Homilies on Genesis — Homily 5
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.Concerning Lot and his daughters.
[§1] The angels sent for the overthrow of Sodom, though they were eager to hasten the business enjoined upon them, first take care of Lot their host, so that out of regard for his hospitality they might rescue him from the impending destruction by fire. Hear this, you who shut your houses against strangers; hear this, you who shun a guest as though he were an enemy. Lot dwelt in Sodom. We do not read of other good deeds of his; his hospitality alone, arising from habitual practice, is recorded. He escapes the fires, he escapes the flames, for this reason alone, that he threw open his house to guests. The angels entered a hospitable house; the fire entered the houses shut against guests. Let us see, then, what the angels say to their host in return for the offices of hospitality. "On the mountain," he says, "save your soul, lest perhaps you be caught." Lot was indeed hospitable, and, as Scripture bore witness to him, he escaped destruction by receiving the angels into his lodging. But he was not so perfect that, upon coming out of Sodom, he could at once ascend the mountain; for it belongs to the perfect to say: "I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence shall come my help." This man, therefore, was neither such a one as ought to perish among the Sodomites, nor was he so great that he could dwell with Abraham in the loftier places. For if he had been such, Abraham would never have said to him: "If you go to the right, I will go to the left, or if you go to the left, I will go to the right," nor would the dwellings of Sodom have pleased him. He was, therefore, a kind of middle sort between the perfect and the lost. And knowing that it was not suited to his strength to ascend the mountain, he devoutly and humbly excuses himself, saying: "I cannot be saved on the mountain, but behold this city is small, here I shall be saved, and it is not small." And having entered Segor, the small city, he is saved in it. And after this he ascended into the mountain with his daughters. For he could not have ascended into the mountain from Sodom, although it is written of the land of Sodom, before it was overthrown, at the time when Lot chose it for his dwelling, that it "was like the paradise of God and like the land of Egypt." And yet — to make use of a small digression — what likeness can there seem to be between the paradise of God and the land of Egypt, that Sodom should be compared equally to both? But I think this: that before Sodom sinned, while it still kept the simplicity of an uncontaminated life, it was "like the paradise of God"; but when it began to be discolored and darkened by the stains of sins, it became "like the land of Egypt." But we also inquire into this: since indeed the prophet says that "your sister Sodom shall be restored to her former state," whether her restoration also admits of this, that she be "like the paradise of God," or only "like the land of Egypt." For my part I doubt whether the sins of Sodom can be boiled down so far and her crimes purged to such a degree that their restoration be so great as to be compared not only to the land of Egypt but even to the paradise of God. Yet those who wish to affirm this will press us, chiefly from that phrase which seems to be added to this promise; for he did not say "Sodom shall be restored" and stop there, but he said: "Sodom shall be restored to her former state." And they will maintain that her former state was not "like the land of Egypt," but "like the paradise of God."[§2] But let us return to Lot, who, fleeing the destruction of Sodom with his wife and daughters, having received from the angels the command not to look back, was making his way toward Segor. But his wife becomes forgetful of the precept, "she looks back," she breaks the law imposed upon her, "she is made a pillar of salt." Do we suppose there was so much wickedness in this deed committed, that, because the woman looked back after herself, she incurred the destruction which by the divine favor she seemed to have escaped? For what great crime was there, if the anxious mind of the woman looked back to where she was terrified by the excessive crackling of the flames? But because "the law is spiritual" and the things that befell the ancients "befell them as a figure," let us see whether perhaps Lot, who did not look back, is the rational sense and the manly spirit, while the wife here holds the image of the flesh. For it is the flesh that always looks back to vices, which, when the spirit strives toward salvation, looks back and seeks after pleasures. Hence indeed the Lord also said: "No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God," and he adds: "Remember Lot's wife." And that "she is made a pillar of salt" seems set forth as an indication of her folly. For salt is put in place of prudence, which she lacked. Lot, therefore, pressed on to Segor, and there, having for a little while gathered the strength which he could not have in Sodom, he ascended into the mountain and dwelt there, as Scripture says, "he and his two daughters with him."
[§3] After these things there is now related that most notorious tale, in which it is written that his daughters by craft stole intercourse with their father. In which matter I do not know whether anyone can so excuse Lot as to make him free from sin. Nor again do I think he should be so accused that he must be made guilty of so grave an incest. For I do not find that he lay in wait or violently seized the chastity of his daughters, but rather that he suffered a snare and was circumvented by craft. Yet neither again would he have been ensnared by the girls, had he not been able to be made drunk. Whence he seems to me to be found partly blameworthy, partly excusable. For he can be excused, in that he is free from the crime of concupiscence and pleasure, and because he is neither shown to have wished it himself nor to have consented to those who wished it; but he is subject to blame, in that he could be deceived, in that he indulged too much in wine, and did this not once but a second time. For Scripture itself too seems to me in some way to make satisfaction on his behalf, when it says: "For he did not know when he slept with them and when he arose." This is not said of the daughters, who by design and craft deceive their father. He, however, was so lulled to sleep by the wine that he did not know that he had slept with the elder daughter nor with the younger. Hear what drunkenness does; hear how great a crime intemperance procures. Hear and beware, you for whom this evil is not a matter of accusation but of habit. Drunkenness deceived him whom Sodom did not deceive. He is burned by the flames of women, whom the sulphurous flame did not burn. Lot, therefore, was deceived by craft, not by will. Therefore he is a kind of middle sort between sinners and the just; seeing that he descended indeed from the kindred of Abraham, yet dwelt in Sodom. For even this, that he escapes from Sodom, as Scripture indicates, pertains more to the honor of Abraham than to the merit of Lot. For thus it says: "And it came to pass," it says, "when God was destroying the cities of Sodom, God remembered Abraham and cast Lot out of that land."
[§4] But I think the purpose of his daughters also must be more carefully considered, lest perhaps they too deserve to receive not so much blame as is supposed. For Scripture relates that they said to one another: "Our father," it says, "is old, and there is no one upon the earth to come in to us, as befits all the earth. Come and let us make our father drunk with wine and let us sleep with him and raise up seed from our father." As far as concerns the things which Scripture says about them, it seems in some way to make satisfaction even on their behalf. For it appears that the daughters of Lot had learned certain things about the consummation of the world which was to threaten through fire, but, being girls, they had not learned it wholly and perfectly; they did not know that, when the regions of Sodom were laid waste by fire, much space still remained untouched in the world. They had heard that at the end of the age the earth and all the elements were to be boiled away by the burning of fire. They saw the fire, they saw the sulphurous flames, they saw all things laid waste. They saw too that their own mother had not been saved; they suspected that some such thing had happened as they had heard of in the times of Noah, and that they alone had been preserved with their parent for the restoring of the posterity of mortals. They therefore conceive a desire for the recovery of the human race and suppose that from themselves must be given the beginning of restoring the age. And although the stealing of intercourse with their father seemed to them a great crime, yet a graver impiety seemed to them to be, if by keeping their chastity they should destroy the hope, as they thought, of human posterity. For this reason, therefore, they enter upon a plan with less blame, as I judge, though with a greater hope and reasoning: they soften and dissolve their father's sadness or sternness with wine. Entering on separate nights, each singly receives conception from the man who is unaware; they do not repeat it further, they do not seek it again. Where here is the fault of lust, where is the crime of incest shown to be? How shall that be attributed to vice which is not repeated in the deed? I fear to speak out what I feel; I fear, I say, lest the incest of these women may have been chaster than the chastity of many. Let women placed in marriages examine and question themselves, whether they approach their husbands for this reason alone, that they may receive children, whether after conception they desist. For these women, who seem to be accused of incest, once they had obtained conception, did not approach their husband's bed any further. But some women — for we do not brand all alike, but there are certain ones who, like animals without any discretion, unceasingly serve their lust — such women I would not compare even to the dumb beasts. For the cattle themselves also know, when they have conceived, no longer to grant the males intercourse with them. Divine Scripture too marks such women, when it says: "Do not become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding," and again: "They have become stallion horses." But you, O people of God, "who love Christ in incorruption," understand the word of the Apostle, by which he says: "Whether you eat, or drink, or do anything else, do all to the glory of God." For in that, after eating and drinking, he says: "or do anything else," he marked with a modest expression the immodest affairs of marriage, showing that these too are conducted to the glory of God, if they are managed with a view to posterity alone. We have pursued, as far as we could, both the faults of Lot and his daughters and again their excuses.
[§5] But I know that some, as far as concerns allegory, have drawn Lot to the person of the Lord and his daughters to the two testaments. But whoever knows what Scripture says about the Ammonites and Moabites, who descend from the race of Lot, I do not know whether he would gladly accept this. For how will he be able to fit to Christ the fact that those who are begotten of his seed "even unto the third and fourth generation shall not enter into the church of the Lord"? But we, as far as we are able to understand, set Lot as a figure of the law. And let it not seem incongruous that among us the law is declined in the feminine gender, since it keeps the masculine gender in Greek. His wife we set as that people which, having gone forth from Egypt and been freed from the Red Sea and the persecution of Pharaoh as though from the fires of Sodom, again looked back, longing for the flesh and "the pots and onions of Egypt and the cucumbers," and fell in the desert, having itself also become a memorial of concupiscence in the wilderness. So then the law lost that first people as it looked back like Lot, and left its wife behind. Coming from there, Lot dwells in Segor, of which he says: "This city is small, and my soul shall be saved in it, and it is not small." Let us see, then, what, as far as concerns the law, is the "city small and not small." A city is so called from the association of many, in that it brings together and holds in one the lives of very many. These, therefore, who dwell in the law, have a small and petty way of life, so long as they understand the law according to the letter. For there is nothing great in observing carnally the sabbaths and new moons and the circumcision of the flesh and the distinctions of foods. But if anyone begins to understand spiritually, those very observances, which according to the letter were small and petty, according to the spirit will not be small but great. After these things, therefore, Lot ascends into the mountain and there "dwells in a cave," as Scripture says, "he and his two daughters." And the law too must be thought to have ascended, in that adornment came to it through the temple built by Solomon, when it was made indeed "the house of God, the house of prayer," but evil inhabitants made it "a den of robbers." "Lot dwelt," therefore, "in a cave, and his two daughters." These two daughters the prophet plainly describes, saying that Oolla and Ooliba are two sisters, and that Oolla is "Judah" and Ooliba is "Samaria." The people, therefore, divided into two parts, made two daughters of the law. These, eager that a carnal offspring be propagated and that the strength of an earthly kingdom be fortified by a numerous posterity, lulling their father asleep and bringing sleep upon him — that is, covering and overshadowing his spiritual sense — draw from him only the understanding of the flesh. Thence they conceive, thence they bring forth such sons as the father would neither perceive nor acknowledge. For neither was this the meaning nor this the will of the law, that it should beget carnally, but the law is lulled to sleep, that such a posterity may be begotten as "may not enter into the church of the Lord." "For the Ammonites," it says, "and the Moabites shall not enter into the church of the Lord even unto the third and fourth generation and unto the age"; signifying that the carnal generation of the law does not enter into the church of Christ, neither in the third generation for the Trinity, nor in the fourth for the Gospels, nor unto the age, unless perhaps after the present age, when "the fullness of the Gentiles shall have entered in, and so all Israel shall have been made safe." These things, as far as we could, we have carved out according to the allegorical understanding concerning Lot and his wife and his daughters, prejudging nothing against those who may have been able to understand something more sacred about this.
[§6] But in that, in the moral treatment above, we drew Lot himself to the rational sense and the manly spirit, but his wife, who looked back, we called the flesh given over to concupiscences and pleasures — do not, O hearer, take these things carelessly. For you ought to observe that perhaps even when you have fled the flames of the world and escaped the fires of the flesh, even when you have surpassed "the small and not small city of Segor," which is a kind of middle and civic advance, and have ascended to the height of knowledge as it were to certain peaks of the mountain: see lest those two daughters lie in wait for you, who do not depart from you but follow you even when you ascend to the mountain — that is, vainglory and her elder sister, pride. See lest those daughters, while you are lulled and sleeping, while you seem to yourself neither to perceive nor to understand, clasp you in their embraces. They are for this reason called daughters, because they do not come upon us from without, but proceed from us and from a kind of integrity, as it were, of our own deeds. Watch, therefore, as much as you can, and take care that you do not beget sons from these, because those who are born of these "shall not enter into the church of the Lord." But you, if you wish to beget, beget in the spirit, since "he who sows in the spirit shall reap of the spirit life eternal." If you wish to embrace, embrace wisdom and "say that wisdom is your sister," that wisdom too may say of you: "He who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, this one is my brother and sister and mother." Which wisdom is Jesus Christ our Lord, "to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."