Origen’s Seventh Homily on Leviticus
1
Concerning what was commanded to Aaron and his sons that “they not drink wine or strong drink when they go into the Tent of Witness or when they approach the altar”; and concerning “the breast of presentation and the limb of separation” and about clean and unclean animals and foods.
MANY THINGS, certainly, were read to us in the preceding lesson only a few of which, limited by the brevity of the time, we spoke about fully. For now we are engaged not in the ministry of expounding the Scriptures but in that of edifying the Church. Although from these which were treated before by us, every wise hearer can find clear paths of understanding. For this reason, from these also which now we read, since we cannot cover everything, let us draw together some things which will edify the hearers as the little flowers “of a fertile field which the Lord blessed.”
(2) Let us see, therefore, what this may be what was just read to us. “And the Lord spoke to Aaron saying, You and your sons with you will not drink wine or strong drink when you go into the Tent of Witness or when you approach the altar and you will not die. This is an eternal law for your descendants: to discern between the sacred and profane, and between the clean and the unclean, and to teach the sons of Israel all the laws which the Lord spoke to them through the hand of Moses.”
(3) A clear law is given both to the priests and to the chief priest that “when they approach the altar they abstain from wine and from every drink which can make them drunk” which the divine Scripture has the habit of calling by the common name, “strong drink.” Thus, the divine word wants the priests of the Lord to be sober in all things that those who “approach the altar of God to pray for the people” ought also to intervene for transgressions of others who do not have a share in the earth, but “the Lord” himself is “their portion.” The Scripture says this about them: “You will not give the sons of Levi a part with their brothers because their portion is the Lord God.” Therefore, he wants those to whom “the Lord is their portion” to be sober, fasting, vigilant at all times, but especially when they are present at the altar to pray to the Lord and to offer sacrifices in his presence.
(4) These commands preserve their force and ought to be maintained in strict observance to such a degree that the Apostle also confirms these same things in the laws of the New Testament. In the same way, setting up the rules of life for the priests or the chief priests to this, he tells them they ought not to be enslaved “to much wine,” but to be “sober.” Sobriety is the mother of all virtues just as, on the other hand, drunkenness is the mother of all vices. For the Apostle openly proclaimed, “wine, in which is excess,” to show that excess is born from drunkenness as its firstborn daughter.
(5) Besides this, the Savior by his authority as Lord and King constituting laws and rules for the priests and for the people at the same time, says, “Take heed that your hearts not be oppressed in drunkenness and intoxication and in the cares of this world and that a sudden ruin does not come upon you.” You have heard the proclamation of the eternal king. You have learned the deplorable end of “drunkenness” or “intoxication.” If some skilled and wise physician should teach and speak these same words to you, “Take heed that no one, for example, take too greedily a drink from this or that herb, because if he should, a sudden ruin will come upon him,” I do not doubt that everyone would keep the prescriptions of the physician’s warning with respect to his own health. But now the Lord who is both the physician of souls and bodies orders them to avoid as a deadly drink the herb “of drunkenness” and the vice “of intoxication” and in like manner the care of worldly matters. I do not know if any one of us is not consumed in these so as not to say he is wounded.
(6) Therefore, drunkenness of wine is destructive in all things, for it is the only thing which weakens the soul along with the body. For in other things, according to the Apostle, it can happen that when the body “is weak,” then the spirit is “much stronger,” and when “the exterior person is destroyed, the interior person is renewed.” But in the illness of drunkenness the body and the soul are destroyed at the same time; the spirit is corrupted equally with the flesh. All the members are weakened, the feet, the hands; the tongue is loosened. Darkness covers the eyes; forgetfulness covers the mind so that one does not know himself nor does he perceive he is a person. Therefore, first, drunkenness of the body has that shamefulness.
(7) Now if we discuss every way in which the human mind is inebriated we shall even find those drunk who think they are sober. Anger inebriates the soul, but rage makes it more than drunk, if indeed anything can surpass drunkenness. Cupidity and avarice make a person not only drunk, but enraged. Obscene desires inebriate the soul just as, on the other hand, holy desires also inebriate it, but with that holy drunkenness about which some of the saints said, “How splendid is your inebriating cup!” Shortly we shall see about the diversity of drunkenness. In the meantime, see now how many things there are that inebriate the soul. Fear and vain suspicion inebriate it. Envy and spite weaken it more than any drunkenness. One cannot enumerate how many things there are that afflict the unfortunate soul by the vice of drunkenness.
(8) Now, in the meantime, let us see about the priests whom the Law commands to abstain from wine when they approach the altar. Indeed insofar as the historical precept is concerned, what was said is sufficient. But insofar as the mystical interpretation is concerned, our profession in the preceding is maintained — that, according to the authority of the Apostle Paul, our Lord and Savior is called “the high priest of the good things to come.” Thus, this one is “Aaron,” but “his sons” are his apostles to whom he himself was saying, “My little children, yet a little while I am with you.” Let us see how we can apply the fact that the Law commanded “Aaron and his sons not to drink wine or strong drink when they approach the altar” to the true high priest, Jesus Christ our Lord, and to his priests and sons, our apostles.
(9) First, we must examine how prior to “approaching the altar” this true high priest drinks wine with his priests, but, when he begins “to approach the altar and go into the Tent of Witness,” he abstains from wine. Do you think we can find some kind of meaning from this act? Do you think we can adapt the forms of the old records to the acts and words of the New Testament? We can, if the Word of God sees fit to assist and to inspire us. Therefore, we seek how our Lord and Savior, who is the true high priest, drinks wine with his disciples, who are true priests, before “he approaches the altar” of God, but does not drink when he begins “to approach” it.
(10) The Savior had come into this world “to offer” his flesh “as an offering to God for our sins.” Before he offered this, during the period of time between the dispensations, he was drinking wine. Thence he was called “a voracious man, a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.” But when the time of his cross came and “he was about to approach the altar,” where he would sacrifice the offering of his flesh, it says, “Taking the cup he blessed it and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take, drink some of this.’ ” You, who presently are not about to approach the altar, he says, “drink.” Yet that one, as it were, “about to approach the altar,” says about himself, “Truly I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of this vine until I drink it anew with you in the kingdom of my father.”
(11) If anyone of you undertakes to hear with purified ears, let him observe the hiddenness of the unspeakable mystery. What is the meaning of the saying? “I will not drink from the fruit of this vine until I drink it anew with you in the kingdom of my Father.” In the preceding, we said the promise of this good drinking was given to the saints when they say, “How splendid your inebriating cup.” In many other passages of Scripture, we read similar things, for instance, “They will get drunk from the abundance of your house and you will give them a drink from the streams of your delights.” In Jeremiah the Lord also says, “And I will make my people drunk.” And Isaiah says, “Behold, those who serve me will drink but you will be thirsty.” About this kind of drunkenness, you will find many reminders in the divine Scripture. This drunkenness is taken, without doubt, for the joy of the soul and the delight of the mind as in another place I remember that we distinguished that it is one thing to be drunk in the night and another to be drunk in the day.
2
(1) Therefore, if we have understood what the drunkenness of the saints is, and how this is given in the promises for the delight of the saints, let us now see how our Savior drinks no wine “until he drinks it” with the saints “anew in the kingdom” of God.
(2) My Savior even now laments my sins. My Savior cannot rejoice while I continue in iniquity. Why not? Because he is “an advocate for our sins before the Father,” as John, his fellow priest, proclaims, saying that “if anyone should sin, we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous; and he himself is the propitiation for our sins.” How can this one, therefore, who is “an advocate for my sins,” drink the wine of joy when I sadden him by sinning? How can this one who “approaches the altar” to sacrifice himself for my sins, be in joy when the sadness of my sins always ascends to him? He says, “I will drink it with you in my Father’s kingdom.” As long as we do not act so that we may ascend to the kingdom, he cannot drink alone the wine which he promised to drink with us. Therefore, he is in sorrow as long as we persist in error. For if his Apostle “mourns for those who sinned before and did not repent for what they did,” what will I say about that one who is called “the Son of love,” who “emptied himself” because of the love which he had for us? Although “he was equal with God,” he “did not seek his own well-being” but he sought ours and “emptied himself” on account of this. Since, therefore, he then sought our welfare, does he not now seek us and does he not think about our welfare? Does he not grieve about our errors and does he not weep over our ruin and griefs? This is he who wept over Jerusalem and said to her, “How many times have I wanted to gather together your sons as a hen gathers together her chicks and you would not let me?” Thus, how can this one, who took our wounds and suffered for us as the physician of our souls and bodies, be indifferent at all to the rottenness of our wounds? For, as the prophet says, “our scars rotted and were destroyed by the shape of our foolishness.”
(3) For all these reasons, therefore, “he now stands before the face of God interceding for us.” He stands before the altar to offer a propitiation to God for us. As he was about to approach that altar, moreover, he was saying, “I will not drink again from the fruit of this vine until I drink it anew with you.” Therefore, he expects us to be converted, to imitate his example, to follow his footsteps, that he may rejoice with us and “drink wine with us in his Father’s kingdom.” For now because “the Lord is one who pities and is merciful,” he “weeps with those who weep and desires to rejoice with those who rejoice” with greater feeling than this Apostle. And how much more “this one mourns for those who have previously sinned and did not repent.” For we must not think that Paul is mourning for sinners and weeping for those who transgress, but Jesus my Lord abstains from weeping when he approaches the Father, when he stands at the altar and offers a propitiatory sacrifice for us. This is not to drink the wine of joy “when he ascends to the altar” because he is still bearing the bitterness of our sins. He, therefore, does not want to be the only one to drink wine “in the kingdom” of God. He waits for us, just as he said, “Until I shall drink it with you.” Thus we are those who, neglecting our life, delay his joy.
(4) He waits for us that he may drink “from the fruit of this vine.” Of what “vine”? Of that one of which he was a type: “I am the vine, you are the branches.” Whence he also says, “My blood is true drink and my flesh is true food.” For certainly, “he washes his robe in the blood of the grape.” What is this? He awaits delight. When does he await it? He says, “when I shall have finished your work.” When “does he finish this work”? When he makes me, who is the last and most vile of all sinners, complete and perfect, then “he finishes his work.” For now his work is still imperfect as long as I remain imperfect. And as long as I am not subjected to the Father, neither is he said to be “subjected” to the Father. Not that he himself is in need of subjection before the Father but for me, in whom he has not yet completed his work, he is said not to be subjected, for, as we read, “we are the body of Christ and members in part.”
(5) Let us see what it is, however, that it meant “in part.” Now, for example, I am “subjected” to God according to the spirit, that is, by intention and free will. But as long as within me “the flesh strives against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh” and I have not yet been able to subject the flesh to the spirit, certainly I am “subjected” to God, not in whole but “in part.” But if I could draw my flesh and all my other members into harmony with the spirit, then I will seem to be perfectly “subjected.”
(6) If you have understood what it is to be “subjected in part” and in whole, return now also to that which we set forth concerning the subjection of the Lord. See that, although we are all said to be his body and members, he is said not to be “subjected” as long as there are some among us who have not yet been subjected by the perfect subjection. But when “he shall have completed” his “work” and brought his whole creation to the height of perfection, then he is said to be “subjected” in these whom he subjected to the Father. In these, “he finished the work that God had given him that God may be all in all.”(7) But what is the purpose of all this? That we may understand what we treated above, how he does not drink wine or how he drinks it. He drinks before “he entered the Tent, before he approached the altar.” But he does not drink now because he stands at the altar and mourns for my sins. On the other hand, he will drink later, when “all things will have been subjected to him” and after the salvation of all and the death of sin is destroyed. Then it will no longer be necessary to offer “sacrifices for sin.” For then there will be joy and delight. Then “the humble bones will rejoice” and what was written will be fulfilled: “Pain, sorrow and sighing flee away.”
(8) But let us not omit that it is said not only about Aaron that “he should not drink wine,” but also about his sons when they enter the sanctuary. For indeed even the apostles have not yet received their joy, but they also await that I may be a partaker of their joy. For the saints, when they leave this place, do not immediately obtain the whole rewards of their merits. They also wait for us though we delay, even though we remain. For they do not have perfect delight as long as they grieve for our errors and mourn for our sins. Perhaps you not believe me when I say this. For who am I that I am so bold to confirm the meaning of such a doctrine? But I produce their witness about whom you cannot doubt. For the Apostle Paul is “the teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” Therefore, in writing to the Hebrews, after he had enumerated all the holy fathers who were justified by faith, he adds after all that, “But those who had every witness through the faith did not yet obtain the new promise since God was looking forward toward something better for us that they might not obtain perfection without us.” You see, therefore, that Abraham is still waiting to obtain the perfect things. Isaac waits, and Jacob and all the Prophets wait for us, that they may lay hold of the perfect blessedness with us.
(9) For this reason therefore, that mystery of the delayed judgment is also kept until the last day. For there is “one body” which is waiting to be justified. There is “one body” that is said to rise from the dead in judgment. “For although there are many members, there is only one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, you are not necessary to me.” Likewise, if the eye is healthy and is not troubled in what pertains to seeing, if the rest of the members are absent, what delight will there be for the eye? Or how can it seem to be perfect if it does not have a hand, if the feet are absent, or the other members are not present? For is there is some excellent glory of the eye, it is particularly in this: that either it is the leader of the body or it is not abandoned by the functions of the other members. I think this is what is taught to us through that vision of the prophet Ezekiel when he says that “bone must be joined to bone, joint to joint, and nerves and veins and skin,” and each must be restored to its place. Next, see what the prophet adds: “These bones” — he did not say, all men are, but he said “these bones” — “are the house of Israel.” Therefore, you will have delight when you depart this life if you are holy. But then the delight will be full when you lack none of the members of the body. For you will wait for others just as you also are waited for.
(10) Because if the delight does not seem to be complete for you who are a member, if another member is missing, how much more does our Lord and Savior, who is “the head” and the originator of the whole body, consider his delight to be incomplete as long as he sees one of the members to be missing from his body. And for this reason, perhaps, he poured out this prayer to the Father: “Holy Father, glorify me with that glory that I had with you before the world was.” Thus, he does not want to receive his complete glory without us, that is, without his people who are his body and his members. For he himself wants to live in this body of his Church and in these members of his people as in their soul that he can have all impulses and all works according to his own will, so that that saying of the prophet may be truly fulfilled in us, “I will live in them and walk [among them].”
(11) Now, however, as long as we are not all “perfected,” and “are still in [our] sins,” he is in us “in part.” For this reason, “we know in part and we prophesy in part” until each one is worthy to come to that measure which the Apostle says, “I live, but it is no longer I, for Christ lives in me.” Therefore, “in part,” as the Apostle says, now “we are his members” and “in part we are his bones.”
(12) But when “bones will have been joined to bones and joints to joints,” as we said above, then this one will also speak that prophecy about us: “All my bones will say, ‘Lord, who is like you?’ ” For indeed “all the bones” say this, and sing a hymn, and give thanks to God. For they will remember his kindness and also “all my bones will say, ‘Lord, who is like you? You deliver the poor person from a hand stronger than his.’ ” About these bones, since they were scattered before he came who “collects and brings them together in one,” this prophetic word was said: “Our bones are scattered in Hell.” It is because they were scattered that he says through another prophet, “Let bone be joined to bone, and joint to joint, and nerves and veins and skin.” For when this is done, then “all these will say, ‘Lord, who is like you? You deliver the weak person from a hand stronger than his.’ ” For each bone of “those bones” was weak and was being worn away by the hand of someone “stronger.” For it did not have “the joint” of charity, nor “the nerves” of patience, nor “the veins” of the vital soul and the vigor of faith. But when he comes, he who “draws together what was dispersed and joins together what was scattered,” connecting “bone to bone, and joint to joint,” he begins to build up the holy body of the Church.
(13) These things, certainly, fell outside of this explication but by necessity they were explained that the entry into the sanctuary by my high priest, not drinking wine as long as he performs the priestly duty, might become clearer. Yet after these things he will drink wine, but “new wine,” and “a new wine” in “a new heaven and new earth” and in “a new person” with “new people” and with those who “sing a new song” to him. You see, therefore, that it is impossible for him to drink the new cup of the new life who still “is clothed by the old person with his deeds.” “For no one,” it says, “puts new wine into old wine skins.” Therefore, if you want to drink from this “new wine,” renew yourself and say, “If our outer person is destroyed, the inner person is renewed from day to day.” Certainly this statement is sufficient concerning these things.
3
There are also many other things that were read. But since we cannot speak about everything, we must choose which of these we ought to talk about. Since we spoke as best we could about what it was to drink and not to drink wine, now let us also see what it is to eat “the breast of separation and the limb of taking away.” After this, inasmuch as the Lord should allow and there should be a space of time, let us speak about both clean and unclean things, either of food or animals.
(2) The Scripture says, “You will eat the breast of separation and the limb of taking away in a holy place. For the rule was given to you and your sons concerning the salutary sacrifices of the sons of Israel, the limb of removal, and the breast of separation.” Not every breast is “the breast of separation,” and not every limb is “the limb of taking away” or “of separation.” But since we applied the person of the high priest to Jesus my Lord and the holy apostles to his sons, let us see how this one and his sons eat “the breast of separation,” but all the others cannot eat “the breast of separation.”
(3) What is it, therefore, that is separated from all things and is not common with the rest, except the substance of the Trinity alone? If, therefore, I can understand the rationale for the world I cannot also understand about God, as is worthy, since if the knowledge of God has not been revealed to me, I can certainly eat a breast, but not “the breast of separation.” Likewise, if I could say, “For he gave me true knowledge of all that is that I may know the reason of the world and the virtue of the elements; the beginning, the end, and the middle of time; the alternation of the solstices and the change of seasons; the cycles of the year and the positions of the stars;” knowledge of all this that is rational is the food of the breast but not “of the breast of separation.” But if I could know from God the things that are great, that are holy, that are true and secret, then I will eat the breast of separation, since I would know that which stands out and is separated from all creatures. Therefore, first, my true high priest “eats” that “breast.” How “does he eat” it? He says, “No one knows the Father except the Son.” In the second place, “his sons also eat” it. He says, “For no one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son wants to reveal him.” But who are those to whom he reveals him except his apostles?
(4) And “the limb of separation” or “of removal,” as we said above, are the deeds and works superior to the others which the Savior himself and my Lord completed first. How did he complete them? He says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to perfect his work.” When, therefore, he does “the will of him who sent” him, by so doing he eats, not the breast but “the limb of separation.” In like manner, his apostles also “eat the limb of separation” or “removal” when they do the work of the Evangelist and become “workmen unashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” Do you still want to see more clearly how the Savior eats “the limb of separation”? Hear what he says to the Jews: “If I performed works among you which no one else did, for which of these do you want to kill me?” You see how this one truly “eats the limb of separation” who did works so separate and so much more eminent that “no other did them.”
4
(1) Now let us see something also of the things which were read about clean and unclean foods or animals. Just as in the explanation of the cup we ascended from the shadow to the truth of the spiritual cup, so also let us ascend from the foods which were spoken through the shadow to those which are true foods through the spirit. But in this investigation, we are in need of the witness of divine Scripture lest anyone think — for people love “to sharpen their tongues as a sword” — lest anyone, I say, think that I do violence to divine Scriptures, and ascribe to human beings what is related in the Law about clean or unclean animals, quadrupeds, or even birds, or fish, and depict these words to be said about persons. Perhaps one of the hearers may say, “Why do you do violence to Scripture? They are called animals; they are understood as animals.” Therefore, lest anyone believe these things to be perverted by human thinking, we must call forth the apostolic authority in these matters.
(2) Hear first of all, therefore, how Paul speaks about these things. He says, “For they all crossed over through the sea and they all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all of them ate the same spiritual food and they all drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from a spiritual rock which followed; and that rock was Christ.” Paul says this, “A Hebrew of Hebrews, according to the Law, a Pharisee,” “educated at the feet of Gamaliel,” who would never dare to speak of “spiritual food” and “spiritual drink” unless he had learned that this is the meaning of the Lawgiver through the knowledge of the truest doctrine handed down to him. For this reason, he adds, as he is bold and certain about the meaning of clean or unclean foods, that it must be observed, not according to the letter, but spiritually. He says, “Therefore, let no one judge you in food or in drink or in participation of the feast days or new moons or sabbaths which are a shadow of the future.” Therefore, you see how all of this that Moses says about foods or drink, Paul, who has learned these better than those who now boast to be teachers, says all these are “a shadow of future things.” For this reason, as we said, we ought to ascend from this shadow to the truth. The discourse is of a Christian to Christians by whom the authority of the apostolic words ought to be valued. But if anyone, puffed up by pride, despises or rejects the apostolic words, that is a matter for him. “But for me,” as “for God” and our Lord Jesus Christ, “it is good to cling” to his apostles and to receive understanding from divine Scriptures according to their tradition.
(3) But, perhaps, there will be an opportune time, if this were still the will of God and calmness of circumstances should allow it “for we do not know what the next day will bring forth,” for us to apply even to the Old Testament, what was seen by the view of the apostles, that the understanding of clean or unclean foods and also of animals, or birds, or of fish, about which the Law writes should be interpreted in human terms. But now, since there is not enough time for a fuller explanation, we are satisfied with two luminaries of the apostles, Paul and Peter, as witnesses. And the things Paul thought, we certainly have already revealed.
(4) But the Apostle “Peter,” when he was in Joppa and “wanted to pray, ascended into the upper part” [of the house]. Immediately, I take these words to be not in vain, that he did not pray in lower places but “ascended to the higher.” For the reason that so great an apostle chose to pray “in a higher place” is not superfluous, but rather, I believe, to show that Peter, because “he had died with Christ, was seeking the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God” and “not the things upon the earth.” “He ascended” there, to that “roof,” to those heights about which the Lord also says, “Let the one who is on the roof not go down to remove anything from the house.” Then, so that you may know that we do not say these things suspiciously about Peter because “he ascends to the higher,” you will confirm it from the following. It says, “He went up to the higher place to pray and he saw the heavens open.” Does it not yet appear to you that Peter had gone up “to the higher,” not only in the body but also in mind and spirit? It says, “he saw the heaven open and a certain vessel descending to the earth like a sheet in which were all quadrupeds, reptiles, and fowls of the sky. And he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Arise, Peter, kill and eat.’ ” Without doubt, the command is to eat “the quadrupeds, and serpents, and fowl,” that were placed on the sheet and given to him from heaven. But he says, “Lord, you know that nothing common or unclean entered into my mouth.” It says, “The voice came to him a second time, saying ‘What God made clean, do not call common.’ And this was done three times. And after this, it says the sheet was taken back into heaven.”
(5) Here is the explanation for clean and unclean animals. The Apostle is taught knowledge about these from heaven, because indeed there was no more eminent and better on earth. And he is taught, not by a single voice, nor by a single vision, but by three. I do not take that which is said “a third time” as a useless saying. It is said to him “a third time” and through him to all of us. “What God has made clean, do not call common.” For the things made clean are made clean, not by a single invocation, nor by a second, but unless a third invocation is pronounced, no one is cleansed. For unless you were cleansed in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, you could not be clean. For this reason, therefore, these things are shown for cleansing not once or twice, but “a third time” they are shown and “a third time” they are taught. Thus, “all the quadrupeds and reptiles and birds of heaven” were on that sheet.
(6) And after this, “Peter was thinking within himself what that was.” And while he was thinking about this, it says, “those who had been sent by Cornelius the centurion arrived” from that city, that is, Caesarea in Joppa. For Peter was there and “was a guest at the house of a certain Simon, a tanner.” It is appropriate that Peter stays “at the house of a tanner,” that one, perhaps, about whom Job says, “you clothed me with skin and flesh.” But these things are spoken in digression. Meanwhile, “they arrived who had been sent by Cornelius” to Peter. He, on receiving them, hears from them what Cornelius asks of him.
(7) And “descending” from above he went hither to Cornelius. “He descended,” for Cornelius was still below and was staying below. Thus, he went to Caesarea. “He found a great crowd” gathered here at the house of Cornelius and after many things “he said to them, ‘God showed me that I should call no person common or unclean.’ ” Does it not appear to you that the Apostle Peter clearly translated “all” those “quadrupeds and reptiles and fowls” to human terms and understood as human beings those which had been shown to him in the sheet descending from heaven?
5
(1) But perhaps someone may say, indeed concerning the quadrupeds and reptiles and birds you gave a reason that they ought to be understood as men. Also explain about “these which are in the water.” Since indeed the Law also designates some from these to be clean and others unclean, I ask no one to believe my words about this unless I produce sufficient witnesses. I will offer to you our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as a witness and creator of these, how fish are said to be human beings. He says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea, which draws together all kinds of fish; and when it is full, they sit on the beach and store those which are good in vessels. But those that are bad are cast out.” He clearly taught that those which are called “fish caught in nets” are either “good” persons or “bad” ones. Thus, these are the ones who according to Moses are called either clean or unclean fish.
(2) Consequently, now that these have been confirmed by the apostolic and evangelical authority, let us see how every person can be shown to be either clean or unclean. Every person has in himself some food which he gives to his neighbor when that person arrives. For it cannot happen that, when we approach each other as human beings and join in conversation, we do not either take or give some food between us either by a response, or by a question, or by some gesture. Indeed, if the person from whom we take food is clean and of a sound mind, we receive clean food. But if he whom we touch is unclean, we receive unclean food as was said above. For this reason, I think, the Apostle Paul speaks about such as unclean animals, “Do not eat with such as these.”
(3) But, in order that what we say may be opened more clearly to your understanding, let us take an example from greater things, so that descending little by little we come to the lesser things. Our Lord and Savior says, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life in you. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.” Therefore, since Jesus is totally clean, all his “flesh is food” and all his “blood is a drink” because his every deed is holy and his every word is true. For this reason, therefore, his “flesh is true food and” his “blood is true drink.” For from the flesh and blood of his word, as from pure food and drink, he gives drink and refreshment to every kind of person.
(4) In the second place, after his flesh, the clean food is Peter, Paul, and all the apostles; in the third place, their disciples. Thus, any food is made clean for their neighbor in accordance with the number of their merits or the purity of their understanding. Perhaps he who does not know how to hear these things may turn away and divert his attention to those who said, “How will he give us his flesh to eat? Who can hear him? And they departed from him.” But you, if you are sons of the Church, if you are instructed in the evangelical mysteries, if “the Word made flesh lives in you,” know that what we say is of the Lord, lest “he who knows does not know may be unknown.” Know that they are figures written in the divine volumes and, for that reason, examine and understand what is said as spiritual and not as carnal. For if you receive those things as carnal, they wound you and do not sustain you.
(5) For even in the Gospels, it is “the letter” that “kills.” Not only in the Old Testament is “the letter that kills” found; there is also in the New Testament “the letter that kills” that one who does not spiritually perceive what is said. For, if you follow according to the letter that which is said, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood,” this “letter kills.” Do you want me to bring out of the gospel for you another “letter” that “kills”? He says, “Let the one who does not have a sword sell his tunic and buy a sword.” Behold, this is the letter of the gospel, but “it kills.” But, if you take it spiritually, it does not kill, but there is in it “a spirit that gives life.” For this reason, receive spiritually what is said either in the Law or in the Gospels because “the spiritual one judges all things but that one is not judged by anyone.”
(6) Therefore, as we said, every person has some food within him from which, if indeed it is good and “from the good treasure of his heart he brings forth good,” he may supply pure food to his neighbor. But if he is evil and “brings forth evil,” he supplies unclean food to his neighbor. For anyone who is innocent and led by the heart can be seen as a sheep, a clean animal. He can furnish the hearers clean food as a sheep which is a clean animal. It is the same in the others. For this reason, every person, as we said, when he speaks to his neighbor and either he does him good or harms him by his words, the animal is made either clean or unclean by him. Form these we are taught either to use the clean ones or to abstain from the unclean ones.
(7) If, according to this understanding, we say that the supreme God has proclaimed the laws to human beings, I think that the legislation will seem worthy of the divine majesty. But if we stand by the letter and according to that we accept what is seen by the Jews or the multitude as the written law, I would be ashamed to say and to confess that God gave such laws. For human laws, for instance, either of the Romans, or the Athenians, or the Lacedemonians, seem more elegant and reasonable. But if the Law of God is received according to this understanding that the Church teaches, then clearly it surpasses all human laws and is believed to be truly the Law of God. And so, with these firstfruits for the spiritual understanding, as we reminded you, let us speak briefly about the clean and unclean animals.
6
(1) It says, “All cattle that parts the hoof and has hoofs and chews its cud among the cattle, these you will eat. Moreover, you will not eat from those which chew the cud and do not part the hoofs and have hoofs. The camel, because it indeed chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean for you. The hare because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof is unclean for you; and the hedgehog because it chews the cud and does not part the hoof is unclean for you; and the swine,” etc. Therefore, it determines that these kinds of animals, which seem to be partly clean and partly unclean, not be eaten. For example, “the camel” seems to be clean “because it chews the cud,” but it is called “unclean” from the fact “that it does not have a parted hoof.” After these it names now both “the hare” and “the hedgehog” and also it indeed says those “chew the cud” but do “not part the hoof.” But it makes another list of these which, on the other hand, certainly “part the hoof” but “do not chew the cud.”
(2) Therefore, let us first see who these are that “chew the cud and part the hoof” which it calls clean. I think that one is said to chew the cud who pays heed to knowledge and “meditates day and night on the Law of the Lord.” But hear how it was stated in the text: “Whatever parts the hoof and chews of the cud.” Therefore, “he chews the cud” who applies those things which he reads according to the letter to the spiritual sense and he ascends from the lowest and visible to the invisible and higher things. But if you meditate on the divine law and you apply what you read to a precise and spiritual understanding, but your life and your deeds are not such that they have the capacity for distinguishing between the present life and the future, between this age and “the age to come,” unless you discern and separate these things with the proper reason, you are a confused camel, who, when you receive understanding from meditation of the divine law, you do not divide nor separate the present and the future and do not discern “the narrow path” from “the wide path.”
(3) But let us explain still more clearly what is said. There are those who with their mouth take the testament of God and, although they have the Law of God in their mouth, their life and deeds are greatly different from their words and their sermons. “For they speak and do not do.” About these the prophet says, “But God said to the sinner, ‘Why do you interpret my righteousness and take my testament in your mouth?’ ” Therefore, you see how this one who has the testament of God in his mouth chews the cud. But what is said to him in the following? “But you hated discipline and you cast my words behind you.” In this it clearly shows this one indeed “chews the cud” but “does not part the hoof,” and for this reason whoever is such as this is unclean.
(4) And again, there is another one, either of those who are outside our religion or of those who are with us, who indeed “part the hoof” and so advance in their lives that they prepare their deeds for the coming age. For many both learn thus from the philosophers and believe there is a future judgement. For they are aware of the immortal soul and they confess a reward is reserved for all good people. Some of the heretics do this, and inasmuch as they expect it, they have a fear of the future judgment and they temper their deed more cautiously as being liable to be examined in the divine judgment. But neither of these “chews the cud” nor “applies the cud.”
(5) For hearing what was written in the Law of God, he does not meditate on it and apply it with a keen and spiritual understanding. But when he hears something, he immediately either disdains or despises it and does not look for what valuable understanding is concealed in the more common words. And indeed those die “who part the hoof” but “do not apply the cud.” But you who want to be pure, hold your life in conformity and harmony with knowledge, and your deeds with understanding, that you may be pure in each, that “you apply the cud” and “divide the hoof” but also that “you may produce” or “you may cast away” the hoofs.
(6) Let us seek the explanation of this thing, how we produce the hoofs or, as we read elsewhere, cast them down. It is written in Deuteronomy: “If you should go out to war against your enemies and see there a woman with a beautiful figure and desire her, take her and shave off all the hair of her head and pare her nails and clothe her with mourning clothes. She will remain in your house, mourning her father and her mother and her father’s house. After thirty days, she will be your wife.” But now the purpose is not to explain these things which were spoken as a witness. But we quote it for this reason, because mention was made here concerning the nails.
(7) But nevertheless, I also frequently “have gone out to war against my enemies and I saw there” in the plunder “a woman with a beautiful figure.” For whatever we find said well and reasonably among our enemies, or we read anything said among them wisely and knowingly, we must cleanse it also from the knowledge which is among them, remove and cut off all that is dead and worthless — namely all the hairs of the head and the nails of the woman taken from the spoils of the enemy — and so at last make her your wife when she has nothing of the things which are called dead through infidelity. She has nothing in her head, nothing in her hands, lest she bring something unclean or dead either in her thoughts or in her deeds. For the women of our enemies have nothing pure because there is no wisdom among them with which something unclean was not mixed.
(8) Yet, I wish that the Jews would tell me how these things were preserved among them. What is the cause? What is the reason for the woman “to be shaved bald” and “her nails removed”? Let us suppose, for example, that the one who is said to have found her should find that she has neither hair nor nails. What does she have according to the Law that he ought to remove? But we, whose combat is spiritual and whose “arms are not carnal but power from God to destroy arguments,” if “a beautiful” woman were found among our enemies and has some reasonable doctrine, we will purify her in the way that we said above. Therefore, it is necessary for him who is pure not only “to part the hoof” and not only to distinguish between the deeds and works of the present age and of the future age, but also “to produce hoofs” or, as we read elsewhere, “to cast them out” so that we, “purifying ourselves from the dead works,” may remain in life.
7
(1) Indeed, these things were said generally about animals. But, those “which are in the water” are said to be clean when they have “fins and scales.” But if they do not have them, they are unclean and ought not to be eaten. That is shown in the fact that, if anyone is put in these waters and in the sea of this life and placed in the waves of the age, then he ought to do enough that he may not be cast down into the depths of the waters as are those fish which are said “not to have fins or scales.” For their nature produces these so that they always delay in the lowest part and around the mire itself, just as eels and those similar to it are those which cannot ascend to the top of the water nor reach its heights. But those fish which are aided “by fins” and are protected “by scales” ascend to greater heights and become more near to this are as those who seek the freedom of the spirit. Therefore, each saint is like this one who, enclosed within “the net” of faith, is called “a good fish” by the Savior and is put “into a vessel,” as having “fins” and “scales.” For unless he had had “fins,” he could not have risen from the mire of incredulity nor come into “the net” of faith. But why is it that he is also said to have “scales” except that he is prepared to lay aside old garments? For these who do not have “scales” are as if they are wholly of the flesh and totally carnal, who cannot lay aside anything. Therefore, if someone has “fins” with which he advances to the superior things, he is clean. But he, who does not have “fins” but remains in interior things and always is living in filth, is unclean.
(2) But it is the same about birds. It says, “You will not eat these because they are unclean, the eagle and the vulture” and others like these. For the food of these birds is always dead bodies and they live on dead carcasses. Therefore, all who sustain life in this way must be held unclean. I think that these are also to be counted in those who lie in wait for the deaths of others and submit wills with deceit and fraud. For people of this sort will be justly called vultures and eagles as ones who are gazing longingly at the corpses of the dead. I know other fowls which live by plundering. These are souls who indeed, according to the fact that they are rational and instructed with liberal instructions or rational doctrines, seem to be fowls. For they read and ask either about the rationale of heaven, or how the world is ruled by the providence of God. For this reason, therefore, they are called fowls. But if such persons act unjustly, they work against the Law; they rob their neighbors. While heavenly knowledge seems to be in their words, they perform in their deeds carnal and dead works. Rightly, they must be called vultures and eagles which sink down from the heights to dead and stinking flesh. The greediness of the hawk and all the others must be included in this. Of these some are indeed birds which pursue greediness, but some are [characterized] not so much by greed as by love of obscurity and darkness. “For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light,” are as “owls and bats” and the others which the Law has called unclean.
(3) From all these, guarding ourselves by spiritual observance and seeking food from clean animals, may we also be found pure and clean through Christ our Lord through whom is to God the Father with the Holy Spirit “glory and power forever. Amen.”
This visual commentary on Origen’s Seventh homily is offered free of charge, in perpetuity, as an act of religious devotion and religious art. In addition to constituting fair use, I also believe that my reproduction of it falls under first amendment and religious freedom protections. I will earnestly consider any cease and desist requests that may be made by the publisher if such concerns are raised.
Source: Origen, Homilies on Leviticus 1–16, ed. Thomas P. Halton, trans. Gary Wayne Barkley, vol. 83, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1990), 129–152.