Homilies on Genesis — Homily 12
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 conception and childbearing of Rebekah.
[§1] At every single reading, "when Moses is read," we must pray to the Father of the Word, that He may fulfill even in us that which is written in the Psalms: "unveil my eyes, and I will consider the wonders of your law." For unless He Himself opens our eyes, how shall we be able to see these so great mysteries that are shaped in the Patriarchs, which are figured now in wells, now in marriages, now in childbearings, now even in barrennesses? For the present reading recounts that "Isaac prayed for Rebekah his wife, because she was barren; and God heard him, and she conceived. And the children," it says, "leaped in her womb." First of all, consider what this means, that very many of the holy women in the scriptures are said to have been barren, as Sarah herself, and behold now Rebekah as well. But Rachel too, beloved of Israel, was barren. Hannah also, the mother of Samuel, is written to have been barren. But in the Gospels too Elizabeth is recorded to have been barren. And in all these women this one heading is signified: that after barrenness they all brought forth a holy childbirth. So therefore this Rebekah too is now said to have been barren, but "Isaac prayed," it says, "to the Lord for her, and He heard him, and she conceived. And the children," it says, "leaped in her womb." Behold, what did this barrenness conceive? The sons of the barren woman, before they are born, leap for joy, and she who had despaired of offspring bears nations and peoples in her womb. For thus it says: "Rebekah went," it says, "to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her: two nations are in your womb, and two peoples shall be separated from your belly." It would be a long task if we should now wish to examine thoroughly the leaping for joy of the children still dwelling in the womb. It would be a long task if we should bring forward the interpretations and riddles concerning these things which the Apostle wrote, what mystery, what cause they contain, why, "before the children are born or do anything good or evil in this world," it is said of them that: "people shall overcome people, and the elder shall serve the younger"; why, before they came forth from their mother's womb, it is said through the prophet that: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." These things are both beyond our tongue and beyond your hearing.[§2] Now meanwhile let us see what this means that is said: "Rebekah went to inquire of the Lord." "She went." Where did she go? From that place in which the Lord was not, did she go to that place in which He was? For this seems to be indicated when it is said: "she went to inquire of the Lord." Is not the Lord everywhere? Did He not Himself say: "I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord"? Where then did Rebekah go? I think that she did not go from place to place, but passed over from life to life, from act to act, that she crossed over from good things to better, that she pressed on from useful things to more useful, that she hastened from holy things to holier. For it is absurd if we should think Rebekah so unskilled and untaught—she who had been instructed in the house of the wise Abraham under the most learned husband Isaac—as to suppose the Lord shut up within some place, and to go thither to inquire what the leaping of the little ones within the womb signified. But do you wish to see that this comes to the saints by custom, that, when they have seen something shown to them by God, they say that they either go away or cross over? Moses, when he had seen the bush burning and not consumed, marveling at the sight said: "I will pass over and behold this sight." Certainly he too was not signifying that he would traverse some span of earth, nor climb mountains nor go apart into the steep places of the valleys. The vision was close to him, in his mouth and in his eyes. But he says: "I will pass over," to show that, admonished by the heavenly vision, he ought to ascend to a higher life and to cross over from those things in which he was to better things. So therefore now too it is recounted of Rebekah that: "she went to inquire of the Lord"—she who, as we have said, is to be reckoned to have gone not by the steps of her feet, but by the advances of her mind. And you therefore, if you begin to behold not those things "which are seen, but those which are not seen," that is, not the carnal but the spiritual, not the present but the future, you will be said to have gone "to inquire of the Lord." If you tear yourself away from your old manner of life and from the company of those with whom you had lived shamefully and notoriously, and join yourself indeed to honorable and religious acts, when you are sought among the comrades of baseness and are by no means found in the troops of the guilty, it will be said of you too that: "he went to inquire of the Lord." So therefore the saints go away not from place to place, but from life to life, from their first practices to better practices.
[§3] The Lord therefore said to her: "two nations are in your womb, and two peoples shall be separated from your belly. And people shall overcome people, and the elder shall serve the younger." How "people has overcome people," that is, the Church the synagogue, and how "the elder serves the younger," is known even to the Jews themselves, though they do not believe. Concerning these things therefore, which are plain and very well worn to all, I think it superfluous to speak. Let us add this, if it please, which may be able to edify and instruct each one of us who hears these things. I think that this can be said also of each one of us, that "two nations and two peoples" are within us. For both a people of virtues is within us and no less a people of vices is within us: "for from our heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, thefts, false testimonies," but also "deceits, contentions, heresies, envyings, revelings, and things similar to these." Do you see how great a people of evils is within us? But if we deserve to speak that voice of the saints: "from your fear, O Lord, we conceived in the womb, and we brought forth, we made the spirit of your salvation upon the earth," then another people also is found within us, begotten in the spirit. For "the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, self-control, chastity" and things similar to these. You see another people, which is itself also within us; but this one is the lesser, that one the greater. For always the evil are more numerous than the good, and vices more numerous than virtues. But if we be such as Rebekah was, and deserve to have conception from Isaac, that is, from the Word of God, in us too "people shall overcome people and the elder shall serve the younger"; for the flesh shall serve the spirit, and vices shall yield to virtues. "And her days were fulfilled," it says, "that she should bring forth, and there were twins in her belly." This saying, that is, "her days were fulfilled that she should bring forth," is almost never written except of holy women. For this was said of this Rebekah, and of Elizabeth the mother of John, and of Mary the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whence it seems to me that a childbirth of this kind shows forth something excellent and beyond other human beings, and that the fullness of days indicates the birth of a perfect offspring.
[§4] "And the firstborn son came forth," it says, "ruddy, and all hairy like a hide. And she called his name Esau. And afterward his brother came forth, and his hand was entwined about the heel of Esau; and he called his name Jacob." Another Scripture recounts of these that "Jacob supplanted his brother in the womb," and the indication of this thing is that his hand was entwined about the heel of his brother Esau. This Esau came forth from his mother's womb "all hairy like a hide," but Jacob smooth and simple. Whence Jacob received his name from wrestling or supplanting; but Esau—as those say who interpret the Hebrew names—seems to be called either from redness or from earth, that is, ruddy or earthy, or, as it has seemed to others, "a making." But what these privileges of birth may be, why the one "supplanted his brother" and was born smooth and simple, when assuredly, as the Apostle says, the conception of both sons was "from our one father Isaac," or why the one was born "all hairy" and rough and, so to speak, surrounded with the squalor of sin and wickedness—this is not mine to discuss. For if I should wish to dig into the deep and to open the hidden veins of "living water," immediately the Philistines will be present and will contend with me, will stir up quarrels and slanders against me, and will begin to fill my wells with their earth and mud. For assuredly, if these Philistines would permit it, I too was wishing to approach my Lord—the most patient Lord, who says that "I do not cast out the one who comes to me"—I was wishing to approach, and just as the disciples said to Him: "Lord, who sinned? this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?", I too was wishing to inquire of Him and to say: "Lord, who sinned"—this Esau or his parents, that he should thus be born "all hairy" and rough, that he should be supplanted by his brother in the womb? But if I should wish to inquire and search out concerning these things from the Word of God, at once the Philistines stir up lawsuits and slanders against me. And therefore, leaving this well and calling it 'enmity,' let us dig another.
[§5] After these things it says "Isaac sowed barley, and found a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him, and the man was magnified, and by his advance he became greater, until he became exceedingly great." What is this, that Isaac "sowed barley" and not wheat, and is blessed in that he sows "barley" and is magnified, "until he becomes great"? It appears therefore that he was not yet great, but after he "sowed barley" and gathered "a hundredfold," then "he became exceedingly great." Barley is especially the food of beasts of burden or of country slaves. For it is a rougher kind, and one which seems to prick the one touching it as if with certain points. Isaac is the word of God, which word in the law sows barley, in the Gospels wheat. For it prepares that food for the more perfect and spiritual, this for the more unskilled and animal, because it is written: "men and beasts you will save, O Lord." Isaac therefore, the word of the law, sows barley, and nevertheless in that very barley finds "a hundredfold fruit." For you find in the law also martyrs, whose is "the hundredfold fruit." But our Lord too, the Isaac of the Gospels, spoke all the more perfect things to the Apostles, but to the crowds plain and common things. But do you wish to see that He too sets forth the foods of barley for beginners? It is written in the Gospels that He fed the crowds a second time. But those whom He feeds first, that is, the beginners, He feeds with "barley loaves." But afterward, when they had now advanced in the word and in doctrine, He sets forth wheaten loaves for them. But after this "the Lord," it says, "blessed Isaac, and he became exceedingly great." Isaac was small in the law, but by the advance of time he becomes great. He becomes great by the advance of time in the prophets. For when he is in the law alone, he is not yet great, seeing that it is also covered with a veil. He grows therefore already in the prophets; but when he has come even to this, that he casts off the veil also, then he will be "exceedingly great." When the letter of the law begins to be separated out like the chaff of its barley, and it appears that "the law is spiritual," then Isaac will be magnified and will become "exceedingly great." For see that in the Gospels also the Lord breaks a few loaves, and how many thousands of peoples He refreshes "and how many baskets" of leftovers remain over. So long as the loaves are whole, no one is filled, no one is refreshed, nor do the loaves themselves seem to be increased. Consider therefore now how we break a few loaves: from the divine scriptures we take up a few sayings, and how many thousands of people are filled. But unless these loaves have been broken, unless they have been crumbled into parts by the disciples—that is, unless the letter has been minutely examined and broken—its meaning cannot reach to all. But when we have begun to handle them and to examine each single thing, then the crowds indeed will take up as much as they can. But that which they have not been able to take, is to be gathered and reserved, "lest anything perish." Do we too therefore save whatever the "crowds" cannot take, and gather it up again in "baskets" and "hampers"? Indeed, a little while ago, when we had broken the loaf concerning Jacob and Esau, how many fragments remained over from that loaf? Which we diligently gathered up again, lest they perish, and we save in "hampers" or "baskets," until we see what the Lord commands to be done even with them. But now, as far as is possible, let us either eat of the loaves or draw from the wells. Let us attempt to do also that which wisdom admonishes, saying: "drink waters from your own springs, and from your own wells, and let your own fountain be your own." Attempt therefore, you also, O hearer, to have your own well and your own fountain; that you too, when you have taken hold of the book of the scriptures, may begin even from your own understanding to bring forth some meaning, and according to those things which you have learned in the church, attempt you also to drink from the fountain of your own natural ability. There is within you the nature of "living water," there are perennial veins and irrigating streams of rational understanding, if only they be not filled up with earth and rubble. But be diligent to dig your earth and to purge the filth, that is, to remove the sloth of your natural ability and to shake off the torpor of your heart. For hear what the Scripture says: "prick the eye, and it will bring forth a tear; prick the heart, and it brings forth understanding." Purge therefore your natural ability also, that one day you too may drink from your own springs and draw "living water" from your own wells. For if you have received into you the Word of God, if you have received from Jesus "living water" and have received it faithfully, there will be made in you "a fountain of water springing up into eternal life," in that same Jesus Christ our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."