Homilies on Genesis — Homily 10
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 Rebekah, when she had gone out to draw water and Abraham's servant met her.
[§1] "Isaac," says the Scripture, "was growing" and being strengthened — that is, Abraham's joy was growing as he looked not "at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." For Abraham did not rejoice over things present, nor over the riches of the world and the doings of this age. But do you wish to hear from what source Abraham rejoiced? Hear the Lord saying to the Jews: "Abraham your father desired to see my day, and he saw it and was glad." Through this, therefore, "Isaac was growing" — through that vision of Abraham's by which he saw the day of Christ, and by the hope that is in him, which heaped up his joys. And would that you too might become Isaacs and be a joy to your mother the Church. But I fear that the Church still brings forth her children in sorrow and groaning. Or is there no sorrow and groaning for her, when you do not gather to hear the word of God and barely on feast days come forth to church, and this not so much out of desire for the word as out of eagerness for the festival and, in a manner of speaking, on the pretext of a public holiday? What then shall I do, to whom the dispensation of the word has been entrusted? Though I am an "unprofitable servant," I have nevertheless received from the Lord "the measure of wheat to be distributed to the Lord's household." But see what the discourse of the Lord adds: "the measure," he says, "to be distributed in time." What then shall I do? Where or when shall I find your time? Most of it — indeed nearly the whole of it — you wear away in worldly occupations; one part you consume in the marketplace, another in trade; one man is taken up with his field, another with lawsuits, and no one, or very few, are free to hear the word of God. But why do I blame you for your occupations? Why do I complain about those who are absent? Even those who are present and set within the church are not attentive, but wear away the time with common gossip out of habit, and turn your backs on the word of God and the divine readings. I fear that to you too it may be said by the Lord that which was spoken through the prophet: "They turned their backs to me, and not their faces." What then shall I do, to whom the ministry of the word has been entrusted? The things which are read are mystical; they must be expounded in allegorical mysteries. Can I press the "pearls" of the word of God upon deaf and averted ears? The Apostle did not act so. For see what he says: "You who read the law," he says, "do not hear the law. For Abraham had two sons," and the rest, to which he adds: "which things are allegorical." Did he open the mysteries of the law to those who neither read nor hear the law? Rather, it was to those reading the law that he said: "You do not hear the law." How then shall I be able to open and set forth the mysteries of the law and the allegories, which we have been taught by the Apostle, to those to whom both the hearing and the reading of the law are unknown? Perhaps I seem too harsh to you, but I cannot "plaster over" a wall that is falling; for I fear that which is written: "My people, they who bless you seduce you, and disturb the paths of your feet." "As my dearest children I admonish you." I marvel if the way of Christ is not yet known to you; if you have not even heard this, that it is not "broad and spacious," but "the way that leads to life is strait and narrow." Do you therefore also "enter through the narrow gate," and leave the breadth to those who are perishing. "The night has gone before, but the day has drawn near"; "walk as children of the light." "The time is short; it remains that both those who have should be as though not having, and those who use this world as though they used it not." The Apostle enjoins that we must pray "without ceasing"; but you, who do not gather for prayers, how do you fulfill "without ceasing" that which you always omit? But the Lord too enjoins: "Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation." But if those who watched and prayed and always clung to the word of God nevertheless by no means fled temptation, what do these do who come to church only on feast days? "If the righteous man is scarcely saved, where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear?" It grieves me to say anything from the things that have been read. For the Apostle too says concerning discourses of this kind that they are "hard to interpret in speaking, since you," he says, "have become feeble in hearing."[§2] Let us nevertheless look at this which has just now been read to us. "Rebekah," it says, "was coming with the daughters of the city to draw water from the well." Rebekah came daily to the wells, daily she drew water. And because she was daily free to be at the wells, therefore she could be found by Abraham's servant and joined in marriage to Isaac. Do you suppose these are fables, and that the Holy Spirit is narrating mere histories in the Scriptures? This is the instruction of souls and spiritual teaching, which trains you and teaches you to come daily to the wells of the Scriptures, to the waters of the Holy Spirit, and always to draw and carry home a full vessel, just as holy Rebekah also did, who could not otherwise have been joined to so great a Patriarch as Isaac, who "was born of promise," except by drawing waters, and by drawing them in such abundance that she could give drink not only to those who were at home, but also to Abraham's servant — and not only to the servant, but that she abounded so far in the waters she drew from the wells that she could also water the camels, "until," it says, "they left off drinking." All the things that are written are mysteries: Christ too wishes to betroth you to himself; for he speaks to you through the prophets, saying: "I will betroth you to myself forever, and I will betroth you to myself in faith and in mercy, and you shall know the Lord." Because, therefore, he wishes to betroth you to himself, he sends this servant ahead to you. This servant is the prophetic word, which, unless you first receive it, you will not be able to be wedded to Christ. Know, however, that no one untrained and unskilled receives the prophetic word, but only one who knows how to draw water from the depth of the well and who knows how to draw it in such abundance that it suffices even for those who seem irrational and perverse, whose figure the camels bear — so that he too may be able to say that "I am a debtor to the wise and to the unwise." Indeed, this servant had thus spoken in his heart: "of these virgins," he says, "who come to the water, whichever shall say to me, 'Drink, and I will water your camels,' she it is who shall be the bride of my lord." So then Rebekah, whose name means patience, when she saw the servant and beheld the prophetic word, "lets down" the "water-jar" from her shoulder. For she lets down the lofty arrogance of Greek eloquence, and, inclining herself to the humble and simple prophetic word, she says: "Drink, and I will water your camels."
[§3] But perhaps you say: if the servant bears the figure of the prophetic word, how is he given drink by Rebekah, whom he himself ought rather to give drink to? Consider, then, whether perhaps, just as the Lord Jesus also — although he himself is the "bread of life" and himself feeds hungering souls — himself again confesses that he hungers, when he says, "I hungered, and you gave me to eat," and again, although he himself is "living water" and gives drink to all who thirst, himself again says to the Samaritan woman, "Give me to drink" — so also the prophetic word, although it itself gives drink to those who thirst, is nevertheless itself said to be given drink by these, when it receives the exercises and vigils of the diligent. This soul, then, such a one, which does all things patiently, which is so ready and supported by such great learning, which has been accustomed to draw the streams of knowledge from the depths — this soul can be united in the marriage of Christ. Unless, therefore, you come daily to the wells, unless you daily draw waters, not only will you be unable to give others to drink, but you yourself also will suffer "thirst for the word of God." Hear the Lord too saying in the Gospels: "Let him who thirsts come and drink." But you, as I see, "neither hunger nor thirst for righteousness"; and how will you be able to say: "As the deer longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before his face?" I beseech you who always attend the hearing of the word, receive it patiently, while for a little we admonish the negligent and slothful. Have patience, for our discourse is about Rebekah, that is, about patience. And it is necessary for us to chastise a little, through patience, those who neglect the assembly and shrink from hearing the word of God — those who do not desire the "bread of life" nor the "living water," who do not go out from the camp nor come forth from their "houses of clay" to gather manna for themselves, who do not come to the rock to drink "of the spiritual rock. For the rock is Christ," as the Apostle says. Have, I say, a little patience; for our discourse is directed to the negligent and to those "who are ill." "For the healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are ill." Tell me, you who gather to church only on feast days: are the other days not festal? Are they not days of the Lord? It belongs to the Jews to observe certain rare days as solemn feasts; and therefore God says to them that "your new moons and sabbaths and the great day I do not endure. Your fasting and holidays and feast days my soul hates." God therefore hates those who think that the feast day of the Lord is on one day only. Christians every day eat the flesh of the Lamb, that is, they daily take the flesh of the word. "For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed." And because the law of the Passover is such that it should be eaten in the evening, therefore the Lord suffered in the evening of the world, so that you may always eat of the flesh of the word, because you are always in the evening, until the morning comes. And if in this evening you are watchful and lead your life "in weeping and fastings" and in every labor of righteousness, you too will be able to say: "Weeping shall tarry until the evening, and joy until the morning." For you will rejoice in the morning, that is, in the age to come, if in this age you gather "the fruit of righteousness" in weeping and labor. Come, then, and let us too, while there is time, drink from the "well of vision," where Isaac "walks about" and where he goes forth to exercise. Observe how many things are done at the waters, that you too may be invited to come daily to the waters of the word of God and to attend at his wells, just as Rebekah also did, of whom it is said: "She was a virgin, very beautiful, a virgin, no man had known her." "And she," it says, "went out late to draw water."
[§4] Nor was this written about her in vain. Yet it moves me, what is meant by what is said: "She was a virgin, a virgin, no man had known her," as though a virgin were anything other than one whom no man has touched. And what does the addition in the case of a virgin seem to mean, that it should be said that "no man had known her"? For is there some virgin whom a man has touched? I have already often said that in these things histories are not narrated, but mysteries are woven together. I think, therefore, that something of this sort is indicated here. Just as Christ is called the husband of the soul, to whom the soul is wedded when it comes to faith, so too there is that husband contrary to him, to whom the soul is wedded when it turns aside to faithlessness — that very one who is also called "the hostile man," when he "sows tares over the wheat." It is not enough, therefore, for the soul to be chaste in body; it is necessary that this most wicked husband also "has not known her." For it can happen that someone has virginity in the body and yet, knowing that most wicked husband the devil and receiving from him the darts of concupiscence in the heart, has lost the chastity of the soul. Because, therefore, Rebekah was a holy virgin in body and spirit, on that account it doubles her praise and says: "She was a virgin, no man had known her." "In the evening," then, she came to the waters. Concerning the evening we have already spoken above. But observe the prudence of the servant: he does not wish to take a bride for his lord Isaac unless he finds one comely and beautiful of face, a virgin — and not only a virgin, but one whom no man has touched — and unless he finds one drawing water; he does not wish to betroth any other to his lord. He does not give her ornaments unless she is such a one; he does not give "earrings," he does not give "bracelets"; she remains unadorned, untaught, uncombed. Do we suppose that Rebekah's father, a rich man, did not have bracelets and earrings to place upon his daughter? Was there such negligence or avarice in him that he would not give ornaments to his daughter? But Rebekah does not wish to be adorned with the gold of Bethuel. The ornaments of a barbarous and unskilled man are not worthy of her; she seeks necklaces from the house of Abraham, because patience is adorned from the house of the wise. Therefore Rebekah's ears could not receive their proper adornment unless Abraham's servant came and himself adorned them; nor do her hands receive ornaments except those which Isaac has sent. For she wishes to receive golden words in her ears and to have golden deeds in her hands. But these she could not first receive nor deserve, unless she had come to the wells to draw waters. You who do not wish to come to the waters, who do not wish to receive in your ears the golden words of the prophets, how will you be able to be adorned in doctrine, adorned in deeds, adorned in character?
[§5] But to pass over many things — for it is not now the time for commenting, but for building up the Church of God and for provoking the more sluggish and slothful hearers by the examples of the saints and by mystical explanations — Rebekah, having followed the servant, came to Isaac; for the Church, having followed the prophetic word, came to Christ. Where did she find him? "Walking about," it says, "by the well of the oath." Nowhere is there any withdrawal from the wells, nowhere any ceasing from the waters; Rebekah is found "at the well," and again Rebekah "at the well" finds Isaac; there she beholds her first sight of him, there she "gets down from the camels," there she sees Isaac pointed out to her by the servant. Do you suppose these things alone are recounted about wells? Jacob too came to a well and there found Rachel, there Rachel becomes known to him, "good of eyes and comely of aspect." But Moses also at a well found Zipporah, the daughter of Reuel. Are you not yet moved to understand that these things are spoken spiritually? Or do you suppose that it always happens by chance that the Patriarchs come to wells and obtain marriages at the waters? Whoever thinks thus is "the animal man," and "does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God." But let whoever wishes remain in these things, let him remain "animal"; I, following Paul the Apostle, say that these things are "allegorical," and I say that the marriages of the saints are the joining of the soul with the word of God: "for he who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit." But this joining of the soul with the word, it is certain, cannot come about otherwise than through the instruction of the divine books, which are figuratively called wells. If anyone comes to these and draws waters from them — that is, by meditating on these things receives a deeper sense and understanding — he will find a marriage worthy of God; for his soul is joined with God. She also "gets down from the camels," that is, she departs from the vices, casts off the irrational senses, and is joined to Isaac; for it is fitting that Isaac should pass "from virtue to virtue." He who is the son of virtue, of Sarah, is now joined and united to patience, which is Rebekah. And this is to pass "from virtue to virtue" and "from faith to faith." But let us come also to the Gospels. When the Lord himself had been "wearied from the journey," let us see where he seeks rest. "He came," it says, "to a well, and sat upon it." You see the mysteries everywhere agreeing with one another, you see the concordant forms of the new and old testaments. There men come to the wells and to the waters, that brides may be found; and the Church is joined to Christ in the laver of water. You see how great a heap of mysteries presses upon us; how many things there are that occur to us, which we cannot unfold: at least these things ought to spur you to hear, to gather together, so that, even if we run past some things for the sake of brevity, you, when you read them over again and search, may yourself also examine and find — or at any rate remain in the inquiry of these things — so that the word of God, finding you too, may take you up to the water and join you to itself, that you may become with him "one spirit" in Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."