and others are outside of those who possess the living Jesus; and the last error will be worse than the first. He says to them, however, and some of them who possess Jesus, even before the passion, Pilate says: "You have a guard; go, guard it as you know how." They then went and made the sepulcher secure, sealing the stone with the guard. But some others who hold him as rising from the dead, others according to how he appears to many, having neither form nor comeliness. Others possess him reformed into glory, while others see him ascending, and hope to be caught up with him in the clouds, so that they may always be held with him. Therefore Matthew wrote that the monument was new, and did not explicitly explain that it was hewn in rock. And that it was new, by way of every dead body, Luke and John manifested, one of whom indeed said: "In which no one had yet been placed"; John, however: "In which no one had yet been placed." Plainly, if no one had ever been placed there, but afterwards they were placed; for what he says: "In which no one had yet been placed," by those who consider carefully, this word is signified. We say, therefore, lest perhaps we ought to understand this place simply, since he who said: "We were buried with Christ through baptism, and we have risen with him," in a new and intelligible monument hewn in rock, he himself was buried with Christ, and all who have been buried with Christ in baptism, so that they might rise with him from the new monument, as the firstborn from the dead, and holding the primacy in all things. Joseph did not roll many stones to the door of the monument, but one, and a great one, and greater than the power of those lying in wait could be, yet not greater than the power of the angel descending from heaven, and rolling back the stone from it, and sitting upon it: since all things which are around the body of Christ Jesus are clean, and new, and not simply great, but all things are very great. "Mary, sitting opposite the sepulcher." After these things, the charity of the two Marys, the Magdalene and the mother of James and Joseph, bound them to the new monument, on account of the body of Jesus which had been there. And observe this: that above, these two Marys, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee, whom we judge to be Salome herself, were watching from afar the wonders which were happening in the passion of Christ, and his body suspended on the wood. Here, however, three did not remain: for the mother of the sons of Zebedee is not written as sitting with Mary Magdalene and with Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, opposite the sepulcher. Perhaps for the mother of the sons of Zebedee could reach up to this point; but these, as it were greater in charity, were not missing even those things which were afterward done. "The chief priests and Pharisees gathered to Pilate, saying: 'Sir, we have remembered that that deceiver said while still living: After the third day I will rise. Command therefore that the sepulcher be guarded until the third day, lest perhaps his disciples come, and steal him, and say to the people: He has risen from the dead.'" It is reasonable to interrogate the chief priests who came to Pilate, so that they should say these things which they said. Tell me, priests, when Jesus had said: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," to what purpose did you think he had said it? Or about the dissolution and resurrection of his body? Or about the destruction and reparation of the temple itself? For if you understood thus, because he was saying these things about his own resurrection, how, giving testimony against him, did you say that he said: "I am able to destroy this temple, and in three days to rebuild it"? If, however, you truly understood it regarding that temple, according to which even you bore witness, how do you now know that he said: "After three days I will rise from the dead"? See, therefore, how impiety destroys itself by its own words. For by these words they condemn their own testimony, since truly understanding him to be saying those things about the resurrection of his own body, and knowing it, they turned his words to the destruction and reparation of that insensible temple. Furthermore, I ask: What do you say, priests? Indeed, that he was saying to men: "After three days I will rise," and secretly commanded his disciples to steal him by night and say after three days that he has risen from the dead? But this is incredible, from this very fact, after so many moral discourses which he taught to the whole people, and after such and so great powers which he displayed everywhere in all Judea, that he would deceive his disciples with words, so that they themselves would blame the one commanding these things, and therefore should by no means do what he commanded, especially on account of the danger which threatened them from the people, if they were to confess him who a short time before had been crucified, and to have him as a teacher and Christ. But if it is incredible that he said this, see if it is not a consequence that, just as he performed prodigies, and just as he foretold that his Gospel was to be preached in the whole world, and just as: "You will stand before presidents and kings," and just as Jerusalem will be destroyed by the army; so also concerning his resurrection he foretold what he said: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Therefore, even to their own prejudice, the priests and Pharisees spoke to Pilate, saying that that deceiver said while yet living, that after three days I will rise. Furthermore, see that some coming from the guards into the city, reported, not to others, but to the chief priests themselves, all things whatsoever had been done, so that their impiety might be established as inexcusable from every side: they, however, not even then, miserable as they were, acquiesced to such great documents, so that they might receive that Jesus was the Christ; but even after all these things they maligned him on account of the hardness of their heart. Just as the heart of Pharaoh had been hardened over A tantis et talibus prodigiis quæ in Ægypto fuerant B milites dormiunt abundantius, et sic furarentur corpus Jesu. Et hæc omnia gerebantur ab operantibus contrariis virtutibus contra Christi doctrinam, existimantibus quoniam poterant extinguere a vita hominum, de resurrectione Domini providentiam Dei, et fidem. Et sicut nimia duritia Pharaonis non est mollita multis prodigiis factis per Moysen, sic, aut amplius, duritia cordis istorum non solum factis signis et prodigiis est flexa, sed neque custodibus nuntiantibus crediderunt, qui venerunt in civitatem, et nuntiaverunt omnia quæcunque fuerant facta. Et Pharaoni quidem dictum est: Ad hoc ipsum te suscitavi, ut ostendam in te virtutem meam, et ut annuntietur nomen meum in universa terra; istos autem supportavit magnanimitas D Dei, ut per vasa iræ præparata in interitum fiat salus in gentibus.
SANCTI HIERONYMI PROLOGUS
ON THE EXPLANATION OF ST. LUKE BY ORIGEN
32 Ante paucos dies quorumdam in Matthæum et in Lucam Commentarios vos legisse dixistis, e quibus alter et sensibus hebes esset, et verbis; alter in verbis luderet, in sententiis dormitaret. Quamobrem petistis ut contemtis istiusmodi nugis, saltem triginta et novem Adamantii nostri in Lucam homilias, sicut in Græco habentur, interpreter: molestam rem et tormento similem, alieno, ut ait Tullius, stomacho et non suo scribere: quam tamen idcirco nunc faciam, quia sublimiora non poscitis. Siquidem illud quod olim Romæ sancta Blæsilla flagitaverat, ut viginti quinque tomos illius in Matthæum, et quinque alios in Lucam, et triginta duos in Joannem, nostræ linguæ traderem, nec virium mearum, nec otii, nec laboris est. Perspicitis enim, quantum apud me et auctoritas vestra, et voluntas valet. Prætermisi paulum Hebraicarum Quæstionum libros, ut ad arbitrium vestrum lucrativis operis hæc, qualiacunque sunt, non mea, sed aliena dictarem: præsertim cum a sinistro oscinem corvum audiam crocitantem, et mirum in modum de cunctarum avium ridere coloribus, cum totus ipse tenebrosus sit. Fatoer itaque antequam ille objiciat, in his Origenem tractatibus quasi puerum talis ludere: alia sunt virilia ejus, et alia senectutis.
in Latin, if it pleases you, if I am able, if the Lord grants the opportunity, and once I have finished the work I have already begun, then you will be able to see—or rather, you yourselves will know from the Roman tongue—how much good there is, and how knowledge has now begun. Moreover, the commentaries of the most eloquent Hilary and the blessed martyr Victorinus, which they issued on Matthew in a different tone, but by the grace of the Spirit; I have arranged to send these, so that you may not be ignorant of how much study was given to the Holy Scriptures by our own people as well.
ORIGEN ON LUKE, HOMILIES
TRANSLATED BY ST. JEROME
HOMILY 1.
On the prologue to Luke, up to the place where he says: "To write for you, most excellent Theophilus."
A As in the former people of the Jews, many claimed to have prophecy, and some were false prophets, while others were truly prophets, and there was grace in the people for the B discernment of spirits, from which the true prophet and the false B were judged; so too now, in the New Testament, many have "willed" to write Gospels, but "the experienced money-changers" did not approve all of them, but chose C certain ones. Perhaps also the word "undertook" contains a hidden accusation of those C who approached the writing of the gospels without the gift of the Spirit. For Matthew did not "undertake," but he wrote by the Holy Spirit; likewise also Mark and John, and similarly Luke. Yet those who wrote the gospel inscribed "according to the Egyptians" and the gospel inscribed "of the Twelve" "undertook." And Basilides also dared to write a gospel "according to Basilides." "Many indeed have undertaken": for there is also in circulation the gospel according to Thomas and that according to Matthias and many others. These are the works of those who have "undertaken"; but the Church of God approves only the four.