Origen of Alexandria — Commentary on Scripture

James 1:17

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

The soul gradually ascends to the heavens after the resurrection. It does not reach the highest point immediately but goes through many stages during which it is progressively enlightened by the light of Wisdom, until it arrives at the Father of lights himself.

James 2:17

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

If someone dies in his sins he has not truly believed in Christ, even if he has made a profession of faith in him, and if faith is mentioned but it lacks works, such faith is dead, as we have read in the epistle which circulates as the work of James.

James 3:18

And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

You shall rejoice in the morning, that is, in the world to come, if you have gathered the fruits of righteousness by weeping and labor in this world.

James 4:4

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Since evil forms a friendship with the world and virtue a friendship with God, virtue and evil cannot coexist.

James 5:20

Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

A man who converts others will have his own sins forgiven.

Jeremiah 1:5

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

We forget that the words “Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness” apply to each person. When we fail to remember the one who formed a person in the womb, and formed all people’s hearts individually and understands all their works, we do not perceive that God is a helper of those who are lowly and inferior, a protector of the weak, a provider of shelter of those who have been given up in despair and Savior of those who have been given up as hopeless.

Jeremiah 1:7

But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.

We do not find, therefore, that the expression "to be sent from God" is be used of anyone other than the saints. It occurs in the case of Isaiah … and in the case of Jeremiah, "You shall go to all that I shall send you"; and in the case of Ezekiel, "I send you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels, who have rebelled against me."

Jeremiah 1:9 · 2 passages

Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.

In sacred language God is called a fire. For instance, Scripture says, “Our God is a consuming fire.” It also speaks as follows concerning the substance of the angels when it says, “He makes his angels spirits and his ministers a burning fire.” In another place, “The angel of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire in the bush.” We have, moreover, received a commandment to be “fervent in spirit,” which undoubtedly means that the Word of God is hot and fiery. The prophet Jeremiah also hears from him who gave him his answer, “Behold, I have put my words into your mouth like a fire.” Since God, then, is a fire, and the angels a flame of fire and all the saints are fervent in spirit, so, on the contrary, those who have fallen away from the love of God are undoubtedly said to have cooled in their affection for him and to have become cold. For the Lord also says that “because iniquity has grown, the love of many will grow cold.”

We pray that words may be given us, as it is written in the book of Jeremiah that the Lord said to the prophet: “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth as fire. See, I have set you this day over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, and to build and to plant.”

Jeremiah 1:13

And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.

Place that candlestick in the south that it may look to the north. For when the light has been lit, that is, when the heart is watchful, it ought always to look to the north and watch for "him who is from the north," as also the prophet says he saw "a kettle or pot kindled and its face was from the face of the north," for "evils are kindled from the north for the whole earth." Be watchful, therefore, apprehensive and zealous. Always contemplate the slyness of the devil and always watch the place from which temptation may come, from which the foe may invade, from which the enemy may creep up. For the apostle Peter also says, "Your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour."

Jeremiah 2:21-22 · 6 passages

Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?

Thus does Paul also boast that the observance of the law and the whole glory of the Jewish system was to him like garbage, so that he might be found in Christ, having not his own justification that was of the law, but the justification from God. In this sense, therefore, Paul did not keep his own vineyard—that is to say, he did not keep the Jews’ tradition after he had received the faith of Christ. Perhaps the reason why he did not keep it was that, though it had been planted by God as a true vine, it had turned into the bitterness of a strange vine. “For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah … their clusters are bitter; their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps.”

Let us attempt to discuss also a third exposition at the moral level. If there is anyone who, while evils are increasing and vices are overflowing, can turn from the things that are in flux and passing away and fallen and can hear the word of God and the heavenly precepts, this person is building an ark of salvation within his own heart and is dedicating a library, so to speak, of the divine word within himself. He is erecting faith, love and hope as its length, breadth and height. He stretches out faith in the Trinity to the length of life and immortality. He establishes the breadth of love with the compassion of gentleness and kindness. He raises the height of hope to heavenly and exalted places. For while he walks on the earth, he has his “citizenship in heaven.” But he brings the sum of his acts back to one. For he knows that “all indeed run, but one receives the palm of victory,” of course, being that one who was not changeable with a variety of thoughts and instability of mind. But he does not construct this library from planks that are unhewn and rough but from planks that hav…

Let us attempt to discuss also a third exposition at the moral level. If there is anyone who, while evils are increasing and vices are overflowing, can turn from the things that are in flux and passing away and fallen and can hear the word of God and the heavenly precepts, this person is building an ark of salvation within his own heart and is dedicating a library, so to speak, of the divine word within himself. He is erecting faith, love and hope as its length, breadth and height. He stretches out faith in the Trinity to the length of life and immortality. He establishes the breadth of love with the compassion of gentleness and kindness. He raises the height of hope to heavenly and exalted places. For while he walks on the earth, he has his “citizenship in heaven.” But he brings the sum of his acts back to one. For he knows that “all indeed run, but one receives the palm of victory,” of course, being that one who was not changeable with a variety of thoughts and instability of mind. But he does not construct this library from planks that are unhewn and rough but from planks that have been squared and arranged in a uniform line, that is, not from the volumes of secular authors but from the prophetic and apostolic volumes. For these authors, who have been hewn by diverse temptations, all vices having been curtailed and excised, contain life that has been squared and set free in every part. For the authors of secular books can indeed be called “lofty trees” and “shady trees”—for Israel is accused of having fornicated “under every lofty and shady tree”—because they speak indeed in a lofty manner and use flowery eloquence; they have not, however, acted as they have spoken. They cannot, therefore, be called “squared planks” because life and speech will by no means be equal in them.

God did not make "death, and he does not delight in the destruction of living things; for he created all things that they might exist, and the creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them, and the dominion of hades is not on earth." Passing over, then, a little passage, I will ask, From where, then, did death come? "By the envy of the devil, death came into the world." If, then, there is something excellent in our regard, God has made it, but we have created evil and sins for ourselves. For the same reason, the beginning of the passage just read from the prophet speaks in a rhetorical sense to those who have bitterness in the soul contrary to the sweetness that God fashioned for it: "How have you turned to bitterness, you strange vine?" as if he was saying, God did not make lameness, but he has made all things swift of foot, yet what cause arose that has made the lame lame? And God has made all limbs absolutely sound, but what cause arose that makes things suffer? In the same way, the soul, not only of the first man but of all people, arose accordi…

God did not make "death, and he does not delight in the destruction of living things; for he created all things that they might exist, and the creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them, and the dominion of hades is not on earth." Passing over, then, a little passage, I will ask, From where, then, did death come? "By the envy of the devil, death came into the world." If, then, there is something excellent in our regard, God has made it, but we have created evil and sins for ourselves. For the same reason, the beginning of the passage just read from the prophet speaks in a rhetorical sense to those who have bitterness in the soul contrary to the sweetness that God fashioned for it: "How have you turned to bitterness, you strange vine?" as if he was saying, God did not make lameness, but he has made all things swift of foot, yet what cause arose that has made the lame lame? And God has made all limbs absolutely sound, but what cause arose that makes things suffer? In the same way, the soul, not only of the first man but of all people, arose according to the image—for the statement "Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness," applies to all people.

The God who “brings forth the sun on the evil and the good” is a desert to no one. To no one is he who “rains on the just and unjust” ever a land made dry. How is he a desert, when he brings forth the day and causes the night to rest? How is he a desert, when he causes the land to bear fruit? How is he a desert, when he provides for each person in his soul so that it is endowed with reason, so that it can grasp knowledge and exercise its intelligence, and in the body so that it has healthy sense faculties? And so with respect to the way of what is universal, God is not a desert.

God did not make “death, and he does not delight in the destruction of living things; for he created all things that they might exist, and the creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them, and the dominion of hades is not on earth.” Passing over, then, a little passage, I will ask, From where, then, did death come? “By the envy of the devil, death came into the world.” If, then, there is something excellent in our regard, God has made it, but we have created evil and sins for ourselves. For the same reason, the beginning of the passage just read from the prophet speaks in a rhetorical sense to those who have bitterness in the soul contrary to the sweetness that God fashioned for it: “How have you turned to bitterness, you strange vine?” as if he was saying, God did not make lameness, but he has made all things swift of foot, yet what cause arose that has made the lame lame? And God has made all limbs absolutely sound, but what cause arose that makes things suffer? In the same way, the soul, not only of the first man but of all people, arose accordi…

God did not make “death, and he does not delight in the destruction of living things; for he created all things that they might exist, and the creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them, and the dominion of hades is not on earth.” Passing over, then, a little passage, I will ask, From where, then, did death come? “By the envy of the devil, death came into the world.” If, then, there is something excellent in our regard, God has made it, but we have created evil and sins for ourselves. For the same reason, the beginning of the passage just read from the prophet speaks in a rhetorical sense to those who have bitterness in the soul contrary to the sweetness that God fashioned for it: “How have you turned to bitterness, you strange vine?” as if he was saying, God did not make lameness, but he has made all things swift of foot, yet what cause arose that has made the lame lame? And God has made all limbs absolutely sound, but what cause arose that makes things suffer? In the same way, the soul, not only of the first man but of all people, arose according to the image—for the statement “Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness,” applies to all people.

Thus does Paul also boast that the observance of the law and the whole glory of the Jewish system was to him like garbage, so that he might be found in Christ, having not his own justification that was of the law, but the justification from God. In this sense, therefore, Paul did not keep his own vineyard—that is to say, he did not keep the Jews' tradition after he had received the faith of Christ. Perhaps the reason why he did not keep it was that, though it had been planted by God as a true vine, it had turned into the bitterness of a strange vine. "For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah … their clusters are bitter; their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps."

Jeremiah 3:1-2

They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.

Scripture designates the children of adulterers as imperfect. Such a soul, to be sure, that prostrates itself totally to the tendencies of the flesh and bodily desires, has forsaken union with the spirit, and as if turned away from God will shamelessly hear, “You have the face of a harlot. You have made yourself shameless to all.” She will be punished, therefore, like a harlot, and her children will be ordered to be prepared for slaughter.

Jeremiah 3:7

And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

This is a new kind of his goodness that even after adultery God nevertheless would receive the soul that returns and repents from the heart as he also says through the prophet, "If a woman leaves her husband and sleeps with another man, shall she return to her husband? Will she not be contaminated? You, however, have committed fornication with your many shepherds and returned to me." He says the same thing elsewhere, "After you committed fornication, with all these, I said, 'Return to me.' And you have not thus returned, says the Lord."

Jeremiah 3:22

Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.

God has then said to us, "Return, you children, and when you return, I will heal your afflictions." And when we see our afflictions and the promise of healing, we answer and say immediately, "Behold, we will be yours because you are the Lord our God." So when we obey and say, "We will be yours," let us remember that we submitted ourselves to God in saying, "We will be yours." And by saying, "We will be yours," we belong to no other, not to the spirit of anger, or the spirit of grief or the spirit of desire; let us not belong to the devil or his angels. But after we were called and said, "Behold, we will be yours," let us show by works that when we have promised to become his, we have devoted ourselves to none other than him.

Jeremiah 4:3

For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

This, then, “is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Break up fallow ground and sow not among thorns.’ ” This word is especially directed to those who teach, lest they entrust what is said to the pupils too soon before they have prepared the fallow ground in their souls. For whenever they put the “hand to the plow,” they make the “ground fallow” in their souls, according to the “beautiful” and the “good earth” of those who hear. Then, when they sow, the sowers do not sow “among thorns.” But if prior to the “plow” and prior to the making of “fallow ground” in the heart of those who hear, someone takes the holy seeds, the word concerning the Father, concerning the Son and Holy Spirit, the word concerning the resurrection, the word concerning the punishment, the word concerning the final rest, concerning the Law, the Prophets and in general each of the Scriptures, and sows them, he disobeys the first commandment, which states first, break up their fallow ground; second, and do not sow among thorns.