Homilies on Exodus — Homily 2 (Exod. 1:15–2:10 — the midwives; the birth of Moses)
Latin source: Origen's Greek homilies on Exodus, surviving only in Rufinus of Aquileia's Latin translation (c. 400), from the reading text of W. A. Baehrens (ed.), Origenes Werke VI (GCS 29, Leipzig, 1920), pp. 145–279. This English translation is released into the public domain.Concerning the midwives and the birth of Moses.
1. This "king, who did not know Joseph," devises many things against the people of God, and is forever seeking new arts of doing harm. But now his cunning surpasses all measure, when through the ministry of the midwives he attempts to destroy the offspring of that people — by the very art through which life is usually preserved. For what does he say? "And the king of the Egyptians said," it says, "to the midwives of the Hebrews, to one of them whose name was Sephora, and the name of the other was Phua, and he said: when you deliver the Hebrew women and they are near the birth, if it be a male, kill him; if a female, let it live." But to these words there is joined in what follows: "but the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, and they let the males live." If the things that are written were to be taken according to the narrative of the history, then what Scripture says — that "the midwives did not do according to what the king of Egypt commanded them" — would seem unable to stand. For the midwives are not found to have failed to let the females live, whom the king of Egypt commanded to be let live. For thus he says: "if indeed it is a male, kill him; if a female, let it live." And if "the midwives did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded," then surely, just as they "let the males live" against the king's command, so too they ought to have killed the females, that this also might be against the king's command. For to have let the females live was to have done according to Pharaoh's command. These things for the moment I say on account of those who are friends of the letter, and do not think the law to be spiritual and to be understood spiritually. But we, who have learned that all the things that are written were written not as accounts of antiquities, but for our instruction and profit, perceive that these things which are read even now come to pass, not only in this world, which is figuratively called Egypt, but also in each one of us. Let us inquire, then, how the king of Egypt, who is "the prince of this world," does not wish the males to live, but wishes the females to live. If you remember, we have often shown in our discussions that in the females the flesh and the affection of the flesh is signified, but the male is the rational sense and intellectual spirit. The rational sense, therefore, which can have a taste for heavenly things, which can understand God and "seek the things that are above" — this Pharaoh, king and prince of Egypt, hates; this he desires to be slain and destroyed. But he desires that whatever things are of the flesh should live, and the things that pertain to bodily matter — these he desires not only to live, but even to be increased and cultivated. For he wishes that all should have a taste for carnal things, should desire temporal things, should seek "the things that are upon the earth," that no one "lift up his eyes to heaven," that no one inquire whence he came here, that no one call to mind his homeland, paradise. When, therefore, you see men leading their life in pleasures and delights, awash in luxury, giving their labor to feasts, wine, banquets, beds, and unchaste acts — know that in these the king of Egypt is slaying the males and letting the females live. But if you see some rare person, "one out of a thousand," turning to God, lifting his eyes upward, seeking the things that are perpetual and eternal, contemplating not the things "that are seen, but the things that are not seen," hating delights, loving continence, fleeing luxury, cultivating virtue — this one, as a male, as a man, Pharaoh desires to be slain, persecutes, harries, and fights against with a thousand devices. He hates such men, he does not allow them to live in Egypt. Hence, then, it is that in this world the servants of God and all who seek God are held in disdain and contempt. Hence they are exposed to insults, hence they are filled with reproaches, hence hatreds and persecutions are stirred up against them — because Pharaoh hates them, hates males of this kind, he who loves the females. This one also sets about corrupting the midwives, and through them accomplishing what he desires; whose very names are indicated to us by the foresight of the Holy Spirit, who willed these things to be written. "Sephora" it says, "the one" — which is interpreted sparrow (passer) — and "Phua," which among us can be called either ruddy (rubens) or modest. Through these, then, he seeks to have the males slain and the females alone let live.
2. But what does Scripture say? "The midwives feared God," it says, "and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them." Certain men before us have said that these midwives hold the pattern of rational learning. For midwives are, as it were, in the middle, and tend both the males and the females at their birth. This learning, then, of common rational knowledge reaches to nearly every faculty, instructs all, tends all. If anyone in it be of manly spirit and wish to seek heavenly things and to pursue divine things, he will come, as though healed and warmed by learning of this kind, better prepared for the understanding of divine things. For there is one, as it were the sparrow, which teaches the loftier things and, with the rational wings of doctrine, summons souls to fly on high. The other, which is ruddy or modest, is moral, orders behavior, teaches modesty, instills honesty. To me, however, since Scripture says of these that "because they feared God, they did not do the command of the king of Egypt," these two midwives seem to preserve the figure of both testaments: "Sephora," which is interpreted sparrow, may be compared to the law, which "is spiritual"; but "Phua," which is ruddy or modest, indicates the Gospels, which are ruddy with the blood of Christ and throughout the whole world glow red with the gore of his passion. By these, then, as by midwives, the souls that are born in the church are healed, because from the reading of the Scriptures all the medicine of learning is bestowed upon them. Yet Pharaoh attempts through these things to slay the males of the church, when he suggests heretical notions and perverse doctrines to any who are studious in the divine Scriptures. But the foundation of God stands immovable. For "the midwives fear God," that is, they teach the fear of God, because "the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord." Thus, finally, I think there is fitted still more suitably that which is written in the later passage, where it says: "because the midwives feared God, they made themselves houses." This saying can have no coherence according to the letter. For what order of reasoning is it, that it should say: "because the midwives feared God, they made themselves houses"? — as though a house should come to be for the reason that God is feared. If this is taken as it is written, it will seem to have not only no coherence, but also very great emptiness. But if you see how the Scriptures of the new and old testament, teaching the fear of God, make houses for the church and fill the whole circle of the earth with houses of prayer, then what is written will seem to be written reasonably. Thus, then, these midwives, because they fear God and teach the fear of God, do not carry out the command of the king of Egypt, but let their males live. Nor yet is it said that they obeyed the command of the king so as to let the females live. I dare confidently to say, according to the sense of Scripture: these midwives do not let the females live. For neither are vices taught in the churches, nor is luxury proclaimed, nor are sins nourished — for this is what Pharaoh wishes, when he commands the females to be let live — but virtue alone is cultivated, and virtue alone is nourished. But let us refer these things also to each one of us. And you too, if you fear God, do not carry out the command of the king of Egypt. For he commands you to live in delights, to love the present age, to covet present things. But you, if you fear God and exhibit the office of a midwife toward your soul, if you desire to confer salvation upon it, do not do these things, but let live the male that is in you, tend and cherish your inner man, and through good acts and understandings win for it eternal life.
3. But after this, when Pharaoh saw that through the midwives he could not slay the males of Israel: "he commanded," it says, "all the people, saying: every male whatsoever that shall be born to the Hebrews, cast into the river, and every female let live." See what "the prince of this world" commands his own, that they may seize our infants, that they may cast them into the river, and, lying in wait for the very first birth of our own, may straightway, as soon as they have touched the first breasts of the church, rush upon them, tear them away, persecute them, and overwhelm them with the waves and billows of this age. "See what you hear"; the wisdom of God through Solomon says: "understand intelligently the things that are set before you." See, as soon as you are born — nay rather, as soon as you are reborn — what threatens you. This is that which you read in the Gospel, that Jesus, as soon as he came up from baptism, "was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil." This, then, is what in this passage too Pharaoh commanded his people: to fall upon the Hebrew infants, as soon as they were born, to tear them away, to drown them in the waters. This is perhaps also what is said through the prophet: "for the waters have entered even to my soul. I am sunk fast in the mire of the deep, and there is no substance." But for this reason Christ overcame and conquered, that he might open for you the way of conquering. For this reason, by fasting, he conquered, that you too might know that "a kind of demons of this sort" is to be overcome "by fastings and prayers." For this reason also he despised all the kingdoms of the world and their glory when they were offered to him, that you too, despising the glory of the world, might be able to overcome the tempter. The Egyptians, therefore, to whom Pharaoh gave commands, let only the females live, they hate the males; for they hate the virtues, and nourish only vices and pleasures. And now, therefore, the Egyptians lie in wait, in case perchance some male be born to the Hebrews, so that they may straightway persecute and kill him, unless they take heed, unless they watch and hide the male seed. Finally, Scripture relates that "one of the tribe of Levi, who begot a male and saw that the infant was comely, hid him for three months." See whether it is not for this reason that we are commanded not to perform our good acts in public, not to "do our righteousness before men," but rather, "with the door shut, to pray to the Father in secret," and that "what our right hand does, our left hand should not know." For unless it be in secret, it will be torn away by the Egyptians, it will be assailed, cast into the river, drowned in the waves and billows. Therefore, if I give alms, because it is a work of God, I beget a male. But if I do it so that it may become known to men, and I seek praise from men and do not hide it, my alms has been snatched away by the Egyptians and drowned in the river, and with such great labor and such great zeal I have begotten a male for the Egyptians. Therefore, O people of God, who hear these things, do not think, as we have already often said, that the tales of the ancients are being recited to you, but that you are being taught through these things, so that you may recognize the order of life, the discipline of morals, the contests of faith and virtue.
4. "Seeing," then, these of the tribe of Levi "that the infant was comely, they concealed him for three months. And when they could no longer conceal him, his mother took," it says, "an ark and daubed it with bitumen and placed the infant in it and set it in the marsh beside the river. And his sister watched from afar, to see what would happen to him. But the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself in the river, and she heard the infant crying, and she sent," it says, "and took him up, and the daughter of Pharaoh said that this is of the infants of the Hebrews." After this it is then related how his sister spoke, that she might call the mother of the boy to nurse him. "And the daughter of Pharaoh said to her," it says, "keep this infant for me, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages. And when she had nursed him, as he grew stronger, she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh, and he became to her a son, and she named his name Moses, saying: because I took him up out of the water." Each of these things is filled with immense mysteries and demands a great length of time, and if we should spend the space of a whole day upon them, it would perhaps scarcely suffice. Yet briefly some things must be knocked upon by us for the edification of the church. I think the daughter of Pharaoh can be seen as the church, which is gathered from the nations, which, although she has an impious and iniquitous father, yet to her it is said through the prophet: "hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and the house of your father, because the king has desired your beauty." This, then, is she who goes out from her father's house and comes to the waters, that she may be washed from the sins she had contracted in her father's house. Finally, straightway she takes up "the bowels of mercy" and has compassion on the infant. This church, therefore, coming from the nations, finds Moses lying in the marsh, cast off by his own and exposed, gives him to be nursed, he is nursed among his own, there he passes his infancy. But when "he has grown stronger," then he is brought to her and adopted as a son. That Moses is called the law has already often been treated in many places. Coming, therefore, to the waters of baptism, the church received also the law — the law, however, which was shut up within an "ark," daubed with pitch and "bitumen." An "ark" is a kind of covering woven from twigs or from papyrus, or even formed from the bark of trees, within which the infant, once placed in it, appeared exposed. The law, therefore, lay shut up within coverings of this kind and daubed with pitch and "bitumen"; hedged about by the base and foul senses of the Jews, it lay in squalor, until the church should come from the nations and take it up out of the muddy and marshy places and receive it within the halls of wisdom and the royal roofs. This law, nevertheless, passes its infancy among its own. For among those who do not know how to understand it spiritually, it is a little one and an infant, having the food of sucklings; but when it comes to the church, when it enters the house of the church, Moses is stronger and more robust. For once the veil of the letter is removed, "perfect" and "solid food" is found in the reading of it. Yet what is it that she, among whom the law was both born and nursed, receives the wages of her nursing from the daughter of Pharaoh? What is it that the synagogue receives from the church? I think it can be understood as that which the same Moses writes, saying: "I will lead you into jealousy over that which is no nation, over a foolish nation I will provoke you to wrath." The synagogue, then, receives this as its wages from the church, that it no longer worship idols. For seeing those who are of the nations so converted to God that they no longer know idols, and venerate no one except the one God, she herself is ashamed any longer to worship idols. This benefit, therefore, the synagogue receives from the church, in that she was seen to have nursed the law as a little one. But we too, even if we have had Pharaoh for a father, even if "the prince of this world" begot us in evil works, when we come to the waters, let us take up to ourselves the law of God, and let not the base and obscure covering of its letter be squalid to us; the things that are little and of sucklings in it let us yield up, but the things that are perfect and robust let us take, and let us place these within the royal roofs of our heart. Let us have a great and robust Moses; let us think nothing about him that is little, nothing lowly, but wholly magnificent, wholly excellent, wholly comely. For everything is great, whatever is spiritual, whatever is of sublime understanding. And let us pray to our Lord Jesus Christ, that he himself may reveal and show to us how "great" Moses is and how sublime he is. For he himself "reveals" to whom he wills "through the Holy Spirit." "To Him be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."