Origen of Alexandria

Indeed, Keturah, whom Abraham, now an old man, obtains in marriage means thymiama, which is incense or a pleasing fragrance. He also in fact was saying, just as Paul said, “We are the pleasing fragrance of Christ.” But let us see how someone becomes “Christ’s pleasing fragrance.” Sin is a foul affair. In fact, sinners are compared with pigs that wallow in sins as in foul dung. And David, as a repentant sinner, says, “My sores have putrified and are abscessed.”12If there is therefore any one of you in whom there is now no odor of sin but an odor of justice, the sweetness of mercy, if anyone, by praying “without ceasing” always offers incense to the Lord and says, “Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice,” this man has married Keturah. In this way, therefore, I think the marriages of the elders are interpreted more fittingly; in this way the unions entered by the patriarchs in their now final and weakened age are understood nobly; in this way I hold the necessary begetting of children should be reckoned. For young men are not so well fitted as old men for such marriages and for offspring of this kind. For to the extent that someone is feeble in the flesh, to such an extent will he be stronger in virtue of the soul and more fit for the embraces of wisdom.

The holy apostle always offers us opportunities for spiritual understanding and shows the zealous signs by which one may recognize in all things that “the law is spiritual.” Though few, these signs are nevertheless necessary.Paul says, discussing Abraham and Sarah in a certain passage, “not weakened in faith.” Scripture says, “He considered his own body dead, since he was almost a hundred years old, and Sarah’s womb dead.” This man, therefore, whom Paul says to have been dead in his body at the age of 100 and to have begotten Isaac more by the power of his faith than by the fertility of his body, Scripture now relates has taken a wife named Keturah and has begotten more sons from her when he seems to have been about 137 years old. For Sarah his wife is recorded to have been ten years younger than he. Since Sarah died in her 127th year, it shows that Abraham was more than 137 years old when he took Keturah as his wife.
What then? Are we to suppose that inducements of the flesh have flourished in so great a partriarch at that time? And shall he who is said to have been dead long ago in his natural impulses now be supposed to have been revived for passion? Or, as we have already often said, do the marriages of the patriarchs indicate something mystical and sacred, as also he suggests who said of wisdom: “I decided to take her as my wife”?
Perhaps, therefore, already at that time Abraham also thought something like this. And, although he was wise, for this very reason never-theless he knew that there is no end of wisdom, nor does old age impose a limit on learning. For when can that man who has been accustomed to share a marriage in that manner in which we indicated above, that is, who is accustomed to have virtue in marriage, cease from such a union? For indeed the death of Sarah is to be understood as the consummation of virtue. But a man of consummate and perfect virtue ought always to be engaged in some learning. The divine language calls this learning his wife.

In this way also you can, if you wish, be a husband of marriages of this kind. For example, if you freely practice hospitality, you will appear to have taken her as your wife. If you shall add to this care of the poor, you will appear to have obtained a second wife. But if you should also join patience to yourself and gentleness and the other virtues, you will appear to have taken as many wives as the virtues you enjoy.Thus it is, therefore, that Scripture recounts that some of the patriarchs had many wives at the same time, that others took other wives when previous wives had died. The purpose of this is to indicate figuratively that some can exercise many virtues at the same time; others cannot begin those that follow before they have brought the former virtues to perfection. Accordingly Solomon is reported to have had many wives at the same time, to whom the Lord had said, “There was no wise man like you before you and there will not be after you.” Because therefore the Lord had given him an abundance of prudence, “like the sand of the sea,” that he might judge his people “in wisdom,” for this reason he could exercise many virtues at the same time.

“The Lord blessed Isaac,” the text says, “and he dwelt at the well of vision.” This is the whole blessing with which the Lord blessed Isaac: that he might dwell “at the well of vision.” That is a great blessing for those who understand it. Would that the Lord might give this blessing to me too, that I might deserve to dwell “at the well of vision.”What kind of person can know and understand what the vision is “which Isaiah the son of Amos saw”? What kind of person can know what Nahum’s vision is? What kind of person can understand what that vision contains which Jacob saw in Bethel when he was departing into Mesopotamia, when he said, “This is the house of the Lord and the gate of heaven”? And if anyone can know and understand each individual vision or the things that are in the law or in the prophets, that one dwells “at the well of vision.”
But also consider this more carefully, that Isaac deserved to receive such a great blessing from the Lord that he might dwell “at the well of vision.” But when shall we sufficiently deserve to pass by, perhaps, “the well of vision”? He deserved to remain and dwell in the vision; we, what little we have been illuminated by the mercy of God, can scarcely perceive or surmise of a single vision.

If, however, I shall have been able to perceive some one meaning of the visions of God, I shall appear to have spent one day “at the well of vision.” But if I shall have been able to touch something not only according to the letter but also according to the spirit, I shall appear to have spent two days “at the well of vision.” But if also I shall have touched the moral point, I shall have spent three days. Or 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.”But if I should be negligent and be neither occupied at home in the Word of God nor frequently enter the church to hear the Word, as I see some among you who only come to the church on festive days, those who are of this sort do not dwell “by the well of vision.” But I fear that perhaps those who are negligent, even when they come to the church, may neither drink from the well of water nor be refreshed, but they may devote themselves to the occupations and thoughts of their heart which they bring with them and may depart thirsty no less from the wells of the Scriptures.
You, therefore, hasten and act sufficiently that that blessing of the Lord may come to you, that you may be able to dwell “at the well of vision,” that the Lord may open your eyes and you may see “the well of vision” and may receive from it “living water,” which may become in you “a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.” But if anyone rarely comes to church, rarely draws from the fountains of the Scriptures and dismisses what he hears at once when he departs and is occupied with other affairs, this one does not dwell “at the well of vision.”

I think that this can be said also of each of us as individuals that “two nations and two peoples are within you.” For there is a people of virtue within us, and there is no less a people of vice within us. “For from our heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, thefts, false testimonies” but also “deceits, contentions, heresies, jealousies, revelings and such like.” Do you see how great a people of evil is within us? But if we should deserve to utter that word of the saints, “From fear of you, Lord, we have conceived in the womb and have brought forth. We have wrought the spirit of your salvation on the earth.” Thus another people, begotten in the Spirit, is found within us. For “the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, temperance, purity” and so forth. You see another people that is also itself within us. But this one is less; that one greater. For there are always more evil than good people, and vices are more numerous than virtues. But if we should be such as Rebekah and should deserve to conceive from Isaac, that is, from the Word of God, “one people shall overcome the other, and the elder shall serve the younger,” even in us, for the flesh shall serve the Spirit, and vices shall yield to virtues.

And after these things the text says, “Isaac sowed barley and found a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him, and the man was magnified, and by his progress he became greater until he became very great.”Why is it that Isaac “sowed barley” and not wheat, and [why] is [he] blessed because he sows “barley,” and [why] is [he] magnified “until he becomes great”? It appears, therefore, that he was not yet great until after “he sowed barley” and gathered “a hundredfold.” Then he became “very great.”
Barley is the food especially of beasts or of peasants. For it is a harsher species and would seem to prick one who touches it as if with some kind of barbs. Isaac is likened to the Word of God. This Word sows barley in the law but wheat in the Gospels. He provides the one food for the perfect and spiritual, the other for the inexperienced and natural, because it is written, “Men and beasts you will preserve, O Lord.” Isaac, therefore, the Word of the law, sows barley, and yet in that very barley he finds “fruit a hundredfold.” For even in the law you find martyrs, whose “fruit” is “a hundredfold.”
But also our Lord, the Isaac of the Gospels, said certain things that were more perfect to the apostles, but to the crowds he said things which were plain and common. But do you wish to see that even he presents barley to beginners? It is written in the Gospels that he fed the crowds a second time. But those whom he feeds the first time, that is, the beginners, he feeds “with barley loaves.” But later, when they had progressed by this time in the word and teaching, he presents them loaves of wheat.

Isaac was insignificant in the law, but with the passing of time he becomes great. He becomes great, with the passing of time, in the prophets. For while he is in the law alone he is not yet great, since indeed it too is covered with a veil. He grows, therefore, now in the prophets; but when he has arrived at this point that also he may cast aside the veil, then he will be “very great.” When the letter of the law has begun to be separated like the chaff of its barley and it has appeared that “the law is spiritual,” then Isaac will be magnified and will become “very great.”For notice that also the Lord in the Gospels breaks a few loaves, and notice how many thousand people he refreshes “and how many baskets” of leftovers remain. While the loaves are whole, no one is filled, no one is refreshed, nor do the loaves themselves appear to be increased. Now consider, therefore, how we break a few loaves: we take up a few words from the divine Scriptures and how many thousand men are filled. But unless those loaves have been broken, unless they have been crumbled into pieces by the disciples, that is, unless the letter has been discussed and broken in little pieces, its meaning cannot reach everyone. But when we have begun to investigate and discuss each single matter, then the crowds indeed will assimilate as much as they shall be able. But what they haven’t been able to digest should be gathered and preserved, “lest anything be lost.”9
We also, therefore, preserve whatever the “crowds” cannot receive and gather it into baskets and hampers.… Let us see what fragments we have diligently collected lest they be lost, and what we are preserving in baskets until the Lord command what also should become of them.

This Isaac, therefore, our Savior, when he has come into that valley of Gerar, first of all wishes to dig those wells that the servants of his father had dug; he wishes to renew the wells of the law, of course, and the prophets, which Philistines had filled with earth.Who are those who fill the wells with earth? Those, doubtless, who put an earthly and fleshly interpretation on the law and close up the spiritual and mystical interpretation so that neither do they themselves drink nor do they permit others to drink.
Hear our Isaac, the Lord Jesus, saying in the Gospels: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, since you have taken away the key of knowledge, and you yourselves have not entered, nor have you permitted those who wish to enter.” Those therefore are the ones who have filled with earth the wells “which the servants of Abraham had dug;” those who teach the law carnally and defile the waters of the Holy Spirit; who hold the wells for this purpose, not that they might bring forth water but that they might put earth in them. Isaac therefore undertakes to dig these wells. And let us see how he digs them.
When the servants of Isaac, who are the apostles of our Lord, were passing through grain fields on the sabbath, Scripture says, “they plucked the ears and ate, rubbing them in their hands.” At that time, therefore, those who had filled his father’s wells with earth said to him, “Behold, your disciples are doing that which is not lawful on the sabbath day.” In order to dig out their earthly understanding, Jesus says to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him, how he went in to Abiathar the priest and ate the consecrated bread, he and his servants, which it was not lawful to eat but for the priests only?” And he adds these words: “If you knew what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would certainly never have condemned the innocent.” But what do those men reply to these words? They quarrel with his servants and say, “This man is not of God who does not keep the sabbath.” In this way, therefore, Isaac dug the wells “which the servants of his father had dug.”

For who is able worthily to explain either the mysteries of such great wells or of those things that are related to have been done for the wells, unless we invoke the Father of the living Word and he should deign to put the word in our mouth so that we may be able to draw a little “living water” for you who thirst from those wells which are so copious and numerous?There are, therefore, wells that the servants of Abraham dug, but the Philistines had filled these with earth. Isaac therefore undertakes first to clear these wells. The Philistines hate water; they love earth. Isaac loves water; he is always seeking wells; he cleans old wells, he opens new ones.
Consider our Isaac, who “has been offered as a sacrifice for us,” coming into the valley of Gerar, which means “wall” or “hedge.” [He is] coming, I say, that “he might destroy the middle wall of hedge, the enmities, in his flesh.” [He is] coming to remove the wall that is between us and the heavenly virtues, that he might make “both one” and carry back to the mountains "on his shoulder" the lamb which had strayed and restore it to the other “ninety-nine which had not strayed.”