are those who are numbered by our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.
NOTICE ON ORIGEN'S EXCERPTS ON DEUTERONOMY
Origen, in his 32nd volume on John, number 11, promises that he will explain Deuteronomy, and he says that he has already accomplished this in his eighth homily on Luke: but whether in volumes, or in scholia, or in homilies? Only eight homilies edited by him appear to be extant. Hence, there is nothing strange if in the sixth book of his Commentaries on the Epistle to the Romans he says that what is read in Deuteronomy 25:5 ought to be treated more fully and extensively in its own place. Cassiodorus, in his *Institutes*, chapter 1, mentions eight of his homilies on Deuteronomy, in which there is a very minute and subtle exposition. Rufinus also, in his letter to Ursacius, which he prefixed to his Latin translation, mentions his homilies on Numbers and a few short discourses on Deuteronomy. "For already," he says, "from all things which can be found written in the law, I have, as I think, brought together the discourses in Deuteronomy, which the Lord has provided for our eyes, so that I might connect them with the rest of the body." But after his death, it is believed before he could finish that task, it resulted that nothing of Origen's explanation survives today, unless perhaps the following Greek fragments which appear under Origen's name in the manuscript Catenae of the Fathers.
ORIGEN: SELECTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY
B"Moses spoke to all the sons of Israel according to all that the Lord had commanded him." Since God was revealing the power, but the prophet used his own tongue for the expression of the things revealed, the prophetic voice is therefore called a stirring, as it represents the things spoken by God.
"And I spoke to you at that time." Moses does not say "I spoke to you" simply; but because Joshua, the son of Nun, was about to succeed him after his departure, he says that the thing is not absurd, but even logical. For, he says, having anticipated it, I exhorted you, and, when you consented, I appointed judges; so that you may also obey Joshua the son of Nun, who succeeds me through prophetic and guiding grace.
"I shall not be able to carry you alone." And mindful of the earlier things, he does not begin from Egypt, but from when he gave them wise and learned judges.
"I gave to Reuben and to Gad." The inferior are more quickly brought into the promise; but the more worthy receive it more slowly. For some received the inheritance first under Moses; others later under Joshua. But this is also said concerning all the righteous, not just those who happen to be mentioned.
For as the Apostle says: A "And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect without us."
"The sound of the words which you heard." Not that the voice was visible, or that God has a voice by nature; for this would imply a compound nature, and God would have a sound and voices, as God knows, carried out from the connection of the visible elements of fire. Wherefore this voice is both heard and not seen; but when the prodigies of God occur, the voice is even seen. B
And He swore "that I should not cross over this Jordan." Since Moses had not glorified God before the people, he was forbidden to cross over with them, so that he whom they worshipped as living, by God’s care they might be prevented from honoring as if he were still living; thus God removed the tomb of one who had died from the eyes of all.
"I call as witnesses against you this day heaven and earth." God, not allowing those who worship Him to have fellowship with demons, but commanding those who have once known Him to be apart from any disposition toward them, and provoking them by the apostasy of the nations, foretells the punishments that will come to them on account of the wickedness of their practices. C
"Out of the house of bondage." For truly, bodily and material things are a house of bondage, just as, on the contrary, there is a house of liberty.
"For you are fewest of all nations." It is well said to those of the portion: "You are fewest of all nations." Related to this is: "Few are those being saved," and: "Strive to enter through the narrow gate."
"That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word," and so forth. Again, then, it is said that the manna was the Word, even if it is called bread in Exodus. "This," he says, "is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is the word which the Lord has commanded." For this reason the manna was "fine, like coriander seed, white, like frost upon the ground"; for the Word of which that manna was a symbol is fine by its own nature and extends through all intellectual, pure, and most fine spirits. D "It is also wisdom is a spirit intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, fine," and so forth. "And it was as coriander to be white." They say that the nature of the seed is such that it entirely corresponds to the core of the seed, so as not to permit the seed of the coriander to be cut, nor for its power to disappear, as if it could no longer be sown. Such, then, is the Word, and every particle of it is cultivated
A by nature and is fitting for the good—that is to say, for the soul. And the manna is white, for the Word is light and bright; and as it is white, it corresponds to those who understand it and are nourished by it. It is also like ice, for it is solid and nowhere loose, nor scattered, but firm; and it is the heavenly Word, announcing to us things above.
A “For the Lord your God will bring you into a good land and spacious.” Christ does not promise to give us these things, but the kingdom of heaven, and a good and eternal land, whose torrent is Christ Himself, watering the soul with the streams of wisdom. Torrents flow through the plains of humble and fertile men, and through the high mountains that rise by the height of contemplation to the heavens. B There is He who strengthens the heart of man, and judges those who nourish the less perfect. There is the true vine, Christ. There is the oil that anoints their heads. Similarly, the pomegranates, bearing sweetness within, but externally appearing bitter to those of our way of life. There is the fig tree, not sterile and adorned only with leaves, but one rich in the sweetness of the Spirit. There is the sweetness of the throat of the Savior, the object of desire, and lips as in the song, dripping like the bride’s honeycomb; and the stones are holy, rolled upon the earth and unbroken by temptations, imitating the nature of iron. There, the deposits of copper, from which they fashioned the spiritual armor. The head of these things is to praise God unceasingly. C
Of the same. He says, there is no need to toil in mud and brick-making, nor to suffer, but the stones offer themselves, and are not easily dissolved, so that they suffice for buildings and endure for a long time. These things he says, wishing to turn their mind away from Egypt. For in saying “good,” he showed fertility; but by “spacious,” he indicated the size and breadth. “Where there are torrents of water (this is not in Egypt), and springs of the deeps,” which is unique to the land of promise. He added also, “through the mountains,” which does not exist in Egypt; nor does it abound in vines, nor does it have an abundance of oil; but the land of promise is rich in all things. D
“Pay attention to yourself, that you do not forget the Lord your God.” After the promise of good things, he arouses them to sobriety, to remember the Benefactor, and not to be insolent through satiety, nor to despise Him who granted these things, and that He transferred them from the slavery in Egypt to freedom. “You shall not do so, to the Lord your God.” He reproaches men for sacrificing their own children to the gods of the gentiles, as cruel and inhuman; as abominable. And those who speak of sacrificing to the gods of the gentiles must not only be turned away from, but one must not even lend an ear to their words. “You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.” Men, when they sin, generally sin in two ways: by either overstepping the commandments or by falling short of them.
For when we do not live according to knowledge, we are deceived, and do not understand the measures of righteousness; and when we overstep the law, thinking we are doing something better, we fall away from the goal. By the same. Those, therefore, who do not do everything, or who do more than is commanded, transgress the law.
Every beast having a parted hoof, and chewing the cud. The parted hoof signifies the journey we take toward all good disciplines. To chew the cud is to turn over and over the words of the divinely inspired Scripture, and, as it were, to ruminate and grind up the hidden theories in one’s mind. B
Everything that has fins and scales, you may eat. Those that have fins I think are those that have such things below the knees and above the feet; it wishes these to be clean; those that do not, to be unclean.
You shall keep the feast of tabernacles for seven days. We find in the Scriptures the name of feast and of “festival gathering,” as the prophet says: “What will you do on the day of the festival gathering and on the day of the feast of the Lord?” One must seek the difference between a feast and a festival gathering. Every joyful day, then, to put it this way, on which it is ordered that certain things be done exclusively as in a holy day apart from the others, is called a feast. But not every feast is a festival gathering; rather, according to the name, this is when the Hebrews from everywhere gather together in the same place. So, in this sense, a festival gathering is a feast, but a feast is not necessarily a festival gathering. For example, Sabbaths and new moons are feasts, but the days of unleavened bread, of weeks, and of tabernacles are not only feasts, but also C festival gatherings, when every male is ordered to appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses.
You shall not move your neighbor’s landmarks. “Neighbor” is often said of every human being. By the same. For one ought not to defraud one’s neighbors, nor is it right to violate the boundaries of the fathers, as they were set well. For this will be the cause of all confusion, as those who live in the borderlands will feel they are being treated unjustly, and those who set the boundaries will be held in contempt. Some say that “neighbor” means every human being.
If an unjust witness stands against a man. The law says these things to the weak Israelites; but the Lord, who legislated these things, says to His own disciples: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye,’ and so on; but I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil.” D
By the same. These things have their place in sensible and worldly matters; but as concerns our sins, God requires no witness. For He Himself is the inspector and judge of all things.
A "You shall not plow with an ox and an ass together." Do not yoke the proud and laborious element of the soul with the pleasure-loving and passible one.
Of the same: Isaiah writes again: "Blessed are they that sow upon all waters." What is the water upon which one must sow the good seed? It should be the baptism of salvation, the washing of regeneration. Sow upon the mystery of the washing, and you shall be blessed. There the ox and the ass tread; the ox is the clean one, the Israelite, and the ass is the unclean one by descent, he who is from the nations; in order that both animals may be a symbol of the Word preached to the nations. The ox and the ass, therefore, tread, he says, this water where we wish to sow.
"If a damsel be a virgin betrothed to a husband." He calls the woman who is already betrothed a wife; thus it was also said concerning Joseph and the Theotokos.
"And even unto the age." Since these also are from fornication, from the daughters of Lot; and they are not only rejected from the assembly of Israel unto the tenth generation, but even unto the age. Thus He wills that their enmity should be eternal; B according to the law and the true reason of the divine Scripture, because they hired Balaam to curse the Hebrews, and they sent forth their wives and daughters, who were beautiful to behold and fair to look upon, into the midst of the race, so that they gave them for fornication to the Israelites; and through this He brought about the most grievous [harm] to the Hebrews, by the turning away from God and the completion of the rites of Beelphegor, which is what happened.
"You shall not pledge the hand-mill or the grindstone." For, he says, with a single stone it is impossible to crush the grain; for a mill is fashioned from a double stone. Since, therefore, the Jews have one testament, and likewise every heresy that thinks it has a new, unique [testament] does not have it in this mill, if they have not tasted of the heavenly bread—
A For, he says, if the wheat is not crushed and ground, those who are fasting remain hungry. From this, he himself, being moved to explain the law currently before us, says: “You shall not move a millstone,”—that is, you shall not profane the old and you shall not cast it away from your house; neither shall you add to it—that is, the new; for he to whom this is entrusted is fed by the soul by partaking of spiritual nourishment.
“Forty lashes shall they give him.” We have always observed that the number forty is associated with evil. Hence Moses fasted for forty days, and after him Elias. Indeed, our Savior himself, when tempted by the devil, did not eat for forty days and forty nights, and the great deluge upon the earth B happens when God has sent rain for forty days and forty nights.
“You shall not bring iron upon them.” It must be inquired why God does not permit iron to touch the stones which serve in the construction of the altar. But afterwards, for the building of the temple, he commands that stones be gathered without iron, and that the construction be made with them. For if it is absurd for iron to touch a stone fit for building, how then were the columns? How were the tablets and their capitals fashioned? Or how could whatever is made of bronze or gold or silver have been manufactured with iron? From this, it is evident that he does not simply forbid iron to touch the stones. What then is the cause—we say this without asserting it as dogma—it seems what he wishes to indicate is this: He forbids adding hard to hard and striking them together. For great evils are accustomed to be born from the mixing and collision of hard things. C Or he casts murder as far as possible from the heart of men; and most justly. For if one must not lay iron upon a stone being built into the structure of the altar or of the temple, how much more is it to be forbidden to snatch up iron and commit murder against one's neighbor?
“These shall stand to bless the people.” It must be observed that those who were appointed to bless were born of the free women and kinswomen of Jacob; and so, those who were set apart to curse from Mount Ebal were from the bondwomen, except for Reuben and Zabulon. But Reuben is ranked with those who are cursed, as he was cursed by his father. And if D he also cursed Levi, yet he has been redeemed by his priestly office. For it is especially the duty of a priest to bless the people. But also Simeon, as having dwelt in the midst of the tribe of Judah, and having become, as it were, a part of it, for this reason, where Judah is, there he also is numbered.
And this is the blessing which Moses blessed. The prophecies of Jacob were not all blessings, nor were they all curses; but those of Moses were all blessings.
And he hastened from Mount Pharan. That is, not
A any longer to Israel, but to those who were of the Gentiles, and he put an end to the Law. For this he hastened, as another writing contains, instead of saying, he hastened to leave the shadow behind and reveal the truth to us.
With ten myriads of Cades. Now, by Cades, he does not mean the place, but the saints; for Cades is called "holy" in the Hebrew tongue.
And he spared his people. That is, by his coming B he saved those who were formerly not his people, but are now the people of God, those who were not pitied, but are now pitied. "In this," says the apostle Peter, "the love of God was made manifest among us." And the holy John likewise says in his Catholic Epistle, "that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." And the blessed Paul also says: "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all." He spared, therefore, his people.
And all those sanctified under thy hands. C Over all he rules, as King of heaven and earth. As those standing by a king, as those serving God, as those worshipping the Creator, they are also under him; "for he subjected all things under his feet."
Gathered together are the rulers of peoples. These are the divine disciples, as David also says in their person: "He subjected peoples under us, and nations under our feet." And again: "The rulers of the peoples were gathered together with the God of Abraham." He refers, therefore, to the calling of the Gentiles, as God is about to rule over both Israel and the Gentiles at once. And the Son is called "Beloved." "For this," he says, "is my beloved Son." And for this reason, the Father rules over us and reigns. D
MONITUM ON THE EXEGESIS OF ORIGEN INTO THE BOOK OF JOSHUA
Rufinus, in his peroration to the interpretation of the Commentaries on the Epistle to the Romans, says that in translating his exegesis on the Book of Joshua, he did not depart from the fidelity of the Greek text. "These things," he says, "which we have written on Joshua... we have expressed simply as we found them, and we have translated them without much labor. Today's interpretation, which exists for this book in twenty-six homilies, is presented in the twelfth chapter of the Philocalia; hence, some heterodox opinions that claim these homilies for Origen are refuted."
These were written after the homilies on Jeremiah, as appears from the thirteenth homily, and therefore they belong to the sexagenarian period; they appear to have been pronounced near the end of 249, or at the beginning of 250, at the time when the ninth homily records the very serious persecution that then afflicted the Church.
The Greek fragments which are prefixed to the front of the homilies are taken from manuscript Catenae.