Scholia on the Song of Songs

ORIGEN'S SCHOLIA ON THE SONG OF SONGS

(From the Vatican Catena, titled: *Epitome of exegetical selections on the Song of Songs by Procopius the Christian sophist, from the voice of Gregory of Nyssa and Cyril of Alexandria, Origen and Philon of Carpathos, Apollinaris, Eusebius of Caesarea, and other various authors, namely Didymus, the holy Isidore, Theodoret, and Theophilus.*)

CHAPTER ONE

^AVERS. 1. *Osculetur me osculis oris sui.* Let him not demand me for a wife through the prophets, she says, but let him speak to me himself, according to an allegorical sense. In this sense John said: *And our hands have handled, of the Word of life.* And the bride said these things, inasmuch as she had heard the prophets speaking: *The king has desired your beauty*, and elsewhere: *As a bridegroom will rejoice over a bride, so the Lord will rejoice over you.* Whenever we search for some divine dogma and grasp it with our mind, let us consider that the Bridegroom is kissing us with the kisses of his mouth; but when we are destitute of mind and hesitate, then, laboring in doubt, let us understand that we ought to say: *Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.*

*Because your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments above all aromatics.*

^BMeaning: Your virtues are above our virtues, according to that saying: *His virtue has covered the heavens.* For he is essential wisdom and justice, while we are wise and just by participation, in proportion to our choice and power, becoming a partaker in the fragrance of these virtues as much as we are able and as much as we will.

VERS. 2. *Your name is oil poured out: therefore the maidens have loved you.*

Perhaps she is prophesying of the power of the name of Jesus Christ, which filled the world after his advent; so that, according to St. Paul, it became to some an odor of death unto death, but to others of life unto life. The bride could have said: *Therefore ALL have loved you*; all, I say, not only the ^C maidens who are renewed daily, and who have neither wrinkle nor spot. But it is "poured out," because it is no longer kept hidden, stored away in ineffable arcana.

VERS. 3. *The king has brought me into his storerooms.*

It speaks of the impenetrable arcana of the soul worthy of love, or of the Church, or of the kingdom of Christ: into which mystery Paul, penetrating, said: *But we have the mind of Christ, so that we may see the things which have been given to us by God.* But what these are...

^A *Which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man; for such things hath God prepared for them that love Him.* For in the cellar of the Bridegroom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden. For she herself, as having preceded the other young women, was introduced, and she stood as a queen at the right hand of the King, in gold-wrought raiment, according to David, who said concerning the young maidens: *Virgins shall be brought to the King after her*, and the things that follow.

VERS. 3. *Let us love thy breasts more than wine; uprightness hath loved thee.*

As if he were to say: Even if now, through our infirmity, we love wine more than thy breasts, O Bridegroom; when we are amended, we shall love thy breasts more than wine. Furthermore, the wine that gladdens is the precepts of the Law; but the perfection is the breasts of the Bridegroom. Then, in order to explain why she is not loved for her form, he says: *Uprightness hath loved thee.* But we have not yet made our own ways straight.

VERS. 4. *I am black and beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon.*

These things the Church of the Gentiles says to the souls of Jerusalem, or to Jerusalem herself, acknowledging her blackness, in that she did not arise from illustrious or enlightened fathers; and for that reason she is compared to a black color, or to darkness. But having been made beautiful by the word which she received, she is likened to the curtains of Solomon, and to the other splendors which he possessed in his glory.

VERS. 5. *Do not consider me, because I am swarthy, because the sun hath looked upon me.*

^C That is, because Christ despised me, darkened by sin, on account of my unbelief; whom the Scriptures call the Sun of righteousness.

VERS. 5. *The sons of my mother have fought against me; they have set me as a keeper in the vineyards; my vineyard I have not kept.*

That is, the disciples of Christ, desiring to purify me by their teaching from the perverse counsels which I had entered into against Him, and from the suggestions of the demons who were working toward this end—these fought against me; being sons of the same mother as I, I mean of liberty: for they indeed were taken up as the remnant according to the election of grace; but I have received the covenant according to the heavenly Jerusalem, and have been regenerated by promise. Yet they did not first set her as a keeper, and then fight; but having fought first, they made her fit to be set as a keeper in the vineyards... But that Moses and the prophets, each of whom was a field full of that which the Lord blessed... and a vineyard in which one having been made, and not keeping his former state, as existing in the vineyard of Sodom, utilizes the present word.

VERS. 7. *If thou know not thyself, O thou fairest among women, go forth and go after the traces of the flocks, and feed thy kids beside the tabernacles of the shepherds.*

That well-known saying among the Greeks, *Know thyself*, was anticipated, having been handed down to the wise Solomon.

^A For here the lover and spouse threatens the soul that, unless she preserves the beauty given to her according to the image of God, she herself will be cast out and will find herself in extreme perils, feeding the wretched kids. You feed them beside the tabernacles of the shepherds, now of this one, now of another, like some wanderer, until you are taught by experience the knowledge of your own conversion. These words also pertain to the Church. For a man knows himself when he perceives whether he has a good or a base manner of life; whether he deviates much from the path of virtue, or stretches himself too much toward those things that are before, forgetful of those that are behind; or whether he has not yet begun, or is perfect, or is drawing near to the boundaries of beauty. It is a work also to take care in every act that it be done with all reason and truth. ^B Indeed, he calls those who are not pure nor indifferent "women" souls. Being careless of her own knowledge, she would become like one tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine* by the sleight of men, and everywhere she would rather feed her own wretched kids than be fed by the good Word. He is indeed the good Word, though she is not yet thoroughly white, yet she is already beautiful among women, being numbered with the Church of God, and more beautiful than those who are little in her. For the women of the Church so called are incomparably better than the Gentile souls walking after the lovers of the opposing powers—they are called women, but not virgins. For how is she not better, she who has lifted up her eyes to her own Creator? This is similar to "Go out," referring to the one being delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, being cast out from the Church, ^C after it was said that the maidens were brought by the king into his chambers.

Verse 9. Thy cheeks are comely as a turtledove.

Verse 10. We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.

^A Ver. 11. *While the king was at his table, my nard gave forth its fragrance.* She speaks of the fragrance of the bridegroom which my nard, with which I anointed him, gave forth; for having anointed the feet of Jesus with her own nard, and wiped them with her hair, she received it back, transformed by the fragrance of the bridegroom. Perceiving this, she says as it comes upon her head: *My nard gave me the fragrance of the bridegroom.* Therefore, just as from the body of Jesus, the ointment filled the whole house of the disciple.

Ver. 12. *A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me; it shall rest between my breasts.*

Having said that the nard of the bridegroom gave me its fragrance, I now add that the son of my brother breathes myrrh, not poured out, nor exhaling outward, but bound up and giving forth fragrance with dense sweetness. The Church from among the Gentiles has the former people as a brother, since Christ was born of him according to the flesh; thus she calls him the son of her brother and bridegroom. But since Aquila renders it "uncle," we must say that the ancient people is the father of the Church of the Gentiles, for from the law and the prophets among them came the generation in God, and the introduction to piety among us. ^B Therefore, the father of the bride being thus accounted for, the Savior similarly became a brother to those who were under the law.

Ver. 14. *Behold, you are beautiful, my friend, behold, you are beautiful: your eyes are those of doves.*

Here the bride seems first to behold the beauty of the bridegroom more clearly, and through her dove-like eyes to perceive the excellence in the beauty of the Word. But soon she proclaims the common bed and the body of the bridegroom, in which the soul, still dwelling, is deemed worthy of communion with the Word. Thus Paul says: *Our bodies are members of Christ.* For by "our bodies" he signifies the body of the bride, and by "members of Christ," the body of the bridegroom. He calls the bridegroom "overshadowed" ^C because of the density of the contemplations in the Word and wisdom. But if the common bride is flourishing in both, it is no wonder that all excellent adornment of the body is also found in the body.

CHAPTER II

Ver. 1. *I am a flower of the field, and a lily of the valleys.*

He calls himself a flower of the field that will become fruit. In this earthly place, therefore, which is called a field, the bridegroom Word shall be a flower for the future. For when the consummation has come, the flower will be changed into fruit; and that they might not depart too far from the flower, he says it is upon the earth. Therefore the bridegroom was made as a flower of the field. For he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant ^D, so that we might afterwards be able to behold his glory. It is not a flower in the more distinguished or level fields, but a lily in the more humble and curving ones. Having said these things, the bridegroom compares his friend with the other daughters, or souls, who are in relation to her as thorns.

^A Such are those souls not near the bridegroom; but she who is near is a lily shining in his midst.

VER. 3. *As the apple-tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons; I sat down under his shadow, which I desired, and his fruit is sweet to my throat.*

It was fitting for the bride, who has become entirely of the bridegroom's beauty, to say nothing of herself, but regarding those things which the bridegroom said concerning himself, to compare him to an apple-tree, and the sons who surround him to the trees of the woods; and out of the abundance of her desire, to long also for his shadow, and to send her quality into its depth. She seems to be saying these things to the young maidens, just as the bridegroom said earlier to his companions. By "sons," he means either the bridegroom's familiar friends, whom he has likened to fruitful trees, or those who are alien to him. "Under his shadow I desired and sat." Jeremias also says in the Lamentations: *Christ the Lord, the Spirit of our presence, was caught in our corruptions.* Concerning whom we must say: *Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.* For how was his shadow not to become for us the cause of life, having been delivered from the shadow of the Law? ^B For the law had a shadow of the good things to come, for those who were no longer under the law, but under grace; even if we now exist under a shadow that is very different. For after the present life, we shall not behold the truth through a glass and in a dark manner, but face to face. The bride shall also say: *Until the day break and the shadows incline.* For our life is as a shadow, and he who was from the nations sat in the shadow of death, and the unbelievers still sit there.

*Bring me into the cellar of wine.* (According to the LXX).

These things she says to the friends of the bridegroom, the holy angels or apostles and prophets; as if to say: Join me to the body of Christ.

*Stay me with flowers, compass me about with apples, because I languish with love.*

Symmachus has rendered it thus: *Lay me down with vine-shoots*, that is, with fragrant trees, those that produce good, flowering fruit, of the so-called evil trees ^C which are fruitless or bear bad fruit. But some of the manuscripts have: *Stay me with odorless trees*; which is to be understood either as those who are faithful, yet not such as to be reckoned members of her who has neither spot nor wrinkle, or as those who are strangers to the faith but are good men. As for "stay me about with apples," Symmachus, clarifying it, said: "Bring apples to me." For the bride wishes to rest among many apples which surround him; which I think is the fruit of the apple-tree among the trees of the woods that are the bridegroom's, so that she might partake of their quality. "For I am wounded with a love-potion," she says, according to Symmachus; and, *with a chosen arrow*, according to Isaias. ^D

^A

VERSE 8. The voice of my beloved, behold he comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills.

Some assign this to the preceding verses, but the Hebrew text places it in its own proper section. For it is manifest that the bride, while conversing with the daughters of Jerusalem, suddenly perceives the voice of the bridegroom, who is speaking with others, as is probable; and perceiving this voice resounding upon the mountains and hills which lie near to the place of the bride, in a way in no wise discordant with the cry of a fawn, he becomes ^B solicitous for her; he draws near to the house and approaches from behind; soon he leaps up even to the windows, as if wishing to look in upon her amorously. And, being nearer to the house where the bride is, the stronger bridegroom breaks through the many lattices drawn about the bride and her companions, and through them he gazes, and invites the bride to come closer. Encouraged by his action, he dares to show contempt for the lattices, now torn asunder, and to put to flight through them the inclemency of the weather, which he calls winter, bringing useless and violent downpours. He turns to the comforts of the present season, announcing, so to speak, the spring flowers and the pruning of the vine; and he describes the voice of the dove, ^C the green figs, and the luxuriant vines. And he shall rest within; for he desired that she, who was within, should come forth into the presence of the bridegroom with her face unveiled and refresh him with the sweet sound of her voice.

VERS. 10 seq. En dilectus meus loquitur mihi: Surge, propera, amica mea, columba mea, et veni; jam enim hiems transiit, imber abiit et recessit, flores apparuerunt in terra nostra, tempus putationis advenit: vox turturis audita est in terra nostra. Ficus protulit grossos suos: vineæ florentes dederunt odorem suum.

"Arise," he says, "from the sensible to the spiritual, that we may be united." *The rain is gone*. By rain we understand the time before the Incarnation, when God called forth from the clouds, as it were, the rain of the legal and prophetic word. It retreated ^D as soon as the law and the prophets were until John; but spring and summer arrived after the Incarnation, for there was no longer any need for showers when the flowers had been seen in the land through Christ. And from the time of His Incarnation, the fig tree is not cut down as fruitless, having been established in a former time; for now it has put forth its green figs, and the vines are luxuriant. Therefore, he says, *We are a good odor to God* in the branches of Christ.

VERSES 13, 14. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come, my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow of the wall. Show me your face, let your voice sound in my ears; for your voice is sweet, and your face is comely.

He desires the soul to transcend sensible things. For he calls the sensible world the walls and the fortifications of a city. The soul, therefore, which partakes of reason, must dwell in the clefts of the rock, not only outside the walls of the city, but also outside the rampart, so that, having become closer with an unveiled face, it may behold the glory of the Lord, and obey

the one saying, "Show me thy countenance." ^A She desires also to hear the one speaking, wondering at the sweetness of his voice. There is, furthermore, a "fore-wall," which Isaiah calls an outer defense, saying: "He shall place a wall or a fore-wall." He wishes, therefore, for her to have gone out from bodily things, not only to be within the walls—which I consider to be the account concerning the world—but also to be attached to the fore-wall; which account is the last of the bodily things, but the beginning of the incorporeal.

"Take for us the little foxes that destroy the vines, and our vines are in blossom." ^B These things the bridegroom speaks to his friends, that is, to the angels or to holy men, as many as are teachers of the Church. The exhortation is for the salvation of the vineyards, so that, once the crafty powers that spoil the beginning of the fruit's germination are taken, the vines may be able to advance from blossoming to the perfection of the fruit, being cultivated by God. And because, by reason of free will, they can bear fruit or not, perhaps these people, like foxes, act as a hindrance to those who have begun to run well due to the bitterness of heresy. He wishes for these, while they are still small, to be taken before they advance further in impiety; for a fox that has become large is invincible to those people and is hunted only by the bridegroom. Indeed, when they begin to perform worse acts, they are easily caught by the friends. He calls the vineyards "small"; for against large ones, a fox is of no power. ^C

"My beloved is mine, and I am his; who feeds among the lilies, until the day breathes and the shadows depart." ^D The bride says to the companions of the bridegroom that she has no participation with the foxes. For they have shared with us, she says, in blood and flesh, and we with him in immortality. Or [it is] because God is in the soul, and the soul migrates into God. Thus also Paul: "The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." For the bride, the Church of Christ, is a body, in no way for fornication, but ever for the Lord. And the Savior himself says: "Abide in me, and I in you." In what follows, however, it is written conversely: "I to my beloved, and my beloved to me." ^D Perhaps this is because the beginning of the benefit came from the bridegroom; for had he not manifested himself to her, she would not have been devoted to the bridegroom. For having beheld his divine beauty, she arrived at a saving love-potion, and having been dedicated to that beauty, she says, "and I to him." Then she reversed the order before the perfection came, saying "I to my beloved"; but when it shall be perfectly revealed, and nothing is left hidden, perceiving this she says: "and my beloved to me." And it is said somewhere in the prophets, "The Lord himself shall feed us unto the ages," but not as he feeds us now among the lilies in the midst of thorns. Therefore, having said, "I am the flower of the field, the lily of the valleys," he adds: "As a lily among thorns, so is my neighbor among the daughters." And observe that he did not say "of the bride"; therefore he adds that those whom he feeds are not placed among thorns.

^A Wherefore he boasts mystically to say in Jacob: "I was consumed by the heat of the day." For to us who are placed in the heat of this present life, there is need of the Shepherd, on account of the noonday demons. For he says to the submissive: "You shall not fear the noonday demon." Like the saying also: "The sun shall not burn you." Since He who bears our infirmities, and was able to be on our behalf, became consumed by the heat on our behalf, that He might redeem us from them, just as from the curse of the law, becoming a curse for us. He feeds also among the lilies, and until the shadows of life decline: according to that which is written, "Our days pass away as a shadow." Perhaps even before His incarnation, through the law and the prophets, He was fed among the lilies while the heat was still raging. But after the incarnation, indeed He feeds, but not among the lilies. For as it is said at the dawning of the day, "Beloved, know that it is the last hour." ^B "Turn, be like, my beloved, to a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether." The former things the bride said to the maidens, but these things now to the bridegroom. So that for the present time she might take an appropriate likeness, to the roe for its piercing vision, and to the young hart for the destruction of the generation of serpents. But those things doing in the mountains of the "hollows," "turn," she says, namely from the form of God. And he assumes this on account of the love towards me, having sojourned with men; most of whom, on account of wickedness, dwell in the hollows. But the mountains of the hollows are the just, who have prevailed over the wicked. And this word, "turn," likens the contemplative to the roe, and the practical—and those who are the overthrowers of opposing powers—to the young hart; though, "or a young hart" is a disjunctive expression. But Theodotion said, "upon the mountains of spices," nevertheless signifying the saints. ^C

CHAPTER III

^A love may manifest itself opportunely to the one laboring greatly in seeking him. For when she said, *In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth; and I sought him and I found him not*, she adds: *I will arise and I will make the circuit*. Therefore, casting off our sloth and heavy eyes, let us arise, obeying the one who says, *Arise, you that sleep* (Ephes. v, 14). The whole world is the city which we must traverse in contemplation of the Word within wise teachings; for these are the streets. From them it is essential to take something of utility, and also in the broad ways; for wisdom is praised in the exits, and in the broad ways she conducts herself with boldness. We have also been commanded to write upon the breadth of our heart. However, she who seeks something greater than the streets and broad ways says that she did not find him; yet she continues to seek, and he is found by those who guard the city and circuit it. These are the ministering spirits whom the Lord has sent to traverse the earth. These, then, she asks about the desired one. But the answer of these is not recorded. We are taught, however, that if we intend to find the desired one, we must go forward a little, and become better than such angels, of whom Peter seems to speak in his Epistle, teaching the excellence of what is laid up for the perfect: *into which things the angels desire to look* (I Petr. i, 12). It is desirable to surpass such as these a little, so that the desired may be found, and once found, he may be held; and once held, he may not be thought of as [lost]—for the possession is in vain unless continuous care sustains what has been grasped. Therefore she says, *I did not let him go until I brought him into the house of my mother*. ^B So that even after her departure from here, she might enter with him into the house of the Jerusalem above, where she may examine the more common contemplations of the Word, but the more ineffable ones into the chamber of her who conceived the bride. But the same mother is also shown to be the one who conceived her, because in the conception lies the beginning of the coordination. She is called mother after the formation and the perfection of the conceived one.

^C *Who is this that goeth up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the powders of the perfumer?* (Cant. iii, 6)

Truly beautiful is the soul that goes up in life and word, having fled the sins prevalent among the many—which is said to "go up from the desert." But that the righteous person is the good odor of Christ in every place to those who are being saved (II Cor. ii, 15), is understood as being perfumed, similar to the pillars that send up sweet smoke, gladdening the breaths of those who call them blessed.

CHAPTER IV.

*Thy teeth are as flocks of shorn sheep, that went up from the washing, all of them bearing twins, and there is not a barren one among them.* (Cant. iv, 2)

They bear twins in another way, because of the twofold nature of the understanding: the ^D theoretical and the spiritual.

*As a scarlet cord are thy lips, and thy speech is comely.* (Cant. iv, 3)

That is, let the preparation of the Word be fiery, so as to be able to gain the hearer, or else the vital blood

^A character of the words proceeding from the lips, being as it were immersed in the true drink of the blood of Christ.

*As a piece of a pomegranate is thy cheek, besides thy silence.* (Cant. iv, 3) He adds to the praise of modesty that which comes from silence; for the bride knows the seasons for fair speech and for praiseworthy silence. And since a faithful spirit conceals things, the bride also conceals her contemplations in the depth, like the seeds of a pomegranate, each one joined in its proper order according to the way of life. Therefore he adds: *Besides thy silence*; revealing the dogmas that are kept silent, like the pomegranate seeds beneath its skin.

*Thy neck is as the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks: a thousand shields hang upon it, all the armor of the mighty.* (Cant. iv, 4) Aquila rendered *thalpioth* as "bulwarks"; Symmachus, however, as "summits." To this is added the fact that the tower is built for defense; this is wisdom, from which, like shields, hang the dogmas that have been believed—which the Apostle calls, in the singular, the "shield of faith." Further, the "armor of the mighty" are the discourses that powerfully overthrow the persuasiveness of the opponents of the truth. Instead of "bulwarks," the fifth translation gives "precepts," following the spirit rather than the letter; for where the foundations of precepts are lacking, it is impossible to build true knowledge.

*Two breasts of thine are as two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies, until the day breathe and the shadows incline.* (Cant. iv, 5) The bride matches the reasoning with her breasts—she is most perspicacious; therefore she likens them to two twin roes that feed in beautiful and sweet-smelling places, signifying both the intelligible and the sensible. They are "roes," because now we know in part; but when the perfect comes, we shall cast off childishness. When the heat of the present life subsides, and the time of refreshment arrives, the shadows will also be dissolved; for the present life is a shadow. Then indeed we shall be fed as perfect ones, but not as fawns.

*Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my bride; thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes, in one of the ornaments of thy neck.* (Cant. iv, 9) "Ornament" (*enthema*) is so called because it is placed and fastened upon the neck of the bride. But if the bride's breasts remained as two roes, why did he say they were beautified? It would not have been said in admiration of that—as I said—intellectual part, but [the repetition] indicates the twofold power of the miracle and the increase of beauty; just as the "thou hast wounded me" is said a second time. The garments of the bride are those who have put on Christ Jesus, "bowels of mercies, and kindness, and humility"* (Col. iii, 12); the lips are the disciples; and good words are honeycombs: for prophets and apostles have made honeycomb and honey.

*A garden inclosed is my sister, my bride; a garden inclosed, a fountain sealed.* (Cant. iv, 12) The "garden inclosed" is mentioned twice because it hints first at the one progressing, and then at the perfect, when her ruling [part]

^A has been marked with the seal of theology. Now, truly, the bride is merely a "garden inclosed," but in the age to come, because of her perfection and stability, she is also a "fountain sealed." For to every one that has shall be given, and he shall abound. Thus, now, Scripture speaks simply of a "garden"; but elsewhere, as if speaking of something else, it adds "garden of herbs."

VERS. 16. Rise up, O north wind; and come, O south, blow upon my garden, and let my spices flow out.

The bride seems to rebuke the North wind, having received authority from the Bridegroom who rebuked the wind; for it is said in the three evangelists that the wind was rebuked: "And the winds obey him." Christ, therefore, dwells in the souls of those who have driven out the demons; but as to the saying, "God will come from Theman," [it is] to be understood as "from the South."

CHAPTER V

VERS. 2. Open to me, my sister, my neighbor, my dove, my perfect one; for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.

The addition of "to me" after "open" is necessary; for it is possible to open to opposing powers. It seems to speak of the dew as troubling, just as it does of the drops of the night; for she seems to seek rest from these things. These [words] are consistent with the former; for after the resurrection, he entered [while] the doors were shut, and he calls to Thomas, and through him to every unbelieving soul, to open its own heart and to receive the full certainty of the resurrection; he invites him, when all things were finished, to say: "My Lord and my God." The dew, moreover, signifies the resurrection at dawn, for at daybreak the dew descends.

VERS. 6. My beloved has passed by; my soul went out when he spoke.

When the bride reached the bolt, so as to open her soul to the Word, he then passed [by], showing only his hand and some of his actions, as if the bride were not yet capable of seeing more; at the same time, he effectively increases her desire even more. The soul goes out and departs from the body because of the word of the Bridegroom, having its citizenship in heaven.

VERS. 9. I sought him, and I did not find him; I called him, and he did not answer me.

The soul perpetually seeks the word of the Bridegroom; and when it has found [him], again, being in need, it seeks through others; and having contemplated those [things], it desires the revelation of others; and having acquired these, it prays for the Bridegroom to descend for the sake of others.

VERS. 10. My beloved is white and ruddy, chosen out of thousands.

White, because he is the true God; ruddy, because of the incarnation.

VERS. 11. His head is as the most fine gold; his locks are as shoots, black as a raven.

The locks, because of their density, are compared to the shoots of palm trees, which they say are in place of seed for the female palms, so that they may bear edible fruit.

But they are praised as black for the sake of the beauty attributed to the bridegroom. ^A And the term "raven," I think, is not used simply on account of the color; for it symbolizes the deepest clouds, full of darkness and moisture in the air, concerning which Job said: *Who prepares food for the raven, when its young cry out to God?* For God has prepared much food for the deepest minds, whose disciples, like the young, being free for prayer, have cried out to the Lord, wandering and seeking the nourishment of which they are in need.

VERS. 13. *His cheeks are as a bed of spices, planted by the perfumers.*

By the cheeks of Christ are to be understood those who have been made ministers of the Word of God and of spiritual nourishment. ^B On account of the abundance of the sweet fragrance of good works and teachings, they are likened to beds of spices; and on account of the manifold discourse of Scripture planted in them in every arrangement, they are always bringing forth sweet-smelling fruit.

VERS. 14. *His belly is an ivory box, set with sapphires.*

The belly signifies those who are capable of the mysteries of the Word, that is, those prepared for inward reception; the box signifies those fit for preservation; the ivory signifies splendor and pellucidity. Such a belly, this ivory box, is distinguished by the sapphire stone, which is Christ. Whoever, therefore, is a belly of the Word, this one receives the Lord into his belly without fear, and brings forth a spirit of salvation. Therefore, also, the belly of the sacrifice is washed in Leviticus, ^C so that it may have nothing of dung.

CHAPTER VI.

VERS. 5. *You are beautiful, my friend, sweet and comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army set in order.*

The closer she becomes to the bridegroom, the more she is likened to clearer things. For when he has proclaimed her beautiful, fair, and a friend, he adds "as Jerusalem"; and he calls the perfected Church "terrible" as well; either to the opposing powers, which cannot look upon the beauty of her countenance, or to those of the lower order, which appear completely instructed and arranged. But Symmachus edits: *Unordered battle-lines;* for they are a terror, like an army set in array striking fear into the enemies. ^D

VERS. 4. *Turn your eyes away from me, for they have made me fly away.*

The Church looks upon the comeliness and beauty of Christ; she is able to behold his divinity more perfectly, inasmuch as all things were made through him. The soul—whether it be the Church or the bride of the Word—rejoices exceedingly in the power of its eyes. He commands her to fly away to the heights on rational wings, that she may come to the summit of perfection, so that she herself may see him flying away, and no longer descending into her, and may be able to say, even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, but now no longer

^A know him. By your own progress, he says, he has ascended with you, when it happens that you see him, and no longer require him after the incarnation.

VERS. 4, 5. *Thy hair is as flocks of goats, that have come up from Galaad: thy teeth are as flocks of shorn sheep, that have come up from the washing; all of them bearing twins, and there is none barren among them.*

These things are spoken of for the second time to the bride—first, I think, when she appeared as such, in so far as it was possible, while she was still in this life; and secondly, when she attained to perfection. For this reason, he has now only hinted at it: *Thy teeth are as flocks of shorn sheep*. According to Aquila and Symmachus: *thy teeth are as flocks of sheep, or lambs*. And it was fitting ^B that these things should be said concerning perfection. As a result, the "washing" is not the first, but the second; and they are "bearing twins," perhaps as being nourished by the contemplation of things intelligible and perceptible, and so that no one is barren of the nourishment of the doctrine of whatever kind.

VERS. 7, 8. *There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and damsels without number. One is my dove.*

*Damsels without number*; not that they are inferior in number, but that they are worthy of being numbered. And perhaps the same meaning is held [by this] as by that distinction among the damsels possessed by Christ, which the Apostle speaks of concerning the resurrection of the dead, assigning different orders; for since by man came death, and by man came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall ^C all be made alive, *each in his own order* (1 Cor. xv, 21, 22); for the life, and reason, and disposition of each person will cause him to be preferred according to his merit.

Do not marvel if the bridegroom, while having a beautiful bride, should perhaps have a second and a third and more; if you understand who his brides are, you will not fear to speak from the Canticle: *There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and damsels without number. One is my dove.* The bridegroom is the Word; the bride is the rational animal; if the soul thinks, and the bridegroom receives the bride. But since this Word is [one who] does not commune with one soul only, but with many and various ones, with a certain regal and conspicuous honor, let the perfect soul be called a dove; but to those who are queenly, yet ^D secondary, [he says] therefore sixty queens. And [so] he communes with other souls, who are disciplined by the fear of God: these are the concubines. There are also some other souls [who are] inferior, having less fear; these are the damsels of whom there is no number. The bridegroom, therefore, even in this case, since there are beautiful [souls] here able to be his companions, has come forth from the heavenly bridal chamber, and communes with angels and archangels, which are the brides of the Word, and [with] thrones and dominions.

VERS. 10, 11. *I went down into the garden of nuts, to see at the growth of the valley; to see if the vine has sprouted, if the pomegranates have blossomed.*

^A I will give you my breasts; the earth is as my soul; he made me the chariots of Aminadab.) In a certain sense, the righteous are nuts, bearing fruit when they are holily cultivated toward God. A shell surrounds them, indeed bitter and harsh, and difficult for those approaching. And also, temptation is called a ^B torrent, according to the saying, *our soul has passed through torrents*. The bride, therefore, wishing to descend into the garden of nuts—that is, having fallen from paradise into this life of toils—wished to see some marvelous fruit of the winter, of the dark river; or, according to Symmachus, she descended to learn if the throat of life has fruit; but also to see if the vine, which avoids the winter and hastens toward spring, the time of the Pasch and the feast of unleavened bread, had blossomed. For then the vine is wont to blossom in Judea; and if the pomegranates, whose fruit is plentiful and gathered by order under a covering, had germinated, to which the breasts of the bride are likened. For here, she says, *I will give you my breasts*, that is, the ruling principle. But my soul, she says, knew not, and failed in its promises, as it was unable to do anything of itself. Yet I was not abandoned in these things; for the father of Naasson, the leader of my people, Aminadab, made me to be chariots for himself. ^C Now Naasson is interpreted as "serpent-like," the leader of the people of the bride; and this Aminadab, who in Numbers is the father of the leader of the tribe of Judah, Naasson, is allegorically suggestive of Christ. Therefore, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so, she says, he placed me as chariots for himself, governing my mind.

VERS. 12. *Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon you.*

CAPUT VII.

VERS. 1. *What will you see in the Shulamite? Behold, she proceeds as the dances of camps; for she ascends from the washing as the angelic hosts.*

Aquila and the fifth translation give "Sulabitis," which is "peace-making." But the bride is the soul of the Word, the Church of Christ, because he made both one and removed the middle wall of the partition. But if it be "Shulamite," the "despoiled," according to Symmachus, the bridegroom says to her: O despoiled one, and having become subject to the one who led you captive, return to your former dignity, now indeed receiving as in the beginning the pledge of adoption and the hope of the resurrection, or the garment of promise and incorruption. ^D Pressingly he exhorts her: *return*. For now indeed he adds the imperative: *that we may look upon you*. I believe these words are from the companions of the bridegroom to the bride. To whom the bridegroom replies, *What will you see?* He likens her to an army of victors. For the one bride has many battle lines within herself. For the members of the bride, being in a multiple series of constancy, are indeed choirs, celebrating God in unanimous concert, and are choirs of peace-making camps, insofar as they have carried off the enemies; but no longer in the shape of war, since she labored for those revolving in the torrent...

and who had been despoiled by them. They are called friends of the bridegroom; for Sulamitis is interpreted as "despoiled." "Return," they say, "that we may gaze upon you." They saw indeed her labor, not unfruitful, but hastening toward a better end, and that she leads with her, having crossed the water of the torrent, those who had been condemned in the torrent and delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, now made victors, proceeding like choirs of encampments returning from war, and marching in various ranks, and singing songs of victory, and crying out: "O Lord, as with a shield of good will you have crowned us."

Junctures of your thighs are like jewelry, the work of the hands of a craftsman. In many places Scripture places "thighs" for the genitals; here, therefore, it shows the beautiful and excellently ordered state of the bride in the genital parts of the body, and ^B resembling jewelry most skillfully fashioned.

VERS. 2. Your navel is a turned crater, never lacking draughts. Your belly is like a heap of wheat, hedged with lilies. Wisdom called the navel a crater, saying: "Come, drink the wine which I have mixed for you," and shows it as the spiritual spirit; and it added "a heap of wheat," so that it might signify spiritual food; for "heap" represents a collection of a multitude of virtues, arranged in one by harmony. And lilies would be the flowers of the grace of God, which she plucked from the midst of the thorns of life.

VERS. 4. Your neck is like an ivory tower. "Towers" are named those who present themselves as pleasing to the bridegroom, possessing the contemplative soul as a watchtower, surveying everything from on high. It is called "ivory" because of its brightness and smoothness; for nothing from wickedness is rough on the neck of the bride. And he no longer spoke of the dead, who graze in the lilies; for they had become superior to the lilies in the midst of the thorns. ^C But he wishes us, being lovers of learning, to have our soul as a daughter of the wise and to be conversant in the rudiments of many disciplines, which he called "gates." So much, he says, is the grace of knowledge present in the teachers within you, that not only those who are with you might perceive their instruction, but that now even those who are outside and far removed from them might perceive their usefulness.

VERS. 4, 5. Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon that looks toward Damascus. Your head upon you is like Carmel, and the hair of your head like the purple of a king bound in the channels. And he who has pure respiration, and through the understanding of the divine word is able to run after him into the odor of his perfumes, is a nose sensing spiritual fragrance; surveying whether some dogma appears evident among the nations; for Damascus represents the nations; and the face is a symbol of that which is manifest and beautiful. But the frankincense is referred to the altar of God; and Carmel is interpreted as the knowledge of circumcision; for he knows circumcision who, with boldness ^D

of speech, is able to say: "We are the circumcision"; and from the Head, which is Christ, the knowledge of a spiritual circumcision is born.

^A Ver. 6, 7. *How beautiful you are, and how fair, my beloved, in your delights! Your stature is likened to a palm tree, and your breasts to clusters of fruit; therefore your thought is in the heavens, and nothing earthly approaches it.*

The bridegroom says this, as if admiring her conversion for the better. For just as an excellent arrangement of the elements produces physical health, so too from movements and inclinations, a certain health and beauty comes to the soul. And just as the bride, having been something shameful because of vice, is converted by virtue to beauty, so being bitter, she has become most sweet and pleasant to him. He says, therefore, that just as in bodily delights an expensive feast is greatly to be desired, so to those who feed on spiritual delight, is love. And when the pronoun "your" is admitted, which is written in other copies, he will then say: "You are carried away by love more than by other fruits of the Spirit, in such a way that you would suffer all things for its sake, and bear all things." And just as of bodies some are small and others greater, so likewise is it of the souls of those who are perfect.

^B Therefore your thoughts, he says, are as if they were food and drink, and in no way bitter.

Ver. 8, 9. *I will ascend into the palm tree, and I will take hold of its fruits: and your breasts shall be as clusters of the vine; and the odor of your mouth as apples. Your throat is as the best wine, worthy of my beloved to drink, and for his lips and teeth to ruminate upon.*

Having been likened to a palm tree, she calls the bridegroom a palm tree, discerning the height and magnitude of the Word, upon which she hoped to ascend at the end of the songs; when the bride is perfect, then she will also take hold of the bridegroom’s breasts, which signify the thickenings (or "the full clusters"). Therefore they are likened to the clusters of the vine, concerning which the Savior said: "I am the true vine." Indeed, the meaning hidden in the discourse brings such help and delight that it indicates when it is fitting to speak, to whom it is fitting, and how much it is fitting. For the lips signify the word; the teeth signify keeping silence, according to that saying: "Make a door and a bolt for your mouth, and a measure and a balance for your words." But of such as these, not only are the thoughts safe, but the lips are also bound by sense. The best wine, however, is that which is brought forth from the good treasure of the heart.

^C Ver. 10. *I to my beloved, and his turning is toward me.*

It is the discourse of a perfect one, that he will find no rest anywhere, until he turns himself toward me.

Ver. 11, 12. *Come, my beloved, let us go out into the field, let us abide in the villages. Let us rise early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine has flourished, if the flowers bring forth fruit, if the pomegranates have blossomed.*

The bride speaks to those of lower standing, and invites him to go out from the innermost and blessed dwellings to the vision of them; for these signify the field, and the villages, and the vineyards, and the pomegranates.

CHAPTER VIII.

VERS. 1, 2. *(Who will give me)* That I may find thee without and kiss thee, and no man now despise me? I will take hold of thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me: there thou shalt teach me, and I will give thee a cup of spiced wine, and the must of my pomegranates.

For having found him descending from the high contemplation, she embraced him.

VERS. 4. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor make the beloved to awake until she please.

She has adjured them a second time; but doubting, she used to add "if perchance": but now, being instructed in the form of the stirring up, of the awakening, and of the love, she as it were adds, that when I have adjured you, concerning these things, namely: stir up and cause to awake easily.

^B

VERS. 6. Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm: for love is strong as death, jealousy is hard as hell.

The Spouse invites her to seal every thought and every action with his seal; this, she says, to do it vehemently, like death, is love. For it bears all things, it endures all things. And therefore it is vehement against death, which is the lethal fault. Therefore, since death prevailed over all, because in Adam all die; in the same sense hell is used. Such, he says, is the love and the zeal, with which it behooves one to be zealous toward God, hard against sinners, such as that of Elijah and Phinehas. Or the Spouse says this to her, "Set me as a seal," to seal thy thoughts and thy acts, and even unto death to strive for the truth. And in hell too the Jews were zealous against Christ, having corrupted the soldiers.

VERS. 8. Our sister is little, and she hath no breasts.

Because the soul of man is little, and the Church of God is still being prepared upon earth, and thoughts (for this is what the breasts mean) it does not yet have, namely the greatness of life and mind; until the thoughts and prophetic contemplations may be manifested to her, or when she shall have attained the concord and vigor of power; for these things say after the prophets and the righteous spirits.

VERS. 13, 14. Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the friends hearken, make me to hear thy voice; flee, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.

The bride saw the bridegroom resting in the gardens, and his friends themselves hearkening to the voice which she herself heard. She wishes him, discerning subtly and clearly, to turn away from the things of this world, with speed and sharp eyes, such as (the eyes of) a roe’s fawn, and to hold the enemies of the harts, such as serpents and scorpions, in contempt, and to lift himself up to the high things, as the mountains, and to those more fully fragrant with sweet odor. Concerning whom it is said: *His foundations are in the holy mountains* 50. And these things are according to the Septuagint, and Theodotion, and the fifth translation. But Aquila, *He who sitteth in the gardens*, he published; and Symmachus, *Thou who dwellest*. The former things in this sense are said to the bride in

^A her own gardens, and that her companions gladly listen to her attentively.

ORIGEN’S FRAGMENTS ON EZECHIEL

1. Cod. f. 221 a. Cap. XXX. 25. The arms of Pharaoh are the malice in the act of sin, and in the dogmas of impiety the pride of the flesh; these arms God breaks, being righteous; Pharaoh is a symbol of the devil, who is the author of sin among men. — *The Lord breaks the arm of sinners, that they may not be able to lay hold of swords.*

2. Cod. f. 222 a. XXXII. 6. And in these words He especially points out the allegory of the Scripture: for Pharaoh would not bodily water the land from his own excrement, but the foul purgation of the adversary waters the earthly things.

3. Cod. f. 222 b. XXXII. 23. The Hebrew text for "depth" has *laccos*; for *jarech*, according to the Hebrew language and the rough breathing, signifies both "thigh" and "length"; but *athes* implies growth toward the assembly; he calls the depth of the grave a *laccos*, and its length the extent of the grave. ^C

4. Cod. f. 224 b. XLIV. 1. The son of man, Ezechiel, describes many gates, and of each he has related something; now, however, he speaks to those who have ears concerning the gate of the outer sanctuary, which looks toward the east, concerning which it is written that *this gate shall be shut*, and the rest. — It is shut not only because the Lord God of Israel goes through the gate, but because the prince himself also sits in that gate to eat before the Lord, having entered by the way of *Ailam*, which is interpreted as the *vestibule of the gate*. The gate is shut; these are the mysteries of God which are included. Knowledge holds the key, as the Lord says to the lawyers. The gate is therefore shut; what is within the gate is that *which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard*, and the rest. — The book written and sealed in Isaias has a meaning similar to this gate; you will find the same book more clearly in the Apocalypse of John, and regarding the things written concerning it. And how the man from the tribe of Juda alone opened these; for until our Lord Jesus Christ had come, the law was ^D shut, and the prophetic word; and the stone of blindness was a veil upon them, which Jacob rolled from the well; for in many places Scripture has opened the meaning concerning this gate.

(1) I have said below that there exist in the same codex with Apollinarius a certain number of fragments of Origen, which Ruæus does not have in his edition. For in reality the said edition, vol. III, p. 437, proceeds no further than chapter XXX, v. 6; and its last fragment is read in our codex f. 220, b. Behold, however, besides the fact that in the preceding leaves there were also some parts unknown to Ruæus, that is, intermingled with those edited by him, after that page of the codex until the end of the prophet, all the fragments, although very small, are unpublished; I do not begrudge transcribing them here, lest they remain hidden any longer or perish.