TRV
Origen of Alexandria
Ante-Nicene · to AD 325 · 2,651 passages across 61 books
Commentary
Daniel 7:10
· 2 passages
A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
And to him to whom we offer firstfruits we also send up our prayers, “having a great high priest who has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God,” and “we hold fast this profession” as long as we live; for we find God and his only-begotten Son, manifested to us in Jesus, to be gracious and kind to us. And if we would wish to have besides a great number of beings who shall ever prove friendly to us, we are taught that “thousand thousands stood before him, and ten thousand times ten thousand ministered to him.” And these, regarding all as their relations and friends who imitate their piety toward God and in prayer call on him with sincerity, work along with them for their salvation, appear to them, deem it their office and duty to attend to them, and as if by common agreement they visit with all manner of kindness and deliverance those who pray to God, to whom they themselves also pray. “For they are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation.”
But as it is in the mockery that Celsus says we speak of “God coming down like a torturer bearing fire” and thus compels us unseasonably to investigate words of deeper meaning, we shall make a few remarks, sufficient to enable our hearers to form an idea of the defense that disposes of the ridicule of Celsus against us, and then we shall turn to what follows. The divine word says that our God is “a consuming fire” and that “he draws rivers of fire before him”; no, that he even enters in as “a refiner’s fire and as a fuller’s herb,” to purify his own people. But when he is said to be a “consuming fire,” we inquire what are the things that are appropriate to be consumed by God. And we assert that they are wickedness and the works that result from it and that, being figuratively called “wood, hay, stubble,” God consumes as a fire. The wicked person, accordingly, is said to build up on the previously laid foundation of reason, “wood and hay and stubble.” … And, in like manner, “rivers of fire” are said to be before God, who will thoroughly cleanse away the evil that is intermingled throu…
But as it is in the mockery that Celsus says we speak of “God coming down like a torturer bearing fire” and thus compels us unseasonably to investigate words of deeper meaning, we shall make a few remarks, sufficient to enable our hearers to form an idea of the defense that disposes of the ridicule of Celsus against us, and then we shall turn to what follows. The divine word says that our God is “a consuming fire” and that “he draws rivers of fire before him”; no, that he even enters in as “a refiner’s fire and as a fuller’s herb,” to purify his own people. But when he is said to be a “consuming fire,” we inquire what are the things that are appropriate to be consumed by God. And we assert that they are wickedness and the works that result from it and that, being figuratively called “wood, hay, stubble,” God consumes as a fire. The wicked person, accordingly, is said to build up on the previously laid foundation of reason, “wood and hay and stubble.” … And, in like manner, “rivers of fire” are said to be before God, who will thoroughly cleanse away the evil that is intermingled throughout the whole soul.
Daniel 8:17
So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision.
The first definite person we find named in Scripture “son of man” is, speaking at the moment from memory, Daniel. And after him, Ezekiel. They were prophets in the captivity, so far as our researches go in the undisputed books that pass currently as inspired, there is no one named by this title.… It was, as we think, because the people of captivity were sinners that Daniel alone, to their reproach, because they preserved the dignity of human nature, made according to the image and the likeness, was addressed as the son of man. As much may be said also of Ezekiel. For the name “man” was first given to him who was made by God according to his image and likeness, so that he would be man in the true sense.
Daniel 9:24-27
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
When Origen came to deal with this chapter, he urged us to seek out what information we do not possess; and because he had no leeway for allegorical interpretation, in which one may argue without constraint, but rather was restricted to matters of historical fact, he made this brief observation in the tenth volume of the <i>Stromata:</i> "We must quite carefully ascertain the amount of time between the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, and the advent of Christ, and discover how many years were involved, and what events are said to have occurred during them. Then we must see whether we can fit these data in with the time of the Lord's coming."
Daniel 10:13
But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
Accordingly we find in the holy Scriptures that there are rulers over individual nations, as for instance, we read in Daniel of a certain “prince of the kingdom of the Persians” and another “prince of the kingdom of the Greeks,” who, as is clearly shown by the sense of the passage itself, are not humans but powers.
It is well to make use of this testimony in order to exhort parents to educate with the divine law and testimony of God not only their sons but also their daughters.
A Hebrew informed us that they were Achiah and Zedekiah, those whom “the king of Babylon roasted in the fire because their conduct in Israel was an outrage, having committed adultery with the wives of their neighbors.”
“In the morning” Susanna went to take a walk. It is not at all out of place (in order to pacify those who find examples in the sacred writing for everything that we do) to take a walk at a time such as this, for example, since back then one did well to take a walk in order to keep his own body healthy.
The Greek word pathos is better rendered for us with the term "disturbance" rather than with the term "passion." Therefore this disturbed and covetous desire stimulated, or rather it churned violently, in the heart of the elders. But because their souls were like plowed soil and they could only think about getting what they desired, their own feelings became perverted, and, once perverted, their eyes were turned toward earth so that they did not see the celestial truths, and they forgot about sound judgment, they forgot about God, about honesty, about the nature oriented toward the good inborn in every person.
He calls sin death. In the same way, therefore, that for the one who commits adultery, adultery is death, so every sin that leads to death must be called death. And we are convinced that we die every time we sin mortally, whereas we rise again and recover life every time we do works worthy of life.
Let us pay attention, just as Joshua says, so that we can prevail over the Canaanites, because if they prevail over us and hold us captive, they may turn us from Israelites to Canaanites, just as it happened to him who was won over by the enticements of the flesh, to which the prophet said, “Race of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has seduced you.” Let it not happen to us, therefore, that we hear, “race of Canaan,” because “cursed is the son of Canaan; he will be a servant to his brothers.” May the Lord instead grant that we may be children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, heirs according to the promise and brought forth from stones so that we may be children of Abraham, in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Deuteronomy 1:1
These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
And here this other fact will not appear to be without significance, that it is Moses who hears from God all that is written down in the law of Leviticus, whereas in Deuteronomy it is the people who are represented as listening to Moses and learning from him what they could not hear from God. This indeed is why it is called Deuteronomy, meaning the second law. A fact which some will think points to this [is] that when the first law given through Moses came to an end, a second legislation was apparently composed, and this was specially delivered by Moses to his successor Joshua. And Joshua is certainly believed to be a figure of our Savior, by whose second law, that is, by the precepts of the Gospels, all things are brought to perfection.
Deuteronomy 1:31
And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.
See what we are generally taught about God: “God is not as a man to be deceived nor as the son of man to be threatened,” and we learn that God is not as man. But other texts say that God is as a man: “For the Lord your God has taught you as a man teaches his son,” and again, “As a man he takes on the manners of his son.” Hence, wherever the Scriptures speak theologically about God in relation to himself and do not involve his plan for human matters, they teach that he is “not as a man.” For “there will be no limit to his greatness,” and “he is more feared than all of the gods,” and “praise him, all you angels of God; praise him, all his hosts; praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all stars and light.” You can find many other passages in the sacred Scriptures to which you can relate the words “God is not as a man.”
Deuteronomy 4:16
· 2 passages
Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
The intention of the law was that in everything they should look toward what is real. They should not make up things which are different from reality or misrepresent what is truly male or what is really female, or the nature of beasts or the species of birds or creeping things, or fishes.
We create other images in ourselves instead of the Savior’s image. Instead of being the image of the Word, or of wisdom, justice, and the rest of the virtues, we assume the form of the devil. Then we can be called “serpents” and “a generation of vipers.” When we are venomous, cruel or wily, we have taken on the character of the lion, the snake or the fox. When we are prone to pleasure, we are like the goat. I recall once explaining that place in Deuteronomy where it is written, “Do not make any image of a male or a female or an image of any beast.” I said that “because the law is spiritual,” the passage means this. Some make themselves into the image of a male, others into the image of a female. One has the likeness of birds, another of reptiles and serpents. Still another makes himself into the image of God. Anyone who reads what I wrote will know how the passage can be understood.
Deuteronomy 4:19
· 2 passages
And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
It is quite likely that the enemy will want to induce us by every possible trick down to “the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven.” But we shall reply that the Word of God did not command us to do so. For in no way may we bow down to the creature in the presence of the Creator who sustains all and anticipates their prayer. Not even the sun would wish that any friend of God or anyone else, it would seem, should bow down to it. It imitates him who says, “Why do you call me good? None is good but one, that is God” the Father.
It is clear then that since those who live according to the law reverence the One who made the heaven, they do not reverence the heaven as if God. Furthermore, none of those who serve the Mosaic law worship the angels in heaven. And in the same way that they do not worship the sun, moon, and stars and “the world of heaven.” They avoid worshiping heaven as such or the angels in it.
Deuteronomy 4:24
· 2 passages
For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.
“God is spirit, and those who worship him should worship in spirit and in truth.” Our God is also “a consuming fire.” Therefore God is called by two names: “spirit” and “fire.” To the just he is spirit; to sinners he is fire.
Hear what is written: “Our God is a consuming fire.” What does the God of fire consume? Will we be so senseless as to think that God consumes the firewood or straw or hay? But the God of fire consumes human sins. He consumes them, devours them, purges them, as he says in another place, “I will purge you with fire for purity.”
Deuteronomy 4:38
To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.
If we rightly understand the matter, this is the statement of Moses at the beginning of his book: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” For this is the beginning of all creation; to this beginning the end and consummation of all things must be recalled, in order that this heaven and this earth may be the habitation and resting place of the pious. So all the holy ones and the meek obtain an inheritance in that land, since this is the teaching of the Law and the Prophets and the Gospels.