Origen of Alexandria

We understood the Christ to be the creator, but the Father is greater. He, indeed, who is such great things as “the advocate,” “the expiation,” “the propitiatory,” because he showed compassion “on our weaknesses” in experiencing temptation “in all things” human “in our likeness, without sin,” is a “great high priest” who offered himself as the sacrifice offered once for all, not for humans alone, but also for every spiritual being. For “apart from God he tasted death for all.” This appears in some copies of the epistle to the Hebrews as “by the grace of God.”But whether “apart from God he tasted death for all,” he died not only for humans but also for the rest of the spiritual beings, or “by the grace of God he tasted death for all,” he died for all apart from God, for “by the grace of God he tasted death for all.” And, indeed, it would be strange to declare that he tasted death for human sins but not also for any other creature, besides man, that happened to be in sin—for instance, for the stars, since not even the stars are absolutely pure before God. As we have read in Job, “And the stars are not clean in his sight,” unless this was said hyperbolically.
For this reason he is a “great high priest,” since he restores all things to the kingdom of the Father, causing the things that are lacking in each of the creatures to be supplied, that they may be able to receive the Father’s glory.

You will ascertain a right understanding of this Scripture and others if in Christ you are fond of learning and you rise above learning “through a mirror” and “in an enigma,” desiring to rush to him who calls. And you will approach knowing “face to face,” as friends of your Father and teacher in heaven. For friends learn not through enigmas but by what is seen or by wisdom stripped of sounds, speech, symbols and types, attending to the nature of things perceived and the beauty of truth. If you believe that Paul was caught up to the third heaven and was caught up in paradise and heard what cannot be expressed, which no one may utter, you will then know the unexpressed things which were revealed to Paul when he descended from the third heaven. At once you will know more and greater things, after the revealing and descent, if you take up the cross and follow after Jesus, in whom we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. And you yourselves will pass through the heavens if you do not fail to follow him, rising above not only the earth and the mysteries of earth, but also heaven and its mysteries. For in God there are many greater things treasured up than these visions, which no bodily nature can attain unless it first is set free from all that is corporeal. For I am persuaded that God has stored up and keeps for himself many greater things than these, which the sun and moon and company of stars and even the holy angels know of, which God made by wind and flame of fire. He has done this so that he may reveal them, when all creation is set free from slavery to the enemy and obtains the glorious freedom of the children of God.

I think that the saints, as they depart from this life, will remain in some place situated on the earth that the divine scripture calls “paradise.” This will be a place of instruction and, so to speak, a lecture room or school for souls, in which they may be taught about all that they had seen on earth. They may also receive some indications of what is to follow in the future, just as … in this life they had obtained certain indications of the future, seen indeed “through a glass darkly” and truly “in part,” which are revealed more clearly and brightly to the saints in their proper times and places. If any are “pure in heart” and of unpolluted mind and well-trained understanding, they will make swifter progress and quickly ascend to the region of the air until they reach the kingdom of the heavens, passing through the series of those “rooms,” if I may so call them, which the Greeks have termed spheres, that is, globes, but which the divine Scripture calls heavens. In each of these they will first observe all that happens there and then learn the reason why it happens; and thus they will proceed in order through each stage, following him who has “passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God,” and who has said, “I desire that they also may be with me where I am.” Further, he alludes to this diversity of places when he says, “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” He himself, however, is everywhere and runs through all things. And we are no longer to think of him as being confined within those narrow limits in which he once lived for our sakes, that is, in that circumscribed condition which was his when he dwelt on earth among humans in a body like ours, so that it was then possible to think of him as being enclosed in some one place.

In the words of Song of Songs may be found that food of which the apostle says, “But solid food is for the mature” and requires such people as listeners who “have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.” Thus, if those we have called “little ones” come to these places in Scripture, it can happen that they receive no profit at all from this book or even that they are badly injured either by reading what has been written or by examining what has been said to interpret it. But for one who is mature according to the flesh, no little risk and danger arises from this book of Scripture [Song of Songs]. For if he does not know how to listen to the names of love purely and with chaste ears, he may twist everything he has heard from the inner man to the outer, fleshly man and be turned away from the Spirit to the flesh. Then he will nourish in himself fleshly desires, and it will seem because of the divine Scriptures that he is impelled and moved to the lusts of the flesh. For this reason I give warning and advice to everyone who is not yet free of the vexations of flesh and blood and who has not withdrawn from the desire for corporeal nature that he completely abstain from reading this book and what is said about it. Indeed, they say that the Hebrews observe the rule that, unless someone has attained a perfect and mature age, he is not even permitted to hold this book in his hands. Moreover, we also accept the observance of the following rule from them—it is their custom that all the Scriptures should be given to children by the teachers and the wise, and that at the same time those passages which they call deuterōseis should be held back to the last. There are four of them: the beginning of Genesis, in which the creation of the world is described; the first chapters of Ezekiel the prophet, in which mention is made of the cherubim; the end of Ezekiel, which includes the building of the temple; and this book, Song of Songs.

Just as the people of old, who were called the people of God, were divided into twelve tribes plus the levitical order, and this order itself, which engaged in service of the Divine, was divided into additional priestly and levitical orders, so, I think, all the people of Christ according to “the hidden person of the heart,” who bear the name “Jew inwardly” and who have been circumcised “in spirit,” possess the characteristics of the tribes in a more mystical manner.…Most of us who approach the teachings of Christ, since we have much time for the activities of life and offer a few acts to God, would perhaps be those from the tribes who have a little fellowship with the priests and support the service of God in a few things. But those who devote themselves to the divine Word and truly exist by the service of God alone will properly be said to be Levites and priests in accordance with the excellence of their activities in this work.
And, perhaps, those who excel all others and who hold, as it were, the first places of their generation will be high priests according to the order of Aaron, but not according to the order of Melchizedek. If someone should object to this, thinking that we are impious when we prescribe the title of high priest for humans, since Jesus is proclaimed as great priest in many places—for we have “a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God”—we would have to say to him that the apostle indicated this when he said that the prophet said of Christ, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,” and not after the order of Aaron. On this basis, we too say that humans can be high priests according to the order of Aaron, but only the Christ of God according to the order of Melchizedek.

Jesus now stands “before the face of God interceding for us.” He stands before the altar to offer a propitiation to God for us. As he was about to approach that altar, moreover, he was saying, “I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until I drink it anew with you.” Therefore, he expects us to be converted, to imitate his example, to follow his footsteps, that he may rejoice with us and “drink wine with us in his Father’s kingdom.” For now, because “the Lord is merciful and gracious,” he “weeps with those who weep and desires to rejoice with those who rejoice” with greater feeling than this apostle. And how much more “this one mourns over many of those who sinned before and have not repented.” For we must not think that Paul is mourning for sinners and weeping for those who transgress, but Jesus my Lord abstains from weeping when he approaches the Father, when he stands at the altar and offers a propitiatory sacrifice for us. This is not to drink the wine of joy “when he ascends to the altar” because he is still bearing the bitterness of our sins. He, therefore, does not want to be the only one to drink wine “in the kingdom” of God. He waits for us, just as he said, “Until I shall drink it with you.” Thus we are those who, neglecting our life, delay his joy.

Now if we correctly understand it, this is the statement Moses writes in the beginning of his book, when he says, "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 return. That is, that heaven and earth may be the dwelling place and rest of the pious, so that all the saints and the meek may first obtain an inheritance in that earth, for this is the teaching of the law and the prophets and the gospel. In that earth I believe there exist, the true and living forms of worship which Moses handed down under the shadow of the law. For it is said that "they serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary"—that is, those who were in subjection in the law. To Moses himself it was also said, "See that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain." It seems to me, therefore, that on this earth the law was a kind of schoolmaster to those who by it were to be led to Christ and to be instructed and trained in order that, after the training of the law, they might more easily receive the more perfect precepts of Christ. So also that other earth, which receives into it all the saints, may first imbue and mould them by the precepts of the true and everlasting law, that they may more easily gain possession of those perfect precepts of heaven, to which nothing can be added. And in heaven there will truly be what is called the "eternal gospel" and that testament that is always new, which shall never grow old.

Since, however, "when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken," we must admit, as far as the literal meaning is concerned, that, after the Lord was raised from the dead, the disciples understood that the things said about the temple refer to his passion and resurrection, and they recalled that the saying, "in three days I will raise it up" indicated the resurrection. It was then that "they believed both the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken," since there is no earlier testimony that they had believed the Scripture or this word which Jesus spoke. For faith is, strictly speaking, the acceptance with one's whole soul of the object of faith at baptism. But as for the anagogical meaning, since we previously mentioned the resurrection from the dead of the whole body of the Lord, we must know that the disciples—once they were reminded through the fulfillments of the Scripture which they had not thoroughly understood when they were in this life and once it was brought before their eyes and made manifest that it contained an example and shadow of certain heavenly things—believed what they formerly did not believe, and believed the word of Jesus as he who spoke it intended, which they had not understood before the resurrection.For how can one be said to believe the Scripture in the proper sense, when one does not perceive the meaning of the Holy Spirit in it which God wants to be believed, rather than the intent of the letter? According to this, we must say that none of those who walk according to the flesh believe in the spiritual meanings of the law, whose first principle they do not even imagine.

We indeed who are of the church rightly receive Moses and read his writings, believing that he is a prophet who wrote down the future mysteries which God revealed to him in symbols, figures and allegorical forms, which we teach were fulfilled in their own time. But whoever does not receive such an understanding in him, whether one of the Jews or even one of us, certainly cannot teach that he is a prophet. For how will he prove he is a prophet whose writings he asserts to be common, containing no knowledge of the future or anything of a hidden mystery? Whoever thinks thus the divine word censures, saying, “Do you understand what you are reading?”Therefore, the law and all the things that are in the law are, according to the opinion of the apostle, “imposed until the time of reformation.” … Those whose craft is to make tokens from copper and to pour statues, before they produce a true work of copper or of silver or of gold, must first form figures from clay to the likeness of the figure image. (The model is necessary only until the work that is principal is completed, for when that work for which that image was made of clay is completed, its use is no longer sought.) [Thus we] understand also something like this in these things which were written or done “in a type” and in a figure of the future in the law and prophets. For the artist and creator of all himself came and transformed “the law which has but a shadow of the good things to come” to “the true form of these realities.” But lest perhaps the things we say appear difficult for you to be able to prove, examine them one by one.
First, there was Jerusalem, that great, royal city, where the most renowned temple had been constructed for God. But after that, one who was the true temple of God came and said about the temple of his body, “Destroy this temple,” and began to open the mysteries “of the heavenly Jerusalem.” This earthly place was destroyed, and the heavenly became visible, and in the temple “stone” did not remain “upon stone” from the time when the flesh of Christ was made the true temple of God. First there was a high priest who purified the people "by the blood of bulls and goats"; but when the true high priest who “sanctifies” believers “through his own blood” came, that first high priest existed no more, and neither was any place left for him. First there was the altar, and sacrifices were being celebrated; but when the true Lamb came who “gave himself up as an offering to God,” all these other, as it were, temporary institutions ceased.
Therefore, does it not seem to you that, according to the figure set forth above, there were some models made from clay, as it were, through which true images were represented? Finally, for this reason, the divine dispensation provided that the city and the temple and all those as well be overthrown, lest he who is perhaps still “a child and feeding on milk of the faith” be enraptured by the view itself of the diverse forms, if he should see them standing and be astonished and amazed during the ritual of sacrifices and during the order of the services. But God, watching out for our weakness and desiring his church to be multiplied, made all these to be overthrown and taken away completely, so that without any hesitation, when those ceased, we might believe these to be true for which the type was contained in advance in them.