Origen of Alexandria — Commentary on Scripture

Let no one say: “I was young. Before I got married, I slept with prostitutes.” Why did you not get married instead?

COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.27.48-49

The kingdom of God must be purified of all sin and immorality, so that God may reign in it.

COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.27.67-69

The soul of Jesus clung to God from the beginning of the creation in a union inseparable and indissoluble, as the soul of the wisdom and word of God, and of the truth and the true light. Receiving him wholly and itself entering into his light and splendor, it was made one spirit with him in a preeminent degree. This is what the apostle promises to those who imitate Jesus.

ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.9.3

1 Corinthians 7:2

You have given up your wife, to whom you are bound. This is a big step you have taken. You are not abusing her, you say, but claiming that you can be chaste and live more purely. But look how your poor wife is being destroyed as a result, because she is unable to endure your purity! You should sleep with your wife, not for your sake but for hers.

COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.33.23-25

1 Corinthians 7:4

If this is so, a man should be able to refrain from exercising his authority [to receive his spouse’s body]. And isn’t a woman capable of doing likewise?

COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.33.41-46

1 Corinthians 7:5

The mysteries of marriage ought to be performed with holiness, deliberately and without disorderly passions.

ON PRAYER 2.2

1 Corinthians 7:7

Marriage is a spiritual gift, but not if it is contracted with unbelievers. The Spirit of God is not given to dwell in those who are not believers.

COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.34.42-45

1 Corinthians 7:14

Husband and wife are one in the same way that wine and water are one when they are mixed together. Just as the believing partner sanctifies the unbelieving one, so the unbelieving partner corrupts the believing one. This is why a man who is not yet married should consider very carefully and either not marry at all or marry only in the Lord.

COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.36.2-5

1 Corinthians 7:20

In itself, the state in which we are called is a matter of indifference. An unmarried man, for example, can live a life of purity, but he may also be deeply involved in sin. The same is true for a married man as well. If it were only Christians who practiced celibacy, then it would be possible to say that it was a pure and divine state. But the Marcionites also practice it, though not in the same way as Christians. Christians do it in order to please God, but the Marcionites do it in order not to succumb to the Creator. Celibacy is honorable only when it is clothed with the life and behavior of the church, with pure knowledge and truth.

COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.37.35-43

1 Corinthians 7:21

I am a slave of that affair and care to which I am bound. For I know that it is written that whatever one is conquered by, to that he is delivered as a slave.… Who will free me from this most unseemly slavery except him who said, “If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed”.?

HOMILIES 13

1 Corinthians 7:23

Christ came and “bought us back” when we were serving that lord to whom we sold ourselves by sinning. So he appears to have recovered as his own those whom he created. He has redeemed a people who chose to belong to another, who sought another lord for themselves by sinning.

HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6

1 Corinthians 7:25

Some rules are given as commandments of God, while others are more flexible and left by God to the decision of the individual. The first kind are those commandments which pertain to salvation. The others are better, because even if we do not keep them, we shall still be saved. There is no merit in doing what is obligatory, but there is in doing that which is optional.

COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.39.2-6

1 Corinthians 7:28

The virgin is spared earthly troubles and set free by her purity, as she awaits the blessed Bridegroom.

COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.39.51-52

1 Corinthians 8:4

“An idol is nothing,” says the apostle. One who makes an idol makes what is not. But what is that which is not? A form which the eye does not see but which the mind imagines for itself.

HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8.3

1 Corinthians 9:9

God’s care was not only for the oxen but moreso for the apostles, for whose sake he uttered these words.

ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.4.2

1 Corinthians 9:15

“It is better that I die” than that they ravish and plunder some of my brothers and by sly verbal deception lead captive the “little children” and sucklings in Christ.

HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.6

1 Corinthians 9:17

What then shall I do, to whom the dispensation of the Word is committed? Although I am an “unprofitable servant,” I have, nevertheless, received from the Lord the commission “to distribute the measure of wheat to the master’s servants.”.

HOMILIES ON GENESIS 10

1 Corinthians 9:19

The fact that he is completely free makes Paul the exemplary apostle. For it is possible to be free of immorality but a slave to anger, to be free of greed but a slave to boasting, to be free of one sin but a slave to another.

COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.43.1-5

1 Corinthians 9:23

Only someone as mature in faith as the apostle Paul could say this. A sinner could never talk in this way.

COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.43.49-50

1 Corinthians 10:5

Paul wants to remind us that we are not saved merely because we happen to have been the recipients of God’s free grace. We have to demonstrate that we are willing recipients of that free gift. The children of Israel received it, but they proved to be unworthy of it, and so they were not saved.

COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 4.45.2-5