Origen of Alexandria

So therefore the wells that Abraham dug, that is, the Scriptures of the Old Testament, have been filled with earth by the Philistines, or evil teachers, scribes and Pharisees, or even hostile powers; and their veins have been stopped up lest they provide a drink for these who are of Abraham. For that people cannot drink from the Scriptures but suffer a “thirst for the word of God” until Isaac should come and open them that his servants may drink. Thanks therefore to Christ, the son of Abraham—of whom it is written, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham”57—who has come and opened the wells for us. For he opened them for those men who said, “Was not our heart burning in us when he opened to us the Scriptures?” He opened therefore these wells and “called them,” the text says, “as his father Abraham had called them.” For he did not change the names of the wells.And it is astonishing that Moses is called Moses even among us, and each of the prophets is addressed by his own name. For Christ did not change the names in the Scriptures but the understanding. And he changes it there that now later we might not pay attention “to Jewish fables” and “endless genealogies,” because “they turn their hearing away from the truth indeed but are turned to fables.”
Christ opened therefore the wells and taught us, that we might not seek God in some one place but might know that “sacrifice is offered to his name in every land.” For it is now that time “when the true worshipers worship the Father” neither in Jerusalem nor on Mt. Gerazim “but in spirit and truth.” God therefore dwells neither in a place nor in a land, but he dwells in the heart. And if you are seeking the place of God, a pure heart is his place. For he says that he will dwell in this place when he says through the prophet, “I will dwell in them and walk in them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God,” says the Lord.

Consider therefore that perhaps even in the soul of each of us there is “a well of living water,” there is a kind of heavenly perception and latent image of God, and the Philistines, that is, hostile powers, have filled this well with earth. With what kind of earth? With carnal perceptions and earthly thoughts, and for that reason “we have borne the image of the earthly.” At that time, therefore, when we were bearing “the image of the earthly,” the Philistines filled our wells. But now, since our Isaac has come, let us receive his advent and dig our wells. Let us cast the earth from them. Let us purge them from all filth and from all muddy and earthly thoughts, and let us discover in them that “living water” that the Lord mentions: “He who believes in me, from within him shall flow rivers of living water.” Behold how great the Lord’s liberality is: the Philistines filled our wells and hindered our small and trifling veins of water, and in place of these, springs and rivers are restored to us.If therefore you also hearing these words today should faithfully perceive what is said, Isaac would work also in you; he would cleanse your hearts from earthly perceptions. And seeing these mysteries that are so great to be lying hidden in the divine Scriptures, you progress in understanding, you progress in spiritual perceptions. You yourselves will also begin to be teachers, and “rivers of living water” will proceed from you. For the Word of God is present, and this now is his work, that he might remove the earth from the soul of each of you and open your spring. For he is within you and does not come from without, just as “also the kingdom of God is within you.”

As therefore the Lord himself accommodates his form in correspondence to the place and time and certain individual conditions, so also the saints, who prefigured him, should be believed to have represented types of mysteries in correspondence to places and times and conditions. [This] also we see now to be the case in Isaac, of whom we have heard it read, “He went up,” the text says, “from there to the well of the oath, and the Lord appeared to him that night and said, I am the God of Abraham your father; fear not. For I am with you, and I will bless you and multiply your seed because of Abraham your father.”The apostle Paul set forth two figures of this Isaac to us. One, about which he said that Ishmael indeed, the son of Hagar, represented the people according to the flesh, but Isaac the people who are of faith. The other, about which he said, “He did not say, and to his seeds, as of many, but to his seed, as of one, which is Christ.” Isaac therefore represents the people and Christ. Now it is certain that Christ is spoken of as the Word of God not only in the Gospels but also in the law and prophets. But in the law he teaches beginners; in the Gospels he teaches the perfect. And Isaac therefore represents now the Word that is in the law or the prophets.

This Abimelech, as I see it, does not always have peace with Isaac, but sometimes he disagrees, at other times he seeks peace. If you remember how, in what precedes, we said of Abimelech that he represents the learned and wise of the world who have comprehended many things even of the truth through the learning of philosophy, you can understand how he can be neither always in dissension nor always at peace with Isaac, who represents the Word of God in the law. For philosophy is neither opposed to everything in the law of God nor in harmony with everything.For many of the philosophers write that there is one God who has created all things. In this they agree with the law of God. Some also have added this, that God made and rules all things by his Word and it is the Word of God by which all things are directed. In this they write in harmony not only with the law but also with the Gospels. Indeed, almost the total philosophy that is called moral and natural holds the same views we do. But it disagrees with us when it says matter is coeternal with God. It disagrees when it denies that God is concerned about mortal things but that his providence is confined beyond the spaces of the lunar sphere. They disagree with us when they appraise the lives of those being born by the courses of the stars. They disagree when they say this world is permanent and is to have no end. But there are also many other things in which they either disagree with us or are in harmony. And therefore in accordance with this figure, Abimelech is sometimes described as being at peace with Isaac and sometimes as disagreeing.

But also I do not think that this was of idle concern to the Holy Spirit, who writes these things, to relate that two others “came with Abimelech, that is, “Ahuzzath his kinsman and Phicol the leader of his army.”Now Ahuzzath means “containing” and Phicol “the mouth of all,” but Abimelech himself means “my father is king.” These three, in my opinion, figuratively represent all philosophy, which is divided into three parts among them: logic, physics, ethics, that is, rational, natural, moral. The rational is that which acknowledges God to be Father of all, that is, Abimelech. The natural is that which is fixed and contains all things, as depending on the forces of nature itself, which Ahuzzath, which means “containing,” professes to be. The moral is that which is in the mouth of all and pertains to all and is situated in the mouth of all because of the likeness of the common precepts. Phicol, which means “the mouth of all,” signifies this.
All these therefore come to the law of God in the learning of instructions of this kind and say, “We certainly saw that the Lord is with you, and we said, ‘Let there be an oath between us and you and let us establish a covenant with you, lest you do evil with us, but as we have not cursed you, so also you are blessed by the Lord.’ ”
Those three, who seek peace from the Word of God and desire to anticipate his fellowship with a covenant, can indeed represent the magi who come from parts of the East learned in the books of their fathers and in the instruction of their ancestors and say, “We certainly saw” “the one born king,” “and we have seen that God is with him,” “and we have come to worship him.”6
But also if there is anyone who has been instructed in learning of this kind, seeing that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself” and who has admired the majesty of his works, let him say, “We certainly saw that the Lord is with you, and we said, ‘Let there be an oath between us.’ ” For approaching the law of God he says necessarily, “I have sworn and am determined that I shall keep your commandments.”

For it is certain that he who serves the Word “is debtor to the wise and the unwise.” Because, therefore, he is producing a feast for the wise, for this reason it is said that “he made” not a small but “a great feast.”And you, if you should not still be “a little child” and in need of “milk” but should bring your “senses exercised” and should come more capable to an understanding of the Word of God after very much instruction has been set before you, there will also be “a great feast” for you. The "vegetables" of the weak will not be prepared for you as food, nor will you be nourished with milk with which “little children” are nourished, but the servant of the Word will make a “great feast” for you. He will speak to you the “wisdom” that is offered “among the perfect.” He will offer you the “wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which none of the princes of this world knew.” He will reveal Christ to you in this respect, that in him “all the treasures of wisdom are hidden.”15
He makes you therefore “a great feast,” and he himself eats with you if he should not find you to be such that he should say to you, “I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, as to little ones in Christ.”
He says this to the Corinthians, to which he also adds, “For when there are contentions and dissensions among you, are you not carnal and walk in a human way?” Paul did not “make a great feast” for these, insofar that when he was with them and was in need, he was a burden to no one. Nor did he eat bread he did not pay for from anyone, but laboring night and day, his own hands served himself and all who were with him. The Corinthians therefore were so far from having a “great feast” that the preacher of the Word of God could have not even the least or a little feast with them.
But there is a great feast for those who know how to hear more perfectly, who bring their “senses” instructed and “exercised” for hearing the Word of God.

I do not understand these words to have been said in the usual sense. For if, for example, we should assume that he could have been overcome with lust and sinned with his master’s wife, I do not think that this would have been announced about him by the patriarchs to his father Jacob: “Your son Joseph is living.” For if he had done this, without doubt he would not be living. For “the soul that sins, the same shall die.”23But Susanna also teaches the same things when she says, “I am straitened on every side. For if I do this thing—that is, if I sin—it is death to me; and if I do not do it, I shall not escape your hands.” Notice, therefore, that she too understood that there is death in sin.
But also the judgment revealed by God to the first man contains the same things when he says, “But on the day that you shall eat of it you shall die the death.” For as soon as he has transgressed the commandment, he is dead. For the soul that has sinned is dead, and the serpent, which said, “You shall not die the death,” is shown to have deceived him.
And these words have been about that which was said by the sons of Israel to Jacob: “Your son Joseph is living.”

What Latin expresses by saying: “his spirit was revived,” is written in Greek anezōpyrēsen. This means not so much to revive as to rekindle, so to speak, and reignite. This expression is usually used when, perhaps in some material, the fire fails to the point that it appears to be extinguished; and if perhaps it is renewed when kindling has been added, it is said to have been rekindled. Or if the light of a lamp should reach the point that it is thought to have gone out, if perhaps it be revived when oil has been poured in; although the expression is less refined, the lamp is said to have been rekindled. One will speak similarly also of a torch or other lights of this kind.This expression seems to indicate something like this also in Jacob. As long as he was far from Joseph and received no information about his life, his spirit had failed in him, as it were, and the light which was in him had been darkened, as the kindling already failed. But when those who reported to him about Joseph’s life came, that is, those who said that “the life was the light of all people,” he rekindles his spirit in himself, and the brightness of the true light is renewed in him.

It appears fitting indeed after these things, to contemplate and look into what God says to Israel himself through the vision and how he sends him to Egypt strengthening and encouraging him as if he were setting out to some struggles. For he says, “Fear not to descend into Egypt.” This is to say, you shall contend “against principalities and powers and against the rulers of this world of this darkness”—which is figuratively called Egypt—fear not, be not afraid. But if also you wish to know the reason that you ought not fear, hear my promise: “For I will make a great nation of you there, and I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will recall you from there in the end.” He therefore with whom God shall go down into the struggles is not afraid “to go down into Egypt.” He is not afraid to approach the struggles of this world and the battles with resisting demons. For hear the apostle Paul saying, “I have labored more,” he says, “than all those, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” But also when dissension had been stirred up against him in Jerusalem, and he performed a most brilliant struggle for the word and preaching of the Lord, the Lord stood by him and said the same things that now are said to Israel. “Fear not, Paul,” Scripture says, “for as you have testified of me in Jerusalem, so must you bear witness also at Rome.”

But I think a still greater mystery lies hidden in this passage. For this statement disturbs me: “I will make a great nation of you, and I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will recall you from there in the end.” Who is it who is made “into a great nation” in Egypt and is recalled “in the end”? To the extent that it pertains to that Jacob of whom one supposes it to be said, it will not appear true. For he was not recalled from Egypt “in the end,” since he died in Egypt. But it will be absurd if someone says Jacob was recalled by God in that his body was carried back. But if it is accepted, it will not be true that “God is not the God of the dead but of the living.” It is not proper, therefore, that these words be understood of a dead body but that they apply to the living and vigorous.Let us consider therefore whether there may be depicted in this statement a figure of the Lord who descends into this world and is made “into a great nation,” that is, the church of the Gentiles, and after all things were completed, returned to the Father. Or, whether it is a figure of “the first-formed man” who descends to the struggles of this world after he was cast out of the delights of paradise. The struggle with the serpent was set before him when it is said, “You shall watch for his head, and he shall watch for your heel,” and again, when it is said to the woman, “I will put enmity between you and him, and between your seed and his seed.”
Nevertheless God does not desert those placed in this struggle but is always with them. He is pleased with Abel; he reproaches Cain; he is present with Enoch, when he is invoked. He commands Noah to construct an ark of salvation in the flood; he leads Abraham “from the house of his father” and “from his kinsmen"; he blesses Isaac and Jacob; he leads the sons of Israel out of Egypt. He writes the law of the letter through Moses. He completes what was lacking through the prophets. This is what it means to be with them in Egypt.
But regarding the statement “I will recall you from there in the end,” I think this means, as we said above, that at the end of the ages his only-begotten Son descended even into the nether regions for the salvation of the world and recalled “the first-formed man” from there. For what he said to the thief, “This day you shall be with me in paradise,” understand not to have been said to him alone but also to all the saints for whom he had descended into the nether regions. In this man, therefore, more truly than in Jacob the words “I will recall you from there in the end” will be fulfilled.

But let us see how also the statement after that should be understood: “And Joseph shall put his hands upon your eyes.” I think many mysteries indeed of secret understanding are hidden within the veil of this statement. It belongs to another time to approach and touch upon these mysteries. Now, meanwhile, it will not appear to be said without reason, since it has appeared also to some of our predecessors that a certain prophecy seemed to be designated in this statement. Since indeed that Jeroboam who made two golden calves that he might seduce the people to worship them was from the tribe of Joseph, by this he blinded and closed the eyes of Israel, as if his hands were placed on them, lest they see their impiety, of which it is said, “Because of the impiety of Jacob are all these things, and because of the sin of the house of Israel. But what is the impiety of Jacob? Is it not Samaria?”32But if someone perhaps asserts that those things that are said by God about a future form of piety ought not be turned to a censurable function, we will say that just as the true Joseph, our Lord and Savior, put his physical hand on the eyes of the blind man and restored his sight that he had lost, so also he put his spiritual hands on the eyes of the law, which had been blinded by the corporeal understanding of the scribes and Pharisees. He restored sight to them, that to these to whom the Lord has opened the Scriptures spiritual vision and understanding might appear in the law.
And would that the Lord Jesus might put “his hands on” our “eyes” too, that we too might begin to look not at those things “which are seen but at the things which are not seen.” And would that he might open for us those eyes which contemplate not present things but future, and might reveal to us the aspect of the heart by which God is seen in spirit, through the Lord Jesus Christ himself, to whom belongs “glory and power forever and ever. Amen.”