Homilies on Genesis — Homily 3
Latin source: Origen, In Genesim homiliae (Rufinus's Latin translation), from the public-domain critical text of W. A. Baehrens, GCS 29 = Origenes Werke VI (Leipzig, 1920). This English translation is released into the public domain.On the circumcision of Abraham.
[§1] Since in many places of the divine Scriptures we read that God speaks to human beings, and because of this the Jews indeed, but also some of our own people, have thought that God is to be understood as though a man—that is, as marked out with human limbs and bodily form—while the philosophers, on the other hand, look down upon these things as fabulous and shaped after the likeness of poetic fictions; it seems to me that I must first speak a few words about these matters, and then come to the things that have been read out. First, then, let my discourse be addressed to those who, set outside, arrogantly clamor around us, saying that it does not befit that lofty and invisible and incorporeal God to make use of human affections. For if you grant Him, they say, the practice of speaking, without doubt you will also grant Him a mouth and a tongue and the other members by which the function of speaking is fulfilled. And if this be so, then there has been a departure from the invisible and incorporeal God; and stringing together many things similar to these, they weary our people. To these things, then, if we are helped by your prayers, we shall briefly reply, in the measure the Lord shall grant.[§2] Just as we profess that God is incorporeal and almighty and invisible, so also we confess by a sure and unshakable doctrine that He cares for mortal things and that nothing is carried out apart from His providence, neither in heaven nor on earth. Remember that we said nothing is carried out without His providence, not: without His will. For many things are carried out without His will, nothing without His providence. For providence is that by which He looks after and manages and provides for the things that are done, whereas will is that by which He wills something or does not will it. But of these things elsewhere; for that treatment is longer and more diffuse. According, then, to this, that we profess God to be the provider and manager of all things, it follows that He should indicate what He wills or what is expedient for human beings. For if He does not indicate it, He will neither be the provider of man nor be believed to care for mortal things. When therefore God indicates to human beings what He wills them to do, by what affection above all is He to be said to indicate it? Is it not by that which is in the use and knowledge of human beings? For if, for the sake of argument, we should say that God is silent—which is believed to befit His nature—how will anything be thought to have been indicated by Him through silence? But now He is said to have spoken for this reason, that human beings, knowing that by this ministry the will of one is made known to another, may recognize that those things which are conveyed to them through the prophets are indications of the will of God. In which things assuredly the will of God is not understood to be contained unless He is said to have spoken them, because it is neither perceived nor understood that among human beings the will can ever be indicated through silence. But again these things we say, not according to the error of the Jews, or even of some of our own who err along with them, so far as to suppose—because human frailty cannot hear otherwise about God than as the things themselves and their names are known to it, and therefore we should suppose that God acts with these members like our own and with a human form. This is foreign to the faith of the Church. But this very thing, that He either breathes into the heart of each of the saints or causes the sound of a voice to reach his ears, is what is meant when God is said to have spoken to a man. So also, when He indicates that the things which each one either speaks or does are known to Him, He is said to have heard; and when He indicates that something unjust is being done by us, He is said to be angry; when He convicts us of being ungrateful for His benefits, He is said to repent, indicating these things indeed by those affections which are in use among human beings, yet not administering them by those members which belong to a corporeal nature. For that substance is simple and composed neither of any members nor of joints and affections, but whatever is carried out by the divine powers, this—that human beings may be able to understand it—is either set forth under the name of human members or is expressed by common and known affections. And in this way God is said either to be angry or to hear or to speak. For if the human voice is defined as struck air, that is, air beaten back by the tongue, God's voice too can be called air struck either by divine force or by divine will. And hence it is that, if at any time a voice is divinely given, it glides not to the ears of all, but to those whose hearing it concerns, so that you may recognize the sound to be rendered not by the beating of a tongue—otherwise the hearing would be common to all—but governed by the direction of the heavenly command. Although it is reported that often to the prophets and patriarchs and the rest of the saints the word of God came even without the sound of a voice, as we are abundantly taught from all the sacred volumes. In which, to speak briefly, the mind, illumined through the Spirit of God, is formed into words. And therefore whether in this way or in that, which we have spoken of above, God is said to have spoken when He indicates His will. According, then, to this understanding, let us now discuss some of the things which have been read.
[§3] Many responses are given by God to Abraham, but they are not all conveyed to one and the same person. For certain of them are to Abram, certain to Abraham, that is, some after the change of name and others while he was still reckoned by his native appellation. And first indeed there is conveyed by God to Abram, before the change of name, that oracle which says: "Go out from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father's house," and the rest. But in this nothing is enjoined concerning the covenant of God, nothing concerning circumcision. For he could not, while he was still Abram and bore the name of his carnal birth, receive the covenant of God and the mark of circumcision. But when "he went out from his land and from his kindred," then more sacred responses are now conveyed to him, and first it is said to him: "You shall no longer be called Abram, but Abraham shall be your name." Then at last he both received the covenant of God and accepted circumcision, the seal of faith, which he could not receive while he was in his father's house and in carnal kinship and while he was still called Abram. But neither was he himself and his wife called "presbyter" as long as he was in his father's house and dwelt with flesh and blood; but after he had set out from there, he merited both to be called "Abraham" and to be called "presbyter": "for they were both," it says, "presbyters," that is, old, namely Abraham and his admirable wife, "and advanced in their days." How many before them led their life over longer spans of years—for nine hundred years and more, and some, not much less, lived until the flood—and none of these were called presbyters. For by this name in Abraham not the old age of the body, but the maturity of the heart, was named. So also the Lord says to Moses: "Choose for yourself presbyters, whom you yourself know to be presbyters." Let us look more diligently at the Lord's word—what that addition may mean, by which He says: "whom you yourself know to be presbyters." Surely he who bore the senile age of the body was not manifest to the eyes of all as being a presbyter, that is, an old man? Why then is this special inspection enjoined upon Moses alone, so great and so notable a prophet, that those be chosen not whom other men know, not whom the untrained crowd recognizes, but whom the prophet full of God shall have chosen? For the judgment concerning them is not about the body, not about age, but about the mind. Such, then, were these blessed presbyters Abraham and Sarah. And first of all their native names, which carnal birth had given them, are changed. "For when Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to him and said: I am God, be well-pleasing before me, and be blameless, and I will set my covenant between me and you. And Abraham fell upon his face and adored God, and God spoke to him, saying: I am, behold my covenant is with you, and you shall be father of a multitude of nations, and in you all the nations shall be blessed, and your name shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham." And when He had given this name, He immediately adds: "and I will set my covenant between me and you, and your seed after you. And this is the covenant which you shall keep between me and you, and between your seed after you." And after these things He adds: "every male among you shall be circumcised, and you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin."
[§4] Therefore, since we have come to these passages, I wish to inquire whether the almighty God, who holds the dominion of heaven and earth, in willing to set a covenant with a holy man, placed the sum of so great a matter in this, that the foreskin of his flesh and of the offspring to come from him should be circumcised. "For my covenant," He says, "shall be upon your flesh." Was this what the "Lord of heaven and earth" conferred, as the gift of an eternal covenant, upon the one whom alone He had chosen out of all mortals? For these are the only things in which the masters and teachers of the synagogue place the glory of the saints. But the Church of Christ, which had said through the prophet: "But to me your friends have been made exceedingly honorable, O God," how she honors the friends of her Bridegroom and how great a glory she confers on them, when she unfolds their deeds—let them come, if it seem good, and hear. We therefore, instructed through the Apostle Paul, say that, just as many other things were done in figure and image of the truth to come, so also that carnal circumcision bore the form of the spiritual circumcision, concerning which it was both worthy and fitting that the "God of majesty" should give precepts to mortals. Hear, then, how Paul, "the teacher of the nations in faith and truth," teaches the Church of Christ concerning the mystery of circumcision. "See," he says, "the concision"—speaking of the Jews, who are cut in the flesh—"for we are," he says, "the circumcision, who serve God in the spirit and place no confidence in the flesh." This is one of Paul's opinions concerning circumcision. Hear also another: "For it is not he who is a Jew in the open," he says, "nor that which is circumcision manifestly in the flesh, but he who is a Jew in secret, by the circumcision of the heart in the spirit, not the letter." Does not such a circumcision seem to you more worthy to be spoken of in the saints and friends of God than the mutilation of the flesh? But perhaps the novelty of the saying may deter not only the Jews but also some of our brethren. For Paul seems to presume impossible things, in that he introduces "circumcision of the heart." For how can it come about that a member be circumcised which, hidden by the inner organs, lies concealed even from the very sight of men? Let us return, then, to the prophetic utterances, so that, while you pray, these matters about which we inquire may from there become clear. The prophet Ezekiel says: "Every stranger uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh shall not enter into my sanctuary." And likewise elsewhere the prophet, reproaching them no less, says: "all the strangers are uncircumcised in flesh, but the sons of Israel are uncircumcised in heart." It is signified, therefore, that unless one has been circumcised in heart and circumcised in flesh, "he shall not enter into the sanctuary" of God.
[§5] But I shall seem to be caught by my own evidences. For by this testimony of the prophet the Jew straightway constrains me and says: behold, the prophet designates both circumcisions, of flesh and of heart; there is no room left for allegory, where both kinds of circumcision are required. If you help me by your prayers, that the "word of the living God" may deign to be present "at the opening of our mouth," we shall be able, with Him as guide, to go out through this narrow path of the question to the breadth of the truth, since not only are the carnal Jews to be refuted by us concerning the circumcision of the flesh, but also some of those who seem to have taken up the name of Christ and yet think that carnal circumcision is to be received, such as the Ebionites and any who wander astray with a poverty of understanding similar to theirs. Let us therefore make use of the testimonies of the old instrument, which they willingly allow. It is written in the prophet Jeremiah: "behold, this people is uncircumcised in its ears." Hear, O Israel, the prophetic voice; a great reproach is spoken to you, a great fault is charged against you. Your accusation is brought forward, that you are uncircumcised in your ears. And why, on hearing this, did you not apply iron to your ears and cut them? For you are blamed by God and condemned, because you do not have circumcised ears. For I do not permit you to take refuge in our allegories, which Paul taught. Why do you cease to circumcise? Cut off your ears, cut away the members which God created for the usefulness of the senses and for the adornment of the human condition; for so you understand the divine words. But I will bring forward to you yet another thing, which you cannot contradict. In Exodus, where we in the books of the Church have it written that Moses answered the Lord and said: "Provide, Lord, another whom you may send. For I am of a thin voice and slow of tongue," you in the Hebrew copies have: "but I am uncircumcised in lips." Behold, you have circumcision of the lips according to your copies, which you say are truer. If, then, according to you Moses says he is still unworthy, because he is not circumcised in lips, it is certain that he thereby indicates this, that he is worthier and holier who is circumcised in lips. Apply, then, the sickle also to your lips and cut away the coverings of your mouth, since such an understanding in the divine letters pleases you. But if you recall the circumcision of the lips to allegory, and likewise call the circumcision of the ears allegorical and figurative, how do you not also seek an allegory in the circumcision of the foreskin? But let us pass over those who, after the manner of idols, "have ears and hear not, and have eyes and see not." But you, O "people of God, and people chosen as a possession to declare the virtues of the Lord," take up the worthy circumcision of the word of God in your ears and in your lips and in your heart and in the foreskin of your flesh and in absolutely all your members. For let your ears be circumcised according to the word of God, that they may not receive the voice of the slanderer, that they may not hear the words of the reviler and blasphemer, that they may not lie open to false accusations, to lying, to provocation. Let them be stopped up and closed, "lest they hear the judgment of blood" or lie open to unchaste songs and theatrical sounds. Let them receive nothing obscene, but let them be turned away from every stage of corruption. This is the circumcision by which the Church of Christ circumcises the ears of her infants. These, I believe, are the ears which the Lord required in His hearers, saying: "he who has ears to hear, let him hear." For no one can, with uncircumcised and unclean ears, hear the clean words of wisdom and truth. Let us come, if you will, also to the circumcision of the lips. I think that he is "uncircumcised in lips" who has not yet ceased from foolish speech, from scurrility, who disparages good men, who accuses his neighbors, who instigates quarrels, who stirs up slanders, who sets brothers against one another by speaking falsehoods, who utters vain, foolish, worldly, unchaste, base, injurious, insolent, blasphemous things and the rest which are unworthy of a Christian. But if anyone restrains his mouth from all these, and "orders his words in judgment," represses verbosity, tempers his tongue, moderates his words, he is deservedly said to be circumcised in lips. But also "those who speak iniquity on high and stretch their tongue up to heaven," as the heretics do, are to be called uncircumcised and unclean in lips, whereas he is circumcised and clean who always speaks the word of God and sets forth sound doctrine fortified by the Evangelical and Apostolic rules. In this way, then, the circumcision of the lips too is given in the Church of God.
[§6] But now, according to our promise, let us see in what manner the circumcision of the flesh also ought to be received. That this member, in which the foreskin is seen to be, serves the natural functions of intercourse and generation, no one can doubt. If, then, anyone should exist who is not importunate with regard to motions of this kind, and neither exceeds the limits divinely appointed to him, nor knows any other woman than his lawful wife, and even with her acts for the sake of posterity alone at fixed and lawful times, he is to be said to be circumcised in the foreskin of his flesh. But he who rushes into every wantonness, and hangs everywhere upon diverse and illicit embraces, and is borne unbridled into every whirlpool of lust, he is uncircumcised in the foreskin of his flesh. But the Church of Christ, strengthened by the grace of Him who was crucified for her, refrains not only from illicit and abominable beds, but even from those that are granted and lawful, and, as a virgin bride of Christ, flourishes with chaste and modest virgins, in whom the true circumcision of the flesh of the foreskin has been made, and truly the covenant of God and the eternal covenant is kept in their flesh. It remains for us to designate also the circumcision of the heart. If there is anyone who burns with obscene desires and foul cravings, and, to speak briefly, who "commits adultery in the heart," this man is "uncircumcised" in "heart." But also he who holds heretical thoughts in his mind and arranges blasphemous assertions against the knowledge of Christ in his heart, this man is "uncircumcised" in "heart." But he who guards a pure faith in the sincerity of conscience, he is circumcised in heart; of whom it can be said: "blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God." But I dare, from a like comparison, to add these things also to the prophetic voices, that, just as it behooves us to be circumcised in ears and lips and heart and the foreskin of the flesh according to the things we have said above, so perhaps our hands too need circumcision, and our feet and sight and smell and touch. For that the man of God may be perfect in all things, all the members must be circumcised—the hands indeed from plunderings, from thefts, from murders, and to be opened out for the works of God alone. The feet must be circumcised, that they be not "swift to shed blood," and that they enter not "into the counsel of the malignant," but that they go about only for the commandments of God. Let the eye too be circumcised, that it covet not what is another's, that it not look "to lust after a woman." For the gaze which wanders wantonly and curiously about the forms of women, this is uncircumcised in eyes. But also, if there is anyone who, whether he eat or drink, as the Apostle enjoins, "eats and drinks to the glory of God," he is circumcised in taste; but "whose God is the belly" and who serves the pleasures of the gullet, of him I would call the taste uncircumcised. If anyone takes in the "good odor of Christ" and in works of mercy seeks the "odor of sweetness," of him the smell is circumcised; but he who walks "anointed with the first ointments," he is to be called uncircumcised in smell. But also each and every one of the members, if they serve in the offices of the commandments of God, are to be called circumcised; but if they run riot beyond the laws divinely prescribed for them, they are to be reckoned uncircumcised. And this, I think, is what the Apostle said: "for as you presented your members to serve iniquity unto iniquity, so now present your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification." For when our members served iniquity, they were not circumcised, nor was the covenant of God in them; but when they have begun to serve "righteousness unto sanctification," the promise which was made to Abraham is fulfilled in them. For then the law of God and His covenant is sealed in them. And this is truly the "sign of faith," which contains the compact of an eternal covenant between God and man. This is the circumcision which was given by Jesus to the people of God with "knives of stone." But what is the "knife of stone" and what the "sword" with which the people of God is circumcised? Hear the Apostle saying: "for living is the word of God and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, reaching even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints also and marrows; and it is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart." This, then, is the sword with which we ought to be circumcised, concerning which the Lord Jesus says: "I came not to send peace upon the earth, but a sword." Does not this circumcision seem to you worthier, in which the covenant of God ought to be placed? Compare, if you please, these things of ours with your Jewish fables and fetid narratives, and see whether in those things of yours or in these which are preached in the Church of Christ the circumcision is divinely observed; whether you yourself do not also feel and understand that this circumcision of the Church is honorable, holy, worthy of God, while that of yours is base, foul, deformed, presenting even by its very fashion and appearance something ill-sounding. "And it shall be"—says God to Abraham—"circumcision and my covenant upon your flesh." If, then, our life be such, so squared and composed in all its members that all our motions are carried out according to the laws of God, truly "the covenant of God shall be upon our flesh." Let these things, indeed, be briefly run through by us concerning the old testament, for the confuting of those who trust in the circumcision of the flesh, and at the same time for the building up of the Church of the Lord.
[§7] But I come also to the new testament, in which is the fullness of all things, and from there I wish to show how we too can have the "covenant" of our Lord Jesus Christ "upon our flesh." For it does not suffice that these things be said by name and word alone, but they ought to be fulfilled in deeds. For John the Apostle says: "every spirit that confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh is of God." What then? If someone who sins and does not act rightly "confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh," will he be seen to confess in the spirit of God? This is not to have the covenant of God in the flesh, but in the voice. It is said to him, therefore, straightway: you err, O man, "the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power." How then "will the covenant of Christ be upon my flesh," I ask. If "I shall have mortified my members which are upon the earth," I have the covenant of Christ upon my flesh. If "I always carry about the death of Jesus Christ in my body," the covenant of Christ is in my body, because "if we suffer together, we shall also reign together." If "I shall have been planted together in the likeness of His death," I show "His covenant" to be "upon my flesh." For what does it profit, if I say that Jesus came only in that flesh which He took from Mary, and do not show also in this flesh of mine that He has come? But I show it only thus, if, just as before "I presented my members to serve iniquity unto iniquity, now I turn them and present them to serve righteousness unto sanctification." I show the covenant of God to be in my flesh, if I can say according to Paul: "I am crucified together with Christ; but now it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me," and if I can say, as he himself said: "but I carry the stigmata of my Lord Jesus Christ in my body." But truly he showed the "covenant" of God to be "upon his flesh," who said: "who shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus? Tribulation, or distress, or peril, or the sword?" For if we confess the Lord Jesus by voice only, and do not show "His covenant to be upon our flesh," according to these things which we have expounded above, we too shall be seen to do something similar to the Jews, who by the sign of circumcision alone think they confess God, but by their deeds deny Him. But may the Lord grant us "to believe with the heart, to confess with the mouth, to prove by works" that the covenant of God is in our flesh, so that "men, seeing our good works, may glorify our Father who is in heaven," through Jesus Christ our Lord, "to whom is glory unto the ages of ages. Amen."