Homilies on Genesis — Homily 13
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 wells that Isaac dug, and which were filled up by the Philistines.
[§1] We find that the exercises of the Patriarchs concerning wells are always the customary ones. For behold, Scripture relates that Isaac, after "the Lord blessed him and he was made exceedingly great," undertook a great work. And he began, it says, to dig wells, "the wells which his father Abraham's servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, but the Philistines had stopped them up and filled them with earth." First, then, "he dwelt by the well of vision," and, illumined by the well of vision, he set about opening other wells—and not first new wells, but those that his father Abraham had dug. And when he had dug the first well, "the Philistines," it says, "envied him." Yet he was not frightened by their envy nor did he yield to their spite, but "again," it says, "he dug the wells which the servants of his father Abraham had dug, and which the Philistines had stopped up after the death of his father Abraham; and he gave them names according to the names his father had given them." He dug, then, those wells which his father had dug and which through the malice of the Philistines had been filled with earth. He dug also others, new ones, "in the valley of Gerar"—not indeed he himself, but his servants—"and he found there," it says, "a well of living water. But the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with the shepherds of Isaac, saying that the water was theirs; and he called the name of the well 'iniquity.' For they had dealt iniquitously with him." But Isaac withdraws from their malice and "dug again another well, and over this one nonetheless," it says, "they wrangled, and he called its name 'enmity.' And he departed from there and dug yet another well, and they did not quarrel over it; and he called its name 'breadth,' saying: because now God has enlarged us and increased us upon the earth." Well does the holy Apostle, considering in a certain place the greatness of the mysteries, say: "And for these things who is sufficient?" In like manner—rather, in far unlike manner, by as much as we are far inferior to him—we too, seeing so great a depth in the mysteries of the wells, say: "And for these things who is sufficient?" For who could worthily be able to unfold either the sacraments of such great wells or the things that are reported as having been done over the wells, unless we call upon the Father of the living Word, and he himself deign to give a word in our mouth, so that for you who thirst we may be able to draw a little "living water" out of these wells so copious and manifold?[§2] There are, then, wells which the servants of Abraham dug, but these the Philistines had filled with earth. These, therefore, Isaac first sets about to cleanse. The Philistines hate waters, they love earth; Isaac loves waters, he always seeks wells, he cleanses the old, he opens the new. Behold our Isaac, who "was offered as a victim for us," coming into the valley of Gerar, which is interpreted as "a wall" or "a hedge"—coming, I say, that he might "break down the middle wall of the hedge, the enmities in his flesh"—coming to take away the wall, that is, sin, which separates between us and God, the wall which stands between us and the heavenly powers, that he might make "both one" and carry back the sheep that had strayed "upon his shoulders" to the mountains and restore it to the other "ninety-nine that had not strayed." This Isaac, then, our Savior, when he had come into that valley of Gerar, wills first of all to dig those wells which the servants of his father had dug; that is, he wills to renew the wells of the law and the prophets, which the Philistines had filled with earth. Who are these who fill the wells with earth? Those, without doubt, who place an earthly and carnal understanding in the law and shut up the spiritual and mystical, so that neither do they themselves drink nor permit others to drink. Hear our Isaac, the Lord Jesus, saying in the Gospels: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, because you have taken away the key of knowledge, and neither did you enter yourselves nor did you permit those who wished." These, then, are they who filled with earth the wells "which the servants of Abraham had dug," who teach the law carnally and defile the waters of the Holy Spirit; who have wells for this purpose, not that they may bring forth water, but that they may put earth in. These wells, then, Isaac sets about to dig. And let us see how he digs them. When Isaac's servants, who are the Apostles of our Lord, were passing, it says, through the grainfields on the sabbath, "they plucked the ears and, rubbing them with their hands, ate them." Then these men, who had filled with earth his father's wells, said to him: "Behold, your disciples do on the sabbath what is not lawful." He, that he might dig their earthly understanding, says to them: "Have you not read what David did, when he himself was hungry and those who were with him—how he entered to Abiathar the priest, and ate the bread of the presentation, he and his servants, which it was not lawful to eat except for the priests alone?" And to these words he adds: "If you had known what this is: I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, you would never have condemned the innocent." But what do they reply to these things? They quarreled with his servants and say: "This man is not from God, who does not keep the sabbaths." In this manner, then, Isaac digs the wells "which the servants of his father had dug." A servant of his father was Moses, who had dug the well of the law; servants of his father were David and Solomon and the prophets, and any others who had written the books of the Old Testament, which the earthly and sordid understanding of the Jews had filled up. When Isaac wished to cleanse this understanding and to show that whatever "the law and the prophets" said, they said concerning himself, the Philistines quarreled with him. But he departs from them; for he cannot be with those who wish to have not water in the wells but earth; and he says to them: "Behold, your house is left to you desolate." Isaac digs, then, new wells also—rather, Isaac's servants dig them. Isaac's servants are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John; his servants are Peter, James, Jude; his servant is the Apostle Paul; who all dig the wells of the New Testament. But over these too do they wrangle who "are wise in earthly things" and neither suffer new ones to be established nor old ones to be cleansed. They contradict the Gospel wells, they oppose the Apostolic ones. And since in all things they contradict, in all things they contend, it is said to them: "Since you have made yourselves unworthy of the grace of God, from this time on we will go to the Gentiles."
[§3] After this, then, Isaac digs a third well and "called the name of that place 'breadth,' saying: because now the Lord has enlarged us and increased us upon the earth." For truly now Isaac has been enlarged, and his name has been increased over all the earth, since he has fulfilled in us the knowledge of the Trinity. For then only "in Judea was God known" and in Israel his name was named, but now "into all the earth their sound has gone forth, and their words unto the ends of the world." For Isaac's servants, going forth throughout the whole world, dug wells and showed "living water" to all, "baptizing all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." For "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." But each one of us also, who ministers the word of God, digs a well and seeks "living water," from which to refresh his hearers. If, then, I too begin to examine the sayings of the ancients and to seek the spiritual sense in them, if I attempt to remove the veil of the law and to show that the things written are "allegorical," I indeed dig wells, but at once the friends of the letter will stir up calumnies against me and will lie in wait for me, they will straightway prepare enmities and persecutions, denying that the truth can stand except upon earth. But we, if we are Isaac's servants, let us love "the wells of living water" and the fountains; let us withdraw from the contentious and the calumniators, and leave them in the earth which they love. But let us never cease from digging "wells of living water," and, examining now the old, now also the new, let us become like that Gospel scribe of whom the Lord said: "he brings forth from his treasures things new and old." But if any of those who knows secular letters now hears me disputing, he perhaps says: these things you say are ours, and it is the learning of our art; this very thing by which you dispute and teach is our eloquence. And he moves suits against me like a certain Philistine, saying that you have dug a well in my ground, and he will think he rightly lays claim to the things that belong to his own earth. But to these things I will reply that every earth has waters, but he who is a Philistine and "is wise in earthly things" does not know how to find water in every earth, does not know how to find in every soul a rational sense and the image of God, does not know that faith, piety, and religion can be found in all. What does it profit you to have learning and not to know how to use it, to have speech and not to know how to speak? This work belongs properly to Isaac's servants, who in every earth dig "wells of living water," that is, to every soul they speak "the word of God" and find fruit. Finally, do you wish to see how many wells a single servant of Isaac dug in the land of strangers? See Paul, who "from Jerusalem round about unto Illyricum filled up the Gospel of God." But over each of these wells he suffered persecutions of the Philistines. Hear him saying: "What great things befell me at Iconium, at Lystra"—how great at Ephesus? How often was he beaten, how often stoned? How often did he fight with beasts? But he persevered until he came out into "breadth," that is, until he set up churches in the breadth of the whole world. Thus, then, the wells which Abraham dug, that is, the scriptures of the Old Testament, were filled with earth by the Philistines—whether by evil teachers, scribes, and Pharisees, or even by adversary powers; and their veins were stopped up, that they might not offer drink to those who are of Abraham. For that people cannot drink from the scriptures, but suffers "thirst" for "the word of God," until Isaac comes and opens them, that his servants may drink. Thanks, then, to the Son of Abraham, Christ, of whom it is written: "the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham," who came and opened the wells for us. For he was opening them for those who said: "Was not our heart burning within us, while he opened the scriptures to us?" He opened these wells, then, and "called them," it says, "as his father Abraham had called them." For he did not change the names of the wells. And it is a marvel that even among us Moses is called Moses, and each of the prophets is addressed by his own name. For Christ did not change the names in them, but the understanding. And he changes it in this respect, that we should no longer attend to "Jewish fables" and "endless genealogies," because these indeed turn the hearing away from the truth, and are turned aside to fables. He opens the wells, then, and taught us that we should not seek God in any particular place, but should know that "in every land sacrifice is offered to his name." For now is that time "when the true worshipers worship the Father" neither in Jerusalem nor on Mount Gerizim, but "in spirit and in truth." Not, then, in a place nor in a land does God dwell, but he dwells in the heart. And if you seek the place of God, a clean heart is his place. For in this place he says he will dwell, when he says through the prophet: "I will dwell in them and walk among them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, says the Lord." See, then, that perhaps even in the soul of each one of us there is "a well of living water," there is a certain heavenly sense and a hidden image of God, and this well the Philistines, that is, the adverse powers, have filled with earth. With what earth? With carnal senses and earthly thoughts, and therefore "we have borne the image of the earthly." Then, therefore, when we bore "the image of the earthly," the Philistines filled up our wells. But now, since our Isaac has come, let us receive his coming and dig our wells, let us cast the earth away from them, let us cleanse them from all filth and from all muddy and earthly thoughts, and we shall find in them "living water," that which the Lord speaks of: "he who believes in me, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly." See how great is the Lord's liberality: the Philistines filled up the wells and begrudged us the thin and slender veins of water, and in their stead fountains and rivers are given back to us.
[§4] If, therefore, you too, hearing these things today, receive the hearing faithfully, Isaac works also in you, he cleanses your hearts from earthly senses, and, seeing that such great mysteries as these lie hidden in the divine scriptures, you advance in understanding, you advance in spiritual senses. You will begin even yourselves to be teachers, and "rivers of living water" will proceed from you. For the Word of God is present, and this now is his operation, that he may remove the earth from the soul of each one of you and open your fountain. For he is within you and does not come from without, just as "the kingdom of God also is within you." And that woman who had lost the drachma did not find it outside, but in her own house, after she "lit a lamp and cleansed the house" of the filth and uncleannesses which the sloth and dullness of long time had heaped up, and there she found the drachma. And you too, then, if you light a lamp, if you apply to yourself the illumination of the Holy Spirit and "in his light see light," you will find the drachma within you. For within you is placed the image of the heavenly King. For when God made man in the beginning, "he made him to his own image and likeness"; and this image he placed not without, but within him. This could not be seen in you while your house was sordid, filled with uncleannesses and rubble. That fountain of knowledge was situated within you, but it could not flow, because the Philistines had filled it with earth and had made in you "the image of the earthly." But you indeed then bore "the image of the earthly"; now, however, having heard these things, cleansed by the Word of God from all that earthly mass and oppression, make "the image of the heavenly" shine forth in you. This, then, is the image of which the Father said to the Son: "Let us make men to our image and likeness." The Son of God is the painter of this image. And because the painter is such and so great, his image can be obscured through neglect, but it cannot be destroyed through malice. For the image of God abides forever, even though you draw over yourself "the image of the earthly." This picture you paint upon yourself. For when lust has darkened you, you have laid on one earthly color; but if you also burn with avarice, you have mixed in another. And also when anger makes you bloody, you add nonetheless a third color. To pride too another dye is added, and another to impiety. And thus, through each and every kind of malice, as though by diverse colors gathered together, you paint upon yourself this "image of the earthly," which God did not make in you. Therefore he is to be entreated by us who says through the prophet: "Behold, I blot out your iniquities as a cloud, and your sins as a mist." And when he has blotted out in you all those colors which were taken from the dyes of malice, then there shines forth again in you that image which was created by God. You see, then, how the divine scriptures introduce forms and figures by which the soul may be taught unto the acknowledgment or the cleansing of itself. Do you wish to see yet another form of this image? There are certain letters which God writes, certain letters which we write. The letters of sin we write. Hear the Apostle saying: "blotting out," he says, "the handwriting that was against us in the decrees, which was contrary to us, he took it out of the way, fastening it to his cross." This which he calls the handwriting was the bond of our sins. For each one of us, in the things wherein he offends, becomes a debtor and writes the letters of his own sin. Since also in the judgment of God, which Daniel describes as having taken its seat, he speaks of "books opened," without doubt such as contained the sins of men. These things, then, we write for ourselves through the things wherein we offend. For of this matter there is also that image which is spoken of in the Gospel concerning "the steward of iniquity," who says to each debtor: "Take your bond, and sitting down write eighty," and the rest that is reported. You see, then, that it is said to each: "Take your bond." Whence it is established that the letters of sin are ours; but the letters of righteousness God writes. For thus says the Apostle: "For you are an epistle inscribed not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart." You have, then, within you the letters of God and the letters of the Holy Spirit. But if you offend, you yourself write for yourself the handwriting of sin. But see that, once you have come to the cross of Christ and to the grace of baptism, your handwriting has been fastened to the cross and blotted out in the font of baptism. Do not write again the things that have been blotted out, nor restore the things that have been abolished; keep in you only the letters of God, let only the writing of the Holy Spirit remain in you. But let us return to Isaac and dig with him "wells of living water"; even if the Philistines resist, even if they wrangle, let us nevertheless persevere with him in digging wells, that to us also it may be said: "Drink water from your own vessels and from your own wells," and let us dig to such a degree that the waters of the well overflow "in our streets," so that the knowledge of the scriptures may not only suffice for us, but that we may also teach others and instruct others, that men may drink and cattle also may drink. Let the prudent hear, let the simple also each hear: for the teacher of the church is "a debtor to the wise and to the unwise," he ought to give drink to men and to give drink also to cattle; for the prophet too says: "Men and beasts you will save, O Lord," while the Lord Jesus Christ himself, our Savior, illumines us and cleanses our hearts, "to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."