him. Perhaps also the three tenths of fine flour are taken so that one tenth is joined to the slaughtered lamb, the second to the other, and the third to the ewe. At the fifth cleansing, then, he already has not meal but fine flour, which is a symbol of the material of pure bread, and that mixed with oil; which is taken as nourishing light, meeting the need of light and not of fire. And besides the oil taken for mixing the fine flour he has by itself oil which is offered by the priest, a cotyle in measure. And it seems to me that this very much requires a priest: “The priest who cleanses shall set the man being cleansed, and these things, before the Lord.” [Lev 14:35] “And the one whose house it is shall come and report to the priest.” We say that the lawgiver never said one must go to the priest to accuse one's own house, but rather to ask for a remedy, as from a physician, for what has happened. We say, then, that the synagogue of the Jews has become leprous; and the person of the one reporting is the choir of the holy prophets, who report to the great high priest the passions of the Jews' mind, before the indignation, not with hatred nor with enmity, but with reverence toward their benefactor; confessing their offences, yet begging that they may nevertheless be shown mercy,

[From the works of Origen on Leviticus. From the second homily on Leviticus, right after the beginning.] Not having understood the difference between visible Judaism and intelligible Judaism, that is, between outward Judaism and Judaism in secret, those of the most godless and impious heresies at once separated themselves from Judaism and from the God who gave these Scriptures and the whole law, and fashioned another God besides the one who gave the law and the prophets, besides the maker of heaven and earth. But this is not so: he who gave the law gave also the Gospel; he who made the visible things gave also the invisible. And these are so akin that “the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that are made.” The visible things of the law and the prophets too are akin to the things of the law and the prophets that are not seen but understood. Since, then, Scripture too consists, as it were, of a body which is seen, of a soul understood and grasped within it, and of a spirit according to the patterns and shadow of the heavenly things, come, let us call upon him who made for Scripture body and soul and spirit (the body for those before us, the soul for us, and the spirit for those who in the age to come will inherit eternal life and will come to the heavenly and true things of the law), and let us search for the present not the letter but the soul. And if we are able, we shall ascend also to the spirit, in the account of the sacrifices that have been read.

[Num 11:6] “Our eyes are on nothing but the manna.” It was named “man” because the Hebrews, on first seeing the strange sight, said to one another in their native tongue, “Man?”, that is, “What is this?” They would not have said this if it had been usual, as some of the Gentiles say, for the nature of those places to produce such things from of old. And even now, if any falls, it is a little, for remembrance's sake. [Num 11:25] “And they did not continue.” “To prophesy” is missing: they no longer prophesied, it says. For they prophesy once only, so as not to be made equal to Moses; but so that it may be known that they had received a share, all prophesy together. For the Spirit in Christ is one, and the working of all is one. [Num 12:15] “And the people did not set out until Miriam was cleansed.” The tabernacle remained seven days in that place in honour of Miriam, so that she should not follow while in such a state. [Num 13:2] “Send for yourself men,” and so on. He commands some to be sent, showing that they are near Palestine; having set before the Hebrews what was readier than Egypt, and having exposed their unbelief, he assigns the desert as a tomb to those whose mind remained hard; for the death of the impious is preferable to their wandering in life. [Num 13:16] “Joshua.” It should be noted that the son of Nun became a type of Christ, who freed the most pitiable people from its wandering and led it up into heaven, not into a land that devours its inhabitants. [Num 14:23] “Surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers.” It should be observed that some of those who came out of the land of Egypt entered the land of promise, for God did not forbid this; but he destroyed in the desert only those twenty years old and upward of those who came out of the land of Egypt, who had made the calf; sparing the youth akin to them, those whose lifetime was not yet twenty years, and much more the infants and children up to the age of puberty.

[Of the same.] This is a type of the truth: “For unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom.” [Num 16:37] “Take up the bronze censers.” Just as the bronze serpent was a sign of their unbelief, so also the censers of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, which became a covering for the altar. [Num 18:21] “And to the sons of Levi, behold, I have given every tithe in Israel.” Fittingly the first-fruits are assigned to the priests, since the tribe of Levi does not inherit nor take a lot as the others do. This lot, sharing with the altar, procures poverty for the priests. The people gave tithes to the Levites, and the Levites to the priests. [Num 20:10] “Shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” Because Moses did not glorify God before the people, he was prevented from crossing over with them. And so that they should not honour with divine worship after his departure the one whom they had honoured while he lived, God made the place unseen. [Num 22:4] “Now this congregation will lick up all who are around us.” He took this example: as the calf takes the green things into its mouth, so the holy people, waging war with their lips, have their weapons in their mouths through their prayers. And Balak, knowing that this had plainly happened in the earlier wars, wishes himself to make war with the weapons of the lips, and calls Balaam, who had on his lips the weapons of the opposing power, the curses. For the holy angels work together with the righteous toward what saves and toward good works, and the wicked demons with impious and sinful men toward wicked works, harmful to men's salvation. The saints make war with words of prayers, the impious and sinners with words of magic. [Of the same.] Even the history of events according to the senses is full of great benefit. From the present history we learn many things: that it is possible to wage war with words, and to manage and accomplish great things through words; and that the saints make war with words of prayers, the impious with words of magic. [Of the same.] The opposing power never does a good work, but works all that is worst; and the evil it works it cannot restore to the better, for it does not have the rank of the better. But to the better power all things are possible. For our God causes pain and restores again, but he cannot work evil; for he is good not only by disposition but also by essence. [Of the same.] Among human things there are also some divinations performed, and sacrifices, and certain gifts offered to the demons, so that through these offerings those who wish may divine. Each such thing is divination, for it is not true prediction. [Num 22:9] “The Lord came to him.” In truth

a divine power came to Balaam, though not called by him. It came, then, to avert the demons called by Balaam and to manage the divine predictions. [Num 22:22] “And the angel of God rose up to oppose him on the way.” The angel who opposed Balaam on the way: is he perhaps the one of whom God said to Moses, “My angel goes before you, guarding you on the way”? [Num 22:35] “Go with these men.” God did not permit Balaam to go to Balak; but since he wished to go, God allows it. He charges him to say only what is revealed; and the angel, by appearing and frightening him, confirms this. [Num 23:1] “Build me seven altars.” There are also works done through a body other than God's, both among the better and among the worse, such as what was done in Egypt by Moses and Aaron and by the enchanters. But when the divine power is compared with the opposing one in the presence of those in doubt, the divine power wins, as the rod of Moses swallowed the rods of the enchanters. [Of the same.] Balaam used to summon the demons by serving them with these same sacrifices; for such were the sacrifices performed in the world to demons. For this reason God required sacrifices of the first people, so that, by offering to God, offering to demons might be abolished; even though the sacrifices were above all symbols. [Of the same.] The Saviour, then, having become man, sent his disciples to loose the donkey, that is, from the bonds with which the opposing power, the intelligible Balaam, had bound it; and having loosed it they brought it to Jesus and put their garments on the donkey, that is, the virtues of the Gospel; and the Saviour, sitting on it, entered the holy city. [Num 23:28] “And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor.” Balak supposed that Balaam's art was limited by places. Therefore he took him to the top of Peor, thinking that the magician Balaam could curse the people of God from there. Peor is interpreted “sweetening” or “skin of the mouth,” that is, the height of the love of pleasure and the deadness of reason, by which Balaam tried to curse the people of God. [Of the same.] There are two summits, that of the highest virtue and that of vice; Moses ascended to the summit of virtue, and Balaam to the summit of vice. [Num 24:1] “He did not go, as was his custom, to meet the omens.” This Balaam is a symbol of the people from the Gentiles, who formerly followed omens but, knowing that this is not pleasing to the Lord, did not continue. And indeed Balaam is interpreted “vain”

people,” and “son of Beor” is interpreted “made of skin.” He was “vain” in the former state of the Gentiles, and Beor refers to one in vanity and in deadness, plainly in that former state. [Num 24:3] “The man who truly sees.” I, once Balaam, the vain people, having opened the inner eyes of my mind and having seen the spiritual Israel and the economy concerning him, am counted worthy of the Holy Spirit. “Says the man who truly sees,” and so on, does not fit the former Balaam, but fits the present Balaam. [Num 24:5] “How fair are your houses, Jacob, your tents, Israel.” The name Jacob belongs not to the one who dwells but to the house; the name Israel belongs to the one who dwells; for “Jacob” belongs to the bodily state. [Num 24:6] “Like shady glens.” Intelligible glens are those that shade the place in which rational plants bear fruit and are leafy with practical virtue. Gardens by a river are intelligible: a place in which rational plants are planted, watered either by the contemplation of the things that have come to be or by the contemplation of the Holy Trinity. [Of the same.] Those who dwell in tents belong to those who are travelling, and outside this world there is a great road and many tents. Those who dwell in houses are not of the travellers but of those who stand still. “Like cedars by waters.” Intelligible cedars are rational souls grown by waters, watered by the knowledge of the truth. [Num 24:7] “And he shall rule over many nations.” A lord is one who commands with authority; a slave, one who obeys slavishly. A lord is one who has acquired lordship by his own toils and has been formed by it, free from passion. A slave is one subject to passion, who lacks the better and needs the oversight of his own lord. There are many lords; but blessed are those who have our Lord Jesus Christ as their lord. “And the kingdom of Gog shall be exalted.” Gog is interpreted “roofs.” In one interpretation the roofs are the gifts of the Holy Spirit; in another, “Let him who is on the roof not go down into his house.” There is, then, a kingdom of such a condition. [Num 24:8] “God led him out of Egypt.” Both the Saviour, according to “Out of Egypt I called my son,” and Israel: the one he casts out, the other he calls. [Of the same.] The oracle that the Lord would come into Egypt showed the journey of our Saviour Jesus Christ that was to take place with his parents. And this world too is compared to Egypt. [Num 24:8] “His glory is like a unicorn's.” The unicorn is

in an intelligible sense Christ, by accident, as it were; from him come many unicorns. For from one Jesus Christ many have come to share in being christs. Some say the deer too is a unicorn. [Num 24:8] “He shall eat the nations of his enemies.” This concerns Christ: we were once the nations of his enemies. Christ, then, will eat us, essential virtue feeding on us, as he says: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me.” “And he shall suck out their marrow.” Then, it says, when he changes the fleshly state into the spiritual through the practical life. [Num 24:9] “Those who bless you are blessed.” He signifies two persons in these words, the faithful and the unfaithful, with regard to Christ. And a little later. In these words, then, both the enterprise of those opposing Israel and the evil art of magic are overturned. [Num 25:1] “And the people were profaned by committing sexual immorality.” The plan that the Hebrews should commit sexual immorality and worship Baal-peor was the diviner's. Therefore Moses says: “These were to the sons of Israel, according to the word of Balaam, to make them revolt and despise the word of the Lord because of Baal-peor.” [Num 34:3] “And your side toward the south shall be.” He promised Abraham from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates. Why then did he not give it to them? For Numbers indicates a smaller portion. I think he would have given it if they had been faithful like the one who received the promises. And this fittingly; for often, having threatened evils, he did not bring them, because they repented, as with the Ninevites. [Num 36:6] “Only they shall be wives from the clan of their father.” God commands, then, that except for the tribes of Judah and Levi it is not permitted to be joined from tribe to tribe, so that “a king and priest according to the order of Melchizedek” might not be shown to be foreign to the Saviour who comes from above.

[Deut 1:3] “Moses spoke to all the sons of Israel according to all that the Lord commanded him.” Since God revealed the power, while the prophet used his own tongue to set forth what had been made known, the prophetic voice is called a movement, as setting forth what was spoken by God. [Deut 1:9] “And I said to you at that time.” Moses does not simply say, “I said to you”; but since Joshua son of Nun was to succeed him after his departure, he says that the matter is not strange but consistent. For, he says, I exhorted you beforehand, and when you consented I appointed judges; so obey Joshua son of Nun too, who succeeds me by prophetic and guiding grace. “I shall not be able to bear you alone.” In recalling earlier events he does not begin from Egypt, but from the time when he gave them wise judges and instructors. [Deut 3:12] “I gave to Reuben and to Gad.” The lesser

come sooner into the promise, while the better receive it more slowly. For the former received their inheritance first, under Moses; the latter later, under Joshua. But it is said also of all the righteous, not of ordinary people; for, as the Apostle says, “These all, having been attested through faith, did not receive the promise, God having foreseen something better for us, so that they should not be made perfect without us.” [Deut 4:12] “You heard a sound of words,” and so on. Not that the voice is visible, nor that God has a voice by nature, for that would belong to a composite nature; but since the trumpets and the voices, as God himself knows, were produced, being fashioned from the continuity of the visible elements, I mean the fire and the darkness, a voice is both heard and not seen; yet in the case of God's wonders the voice too is seen. [Deut 4:21] “And he swore that I should not cross this Jordan.” Because Moses did not glorify God before the people, he was prevented from crossing with them, so that they should not honour with the worship of gods after his departure the one whom they honoured while he lived. For this reason, when he died, God made his tomb unseen. [Deut 4:26] “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today.” God, who does not permit those who worship him to be joined to demons, but commands those who have known him to keep clear of attachment to them, and who is provoked to jealousy by the apostasy of the peoples, foretells the punishments to come upon them for the wickedness of their practices. [Deut 5:6] “Out of the house of slavery.” For truly bodily and material things are a house of slavery, just as their opposites are a house of freedom. [Deut 7:7] “For you are the fewest of all the nations.” It is well said to those who are the Lord's portion, “You are the fewest of all the nations.” Akin to it are “Few are those being saved” and “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.” [Deut 8:3] “That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word,” and so on. Again, the manna was the word, even if it is called bread in Exodus: “This,” it says, “is the bread which the Lord gave you to eat. This is the word which the Lord commanded.” For this reason the manna was “fine as coriander seed, white, like frost on the ground”: since the word of which that manna was a symbol is fine in its nature and passes through all intelligent, pure, and most subtle spirits. Wisdom too is “a spirit intelligent, holy, only-begotten, manifold, subtle,” and so on. And it was like coriander in being white. They say that the coriander has throughout the nature of seed, so that even when the coriander seed is cut up its power is not destroyed, so as no longer to be capable of being sown. Such throughout is the word; and every part of it is of a nature to be cultivated