Origen of Alexandria — Commentary on Scripture

Psalms 1:1

Generally there are three types: the first type is the one who does not acknowledge the truth at all, but, as chance has it, when he hands himself over to the vain and unsubstantiated musings of his own heart, he becomes like a wild beast, neither standing nor supported by anything, and accordingly, not sitting. This one, indeed, is said to walk in the counsel of the wicked.

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 1:1

Psalms 1:2

[The blessed person] meditates on the law of the Lord day and night, not as one who entrusts the words of the law to his memory without works, but as one who by meditating performs works consistent with it, until through the disciplined meditation of the works that the law instructs, he is prepared for excelling in all the things that apply for living perfectly according to the law.

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 1:2

Psalms 1:2

Certainly, even if I shall not have been able to understand everything, if I am, nevertheless, busily engaged in the divine Scriptures and “I meditate on the law of God day and night” and at no time at all do I desist inquiring, discussing, investigating, and certainly, what is greatest, praying God and asking for understanding from him who “teaches humankind knowledge,” I shall appear to dwell “at the well of vision.” … You too, therefore, if you shall always search the prophetic visions, if you always inquire, always desire to learn, if you meditate on these things, if you remain in them, you too will receive a blessing from the Lord and dwell “at the well of vision.” For the Lord Jesus will appear to you also, “in the way,” and will open the Scriptures to you so that you may say, “Was not our heart burning within us when he opened to us the Scriptures?” But he appears to those who think about him and meditate on him and live “in his law day and night.”

HOMILIES ON PSALMS 11:3

Psalms 1:6

God is ignorant of evil deeds, not because he is unable to understand everything or to grasp it with his own intelligence (for it is wrong to think this way about God) but because those deeds are unworthy of his contemplation.… God is ignorant of the way of the wicked, and he knows the way of the righteous. Further, who is the way of the righteous except the one who said, “I am the way” whom the Father knows? “No one has known the Son except the Father.” The distinction between the knowledge and ignorance of God is referred to in the prophets as “the memory and forgetfulness” of God. Often it is said in prayer: “Be mindful of me” and “Why have you forgotten our poverty?” Just as God removes sinners from his own memory, so does he again receive the repentant and become mindful of them.

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 1:6

Psalms 2:1-2

They rage, therefore, and dwell on worthless ideas and have gathered themselves and stand united together. Not only by their appearance have they moved the crowds against Christ, but whatever has been done by them is counted as if they had assailed the Father. So, it is said that these had turned against the Lord and his anointed.

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 2.1-2

Psalms 2:5

These are words of destruction that are pronounced in anger. Moreover, the evils that God had said he was going to inflict, he promises that he will withdraw if the listeners will become penitent. God in his anger spoke through Jonah to the Ninevites, and since they repented in ash and sackcloth, they endured nothing of those things about which they had heard. Actually, God knew beforehand when he sent Jonah that they were going to repent if he sent Jonah for their deliverance. Right now he also is speaking deliverance to those sinners who are in his wrath. For it did not say, “He will punish those in his wrath even if they will repent.”

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 2:5

Psalms 2:7

There is no evening of God possible and, I think, no morning, but the time, if I may put it this way, which is coextensive with his unoriginated and eternal life, is today for him, the day in which the Son has been begotten. Consequently neither the beginning nor the day of his generation is to be found.

COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1:204

Psalms 2:8

It may perhaps be a dogma of some kind that no one receives a divine gift who does not request it. The Father, indeed, through the psalm, urges the Savior to ask that it may be given to him, as the Son teaches us when he says, “The Lord said to me, You are my son; ask from me, and I will give you the Gentiles as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your possession.” And the Savior says, “Ask and it will be given to you … for everyone who asks receives.”

COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13:5

Psalms 2:9

It is necessary to consider how the Father gave the nations to the Son as an inheritance and the ends of the earth as a possession. He says to him, “You will break them like a clay pot.” For who gives an inheritance so that it may be broken by the heir? It must be demonstrated from Scripture, therefore, how the contrition of certain people proved so beneficial. We find in the fiftieth psalm, “Having brought a spiritual sacrifice to God, a contrite and humble heart God will not despise.” And it is said in another prophecy as instruction, “You will wail for the brokenness of your spirit.” There is a spirit within us, therefore, that it is necessary to destroy in order that it may become a contrite sacrifice to God.

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 2:9

Psalms 3:2-3

We readily accept this psalm as spoken from the person of David, as we have noted in its title. According to history, certain men were hurting David, many of whom as their number increased were joining themselves to Absalom.… Those who were oppressing the Savior were Jews who were shouting, "Away with him; away with him!" Judas the betrayer and Caiphas rose up against him. The ones who said that there was no deliverance of his life were the same ones passing by him at the time of his suffering who said, "Come down from the cross and we will believe you." … But, one may also understand this passage in this way: all the rulers and teachers of subjects that are foreign to the decrees of Christ who have come against him. The people who cling to them and follow their teaching cause him trial. Finally, they who, neither teaching contrary matters nor instructed by false teaching, believe that there is no divine nature in the teaching of Christ, they say there is no salvation of the soul in God. They say that there is not anything that promises salvation either in the word of his teaching or…

We readily accept this psalm as spoken from the person of David, as we have noted in its title. According to history, certain men were hurting David, many of whom as their number increased were joining themselves to Absalom.… Those who were oppressing the Savior were Jews who were shouting, "Away with him; away with him!" Judas the betrayer and Caiphas rose up against him. The ones who said that there was no deliverance of his life were the same ones passing by him at the time of his suffering who said, "Come down from the cross and we will believe you." … But, one may also understand this passage in this way: all the rulers and teachers of subjects that are foreign to the decrees of Christ who have come against him. The people who cling to them and follow their teaching cause him trial. Finally, they who, neither teaching contrary matters nor instructed by false teaching, believe that there is no divine nature in the teaching of Christ, they say there is no salvation of the soul in God. They say that there is not anything that promises salvation either in the word of his teaching or the historical signs that he relates concerning his advent.

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 3.2-3

Psalms 3:3

Certainly, people place their glory in various places, some in their country, some in family line, some in beauty, some in the strength of their bodies and in their skill of competing in the contest, being very elated they have overcome these people or those by their physical struggling. And why is it necessary to recount all the things through which those unknown gods are glorified, “whose glory is in their shame,” as the apostle said? God is the glory of the saint who trusts him, glory, I say, not blindly credited but credited through faith that is reckoned as righteousness, through which one is enabled to see the signs of a present God and participate in his strength. So, God was the glory of Moses who loved the prophet so much that he revealed himself to the point of showing his face both before all the Hebrew people and before the Egyptians. God was the glory of the prophet Elijah, who revived the son of the widow and begged for the rain to be held back, and who continually was heard. God was speaking truth, therefore, when he said, “I will only honor them honoring me.” God is t…

Certainly, people place their glory in various places, some in their country, some in family line, some in beauty, some in the strength of their bodies and in their skill of competing in the contest, being very elated they have overcome these people or those by their physical struggling. And why is it necessary to recount all the things through which those unknown gods are glorified, “whose glory is in their shame,” as the apostle said? God is the glory of the saint who trusts him, glory, I say, not blindly credited but credited through faith that is reckoned as righteousness, through which one is enabled to see the signs of a present God and participate in his strength. So, God was the glory of Moses who loved the prophet so much that he revealed himself to the point of showing his face both before all the Hebrew people and before the Egyptians. God was the glory of the prophet Elijah, who revived the son of the widow and begged for the rain to be held back, and who continually was heard. God was speaking truth, therefore, when he said, “I will only honor them honoring me.” God is the glory of them who are magnified in their strength, which no one other than the Father places in them, who hand themselves over to him for sustaining their souls.

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 3:4

Psalms 3:6

The verse clearly teaches that the one who comes to the greatest virtue, to very great security, comes on account of faith in God.… The Savior, recognizing that thousands of the people of the circumcision were going to demand that he be crucified and knowing his own spirit of fearlessness (I say these things speaking in terms of the flesh), is able to say even these words.

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 3:7

Psalms 4:1

The one who calls on the Lord must have true righteousness. Since Christ is righteous, the just person, the partaker of righteousness, must be a partaker of Christ. Lest saying “God of my righteousness” should give birth to pride, we can say this also: He has been made wisdom and righteousness for us, and he is our Redeemer. Consequently, to say “God of my righteousness” would be as if you said, “God of my Lord.”

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 4:1

Psalms 4:1

The sense of joy and good cheer that comes to us in critical times from God by the cooperation and presence of the Word of God, who encourages and saves us, is called “room.”

ON PRAYER 30:1

Psalms 4:1

Invocation is not a matter of the voice, but it is posited … in solid faith.

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 4:1

Psalms 4:3

Here is the great cry that reaches up to God. It is not that cry people make resulting from some intense release of air, but it is the pure and untouched outpouring of the words of the inner mind, which extend even to God. It must be realized there is a certain voice in the innermost heart which is not used as an organ of the body, but which a person, after he has entered his bedchamber and settled himself, cries out beyond his own body from the hidden gate of his feelings to him who alone is able to hear a voice of this type. Even if we do not read that Moses cried out with an audible voice, nevertheless it is said by God in Exodus: “Why do you cry to me?” It is the voice of every exile who cries to God about having earthly and ever-changing affairs. The Savior excludes this cry for approaching the Father when he says: “Seek great things, and the small things will be added to you. Seek the heavenly, and the earthly will be added to you.”

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 4:4

Psalms 4:4

By these words he seems to teach that anyone lying on his bed ought to seek the reason within himself for those things that he has done throughout the day, and in light of those acts he has done against reason he ought to expose them and disapprove of them and feel their sting, for if this is done correctly from his bed he will not be drawn away from honest deeds.

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 4:5

Psalms 4:5

If you wish to explain what it is to hope in everything, we are going to say that it is nothing other than to become an heir of the kingdom of heaven, to receive comfort, to be called the children of God, to see God, to be satisfied by the righteousness for which one hungers and thirsts, to enjoy his abundant mercy and to live in all the things which the true God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ promised.

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 4:5

Psalms 4:6

Indeed, in the same way the rays of the sun touch the face of one who looks at it, and in fact it is impossible for one who stands near to the sun not to feel it, so also it must be understood that the individual who is fully a partaker of God is the one who has meditated on the law of the holy word and who has surrendered his mind to understanding God. Which, I believe, the prophet indicates in this place when he says, “The light of your countenance is manifested toward us, O Lord.” The representation of the light that shines in your countenance is imprinted on us as it comes to us, and that very light is the expression of your countenance, so that one who is able to see the sign of the divine light that is manifested, immediately recognizes that God’s light is made in us. I think that this mystery is also declared in Exodus when the face of Moses, as he is speaking intimately with God, is glorified to the point that the people of Israel are not able to turn toward his glory, and after he puts on a veil the servant of God makes a speech to the people. Thus every spirit that is drawn…

Indeed, in the same way the rays of the sun touch the face of one who looks at it, and in fact it is impossible for one who stands near to the sun not to feel it, so also it must be understood that the individual who is fully a partaker of God is the one who has meditated on the law of the holy word and who has surrendered his mind to understanding God. Which, I believe, the prophet indicates in this place when he says, “The light of your countenance is manifested toward us, O Lord.” The representation of the light that shines in your countenance is imprinted on us as it comes to us, and that very light is the expression of your countenance, so that one who is able to see the sign of the divine light that is manifested, immediately recognizes that God’s light is made in us. I think that this mystery is also declared in Exodus when the face of Moses, as he is speaking intimately with God, is glorified to the point that the people of Israel are not able to turn toward his glory, and after he puts on a veil the servant of God makes a speech to the people. Thus every spirit that is drawn totally to God and that yields to his truth that is unknown to many is made a partaker of his divine nature; he advances beyond the comprehension of many so that as he puts on the veil he guides the less knowledgeable by offering to them the things that are for their understanding. Moreover, it is obvious from the words of Psalm 66 that the face of God, about which is spoken and that illumines the mind of the one who is able to receive its rays, is the reason for our understanding: “God have mercy on us, and bless us and let your face shine over us, so that we may know your way in the land, the salvation among all nations.”

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 4:7

Psalms 4:7

The meaning of this little verse is consistent with the verses that precede it. For what else is the light of the countenance of the Lord over his righteous ones than a heart full of joy? That very thing which we feel through the sensation of joy becomes a partaker of his divinity when it contemplates God.

SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 4:7