Origen of Alexandria — Commentary on Scripture

Exodus 12:8

Then too the unleavened bread is commanded to be eaten with bitter herbs; nor is it possible to attain the promised land unless we pass through bitterness. For just as physicians put bitter substances in medicines with a view to the health and healing of the infirm, so also the Physician of our souls with a view to our salvation has wished us to suffer the bitterness of this life in various temptations. [He knows] that the end of this bitterness gains the sweetness of salvation for our soul, just as, on the contrary, the end of the sweetness found in corporeal pleasure, as the example of that rich man teaches, brings a bitter end: torments in hell.

HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27:10

Exodus 12:8

Christians eat the flesh of the lamb every day, that is, they consume daily the flesh of the Word. “For Christ our pasch is sacrificed.” And because the law of the pasch is such that it is eaten in the evening, for this reason the Lord suffered in the evening of the world, that you may always eat of the flesh of the Word, because you are always in the evening until the morning comes. And if in this evening you shall be anxious and “in weeping and fasting” and shall lead your life in every labor of justice, you shall be able to say, “In the evening weeping shall have place and in the morning gladness.” For you shall rejoice in the morning, that is, in the world to come, if in this world you have gathered “the fruit of justice” in weeping and labor.

HOMILIES ON GENESIS 10:3

Exodus 12:8

But we eat the flesh of the lamb and the unleavened bread with bitter herbs either by being grieved with a godly grief because of repentance for our sins, a grief which produces in us a repentance unto salvation which brings no regret, or by seeking and being nurtured from the visions of the truth which we discover because of our trials.

COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.102

Exodus 12:8

And we must eat the meat roasted with fire with unleavened bread. For the Word of God is not only flesh. He says, indeed, “I am the bread of life,” and “This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eat of this bread he shall live forever.”36We must not, however, fail to remark that all food is loosely said to be bread, as it is written in the case of Moses in Deuteronomy: “He did not eat bread for forty days, and he did not drink water,” instead of saying he partook of neither dry nor wet nourishment.
Now I have noted this because it is also said in the Gospel according to John, “And also the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.99-101

Exodus 12:9

One must not therefore eat the flesh of the lamb raw, as the slaves of the letter do in the manner of animals which are irrational and quite savage. In relation to men who are truly rational through their desire to understand the spiritual aspects of the world, the former [slaves of the letter] share the company of wild beasts.We must strive, however, in transforming the rawness of Scripture into boiled food, not to transform what has been written into what is flaccid, watery and limp. This is what they do who “have itching ears and” turn them away “from the truth” and transform the anagogical meanings so far as they are concerned to the carelessness and wateriness of their manner of life.

COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.103-4

Exodus 12:10

Consequently let us compare the divine Scripture with itself and follow the path of the solution that it would open to us. For we find in the sacrifice of the Passover that it is ordered to be offered “in the evening.” In like manner, the command is given that “nothing will remain of the flesh until morning.” It is not insignificant that the divine word wants us to eat not yesterday’s meat, but always fresh and new, particularly those who offer to God the Passover sacrifice or “the sacrifice of praise.” It commands them to eat this new and fresh meat of the same day. It prohibits yesterday’s meat. I remembered the prophet Ezekiel said something similar when the Lord had commanded him to bake cakes for them in “human dung.” For he answered the Lord and said, “O Lord, never was my soul contaminated, and dead or unclean things did not enter my mouth. Even yesterday’s meat never entered my mouth.” In this case I was often asking myself what this exultation of the prophet was that as something great he brought mean before the Lord and said, “I never ate yesterday’s meat.” But as I see fro…

Consequently let us compare the divine Scripture with itself and follow the path of the solution that it would open to us. For we find in the sacrifice of the Passover that it is ordered to be offered “in the evening.” In like manner, the command is given that “nothing will remain of the flesh until morning.” It is not insignificant that the divine word wants us to eat not yesterday’s meat, but always fresh and new, particularly those who offer to God the Passover sacrifice or “the sacrifice of praise.” It commands them to eat this new and fresh meat of the same day. It prohibits yesterday’s meat. I remembered the prophet Ezekiel said something similar when the Lord had commanded him to bake cakes for them in “human dung.” For he answered the Lord and said, “O Lord, never was my soul contaminated, and dead or unclean things did not enter my mouth. Even yesterday’s meat never entered my mouth.” In this case I was often asking myself what this exultation of the prophet was that as something great he brought mean before the Lord and said, “I never ate yesterday’s meat.” But as I see from this place, taught and instructed by these mysteries, this prophet spoke to the Lord saying, I am not a priest so cast down and ignoble that “I eat yesterday’s meat,” that is, old meat.

HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 5.8.2

Exodus 12:23

And who else could be the destroyer in Exodus, which Moses wrote, except the one who is the cause of destruction to those who obey him and who do not resist and struggle against his wickedness?

AGAINST CELSUS 6.43

Exodus 12:23

We must also inquire who that being was of whom it is said in Exodus that he wished to kill Moses because he was setting out for Egypt. And afterwards, who is it that is called the “destroying angel”? And who also is he who in Leviticus is described as Apopompeus, that is, the Averter, of whom the Scripture speaks thus: “One lot for the Lord, and one lot for Apopompeus”?

ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.2.1

Exodus 13:2

Therefore let us draw together from the divine Scriptures instances in which we find “holy” used, and discover not only persons but also mute animals that are called “holy,” and also find both “the vessels” of the ministry that are called “holy,” and the garments which are said to be “holy,” and even the places which were located in cities and suburbs and counted as priestly. Indeed, among the brute animals it is commanded through the law that “the firstborn” of calves or cattle be sacrificed to the Lord, and it says, You will not do any work with them because they have been consecrated to the Lord.

HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 11.1.2

Exodus 13:2

Males were sacred because they opened their mothers’ wombs. They were offered before the altar of the Lord. Scripture says, “Every male that opens the womb.…” This phrase has a spiritual meaning. For you might say that “every male is brought forth from the womb” but does not open the womb of his mother in the way that the Lord Jesus did. In the case of every other woman, it is not the birth of an infant but intercourse with a man that opens the womb. But the womb of the Lord’s mother was opened at the time when her offspring was brought forth, because before the birth of Christ a male did not even touch her womb, holy as it was and deserving of all respect.

HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 14:7-8

Exodus 14:15

But if the mental voice of those who pray should not be extremely loud, though it is not weak, and should they not raise a cry and shout, God still hears those who pray thus. For it is he who says to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me?” when he had not cried out audibly (for this is not recorded in Exodus), but through prayer he had cried out loudly in that voice which is heard by God alone.

COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.101

Exodus 14:22

How hard a temptation it is to pass through the midst of the sea, to see the waves rise piled up, to hear the noise and rumbling of the raging waters! But if you follow Moses, that is, the law of God, the waters will become for you walls on the right and left, and you will find a path on dry ground in the midst of the sea. Moreover, it can happen that the heavenly journey that we say the soul takes may hold peril of waters. Great waves may be found there.

HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.10

Exodus 15:1

As the perfect Bride of the perfect husband, then, she has received the words of perfect doctrine. Moses and the children of Israel sang the first song to God when “they saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore” and when they saw “the strong hand” and the mighty strong arm “of the Lord and [when they] believed in God and Moses his servant.” Then they sang, therefore, saying, “Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified.” And I think that nobody can attain to that perfect and mystical song and to the perfection of the Bride which this Scripture contains unless he first marches “through the midst of the sea upon dry land” and, with “the water becoming to him as a wall on the right hand and on the left,” so makes his escape “from the hands of the Egyptians.” [Then] he “beholds them dead on the seashore” and, seeing the strong hand with which the Lord has acted against the Egyptians, believes in the Lord and in his servant Moses. In Moses, I say—in the law, and in the Gospels and in all the divine Scriptures. For them he will have good cause to sing and say, “Let us sing unto t…

As the perfect Bride of the perfect husband, then, she has received the words of perfect doctrine. Moses and the children of Israel sang the first song to God when “they saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore” and when they saw “the strong hand” and the mighty strong arm “of the Lord and [when they] believed in God and Moses his servant.” Then they sang, therefore, saying, “Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified.” And I think that nobody can attain to that perfect and mystical song and to the perfection of the Bride which this Scripture contains unless he first marches “through the midst of the sea upon dry land” and, with “the water becoming to him as a wall on the right hand and on the left,” so makes his escape “from the hands of the Egyptians.” [Then] he “beholds them dead on the seashore” and, seeing the strong hand with which the Lord has acted against the Egyptians, believes in the Lord and in his servant Moses. In Moses, I say—in the law, and in the Gospels and in all the divine Scriptures. For them he will have good cause to sing and say, “Let us sing unto the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified.”

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE 4

Exodus 15:16

God is asked that for a short while the Gentiles might be changed into stones—that is what the Greek word apolithōthētōsan really means—”until the Jewish people passes through.” There is no doubt but that after they have passed through, the Gentiles will cease to be stone and will receive in place of their hard hearts a human and rational nature in Christ, to whom is glory and power for ages of ages. Amen.

HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 22.10

Exodus 16:14

But if there are some who have come out of Egypt and, following the pillar of fire and cloud, are entering the wilderness, then he comes down from heaven to them and offers them a small, thin food, like to the food of angels; so that “man eats the bread of angels.”

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 1:4

Exodus 16:29

Moreover in regard to the celebrated sabbath, a careful reader will see that the command, “You shall sit each one in your dwellings; let none of you go out from his place on the sabbath day,” is an impossible one to observe literally, for no living creature could sit for a whole day and not move from his seat.

ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.3.2

Exodus 16:31

The Word of God becomes all these things to each and every one according as the capacity or the desire of the participant requires. In just the same way the manna also, although it was one food, yielded its flavor to each person after his desire. So he does not offer himself only as bread to those who hunger and as wine to those who thirst, but he presents himself also as fragrant apples to those who crave delights.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 3:8

Exodus 17:11

For in this way, when the eyes are lifted up through thought and contemplation and the hands are lifted up in deeds which lift up and exalt the soul, as Moses lifted up his hands, one may consequently say, “The lifting up of my hands is as the evening sacrifice.” In this way the Amalekites and all the unseen enemies will be worsted, and the Israelite reasonings in us will prevail.

COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.37

Exodus 19:16

The third day, however, is always applied to mysteries. For when the people had departed from Egypt, they offer sacrifice to God on the third day and are purified on the third day. And the third day is the day of the Lord’s resurrection. Many other mysteries also are anticipated in this day.

HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8:4

Exodus 19:19

But when she [the bride] has become worthy to have it said of her, as also it was said of Moses, that “Moses spoke, and God answered him,” then there is fulfilled in her that which he says: “Make me to hear your voice.” It is indeed high praise of her that is disclosed in that saying, “Sweet is your voice.” For thus also said the most wise prophet David: “Let my speech be sweet to him.” And the voice of the soul is sweet when it utters the word of God, when it expounds the faith and the doctrines of the truth, when it unfolds God’s dealings and his judgments.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 3.15