Commentary on the Gospel of John

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–1.63 · 1.64–1.141 · 1.142–1.225 · 1.226–2.3 · 2.4–2.69 · 2.70–2.127 · 2.128–2.182 · 2.183–4.2 · 5.1–6.34 · 6.35–6.94 · 6.95–6.147 · 6.148–6.216 · 6.217–6.281 · 6.282–10.25 · 10.26–10.101 · 10.102–10.164 · 10.165–10.245 · 10.246–10.314 · 10.315–13.76 · 13.77–13.154 · 13.155–13.242 · 13.243–13.314 · 13.315–13.385 · 13.386–19.6 · 19.7–19.69 · 19.70–19.139 · 19.140–20.55 · 20.56–20.133 · 20.134–20.215 · 20.216–20.293 · 20.294–20.377 · 20.378–28.38 · 28.39–28.115 · 28.116–28.204 · 28.205–32.53 · 32.54–32.134 · 32.135–32.236 · 32.237–32.318 · 32.319–32.401

1. 1.1Origen compares the tribes and Levites of old Israel with the inner ranks of the people of Christ.
2. 1.2Origen quotes Revelation on the sealing of the 144,000 from the tribes of Israel.
3. 1.3Origen quotes Revelation's vision of the 144,000 virgins with the Lamb on Mount Zion.
4. 1.4Origen argues that the sealed of Revelation are believers in Christ, even if not physically descended from Israel.
5. 1.5The sealed of Rev 7 and the virgins of Rev 14 are the same 144,000.
6. 1.6The seal on the foreheads is the name of the Lamb and of his Father.
7. 1.7Since few Jews believe, the 144,000 virgins must be chiefly Gentile believers, the firstfruits of each tribe.
8. 1.8The virgins are firstfruits for God, and the passage also has a higher, spiritual sense.
9. 1.9Addressing Ambrose, Origen recalls how tithes and firstfruits passed from the tribes through the Levites to the high priest.
10. 1.10Ordinary Christians resemble the tribes; those wholly devoted to God's word are like Levites and priests.
11. 1.11The most devoted Christians may be high priests after Aaron's order; Christ alone is priest after Melchizedek's.
12. 1.12Origen's first work, as a firstfruits offering, must be the study of the Gospel, the firstfruits of Scripture.
13. 1.13Origen distinguishes firstfruits, offered after the harvest, from first-born produce, offered before it.
14. 1.14The law of Moses is the first-born produce of Scripture, and the Gospel its firstfruits.
15. 1.15The apostolic letters are wise and trustworthy but, unlike the prophets' “Thus says the Lord,” they rely on testimony from Scripture.
16. 1.16Origen asks whether Paul's personal remarks carry apostolic authority without the full purity of inspired words.
17. 1.17The Old Testament foretells Christ, but the whole New Testament is gospel because it shows and praises him.
18. 1.18Because evangelists also exhort to faith, the apostles' writings can be called gospel.
19. 1.19A name can apply strictly to one thing and loosely to others, as “teacher” does to Christ and to church teachers.
20. 1.20The letters are gospel only in a looser sense; the Gospel remains the firstfruits of Scripture.
21. 1.21Of the four Gospels, the elements of the church's faith, John's is the firstfruits, beginning from the Word who has no genealogy.
22. 1.22Matthew and Mark begin with Christ's human descent and the gospel's beginning; John most clearly reveals his divinity.
23. 1.23John's Gospel is the firstfruits of the Gospels; to understand it one must, like John, receive Mary as mother and have Christ living in oneself.
24. 1.24Understanding the Gospel's hidden meaning requires the mind of Christ.
25. 1.25Paul's “my gospel” shows that everything he preached and wrote was gospel.
26. 1.26Whatever makes Christ present in souls, as Paul's and Peter's writings do, is gospel.
27. 1.27Origen defines a gospel as good news that gladdens and benefits those who accept it.
28. 1.28The Gospels fit the definition, for they announce the saving coming of Christ and of the Father in him.
29. 1.29The Gospels announce the long-expected good: the Christ for whom John the Baptist and the Samaritan woman waited.
30. 1.30The disciples on the road to Emmaus had hoped that Jesus was the expected redeemer of Israel.
31. 1.31Andrew and Philip announce that they have found the expected Messiah.
32. 1.32Objection: the law and the prophets would also fit the first definition of a gospel.
33. 1.33Before Christ the law and prophets were not yet gospel; his coming made all Scripture gospel.
34. 1.34Like leaven, Christ's coming revealed the true, spiritual meaning of the law and the histories.
35. 1.35Those to whom Christ has come worship God in spirit and truth, not in types.
36. 1.36The gospel of the new covenant brings out the Spirit's newness hidden in all the Scriptures.
37. 1.37Even before the incarnation Christ came spiritually to the patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets.
38. 1.38Those still spiritually infant receive only Christ's forerunners, not yet the Word himself.
39. 1.39As the law was a shadow of good things to come, the gospel read literally is a shadow of Christ's mysteries.
40. 1.40The eternal, spiritual gospel reveals the realities behind Christ's words and deeds; there is an outward and a hidden Christianity.
41. 1.41Paul and Peter became inward Jews through Jesus, yet kept outward Jewish practice to save others.
42. 1.42Like Paul among the Jews, a teacher must use outward Christianity to lead beginners on to higher things.
43. 1.43Beginners need the bodily gospel of Christ crucified; the mature should be taught the Word as he was with God.
44. 1.44Origen distinguishes a perceptible gospel from a spiritual one.
45. 1.45The task of the commentary is to draw the spiritual gospel out of the literal one.
46. 1.46The aim is to reach the deep meaning of the gospel, free of types.
47. 1.47The apostles announce Jesus, who is himself the resurrection; Jesus announces good things to the poor.
48. 1.48Psalm 68 shows that preaching persuades by God's power, not by eloquence.
49. 1.49Paul says the kingdom of God is in power, not in words.
50. 1.50The Emmaus disciples felt this power; the apostles received it in great measure.
51. 1.51The beautiful feet of Isaiah are the apostles walking in Christ the Way and announcing Jesus.
52. 1.52Jesus is many good things at once, as his many titles show; he is life.
53. 1.53Christ is light, truth, the way, and life.
54. 1.54Christ is the resurrection and the door to blessedness.
55. 1.55Christ is the Wisdom of God in whom the Father delights.
56. 1.56Christ is the power of God.
57. 1.57Christ is God the Word, second after the Father; blessed are those who receive these good things.
58. 1.58Even the beginner who knows only Christ crucified begins to share his good things, dying to sin with him.
59. 1.59Christ is life to God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption for believers.
60. 1.60Jesus is a multitude of good things, more than can be written, for the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him.
61. 1.61John says the world could not contain the books that would be written about Jesus.
62. 1.62Announcing the Savior is announcing the good things, for he received from the Father to be them.
63. 1.63The apostles could preach good things only because Christ first announced them to them.
64. 1.64The mountains are exalted souls, whom ministers of the new covenant must seek out.
65. 1.65Christ announces himself directly to the mature, yet like the Father he does not despise the poor.
66. 1.66At Nazareth Jesus announced good news to the poor from Isaiah.
67. 1.67Every good deed done to Jesus, like the repentant woman's anointing, becomes part of the gospel.
68. 1.68Good done to Christ's disciples is done to Christ and belongs to the gospel written in heaven.
69. 1.69The gospel also records sins against Jesus as an accusation.
70. 1.70Judas's betrayal and the mockery of Jesus are part of the Gospels.
71. 1.71Whoever betrays Christ's disciples betrays Christ, as his words to Saul show.
72. 1.72The thorns that crown Jesus are the cares and pleasures that choke the word in believers.
73. 1.73Believers must take care not to crown Jesus with their own thorns.
74. 1.74Good deeds and sins alike are recorded in the gospel for eternal life or eternal shame.
75. 1.75Angels too, God's ministers, are evangelists.
76. 1.76At Christ's birth an angel announced the good news to the shepherds, and the heavenly army praised God.
77. 1.77The joy of Christ's birth is glory to God, as the fallen return to their rest.
78. 1.78The angels marvel at the peace Christ brings to the earth, where the fallen morning star wages war.
79. 1.79The gospel belongs first to Christ, the head, and also to the apostles.
80. 1.80The “beginning of the gospel” is either the whole Old Testament, typified by John the Baptist, or its end in John.
81. 1.81Mark begins the gospel with the prophecy of the forerunner.
82. 1.82Mark's opening refutes heretics who ascribe the two Testaments to two different gods.
83. 1.83At the end an angel will announce an eternal gospel to every nation.
84. 1.84Origen quotes Revelation's angel with an eternal gospel.
85. 1.85Philip's preaching of Jesus from Isaiah shows that the prophets belong to the beginning of the gospel.
86. 1.86Since all the prophets announced Christ, all Scripture is in some way part of the gospel.
87. 1.87The gospel is proclaimed not only on earth but throughout heaven and earth.
88. 1.88Origen ends his introduction on the meaning of “gospel.”
89. 1.89Origen prays for help and begins the commentary on John 1:1.
90. 1.90The word “beginning” has many meanings in Scripture as well as in Greek philosophy.
91. 1.91“Beginning” can mean the start of a way: the way to God begins with just action and ends in contemplation and the final restoration.
92. 1.92At the end all will contemplate God and be formed into sons, as the Son alone now knows the Father.
93. 1.93No one yet fully knows the Father; that knowledge comes when all become one as the Son and the Father are one.
94. 1.94The digression shows that every good way begins with just action and proceeds to contemplation.
95. 1.95“Beginning” can mean the start of creation, as in Genesis 1:1 and Job 40:19.
96. 1.96In Job the “beginning of the Lord's creation” may be the dragon, the first being placed in a body.
97. 1.97Origen suggests the dragon, falling from pure life, was the first to be bound to a body.
98. 1.98Not all embodied beings are like the dragon: the sun and the whole creation are also in bodies.
99. 1.99Creation's subjection to futility may mean embodied existence, which souls bear unwillingly.
100. 1.100Like Paul, who stayed in the flesh for others' sake, creation serves in hope.
101. 1.101Wisdom's “beginning of his ways” fits both the sense of origin and the sense of a way.
102. 1.102God the Father is the beginning of the Son and of all things; the Word is “in the beginning” because he is in the Father.
103. 1.103Matter is not an uncreated beginning, for God made all things out of nothing, as 2 Maccabees and Hermas teach.
104. 1.104As the pattern, the Father is the beginning of Christ, and Christ of those made in God's image.
105. 1.105Human beings are made after the image, Christ, who is the image of the Father.
106. 1.106“Beginning” can mean the first elements of learning, as in Hebrews 5:12.
107. 1.107By nature the beginning of learning about Christ is his divinity; for us, his humanity and cross.
108. 1.108Christ is also the last Adam; and Wisdom may be the beginning of God's actions.
109. 1.109Origen asks which sense of “beginning” applies to John 1:1.
110. 1.110The Word may be the beginning as the agent through whom God created.
111. 1.111The Word is in the beginning, that is, in Wisdom: Wisdom contains the plan of all things, the Word communicates it.
112. 1.112Christ's aspects have an order: life came to be in the Word, and the Word was in the beginning, Wisdom.
113. 1.113All things may come to be according to the patterns in Wisdom.
114. 1.114As a house follows the builder's plan, all things are made according to the patterns God set in Wisdom.
115. 1.115God entrusted living Wisdom with giving form to all things, perhaps even their very being.
116. 1.116Christ is the beginning of all things, but not in every aspect under which he is named.
117. 1.117As life and as firstborn from the dead, Christ is not the beginning.
118. 1.118Of all Christ's aspects, Wisdom alone is the beginning; it is prior even to the Word.
119. 1.119God is simple, but the Savior becomes many things according to creation's needs.
120. 1.120Christ became the light of men because humanity was darkened by sin.
121. 1.121Had there been no fall, Christ would not have died and become the firstborn from the dead.
122. 1.122Christ is shepherd because humans became like cattle; those not ready for the king receive a shepherd.
123. 1.123Some of Christ's titles, such as Wisdom, Word, Life, and Truth, are eternal; others were added for our salvation.
124. 1.124Blessed are those who no longer need Christ as physician or shepherd, but as wisdom and word.
125. 1.125Origen wonders why some believers take “Word” literally but treat Christ's other titles as figurative.
126. 1.126Origen lists Christ's “I am” sayings.
127. 1.127Christ calls himself Messiah and Lord and Teacher.
128. 1.128Christ proclaims himself Son of God and king.
129. 1.129Before Pilate Christ declares his kingdom is not of this world.
130. 1.130Christ is the true vine.
131. 1.131Christ is the vine and the living bread from heaven.
132. 1.132In Revelation Christ calls himself the first and the last.
133. 1.133The prophets too give Christ names: chosen arrow, servant, light of the nations.
134. 1.134Isaiah's servant speaks of being made a chosen arrow.
135. 1.135Isaiah calls the servant a light to the nations; Jeremiah, an innocent lamb.
136. 1.136The Gospels, apostles, and prophets give Christ countless other titles.
137. 1.137John the Baptist calls Christ the Lamb of God and a man who was before him.
138. 1.138In his letter John calls Christ our advocate with the Father.
139. 1.139Christ is the propitiation for our sins, according to John and Paul.
140. 1.140Paul calls Christ the wisdom and power of God, our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
141. 1.141Hebrews calls Christ the great high priest.
142. 1.142Jacob's blessing of Judah is a prophecy of Christ.
143. 1.143An objection from Genesis 49:10 is postponed.
144. 1.144Isaiah calls Christ Jacob and Israel, the gentle servant.
145. 1.145Matthew applies Isaiah's servant prophecy to Christ.
146. 1.146Ezekiel calls Christ David, the shepherd.
147. 1.147Isaiah calls Christ the rod and flower from Jesse's root.
148. 1.148The Psalms call Christ the rejected stone.
149. 1.149The Gospel identifies the rejected stone with Christ.
150. 1.150Acts too calls Christ the stone; John names him the Word who was with God.
151. 1.151Some treat the Word as a mere spoken utterance of the Father, denying him distinct subsistence.
152. 1.152A spoken word cannot be a son; the Word must either lack subsistence or be a distinct divine being.
153. 1.153The title “Word” must be examined like Christ's other names.
154. 1.154It is arbitrary to interpret every title except “Word”.
155. 1.155Origen will begin with Christ's other names.
156. 1.156Examining the names is useful, not a digression.
157. 1.157Studying Christ's titles leads to a fuller understanding of him.
158. 1.158Origen begins with “light of the world” and its related titles.
159. 1.159Christ is the light of men, the true light, and the light of the nations.
160. 1.160The sun, moon, and stars are the perceptible lights of the world.
161. 1.161The heavenly bodies light the earth, but Christ is the true light of rational souls, the sun of the Lord's great day.
162. 1.162Christ, the light of the world, calls his disciples lights too.
163. 1.163The Church and the apostles are like moon and stars, lighting those who cannot yet shine themselves.
164. 1.164Christ enlightens the mind, not the body.
165. 1.165Those illumined directly by Christ no longer need apostles, prophets, or angels as intermediaries.
166. 1.166The saints give lesser light to those not yet able to receive Christ's rays.
167. 1.167Christ is the true light; perceptible things are not “true,” yet they are not false either.
168. 1.168“Light of the world” may mean more than “light of men,” for the world is more than humanity.
169. 1.169Paul shows that “the world” includes angels as well as humans.
170. 1.170The world may be the creation awaiting freedom with the children of God.
171. 1.171Origen hesitates because Jesus also calls the disciples the light of the world.
172. 1.172Some think Christ's human disciples are inferior to other creatures.
173. 1.173Others answer that Scripture's highest promises are made to human beings, not to the rest of creation.
174. 1.174Union with Christ is promised to humans; creation is promised freedom, not necessarily glory.
175. 1.175Christ became man, not a heavenly being, and the star of Bethlehem served knowledge of him.
176. 1.176Since the saints grow through affliction, an unafflicted creation cannot have their hope.
177. 1.177Others answer that creation too is afflicted, serving futility far longer than humans.
178. 1.178Creation serves unwillingly because futility is against its nature; it will be freed at the world's end.
179. 1.179Origen returns to the titles of light.
180. 1.180It is arbitrary to allegorize every title of Christ except “Word.”
181. 1.181As Christ enlightens rational beings, so by raising them to true life he is the resurrection.
182. 1.182Christ is the resurrection for the baptized now, and more fully for those who wholly put off death.
183. 1.183Christ is the way, on which one travels without bag, tunic, staff, or sandals.
184. 1.184Christ the way provides everything; no serpent or beast can harm those on it.
185. 1.185Christ the way is a rock that bears no trace of enemies.
186. 1.186Christ is truth because he holds the whole account of all things and shares it with each as each deserves.
187. 1.187Since the Son is the truth, he cannot be ignorant of anything the Father knows.
188. 1.188True life has its source in Christ, and those who share in him truly live.
189. 1.189Christ is called the door because no one reaches the Father except through the Son.
190. 1.190Christ is shepherd to those whose goodness is gentle but not yet reasoned, like sheep.
191. 1.191Origen asks whether Christ's kingship was given later, since Psalm 45 links his anointing to his love of righteousness.
192. 1.192Origen suggests that “Christ” refers to Jesus' humanity and “King” to his divinity.
193. 1.193Psalm 72, though headed for Solomon, is a prophecy about Christ.
194. 1.194Origen asks who the king and the king's son are in Psalm 72.
195. 1.195The “king” is the divine nature of the Word, and the king's son is the humanity he assumed.
196. 1.196The psalm speaks of king and king's son as one, as Christ is one.
197. 1.197Christ first made divine and human one in himself, and so also the saved become spiritual.
198. 1.198Some are shepherded by Christ, others, more reasoning, are ruled by him as king.
199. 1.199Those ruled by Christ as king are ruled at different levels.
200. 1.200Those who contemplate invisible things are ruled by the Word's divine nature, those who know God through the visible world by Christ.
201. 1.201Christ is Lord of those who serve in fear but becomes friend to those who grow in wisdom.
202. 1.202Jesus himself first called his disciples servants and later friends.
203. 1.203Those who live by fear are servants, and to them the Savior is Lord.
204. 1.204The Son's begetting is eternal, since for God it is always “today.”
205. 1.205Christ as the true vine is explained by the psalm's saying that wine gladdens the heart.
206. 1.206Christ the true vine gives the wine of the Word that brings a divine joy, and his disciples bear truth as fruit.
207. 1.207Origen asks how Christ as vine differs from Christ as bread of life.
208. 1.208Moral teaching is the bread of life; mystical contemplation is the wine of the true vine.
209. 1.209Origen begins to explain how Christ is first and last, and how these titles differ from Alpha and Omega.
210. 1.210Rational beings form an order from first to last.
211. 1.211An exact ranking of rational beings is beyond human knowledge, but Origen will try to discuss it.
212. 1.212Scripture speaks of gods of whom God is God, and they are living beings.
213. 1.213Paul, like the prophets, speaks of many gods as real beings.
214. 1.214There are also rational beings called thrones, principalities, dominions, and authorities.
215. 1.215Beyond the named powers there are other rational beings, and man is the last, a mortal rational creature.
216. 1.216God made rational beings in ranks, from the gods down to man, probably the last.
217. 1.217Christ became all things to all, a man to men and an angel to angels.
218. 1.218Scripture shows Christ appearing as an angel, as at the burning bush and in Isaiah's “Angel of great counsel.”
219. 1.219Christ is first and last, meaning he became all things; Origen asks whether “last” means man or the beings under the earth.
220. 1.220Christ also went among the dead, and alone was free there, so he is truly the last as well as the first.
221. 1.221Christ is Alpha and Omega as the letters of God, the thoughts by which heavenly things are read.
222. 1.222Christ is beginning as Wisdom, but as the Word he is “in” the beginning.
223. 1.223Christ's aspects form an order, with Wisdom first.
224. 1.224Beginning and end are most naturally said of one united thing, like the foundation and top of a house.
225. 1.225Christ is beginning and end of the one body of the saved, from the man he assumed, or from Adam, to his coming.
226. 1.226Origen sums up the difference between first and beginning, last and end, Alpha and Omega.
227. 1.227Christ died and lives for ever, so that those who share his dying will share his life.
228. 1.228In Isaiah Christ calls himself a sharp sword, a chosen arrow, God's servant, and a light for the nations.
229. 1.229Christ's word is a sword that separates soul from bodily attachments, and an arrow that wounds souls with love of God.
230. 1.230Christ took the form of a servant, and so the Father calls him his servant in Isaiah.
231. 1.231Christ's goodness, most like the Father's, is shown in his humbling himself to death on a cross.
232. 1.232Becoming a servant was a great gift, for through it Christ restored Israel and became a light to the nations.
233. 1.233Christ as the Lamb of God died like a silent lamb, and his death is a medicine that weakens hostile powers and frees believers from sin.
234. 1.234Christ is continually taking away sin until every enemy, even death, is abolished.
235. 1.235Christ removes sin from each person until the whole world is ready to be handed to the Father and God is all in all.
236. 1.236The man Jesus, united with the Word, existed before his birth from Mary, and John says he did not know him.
237. 1.237Origen asks how John could not know Jesus when he leapt for joy before birth.
238. 1.238John may have known Jesus from the womb and yet learned something new about him at the baptism.
239. 1.239John perhaps did not know that Jesus would baptize with the Spirit until he saw the Spirit descend on him.
240. 1.240Christ is called Advocate, propitiation, and mercy seat because he intercedes for us with the Father.
241. 1.241Christ could intercede only as the very power of God that strengthens believers.
242. 1.242Simon Magus falsely claimed to be God's power; Christ truly is, and all power shares in him.
243. 1.243Christ as God's wisdom is a real subsisting being, not a mere idea in God's mind.
244. 1.244God's Wisdom is a living, bodiless subsistence containing the principles of all things, and creation was made through it.
245. 1.245All things share in wisdom, but few grasp it; Christ is wisdom in full.
246. 1.246Every wise or powerful person shares in Christ, who is wisdom and power.
247. 1.247Christ is sanctification and redemption itself, and each believer is sanctified and redeemed by sharing in him.
248. 1.248Scripture calls Christ wisdom and power absolutely, but sanctification and redemption only “for us.”
249. 1.249As the Father is Christ's head, perhaps he is also the sanctification of Christ, who is ours.
250. 1.250Christ redeems us who were captives, but he himself, sinless, needed no redemption.
251. 1.251Origen turns to ask whether Christ is righteousness only for us or also absolutely.
252. 1.252Origen asks whether the Father is righteousness for Christ as Christ is for us.
253. 1.253The heretics' distinction between a just Creator and a good Father can be rightly applied to the Son as righteousness and the Father as goodness.
254. 1.254Christ by righteousness prepares all for the Father's goodness, which is why he asked, “Why do you call me good?”
255. 1.255Christ is the great high priest who offered himself once for all rational beings, not for humans alone.
256. 1.256On either reading of Hebrews 2:9, Christ died for all.
257. 1.257Christ's death extends even to the stars, which Job says are not clean before God.
258. 1.258Christ is the great high priest because he restores all things to the Father's kingdom.
259. 1.259Christ is also called Judah, so that those who are Jews inwardly are named after him.
260. 1.260Christ is also Jacob and Israel, and believers take these names from him.
261. 1.261Christ is called David, who fought the Lord's wars, and a rod for those who need harsher discipline.
262. 1.262As a rod, Christ comes forth from his prior state.
263. 1.263Christ is first a rod of correction and then a flower for those he corrects.
264. 1.264All who meet Christ as a rod will meet him as a flower, but the perfect receive his fruit beyond the flower.
265. 1.265Christ is called a stone because he is part of the building of living stones.
266. 1.266Origen has listed Christ's many titles to correct those who consider only the title “Word.”
267. 1.267Christ is called the Word because he removes what is irrational in us and makes us truly rational.
268. 1.268Sharing in Christ, we become rational in a divine way.
269. 1.269All people may share in the Word, who is near them, in their mouth and heart.
270. 1.270Those in whom reason is not yet developed have no sin; those who share in the Word and act against it do.
271. 1.271If the saying referred to the visible Jesus, everyone before his coming would be sinless, which is absurd.
272. 1.272On that reading, all who never heard of Christ would be sinless and not subject to judgment.
273. 1.273Reason in humans is either the ordinary reason of adults or the perfect reason found only in the perfect.
274. 1.274The saying about sin refers to ordinary reason, the saying about thieves and robbers to perfect reason.
275. 1.275Before reason is perfected, human thoughts are imperfect; the incarnate Word matches the first stage, the divine Word the second.
276. 1.276Origen asks whether, in the believer, the Word passes by stages from flesh back to its divine state.
277. 1.277The Son is the Word because, as speech reveals the mind, he reveals the Father whom no creature can reach without him.
278. 1.278As Word, Christ reveals the Father, is the Angel of great counsel, and rides the white horse of Revelation.
279. 1.279In Scripture “horse” often stands for the voice that carries God's teaching.
280. 1.280Origen examines the common use of Psalm 45:1 about the Father uttering the Word.
281. 1.281If the “word” in the psalm is taken plainly, God's “heart” would be a bodily part, which is absurd.
282. 1.282God's “heart” means his power of thought and purpose, and the Word announces it.
283. 1.283The Father “belches forth” the Word as he breathes out the truths of his mind, making their imprint in the Son.
284. 1.284The speaker of Psalm 45:1 may be the prophet, not the Father.
285. 1.285The psalm speaks of God in the third person, so the Father cannot be the speaker.
286. 1.286An objector might argue that only the Father could address the church as “daughter.”
287. 1.287Psalms often change speaker, so the Father may speak only from verse 10.
288. 1.288Psalm 33:6 may refer to the Son and Spirit, or simply to God's word as the principle by which the heavens were made firm.
289. 1.289The Word is always “in the beginning,” that is, in Wisdom, and so is with God and is God.
290. 1.290John says the Word was “in the beginning with God,” because all things were made through him in wisdom.
291. 1.291Scripture speaks of many rational “powers,” and Christ is the highest, which shows that the Word is a distinct living being.
292. 1.292Christ is the Word as a distinct subsisting being in Wisdom, unlike the word in us.
293. 2.1Book 2 opens: having treated “In the beginning was the Word,” Origen turns to “the Word was with God.”
294. 2.2Origen gathers texts where the word of the Lord “came to” the prophets.
295. 2.3Comparing how the word came to the prophets helps explain how the Word was with God.
296. 2.4The Word came to Hosea, “one being saved,” son of Beeri, “wells”: every saved person is a son of the spring of God's wisdom.
297. 2.5The saint is called son of light, of peace, and of wisdom from his virtues.
298. 2.6Whoever searches the depths of God by the Spirit is a “son of wells” to whom the Word comes.
299. 2.7The word came to Isaiah and to Jeremiah, whose name means “Exaltation of God.”
300. 2.8The Word “came” to the prophets but always “was” with God.
301. 2.9The Word always was, both in the beginning and with God, before all time.
302. 2.10Coming to the prophets, the Word enlightens them; being with God, he is God.
303. 2.11John's three statements in John 1:1 each have their own force.
304. 2.12The order of the clauses shows that the Word is God because he is with God.
305. 2.13John deliberately uses and omits the Greek article with “God.”
306. 2.14“The God” with the article means the Father; “God” without it is said of the Word.
307. 2.15As the Father is “the God,” so Christ, the source of all reason, is “the Word.”
308. 2.16The distinction between “the God” and “God” resolves the dilemma of those who either merge Father and Son or deny the Son's divinity.
309. 2.17The Father alone is God in himself; the Son is God by being with him and shares divinity with other beings made divine.
310. 2.18The Son is the archetypal image of God and remains God by unceasing contemplation of the Father.
311. 2.19Origen will add a further distinction so that the Son's glory is not made equal to that of other “gods.”
312. 2.20As the Father is the source of divinity, the Son is the source of reason in every rational being.
313. 2.21There are many gods, lords, and words, but for us one God, one Lord, and the one Word.
314. 2.22Those who cannot receive the divine Word know him as flesh, or share in those who share in him, or fall into a false word.
315. 2.23Origen illustrates his point by comparing grades of “gods” with grades of “words.”
316. 2.24The Father is God of the elect and of the true gods; the Word is God of those who rest wholly in him.
317. 2.25Some earlier interpreters held that God allotted the heavenly bodies to the nations who were unworthy to worship him.
318. 2.26God allowed the nations the heavenly bodies so that they would at least not fall to idols and demons.
319. 2.27Origen ranks worshipers: of the Father, of the Son, of the heavenly bodies, and last of idols.
320. 2.28Some, like the prophets, share in the divine Word himself.
321. 2.29Most believers know only the Word made flesh, Christ crucified.
322. 2.30The third group follows the Greek philosophical schools, which share partly in the Word.
323. 2.31The fourth group believes godless teachings that deny providence and the good.
324. 2.32Origen summarizes the four grades of “God” and of “Word,” and the four ranks of worshipers.
325. 2.33The same four grades apply to the Word; the next lemma is John 1:2.
326. 2.34John 1:2 sums up the three statements of John 1:1.
327. 2.35John 1:2 gathers the three clauses of John 1:1 into a fourth statement.
328. 2.36Taking “beginning” as the world's beginning, the Word is older than heaven and earth.
329. 2.37Origen asks why John says “the Word” and not “the Word of God.”
330. 2.38There cannot properly be several Words, Wisdoms, or Righteousnesses, as the case of truth shows.
331. 2.39Truth is one, not different for God, angels, and humans.
332. 2.40Since truth and wisdom are one, the Word who announces them is also one.
333. 2.41John omits “of God” with good reason, not because the Word is not God's.
334. 2.42In Revelation John calls the rider on the white horse “the Word of God.”
335. 2.43Scripture calls him both “the Word” and “the Word of God,” and both are needed.
336. 2.44Without the absolute title “Word,” one might imagine many Words.
337. 2.45John, apostle, evangelist, and prophet, saw the Word of God on a white horse.
338. 2.46Origen proposes to interpret the details of the vision of the rider.
339. 2.47Heaven is opened to the righteous, and the Word reveals heavenly things through the “horse” of clear speech.
340. 2.48The faithful Word rides securely on voices that outrun every false word and false truth.
341. 2.49The Word is “faithful” as worthy of belief, and “true” as the reality behind shadows and types.
342. 2.50Most believers are taught by the shadow of the Word, as Lamentations says.
343. 2.51The Word judges each according to its worth, being righteousness and judgment itself.
344. 2.52No one who shares in righteousness can equal righteousness itself, as a painting never fully equals its subject.
345. 2.53No creature is justified before God, since sharing in life or righteousness is never the same as being them.
346. 2.54The Word wars against unreason and injustice in the soul so as to dwell in it and justify it.
347. 2.55The Word wars against falsehood that claims to be truth, destroying it with the breath of his mouth.
348. 2.56Christ as truth and wisdom destroys falsehood and false wisdom; his eyes are a flame of fire.
349. 2.57The Word's fiery eyes both enlighten and consume coarse and false thoughts.
350. 2.58The many diadems show that the Word has conquered many forms of falsehood.
351. 2.59The Word wears many diadems for his victories over many falsehoods and rebel powers.
352. 2.60Only the Word knows his name, since no lower being can grasp all he knows; those who share in him know more than others.
353. 2.61The Word's blood-stained garment recalls his passion, which believers never forget even at the height of contemplation.
354. 2.62The heavenly armies follow and imitate the Word, and at the end all obscurity will vanish.
355. 2.63The fine linen may stand for earthly languages that express truth purely; the next lemma is John 1:2.
356. 2.64Careless readers may think John 1:2 merely repeats John 1:1.
357. 2.65John 1:2 adds when and in what the Word was with God.
358. 2.66The word “He” in John 1:2 gathers into one the distinct aspects “Word” and “God.”
359. 2.67John 1:2 sums up what each clause of John 1:1 left unsaid.
360. 2.68John 1:2 gathers everything in the three clauses into one statement.
361. 2.69“In the beginning” occurs twice, teaching that the Word both was in the beginning and was with God; the next lemma is John 1:3.
362. 2.70“Through whom” always denotes a secondary agent, as Romans 1:1–5 shows.
363. 2.71God is the source, while the prophets and Christ are those “through whom” he acts.
364. 2.72If all things were made through the Word, they were made by one greater, the Father.
365. 2.73Origen asks whether the Holy Spirit came to be through the Word, since all things did.
366. 2.74A third view denies that the Holy Spirit has its own being distinct from Father and Son.
367. 2.75Origen holds three subsistences, Father, Son, and Spirit, with the Spirit first of all that came through the Word.
368. 2.76The Spirit is not called Son, since only the Only-begotten is Son by nature; the Spirit receives its qualities through Christ.
369. 2.77The Spirit supplies the “material” of God's gifts, worked by the Father and ministered by Christ.
370. 2.78Paul's words on gifts, ministries, and workings support this view.
371. 2.79Origen raises the difficulty that Scripture sometimes seems to rank the Spirit above Christ.
372. 2.80Sin against the Spirit is unforgivable not because the Spirit is greater than Christ, but because those who have received the Spirit have no excuse.
373. 2.81The Spirit's sending Christ reflects the lowliness of the incarnation, not a higher nature.
374. 2.82Hebrews says the incarnate Jesus was made lower even than the angels.
375. 2.83Origen suggests the Spirit, unable itself to undertake the incarnation, joined the Father in sending the Son and promised to descend on him.
376. 2.84At Jesus' baptism the Spirit descended like a dove and remained on him, as it had not remained on others.
377. 2.85The sign given to John was the Spirit's remaining on Jesus, not only its descent.
378. 2.86Origen concludes that the Spirit came to be through the Word and is lower than him.
379. 2.87The Gospel according to the Hebrews calls the Holy Spirit Christ's mother, which raises a question.
380. 2.88Whoever does the Father's will is Christ's mother, so the Spirit may be called his mother above all.
381. 2.89Origen asks whether Christ's own aspects, such as life, are among the “all things” made through him, and thinks not.
382. 2.90Christ's own aspects, like wisdom, were not made through the Word; all else was made through him, in wisdom.
383. 2.91Origen explains why John adds “without him nothing came to be.”
384. 2.92“All things” cannot include vice and sin, which did not come to be through the Word.
385. 2.93Some interpret “nothing” as evil, which has no real existence.
386. 2.94“Nothing” and “what is not” are synonyms, and Paul calls evil things “things that are not.”
387. 2.95Greek Esther calls Israel's enemies “those who are not,” and Exodus shows why.
388. 2.96God, who is, is the good; so evil, the opposite of good, is what is not.
389. 2.97The devil as devil is not God's creation, though the being who became the devil was created by God.
390. 2.98Saints share in God who is, and so truly are; the wicked, turning from him, become “non-beings.”
391. 2.99Vice is the “nothing” that came to be without the Word.
392. 2.100Heracleon, a Valentinian, limited “all things” to the visible world and added words to the text.
393. 2.101Heracleon's reading is forced, and he adds to Scripture without support, as if he had apostolic authority.
394. 2.102Heracleon made the Demiurge the maker and the Word only the cause, reversing the natural sense of “through him.”
395. 2.103Heracleon seems to have seen the natural meaning and deliberately contradicted it.
396. 2.104The Word was the Creator's servant in making all things, visible and invisible, as the Psalms and Colossians show.
397. 2.105Origen asks whether vice comes about through the reason in each person.
398. 2.106Sin requires law and reason; without them there would be no sin.
399. 2.107Since reason within shows what to do, sin too comes about through reason, which removes every excuse.
400. 2.108The Word is not to blame for sin, as a teacher is not to blame when his lessons leave a wrongdoer no excuse.
401. 2.109Reason in us is an inseparable teacher; when we misuse it, it judges us.
402. 2.110The Word within will judge us, though this reading stretches the meaning of “Word” in John's prologue.
403. 2.111Paul seems to identify the word in our hearts with Christ; the next lemma is John 1:3–4.
404. 2.112The Stoics taught “paradoxes,” such as that only the wise man is priest and free.
405. 2.113Origen declines to discuss the Stoic paradoxes in detail here.
406. 2.114Scripture yields Christian “paradoxes,” such as that only the saint is truly rational.
407. 2.115Only those who believe in Christ truly live; others live a life of death.
408. 2.116Scripture often speaks of true life, as in Jesus' words about the God of the living.
409. 2.117“God of the living” means God of the saints, who have received the honor of his name.
410. 2.118God is God of the saints and of the living, so the saints are the living and the living are saints.
411. 2.119“The land of the living” means the rank or place of the saints, where true well-pleasing belongs.
412. 2.120No one is justified before God, as no lamp shines before the sun, though each shines in the dark.
413. 2.121Jesus says to let our light shine before men, not before God, which would be impossible.
414. 2.122Even all creatures' righteousness together cannot compare with God's.
415. 2.123God alone truly lives and alone has immortality; even Christ tasted death.
416. 2.124No rational creature has blessedness by its very nature.
417. 2.125Some of Christ's titles belong to him for others, like “shepherd,” and some for himself as well.
418. 2.126Christ is way and door for others, but wisdom for himself too; perhaps some of his wisdom is known to him alone.
419. 2.127The Spirit is taught by the Son, but whether it receives all the Son knows needs inquiry.
420. 2.128As life and light of men, Christ is life for others rather than for himself.
421. 2.129True life follows when the Word has first cleansed the soul of deadness.
422. 2.130The Word always “was” in the beginning, but life “came to be” in the Word, as the light of men.
423. 2.131The distinction between “was” and “came to be” is one of order, not time.
424. 2.132Some manuscripts read “is life”; the living are those in the light, the sons of light.
425. 2.133Those in darkness are in death; those who remember God are not.
426. 2.134Darkness and death are not natures; Paul was once darkness and became light, against the idea of fixed spiritual natures.
427. 2.135If Paul, a “spiritual” man, was once darkness, then any darkness can become light, which refutes fixed natures.
428. 2.136Since darkness can become light, every person can change for better or worse.
429. 2.137Heracleon took “in him” to mean the spiritual people, whom the Word gave their first form.
430. 2.138Paul does not call the spiritual person a mere “man,” since the spiritual person shares in the divine Spirit.
431. 2.139Heracleon's view is unsupported and implausible.
432. 2.140The life of Christ cannot belong to humans alone, since we shall be equal to the angels.
433. 2.141Being called the light of men does not mean Christ is light for humans alone.
434. 2.142Origen will show from Scripture that nothing prevents the light of men from being light for others.
435. 2.143As God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is also God of others, so the light of men can be light for others.
436. 2.144Another view: all beings made in God's image are “men,” since Scripture calls angels men.
437. 2.145“Angel” names a function, as with prophets called angels, while the nature may be human.
438. 2.146Names like thrones and dominions are ranks, not natures; their subject is man in this broad sense.
439. 2.147The commander of the Lord's army appeared to Joshua as a man.
440. 2.148The same light is called light of men, light, and true light; it may be light for all rational beings.
441. 2.149Some infer from both being called “light” that Father and Son are one in being; Origen distinguishes the two lights.
442. 2.150The Son's light contends with darkness; the Father's light has no contact with it.
443. 2.151As the Father is greater than truth and wisdom, he surpasses the Son as “true light.”
444. 2.152Psalm 36 speaks of two lights, Father and Son; the Son is the light of the world.
445. 2.153John puts life before light because one must live before one can be enlightened.
446. 2.154The light of men is also the light of the nations in Isaiah and David's illumination in Psalm 27.
447. 2.155The Valentinian pairing of Word and Life as partner Aeons does not fit John's words.
448. 2.156The “life” that is the light of men is the true life that follows reason's completion in us and grounds knowledge.
449. 2.157Life becomes actual light in those who seek wisdom and knowledge; the next lemma is John 1:5.
450. 2.158The light of men includes both good works and true knowledge; darkness includes evil deeds and false knowledge.
451. 2.159Scripture calls God's commandments light, and speaks also of a light of knowledge.
452. 2.160Hosea speaks of a light of knowledge; John's letter uses darkness for evil works.
453. 2.161Walking in darkness means evil deeds, while ignorance of divine things is another kind of darkness.
454. 2.162“No darkness at all” excludes every kind of darkness from God, which cannot be said even of the saints.
455. 2.163Because Christ was made sin for us, “no darkness at all” belongs strictly to the Father alone.
456. 2.164Christ bore our weaknesses and sins, like the filthy garments of Joshua the high priest in Zechariah.
457. 2.165Christ, bearing believers' sins, speaks of them as his own in the Psalms.
458. 2.166As only the Father has immortality, since Christ died for us, so only the Father has no darkness, since Christ took ours on himself.
459. 2.167Christ's light shines in the darkness of our souls, pursued but not overcome by hostile powers.
460. 2.168“Did not overcome” implies that the darkness pursued the light.
461. 2.169The darkness persecuted Christ and his followers, but the more they were oppressed, the more they grew.
462. 2.170Darkness never overtakes light: either it is too slow, or it vanishes on approaching.
463. 2.171“Darkness” in Scripture sometimes has a good sense, which heretics failed to see.
464. 2.172The darkness around God in Exodus and Psalm 18 means the unknowability of God's depths.
465. 2.173The “dark treasures” and “dark sayings” are hidden truths revealed in Christ, to be proclaimed in the light.
466. 2.174The good darkness of hidden mysteries becomes light when understood; the next lemma is John 1:6.
467. 2.175Origen asks from where John was “sent,” and compares Adam's being sent out of paradise.
468. 2.176As Adam was sent from paradise, John was sent from some higher place to testify to the light.
469. 2.177An objection: Isaiah was “sent” without coming from another place.
470. 2.178The objector says John, like Isaiah, was sent on a mission, not from another world.
471. 2.179John “came” and was “sent” with instructions, which suggests he came from elsewhere.
472. 2.180John was filled with the Spirit from the womb and leapt for joy, which suggests his soul existed before his body.
473. 2.181Since God acts justly, John's soul must have existed before his body; Jesus also called him Elijah.
474. 2.182If all souls pre-exist, “sent from God” would not be special to John, since even the man of sin is “sent.”
475. 2.183Properly, only those who come for a divine ministry of salvation are said to be “sent from God.”
476. 2.184Scripture uses “sent by God” only of saints like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.
477. 2.185Though the examples are not about entering life, they suggest that only saints are “sent” into life.
478. 2.186Origen conjectures that John was one of the holy angels sent as Christ's forerunner.
479. 2.187Some angels may have imitated Christ by taking bodies to serve humans, as John's leaping in the womb suggests.
480. 2.188The apocryphal Prayer of Joseph teaches that some angels came down into human nature.
481. 2.189In the Prayer of Joseph, Jacob calls himself Israel, an angel of God and firstborn of all living beings.
482. 2.190The Prayer of Joseph retells Jacob's wrestling as a contest between the angel Israel and the angel Uriel.
483. 2.191If Jacob was an angel before birth, this may solve the problem of God's choice of Jacob over Esau.
484. 2.192Only deeds before this life explain God's justice toward Esau; so John may well have been an angel who took a body.
485. 2.193As voice differs from word, John the voice differs from Christ the Word.
486. 2.194John is the voice; his father Zechariah lost his voice until John was born.
487. 2.195John, the voice, came first, pointed out Christ, and baptized him, as a voice presents a word.
488. 2.196The names John and Zechariah matter, as the story of John's naming shows.
489. 2.197John means “grace,” Zechariah “remembrance,” and Elizabeth “oath of my God” or “seventh of my God.”
490. 2.198The names show John as God's grace, born from remembrance of God's oath, to end the old covenant; the next lemma is John 1:7.
491. 2.199Some heretics reject the prophets' testimony, saying the Son of God needs no witnesses.
492. 2.200The heretics argue that Christ, greater than Moses and the prophets, needed no prophetic witness.
493. 2.201The heretics claim the prophecies were used to bind Christ to the old God rather than a new one.
494. 2.202God provides many kinds of evidence, since different people are moved by different proofs.
495. 2.203Many come to faith by seeing how the prophets foretold Christ's birth, teaching, miracles, death, and resurrection.
496. 2.204Miracles persuaded their witnesses, but prophecy fulfilled now convinces later generations and supports the miracles.
497. 2.205The prophets teach much about the Father and the Son, as the apostles do.
498. 2.206Witnesses of Christ, like the martyrs, are honored by their witness rather than doing him a favor.
499. 2.207Foretelling Christ was a gift to the prophets, who taught earlier generations about the Son.
500. 2.208Denying that the prophets testified to Christ robs them of their greatest grace.
501. 2.209Worship before Christ was acceptable through faith in him; God calls all to be his witnesses as he and Christ are.
502. 2.210Everyone who testifies to truth is a witness, but the church now reserves “martyr” for those who shed their blood.
503. 2.211Apostles, martyrs, and all saints bear witness to Christ, as Jesus commanded.
504. 2.212John the Baptist's testimony runs from John 1:15 to 1:18.
505. 2.213Origen holds that John 1:16–18 is the Baptist's speech, not the evangelist's.
506. 2.214John's second testimony was his answer to the priests and Levites from Jerusalem.
507. 2.215John's third testimony, “among you stands one you do not know,” may point to the Word present in every rational soul.
508. 2.216The fourth testimony names Jesus as the Lamb of God, pointing to his suffering.
509. 2.217The fifth testimony is John's witness to the Spirit's descent on Jesus.
510. 2.218The sixth testimony leads two of John's disciples to follow Jesus.
511. 2.219After six testimonies Jesus himself speaks; “come” calls to action, “see” to contemplation.
512. 2.220The disciples stayed with Jesus from the tenth hour, a holy number; Andrew then found his brother and told him of the Messiah.
513. 2.221Whoever seeks Christ and stays with him can say, like Andrew, “We have found the Messiah.”
514. 2.222Jesus' look strengthened Simon, who was named Peter, “rock,” for his firmness.
515. 2.223Origen explains why he surveyed all of John's testimonies and their fruit.
516. 2.224John witnessed to Christ from the womb, went before him even in death, and points to his second coming.
517. 2.225Origen asks why John testified specifically about the light rather than about Christ's other titles.
518. 2.226John testified to the light because people in darkness need light.
519. 2.227We do not yet fully share in Christ's life, which is hidden with him in God until he is revealed.
520. 2.228John could not testify to the hidden life, nor to the divine Word as such, but to the light.
521. 2.229Before Christ's second coming John or Elijah may testify to Christ's life, Word, and wisdom; Book 2 ends here.
522. 4.1Scripture's rough style does not matter, since its meaning is sound, as Paul says his preaching was not in persuasive words.
523. 4.2The treasure of divine wisdom is in the “earthen vessels” of Scripture's plain style, so that its success is shown to be God's power, not eloquence.
524. 5.1In the preface to Book 5 Origen protests to Ambrose that writing so many books risks breaking the command of Ecclesiastes.
525. 5.2Origen considers the meaning of “beware of making many books” and the objection that the saints wrote few.
526. 5.3Paul, Peter, and John wrote little: Paul a few letters, Peter one acknowledged letter, John a Gospel, Revelation, and short letters.
527. 5.4Solomon and Paul said much, so “much speaking” cannot simply mean saying many things.
528. 5.5The truth is one Word, however much is said; falsehood is “many words,” so all holy writings form one book.
529. 5.6All Scripture that speaks of Christ is one “book,” like the scroll in Revelation, with a plain sense in front and a spiritual sense behind.
530. 5.7Scripture speaks of one book of life but many books of judgment; the whole of Scripture is one book, and the four Gospels are one gospel, against Marcion.
531. 5.8Origen writes much because heretics' many books must be answered with sound doctrine, as Ambrose himself, once a heretic, knows.
532. 6.1A house built to last is built in calm weather so it can later withstand storms.
533. 6.2The building of true teaching in writing goes best when the soul is at peace.
534. 6.3The prophets and apostles received the inner peace that Christ gives.
535. 6.4David, a man of war, was forbidden to build the temple.
536. 6.5Solomon, the man of peace, built the temple, as the temple was rebuilt in Ezra's time when truth prevailed.
537. 6.6Origen, like the builder in the Gospel, has counted the cost of completing his commentary.
538. 6.7Trusting God to supply what he lacks, Origen hopes to finish the work with a parapet that keeps readers from falling.
539. 6.8Origen wrote the first five books amid the Alexandrian storm and began the sixth before leaving Egypt.
540. 6.9Attacked in writing by an enemy, Origen paused the work to guard his soul; his scribes were also absent.
541. 6.10Now that calm has returned, Origen resumes, praying for God's teaching within.
542. 6.11Origen restarts Book 6 because the part dictated in Alexandria was lost.
543. 6.12Rather than wait for the lost pages, Origen begins afresh with John 1:19.
544. 6.13The first testimony runs from John 1:15 to 1:18; Heracleon wrongly assigns 1:18 to the evangelist.
545. 6.14If John 1:16–17 is the Baptist's, then so is 1:18, as Heracleon should admit.
546. 6.15Christ taught the prophets and Abraham too; they also received from his fullness, passing from types to truth.
547. 6.16Only some prophets longed to see what the apostles saw; the perfected prophets had already seen it spiritually.
548. 6.17The Word taught the saints before his incarnation, as he always works like the Father.
549. 6.18The patriarchs, whom God calls his own and Christ counts as living, were taught by the pre-incarnate Christ.
550. 6.19The patriarchs, seeing the Son, the image of God, are said to have seen and heard God.
551. 6.20True sons of Abraham share his spiritual deeds and knowledge.
552. 6.21The prophets, being wise, understood their own prophecies.
553. 6.22Moses and Joshua understood the spiritual realities behind their own histories.
554. 6.23Isaiah and Ezekiel saw the highest mysteries in their visions.
555. 6.24Origen will add a little more to show that the perfect of old knew as much as the apostles.
556. 6.25Since the mystery was revealed to the apostles through the prophets' writings, the prophets knew it too.
557. 6.26Something is “revealed” either when it is understood or when it is fulfilled.
558. 6.27The prophets knew that the Gentiles would share in the promise.
559. 6.28The apostles did not understand more than the prophets, but they saw the prophecies fulfilled.
560. 6.29The prophets longed to see the incarnation as an apostle might long to see the second coming, without knowing less than those who see it.
561. 6.30Seeing the fulfillment does not make the apostles wiser than the fathers and prophets.
562. 6.31Origen insists on this against those who, exalting the apostles, invented another God or belittled the prophets.
563. 6.32Christ's soldiers must guard every point against false arguments.
564. 6.33Some may say only John 1:15 is the Baptist's, and John 1:16 onward the evangelist's.
565. 6.34It is forced to think the evangelist abruptly interrupts the Baptist's speech.
566. 6.35The Baptist explains that Christ is before him because the prophets and he received from Christ's fullness.
567. 6.36The Father gave the law through Moses but made grace and truth come to be through Christ.
568. 6.37Origen asks how truth came through Christ if Christ is the truth.
569. 6.38Truth itself, the Son, was begotten by God, not made through anyone.
570. 6.39The truth in people came through Christ; from the one Truth flow many truths.
571. 6.40Christ is Righteousness itself, and from him come many righteousnesses in the saved.
572. 6.41Because Christ, the life, is in each person, Scripture can speak of many “lives.”
573. 6.42Christ dwells in each saint, making many “christs”; John 1:17 is still the Baptist's testimony.
574. 6.43John's second testimony, “I am not the Christ,” was a confession, not a denial.
575. 6.44John also denied being Elijah, truthfully.
576. 6.45The third question was whether John was “the prophet” foretold by Moses.
577. 6.46John denied being “the prophet,” since that was Christ, though he knew he was a prophet.
578. 6.47The second testimony ends with John's words from Isaiah, “a voice crying in the wilderness.”
579. 6.48Origen asks whether John's words to the Pharisees are a third testimony.
580. 6.49Origen counts John's reply to the Pharisees as a third testimony and describes the purpose of each.
581. 6.50Two delegations came to John: priests and Levites from Jerusalem, and messengers of the Pharisees.
582. 6.51The priests and Levites questioned John gently and respectfully.
583. 6.52The Pharisees' messengers questioned John rudely, to stop him baptizing.
584. 6.53Careful readers of Scripture must note who speaks and when; the next lemma is John 1:19–20.
585. 6.54The Jews honored John with an embassy of priests; John in turn sent to ask Christ.
586. 6.55Christ answered John's question by his deeds, a greater testimony than John's.
587. 6.56Origen asks why John answered “Who are you?” with “I am not the Christ.”
588. 6.57John answered their unspoken suspicion that he might be the Christ.
589. 6.58Their follow-up questions show they had suspected he might be the Christ.
590. 6.59Having exhausted the expected figures, the delegation asked John to say who he was.
591. 6.60At the time of Jesus' birth and ministry the people were stirred by expectation of the Christ.
592. 6.61Messianic pretenders like Theudas and Judas show how eagerly the Christ was expected; the next lemma is John 1:21.
593. 6.62Jesus called John Elijah, yet John denied it; how is this to be reconciled with Malachi?
594. 6.63The angel told Zechariah that John would come in the spirit and power of Elijah.
595. 6.64Believers in transmigration say John did not remember being Elijah, and that some thought Jesus was an old prophet reborn.
596. 6.65They argue that people who knew Jesus' parents must have thought of rebirth, and they cite Genesis for their view.
597. 6.66A churchman answers that John had Elijah's spirit and power, not his soul.
598. 6.67Scripture distinguishes spirit and power and speaks of a prophet's spirit resting on another, so John can be called Elijah because he had Elijah's spirit.
599. 6.68As God is called God of Abraham, the Holy Spirit can be called the spirit of Elijah.
600. 6.69Those who thought Jesus a risen prophet may simply have been mistaken and ignorant of his parents.
601. 6.70Genesis uses “raise up” of ordinary birth; John is Elijah in one sense, and denied it in the sense they meant.
602. 6.71They asked whether John was Elijah returned from heaven without birth, which he rightly denied.
603. 6.72The transmigrationist replies that John's famous birth must have been known in Jerusalem.
604. 6.73So, he argues, the priests believed in transmigration, and John denied being Elijah because he did not remember it.
605. 6.74The churchman replies that such a prophet would not lie or assert what he did not know.
606. 6.75If transmigration were widely held, John should at least have suspended judgment rather than deny.
607. 6.76He challenges the other to show that the Jews actually held such a doctrine.
608. 6.77The churchman asks what the priests meant by their question, since they knew John's parentage.
609. 6.78Perhaps they asked figuratively whether John was the end-time forerunner, which he denied.
610. 6.79People were similarly mistaken about Jesus, calling him John, Elijah, or a prophet.
611. 6.80Herod thought Jesus was John raised, unaware of what others knew of Jesus' family.
612. 6.81As with Jesus, some knew John's parents while others thought he might be Elijah.
613. 6.82Even though John's looks were known and unlike Jesus', some thought Jesus was John risen; so confusion about Elijah is not surprising.
614. 6.83A Jewish tradition identifies Phinehas, who lived long and was promised a covenant of peace, with Elijah.
615. 6.84Those who identified Phinehas with Elijah might also have wondered whether John was Elijah.
616. 6.85Origen lists questions about the soul's origin, embodiment, and possible re-embodiment that need separate treatment.
617. 6.86Transmigration, embodiment, and the view that soul and body begin together all need examination.
618. 6.87The doctrine of the soul needs its own treatise; the next lemma is John 1:21.
619. 6.88John was a prophet, as his father's prophecy and Jesus' words show.
620. 6.89John was “a prophet” but not “the prophet,” as “the God” differs from “God.”
621. 6.90Israel expected a special prophet like Moses, a mediator of a new covenant.
622. 6.91The people did not realize that the Christ and the prophet were the same person.
623. 6.92Heracleon missed the difference between “a prophet” and “the prophet” and made John deny being a prophet; the next lemma is John 1:22.
624. 6.93The envoys, having learned what John was not, asked who he was; the next lemma is John 1:23.
625. 6.94As the Son is the Word, John is a voice that points to the Word.
626. 6.95John is the voice of the one crying, Christ, who cries out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me.”
627. 6.96As Aaron was Moses' prophet, John is the voice that presents the Word.
628. 6.97Zechariah lost his voice for disbelieving the birth of John, the voice, and regained it when he named him.
629. 6.98John alone was the voice worthy to proclaim the Word.
630. 6.99John is the voice of one “crying,” which is more than speaking.
631. 6.100John cries out so that those far away and hard of hearing may hear, as Jesus and Isaiah also cried.
632. 6.101God hears the inner cry of prayer, as with Moses, not mere loudness.
633. 6.102The soul without God is a wilderness that must be called to make the Lord's way straight.
634. 6.103The Lord's way is made straight in both contemplation and action, turning neither right nor left.
635. 6.104Like the apostles, we should ask the ancient paths and find the good way, Jesus Christ.
636. 6.105The good way leads to the good Father; it is narrow and “pressed” by those who travel it.
637. 6.106The living way feels whoever walks it without reverence; it leads to Christ, the life.
638. 6.107Christ is the way for those progressing and the life for the perfect; on this way no provisions, staff, or sandals are needed.
639. 6.108Heracleon ranks Christ as Word, John as voice, and the prophets as mere sound.
640. 6.109If prophecy were mere sound, Christ would not send us to the Scriptures.
641. 6.110Christ praises the prophets and sends us to them, which he would not do if they were empty noise.
642. 6.111Heracleon asserts without proof that voice becomes word and sound becomes voice.
643. 6.112Heracleon says Jesus spoke of John's circumstances, John of himself.
644. 6.113Heracleon offers only an analogy of clothing, without proof.
645. 6.114On Origen's reading, Elijah's spirit might be called a garment of John's soul, but not on Heracleon's.
646. 6.115Heracleon's reasons for the priests' questions are partly sound, partly careless.
647. 6.116The heretics wrongly infer that John is greater than all prophets; “no one greater” allows for equals.
648. 6.117Heracleon claims only John was foretold, forgetting that Malachi foretold Elijah.
649. 6.118Josiah and perhaps Samson were also foretold, which refutes Heracleon; the next lemma is John 1:24–25.
650. 6.119The Jerusalem authorities accepted John's answer in silence.
651. 6.120The Pharisees, “separated ones,” questioned John hostilely, and later came to his baptism and were rebuked.
652. 6.121John rebuked the Pharisees' pride in Abraham and taught that God can make stony hearts into Abraham's children.
653. 6.122Those who come to baptism without repentance are fruitless trees that the living Word will cut down.
654. 6.123The Pharisees' self-praise, as in Luke's parable, showed they came to baptism as hypocrites full of venom.
655. 6.124The Pharisees' bitter question shows their venom; in fact Christ himself did not baptize, but his disciples did.
656. 6.125Elijah did not himself pour the water on the altar, nor does Christ baptize with water; he baptizes with the Spirit and fire.
657. 6.126Heracleon wrongly accepts the Pharisees' view that every prophet baptizes, though he rightly sees their malice.
658. 6.127Origen will compare the parallel Gospel passages.
659. 6.128John puts Isaiah's “voice” in the Baptist's mouth; Mark uses it to open his Gospel.
660. 6.129John abbreviated Isaiah; Mark combined Malachi and Isaiah under Isaiah's name.
661. 6.130The two prophecies come from Isaiah 40 and Malachi 3.
662. 6.131Mark, like John, abbreviates and adapts the prophetic texts.
663. 6.132The Pharisees' question in John came before their coming to baptism in Matthew.
664. 6.133In Matthew only the Pharisees and Sadducees were rebuked; Mark mentions no rebuke at all.
665. 6.134The Pharisees and Sadducees were rebuked because, unlike the crowds, they did not confess their sins.
666. 6.135Origen defends his use of the other Gospels here.
667. 6.136Luke, like Mark, quotes Isaiah in his own narrative voice.
668. 6.137Luke continues the Isaiah quotation and abbreviates it like Mark.
669. 6.138Luke's changes to Isaiah show that the evangelists abbreviate and adapt prophecy.
670. 6.139Matthew addresses the rebuke to the Pharisees, Luke to the crowds.
671. 6.140The Pharisees are told to bear “fruit,” the crowds “fruits,” of repentance.
672. 6.141The Pharisees must bear the one fruit of faith in the Son; the crowds must bear all the fruits of repentance.
673. 6.142The Pharisees have long boasted of Abraham, the crowds are only beginning; both hear that God can raise children from stones.
674. 6.143The Pharisees bear false fruit and the crowds none; both are cut down.
675. 6.144A new plant does not bear good fruit at first, as the law's three years of “uncircumcised” fruit show.
676. 6.145A tree that after its early years still bears no holy fruit is cut down.
677. 6.146The Pharisees questioned John and then came for baptism, where they were rebuked for hypocrisy.
678. 6.147Two groups sent to John: the Jews of Jerusalem and the Pharisees.
679. 6.148The Jerusalem Jews, who accepted John's answer, probably came for baptism before the Pharisees.
680. 6.149The multitudes confessed their sins at baptism, but those rebuked are not said to have confessed.
681. 6.150If all Jerusalem was baptized, why did Jesus say they called John possessed and did not believe him?
682. 6.151The Pharisees came to baptism out of fear of the crowd, not faith.
683. 6.152The Pharisees hid their unbelief for fear of the crowd; the next lemma is John 1:26–27.
684. 6.153Heracleon claims John did not answer the question, which would make John ignorant.
685. 6.154John answered precisely: his baptism is bodily, while Christ is invisibly present everywhere.
686. 6.155“Whom you do not know” exposes the Pharisees' ignorance of Christ's divine greatness.
687. 6.156John identifies the invisible Word with the one who became man and would appear after him.
688. 6.157Untying the sandal strap means explaining the mystery of Christ's incarnation, which John confesses he cannot do.
689. 6.158Origen will compare the Gospels' accounts of “I baptize with water.”
690. 6.159Matthew's version agrees with John's account of the baptism in water.
691. 6.160Mark presents John's words as proclaimed to all.
692. 6.161Luke gives John's words as an answer to the people's wondering whether he was the Christ.
693. 6.162In Matthew, John's water baptism prepares for Christ's spiritual baptism with the Holy Spirit and purifying fire.
694. 6.163John cannot bear even the least of the things surrounding Christ.
695. 6.164John, despite all his honors, is unworthy even to carry Christ's sandals, let alone understand his seamless garment.
696. 6.165Only Matthew adds “for repentance,” showing that baptism benefits only those who truly repent.
697. 6.166Baptism, like Christ's healings, is both a symbol of cleansing and, through the invocation of the Trinity, a real source of divine gifts.
698. 6.167Acts shows the Spirit visibly coming on the baptized, so that Simon the magician tried to buy this grace with money.
699. 6.168John's baptism was inferior to Jesus' baptism, since those baptized by John were baptized again by Paul in Acts.
700. 6.169The washing of new birth belongs to Jesus' baptism, with renewal by the Spirit, though not all who receive the water receive the Spirit.
701. 6.170Mark agrees with Matthew that a mightier one comes after John, but differs in adding that John is not fit to stoop and untie his sandal strap.
702. 6.171Carrying the sandals and untying them are different acts, so John must have said both at different times.
703. 6.172The evangelists did not misremember; to carry Christ's sandals and to untie them both mean grasping the mysteries of his incarnation.
704. 6.173Only God, who bound and shut the mysteries, can grant anyone, even John, to unloose and open them.
705. 6.174Mystically, one sandal is the incarnation and the other is Christ's descent into Hades and his journey to the spirits in prison.
706. 6.175Psalm 16 speaks of the descent into Hades, and 1 Peter of Christ preaching to the spirits in prison.
707. 6.176Whoever can explain both of Christ's descents, to earth and to Hades, is fit to untie his sandals.
708. 6.177Christ put on both living and dead, those on earth and in Hades, to be Lord of both.
709. 6.178Few can untie these sandals and then carry them, keeping in memory what they have understood.
710. 6.179Luke and John omit “stooping”: one may also untie the sandals while standing tall, and so see the Word as he is in himself.
711. 6.180Being fit and being worthy are different: one can be fit without being worthy, or worthy without yet being fit.
712. 6.181God may withhold fitness from the worthy to prevent pride, and in goodness may give fitness to one not yet worthy so that he may become worthy.
713. 6.182In the first three Gospels John says he is not fit, in John not worthy; he may later have become both.
714. 6.183Perhaps no mortal ever becomes fully fit or worthy, since, as Sirach says, when one finishes, one is only beginning.
715. 6.184The first three Gospels speak of sandals, John of a single sandal.
716. 6.185John understood Christ's coming on earth but not yet his descent to the dead, which is why he later asked from prison, “Are you the one who is to come?”
717. 6.186Alternatively, “sandal” and “sandals” can be taken as meaning the same, so that the four Gospels agree.
718. 6.187John truly said both: he could not untie both sandals, and he was unsure about the second.
719. 6.188“Among you stands one you do not know” refers to the Word, who as Wisdom pervades all creation.
720. 6.189The Word stands among all things, and among human beings in the heart, the ruling center of reason.
721. 6.190Those who have the Word within but do not understand him do not know him; John knew him.
722. 6.191Christ comes “after” John in the sense that he follows John's teaching; this differs from our following “after” Jesus.
723. 6.192Following Jesus leads to the Father; here “after” means the perfect Word comes to those prepared by John's teaching.
724. 6.193The Father stands unchanging; the Word also stands, saving and teaching, inviting all to drink from him.
725. 6.194Heracleon took “among you stands” to mean Christ was already present and manifest, denying that the Word always pervades the world.
726. 6.195Against Heracleon: the Word was always in the world, though the world did not know him.
727. 6.196The Word was always among human beings, speaking through Isaiah and David.
728. 6.197Origen rejects Heracleon's reading of John 1:26 but accepts his view that John is Christ's forerunner, like a servant going ahead.
729. 6.198Heracleon read John's words as confessing unworthiness of the lowliest service, and as saying he could not explain Christ's taking flesh.
730. 6.199Heracleon took the sandal to be the world and applied John's words to the figure John represents.
731. 6.200Heracleon made the world's Creator inferior to Christ; Origen answers that the Creator is the Father, the only good God, greater than the Son he sent.
732. 6.201The world cannot be Christ's sandal, since Jesus says heaven and earth are the Father's throne and footstool.
733. 6.202Origen asks whether God fills the world through the Word pervading it, or whether the Father, who encompasses creation, granted this to the Son.
734. 6.203The power that moves the heavens can only be the Father and the Son; the next verse reads “These things took place in Bethabara.”
735. 6.204Though most copies read “Bethany,” Origen, having visited the places, prefers “Bethabara.”
736. 6.205Bethany is near Jerusalem, far from the Jordan, while Bethabara is shown on the Jordan's bank as John's baptizing place.
737. 6.206Bethabara means “house of preparation,” a fitting name for where John prepared the Lord's way.
738. 6.207Bethany, “house of obedience,” fits Mary, Martha, and Lazarus; the meanings of names deserve careful attention.
739. 6.208Names are often corrupted in the Greek copies, as with the place of the Gadarene swine.
740. 6.209Gerasa is in Arabia, far from any sea or lake, so the evangelists cannot have meant it.
741. 6.210Gadara, the other reading, has hot springs but no lake with cliffs.
742. 6.211Gergesa, by the Sea of Galilee with a cliff, is the right place; its name, “dwelling of those who cast out,” fits the people who sent Jesus away.
743. 6.212Names are also corrupted in the Greek Old Testament, as comparison with Hebrew copies and the versions of Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus shows.
744. 6.213For example, Levi's son Gershon is miscopied as “Geson” in most Greek copies.
745. 6.214Other examples: Aunan for Onan, and Bouthan for Etham in the list of Israel's camps.
746. 6.215Lists of names, as in Joshua, Chronicles, and Ezra, are especially likely to be corrupted.
747. 6.216Names carry meanings useful for interpretation, but that topic must wait.
748. 6.217Jordan means “descent,” like the name Jared, in whose days, according to Enoch, the sons of God came down; some take this as souls descending into bodies.
749. 6.218The river “Descent” is the Savior, who came down to share our descent and who divides the inheritance like Joshua.
750. 6.219The streams that gladden God's city refer to the church, built on the apostles and prophets with Christ as cornerstone.
751. 6.220The Jordan is the incarnate Word; the humanity he assumed was washed and received the Spirit permanently, so that he can baptize others with the Spirit.
752. 6.221John baptized beyond the Jordan as forerunner of the one who came to call sinners, since baptism is for forgiveness of sins.
753. 6.222Someone may object that John distinguishes his water baptism from Christ's baptism with the Spirit.
754. 6.223As the Word is water, wine, or blood as drink, so he is baptism of water, Spirit, fire, and for some of blood.
755. 6.224Christ's last baptism is his death; John writes that Spirit, water, and blood agree; Christ is the way for some and the door for others.
756. 6.225Beginners in the faith are baptized by John's preparatory baptism so that they may later receive the spiritual Word.
757. 6.226God led Israel through the Red Sea by Moses and through the Jordan by Joshua.
758. 6.227Paul interprets the Red Sea crossing spiritually, as a baptism into Moses.
759. 6.228So also the Jordan crossing under Joshua should be read as a baptism into Jesus.
760. 6.229Joshua prefigures Jesus; the Red Sea baptism into Moses was bitter, marked by fear and complaint.
761. 6.230Baptism into Jesus in the sweet Jordan is superior, led by the ark and priests, with purification beforehand.
762. 6.231The priests leading with the ark show the mystery of the Father exalting the Son, at whose name every knee bows.
763. 6.232God exalted Joshua at the Jordan; so in baptism into Jesus we know the living God is among us.
764. 6.233After crossing the Jordan, Israel camped at Gilgal, prepared the Passover lamb, and was circumcised; so baptism into Jesus removes the reproach of Egypt.
765. 6.234In the promised land Israel kept a more joyful Passover and ate its grain, better than manna.
766. 6.235In the true holy land, the heavenly Jerusalem, God feeds his people with a better bread.
767. 6.236Manna was bread for learners; the new bread of the holy land, reaped through Jesus, gives life to the mature.
768. 6.237One fed only on the preparatory bread can die, but whoever eats the later bread lives forever.
769. 6.238Elijah crossed the Jordan before being taken up, as if baptized, since Paul calls a miraculous crossing of water a baptism.
770. 6.239Elisha received a double portion of Elijah's spirit, perhaps because he crossed the Jordan twice.
771. 6.240Striking the Jordan should not offend, since the rock that was Christ was also struck twice.
772. 6.241Hard questions are like blows; God answers them by giving drink or by dividing the deep waters through careful reasoning.
773. 6.242Naaman's cleansing and the rivers of Israel's enemies help interpret the Jordan.
774. 6.243Naaman was sent to wash in the Jordan and was angry, not seeing that the Jordan, not the prophet, heals.
775. 6.244Naaman expected the prophet to lay hands on him, but that was the work of Jesus alone, who touched and cleansed the leper.
776. 6.245Naaman preferred the rivers of Damascus, but as only God is good, only the Jordan cleanses those who wash in faith into Jesus.
777. 6.246The captives wept by Babylon's rivers because they longed for the saving Jordan.
778. 6.247Jeremiah rebukes those who drink Egypt's water instead of the Jordan.
779. 6.248Ezekiel's oracle against Pharaoh as the dragon in his rivers shows that Scripture's rivers are not merely physical.
780. 6.249The Nile is the dragon's (the devil's) place, while God is in the river that gladdens his city, since the Father is in the Son.
781. 6.250Washing in this river removes Egypt's reproach, cleanses, doubles grace, and prepares for the Spirit.
782. 6.251Understood spiritually, the Jordan gives the benefit we need; the next verse says John sees Jesus coming.
783. 6.252Even before birth Jesus formed John in his likeness, which is why John was mistaken for Christ and Jesus for John; now John sees Jesus coming.
784. 6.253At the Visitation John heard, and now he sees; one first hears of higher things, then sees them.
785. 6.254John, the voice, was shaped by Jesus, the Word, even in the womb, as Elizabeth's loud cry shows.
786. 6.255Mary's greeting filled John, and Elizabeth became his mouth and a prophetess.
787. 6.256Mary visited Elizabeth so that the power of the child she carried might pass to John, and through him prophetic grace to his mother.
788. 6.257After John's three testimonies, “the next day” symbolizes his progress: now he not only knows but sees Jesus coming.
789. 6.258John's Gospel counts the days: testimonies, Jesus' coming, John pointing out the Lamb, the call of Philip.
790. 6.259The sixth day brings the wedding at Cana; the greater coming to the lesser teaches humility and readiness to help.
791. 6.260Matthew says Jesus came from Galilee to be baptized.
792. 6.261Mark names Nazareth; Luke omits the place.
793. 6.262Luke alone adds that Jesus was praying when heaven opened and the Spirit came down.
794. 6.263Only Matthew records John's protest and Jesus' reply; the next verse is “Behold the Lamb of God.”
795. 6.264Of the five sacrificial animals, why is Christ called a lamb?
796. 6.265To understand the sacrifices spiritually, one must ask what heavenly things they foreshadow, especially the lamb.
797. 6.266Hebrews teaches that the sacrifices are copies and shadows of heavenly realities.
798. 6.267Only the mature can uncover the spiritual truth of the law brought by Jesus Christ.
799. 6.268The lamb is the continual daily sacrifice, one in the morning and one in the evening.
800. 6.269The continual sacrifice, understood spiritually, is the Word himself.
801. 6.270The morning and evening lambs are the Word received at the soul's enlightenment and offered up at the end of contemplation, which the body does not allow to last.
802. 6.271Between morning and evening the priests offered other sacrifices, which also have spiritual meanings.
803. 6.272Our spiritual offering begins and ends with Christ, the Image, with other studies between.
804. 6.273Taken literally, the Lamb is the man Jesus, led to slaughter as Isaiah and Jeremiah say.
805. 6.274The slain Lamb became a purification for the whole world, buying us back with his blood from the one to whom our sins had sold us.
806. 6.275The divine Word in Jesus was the high priest who offered the lamb, laying down his own life.
807. 6.276Akin to Christ's sacrifice are the martyrs' deaths, whom John saw at the heavenly altar.
808. 6.277Jephthah's daughter, who consented to be offered for her father's victory, helps us think about sacrifices that cleanse others.
809. 6.278Such sacrifices look cruel; we must defend providence by admitting that God's judgments are beyond us.
810. 6.279Pagans record people who gave their lives to end plagues, and Clement of Rome accepts these accounts.
811. 6.280The command to endure torture rather than deny God in word may seem harsh, but it reflects the same hidden mystery.
812. 6.281The martyrs' deaths weaken the demonic powers and free many others from their burden.
813. 6.282Like someone who kills a venomous snake and so protects many, the martyr's sacrifice disarms the hostile powers for others.
814. 6.283As remedies from a dead snake may heal those it bit, the martyrs' deaths help many by a hidden power.
815. 6.284If martyrs and self-sacrificing pagans help others, how much more the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the whole world.
816. 6.285Christ is the propitiation for the whole world, who blotted out our debt with his blood and triumphed over the powers on the cross.
817. 6.286Christ has conquered the world, freeing the nations from their former masters to serve him.
818. 6.287After his victory Christ needed a purification from the Father, which is why he told Mary not to touch him before he ascended.
819. 6.288As Christ ascends in triumph with his risen body, the powers ask who he is, and his escort bids the heavenly gates open.
820. 6.289The powers ask why his garments are red, and he answers that he has crushed his enemies.
821. 6.290After bearing the world's sin, Christ needed to wash his robe, perhaps a baptism greater than any known to us.
822. 6.291If his death were his greatest baptism, why would he forbid Mary to touch him afterward?
823. 6.292Christ ascended to be cleansed by the Father and came down with gifts: the tongues of fire and the protecting angels.
824. 6.293Before this, the disciples were not yet cleansed enough for angels to be with them.
825. 6.294Only Jesus in his love ate with sinners, let a sinful woman wash his feet, and humbled himself to death for the ungodly.
826. 6.295Christ did the Father's will, as the image of his goodness, reconciling the world step by step until all his enemies are subdued.
827. 6.296When all things, even death, are subjected to Christ and he to the Father, we see how the Lamb takes away the world's sin.
828. 6.297Deep-rooted sin is taken away only through painful purification by the Word, sharper than a sword and hotter than fire.
829. 6.298God's fire burns only the thorns of sin; the Lamb takes away sin in many ways, some hidden from most people.
830. 6.299Among the ways to faith and forgiveness are suffering, sickness, and even evil spirits; who knows what follows after this life?
831. 6.300Knowing that God disciplines everyone in love, we should live so as not to need painful correction.
832. 6.301Some take “world” to mean the church, the adornment of the world, since Christians are called the light of the world.
833. 6.302Perhaps Christ is the light of the church and the disciples the light of those who call on him; if the church lights the whole race, that must be shown or referred to the end.
834. 6.303Believers are the salt of the earth that preserves the world; when that salt loses its savor and love grows cold, the end will come.
835. 6.304Is the “world” whose sin the Lamb removes only the church?
836. 6.3051 John and 1 Timothy show that Christ's atonement extends beyond the church to the whole world.
837. 6.306Heracleon says “Lamb of God” refers to Christ's body and “who takes away sin” to the one dwelling in it, since a lamb is an immature sheep.
838. 6.307Heracleon claims a ram would have signified a perfect body; Origen replies briefly that the world needed a lamb, not a ram. The text then breaks off.
839. 10.1Book 10 opens with John 2:12–25; after a gap, Origen remarks that numbers in Scripture have meaning, as the book of Numbers suggests.
840. 10.2Origen tells his patron that the number ten is privileged in Scripture and prays that God will bless this tenth volume.
841. 10.3John says Jesus went down to Capernaum; the other Gospels say he withdrew to Galilee after the temptation.
842. 10.4Matthew and Luke say Jesus moved from Nazareth to Capernaum; Matthew and Mark connect this with John's arrest.
843. 10.5Matthew's account: after the temptation and John's arrest, Jesus moved to Capernaum and began to preach repentance.
844. 10.6Mark's account of the temptation and the start of Jesus' preaching in Galilee.
845. 10.7Mark then tells of the first disciples and Jesus teaching in Capernaum's synagogue.
846. 10.8Luke's account: after the temptation Jesus returned to Galilee and came to Nazareth.
847. 10.9Luke tells of the rejection at Nazareth and Jesus going down to Capernaum.
848. 10.10Apparent contradictions between the Gospels must be resolved spiritually, or people lose faith; John's chronology leaves no room for the forty days of temptation.
849. 10.11In John, Jesus went from Capernaum to Jerusalem for Passover and cleansed the temple.
850. 10.12John's Gospel then tells of Nicodemus, Jesus baptizing in Judea while John still baptized at Aenon, and John's disciples' question.
851. 10.13Matthew and Mark place the move to Galilee after John's arrest, but John has much happening before John was imprisoned: both cannot be literally true.
852. 10.14Faced with the Gospels' discrepancies, one must either pick one Gospel arbitrarily or hold that their truth lies beyond the literal level.
853. 10.15Origen offers an analogy: imagine four seers each reporting God's appearances to different saints, agreeing in some points and differing in others.
854. 10.16In the analogy, the second seer reports God appearing at the same time to someone far away, saying other things.
855. 10.17Someone reading these reports as plain history, and imagining God confined to one place, would think they contradict one another.
856. 10.18So the evangelists, being wise, sometimes expressed spiritual truths in the form of historical narrative.
857. 10.19Origen accepts that the evangelists sometimes changed place, time, or details for the sake of spiritual meaning.
858. 10.20Where literal and spiritual truth could not both be kept, the evangelists preferred the spiritual, as Jacob spoke spiritual truth in saying “I am Esau.”
859. 10.21Christ has many aspects, so the evangelists could say seemingly contradictory things, such as that he was and was not born of David.
860. 10.22Christ was born of David according to the flesh, but not in his divine power, by which he is Son of God.
861. 10.23Scripture calls Christ both servant and son, man and more than man, according to his two aspects.
862. 10.24Marcion, and those who deny either Christ's humanity or his divinity, went wrong by taking only one side of what Scripture says.
863. 10.25The Docetists, who say Christ only seemed human, would rob us of the man through whom alone we are saved.
864. 10.26As death came through one man, so life comes through one man; we receive the Word through the humanity he assumed, each according to the room we make for him.
865. 10.27The spiritual interpretation reconciles the Gospels' apparent discords.
866. 10.28Paul too speaks in different characters, fleshly and spiritual, which can seem contradictory.
867. 10.29Paul became all things to all people, so his words must be read according to the audience he addresses.
868. 10.30Examples: Paul speaks as weak, as a Jew in shaving his head and circumcising Timothy, and as without law in quoting pagan poets at Athens.
869. 10.31The Gospels also differ about the disciples: Peter's call in John differs from his call by the Sea of Galilee.
870. 10.32John, the more spiritual Gospel, tells of Peter being found by his brother and named Cephas at once.
871. 10.33In Matthew, Peter receives his name only later, at his confession.
872. 10.34In John, Jesus baptizes through his disciples; in the other Gospels he does not baptize.
873. 10.35John's Gospel never tells of the Baptist's arrest, while Matthew places it right after the temptation.
874. 10.36Few are wise enough to grasp the whole Christ from all four Gospels.
875. 10.37After Cana Jesus went down to Capernaum, whose name means “field of consolation.”
876. 10.38After the wine of Cana, Jesus came to the “field of consolation” to comfort his disciples and his mother.
877. 10.39Why were Jesus' brothers not at the wedding but go down to Capernaum, and why “down”?
878. 10.40The brothers may be powers that came down with Christ, of lower rank than the disciples, going to benefit the fruitful.
879. 10.41Capernaum, a lower “field of consolation,” could receive Jesus only for a few days.
880. 10.42To the apostles Christ is with them all the days; with the lesser people of Capernaum he stayed not many days.
881. 10.43Does “until the end of the age” mean Christ will not be with us afterward?
882. 10.44Christ being “with” disciples differs from his being “in” them.
883. 10.45When the world is crucified to them, Christ is in them and they say, “Christ lives in me.”
884. 10.46The “I” who is with the disciples until the end may be Christ in the form of a servant.
885. 10.47After the end, the Son in his prior glory is with them until all enemies are subdued; then the Father himself will be with them.
886. 10.48Heracleon says Capernaum stands for the lowest, material part of the world, which is why Jesus did nothing there.
887. 10.49Heracleon's reading might be plausible if Jesus had done nothing in Capernaum in any Gospel.
888. 10.50But Matthew says Jesus lived in Capernaum and began preaching from there.
889. 10.51Mark too tells of Jesus teaching in Capernaum's synagogue.
890. 10.52Mark records Jesus casting out an unclean spirit in Capernaum.
891. 10.53Jesus expels the spirit and heals Peter's mother-in-law in Capernaum.
892. 10.54Mark also says Jesus healed many sick and possessed in Capernaum that evening.
893. 10.55Luke likewise tells of Jesus teaching with authority in Capernaum.
894. 10.56Luke's account of the exorcism in Capernaum.
895. 10.57Luke also tells of the healing of Peter's mother-in-law and of many others at sunset in Capernaum.
896. 10.58These Gospel accounts refute Heracleon's claim that Jesus did nothing in Capernaum.
897. 10.59Heracleon must either explain Capernaum in two senses or stop saying Jesus visited it for nothing.
898. 10.60Origen promises to show, wherever it seems Jesus accomplished nothing, that his visits were never in vain.
899. 10.61Matthew too records the centurion's servant and Peter's mother-in-law healed in Capernaum.
900. 10.62A student should gather everything the Gospels say about Capernaum to interpret it correctly.
901. 10.63Though Jesus worked miracles in Capernaum, it symbolizes a lower region made a place of consolation; place names often fit events, as with Gergesa.
902. 10.64In the first three Gospels Jesus' preaching and first miracles begin at Capernaum.
903. 10.65Only John marks a “beginning of signs,” and he places it at Cana.
904. 10.66Cana's gladness, not healings, is the first sign, since the Word's beauty shows more in gladdening the healthy than in curing the sick. Next verse: the Passover was near.
905. 10.67Why does John add “of the Jews” to the Passover?
906. 10.68“Of the Jews” may distinguish a merely human Passover from the true, divine Passover kept in spirit and truth.
907. 10.69When the Passover is first instituted in Exodus, God begins with the first month.
908. 10.70Exodus instructs each house to take a lamb and eat it in haste, dressed for travel.
909. 10.71Exodus repeatedly calls it “the Passover of the Lord,” never “your Passover.”
910. 10.72A proselyte who keeps the Lord's Passover must be circumcised.
911. 10.73The Law never says “your Passover”; Isaiah shows that God rejects “your” feasts when kept by sinners.
912. 10.74God does not own the feasts that sinners keep.
913. 10.75When God institutes the sabbath, it is called “to the Lord.”
914. 10.76In Numbers God calls the prescribed feasts and offerings “mine.”
915. 10.77Likewise God calls Israel “my people” when faithful, but after the golden calf calls them Moses' people.
916. 10.78God threatens Pharaoh with flies if he will not let “my people” go.
917. 10.79God spares “my people” in Goshen, but after the calf tells Moses, “your people have sinned.”
918. 10.80Feasts are the Lord's when kept as he commands, but the sinners' own when he hates them.
919. 10.81So in John the Passover is called “of the Jews,” not the Lord's.
920. 10.82An objection: Paul calls Christ “our Passover,” not “the Lord's.”
921. 10.83Either “our” simply means “for us,” or the true feasts of the Lord will be kept in the age to come.
922. 10.84Hosea, Hebrews, and Colossians point to heavenly feasts, of which earthly ones are shadows.
923. 10.85How we will keep the heavenly feasts, and what the food laws signify, only hidden wisdom can reveal.
924. 10.86Someone may feel Paul raised our thoughts to heavenly realities without explaining how the law's rites foreshadow them.
925. 10.87If the Passover belongs also to the coming age, how is Christ sacrificed both now and hereafter?
926. 10.88Only a few remarks can be made; the subject would need many books.
927. 10.89The Jewish Passover is many lambs slain; ours is Christ, sacrificed once.
928. 10.90Israel removed leaven from their houses; Christians keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
929. 10.91Since the feasts are shadows of heavenly things, there may be a third, heavenly Passover.
930. 10.92Objection: if the lamb prefigures Christ, why were many lambs sacrificed, not one?
931. 10.93Further difficulties: how do the details of eating the Passover lamb apply to Christ?
932. 10.94John applies the command not to break the lamb's bones to Christ.
933. 10.95John reports that Christ's legs were not broken, fulfilling the Scripture about the Passover lamb.
934. 10.96Much more could be said but would need a separate treatise.
935. 10.97Origen will answer briefly, recalling that Christ is the Lamb of God and that the Passover lamb could be a lamb or a kid.
936. 10.98John, agreeing with Paul, faces the same difficulties.
937. 10.99The Passover lamb's flesh is the flesh of the Word, eaten now in the night of this world, together with the Word as bread from heaven.
938. 10.100“Bread” can mean any food, as with Moses' forty-day fast.
939. 10.101So Jesus can call his flesh bread.
940. 10.102The bitter herbs are godly grief in repentance, or the hardships of seeking truth.
941. 10.103Eating the lamb raw is reading Scripture only literally, like beasts.
942. 10.104Boiling the lamb is watering Scripture down into lax, comfortable interpretations.
943. 10.105The lamb must be roasted with the fire of the Spirit, as Jeremiah's words burned in him and the disciples' hearts burned on the road to Emmaus.
944. 10.106One eats from head to feet: from the highest doctrines down to teachings about matter, the underworld, and demons.
945. 10.107Scripture must be taken whole, inner meanings included, without breaking its unity, as heretics do.
946. 10.108This food serves only for the night of this life; none of it is to be kept for the day that follows.
947. 10.109After this life comes the unleavened bread and then the angels' manna; each of us must sacrifice the lamb rightly.
948. 10.110The Passover signifies Christ; historical things are types of spiritual realities.
949. 10.111A third, heavenly Passover among the angels need not be discussed now.
950. 10.112Why was the Jews' Passover near when Jesus was in Capernaum?
951. 10.113Matthew's sequence of Jesus' movements in and around Capernaum has no mention of a Passover.
952. 10.114No other Gospel says the Passover was near after Jesus' stay in Capernaum.
953. 10.115Capernaum's stay is near the Jews' Passover, which is “of the Jews” because traders defiled the temple, making the Lord's feast merely human.
954. 10.116The Passover's timing near the spring equinox is left for another place.
955. 10.117Heracleon says the Passover lamb, killed and eaten, signified the Savior's passion in the world and the rest of the heavenly marriage.
956. 10.118Origen dismisses Heracleon's comment as careless; the next lemma is the cleansing of the temple, John 2:14–17.
957. 10.119John puts the temple cleansing at the start of Jesus' ministry; the others put a similar event near the end.
958. 10.120Matthew's account of Jesus cleansing the temple after his entry into Jerusalem.
959. 10.121Mark's account of the temple cleansing.
960. 10.122Luke's account: Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, then cleanses the temple.
961. 10.123John places a similar cleansing during a different, earlier visit to Jerusalem.
962. 10.124Matthew's account of the entry into Jerusalem on a donkey and colt.
963. 10.125Then follows the passage already quoted.
964. 10.126Mark's account of the entry, the withered fig tree, and the temple cleansing.
965. 10.127Luke's account of the entry into Jerusalem.
966. 10.128John tells of the entry into Jerusalem at a later visit, after the supper at Bethany.
967. 10.129The three Gospels put these events in one visit; John spreads them over two, separated by much else.
968. 10.130Origen holds that literal reading alone cannot reconcile these accounts, and invites reasoned rebuttal.
969. 10.131Praying for insight, Origen begins with John: Jerusalem, the great King's city, is built on a height to which the tribes go up.
970. 10.132Jerusalem is the soul gifted for spiritual insight; even such a soul can sin and, unless it repents, become a citizen of foreign cities.
971. 10.133Jesus finds in the temple, that is, in the church or its teaching, people making the Father's house a place of trade.
972. 10.134There are always money-changers in the church who need Christ's whip.
973. 10.135Some sell off the oxen of labor for God's kingdom, and some prefer money to the sheep that clothe them.
974. 10.136Many sell out the guileless “doves” for miserable profit.
975. 10.137Christ drives out the traders from the soul, overturning the tables of the love of money.
976. 10.138The cleansing was also a sign that the temple sacrifices and literal law-keeping were coming to an end.
977. 10.139After Jesus drove out the animals, Jewish sacrifice did not long continue.
978. 10.140The spilled coins signify the end of the letter of the law, as the kingdom passes to the believing nations.
979. 10.141The soul is a temple; Jesus drives out its earthly and foolish impulses with the whip of reasoned teaching so that it may truly serve God.
980. 10.142Oxen stand for earthly things, sheep for folly, doves for flighty thoughts, coins for false goods.
981. 10.143The clean animals are used because the story must be historically plausible; unclean animals could not be in the temple.
982. 10.144The evangelist drew on the real practice of traders in the outer court at feasts.
983. 10.145Taken literally, could a carpenter's son have driven out so many traders without being accused of violence?
984. 10.146Anyone whipped by an obscure man would have resisted with help from the crowd.
985. 10.147Taken literally, Jesus making a whip might seem rash and disorderly.
986. 10.148If the story is literal, it shows Christ's divine power to master crowds, no less than his other miracles.
987. 10.149This would be greater than turning water into wine, since it subdued the minds of thousands.
988. 10.150At Cana Jesus' mother and disciples are named, but in the going up to Jerusalem only Jesus is named.
989. 10.151Perhaps Jesus went up to Jerusalem within each disciple, which is why they are not named separately.
990. 10.152Next come the parallel passages in the other Gospels.
991. 10.153Matthew says the whole city was stirred when Jesus entered.
992. 10.154Matthew first tells of the two disciples fetching the donkey and colt.
993. 10.155Matthew says this fulfilled Zechariah's prophecy.
994. 10.156Matthew describes Jesus riding on both animals as the crowds spread garments and branches and cried Hosanna.
995. 10.157The crowds tell the stirred city that this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth.
996. 10.158Matthew's account of the cleansing itself.
997. 10.159For literalists: why was it necessary to send two disciples for the animals?
998. 10.160What was worth recording in the ride, and why did Zechariah prophesy it so grandly?
999. 10.161Literalists must also explain the rest of Zechariah's prophecy, which Jesus did not literally fulfill.
1000. 10.162Matthew quotes Zechariah freely, abridging and changing the wording.
1001. 10.163Jewish critics rightly ask how Jesus literally fulfilled the rest of Zechariah 9.
1002. 10.164The short distance from Bethany does not explain why he needed an animal, let alone two.
1003. 10.165Taken literally, the Son of God saying he “needs” a donkey seems unworthy of his divinity.
1004. 10.166Literally, the garments and branches would seem foolish and even a hindrance.
1005. 10.167The same, and greater, difficulties apply to the cleansing in Matthew.
1006. 10.168Matthew has Jesus drive out buyers too, a much larger crowd.
1007. 10.169Driving out everyone would need divine power, especially given the harsher words in the other Gospels.
1008. 10.170In John it is the Father's house turned into a market; in the others the house of prayer becomes a den of robbers.
1009. 10.171A house of prayer that is neglected can become a robbers' den, a thing made without reason or skill.
1010. 10.172Understanding these things requires the mind of Christ, beyond our own ability.
1011. 10.173Though our sight is dim, we will reach out in faith to the words of life, as one touching Christ's garment.
1012. 10.174Spiritually, the Word enters the soul riding the Old Testament, untied by two interpreters: one applying it to the soul, one to the realities to come.
1013. 10.175The colt is the New Testament; both Testaments carry the Word that cleanses us.
1014. 10.176The Word comes into the soul with many companions going before and after, who spread their adornment beneath him.
1015. 10.177The branches lift Scripture above the earth; the crowds are angels preparing and following the Word's coming in us.
1016. 10.178The donkey is a burden-bearer, like the heavy letter of Scripture, especially of the Old Testament.
1017. 10.179The New Testament letter is a lighter burden than the Old.
1018. 10.180Some interpret the donkey as Jewish believers freed from bonds, and the colt as unruly Gentiles before they accepted Christ.
1019. 10.181Those going ahead may be Moses and the prophets, and those following the apostles.
1020. 10.182Perhaps the city is the heavenly Jerusalem, once occupied by hostile spiritual powers, into which Christ leads Jewish and Gentile believers.
1021. 10.183These hostile powers defile the heavenly house and trade in worthless coin.
1022. 10.184They rob souls of their best and give worthless things in exchange.
1023. 10.185The donkey was bound because the veil over the law hid Jesus.
1024. 10.186Both Jewish and Gentile believers were lost before Christ.
1025. 10.187Their being sent back may hint at a mystery: saints becoming angels, sent in the next age to serve others.
1026. 10.188If the animals are the two Testaments, they are sent back once the Word has entered the purified soul.
1027. 10.189The nameless village is the whole earth, a mere village beside the heavenly world.
1028. 10.190They were sent from Bethphage, a priestly place whose name means “house of jaws.”
1029. 10.191A fuller treatment is left for Origen's commentary on Matthew.
1030. 10.192Mark and Luke mention only an unridden colt.
1031. 10.193The colt tied outside in the street stands for the Gentiles, strangers to the covenants, bound by their sins.
1032. 10.194The colt's bonds of sin were outside the door, since no bond of evil can exist within Christ, the door.
1033. 10.195The colt's “owners” are the evil powers that bound the sinner, powerless before the true Lord.
1034. 10.196The disciples bring the colt bare and cover it with their garments so the Lord may rest on it.
1035. 10.197The rest of Mark's and Luke's accounts can be understood from what was said about Matthew.
1036. 10.198The Gospels' variations describe different souls: in some Christ drives out all, in others he only begins, in others only the sellers.
1037. 10.199The Gospels' discords are resolved spiritually: each evangelist describes the Word working differently in different souls.
1038. 10.200John's different timing can be reconciled only spiritually; he describes palm branches and a crowd going out to meet Jesus.
1039. 10.201In John, Jesus himself finds the donkey, signifying a soul helped directly by Christ, not by human agents.
1040. 10.202John too quotes Zechariah freely, adding “Fear not,” which is not in the prophet.
1041. 10.203The daughter of Zion rejoices; the greater daughter of Jerusalem also proclaims the coming of her king.
1042. 10.204Whoever receives Christ need not fear heretical arguments (the chariots of Ephraim) or lust (the horse).
1043. 10.205Christ destroys the bow of war, so the devil's fiery darts cannot prevail over those who receive him.
1044. 10.206Christ's coming brings peace from the nations and power over the dragons of the sea.
1045. 10.207The unridden colt signifies that later believers had never submitted to reason before Christ came to them.
1046. 10.208Hostile powers, not humans, had ridden the colt, as Isaiah speaks of wealth borne on donkeys by beasts.
1047. 10.209Literally, “no human has sat on it” would be pointless, since only humans ride colts.
1048. 10.210Heracleon: going up to Jerusalem means the Lord's ascent from the material to the “psychic” realm.
1049. 10.211Heracleon distinguishes the inner sanctuary (for the spiritual) from the outer temple (for psychics saved outside the Pleroma).
1050. 10.212Heracleon took the traders as those who make gain from worship rather than giving by grace.
1051. 10.213Heracleon saw the whip, like linen and the shroud, as an image of the Holy Spirit's power.
1052. 10.214Heracleon invented that the whip was tied to wood, a type of the cross that destroys evil.
1053. 10.215Heracleon adds that Jesus did not make the whip from dead leather, since he was making the church his Father's house.
1054. 10.216Against Heracleon: Jesus calls the Jerusalem temple his Father's house, so his Father is the Creator of heaven and earth.
1055. 10.217The angel sent the apostles into this temple to preach.
1056. 10.218The apostles prayed at the temple because they knew its God was theirs.
1057. 10.219The apostles proclaim that the God of their fathers, whom Jesus called the God of Abraham, raised him.
1058. 10.220The disciples' recalling Psalm 69 shows the temple belonged to Christ's God; the psalm has the past tense.
1059. 10.221Christ, Son of a “jealous” God, is zealous that nothing foreign defile God's house within each soul.
1060. 10.222Psalm 69 is spoken throughout by Christ, including the verses cited in the Gospels.
1061. 10.223Heracleon wrongly assigns the psalm's words to the evil powers expelled by Christ, which breaks the psalm's sequence.
1062. 10.224Heracleon stumbled at Christ being “consumed” because he ignored Scripture's use of human language for God. Next lemma: “Destroy this temple.”
1063. 10.225The Jews demanding a sign represent the worldly-minded, angry that their cherished traffic has been expelled.
1064. 10.226Jesus answers by linking the temple with his own body.
1065. 10.227Jesus gave a sign related to the temple because the question concerned the temple.
1066. 10.228The temple and Christ's body both prefigure the church, built of living stones on Christ the cornerstone.
1067. 10.229The church, Christ's body, though scattered by persecution, will be raised on the “third day” of the new creation, as Christ's resurrection foreshadows.
1068. 10.230As Christ was crucified and raised, so his whole body, the saints, are crucified with him to the world.
1069. 10.231Believers are also buried with Christ.
1070. 10.232Believers have risen with Christ in pledge, walking in newness of life, while awaiting the full resurrection.
1071. 10.233The mystery of resurrection appears in Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones.
1072. 10.234God says the bones are the whole house of Israel, who have lost hope.
1073. 10.235The bones addressed are the house of Israel, Christ's body, of which he said “my bones are scattered,” though his physical bones were not.
1074. 10.236At the resurrection Christ's members, now like dry bones, will be joined together into the perfect man.
1075. 10.237The many members will be one body, and God alone will assign each its place.
1076. 10.238God will honor the lesser members so the body has no division, all sharing each other's joy.
1077. 10.239All this bears on the temple, the Jews' demand for a sign, and Jesus' answer linking temple and body.
1078. 10.240From the temple of Christ's body the irrational traders must be expelled.
1079. 10.241The temple of Christ's body is destroyed by his enemies and raised on the third day; then the disciples' faith is perfected.
1080. 10.242Each purified soul is destroyed and raised by Jesus, and the text says “in three days,” not “on the third day.”
1081. 10.243The raising unfolds over the three days: resurrection has begun and will be completed.
1082. 10.244The resurrection happens in stages: Christ, then his people at his coming, then the end.
1083. 10.245Christ's own resurrection had stages: paradise, the appearance to Mary, and its completion in going to the Father.
1084. 10.246Against those who merge Father and Son into one subject, Origen insists that Scripture shows them distinct, as Father of a Son and Son of a Father.
1085. 10.247The Son raised his own body because the Father, who primarily raised Christ, granted it, for the Son does what he sees the Father do.
1086. 10.248Heracleon took “in three days” as “on the third day,” without asking how resurrection spans three days.
1087. 10.249Heracleon calls the third day the spiritual day of the church's resurrection.
1088. 10.250So Heracleon's first two days would be the earthly and the psychic.
1089. 10.251The false witnesses at Jesus' trial referred to this saying.
1090. 10.252The false witnesses took his words about his body as about the stone temple; he stayed silent before the high priest.
1091. 10.253Next lemma: the temple took forty-six years to build.
1092. 10.254Historically, the forty-six years are hard to explain.
1093. 10.255Kings says the temple was prepared for three years and finished in Solomon's eleventh year.
1094. 10.256Even with preparation, the building took about eleven years, not forty-six.
1095. 10.257One might count forty-six years from David's plan to build, since he gathered materials though he could not build.
1096. 10.258Chronicles records David gathering vast materials for the temple.
1097. 10.259Counting from David's fifth year gives forty-six years only by forcing; or the temple meant is Ezra's, for which the figure cannot be verified.
1098. 10.260Perhaps the temple was rebuilt in Maccabean times, but Origen does not know.
1099. 10.261Heracleon says Solomon built the temple in forty-six years; he reads six as matter and forty (the tetrad) as the divine breath and seed in it.
1100. 10.262Origen suggests forty might refer to the four elements and six to man's creation on the sixth day. Next lemma: John 2:21–22.
1101. 10.263Should everything about the temple be applied to Christ's body, whether his flesh or the church?
1102. 10.264The simpler view: as God's glory dwelt in the temple, so Christ, God's image, dwells in his body or the church.
1103. 10.265Explaining every detail of the temple in Kings is left for another time.
1104. 10.266The temple is the church built of living stones; Solomon, building in peace after David's wars, is a type of Christ.
1105. 10.267When all enemies and death are subdued, Christ will be the true Solomon, the man of peace.
1106. 10.268In the final temple each believer will be a stone placed according to the worth of his life, from foundation to outer altar.
1107. 10.269Angels of various ranks, prefigured by Solomon's overseers and workers, will manage this heavenly temple.
1108. 10.270The numbers of Solomon's workers (seventy thousand, eighty thousand, three thousand six hundred) and the three years of preparation carry symbolic meaning.
1109. 10.271The chronology from Abraham to the temple gives a “sabbatical” 770 years; Christ, the true Solomon, has his sons shape precious stones for the foundation.
1110. 10.272Hiram's sons helped hew the stones, and the house was finished in the eighth month of the eighth year from its foundation.
1111. 10.273Origen now presses literalists to seek a spiritual meaning worthy of Scripture.
1112. 10.274Would princes cut stones, and would Scripture record such numbers without purpose?
1113. 10.275The temple was built without the sound of hammer or iron tool.
1114. 10.276How could eighty thousand stonecutters work without any noise?
1115. 10.277Living stones are shaped quietly outside, so that they come ready to their place.
1116. 10.278The winding stair of the temple signifies a smooth, circular ascent.
1117. 10.279The five-cubit bonds signify ascent from the five senses to “divine senses” that perceive spiritual things.
1118. 10.280The inner sanctuary (Debir) held the ark with the tablets written by God's finger.
1119. 10.281The whole house was covered with gold.
1120. 10.282The cherubim stood in the Debir, a word the translators left untranslated.
1121. 10.283Everything in the house was gold, symbolizing the mind perfected for spiritual contemplation.
1122. 10.284A veil hides the innermost things even from most priests and Levites.
1123. 10.285Solomon built the temple as king, but Hiram, the skilled craftsman, as master builder.
1124. 10.286Solomon may represent the eternal Son and Hiram the humanity he assumed, together building the temple, the church; this needs the mind of Christ.
1125. 10.287This suffices to show how Jesus spoke of the temple of his body.
1126. 10.288Can the temple's history (such as its destruction) apply to the spiritual house?
1127. 10.289If the spiritual temple could fall like the earthly one, hearers would object that eternal goods cannot be lost.
1128. 10.290But refusing to apply the history would be like the heretics, who break Scripture's unity.
1129. 10.291If the prophets' promises are not about the earthly city, the spiritual temple too must have its captivity and restoration.
1130. 10.292Origen tentatively wonders whether such falls could recur in future cycles.
1131. 10.293Isaiah promises a Jerusalem built of precious stones, whose children are taught by God.
1132. 10.294Isaiah 60 promises Jerusalem glory, peace, and God himself as everlasting light.
1133. 10.295These promises concern the age to come for the captive “Israel”; those restored will be precious stones in God's temple, never to leave.
1134. 10.296These remarks give only a brief sketch of the temple, church, and Jerusalem.
1135. 10.297A full study is left to tireless readers of the prophets.
1136. 10.298Literally, after the resurrection the disciples understood Jesus' saying about the temple and truly believed.
1137. 10.299Spiritually, at the resurrection of Christ's whole body the disciples will see what Scripture foreshadowed and believe fully.
1138. 10.300Truly believing Scripture means grasping the Spirit's meaning, which fleshly readers never glimpse.
1139. 10.301Some wrongly take “Blessed are those who have not seen” to mean they are more blessed than those who saw.
1140. 10.302That would make later believers more blessed than the apostles; true blessedness is to see spiritually, as Jesus told the disciples.
1141. 10.303Even the lesser blessing is worth having.
1142. 10.304Those who see are more blessed, like Simeon holding the infant Christ; perfect faith will come at the resurrection of the whole church.
1143. 10.305As knowledge is now partial, so is every good, including faith.
1144. 10.306Faith now is partial, but will be perfected by sight. Next lemma: John 2:23–25.
1145. 10.307Jesus did not entrust himself to those who believed in his name, which differs from believing in him.
1146. 10.308Jesus promises that whoever believes in him, not merely in his name, is not judged.
1147. 10.309Believing in his name is real but lesser faith, so Jesus does not entrust himself to such people.
1148. 10.310We must cling to Christ himself, not only his name; note too that here the Passover is not “of the Jews” but a “feast” in Jerusalem.
1149. 10.311Many believe in his name, but those who believe in him walk the narrow way found by few.
1150. 10.312Those who believe in his name may still share the kingdom, which has many dwelling places.
1151. 10.313Those believing in his name rely on others' testimony, unlike the first disciples.
1152. 10.314These believed because of signs, in his name only, so Jesus, knowing their hearts, did not trust himself to them.
1153. 10.315The Son of God knows every person directly and needs no one's testimony.
1154. 10.316If “man” means every rational being, Christ knows them all by the power given by the Father.
1155. 10.317If “man” means only mortals, some might say Christ needed testimony about higher beings.
1156. 10.318Another view: in his self-emptying Christ needed testimony only about things beyond the human.
1157. 10.319No signs in Jerusalem are recorded; perhaps the temple cleansing itself counts as a sign.
1158. 10.320John says both that Jesus knew all and that he needed no testimony about man.
1159. 10.321Christ knew all beings and the hearts of men, greater than prophets who reveal secrets; he knew also which powers were at work in people.
1160. 10.322One who gives place to the devil lets Satan in, as with Judas.
1161. 10.323Whoever makes room for God is blessed; Christ knows what is in each heart. Here Book 10 ends.
1162. 13.1Origen tells Ambrose, his patron, that the story of the Samaritan woman is split between two volumes.
1163. 13.2Book 13 begins with Jesus' answer about water that becomes a spring welling up to eternal life.
1164. 13.3This second answer urges the woman to ask for living water.
1165. 13.4After the first answer she objected; after the second she asked for the water.
1166. 13.5No one receives God's gifts without asking; even the Son is told in Psalm 2 to ask.
1167. 13.6The woman, a figure of heterodox readers of Scripture, is persuaded to ask for the better water.
1168. 13.7Drinking from the “deep” well gave her no rest from thirst.
1169. 13.8“Thirst” and “hunger” can mean bodily need or the chronic want of the poor.
1170. 13.9Exodus shows the first kind: Israel's bodily hunger in the wilderness and the gift of manna.
1171. 13.10They also thirsted and grumbled at Marah, where a tree made the water sweet.
1172. 13.11At Rephidim the people thirsted again.
1173. 13.12Paul's hunger and thirst illustrate the second kind, the want of those who labor.
1174. 13.13Bodily drink satisfies only briefly; thirst returns.
1175. 13.14Whoever has Christ's spring within cannot thirst.
1176. 13.15Whoever drinks from merely human (or heterodox) depths finds rest only briefly and is soon perplexed again.
1177. 13.16Christ's word becomes an inner spring that answers every question and carries the mind upward to eternal life.
1178. 13.17The leaping water recalls the bridegroom leaping over mountains in the Song of Songs.
1179. 13.18As the bridegroom leaps over souls great and small, the spring wells up to eternal life.
1180. 13.19The spring may leap even beyond eternal life to the Father, who is greater than Christ, the life.
1181. 13.20The spring is fulfilled in those blessed for hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
1182. 13.21Jesus blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
1183. 13.22We must cultivate hunger and thirst for God, as the psalmist longs like a deer for water.
1184. 13.23It is good first to drink from Jacob's spring; Jesus does not call it a well.
1185. 13.24Jacob's spring has value, or Jesus would not have sat there and asked for a drink.
1186. 13.25Jesus promised the living water at the spring itself: “come here.”
1187. 13.26Jacob's spring may be the Scriptures, and Jesus' water the truth itself, which is of a different order.
1188. 13.27Some divine mysteries exceed Scripture, and some exceed human language altogether.
1189. 13.28John was forbidden to write the thunders' words; Paul heard words that humans may not utter.
1190. 13.29Paul's words were not lawful for a man to utter.
1191. 13.30All of Scripture is only a small beginning of the whole of knowledge.
1192. 13.31Jacob's spring may be Scripture, and Jesus' water what goes beyond what is written.
1193. 13.32Not all may search beyond Scripture; Sirach warns against seeking what is too hard.
1194. 13.33Knowing what lies beyond Scripture belongs to someone like John, who heard the thunders but did not write.
1195. 13.34Paul's unspeakable words and what no eye has seen lie beyond what is written.
1196. 13.35What has not entered the human heart, greater than Jacob's spring, is revealed to those with the mind of Christ.
1197. 13.36“Human wisdom” may mean the elementary truths; the Spirit's teaching is the spring of eternal life.
1198. 13.37The Scriptures are introductions; from them we must go up to Jesus for the living spring.
1199. 13.38People drink from Scripture differently: the wise like Jacob and his sons, the simple like his flocks, the heterodox like the Samaritan woman.
1200. 13.39The wise, the simple, and the heretics drink differently from Scripture. Next lemma: “Sir, give me this water.”
1201. 13.40She calls him “Lord” a second time, now asking for the living water.
1202. 13.41Having asked, she received living water, able to see truth like the angels without Jacob's spring.
1203. 13.42One must first labor at drawing from Scripture before receiving the Word's water. Next lemma: “Go, call your husband.”
1204. 13.43The woman's husband is the law ruling her soul, as Paul says the law rules as long as it lives.
1205. 13.44Paul's “living husband” is the law.
1206. 13.45When the law dies, the soul is released from it.
1207. 13.46Paul: while the husband lives, joining another is adultery; after his death she is free.
1208. 13.47The letter of the law has died; the soul may now belong to the spiritual law, Christ risen from the dead.
1209. 13.48The heretical soul must be convicted of its false “husband,” the law of its sect, and turn to Christ, the risen Word who reigns forever.
1210. 13.49Jesus asks for her husband so that her false “husband” may be exposed at the spring.
1211. 13.50Already touched by the living water, she renounced her false husband. Next lemma: “You have had five husbands.”
1212. 13.51The five husbands are the five senses; the sixth is a false, heretical “spiritual” teaching the soul turns to after them.
1213. 13.52When Christ comes, we reject the false husband and he commends us.
1214. 13.53“This you said truly” implies her earlier statements were not true.
1215. 13.54Jesus himself dealt with Samaritans to help them.
1216. 13.55Her claim that he had nothing to draw with was also untrue.
1217. 13.56She was wrong to think she drank just as Jacob and his sons did.
1218. 13.57Heracleon calls the life from Jacob's well weak, temporary, and worldly, since even cattle drank from it.
1219. 13.58Origen would accept this if it meant partial present knowledge, but not if it slanders the Old Testament.
1220. 13.59Heracleon rightly says the Savior's water is from his spirit and power.
1221. 13.60Heracleon: the Savior's gift of life is eternal and cannot be lost.
1222. 13.61If Heracleon means the letter must give way to the spirit, fine; but he wrongly despises the Old Testament, which foreshadows good things to come.
1223. 13.62Heracleon aptly says those who receive the spring pour it out for others' eternal life.
1224. 13.63Heracleon praises the woman's undoubting faith as suited to her nature.
1225. 13.64Origen rejects Heracleon's idea that faith comes from a special nature rather than free choice.
1226. 13.65Heracleon, adding to the text, says the woman came to hate the place of the old “living water.”
1227. 13.66Heracleon calls Jacob's water toilsome and unnourishing; Origen asks how he can prove it.
1228. 13.67Heracleon says the woman's “husband” is her heavenly counterpart in the Pleroma, with whom she must be united.
1229. 13.68Origen objects that if Jesus meant a heavenly partner, he would have explained who he was and how to call him.
1230. 13.69If she neither knew her heavenly husband nor could name her lover, Jesus' command would be pointless.
1231. 13.70Heracleon: the woman had no husband in the world,
1232. 13.71because her husband was in the Aeon; he also reads a different number of husbands.
1233. 13.72Heracleon reads “six husbands,” meaning all the material evil with which the woman had been entangled.
1234. 13.73If Heracleon's “spiritual” woman sinned, she could not be a good tree, as the Gospel says.
1235. 13.74Heracleon's theory forces him to deny either that her immorality was sin or that she committed it. Next lemma: John 4:19–20.
1236. 13.75She calls him Lord a third time but still thinks him only a prophet.
1237. 13.76The heterodox soul, exposed, recognizes the Word as something divine but not as fully as he is.
1238. 13.77The Samaritans worship on Mount Gerizim, the mountain of blessing in Deuteronomy.
1239. 13.78The Jews consider Zion the place God chose, where the temple stood.
1240. 13.79Each nation believes its fathers worshiped on its own mountain.
1241. 13.80Samaritans still argue with Jews in the woman's very words.
1242. 13.81Jews represent the orthodox, Samaritans the heterodox; Gerizim means “division,” fitting the schism under Jeroboam, while Zion means “watchtower.”
1243. 13.82Gerizim as “cutting off” fits the schism; as “division” it fits the blessing, since wise distinction is needed to understand truth.
1244. 13.83Until the hour comes, one must avoid the heretics' mountain and worship in Zion, the church.
1245. 13.84The true Jerusalem is the church, built of living stones, offering spiritual sacrifices.
1246. 13.85In the fullness of time, true worship will be in spirit and truth, beyond even the church's present forms.
1247. 13.86“The hour is coming” appears twice, the second time with “and now is.”
1248. 13.87The first “hour” is worship after this bodily life; the second is the growing worship of those being perfected now.
1249. 13.88Even now one can worship in spirit and truth, while outwardly remaining in the church for the sake of simpler believers.
1250. 13.89Only the future hour excludes both mountain and Jerusalem.
1251. 13.90Her claim about the fathers' mountain is as mistaken as her claim about Jacob's well.
1252. 13.91Heracleon says only a prophet knows all things; Origen replies that angels know such things and prophets know only in part.
1253. 13.92Heracleon says the woman, true to her nature, revealed that ignorance of God had led to her immorality and neglect of worship.
1254. 13.93Origen dismisses this as unfounded improvisation.
1255. 13.94Heracleon says she wanted to learn how to be freed from immorality; Origen finds no basis for this. Next lemma: John 4:21.
1256. 13.95Heracleon rightly notes the new “Believe me,” but then says the mountain is the devil or the world, worshiped by Gentiles, and Jerusalem the creation or Creator, worshiped by Jews.
1257. 13.96Alternatively, Heracleon says, the mountain is creation and Jerusalem the Creator.
1258. 13.97Heracleon: spiritual people worship neither creation nor the Demiurge but the Father of truth, and the woman is counted among them.
1259. 13.98“Not on this mountain” rejects heretical “gnostic” worship; “not in Jerusalem” means the perfect will surpass even the church's ordinary worship.
1260. 13.99Like angels, the perfect worship better than in “Jerusalem,” though they may accommodate themselves to others for their sake.
1261. 13.100When the hour comes, the worshiper, having become a son, worships the Father with boldness. Next lemma: John 4:22.
1262. 13.101“You” are the Samaritans, or heretics; “we” are the Jews, or the Word and those shaped by him, whose salvation comes from the Jewish Scriptures.
1263. 13.102Heracleon took “you” to mean Jews and Gentiles, against the context.
1264. 13.103It makes no sense to call a Samaritan “you Jews”; rather the heretics do not know what they worship, while worshipers of the Creator do.
1265. 13.104Heracleon cites the “Preaching of Peter,” whose authenticity is doubtful, as teaching that neither Greek idolaters nor Jews truly know God.
1266. 13.105The Jews offered their sacrifices to the Creator of all.
1267. 13.106Since salvation is from the Jews, the heretics cannot deny the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
1268. 13.107Christ fulfills the law and prophets, which shows how salvation is from the Jews.
1269. 13.108One God justifies Jews and Gentiles by faith, which establishes the law. Next lemma: John 4:23.
1270. 13.109True worshipers worship the Father in spirit and truth, not in flesh and figures.
1271. 13.110Those enslaved to the letter worship only in figures and are not true worshipers.
1272. 13.111A true worshiper may sometimes perform outward rites to lead others to the truth, as Paul did.
1273. 13.112True worship is present now in the pledge of the Spirit and will be complete when the whole Spirit is received.
1274. 13.113Now we worship as through a mirror; in the coming hour worship will be face to face.
1275. 13.114Heracleon says “we” means the Savior from the Aeon and those who came with him.
1276. 13.115Heracleon: salvation came from Judea, not from all Jews, and spiritually because Jews are images of beings in the Pleroma.
1277. 13.116Heracleon's followers should show how each detail of Jewish worship images the Pleroma, if they mean it.
1278. 13.117Heracleon says earlier worshipers erred by worshiping one who was not the Father, so all worshipers of the Creator went astray.
1279. 13.118Heracleon says they served the creation instead of Christ, the true Creator. Next lemma: the Father seeks such worshipers.
1280. 13.119The Father seeks worshipers through the Son, who cleanses and teaches them.
1281. 13.120Heracleon: what is akin to the Father was lost in matter and is sought so that the Father may be worshiped by his own.
1282. 13.121Origen would accept this if it referred to the lost sheep and the prodigal son.
1283. 13.122The Valentinians' myth of a lost spiritual nature is too vague to engage. Next lemma: “God is spirit.”
1284. 13.123Philosophers dispute whether God is bodily, incorporeal, or beyond being; what does Scripture say?
1285. 13.124Scripture calls God spirit, consuming fire, and light.
1286. 13.125Taken literally, these texts would make God a body, with absurd consequences that those who hold it cannot answer.
1287. 13.126This excludes those who posit a fifth bodily element.
1288. 13.127If God were a material body, he would be changeable, since matter can take any quality.
1289. 13.128Some even say God is a perishable body who never perishes only because nothing can destroy him.
1290. 13.129If God were literally fire or breath, he would be perishable or changeable, which is absurd.
1291. 13.130We must either accept absurdities about God or interpret these words spiritually.
1292. 13.131As we read God's bodily features figuratively, so we must read “spirit,” “fire,” and “light.”
1293. 13.132“Light” is either bodily or spiritual, which Scripture calls invisible and the Greeks incorporeal.
1294. 13.133Examples: Israel's light in Egypt (bodily) and Hosea's “light of knowledge” (spiritual).
1295. 13.134Darkness too is bodily (night) or spiritual (the darkness of those without Christ).
1296. 13.135Does God as light illumine bodily eyes or the eyes of the mind?
1297. 13.136God, as light, illumines the minds of the worthy, not bodily eyes like the sun.
1298. 13.137God as light is intelligible and incorporeal; so too as consuming fire, which burns wood, hay, and stubble.
1299. 13.138God as consuming fire burns up the wood, hay, and stubble of sin in the soul, causing spiritual pain.
1300. 13.139God is called light and consuming fire by transferring these bodily terms to spiritual realities.
1301. 13.140God is called spirit because he gives true, divine life, as breath gives bodily life; the letter kills by separating the soul from God.
1302. 13.141Without God's Spirit one becomes earthly; receiving it, one is created anew.
1303. 13.142Genesis's breath of life too should be understood spiritually.
1304. 13.143God's Spirit dwells in the souls of the holy, as the promise says.
1305. 13.144We need trained spiritual senses to understand how God is light, fire, and spirit.
1306. 13.145Elijah's vision (the Lord not in wind, earthquake, or fire but in a gentle breeze) also bears on how God is spirit and fire.
1307. 13.146Only the Son reveals the Father; through him we learn to worship in Spirit and truth, like the angels led by Christ, high priest after Melchizedek.
1308. 13.147Heracleon: “God is spirit” means his nature is pure and invisible.
1309. 13.148Heracleon says true worshipers, being of the same nature as the Father, are spirit and worship spiritually.
1310. 13.149It is impious to call worshipers “of the same substance” as the unbegotten God, especially when Heracleon says one of them fell into immorality.
1311. 13.150If a nature of God's substance could sin, their doctrine implies blasphemies about God himself.
1312. 13.151Christ and the Holy Spirit surpass all created things beyond comparison, yet the Father surpasses them as much or more, as Jesus said, “The Father is greater than I.”
1313. 13.152Though the Son surpasses all beings, he is not comparable with the Father.
1314. 13.153The Son is the image, radiance, and mirror of the Father's goodness, glory, and power, through whom we see God. Next lemma: John 4:25.
1315. 13.154The Samaritans, accepting only the Pentateuch, would expect the Messiah from texts like Jacob's blessing of Judah.
1316. 13.155They may also hope from Balaam's prophecies.
1317. 13.156Balaam's oracle continues with the strength of the one God led out of Egypt.
1318. 13.157Balaam foretells a star from Jacob and a man from Israel.
1319. 13.158Moses' blessing of Judah might also be read as messianic by the Samaritans.
1320. 13.159Samaritans, who claim Joseph as patriarch, may read the blessings of Joseph messianically.
1321. 13.160Jesus says Moses wrote about him.
1322. 13.161The Law has many veiled references to Christ; “Messiah” is rendered “Christ” by the Seventy and “Anointed” by Aquila.
1323. 13.162The Samaritans also had a false messiah, Dositheus, whose followers claim he never died.
1324. 13.163The heterodox soul awaits a perfect Word, and Christ, already present, says, “I am he.”
1325. 13.164Heracleon says the church awaited Christ as the one who knows all. Next lemma: John 4:26–27.
1326. 13.165Compare other passages where Christ declares who he is.
1327. 13.166Jesus shows his humility by speaking of great things to a poor woman drawing water.
1328. 13.167We, in our pride, despise humble people, forgetting that each bears God's image.
1329. 13.168God, who fashions every heart, is the God of the lowly and savior of the hopeless.
1330. 13.169Jesus makes the woman an apostle to her city; the disciples marvel that he revealed himself to her.
1331. 13.170Trusting the Word, the disciples did not question his conversation with her.
1332. 13.171They marveled at the Word's kindness to a soul that trusted in Samaria's mountain.
1333. 13.172Heracleon says Jesus came to Samaria for the disciples, but they were already with him. Next lemma: John 4:28–29.
1334. 13.173Leaving her water jar shows her eagerness to bring the good news to her fellow citizens.
1335. 13.174Like her, we should leave lesser concerns and hurry to share what we have received.
1336. 13.175Spiritually, the jar she leaves is the heretical teaching she once prized, now replaced by Christ's living water within her.
1337. 13.176She could proclaim Christ only because she had already received the saving water.
1338. 13.177Rebekah, unlike the Samaritan woman, drew rightly, and Abraham's servant asked her for water.
1339. 13.178Rebekah's praiseworthy jar was kept; the Samaritan woman's jar, unworthy, was left behind.
1340. 13.179A woman proclaims Christ to the Samaritans, and a woman first announces his resurrection.
1341. 13.180Neither woman had the last word: the Samaritans believed for themselves, and Mary was told not to touch him, while Thomas was invited to.
1342. 13.181“All she did” was her life with the five and the sixth; leaving the jar, she rests in the seventh, Christ, and leads others out of their false city to him.
1343. 13.182The Samaritans ask Jesus to stay “with them,” in their minds, not in their city, which they had left.
1344. 13.183The evangelist's wording supports such spiritual readings.
1345. 13.184The text says they left the city, believed through the woman's word, and asked him to stay with them.
1346. 13.185Jesus stayed “there,” apparently at the spring, not in the city.
1347. 13.186He left “from there,” so the Samaritans' whole benefit took place at Jacob's spring.
1348. 13.187Heracleon: the jar is her disposition to receive the Savior's power, left with him as she goes to announce Christ to “the calling.”
1349. 13.188But can the jar be something good if she abandoned it?
1350. 13.189It is implausible that she would go out to preach after abandoning the very capacity for life.
1351. 13.190If she were “spiritual,” why does she still doubt, asking “Can this be the Christ?”
1352. 13.191Heracleon: leaving the city means leaving their worldly life and coming to the Savior by faith.
1353. 13.192Heracleon ignores that Jesus is not said to have stayed in the city. Next lemma: “Rabbi, eat.”
1354. 13.193After the teaching on water comes teaching on food.
1355. 13.194The woman had nothing worthy to give Jesus to drink, though he meant to benefit her by asking.
1356. 13.195The disciples offered food in the interval when no Samaritan was present, perhaps to avoid giving offense.
1357. 13.196Hence “meanwhile”: the disciples spoke when the Samaritans were not there.
1358. 13.197Why does the text say they “asked” rather than “said”?
1359. 13.198The disciples always want to nourish the Word with what they find, so that he stays with them and feeds them in return.
1360. 13.199So Christ knocks at the door to dine with us and then feed us in return.
1361. 13.200Heracleon says the disciples wanted to share food from Samaria with Jesus, linking this to the foolish virgins.
1362. 13.201Heracleon's comparison implies an accusation against the disciples.
1363. 13.202Light and oil are unlike food, so Heracleon's comparison fails. Next lemma: “I have food to eat that you do not know.”
1364. 13.203Only what is in need eats; the self-sufficient needs no food.
1365. 13.204Bodies need food to replace what they lose; spiritual beings are fed by thoughts, words, and good deeds, without which they lose their quality.
1366. 13.205Souls, like bodies, differ in how much and what kind of nourishment they can take.
1367. 13.206Not all souls are suited to the same spiritual food.
1368. 13.207Vegetables and solid food suit different stages.
1369. 13.208Beginners need milk, as Peter and Paul say.
1370. 13.209The weak in faith eat vegetables, as Paul says.
1371. 13.210There is simple food shared in love, solid food for the mature, and even poisonous food.
1372. 13.211Simpler souls have spiritual “grass,” as in Psalm 23.
1373. 13.212Isaiah and Genesis also speak of fodder and chaff.
1374. 13.213The rational person eats spiritual bread and drinks spiritual wine.
1375. 13.214Angels too are fed; Abraham set bread before the three visitors.
1376. 13.215Christ's food was unknown to the disciples.
1377. 13.216They did not know that his food was doing the Father's will.
1378. 13.217Paul could say the same to the Corinthians, who were not ready for solid food.
1379. 13.218The mature always say this to the less advanced.
1380. 13.219Even Christ is nourished by the Father, who alone is self-sufficient.
1381. 13.220The crowds are fed by the disciples, the disciples by Jesus, and the Son by the Father alone.
1382. 13.221The whole mystery of calling and election is the food of the great supper.
1383. 13.222The Gospels' supper parables and Isaiah's promises speak of this food.
1384. 13.223In paradise God gave laws about food; man would have stayed immortal had he obeyed.
1385. 13.224The righteous are fed, but the unrighteous suffer a famine of God's word.
1386. 13.225As we advance we eat better food, perhaps one day the Son's own food. Next lemma: John 4:33.
1387. 13.226Heracleon thinks the disciples spoke carnally, like the Samaritan woman; perhaps they saw something more divine.
1388. 13.227The disciples may have thought angels had fed him; he teaches them his food is doing the Father's will. Next lemma: John 4:34.
1389. 13.228The Son's food is doing the Father's will so fully that their wills are one, which is why he says, “I and the Father are one.”
1390. 13.229Doing the Father's will means sharing his very willing, not merely doing outward tasks.
1391. 13.230The whole of the Father's will is done when God's willing is present in the Son.
1392. 13.231Only the Son receives and does the Father's whole will, and so is his image; other holy beings do God's will but not all of it.
1393. 13.232Holy beings receive God's will in varying degrees; only Christ does all of it.
1394. 13.233The Son does only what he sees the Father do.
1395. 13.234The Son is the image of the invisible God: his will images the Father's will, his divinity the true divinity, his goodness the Father's goodness.
1396. 13.235The will concerns inner disposition; completing the work follows it.
1397. 13.236What does “complete his work” mean? If Christ completes God's work, was it incomplete?
1398. 13.237The work completed is the perfecting of rational beings, for which the Word became flesh.
1399. 13.238But would God have created something incomplete for the Son to finish?
1400. 13.239Perhaps humanity was not incomplete when placed in paradise.
1401. 13.240One who could tend the tree of life was not incomplete.
1402. 13.241Humanity became incomplete through disobedience, and the Savior was sent to perfect each person for solid food and wisdom.
1403. 13.242When perfected, each can say with Paul, “I have fought the good fight.”
1404. 13.243Not only humans but the sons of God and all who left their proper dwelling fell from perfection.
1405. 13.244ἀρχή here means “beginning” as opposed to “end”: each fallen being had its own proper beginning.
1406. 13.245Christ perfects all rational beings: the obedient by the Word alone, the disobedient through hardships that bring them back to the Word.
1407. 13.246Doing the Father's will and completing his work are together Christ's food.
1408. 13.247Heracleon: Christ's food was the Father's will, the subject of his talk with the woman, his nourishment, rest, and power.
1409. 13.248Heracleon calls the Father's will people's salvation and Christ's food his conversation with the woman, a forced reading.
1410. 13.249Origen questions Heracleon: Gethsemane shows the Father's will was not simply Christ's rest. Next lemma: John 4:35.
1411. 13.250Literal readers of “four months to harvest” face difficulties that show Jesus often spoke of purely spiritual things.
1412. 13.251Four months before harvest would be winter, since harvest in Judea begins around Nisan, at Passover.
1413. 13.252Even if harvest is a month later, four months earlier is still midwinter; Origen will show it was actually harvest time.
1414. 13.253The sequence in John: Cana, Capernaum, then Passover in Jerusalem and the cleansing of the temple.
1415. 13.254After speaking with Nicodemus, Jesus baptized in Judea for an unstated time after Passover.
1416. 13.255Jesus left Judea for Galilee through Samaria and at Jacob's spring said this.
1417. 13.256Objection answered: after two days in Samaria Jesus reached Galilee, where people had recently seen his deeds at the Passover.
1418. 13.257Someone may reply that Jesus could have stayed longer in Judea, so the Galileans remembered deeds eight months old.
1419. 13.258But then comes the healing of the official's son and a feast in Jerusalem, where he healed the paralytic.
1420. 13.259If that feast was Passover, the chronology becomes cramped, since Tabernacles soon follows.
1421. 13.260So we must seek the spiritual meaning of “four months” and “white for harvest,” as with the waters.
1422. 13.261“White for harvest” is plainly spiritual, so the disciples' “four months” must be too.
1423. 13.262The disciples may mean that truth is attainable only after we pass beyond the four elements of this bodily life.
1424. 13.263They say the harvest of truth comes after the present “four.”
1425. 13.264“Months” fits the image of harvest, veiling the mystery from literal-minded hearers,
1426. 13.265while showing a simple sense so the words seem clear.
1427. 13.266Or the four months are the four elemental spheres (earth, water, air, fire) below the heavens.
1428. 13.267Perhaps they thought truth would be reached after passing the sphere of fire into the pure ether, if not consumed by sin.
1429. 13.268Christ corrects this: the fields are already white for harvest.
1430. 13.269He must mean one harvest throughout; the literal reading makes no sense.
1431. 13.270It is inconsistent to read the second half spiritually but not the first.
1432. 13.271Heracleon read the four months literally but took the harvest as believers' souls ready to be gathered into rest.
1433. 13.272Origen asks how Heracleon's reading fits the sayings about sowers and reapers.
1434. 13.273The harvest is the full growth of the Word sown like seed in our minds. Next lemma: John 4:35b.
1435. 13.274Scripture often bids us lift our eyes, that is, raise our minds, as in Isaiah.
1436. 13.275Jesus lifted his eyes to the disciples when giving the beatitudes; no true disciple is “below.”
1437. 13.276The rich man in torment lifted his eyes to see Abraham and Lazarus above.
1438. 13.277The bent woman Jesus healed could at last lift her eyes.
1439. 13.278Those sunk in passions and the flesh cannot lift their eyes to see the harvest.
1440. 13.279The fields of Scripture turn white when the Word comes and illumines them.
1441. 13.280Creation too is a field white for harvest: God saw each creature was good by seeing the reason (logos) of each.
1442. 13.281Otherwise, how could God call sea creatures and monsters “good”?
1443. 13.282What God saw as good was the reason of each creature, including beasts and creeping things.
1444. 13.283Their goodness lies in the reason by which they were made.
1445. 13.284We are urged to lift our eyes to the fields of Scripture and of creation's reasons to see the light of truth everywhere. Next lemma: John 4:36.
1446. 13.285Origen proposes to survey the meanings of “harvest” in Scripture before interpreting John 4:35.
1447. 13.286In Matthew the harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are angels.
1448. 13.287A second sense: the harvest is the multitude of believers needing teachers.
1449. 13.288A third sense: Paul calls this life's deeds a sowing and their recompense a harvest.
1450. 13.289The Psalm about sowing in tears and reaping in joy uses a similar sense.
1451. 13.290Of the five senses surveyed, neither the ordinary one nor the end-of-the-age one fits John 4:36.
1452. 13.291Paul's sense of sowing to flesh or Spirit does not fit here either.
1453. 13.292In Paul the sower and reaper are one person; in John they are different.
1454. 13.293The Psalm hints at nobler souls descending into this life with saving seeds and returning with joy; in John sower and reaper differ.
1455. 13.294Heracleon, and perhaps some church interpreter, reads the whitened fields as people ready for salvation, Heracleon by nature, the other by preparation of the mind.
1456. 13.295Against this reading Origen argues that there were believers and workers before Christ, and that none of the listed senses fits here.
1457. 13.296Origen seeks a seventh meaning of harvest that fits John 4:35.
1458. 13.297The harvest is the clear understanding of Scripture and of the goodness of creation, which brings the reaper two fruits.
1459. 13.298The wages are the future reward; the fruit is the immediate joy that contemplation brings to the mind.
1460. 13.299Heracleon takes the reaper to be the Savior, whose wages are the salvation and restoration of those he reaps.
1461. 13.300Origen objects that Heracleon's reading is forced and merges two distinct things.
1462. 13.301Origen turns to the words “that sower and reaper may rejoice together.”
1463. 13.302In every art the discoverer of principles sows and those who complete it later reap.
1464. 13.303So too in the supreme art, the knowledge of truth, successive generations build the one body of truth.
1465. 13.304When the work is complete, sower and reaper rejoice together as God gathers all to one end.
1466. 13.305Moses and the prophets sowed; the apostles who saw Christ's glory reaped the mystery now revealed.
1467. 13.306The seed was the mystery long hidden and now revealed through the prophets and Christ's appearing, the true light that whitened the fields.
1468. 13.307The fields are the Law and the Prophets, which become white only to Christ's disciples.
1469. 13.308Origen urges his readers to look at the Scriptures sown by Moses and the prophets and reap their fruit.
1470. 13.309All agree that sower and reaper will rejoice together in the age to come.
1471. 13.310The transfiguration was a harvest in which Moses and Elijah, the sowers, rejoiced with the apostles, the reapers.
1472. 13.311Since the reapers and laborers are many, the saying applies universally.
1473. 13.312John 4:38 speaks of many reapers and many sowers.
1474. 13.313The saying means that every reaper and every sower will rejoice together.
1475. 13.314Some accept that the apostles knew more than Moses and the prophets; others hesitate to say so.
1476. 13.315Those who hold the apostles saw more cite sayings about prophets longing to see, the mystery now revealed, and the sealed book.
1477. 13.316Those who hold the prophets understood reply that the prophets knew but did not unfold the mysteries, and that what they longed to see was greater still.
1478. 13.317Origen considers the purpose clause of John 4:36.
1479. 13.318The sower shares the reaper's wages and fruit and so rejoices with him.
1480. 13.319Another view: Moses and the prophets understood fully, but the apostles built on their seeds and reaped far more when the fullness of time came in Christ.
1481. 13.320On either interpretation it is clear why sower and reaper are different people.
1482. 13.321Perhaps “one” and “another” are the people of the law and the people of the gospel, who share one end in one God.
1483. 13.322Heracleon explains that sower and reaper each rejoice in their own work, though the sower begins first.
1484. 13.323Heracleon continues: sowing must precede reaping, but both now rejoice in the perfecting of the seeds.
1485. 13.324Heracleon distinguishes a Son of Man above the Place who sows from the Savior who reaps; Origen notes he did not explain these two.
1486. 13.325The apostles, taught by Jesus, reaped the meaning that Moses and the prophets had labored to sow in their writings.
1487. 13.326Perhaps angels appointed over human birth are the sowers, and the apostles reap in those whom Christ's coming has made ready.
1488. 13.327Origen asks whether the angels' task of joining souls to bodies is a laborious one.
1489. 13.328An objection: Scripture says God himself forms each person in the womb.
1490. 13.329Answer: as the law given through angels was God's word, so God may form people through angels.
1491. 13.330Tentatively: those who are God's own portion are formed by God, others by the angels to whom they were allotted.
1492. 13.331On this view “Let us make man” and “Let us go down” are addressed by God to the angels who share in the work.
1493. 13.332Offered without decision: each person belongs to the portion of some angel, as Deut 32:8–9 suggests.
1494. 13.333Each angel labors over its portion, but at Christ's coming people from every portion are brought into his inheritance through the preachers of the gospel.
1495. 13.334This may be why the apostles, soon sent to all nations, are told they enter others' labor.
1496. 13.335If those angels are holy, they can rejoice together with the apostles after the harvest.
1497. 13.336Heracleon says the laborers were the angels of the dispensation; sowers toil in winter while reapers gladly gather ready fruit.
1498. 13.337Origen leaves the reader to compare his view with Heracleon's.
1499. 13.338While the Samaritan woman went to the city and people came to Jesus, he spoke with his disciples.
1500. 13.339Scripture returns to the Samaritans who believed through the woman's testimony.
1501. 13.340Spiritually, those held by false teachings leave their “city” of doctrines and believe soundly, as the woman did.
1502. 13.341Heracleon reads the city as the world, the woman as the spiritual church, and the many as “psychics”; Origen has answered this earlier.
1503. 13.342An apparent conflict: Jesus forbade entering Samaritan cities, yet stayed two days with the Samaritans.
1504. 13.343Origen resolves it spiritually: the forbidden “city of the Samaritans” is false knowledge claiming Scripture's authority.
1505. 13.344Once the Samaritans left their city and came to him, Jesus could stay with them.
1506. 13.345John carefully says Jesus stayed “with them,” not in their city.
1507. 13.346Jesus stays with those who leave their city for him, as Abraham left his homeland.
1508. 13.347Jesus stayed only two days because the Samaritans were not ready for a “third day” like the wedding at Cana.
1509. 13.348Faith began through the woman's word but grew through the Word himself, who is known better directly than through another.
1510. 13.349Heracleon notes Jesus stayed “with” not “in” them, and reads the two days as two ages or as before and after the passion.
1511. 13.350Origen answers that “with them” is like Christ's promise to be “with” his disciples always.
1512. 13.351Origen objects that Heracleon ignores the ages beyond the age to come, and that Christ never leaves his disciples.
1513. 13.352Hearing the Word directly is better than hearing about him through others.
1514. 13.353One taught at second hand cannot experience what the eyewitness does; walking by sight is better than by faith.
1515. 13.354Those who walk by sight have the higher gifts of wisdom and knowledge; faith, though a gift, ranks after them.
1516. 13.355Origen asks how Paul, who saw the Lord, can say “we walk by faith, not by sight.”
1517. 13.356Origen resumes the context of 2 Cor 5:5–7.
1518. 13.357Paul's words: at home in the body we are away from the Lord, and we would rather be at home with the Lord.
1519. 13.358Origen asks whether Paul himself was at home in the body or at home with the Lord.
1520. 13.359Since Paul had the Spirit, he was not “in the flesh” or at home in the body.
1521. 13.360Paul distinguishes being “in the flesh” from being “at home in the body”: the latter still walk by faith.
1522. 13.361Those who cling to Scripture's letter are at home in its “body”; those who grasp its spiritual sense are at home with the Lord.
1523. 13.362The digression explains the Samaritans' step from faith by report to direct knowledge.
1524. 13.363Heracleon says people first believe through others, then through the truth itself.
1525. 13.364Origen notes that the reason given in John 4:44 seems not to follow.
1526. 13.365The reason would fit if Samaria were Jesus' homeland and he had been dishonored there.
1527. 13.366It would also fit if John had said Jesus avoided his own hometown.
1528. 13.367Perhaps John, unskilled in style, expressed this obscurely, though he knew what he meant.
1529. 13.368John resumes the journey to Galilee after the Samaritan episode.
1530. 13.369Judea signifies the higher and Galilee the lower; God cares for the lesser too, so Jesus hurried to Galilee.
1531. 13.370Afterward he went up to Jerusalem for the feast and made it more joyful.
1532. 13.371Origen turns to the meaning of “a prophet has no honor in his own country.”
1533. 13.372The prophets' country was Judea, where they were persecuted and killed.
1534. 13.373Stephen reproached the Jews for persecuting the prophets, and at last they rejected Christ himself.
1535. 13.374Among the Gentiles, which is not their country, the prophets and Christ are honored.
1536. 13.375Origen suggests comparing the parallel sayings in the other Gospels.
1537. 13.376The saying holds true even of wise men among the Greeks despised by their fellow citizens.
1538. 13.377Greek history gives examples; so do the words of those who scorned Jesus as the carpenter's son.
1539. 13.378People dishonor prophets while alive and honor their tombs afterward.
1540. 13.379Building the prophets' tombs means honoring only the letter of Scripture and neglecting its life-giving spirit.
1541. 13.380This is the scribes' and Pharisees' error: the scribes cling to the letter, and the Pharisees are those who have separated themselves.
1542. 13.381Origen asks what the Galileans had seen in Jerusalem that led them to receive Jesus.
1543. 13.382The only earlier deed recorded in Jerusalem is the cleansing of the temple.
1544. 13.383What in the temple cleansing could have moved the Galileans so much?
1545. 13.384As Origen showed earlier, the temple cleansing revealed divine power no less than the healing miracles, and the Galileans rightly perceived it.
1546. 13.385The “all things” were the acts of the temple cleansing.
1547. 13.386Jesus also did other signs in Jerusalem, which Nicodemus acknowledged.
1548. 13.387Spiritually, a “Galilean” can come to Jerusalem, keep the feast, and see Jesus cleanse the temple.
1549. 13.388The feast prepared the Galileans to receive Christ, and he came eagerly to those prepared.
1550. 13.389We must first understand how Jesus cleanses the temple, and so receive the Word, and with him the Father.
1551. 13.390Whoever has not seen Jesus' works in Jerusalem will not receive his visit.
1552. 13.391Jesus' two visits to Cana may signify his two comings: first to gladden, then to save one near death.
1553. 13.392The official may be Abraham or Jacob, whose son Israel will be saved at the end; or the two visits are the Word's two comings to the soul.
1554. 13.393Jesus' two visits to Cana secure those there who believe through him.
1555. 13.394The title “royal official” is unusual, and the narrative does not say which king he served.
1556. 13.395Some think he was Herod's man, others a member of Caesar's household; he need not have been a Jew.
1557. 13.396His servants show his rank; whatever the history, the son was healed at the seventh hour and the household believed.
1558. 13.397The great King is Christ, whose city is the true Jerusalem and who was established on Zion.
1559. 13.398All who saw Christ's day and rejoiced are “royal officials”; Origen seeks which one is meant.
1560. 13.399The whole people of Israel is Abraham's son, as they themselves boasted.
1561. 13.400The people boasted in Abraham, as the Gospel sayings show.
1562. 13.401Isaiah also calls Abraham the people's father.
1563. 13.402The official is Abraham and his sick son is Israel, feverish from the enemy's flaming darts and near to spiritual death.
1564. 13.403Departed saints care for the people, as Jeremiah is said to pray for them in 2 Maccabees.
1565. 13.404Abraham, the official, asks the Savior to heal his dying son, the people.
1566. 13.405As John the Baptist awaited a sign to recognize Christ, so the saints of old recognized his coming by signs and wonders.
1567. 13.406The father begs Jesus to come before his son dies, and Christ heals him by a word.
1568. 13.407The official's servants, like Abraham's slaves, stand for humbler believers.
1569. 13.408The servants announce the child's recovery; the seventh hour signifies rest.
1570. 13.409The son in Capernaum stands for a people that toiled but was not fruitless; the father's faith becomes complete with his household's.
1571. 13.410The second sign will be examined when its passage is reached.
1572. 13.411Another reading: the official may represent one of the ruling powers of this age, and his son the people under it.
1573. 13.412Origen suggests some angelic rulers, struck by Christ's divinity, turned to him, as humans repent.
1574. 13.413Why should beings of purer nature be unable to turn to Christ? Origen thinks some rulers changed for the better, so that some cities and nations were more open to him.
1575. 13.414On this reading the rebuke to the official also fits.
1576. 13.415Christ need not go down: his effective word “your son lives” is enough.
1577. 13.416Heracleon makes the official the Demiurge, a petty king, and his sick son a person in the lower region near matter, in ignorance and sin.
1578. 13.417Heracleon took “he was about to die” to disprove the soul's immortality, citing the destruction of soul and body in Gehenna.
1579. 13.418Heracleon holds the soul is not immortal by nature but can put on immortality.
1580. 13.419Heracleon says the rebuke fits one whose nature is persuaded by works and senses, not words.
1581. 13.420Heracleon: the father begs the Savior to help before the law's death through sin is complete.
1582. 13.421Heracleon explains “your son lives” as the Savior's healing of sins and giving life through forgiveness.
1583. 13.422Heracleon: the Demiurge readily believes the Savior can heal at a distance.
1584. 13.423Heracleon makes the servants the Demiurge's angels, who first observe whether people live rightly after the Savior's coming.
1585. 13.424Heracleon says the seventh hour marks the nature of the healed, and the believing household is the angels and people closest to the Demiurge.
1586. 13.425Heracleon questions whether the angels who went to the daughters of men will be saved, and sees the Demiurge's people's ruin in Matt 8:12.
1587. 13.426Heracleon applies Isaiah's words about rebellious sons and a thorny vineyard to the Demiurge's people.
1588. 13.427Origen calls Heracleon's views bold and impious, and says he denies the soul's immortality by ignoring the many senses of “death.”
1589. 13.428He should have examined whether the soul is mortal in every sense of death.
1590. 13.429The soul is mortal in that it can die by sin, but not in the sense of annihilation; putting on incorruption is not the same as changing into it.
1591. 13.430Likewise the mortal puts on immortality rather than changing into it.
1592. 13.431If only “psychics” need wonders to believe, then Paul, converted by a vision, must be psychic on Heracleon's terms.
1593. 13.432It is impious to say angels see before the Creator, whom Scripture shows to see all hidden things and to know hearts.
1594. 13.433Origen objects that God knows all beforehand, that the seventh hour marks the healing, not the nature, and that Heracleon's talk of corruption implies a fourth nature.
1595. 13.434John 4:54 can be read two ways.
1596. 13.435The second reading is correct: the first sign, at Cana, did not follow a journey from Judea.
1597. 13.436Origen asks why the evangelist notes that the second sign came after the journey from Judea.
1598. 13.437The two visits to Cana symbolize Christ's two comings to the earth, “Cana” meaning his possession.
1599. 13.438At his first coming Christ gladdens the baptized; through him Scripture, once water, has become wine.
1600. 13.439At his second coming, at the judgment, Christ will fully heal the official's son.
1601. 13.440The twofold coming can also be applied to each soul that belongs to Christ.
1602. 13.441The first coming gladdens those who receive him; the second heals those who refused his wine at first.
1603. 13.442At the first sign all were together; at the second the sick son was far from Jesus.
1604. 13.443The healing word was spoken in Cana but took effect in Capernaum.
1605. 13.444The centurion's servant was likewise healed at a distance by a word.
1606. 13.445All three healings, the centurion's boy, the official's son, and Peter's mother-in-law, took place at Capernaum.
1607. 13.446Some were healed by day and others at evening; the latter, more gravely afflicted, are healed later.
1608. 13.447Origen suggests collecting the places of healings and other signs, such as Jesus' knowledge of the Samaritan woman's life.
1609. 13.448Careful study of where and why Jesus spoke brings the fruit promised in the Psalm.
1610. 13.449Scripture never names “wonders” alone, but often names “signs” alone.
1611. 13.450Wonders are extraordinary deeds; signs are things that point beyond themselves, even when ordinary.
1612. 13.451Circumcision is called a sign, though not a wonder.
1613. 13.452Every wonder in Scripture is also a sign pointing beyond itself.
1614. 13.453Signs call for understanding; the official is rebuked because he needed wonders to believe.
1615. 13.454Origen raises the same question about “signs in Egypt and wonders in the plain of Tanis” in Ps 78.
1616. 13.455End of Book 13, which covered Jesus' first seven visits, from Bethabara to his second visit to Cana.
1617. 19.1Jesus' two sayings, “you know me” and “you know neither me nor my Father,” were addressed to different groups.
1618. 19.2To both groups Jesus says they do not know the Father.
1619. 19.3How can the Jerusalemites know Jesus but not the Father? 1 John sharpens the problem.
1620. 19.4By not knowing the Father, they deny both Father and Son.
1621. 19.5The difficulty stated: the sayings seem to contradict each other.
1622. 19.6Christ speaks of himself sometimes as man, sometimes as divine and one with the Father.
1623. 19.7“You know me” concerns Christ's humanity, “you know neither me nor my Father” his divinity, as the context shows.
1624. 19.8The context of John 8:19 is the Pharisees' challenge to Jesus' testimony.
1625. 19.9The quotation of John 8:15–16 continues.
1626. 19.10The Jerusalemites knew his human origin; to the Pharisees he spoke of his divine origin as firstborn of creation.
1627. 19.11The Pharisees either did not realize he spoke of God, or thought God was in a place, hence “Where is your Father?”
1628. 19.12Heretics argue from this that Christ's Father is not the Jews' God, the Creator; Origen says they misread Scripture's usage.
1629. 19.13Scripture says Eli's sons “did not know the Lord” because of their wickedness, though they knew his worship.
1630. 19.14Eli's sons failed to “know” the Creator through wickedness, not ignorance of doctrine.
1631. 19.15Likewise the Pharisees did not “know” the Father because they did not live by his will.
1632. 19.16Knowing God differs from simply believing in him, as the Psalm “Be still and know” shows.
1633. 19.17Knowing God requires a purified mind; believing and knowing are not the same.
1634. 19.18Knowing and believing differ, as Jesus told believing Jews they would come to know the truth.
1635. 19.19Jesus promised knowledge to those who already believed.
1636. 19.20Knowledge and faith are distinct gifts of the Spirit.
1637. 19.21The Pharisees neither knew nor believed in the Father, since whoever denies the Son has the Father in no way.
1638. 19.22In Scripture “knowing” can mean being united with what one knows.
1639. 19.23Adam “knew” Eve when joined to her; Paul uses the same language of union with the Lord.
1640. 19.24“Knowing” as union explains why the Pharisees knew neither Father nor Son, and why God is said to “know” his own.
1641. 19.25The Lord “knows” his own by uniting them with himself and holding them in his and the Father's hand, from which no one can snatch them unless they withdraw.
1642. 19.26Origen asks whether one can know God without knowing him as Father.
1643. 19.27One may concede that Moses and the prophets, as servants, knew God as Lord rather than as Father, while holding it is the same God.
1644. 19.28No one in the Old Testament prays to God as “Father”; that belongs to the spirit of adoption Christ gives, though the perfect may have known it in secret.
1645. 19.29Stephen's speech shows that the God of the prophets and the Creator are the same.
1646. 19.30Stephen's speech shows the God of the patriarchs and prophets is the Father of Christ.
1647. 19.31Romans 1 also shows the God who spoke through the prophets is the Father of Christ.
1648. 19.32The Creator, God of the prophets, and Father of Christ is our God and Father.
1649. 19.33The Pharisees neither knew nor truly believed in the God who gave the law and is Christ's Father.
1650. 19.34Origen asks whether knowing the Father would imply knowing the Son, as the reverse holds.
1651. 19.35The Father is known only by ascending from the Son; one cannot see God except through the Word.
1652. 19.36Through Wisdom, created for God's works, one ascends to her Father.
1653. 19.37Likewise one first knows Christ as Truth, and so comes to see God's being, or what is beyond being.
1654. 19.38The Son is like the steps of the temple: we climb first through his humanity, then through his higher aspects, toward God.
1655. 19.39Christ's aspects form a progression: way before door, shepherd before king, lamb before true food; so knowing him leads to knowing the Father.
1656. 19.40The evangelist's note that Jesus spoke in the treasury must have a purpose.
1657. 19.41Origen cites Luke and Mark on the widow at the treasury to explain John's mention of the treasury.
1658. 19.42Mark's account of the widow's two coins.
1659. 19.43Spiritually, the temple treasury is a place of offerings for God's honor and the relief of the poor.
1660. 19.44The coins are sacred words bearing the King's image, to be tested like coins; each should bring what he can to build up the church.
1661. 19.45Words and deeds both go into the treasury, and Christ judges by each one's ability, not the amount.
1662. 19.46Christ prefers those who give little from little ability to those who give more from great ability.
1663. 19.47No one should look down on those who seem to do less, since only God knows what each could do.
1664. 19.48The widow may stand for a simple soul, yet Jesus says she gave more than all.
1665. 19.49The rich gave only a small part of what they could.
1666. 19.50The widow gave all she had, offering her whole strength to God.
1667. 19.51Christ always watches how each soul gives, and justifies the poor soul that gives with all its strength.
1668. 19.52Jesus teaches his disciples to see as God sees, looking on the heart.
1669. 19.53Where all brought offerings, Jesus brought the greatest gift: words of eternal life.
1670. 19.54Jesus' sayings in the treasury were more precious than any coin.
1671. 19.55All others' gold is sand compared with Jesus' words, which are wisdom itself.
1672. 19.56God's wisdom, spoken among the perfect, surpasses all worldly wisdom as gold surpasses sand; Scripture's words are refined silver from the Word.
1673. 19.57Christ's imitator should come to the spiritual temple and bring words of eternal life and matching deeds.
1674. 19.58Origen wishes all would give their whole wealth to God.
1675. 19.59Jesus spoke only as much as the treasury could hold; the world cannot contain the whole Word.
1676. 19.60While Jesus spoke, no one could seize him; only when silent was he taken.
1677. 19.61Christ kept silent before Pilate so that he could be crucified in weakness.
1678. 19.62His arrest had to happen not in the temple but across the Kidron brook.
1679. 19.63His arrest also had to be by night; the “hour” has been discussed earlier.
1680. 19.64The treasury discourse runs until “before Abraham was, I am,” after which Jesus left the temple.
1681. 19.65Many believed, like the poor coming to the treasury to receive.
1682. 19.66Many believe, but few remain in his word and come to know the truth.
1683. 19.67Few know the truth, so few become free.
1684. 19.68Only those who “lift up” the Son come to know him; beginners fed on milk know only Christ crucified.
1685. 19.69Jesus begins a second discourse in the treasury.
1686. 19.70The warning was for those he knew would not believe; they could not follow him because they would not.
1687. 19.71Objection: seeking Jesus is usually good, so why is it said to unbelievers?
1688. 19.72“Seeking” Jesus is also used of those who plotted to kill him.
1689. 19.73Not all who seek Jesus seek him rightly, so the saying does not contradict “everyone who seeks finds.”
1690. 19.74Only right seekers find him; if the Word is rejected he departs, and those who seek him afterward die in their sin.
1691. 19.75The Word knows whom to leave and with whom to remain until he is found.
1692. 19.76To those who have the Word without seeing him Paul says not to seek him far away.
1693. 19.77The word is near, in the heart; likewise the kingdom of God is within.
1694. 19.78While we keep the seeds of truth, the Word stays; if wickedness corrupts us, he leaves and we die in our sin.
1695. 19.79If “die” means the death that is Christ's enemy, those addressed had not yet died spiritually.
1696. 19.80Their unbelief was not yet a sin unto death, but their weakness of soul was leading toward death.
1697. 19.81Like a physician giving up a patient, Jesus foretold their death in sin.
1698. 19.82Lazarus' illness was not unto death; we must beware lest our sickness of soul become incurable.
1699. 19.83Those who die in sin cannot follow Jesus, for the dead cannot praise the Lord.
1700. 19.84Sin is the soul's death, though only the sin John calls “unto death.”
1701. 19.85Some sins kill the soul, some weaken it, and some bring it loss.
1702. 19.86Unbelievers cannot come where Jesus goes, but Peter could follow later.
1703. 19.87“You cannot come” may apply only to the present age: those addressed cannot now reach where Jesus is, that is, truth and wisdom.
1704. 19.88Some are held by sin in this age and the next, as with blasphemy against the Spirit, but not necessarily in the ages beyond.
1705. 19.89Heracleon says those in ignorance, unbelief, and sin cannot reach incorruption.
1706. 19.90Origen replies that the apostles too were once in ignorance and sin; anyone can reach incorruption by changing.
1707. 19.91Why did the Jews respond by asking whether he would kill himself?
1708. 19.92The Jews' words often reflect secret traditions beyond the common teaching.
1709. 19.93Their charge that he cast out demons by Beelzebul shows their knowledge of hidden traditions.
1710. 19.94They knew of Beelzebul, though he is not named in the accepted books.
1711. 19.95Jesus' reply assumes Beelzebul exists.
1712. 19.96They erred about Jesus but rightly knew of Beelzebul.
1713. 19.97Their guesses that Jesus was John or a prophet reveal a doctrine about souls, likely from tradition or secret books.
1714. 19.98Perhaps Jesus “killed himself” in a divine sense: while others' souls are demanded back by appointed powers, he laid his down himself.
1715. 19.99Christ alone says no one takes his life from him; he lays it down himself.
1716. 19.100One who can leave and resume the body at will is not one whose soul is demanded of him.
1717. 19.101Only Jesus could say he laid down his soul himself; all others' souls are taken from them.
1718. 19.102Psalm 88's “free among the dead” fits Christ, who did not die like the robbers, by broken legs, but laid down his life.
1719. 19.103Jesus gave up his spirit like a king, and at once the signs of his power followed, so that the centurion confessed him Son of God.
1720. 19.104Perhaps Jewish tradition held that the Christ would leave life of his own accord, and they half-recognized this in Jesus' words.
1721. 19.105The crowd was divided about whether Jesus was the Prophet or the Christ.
1722. 19.106The officers marveled at his speech, and the Pharisees scorned those who believed.
1723. 19.107Nicodemus defended Jesus and was rebuked.
1724. 19.108After such sayings, they could hardly have taken “will he kill himself” in a simple sense.
1725. 19.109Continuation of Jesus' words on his testimony and the Father's.
1726. 19.110After such lofty words, literal suicide was an implausible thought.
1727. 19.111His power to die by his own choice appears in the words “I am going away.”
1728. 19.112Those who witnessed his death would seek him, but dying in sin they cannot follow.
1729. 19.113They spoke maliciously of the tradition about Christ's death instead of honoring it.
1730. 19.114They could have spoken with reverence of a soul departing at will.
1731. 19.115Jesus foretold his passion, speaking of being delivered and crucified.
1732. 19.116Those who cried “crucify him” are still guilty of killing him, though he gave up his spirit before the soldiers came.
1733. 19.117Compare Cain's words: “everyone who finds me will kill me,” said of one killing as if of many.
1734. 19.118Peter took Jesus' prediction too humanly and was rebuked.
1735. 19.119Paul's “he gave himself up” fits the same idea.
1736. 19.120Only thus is Christ both high priest and Lamb, offered by a holy priest, himself, not by the impious.
1737. 19.121Origen concludes his inquiry into what the Jews meant by “will he kill himself?”
1738. 19.122Some will say the Jews meant it literally: Jesus would go to the place of punished suicides, where they would not go.
1739. 19.123That literal reading leads to absurd conclusions about Jesus.
1740. 19.124Heracleon says the Jews, thinking themselves greater, expected their own eternal rest and the Savior's ruin by suicide.
1741. 19.125Origen doubts that one who called himself the light of the world could be thought to mean he would perish by suicide.
1742. 19.126On that view the Jews would have thought Jesus knowingly chose ruin, which is absurd.
1743. 19.127Origen compares John 3:31–32 and asks whether “from the earth” means the same as “from below.”
1744. 19.128As firstborn of creation Christ is not said to be “from heaven,” though Paul calls the second man “from heaven.”
1745. 19.129Are “from below” and “of this world” the same? What is it to be “from above”?
1746. 19.130One who has chosen earthly birth and left higher things is “from the earth” and “from below.”
1747. 19.131“Below” also refers to base doctrines and thinking.
1748. 19.132The whole material world is “below” compared with invisible realities.
1749. 19.133Within the world there are lower and higher places; all “below” is of this world, but not all of this world is below.
1750. 19.134Even a citizen of heaven is “from below” compared with the intelligible realm.
1751. 19.135People can change from being “from below” to being “from above.”
1752. 19.136Christ chose the disciples out of the world and came to bring those below to the things above.
1753. 19.137Christ descended to the lowest parts and ascended above the heavens, opening a road for his disciples beyond bodily things.
1754. 19.138Whoever lays up treasure on earth is from below; whoever lays up treasure in heaven is born from above.
1755. 19.139Works show where one is from: the works of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit; love of the world cannot coexist with love of God.
1756. 19.140There are degrees of “below”; even those in Hades will bow before Christ.
1757. 19.141All will bow at the name of Jesus, some sooner, some later.
1758. 19.142The worse are subjected last, as death is the last enemy destroyed.
1759. 19.143There may also be degrees among the things above.
1760. 19.144The soul's descent by wickedness and ascent by virtue also has degrees.
1761. 19.145The ascent “above all the heavens” is spiritual: Jesus' soul has reached God himself.
1762. 19.146Beyond the visible world is an invisible, intelligible world, which the pure in heart will see, and so come to see God.
1763. 19.147Christ, as manifold Wisdom containing the principles of all things, may himself be called a “world,” far richer than the material one.
1764. 19.148Perhaps Jesus' soul, dwelling in that higher world, leads his disciples to it.
1765. 19.149This world has nothing truly above, since Scripture calls its creation a katabolē, a “casting down.”
1766. 19.150Jesus' true disciples, taking up their cross, are lifted out of the world's “casting down.”
1767. 19.151People die in their sins through not believing that Jesus is the Christ.
1768. 19.152One who dies in sin has not truly believed, even if he claims to; faith without works is dead.
1769. 19.153The true believer, united with the Word, will not fall into sins unto death,
1770. 19.154One born of God does not sin; believing in Christ as Righteousness excludes doing wrong.
1771. 19.155Believing in Christ as Wisdom and Word rules out folly and irrational acts.
1772. 19.156Believing in Christ as our peace and God's power excludes strife and weakness in good.
1773. 19.157If we give up under toil or are weak, we have not believed in Christ as endurance and strength.
1774. 19.158Whoever lives contrary to what Christ is dies in his sins.
1775. 19.159Hearing him speak with authority, they naturally asked who he was.
1776. 19.160They expected him to say he was the Christ, the Prophet, Elijah, or an angel.
1777. 20.1Book 20 opens with a prayer, addressed to Ambrose, for full understanding from the Son of God.
1778. 20.2Jesus calls them Abraham's seed but implies they are not his children; this seems contradictory.
1779. 20.3Bodily, a seed holds the father's principles at rest; a child is the seed developed and formed. Every child comes from seed, but not every seed becomes a child.
1780. 20.4Taken bodily, being Abraham's seed would imply being his children.
1781. 20.5Abraham's spiritual seed consists of seminal principles sown in certain souls; not all souls come into life with the same seeds.
1782. 20.6The cause of these differences lies in hidden divine judgments about souls before birth, which are dangerous to discuss openly.
1783. 20.7The steward of mysteries must choose the right time, measure, and hearers for such doctrines.
1784. 20.8Not everyone has the seeds in their soul that could, if cultivated, make them Abraham's children.
1785. 20.9Objection: how can one be blamed for not being Abraham's child if one lacks his seed?
1786. 20.10Everyone descends from some righteous people, more or fewer, so no one lacks all seeds of good.
1787. 20.11Abraham was twentieth from Adam; he and his brothers Nahor and Haran were not his seed.
1788. 20.12The three brothers were the seed of the righteous: Seth, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, and Shem.
1789. 20.13Abraham cultivated his inherited seeds and added his own holy quality; Haran did little, yet produced Lot; Nahor did least.
1790. 20.14Everyone descends from Noah and the righteous before him, so no one lacks all share in righteous seed.
1791. 20.15One not of Abraham's seed may yet become like Abraham by cultivating the same inherited seeds.
1792. 20.16Anyone who cultivates good seeds can become another Abraham.
1793. 20.17All this concerns spiritual principles shared by souls entering, and perhaps leaving, bodily life.
1794. 20.18The Psalm's weeping sowers may be souls entering birth, carrying seeds from righteous or unrighteous ancestors.
1795. 20.19Like anxious farmers, souls must choose which seeds to cultivate.
1796. 20.20What kind of weeping is meant?
1797. 20.21Those who sow in tears have hope of returning with joy.
1798. 20.22Others may come carrying seeds that wither, and return weeping with nothing to show.
1799. 20.23This may be the mystical sense of “blessed are those who weep now.”
1800. 20.24The later the righteous ancestors, the more principles of righteousness one bears; hence the greatness of John the Baptist.
1801. 20.25God destroyed Cain's line in the flood so that evil seeds would not multiply.
1802. 20.26Wisdom of Solomon links the flood with Cain's fratricide.
1803. 20.27Sodom's destruction served the same purpose.
1804. 20.28God acted as a good God in destroying Sodom so that its evil “vine” would bear no more.
1805. 20.29The same applies to God's destruction of Egypt's vines.
1806. 20.30This prepares for explaining how the same people are Abraham's seed but not his children.
1807. 20.31Abraham's children who do his works will be discussed later.
1808. 20.32Abraham's seed may become his children by diligence, or lose even the seed by neglect; Jesus' hearers still had hope.
1809. 20.33Others are called the seed of Canaan or an accursed seed.
1810. 20.34As in bodies, one spiritual seed among many may prevail.
1811. 20.35Offspring may resemble the father or other relatives, depending on which inherited principle prevails.
1812. 20.36The mother's side can also prevail.
1813. 20.37Spiritually, whichever inherited principle a soul attends to and cultivates makes it the child of Abraham, Noah, Canaan, or another.
1814. 20.38No one comes into life entirely without holy seeds; and God can raise children to Abraham even from stones.
1815. 20.39This spiritual reading fits if Israel in the Gospels is also understood spiritually.
1816. 20.40Christ's word found no room in them because they were only Abraham's seed, not yet his children.
1817. 20.41Had they cultivated Abraham's seed, Christ's word would have found room in them.
1818. 20.42The Word finds no room in those who remain mere seed and never become Abraham's children.
1819. 20.43Unable to contain the Word, they try to kill him.
1820. 20.44Small minds try to break the Word into pieces they can hold.
1821. 20.45If the Word has no room in us, we should not reject him but grow from Abraham's seed to his children.
1822. 20.46The Son alone is an eyewitness of the Father; others know him by the Son's revelation.
1823. 20.47Now we see the Father in the Son, his image; one day some may see the Father directly, as the Son does.
1824. 20.48This will be the end, when God is all in all.
1825. 20.49Jesus speaks what he has seen; the believing Jews should do what they have heard.
1826. 20.50Simply read, they heard the Father through Moses and the prophets, proving the Father of Christ is the God of the Law.
1827. 20.51Another interpreter cites John 6:45–46.
1828. 20.52Another view: some souls heard the Father before birth; these are Abraham's seed, now called to act on it.
1829. 20.53Hearing from the Father differs from having learned; only those who have learned come to Christ.
1830. 20.54Origen challenges Heracleon's followers: if some are unfit by nature, how did they hear from the Father?
1831. 20.55If they were strangers to Christ, how did they hear from the Father?
1832. 20.56Either answer leads the Valentinians into absurdity.
1833. 20.57They answered with a far lower notion of “father” than Jesus meant.
1834. 20.58Jesus meant God; they meant Abraham.
1835. 20.59One might defend them as modestly declining to call themselves God's sons.
1836. 20.60Jesus corrects even their claim to Abraham.
1837. 20.61How could Jesus deny they were Abraham's children yet say they heard from the Father?
1838. 20.62One not even Abraham's child can hardly be God's child.
1839. 20.63Jesus says only “the Father,” not “your Father”; he is not necessarily their Father.
1840. 20.64God is Father only of those who love Christ.
1841. 20.65Those who sought to kill the Son were not God's sons.
1842. 20.66“The works of Abraham” is plural: it means all his works, not faith alone.
1843. 20.67Since no one must literally copy Abraham's marriages, all his works must be done spiritually, beginning with leaving one's land.
1844. 20.68Each of us must leave our own “land, kindred, and father's house” to reach the good land God shows.
1845. 20.69Spiritually, we too become a great, blessed nation and journey through the land to the “high oak.”
1846. 20.70God will appear to us too and promise the land to our spiritual seed.
1847. 20.71Doing Abraham's works includes building an altar and moving toward Bethel, “House,” and Ai, “Feasts.”
1848. 20.72Progressing, he builds an altar, calls on the Lord, and prepares for spiritual warfare in the desert.
1849. 20.73He then faces famine, goes down to Egypt with his wife, and prospers there.
1850. 20.74Explaining each detail spiritually needs a wise interpreter; Origen will attempt it.
1851. 20.75Becoming Abraham's child requires wisdom and every virtue.
1852. 20.76We need Christ, God's power and wisdom, to understand and do Abraham's works.
1853. 20.77The same holds for Isaac, Jacob, and every holy father.
1854. 20.78Sinners are children of the devil, and more specifically of some wicked figure.
1855. 20.79Everyone goes to his own spiritual fathers at death; only the saints go in peace, and the perfect in a good old age.
1856. 20.80God cannot be killed; those who plotted against Jesus treated him as a mere man.
1857. 20.81Those who attack the Word treat him as merely human; even if they kill his “body,” they can do no more.
1858. 20.82We need not fear those who can kill only the body of the Word.
1859. 20.83A false word can be destroyed by God; Christ will consume the opposing word that exalts itself.
1860. 20.84They sought to kill the one who told them God's truth.
1861. 20.85It was the man, not God the Word, who could be killed; Origen asks whether the Word, becoming flesh, became man.
1862. 20.86If the Word became man, he could be sought to be killed; if not, he returned unharmed to what he was before.
1863. 20.87Objection: why say Abraham did not do this, when Jesus did not live in his time?
1864. 20.88Abraham saw Christ's day; a man speaking God's truth existed in his time, and Abraham did not seek to kill him.
1865. 20.89The spiritual Christ was always present; so those who fell away after enlightenment crucified him afresh even before his bodily coming.
1866. 20.90Sinning after grace crucifies Christ afresh, and this was true before his coming as well as after.
1867. 20.91The Acts of Paul's saying “I am about to be crucified again” can apply before as well as after Christ's coming.
1868. 20.92“I have been crucified with Christ” can be said by the saints before Christ as well.
1869. 20.93The patriarchs live because they too were buried and raised with Christ spiritually.
1870. 20.94Abraham did not seek to kill the one who told God's truth; Christ's spiritual work was always with the saints.
1871. 20.95A mystical reading of Abraham can also be applied throughout.
1872. 20.96Taken alone, it is unclear whom Jesus means by “your father.”
1873. 20.97John 8:44 shows that the father meant is the devil.
1874. 20.98He could say this even to believers who had not yet remained in his word.
1875. 20.991 John 3 explains why sinners are called children of the devil.
1876. 20.100Continuation of 1 John 3.
1877. 20.101Conclusion of the quotation.
1878. 20.102All who sin are of the devil.
1879. 20.103While we sin, we are still the devil's children, even if we are believers.
1880. 20.104Whoever is not of the devil does not sin.
1881. 20.105Until we let Christ destroy the devil's works in us, we remain the devil's children, known by our fruits.
1882. 20.106No one is a child of God or of the devil by nature; one can change from the devil's child to God's.
1883. 20.107One becomes a child of God by loving enemies; every person of mature reason is either God's child or the devil's, depending on whether he sins.
1884. 20.1081 John also says those who remain in the Son do not sin, and those who sin have not seen him.
1885. 20.109The sinner does not abide in the Son; one who has seen him does not sin.
1886. 20.110Seeing the Son gives power not to sin.
1887. 20.111“You do your father's works” fits both sinners and the righteous.
1888. 20.112Can one be God's child and the devil's by turns? That is irrational and not what Scripture says.
1889. 20.113One born of God does not sin.
1890. 20.114John does not say those born of the devil never do right, only that sinners are of the devil.
1891. 20.115John's statements about God's children and the devil's are carefully not parallel.
1892. 20.116John's word choice, “is” for the devil's and “born” for God's, is deliberate.
1893. 20.117“Born of God” honors God's children; “born of the devil” would have been worse than “of the devil.”
1894. 20.118Being “born of God” is higher than merely being “of God,” as creatures are.
1895. 20.119Origen distinguishes “being of” from “being born of” both God and the devil.
1896. 20.120One born of God cannot sin because God's seed remains in him.
1897. 20.1211 John 5:18: the one born of God keeps himself from the evil one.
1898. 20.122Whoever does not keep himself from the evil one is not born of God.
1899. 20.123Origen links “you do your father's works” to God's first command to Abraham.
1900. 20.124God's first word to Abraham was to leave his father's house.
1901. 20.125Abraham left his father's house; his claimed children had not.
1902. 20.126Not having left their “father's house,” they still belong to their wicked father.
1903. 20.127This refutes the idea that some are the devil's sons by nature.
1904. 20.128Their retort may be a veiled slur that Jesus was born of fornication, since they rejected the virgin birth.
1905. 20.129Read simply, their words make no sense in context.
1906. 20.130They meant: we have God as Father more truly than you, who claim a virgin birth but were born of fornication.
1907. 20.131Believers who did not remain in his word could have said this bitterly.
1908. 20.132Rebuffed about Abraham, they claimed a greater father, God.
1909. 20.133All not born of God may be said to be born of fornication.
1910. 20.134The devil's children are born of the “harlot,” matter; God's children are joined to the Word and Wisdom as one spirit.
1911. 20.135The Valentinians read this saying as proof of fixed natures; Origen answers them.
1912. 20.136Paul once hated Jesus when he persecuted the church.
1913. 20.137Since Paul once did not love Jesus, God was not then his Father.
1914. 20.138Paul became God's son later; he was not so by nature.
1915. 20.139Before his conversion one could conclude that God was not Paul's Father.
1916. 20.140God becomes one's Father when one keeps the commandments and is reborn.
1917. 20.141Matthew 5 supports this.
1918. 20.142Loving enemies makes one a son of the Father.
1919. 20.143“That you may become sons” shows sonship is acquired.
1920. 20.144Origen asks whether “your” in Matt 5:45 is original or a copyist's error, since becoming the son of one's own father seems contradictory.
1921. 20.145The logical difficulty stated.
1922. 20.146Only exceptional right actions may make one a son rather than a servant of God.
1923. 20.147Sonship is linked specifically to loving enemies.
1924. 20.148Loving enemies imitates God, who loves and spares all he has made.
1925. 20.149The saying about sonship would not fit after the teaching on adultery.
1926. 20.150Nor would it fit after the teaching on oaths.
1927. 20.151God's sons, like the Father, let their love shine and their prayer fall like rain even on enemies.
1928. 20.152Origen compares “I came forth from God” with Micah's “the Lord goes forth from his place.”
1929. 20.153Before emptying himself, the Son was in the Father, and God was, as it were, his place.
1930. 20.154In the form of God, the Son had not yet “come forth.”
1931. 20.155By taking the form of a servant the Son came forth to us, yet the Father remains with him and in him.
1932. 20.156Otherwise “coming forth” and “remaining in God” would contradict each other.
1933. 20.157Some take “came forth” to mean begotten from the Father's substance, as if God were diminished like a mother giving birth.
1934. 20.158That view makes Father and Son bodies and divides the Father, ignoring God's incorporeal nature.
1935. 20.159They make the Son's coming a change of place, not of state.
1936. 20.160Some teachers and prophets come on their own, not sent by God, as Jeremiah says.
1937. 20.161Some spiritual powers may have come from God without being sent, and sinned by it.
1938. 20.162Jesus' soul came forth from God because the Father sent it; other souls came without being sent.
1939. 20.163We must first gain the ability to hear the Word before we can understand his speech.
1940. 20.164One unable to hear can be healed, as the deaf man was by “Be opened.”
1941. 20.165When the bond of deafness is loosed one can hear; could the deaf hear before they were healed?
1942. 20.166The healed deaf show that inability to hear is curable, not natural; the allegorizing heretics should accept this.
1943. 20.167“Hearing” means understanding; “knowing” means assenting with enlightened grasp.
1944. 20.168Heracleon says they could not hear because they were of the devil's very substance.
1945. 20.169Origen would accept Heracleon's view if it meant they were still of the devil by choice.
1946. 20.170But Heracleon makes some people consubstantial with the devil, a different substance from psychics and spirituals.
1947. 20.171The Greek can mean “of the father of the devil” or, better, “of your father, the devil.”
1948. 20.172Some use “he is a liar and his father” to argue the devil has a father.
1949. 20.173Rather, the “lie” is the Antichrist, the opposite of the Truth, whose father is the devil.
1950. 20.174The Antichrist is a lie not by nature but by his own choice, as Ezekiel says of one who “became destruction.”
1951. 20.175Another reading applies the saying to every liar as “father” of his lie, but that is unpersuasive.
1952. 20.176The devil's children do his many desires, which are the mind of matter and enmity against God.
1953. 20.177Murder, injustice, greed, and impurity can be called the devil's desires, which he breeds in his children.
1954. 20.178It is harder to see how sexual sins can be the devil's own desires.
1955. 20.179The devil desires that people sin sexually and instills that desire in those who serve him; in this sense he sins first.
1956. 20.180Likewise the devil does not want money but wants people to love it.
1957. 20.181We must examine our wishes, for wishing the devil's desires forms us in his image.
1958. 20.182The devil was the first “earthy” one; our primary being is in God's image, our secondary in the body formed from dust.
1959. 20.183If we serve the dust we take the earthy image; if we turn to the Creator we become like God.
1960. 20.184Scripture uses “desire” for good and bad; every being does its father's desires. God is unbegotten; the devil's wickedness was born of turning from God.
1961. 20.185Here “your father” is clearly the devil.
1962. 20.186The saying could also apply to God's children, since God too has “desires.”
1963. 20.187Psalm 19 speaks of God's judgments as things to be desired.
1964. 20.188God too desires; Jesus said he desired to eat the Passover.
1965. 20.189There is also bad desire, as with lustful looking; and desire need not be for something absent.
1966. 20.190This clarifies God's desires and those of the perfect.
1967. 20.191Every son does his father's desires and works, as the Savior does the Father's.
1968. 20.192The man of sin does his father's works; our works too are either God's or the devil's.
1969. 20.193Our works and wishes show whether we are God's sons or the devil's.
1970. 20.194Even wishing to do the devil's desires makes one his son.
1971. 20.195Does wishing God's will suffice for sonship without doing it?
1972. 20.196Good willing is always joined by God to good working.
1973. 20.197Providence may hinder the carrying out of bad wishes for a greater good.
1974. 20.198Heracleon says those addressed were of the devil's substance, distinct from other rational beings.
1975. 20.199Origen compares this to saying a faulty eye is of a different substance from a healthy one.
1976. 20.200All rational beings share one substance; accepting or rejecting the Word is not a matter of nature.
1977. 20.201Accepting or rejecting what one understands is a choice, not a difference of substance.
1978. 20.202If the devil were evil by nature, the blame would fall on his Creator, which is absurd.
1979. 20.203Human souls, like bodies, share one substance.
1980. 20.204If people differed in substance, their mental powers would differ in kind too.
1981. 20.205When “spiritual” and “earthy” people think alike, is that not because they share one substance?
1982. 20.206Identical mental acts in different substances is irrational; a second substance within the same one is foolish.
1983. 20.207Let them show a substance beyond these powers, better in the spiritual or worse in the earthy.
1984. 20.208They may argue that like impressions can form on different substances, as one seal stamps gold and wax.
1985. 20.209The seal comparison fails: one can still tell gold from silver though the stamp is alike.
1986. 20.210Unless they can show such a difference, their claim is assertion without proof.
1987. 20.211Heracleon also claims the devil has desires but no will.
1988. 20.212Origen objects that the devil plainly wills evil.
1989. 20.213Heracleon says Jesus spoke to psychics, sons of the devil by adoption, not by nature.
1990. 20.214Heracleon: they become the devil's children by loving and doing his desires.
1991. 20.215Heracleon distinguishes children by nature, by disposition, and by desert.
1992. 20.216Heracleon offers no Scriptural support for his distinction.
1993. 20.217Paul's “by nature children of wrath” refutes Heracleon's distinction.
1994. 20.218Heracleon: they are called the devil's children because they became like him by their works.
1995. 20.219Better to say that all the devil's children become so by their works, not by nature.
1996. 20.220Killing is not always blameworthy (Phinehas, David); we must find which “life” the devil destroys.
1997. 20.221The devil murdered Adam and Eve by leading them to sin.
1998. 20.222At a deeper level, Origen gathers the Gospel sayings that God is the God of the living.
1999. 20.223The patriarchs now live, having risen from spiritual death; one can only be dead who once lived.
2000. 20.224The devil killed the life of man made in God's image; he murdered the whole race in Adam.
2001. 20.225Aware of this death, each of us laments with Paul, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
2002. 20.226The murderer rules this earthly world of the dead; but by grace we were buried and raised with Christ.
2003. 20.227The devil rules only the dead, not the living.
2004. 20.228Through Christ's death, the devil no longer rules even the dead.
2005. 20.229The living bear God's image; those slain by the devil bear the image of the earthy and dead.
2006. 20.230God is our God only if we have risen to new life.
2007. 20.231Some are “dead in Christ” and will rise first, as Paul says.
2008. 20.232The “living” in Christ are the perfect; the “dead in Christ” are believers who still sin from ignorance or weakness.
2009. 20.233Paul counted himself among the “living”; the “dead in Christ” must rise first.
2010. 20.234Perhaps the cursed earth's labors arose from the devil's murder.
2011. 20.235The devil, “the beginning of the Lord's formation,” envied creatures made to exist.
2012. 20.236Through envy death entered, until death, the last enemy, is destroyed.
2013. 20.237One “stands in the truth” who holds sound doctrine firmly and is unmoved from the good by any pressure.
2014. 20.238The same applies to beings without flesh and blood.
2015. 20.239Standing in the truth is one; failing to stand takes many forms, from trembling to falling.
2016. 20.240Moses standing on the rock means standing on Christ, the truth.
2017. 20.241Standing in the truth is rare and hard; as every man is a liar, no man as such stands in the truth.
2018. 20.242One who stands in the truth is more than man, one of those God calls “gods.”
2019. 20.243The devil has not stood in the truth because there is no truth in him.
2020. 20.244The devil is self-deceived, the author of his own deception.
2021. 20.245Does “no truth in him” mean all his beliefs are false, or that he has no share in Christ the Truth?
2022. 20.246A third option: one who holds even one falsehood has no truth in him.
2023. 20.247As one false clause makes a compound statement false, one false belief may leave “no truth” in a person.
2024. 20.248Some say he lacks Christ; others that he believes nothing true at all.
2025. 20.249A third objects that no rational being can be wrong about everything.
2026. 20.250The devil must know some truths, such as that he is rational.
2027. 20.251So he cannot be entirely without true beliefs.
2028. 20.252Origen does not read this as describing the devil's nature; Heracleon does, saying his nature is from error and ignorance.
2029. 20.253Heracleon says the devil can never speak truth by nature, and takes “his father” to mean his nature, made of error.
2030. 20.254Heracleon's view would excuse the devil; in fact all who still sin, like the devil, have not stood in the truth.
2031. 20.255Even professed Christians who sin are born of the devil.
2032. 20.256Origen has already discussed this text in part.
2033. 20.257Every deceiving spirit is a lie and speaks from its own.
2034. 20.258The story of Micaiah and the lying spirit supports this.
2035. 20.259Continuation of the vision.
2036. 20.260The spirit becomes a lying spirit in the prophets.
2037. 20.261The same vision in 2 Chronicles.
2038. 20.262Lying spirits are liars from the devil by wickedness, not by substance.
2039. 20.263The Holy Spirit does not speak from its own but from Christ.
2040. 20.264The lying spirit that deceived Ahab spoke from its own.
2041. 20.265“Liar” is used both of the devil and of man.
2042. 20.266We must strive to rise above being mere “men,” who are liars, and become “gods.”
2043. 20.267While we remain mere men we share the name “liar” with the devil.
2044. 20.268How can he tell believers, “you do not believe me”?
2045. 20.269One can believe in Christ in one aspect but not another, such as accepting his crucifixion but not his virgin birth.
2046. 20.270Or believing in his miracles but not that he is the Son of the Creator.
2047. 20.271Or believing in Christ's Father but not in the Creator.
2048. 20.272Or believing in the Creator but not as the Father of Jesus.
2049. 20.273So Jesus addressed believers who believed him in one respect but not another.
2050. 20.274They believed his miracles but not his deeper teaching.
2051. 20.275Many today admire Jesus' story but reject its deeper meaning; we must beware of this.
2052. 20.276If no one can refute the Word, they should assent to him.
2053. 20.277Only Christ, who was sinless, could say “Which of you convicts me of sin?”
2054. 20.278The challenge is addressed to the whole human race.
2055. 20.279Imitating Christ, we should aim to have a clean conscience since our conversion, even if not since childhood.
2056. 20.280Not even the devil could convict Christ of sin.
2057. 20.281The devil found nothing in Christ.
2058. 20.282By diligence we too may face the devil at death with a clean conscience.
2059. 20.283Origen considers what a fitting answer to Jesus' question would be.
2060. 20.284An honest answer: we do not believe because our soul's eyes, clouded by wickedness, are not yet cleansed.
2061. 20.285Knowing how weak our faith is, we should ask Christ the physician to unveil our eyes and grant the gift of faith.
2062. 20.286Discerning the one true teaching among many requires the skill of a practiced “money changer.”
2063. 20.287The heretics of “natures” use this verse to claim some are God's sons by nature.
2064. 20.288John 1:12 shows that receiving the light gives only the power to become God's children; one becomes “of God” later and then hears his words.
2065. 20.289Those who do not strive remain servants with a spirit of fear, not children with the spirit of adoption.
2066. 20.290No one is God's son from the start, as Paul's “children of wrath” and Jesus' “that you may become sons” show.
2067. 20.291If even Paul was by nature a child of wrath, so was everyone.
2068. 20.292One hears God's words by becoming his son through love of enemies, not by nature.
2069. 20.293Then he is of God and understands God's words, as God's children do.
2070. 20.294What does “hears the words of God” mean?
2071. 20.295If “hearing” is mere assent, then short-lived believers would be of God.
2072. 20.296If “hearing” means keeping every commandment, the Valentinians cannot claim to be sinless sons of God.
2073. 20.297If “hearing” means understanding, let them show anyone who understands all the New Testament.
2074. 20.298Paradox: one may be more a son of God than another.
2075. 20.299Matthew speaks of one being “twice as much a son of Gehenna.”
2076. 20.300So no one is a son of Gehenna by nature, and not all are so equally.
2077. 20.301The same holds for sons of destruction, death, and darkness.
2078. 20.302So too some may be more fully sons of light, life, wisdom, and God.
2079. 20.303Degrees of sonship reach up to the Firstborn, who is Son beyond all others.
2080. 20.304The more of God's words one hears, the more one is of God; one who heard them all would be wholly God's son.
2081. 20.305“Wholly of God” means knowing all mysteries and knowledge, with perfect love.
2082. 20.306Now we are God's sons only in part; perfect sonship will come.
2083. 20.307Origen asks whether one can be partly God's son and partly of the opposite side.
2084. 20.308Let us strive to become ever more God's children and to understand ever more of his words.
2085. 20.309Each failure to understand God's words shows we are not yet of God, though we can become so.
2086. 20.310Some called Jesus a Samaritan as a debaser of Judaism.
2087. 20.311Why call him a Samaritan, when Samaritans deny the resurrection he taught?
2088. 20.312Perhaps it was mere insult, or they suspected he secretly shared the Samaritans' denial of an afterlife.
2089. 20.313They said he had a demon because of his superhuman claims.
2090. 20.314Or they said it because they thought he cast out demons by Beelzebul.
2091. 20.315We believe Jesus had no demon; demons cannot do his works, which still continue in the churches.
2092. 20.316Why did Jesus deny having a demon but not being a Samaritan?
2093. 20.317The parable of the Good Samaritan may explain this.
2094. 20.318If the Good Samaritan is Christ, he rightly did not deny being a Samaritan.
2095. 20.319Another view: Christ became all things to all, even a “Samaritan” to those under the law.
2096. 20.320A third view: “Samaritan” means “guardian,” and Christ is the guardian of souls.
2097. 20.321The Samaritans were named “guardians” because the Assyrians sent them to guard Israel's land.
2098. 20.322Christ is the tree of life whose every leaf is lasting.
2099. 20.323Every saying of Jesus deserves careful study, even the simplest.
2100. 20.324If we find nothing deep, the fault is ours.
2101. 20.325Origen turns to “I do not have a demon.”
2102. 20.326Scripture teaches that sinners act under demonic influence.
2103. 20.327Some have called even irritability and slander demons.
2104. 20.328No one is wholly free of demonic influence, as no one is free of sin.
2105. 20.329Spiritually, Jesus still drives out demons from those healed by the Word.
2106. 20.330Only Jesus, who triumphed over the powers on the cross, can say he never had a demon.
2107. 20.331We can say it, but our deeds would refute us.
2108. 20.332Rage and uncontrolled lust show demonic influence.
2109. 20.333Despairing grief that forgets God's providence is also a sign of demonic influence.
2110. 20.334Groundless fears and empty joys also come from demons.
2111. 20.335Even the saints once sinned; only Christ could always say he had no demon, and only he perfectly honored the Father.
2112. 20.336Only those with the spirit of adoption can honor the Father.
2113. 20.337Those who honor worldly things do not honor the Father.
2114. 20.338We should strive to say “I honor the Father” with a clear conscience.
2115. 20.339Christ, born under the law that commands honoring one's father, had God alone as Father.
2116. 20.340We too, reborn in baptism as God's sons, can say “I honor my Father.”
2117. 20.341Christ's imitators, strengthened by him, may also say this; not those who dwell among the dead.
2118. 20.342Those who honor other things cannot say this as Jesus' disciples.
2119. 20.343“You dishonor me” was said to those who called him a Samaritan with a demon.
2120. 20.344Everyone who acts wrongly dishonors Christ, who is righteousness and God's power.
2121. 20.345Despising wisdom dishonors Christ, who is Wisdom.
2122. 20.346We must be at peace with all and keep God's peace in our hearts.
2123. 20.347The quarrelsome dishonor Christ, who is our peace.
2124. 20.348Those who do evil dishonor Christ, the light.
2125. 20.349The point is clear enough.
2126. 20.350God seeks Christ's glory in each believer, and judges those in whom he does not find it.
2127. 20.351But John 5:22 says the Father judges no one.
2128. 20.352John 5:30 helps: the Son judges as he hears from the Father.
2129. 20.353The Son's judgment is really the Father's, since he judges as he hears.
2130. 20.354All that is the Son's is the Father's, including his judgment.
2131. 20.355So the difficulty is resolved.
2132. 20.356Christ humbly leaves it to the Father to demand the glory due to the Son.
2133. 20.357Or the Son, imitating the Father, seeks the Father's glory and judges as Son of Man.
2134. 20.358Heracleon says the one who judges is not the Father but Moses, the Lawgiver, the king's avenger.
2135. 20.359Heracleon identifies the judge as Moses the lawgiver.
2136. 20.360Heracleon asks himself why Jesus does not claim all judgment.
2137. 20.361Heracleon answers that the judge acts as the servant doing Christ's will.
2138. 20.362Heracleon cannot show that judgment belongs to the Demiurge, for Scripture gives it to the Son.
2139. 20.363There is indifferent life and death, and there is true life in Christ, whose enemy is the evil death of sin.
2140. 20.364This is the death Paul describes in Romans 5, which reigned from Adam until Christ.
2141. 20.365It is the same death that entered through sin and will be destroyed last.
2142. 20.366Death reigned under the law until Christ's coming brought grace.
2143. 20.367Whoever keeps Christ's word will never see this death.
2144. 20.368As one who keeps the light never sees darkness, so one who keeps the Word never sees death.
2145. 20.369Losing the light brings darkness; so too with the Word, in whom is life.
2146. 20.370Keeping the Word means keeping the life and light inseparable from him.
2147. 20.371The one who will not see death is the one who keeps Christ's word.
2148. 20.372Perhaps “forever” goes with “keeps” as well.
2149. 20.373One is free from death only while keeping Jesus' word.
2150. 20.374Those who grow careless in keeping the word see death through their own fault.
2151. 20.375This is an eternal law for all who receive the Word.
2152. 20.376Seeing death blinds the soul's eye, which then needs Christ to open it.
2153. 20.377The blind in the Gospels symbolize those blinded by seeing death.
2154. 20.378Philosophers ascribe sin to bad judgments; Scripture adds the influence of demons.
2155. 20.379The Jews thought his promise came from a demon.
2156. 20.380They misunderstood, taking him to speak of bodily death.
2157. 20.381Origen will compare this with similar exchanges.
2158. 20.382Did they think he spoke nonsense?
2159. 20.383Or did they understand he meant spiritual death, and simply reject his claim?
2160. 20.384Similar exchanges occur with the Samaritan woman.
2161. 20.385The woman's replies.
2162. 20.386She cannot have meant ordinary water.
2163. 20.387Likewise the Jews did not take “eat my flesh” literally.
2164. 20.388The Jews may have meant the spiritual death that came through Adam's sin.
2165. 20.389But they did not know that grace is greater than the trespass.
2166. 20.390They could not grasp the abounding grace in Christ.
2167. 20.391They did not know the gift brings justification after many trespasses.
2168. 20.392They knew of the patriarchs' death, not of life through Christ.
2169. 20.393They thought the prophets dead, as Samuel seemed to be at Endor, and so built their tombs, not knowing they live.
2170. 20.394Abraham, once he saw Christ's day, lived and saw death no more.
2171. 20.395That is why Jesus answered that Abraham saw his day and rejoiced.
2172. 20.396Otherwise one must say Abraham, having seen Christ's day, still sees death or lost the vision.
2173. 20.397Both are absurd, so Abraham kept Christ's word and lives.
2174. 20.398The prophets too live, for the Word that came to them was the Son himself.
2175. 20.399Having kept the Word, the prophets no longer saw death.
2176. 20.400Both claims were false: Jesus had no demon, and Abraham and the prophets were not dead.
2177. 20.401The Jews changed Jesus' “see death” into “taste death.”
2178. 20.402The other Gospels speak of “not tasting death,” suggesting a difference from “not seeing death.”
2179. 20.403Mark's version.
2180. 20.404Luke's version.
2181. 20.405As the body has sight and taste, so the soul has distinct spiritual senses.
2182. 20.406Christ is to be tasted as bread and seen as Wisdom: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
2183. 20.407Death too can be tasted and seen.
2184. 20.408The Gospels show both tasting and seeing death.
2185. 20.409Speaking against the words of life is feeding on death.
2186. 20.410All three Synoptics promise that some “standing” will not taste death.
2187. 20.411Since those who stand can fall, the promise is only for some.
2188. 20.412Whoever keeps standing does not taste death; whoever keeps the word does not see it.
2189. 20.413The Jews dropped to the lower sense; perhaps death can also be heard, smelled, and touched, as life is by the apostles.
2190. 20.414There is a smell of death in the wounds of sin, and in Lazarus before he was raised.
2191. 20.415Paul speaks of the smell of death and of life; those in Christ are his fragrance.
2192. 20.416Like perfume fatal to some creatures, Christ's fragrance is death to the wicked and life to others.
2193. 20.417These are related to tasting and seeing death.
2194. 20.418Not grasping Christ's greatness, they object.
2195. 20.419Christ is greater than Abraham, all born of women, and all the prophets, having received this from the Father.
2196. 20.420The Son has life from the Father; he did not make himself what he is.
2197. 20.421Jesus answers that the Father glorifies him.
2198. 20.422End of Book 20; the next book begins at John 8:54.
2199. 28.1Book 28 opens with the theory of perfect numbers: six is the first.
2200. 28.2Twenty-eight is the next perfect number.
2201. 28.3Four times seven gives twenty-eight, equal to the sum of its parts.
2202. 28.4Moses, trained in Egyptian wisdom, made the tabernacle curtains twenty-eight cubits long.
2203. 28.5The tabernacle fittingly included the perfect number twenty-eight.
2204. 28.6Reaching the twenty-eighth book, Origen prays to God through Christ for true understanding.
2205. 28.7Origen compares the stone at Lazarus' tomb, which Jesus has others remove, with the stone Jacob rolled from the well.
2206. 28.8Jesus should not touch a tomb, but Jacob had to move the stone himself so the flock, his future portion, could drink.
2207. 28.9Jacob approached the well; Jesus stood outside the tomb.
2208. 28.10The tomb's stone had to be removed for good; the well's stone only rolled aside.
2209. 28.11A long gap in the text.
2210. 28.12Let us believe with faith reckoned as righteousness.
2211. 28.13Whoever has not yet seen God's glory has not truly believed, for Christ promised that believers would see it.
2212. 28.14Martha's objection delayed the removal of the stone.
2213. 28.15Only after Jesus answered Martha's unbelief was the stone removed.
2214. 28.16Without Martha's objection, the command would have been obeyed at once.
2215. 28.17Nothing should come between Christ's command and our obedience.
2216. 28.18Immediate obedience makes one an imitator of Christ.
2217. 28.19As creation obeyed God at once, so the faithful obey Christ at once; any delay is disobedience.
2218. 28.20The son who went to the vineyard only later was disobedient until he repented.
2219. 28.21Scripture warns against delaying conversion or good deeds.
2220. 28.22The delay in the text is itself a rebuke to Martha.
2221. 28.23Origen compares Jesus lifting his eyes to his disciples (Luke) and to heaven (John).
2222. 28.24Jesus lifts his eyes to his disciples, who are not “below,” and lifts his mind to the Father in prayer.
2223. 28.25Imitating Christ, we should pray with the soul's eyes raised above earthly concerns.
2224. 28.26The tax collector's downcast eyes suit the penitent, not everyone, just as godly grief must be in proportion.
2225. 28.27Each should examine himself before communion and before lifting his eyes in prayer.
2226. 28.28Anyone who should not lift his eyes should also stand far from the temple.
2227. 28.29The temple is the church, the house of God.
2228. 28.30As not all should abstain from communion, not all should keep their eyes lowered.
2229. 28.31One sins by lifting or not lifting the eyes out of season.
2230. 28.32The tax collector rightly lowered his eyes; the disciple is told to lift them.
2231. 28.33The prophets too lift their eyes to God.
2232. 28.34In Susanna, the wicked elders turned their eyes from heaven, while the trusting Susanna looked up to it.
2233. 28.35Susanna could look up with boldness; the elders, had they repented, should have prayed like the tax collector.
2234. 28.36One who rightly lifts his eyes may also lift holy hands in prayer without anger.
2235. 28.37Raised eyes (contemplation) and raised hands (good deeds) defeat invisible enemies, as Moses' hands defeated Amalek.
2236. 28.38End of the comment on Jesus lifting his eyes.
2237. 28.39God answers the righteous while they are still speaking; the Savior was heard even before he spoke.
2238. 28.40What is granted to the Savior exceeds the promise to the righteous.
2239. 28.41Heard before he prayed, Jesus gave thanks instead of praying.
2240. 28.42His thanksgiving both thanked the Father and led the crowd to believe he was sent by God.
2241. 28.43He knew he was heard because he saw Lazarus' soul return to his body.
2242. 28.44Lazarus' soul was not waiting beside his corpse; it was sent back from elsewhere.
2243. 28.45The same happened when Jesus raised Jairus' daughter.
2244. 28.46The widow's son at Nain may be a similar case.
2245. 28.47Perhaps Jesus saw Lazarus' soul returning through the opened tomb.
2246. 28.48He thanked the Father for this and all earlier answers, for the crowd's sake.
2247. 28.49Spiritually, Christ prays for the friend who fell into sin and gives thanks when he stirs with life again.
2248. 28.50Onlookers who see a sinner restored may come to believe in the Word.
2249. 28.51Heard before praying, Jesus foresaw the strength his command would give Lazarus.
2250. 28.52The loud voice gave power to Lazarus, who could not yet hear clearly.
2251. 28.53Jesus both prayed and called Lazarus out of the tomb.
2252. 28.54There are “Lazaruses” today, believers who fell into sin, whom Christ calls back to life, and who still need their bonds loosed.
2253. 28.55An apostate who returns to paganism is like one dead in Hades.
2254. 28.56Christ calls such a one out of the “tomb” of pagan life.
2255. 28.57The repentant sinner lives, but is still bound by his past sins.
2256. 28.58His face is also bound with ignorance.
2257. 28.59The penitent, assenting to conversion but still weak, needs others to unbind him.
2258. 28.60Once unbound, he advances until he reclines at table with Jesus, like Lazarus.
2259. 28.61Lazarus' bonds of death differ from the bonds of judgment on the guest without a wedding garment.
2260. 28.62Lazarus' cloth hid dead eyes; Moses' veil hid glory from those who could not bear it.
2261. 28.63Will the guest cast into outer darkness remain bound forever? Scripture does not say.
2262. 28.64Nothing is written about his release.
2263. 28.65Origen declines to pronounce on the matter.
2264. 28.66Whom did Jesus tell to unbind Lazarus? Perhaps angels.
2265. 28.67Did Jesus fulfill “I go to wake him”?
2266. 28.68The loud cry, rather than the prayer, may be the “waking” Jesus promised.
2267. 28.69The Father raised Lazarus; the Son woke him with his cry.
2268. 28.70Jesus promised to “wake” the sleeper but not to “raise” the dead.
2269. 28.71Or the raising was the joint work of Father and Son, as John 11:25 and 5:21 show.
2270. 28.72The transformation of hardened sinners moves others to believe.
2271. 28.73Those who had given up on the fallen are astonished and may believe; Jesus acted largely for their sake.
2272. 28.74The thanksgiving was for the crowd's sake.
2273. 28.75He raised Lazarus so that many would believe.
2274. 28.76Some went to report to the Pharisees.
2275. 28.77Were the informers believers seeking to shame the Pharisees, or unbelievers stirring them up?
2276. 28.78Origen prefers the second reading.
2277. 28.79Many believed; only “some” went to the Pharisees, prompting the council.
2278. 28.80Origen returns to those who came to Mary and believed.
2279. 28.81Only those who truly “saw” believed; the informers are not said to have seen.
2280. 28.82Had they seen, John would have said so.
2281. 28.83“Saw” is used only of those who believed, for whom Jesus spoke his thanksgiving.
2282. 28.84Perhaps the believers alone were the crowd standing around Jesus.
2283. 28.85Those who saw and believed were the crowd; the others did not truly stand around him.
2284. 28.86The leaders feared that faith in Jesus would end the temple worship and give Rome a pretext to destroy the nation.
2285. 28.87Preferring their worship and nation above all, they plotted to kill him.
2286. 28.88Calling him “this man” denied his divinity, as when they accused him of making himself God.
2287. 28.89Their words confess his signs yet blindly assume he could not escape their plot.
2288. 28.90They thought killing him would stop both believers and Rome.
2289. 28.91God overturned their plan: Christ was raised, the nations served him, and Rome took their place.
2290. 28.92The sanctuary is gone and the nation scattered.
2291. 28.93Spiritually, the Gentiles, “Romans” among them, took Israel's place.
2292. 28.94Israel lost its status; Christ, stronger than their plot, prevailed.
2293. 28.95Spiritually, literal worship and teaching resist Christ, the truth, as flesh resists Spirit.
2294. 28.96Christ's true priesthood and spiritual teaching overcome the plotters.
2295. 28.97The same conflict continues in those who uphold literal Judaism against Christ.
2296. 28.98Caiaphas prophesied but was not a prophet.
2297. 28.99Balaam likewise prophesied but was a diviner, not a prophet.
2298. 28.100Every prophet prophesies, but not everyone who prophesies is a prophet.
2299. 28.101Likewise the righteous pursue the right,
2300. 28.102One can do right things without righteousness, as those who give to the poor for glory.
2301. 28.103The same holds for every virtue.
2302. 28.104This illustrates prophesying without being a prophet.
2303. 28.105Hence Scripture specifies “the prophet”; one medical act does not make a physician.
2304. 28.106Even a wicked soul can prophesy, as Caiaphas did.
2305. 28.107The Gospels charge Caiaphas with wickedness: Matthew on Judas' bargain with the chief priests.
2306. 28.108Matthew names Caiaphas as the high priest to whom Jesus was led.
2307. 28.109Matthew's account of the trial before Caiaphas.
2308. 28.110Jesus was silent before the chief priests.
2309. 28.111They persuaded the crowds to choose Barabbas.
2310. 28.112After the resurrection the chief priests bribed the guards.
2311. 28.113Luke's account also shows the chief priests' guilt.
2312. 28.114Luke on the council at dawn.
2313. 28.115Mark's account of Judas and the chief priests.
2314. 28.116Mark on the gathering before Caiaphas.
2315. 28.117Mark's account of the interrogation.
2316. 28.118Mark on the morning council and the accusations before Pilate.
2317. 28.119John on Jesus led from Caiaphas.
2318. 28.120All four Gospels show Caiaphas' wickedness; yet John says he prophesied.
2319. 28.121Does everyone who prophesies do so by the Holy Spirit?
2320. 28.122David feared losing the Spirit after sin, and Wisdom says the Spirit flees deceit.
2321. 28.123Can the Spirit dwell in sinners, since only by the Spirit can one call Jesus Lord?
2322. 28.124Sins before receiving the Spirit may be forgiven;
2323. 28.125Sinning while the Spirit is present is blasphemy against the Spirit.
2324. 28.126Hebrews 6 also speaks of those who fall away after sharing in the Spirit.
2325. 28.127On the other hand, the Spirit was “not yet” given before Jesus' glorification.
2326. 28.128If not even the apostles had the Spirit before the resurrection, Caiaphas surely did not.
2327. 28.129Evil spirits too can testify to Jesus, as the demons did.
2328. 28.130The slave girl with a Pythian spirit also bore witness to the apostles.
2329. 28.131Her words were effectively prophecy.
2330. 28.132Perhaps Balaam spoke from an angel rather than from God, as the story of the donkey suggests.
2331. 28.133The angel tells Balaam to speak only what the angel says.
2332. 28.134It is the angel who gives Balaam the word.
2333. 28.135Yet shortly after, God himself put the word in Balaam's mouth.
2334. 28.136Both the angel's and God's words are true.
2335. 28.137Origen obelized “the Spirit of God came upon him,” absent from other Greek versions.
2336. 28.138Again God puts a word in Balaam's mouth.
2337. 28.139Scripture also speaks of an evil spirit from God on Saul, and of a lying spirit in Ahab's prophets.
2338. 28.140Since Caiaphas was not holy, he did not prophesy by the Holy Spirit.
2339. 28.141Similarly, Saul's messengers and Saul himself prophesied.
2340. 28.142The story of Saul's messengers at Ramah.
2341. 28.143The messengers prophesied.
2342. 28.144Saul himself went to Ramah.
2343. 28.145Saul too prophesied before Samuel.
2344. 28.146These examples show that sinners can prophesy, and raise the question from which power.
2345. 28.147Even the Philistine diviners spoke truly about the ark.
2346. 28.148The medium of Endor also spoke truly to Saul.
2347. 28.149Understanding these requires distinguishing good, evil, and intermediate powers.
2348. 28.150Even the devil knew Jesus was the Son of God, so an evil power could have prophesied through Caiaphas.
2349. 28.151The power behind Caiaphas aimed to provoke the council to kill Jesus, which the Holy Spirit would never do.
2350. 28.152Caiaphas' words were meant to incite the killing of Jesus.
2351. 28.153If “it is expedient for us” were false, the Holy Spirit could not have spoken it.
2352. 28.154Or it was true in a deeper sense: Christ tasted death for everyone.
2353. 28.155Christ is Savior of all and takes away the sin of the whole world.
2354. 28.156On this view the whole speech is true prophecy, beginning with “you know nothing.”
2355. 28.157They did not see that the man Jesus died for them too.
2356. 28.158Jesus called himself a man whom they sought to kill.
2357. 28.159The man died; God the Word, the image of God, could not die.
2358. 28.160The sinless man bore and destroyed the sin of the whole world.
2359. 28.161The sinless Christ was “made sin” and became the offscouring of the world, far more than his apostles.
2360. 28.162Greek and barbarian stories tell of calamities ended by someone giving his life for the community.
2361. 28.163Only Jesus could die for the whole world and carry the sin of all on the cross.
2362. 28.164He alone knew how to bear weakness, as Isaiah says.
2363. 28.165He bore our sins and the punishment owed to us.
2364. 28.166Healed by his wounds, we boast only in his cross; the Father handed him over for our sins.
2365. 28.167In his humiliation unto the cross his judgment was taken away, and he died for the people's sins.
2366. 28.168So he died for the people, and the nation did not perish.
2367. 28.169“People” may mean the Jews and “nation” the Gentiles.
2368. 28.170He died for the Jews and so that the Gentiles might not perish.
2369. 28.171Some things we say of ourselves; others are prompted by a power, though we remain conscious.
2370. 28.172Caiaphas spoke without grasping the prophetic meaning of his words.
2371. 28.173Paul also speaks of teachers who do not understand what they say.
2372. 28.174The wise man understands his own words.
2373. 28.175Circumstance can cause prophecy: Caiaphas prophesied because he was high priest that year.
2374. 28.176Circumstance also made Saul and his messengers prophesy.
2375. 28.177Seeing Israel's camp moved Balaam to prophesy.
2376. 28.178Jesus died for the nation and for God's scattered children, a different group.
2377. 28.179The Valentinians say God's scattered children are their “spirituals,” contrary to Paul's description of the spiritual man.
2378. 28.180Whoever does not judge all things is not yet spiritual.
2379. 28.181Whoever is judged by another is not yet spiritual.
2380. 28.182One becomes spiritual; one is not born so.
2381. 28.183God's scattered children may be the righteous already in God, patriarchs, prophets, and other elect.
2382. 28.184He died to gather God's children into one flock, fulfilling his prayer for unity.
2383. 28.185Perhaps the scattered children are the spiritual Israel, God's firstborn.
2384. 28.186Provoked by Caiaphas' words, the council resolved to kill Jesus.
2385. 28.187Which spirit spoke through Caiaphas, the Holy Spirit or another?
2386. 28.188A defender might say this is no more unworthy of the Spirit than Christ's coming “for judgment.”
2387. 28.189Both require a word of wisdom to explain.
2388. 28.190As heretics twist Scripture's holy sense, so the council misheard Caiaphas' true prophecy and plotted to kill Jesus.
2389. 28.191Origen leaves the reader to judge which view of Caiaphas' prophecy is right.
2390. 28.192Jesus' withdrawal teaches us not to rush rashly into martyrdom.
2391. 28.193When the contest comes, one must not shrink from confessing Christ.
2392. 28.194It is also good to avoid persecution when possible, lest we make our persecutors more guilty.
2393. 28.195One who provokes persecution when he could withdraw shares the guilt of the persecutor, however brave.
2394. 28.196Jesus is our example in how to face those who seek our life.
2395. 28.197As no one could seize Jesus before his hour, so it is with us.
2396. 28.198We must heed Christ's command to flee persecution, and his own example.
2397. 28.199Jesus prudently withdrew to a secluded town.
2398. 28.200The text of John 11:54.
2399. 28.201Jesus took his disciples with him into seclusion.
2400. 28.202Jesus often withdrew from danger, and even at the end was taken in a garden, not in the temple.
2401. 28.203He withdrew so completely that his enemies needed Judas to find him.
2402. 28.204Judas led the soldiers to him.
2403. 28.205He was seized only because he humbled himself and chose to obey.
2404. 28.206At his “I am,” his captors fell back.
2405. 28.207Then, willing to suffer, he asked again.
2406. 28.208He let himself be bound; otherwise one “I am” would have felled them again.
2407. 28.209He teaches us to withdraw both from persecution and from worldly honors.
2408. 28.210He fled alone when the crowd wanted to make him king.
2409. 28.211Spiritually, the Word once spoke openly to the Jews through the prophets but has now gone to the “wilderness,” the Gentile church.
2410. 28.212That town is Ephraim.
2411. 28.213Ephraim means “fruitfulness”; Manasseh, the elder, means “from forgetfulness.”
2412. 28.214After Israel was set aside, God made the Gentile wilderness fruitful, as Psalm 107 says.
2413. 28.215God settled the hungry in the church, sowing fields and planting vineyards that bore fruit.
2414. 28.216God does not neglect even the simpler believers, the “cattle.”
2415. 28.217Meanwhile the Jews were diminished and made to wander.
2416. 28.218God helped the poor Gentile people and made them a flock.
2417. 28.219The Psalm ends: the wise will understand the Lord's mercies.
2418. 28.220The wise understand God's mercy to the Gentiles.
2419. 28.221Christ has gone from the Jews to the world, to the fruitful church.
2420. 28.222Jesus remains with his fruitful disciples.
2421. 28.223Christ, like Joseph, can say God made him fruitful in the land of his humiliation.
2422. 28.224The Lord's Passover differs from “the Passover of the Jews.”
2423. 28.225Scripture distinguishes the Lord's feasts from those of sinners.
2424. 28.226Exodus calls the Passover “the Lord's.”
2425. 28.227Isaiah calls the feasts those of sinners, not God's.
2426. 28.228Isaiah and Amos say God hates the feasts of the sinful.
2427. 28.229This Passover was “the Jews',” since Christ was plotted against in it.
2428. 28.230Their Passover was accursed because they killed Jesus in it.
2429. 28.231Many went up to purify themselves.
2430. 28.232Seeking purification, they became more defiled by handing Jesus over to death.
2431. 28.233They chose Barabbas.
2432. 28.234They demanded his death.
2433. 28.235Christ's prophecy that killers would think they served God was fulfilled first in himself.
2434. 28.236His killers thought they were serving God.
2435. 28.237True purification came at the Passover when Christ, the Lamb, died.
2436. 28.238They sought Jesus to kill him.
2437. 28.239They wondered whether he would come.
2438. 28.240Jesus kept the feast in the upper room with his disciples.
2439. 28.241Some still stand in the “temple” of Scripture seeking Christ, but reject the one who came.
2440. 28.242Others go up to be purified so they may keep Christ's Passover with sincerity and truth.
2441. 28.243They seek Jesus in the Scriptures, wondering whether he will come.
2442. 28.244His withdrawal was such that his enemies did not know where he was.
2443. 28.245They do not know where Jesus is.
2444. 28.246They give human orders instead of God's commandments.
2445. 28.247Their orders aim to capture and betray Jesus.
2446. 28.248So too those who study Christianity only to attack it.
2447. 28.249End of Book 28.
2448. 32.1Book 32 opens: Origen prays to travel the Gospel's road to its end.
2449. 32.2Origen compares his thirty-second book to a stage of Israel's journey, led by Christ as the pillar of cloud.
2450. 32.3Only God knows whether Origen will finish the whole commentary.
2451. 32.4May we never walk outside the Gospel, in life or death.
2452. 32.5Origen recalls his Luke homilies on the meaning of breakfast and supper.
2453. 32.6Breakfast is food for beginners; supper for the advanced.
2454. 32.7Or breakfast is the Old Testament's sense, supper the New Testament's mysteries.
2455. 32.8This prepares for the footwashing.
2456. 32.9Those who sup with Jesus need only the lowest parts of the soul washed.
2457. 32.10This cleansing is done first by Jesus, then by his disciples for one another.
2458. 32.11John deliberately places the washing after supper to point to its spiritual meaning.
2459. 32.12Already bathed, they needed only their feet washed.
2460. 32.13No soul, however perfect, stays wholly unsoiled.
2461. 32.14True disciples need only their feet washed.
2462. 32.15The feet need washing from small sins the many do not even notice.
2463. 32.16If disciples need even their feet washed, what of us, soiled much more?
2464. 32.17What does “no part with me” mean?
2465. 32.18One only “sups” with Christ, never “breakfasts”; he is greater than Solomon, of whom “breakfast” is recorded.
2466. 32.19Origen boldly suggests Jesus did not wash Judas' feet, since the devil had already wounded him.
2467. 32.20The devil is the archer of Psalm 7.
2468. 32.21Psalm 7 on the archer's burning arrows.
2469. 32.22The whole passage refers to the devil, through whose envy death entered.
2470. 32.23The devil's dart struck Judas at the supper, whose host is not named here, unlike at Bethany.
2471. 32.24The devil shoots every kind of sin into hearts that lack the shield of faith.
2472. 32.25As the passion drew near, Jesus, knowing all was given him, rose from supper.
2473. 32.26The Father gave all things into the Son's hands, as Psalm 110 foresees.
2474. 32.27Even Christ's enemies are among the “all things”; compare “in Christ all will be made alive.”
2475. 32.28All will be made alive, but each in his own order, so justice is kept.
2476. 32.29The orders of resurrection lead to the end, when Christ hands the kingdom to the Father after abolishing every power.
2477. 32.30These powers are those we wrestle against; when abolished, the struggle ends.
2478. 32.31Paul's words show that these powers are Christ's enemies, the last being death.
2479. 32.32Paul says all things are subjected to Christ, except the Father who subjected them.
2480. 32.33Even the stiff-necked enemy will finally yield to the Word and be subjected to Christ.
2481. 32.34Seeing the plan move to its good end, the Father put all things under the Son's hands, that is, his works.
2482. 32.35The Son went out from God for the sake of those who had gone out, to lead them back to God.
2483. 32.36Peter was told he would follow later.
2484. 32.37The same will be said to all given to the Son: “you will follow later.”
2485. 32.38Each will follow at a different time.
2486. 32.39So too with the powers to be abolished, each in its time, until death.
2487. 32.40Knowing all this, Jesus rises from supper.
2488. 32.41He gladly supped with them but rose out of necessity to wash their feet, without which they would have no part with him.
2489. 32.42Next: he lays aside his garments and girds himself.
2490. 32.43Why did he need to take off his garments to wash their feet? The letter points to a spiritual sense.
2491. 32.44Origen asks what the garments Jesus laid aside at the supper stand for.
2492. 32.45The garments are the Word's outward clothing in words and sounds; laying them aside and taking the towel shows him taking the form of a slave.
2493. 32.46The glorified Word humbles himself in washing the disciples' feet.
2494. 32.47Abraham did not wash his guests' feet himself but had water brought for them.
2495. 32.48Joseph too had his steward wash his brothers' feet, not himself.
2496. 32.49Jesus, who came as one who serves, pours the water himself, because only he could wash them so as to give them a part with him.
2497. 32.50The water of the foot-washing stands for a cleansing word.
2498. 32.51Why does John say Jesus “began” to wash their feet?
2499. 32.52Either “began” is a scriptural idiom, or Jesus did not finish the washing at that moment.
2500. 32.53Jesus completed the washing later, after the disciples were defiled by falling away and Peter by his denial.
2501. 32.54The washing begun at supper was completed when the disciples were cleansed for good.
2502. 32.55The wiping, like the washing, was completed later; then follows the Gospel text on Peter's refusal (John 13:6–11).
2503. 32.56Peter's words show that good intentions without understanding can lead to harmful speech.
2504. 32.57Peter, though reverent, spoke against his own good by refusing the washing that gave him a part with Christ.
2505. 32.58Many believers, meaning well, say or do harmful things out of ignorance.
2506. 32.59Those who forbid foods and things meant for use are an example of such well-meant error.
2507. 32.60Heretics too teach destructive things while claiming reverence for Jesus.
2508. 32.61Peter often rashly promised what seemed better to him, as when he insisted he would never fall away.
2509. 32.62Peter's rashness led him to sin more than the others by denying Jesus three times.
2510. 32.63Peter learned from his rashness and later bore Paul's public rebuke at Antioch in silence.
2511. 32.64Acts shows Peter's transformed, steady character.
2512. 32.65The other disciples trusted that the washing had a hidden meaning; Peter alone, looking only at the surface, refused.
2513. 32.66By refusing, Peter implicitly accused both Jesus and the other disciples.
2514. 32.67Had Peter understood the washing was reasonable, he would not have objected.
2515. 32.68Why did Jesus not begin the washing with Peter, who is listed first among the Twelve?
2516. 32.69Like a physician treating the worst cases first, Jesus perhaps began with the dirtiest feet and came to Peter last.
2517. 32.70Peter's feet being nearly clean may explain why he objected.
2518. 32.71Jesus' saying may imply that the disciples, and Peter himself, were already clean.
2519. 32.72Jesus washed those already clean because to those who have, more is given.
2520. 32.73Jesus adds his own cleansing to those already clean, since without it no one counts as clean.
2521. 32.74A later thought: Jesus washed disciples who were clean in human terms, because no one is clean before God without Jesus.
2522. 32.75Those washed by Jesus and baptized can receive the Holy Spirit and power from on high.
2523. 32.76Jesus answers Peter's objection by saying the washing is a mystery he will understand later.
2524. 32.77By washing their feet Jesus made the feet of the future evangelists beautiful.
2525. 32.78The foot-washing fulfilled the prophecy about the beautiful feet of those who bring good news.
2526. 32.79How much more beauty comes to those whom Jesus baptizes wholly in the Spirit and fire.
2527. 32.80The apostles' feet were cleansed so they could walk on Christ, the way.
2528. 32.81Only those washed by Jesus can walk the living way to the Father.
2529. 32.82Moses and Joshua had to remove their sandals on holy ground.
2530. 32.83The disciples needed more than bare feet: Jesus washed them, perhaps taking their dirt on himself, as he bears our weaknesses.
2531. 32.84Jesus chose to wash their feet just when Judas's betrayal and the passion were at hand.
2532. 32.85The washing could not come earlier, nor during the passion itself.
2533. 32.86After the passion came the time of the Spirit, for which the disciples' feet were already prepared.
2534. 32.87The washing symbolizes the cleansing of the apostles' souls for preaching the gospel.
2535. 32.88Peter would understand the mystery only after being washed and enlightened.
2536. 32.89Peter's reply came from reverence, not understanding.
2537. 32.90Jesus in his kindness would not let Peter's harmful vow come true.
2538. 32.91Jesus showed Peter it was better for his vow to prove false.
2539. 32.92Peter had to let his rash word prove false in order to have a part with Jesus.
2540. 32.93Jesus made Peter's vow false by washing him.
2541. 32.94This passage can be used to persuade people to abandon rash promises that harm them.
2542. 32.95People should be persuaded to set aside rash promises, even sworn ones, rather than persist in them.
2543. 32.96Like Peter, one who made a rash promise should change course.
2544. 32.97Literal interpreters cannot explain why refusing a mere foot-washing would cost Peter his part with Christ.
2545. 32.98The threat makes sense only if the washing means more than washing bodily feet.
2546. 32.99Read literally, Jesus would seem to answer a reverent disciple harshly, which is absurd.
2547. 32.100We too should offer our feet to Jesus, who still serves and washes his disciples.
2548. 32.101Without his washing we have no part with him and cannot be true evangelists.
2549. 32.102Peter rashly overreached, offering hands and head, which Jesus did not wish washed.
2550. 32.103It is enough to offer our feet to Jesus; whoever has bathed is wholly clean.
2551. 32.104Why wash those who were already clean?
2552. 32.105Origen adds to his earlier answer.
2553. 32.106“Need” means what is necessary; spiritual gifts beyond life itself are beyond need.
2554. 32.107The foot-washing is a gift beyond need, like the differing glories of the resurrection.
2555. 32.108The clean are washed further, because more is given to those who have.
2556. 32.109“Not all” refers to Judas, already unclean through theft and by accepting the devil's suggestion.
2557. 32.110The eleven grew cleaner and Judas filthier; then follows the Gospel text John 13:12–15.
2558. 32.111The disciples would not have dared to imitate so great a cleansing unless Jesus had urged them to it.
2559. 32.112Jesus' question presses the disciples to understand what he did.
2560. 32.113The words may be read as a question or as a command.
2561. 32.114Jesus teaches that as Lord and Teacher he sets them an example.
2562. 32.115Jesus washed them both as teacher and as lord.
2563. 32.116As teacher he cleanses worldly dust; as lord he removes the defilement of those still servants.
2564. 32.117Jesus washes as teacher, since disciples still fall short of becoming like their teacher.
2565. 32.118A teacher aims to make the disciple like himself.
2566. 32.119As a physician aims to make himself unnecessary, a teacher aims to make the disciple like himself.
2567. 32.120Unlike other masters, Christ wants his servants to become like him.
2568. 32.121Christ as Lord makes his servants like himself, giving them the spirit of adoption.
2569. 32.122Only one who has become like the Teacher can wash others' feet, as a teacher placed in the church after apostles and prophets.
2570. 32.123The mature servant washes the feet of those under his teaching; and not all who call Jesus “Lord” say it well.
2571. 32.124Those who call Jesus “Lord” at the judgment without doing his will do not say it well.
2572. 32.125Jesus rejects those who call him Lord without righteousness.
2573. 32.126Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” is approved, as the apostles were.
2574. 32.127The apostles rightly called Jesus Lord, for vice no longer ruled them but the Word.
2575. 32.128Whoever says “Jesus is Lord” in the Holy Spirit says it well.
2576. 32.129How could the apostles say it well before the Spirit was given?
2577. 32.130Only a true servant and disciple of the Word can rightly call Jesus Lord and Teacher.
2578. 32.131The requirement that an enrolled widow have washed the saints' feet should not be taken only literally.
2579. 32.132Since older women are to teach, the widow's foot-washing may have a spiritual sense.
2580. 32.133Taken literally, the command would require bishops, masters, and parents to wash the feet of all, which is scarcely ever done.
2581. 32.134The earlier discussion of John 13:8 and 13:12 applies here too.
2582. 32.135The example of foot-washing corresponds to the bride's figurative words in the Song of Songs.
2583. 32.136The command to imitate should be read with the saying about having a part with Jesus.
2584. 32.137If the command is kept literally, must we also literally tell those who refuse our washing that they have no part with us?
2585. 32.138One must decide whether the wording must always be kept literally.
2586. 32.139Origen allows that literal foot-washing may sometimes rightly be done out of love.
2587. 32.140If the command were literal, nearly everyone would be in breach of it; then follows the Gospel text John 13:16–18.
2588. 32.141The blessing on those who “do these things” refers to the foot-washing and supports a figurative reading.
2589. 32.142To understand and practise the spiritual meaning of the washing is the work of the blessed.
2590. 32.143Literal foot-washing cannot earn the title “blessed”; the spiritual washing belongs to one who has Jesus within.
2591. 32.144Matthew and Luke have parallel sayings about the disciple and the teacher.
2592. 32.145Origen asks what “I do not speak of all of you” refers to, rejecting the view that it refers to the blessing.
2593. 32.146A conditional blessing is true of anyone, even Judas, so it cannot be what excludes him.
2594. 32.147“Not all of you” may refer to the saying about the slave and his lord.
2595. 32.148Judas, committing sin, was a slave of sin.
2596. 32.149Judas was therefore not a servant of the Word.
2597. 32.150Judas had ceased to be Jesus' apostle and had become the devil's.
2598. 32.151So “not all of you” denies that Judas was still Jesus' servant and apostle.
2599. 32.152“I know whom I have chosen” has a simple sense, and a deeper one based on Scripture's use of “know.”
2600. 32.153Jesus' “I never knew you” cannot mean simple ignorance.
2601. 32.154The Lord “knows” only those who are his; Judas, having fallen away, is no longer known.
2602. 32.155Jesus says “I know whom I have chosen,” not “all present,” since he no longer knows Judas.
2603. 32.156Judas's betrayal fulfils the psalm about the one who ate Jesus' bread.
2604. 32.157John paraphrases Psalm 41 (40 LXX).
2605. 32.158How could Judas be the Savior's “man of peace” in whom he hoped?
2606. 32.159Judas had once truly believed, as his sending with the Twelve as a bearer of peace shows.
2607. 32.160The devil's influence on Judas is recorded only late.
2608. 32.161Judas was trusted with the money because he was once trustworthy, though his fall was foreseen.
2609. 32.162Jesus once had great hope in Judas as a good apostle.
2610. 32.163Judas shared in Jesus' secret, nourishing teaching.
2611. 32.164John's “lifted up his heel” renders the psalm's “magnified his heel.”
2612. 32.165Lifting the heel means kicking; Judas trampled on the Son of God.
2613. 32.166Judas ate Jesus' bread when he received the morsel.
2614. 32.167Judas lifted his heel when Satan entered him after the morsel.
2615. 32.168The psalm's “iniquity of my heel” may also refer to Judas; then follows the Gospel text John 13:19.
2616. 32.169John 13:19 refers back to the prophecy of the betrayer; but why should disciples need to be told this in order to believe?
2617. 32.170The words seem to imply the disciples did not yet believe he was the Christ.
2618. 32.171Origen seeks a reading that does not accuse the apostles of unbelief.
2619. 32.172As the wise can grow wiser, so believers can grow in faith.
2620. 32.173A believer can become more believing, as a wise man becomes wiser.
2621. 32.174The apostles' prayer “Increase our faith” shows they had faith that could grow.
2622. 32.175Seeing prophecy fulfilled added to the disciples' existing faith.
2623. 32.176“That you may believe” means continuing firmly in faith.
2624. 32.177Paul's phrase “all faith” shows faith has degrees.
2625. 32.178Having “all faith” means being perfect in the virtue of faith.
2626. 32.179Imperfect virtues are called by the same names only loosely.
2627. 32.180One still needing correction can be called wise, as Proverbs says.
2628. 32.181One who can still learn more is also called wise.
2629. 32.182Believers can add to their faith by learning.
2630. 32.183Having “all faith” means believing all saving truths firmly; people fall short of it in different degrees.
2631. 32.184God's recompense and salvation will be proportioned to each person's faith.
2632. 32.185Since faith has hidden degrees, humans should not judge one another.
2633. 32.186Origen will illustrate the articles of saving faith.
2634. 32.187The first article of faith: one God, creator of all from nothing.
2635. 32.188One must believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, both God and man.
2636. 32.189One must believe in the Holy Spirit and in free will with judgment.
2637. 32.190Denying that one God is author of both Law and Gospel means lacking faith's chief article.
2638. 32.191Denying the virgin birth means lacking something essential to full faith.
2639. 32.192Denying Christ's real humanity also falls short of full faith.
2640. 32.193Denying the Son's divine subsistence also falls short of full faith.
2641. 32.194Complete faith is what can move mountains; lacking any part weakens that power.
2642. 32.195As a crew short even one man cannot launch a ship, faith lacking any part cannot move mountains.
2643. 32.196The discussion shows the disciples' faith could still grow, and how rare complete faith is.
2644. 32.197Fulfilled prophecy strengthens faith; then follows the Gospel text John 13:20.
2645. 32.198Jesus sends both men and angels as his apostles.
2646. 32.199Angels too may be called “apostles,” since they are sent.
2647. 32.200Whoever is sent is an apostle of the sender, angels included.
2648. 32.201John 13:16 uses “apostle” in this broad sense.
2649. 32.202John the Baptist and Isaiah were also “apostles” of God, being sent.
2650. 32.203Hebrews calls Christ himself the Father's apostle.
2651. 32.204Anyone Christ sends for others' salvation is his apostle.
2652. 32.205An apostle is an apostle only to those to whom he is sent.
2653. 32.206Paul says he is an apostle to those he was sent to.
2654. 32.207One may be an apostle to a single person.
2655. 32.208The great apostles were sent to whole peoples: Paul to the Gentiles, Peter to the Jews.
2656. 32.209Among us, one may become an apostle to one or a few.
2657. 32.210One who becomes such an apostle should not be proud but faithful.
2658. 32.211Many may be sent by Jesus, including beings above humans.
2659. 32.212Receiving Christ's messenger means receiving Christ and the Father.
2660. 32.213Receiving Christ directly, not through human messengers, brings the Father to dwell in the soul too.
2661. 32.214Just as receiving Christ's messengers means receiving God, receiving the Antichrist's messenger means receiving the evil one.
2662. 32.215Like good money-changers, believers must test teachers and reject false ones.
2663. 32.216Christ wants his apostles received, but faith is directed to him, not to them.
2664. 32.217Receive Christ's messengers and never an apostle of the Antichrist; the next text is John 13:21.
2665. 32.218Origen distinguishes soul, which can turn to good or evil, from the human spirit, which cannot receive evil.
2666. 32.219The works of the flesh, set against the fruit of the spirit, are all blameworthy.
2667. 32.220Only once in Scripture is a wicked man's spirit said to be hardened by God.
2668. 32.221The instance is Sihon, whose spirit God hardened, in Deuteronomy.
2669. 32.222This question belongs to a commentary on Deuteronomy.
2670. 32.223In John 12:27 the soul itself was troubled; in John 13:21 the trouble came under the governance of Jesus' human spirit.
2671. 32.224A saint does and suffers everything in the spirit.
2672. 32.225This holds even more of Jesus, who took on a whole human nature, including a human spirit.
2673. 32.226Jesus was troubled in spirit so as to bear solemn witness to the betrayal.
2674. 32.227Jesus' spirit foresaw the betrayal the devil had planted in Judas and was troubled by that knowledge.
2675. 32.228Perhaps Jesus' flesh too was troubled, for he was fully human, the one announced by Gabriel.
2676. 32.229Here “he testified” refers to his announcement of the betrayal.
2677. 32.230This “testimony” shares only the name with martyrdom, the witness of those who die for their faith.
2678. 32.231The word “testified” here does not carry its martyr sense.
2679. 32.232“One of you” may imply that Judas had once truly shared the apostles' rank and disposition before falling.
2680. 32.233“One of us” in Genesis and “one of the rulers” in the Psalm both point to the one who fell, whose fall sinners imitate.
2681. 32.234Those called “gods” who fall from blessedness die like men and fall like the fallen ruler.
2682. 32.235Jesus marvels that his betrayer is one of the chosen apostles.
2683. 32.236Many condemned Jesus with shouts to crucify him.
2684. 32.237Only someone who had known Jesus' greatness closely could betray it.
2685. 32.238Judas's betrayal was total because he betrayed the greatness he had seen and heard.
2686. 32.239“Better not to have been born” may refer to rebirth or to natural birth; the next text is John 13:22.
2687. 32.240The disciples' bewilderment shows Judas's wickedness was not obvious to them.
2688. 32.241Judas was not wholly evil: a remnant of good led him to repent and return the money, though he then hanged himself.
2689. 32.242Judas's repentance was not pure; had it been, he would have gone to the Savior like the penitent thief.
2690. 32.243Had Judas been utterly evil, he would not have repented at all.
2691. 32.244Returning the money and confessing show that some good remained in Judas.
2692. 32.245The devil who prompted the betrayal also drove Judas to suicide.
2693. 32.246Origen argues that Judas was not by nature beyond salvation.
2694. 32.247Psalm 41 shows that Judas had been a friend before he fell.
2695. 32.248The Psalm shows Judas was not an enemy from the start.
2696. 32.249The Psalm shows that Judas once loved Jesus and was close to him.
2697. 32.250Many passages explain the disciples' uncertainty.
2698. 32.251Luke also records the disciples' questioning about the betrayer.
2699. 32.252Matthew and Mark show each disciple suspecting himself.
2700. 32.253Matthew: each asked, “Is it I, Lord?”
2701. 32.254Mark reports the same question, one by one.
2702. 32.255The disciples knew that the will of those still growing can change.
2703. 32.256Knowing the spiritual struggle, they feared they might be overcome.
2704. 32.257Peter's firm resolve still failed, and he denied Jesus three times.
2705. 32.258No one should be overconfident; each disciple searched the others' hearts, wondering who could fall so far.
2706. 32.259The disciples were genuinely at a loss; the next text is John 13:23–29.
2707. 32.260The beloved disciple at the supper is John, as the end of the Gospel shows.
2708. 32.261The same disciple wrote the Gospel, as John 21:24 says.
2709. 32.262Peter's closeness to John shows in both scenes, including his wish to know John's end.
2710. 32.263The beloved disciple's place at Jesus' bosom must be read spiritually, as a real honor.
2711. 32.264John in Jesus' bosom symbolizes his rest in the Word, as the Word is in the Father's bosom.
2712. 32.265Understood spiritually, Abraham's bosom answers an objector who mocked the story of Lazarus as if only one could lie there.
2713. 32.266Countless souls can rest in Abraham's bosom at once, sharing what was revealed to him.
2714. 32.267A further use of “bosom”: Moses' hand made leprous and restored.
2715. 32.268The hand stands for actions; Moses' bosom has a literal power that makes them leprous and a spiritual power that restores them.
2716. 32.269Those not persuaded by the letter may be persuaded by the spiritual sense of the law.
2717. 32.270For one who believes neither sign, the water turns to blood.
2718. 32.271Exodus 4:9: river water poured out becomes blood.
2719. 32.272With the third sign, belief is no longer mentioned.
2720. 32.273Unbelief turns the life-giving word into blood for the unbeliever.
2721. 32.274We too may rest in Jesus' bosom by love; Peter beckons to John and asks who is meant.
2722. 32.275Winking with deceit is condemned in Proverbs, but Peter's nod came from love of learning.
2723. 32.276To learn the mystery of the betrayal, John moved from Jesus' bosom up to his breast.
2724. 32.277Only by moving to the breast did John receive the answer.
2725. 32.278At the Gospel's end John is marked by the higher position, leaning on Jesus' breast.
2726. 32.279John 21:20 describes John by his leaning on the breast, not by his place in the bosom.
2727. 32.280Jesus answers: the betrayer is the one who receives the dipped morsel.
2728. 32.281Satan entered Judas only after the morsel, not when he first put the betrayal into his heart.
2729. 32.282The morsel took from Judas the good he only seemed to have.
2730. 32.283Stripped of the better thing, Judas made room for Satan.
2731. 32.284As peace returns from one who refuses it, so Judas lost the better thing; Paul's exchange of abundance and lack illustrates this.
2732. 32.285The morsel took peace away from Judas, and the one who watches for an opening entered him.
2733. 32.286Satan first only put the thought into Judas's heart; after the morsel he entered him.
2734. 32.287Guard the heart against the devil's darts, lest he then enter.
2735. 32.288Why does Jesus say he will dip the morsel, not just give it?
2736. 32.289The dipped morsel drew out of Judas the “dye” the Word had put in him, so that Satan could enter.
2737. 32.290Matthew, Mark, and Luke have related sayings about dipping in the dish.
2738. 32.291Origen suggests that Judas shamelessly failed to give his teacher precedence at the dish.
2739. 32.292Judas dipped with Jesus, claiming equality instead of yielding to him.
2740. 32.293The saying can even be used, half in jest, to teach the young good manners toward elders at table.
2741. 32.294Origen admits his inquiry may seem over-curious but prefers to test every word of Scripture.
2742. 32.295“Do quickly” may be addressed to Satan or Judas; Jesus was not afraid but eager for the contest of his passion.
2743. 32.296Psalm 27 is the Savior's own voice, fearless as the powers of evil gather against him.
2744. 32.297None of the disciples understood the saying.
2745. 32.298Some thought Jesus was sending Judas to buy for the feast or give to the poor.
2746. 32.299Jesus' words were a challenge to the contest for human salvation; the next text is John 13:30.
2747. 32.300Judas obeyed Jesus only in this: he went out at once to betray him.
2748. 32.301Judas went out not only from the house but, spiritually, from the company of the faithful.
2749. 32.302Satan in Judas could not remain in Jesus' presence.
2750. 32.303Origen notes that the text says Judas received the morsel, not that he ate it.
2751. 32.304Elsewhere receiving is followed by eating, as when Jesus said of the bread of blessing, “Take, eat.”
2752. 32.305Origen asks whether Judas ate the morsel and offers views for the reader to judge.
2753. 32.306Jesus dipped the morsel, left it in the dish, and then took it up.
2754. 32.307Perhaps Satan entered Judas before he could eat, to keep him from benefiting from Jesus' gift.
2755. 32.308Fearing the morsel's good power, Satan entered Judas the moment he took it.
2756. 32.309Like the Lord's bread eaten unworthily, the morsel brought salvation to the apostles but judgment to Judas.
2757. 32.310The bread and cup mean the Eucharist for simpler believers and the nourishing word of truth for deeper ones.
2758. 32.311Truth given to a soul unready for it can harm it.
2759. 32.312Origen leaves open whether Judas ate the morsel or Satan prevented him.
2760. 32.313The night of John 13:30 symbolizes the darkness that entered Judas's soul.
2761. 32.314For the disciples whose feet Jesus washed, and above all for the beloved disciple, it was day, not night.
2762. 32.315Peter had no night when he confessed Christ, but night came with his denial.
2763. 32.316Leaving Jesus, the Sun of righteousness, Judas went into night; his darkness could not overcome the light.
2764. 32.317Satan led Judas to the noose, for unlike Job his soul was not protected; the next text is John 13:31–32.
2765. 32.318Christ's glorification began when Judas, with Satan, left his presence.
2766. 32.319Christ glorified God by his death.
2767. 32.320“Now” marks the start of the saving plan of Christ's death.
2768. 32.321Christ cannot be glorified without the Father being glorified in him.
2769. 32.322The glory of the death belonged to Christ's human nature, since the divine Word cannot die.
2770. 32.323Jesus calls himself a man when speaking of his death and Son of Man when speaking of his glory.
2771. 32.324God exalted the obedient man; the divine Word, already supreme, could not be exalted.
2772. 32.325Christ's exaltation was that the man became one and the same with the Word.
2773. 32.326If a believer joined to the Lord becomes one spirit, all the more is Jesus' humanity made one with the Word.
2774. 32.327Christ's death triumphed over the powers and made peace; in all this the Son and the Father were glorified.
2775. 32.328By whom are the Son and God glorified?
2776. 32.329Origen divides John 13:31–32 into four statements.
2777. 32.330“Glory” here is not the philosophers' popular praise but the biblical glory of God.
2778. 32.331Exodus: the tent was filled with the Lord's glory.
2779. 32.332Kings: the cloud filled the Lord's house.
2780. 32.333The priests could not minister because of the glory; Exodus also speaks of Moses' glory.
2781. 32.334Moses' face was glorified after he spoke with God.
2782. 32.335Luke's transfiguration account shows the same meaning of glory.
2783. 32.336Paul speaks of the passing glory of Moses and the surpassing glory of the ministry of the Spirit.
2784. 32.337Paul: the god of this age blinds unbelievers to the glory of Christ.
2785. 32.338Literally, glory was a divine manifestation; spiritually, it is the knowledge of God seen by a purified mind, which is deified in contemplation.
2786. 32.339Moses' shining face figuratively means his mind deified by the vision of God.
2787. 32.340Paul says the same of believers transformed by beholding the Lord's glory.
2788. 32.341Moses' glory fades before Christ's as night-lights before the sun.
2789. 32.342Christ's knowledge of the Father far surpasses Moses' knowledge.
2790. 32.343Moses' glory is done away by Christ's surpassing glory.
2791. 32.344Origen returns to John 13:31.
2792. 32.345The Son is glorified by his perfect knowledge of the Father.
2793. 32.346The Son is also glorified by knowing himself.
2794. 32.347Knowing all things, the Son of Man is glorified through union with Wisdom, and all his glory is the Father's gift.
2795. 32.348The highest part of the Son's glory is God himself, known by the Son.
2796. 32.349God is glorified in the Son; Origen ventures a bold inquiry into this.
2797. 32.350Origen asks whether God is glorified even more in himself, delighting in his own self-knowledge.
2798. 32.351Human words cannot properly describe God; only God and his Son can speak of him properly.
2799. 32.352God is glorified also in the Holy Spirit and in all who see his glory.
2800. 32.353The Son is the full radiance of God's glory; other rational beings receive partial rays.
2801. 32.354Christ's suffering for all was not apart from God, so both Son and Father are glorified.
2802. 32.355Only the Father knows the Son and reveals him.
2803. 32.356While the world did not know Christ, the loss was the world's, not his.
2804. 32.357When the Father revealed Jesus, he was glorified in believers and gave them glory in turn.
2805. 32.358“From glory to glory” means from Christ's glory to that of those who glorify him.
2806. 32.359The Son reveals the Father, who is seen in him as the original is seen in its image.
2807. 32.360As sinners bring blasphemy on God's name, the saints' good works bring it glory.
2808. 32.361God was glorified supremely in the sinless Jesus.
2809. 32.362The sinless Son was glorified, and God in him.
2810. 32.363In return the Father glorifies the Son in himself, a greater gift.
2811. 32.364The Father's glorifying of the Son surpasses the Son's glorifying of the Father.
2812. 32.365The Father repays the Son by glorifying him in himself, and soon.
2813. 32.366Origen admits his explanation falls short of the passage's depth.
2814. 32.367Origen gives thanks for what he has understood; the next text is John 13:33.
2815. 32.368Jesus speaks as a father to his children; “little children” shows the apostles were still immature.
2816. 32.369A “little child” is still a child.
2817. 32.370The paralytic was not necessarily more mature than the apostles.
2818. 32.371Unlike human children, a child of Jesus can become his brother.
2819. 32.372After the resurrection the disciples became Jesus' brothers.
2820. 32.373The risen Jesus calls the disciples his brothers.
2821. 32.374The disciples progressed from servants to children; perhaps one moves from servant to disciple, child, brother, and son of God.
2822. 32.375A disciple is one who learns God's wisdom from the Word.
2823. 32.376Literally, Jesus was soon to be arrested, tried, crucified, and buried.
2824. 32.377Spiritually, Christ, who is present only with the worthy, was no longer with the disciples when they fell away.
2825. 32.378Objection: Christ stands even among those who do not know him.
2826. 32.379Being with the worthy differs from standing unrecognized among others.
2827. 32.380Christ's promised presence differs from his unrecognized presence.
2828. 32.381Christ was no longer truly with Judas once the devil had entered his heart.
2829. 32.382After Satan entered him, Christ was even less with Judas.
2830. 32.383After the little while, the disciples would seek Jesus, as Peter did in his bitter tears.
2831. 32.384Jesus later explains the “little while” of absence and return, sorrow turning to joy.
2832. 32.385Their sorrow in his absence became joy when they saw him again.
2833. 32.386Whoever is to see him again will see him before long.
2834. 32.387Seeking Jesus means seeking God's Word, wisdom, righteousness, truth, and power.
2835. 32.388Some seek Jesus only because he fed them.
2836. 32.389Jesus recalls what he had told the Jews and now says it to the disciples.
2837. 32.390For the disciples the separation is only temporary.
2838. 32.391“Now” shows that the disciples' inability to follow is temporary, unlike that of those who die in their sin.
2839. 32.392Since both Jesus and his hearers would die and go to Hades, the saying cannot simply mean death.
2840. 32.393Jesus went to paradise, where those dying in sin could never come, but the disciples could later.
2841. 32.394The three days in the heart of the earth raise a further question.
2842. 32.395Some thought “Today you will be with me in paradise” contradicted the three days and was a forgery.
2843. 32.396Either Jesus brought the thief to paradise first, or “today” means the whole present age, as elsewhere in Scripture.
2844. 32.397“Today” promises the thief a place with Christ within the present age.
2845. 32.398The disciples wanted to follow Jesus by bearing the cross, but could not yet.
2846. 32.399Without the Spirit, not yet given, they could not yet follow and confess Jesus.
2847. 32.400Only those ready to walk in the Word's steps can follow him to the Father.
2848. 32.401Origen ends Book 32 of his Commentary on John.