Homilies on Isaiah — Homily 1 (Isaiah 6:1ff)
Latin source: Origen's Greek homilies on Isaiah, surviving only in Jerome's Latin translation (c. 380/381), from the reading text of W. A. Baehrens (ed.), Origenes Werke VIII (GCS 33, Leipzig, 1925), pp. 242–289. This English translation is released into the public domain.The first vision. "And it came to pass in the year in which King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated upon a lofty throne".
1 So long as "King Uzziah" lived, the prophet Isaiah could not "see the vision". For "Uzziah" was a sinner, "doing what was wicked before the sight of the Lord", and acting against the will of the divine law. "He entered the temple" and the holy of holies, and for this reason he was covered with "leprosy on his forehead", so that, going outside the city, he was reckoned among the unclean. Such a ruler of the soul, therefore, must die, that we may be able "to see the vision" of God; for not in vain is it written: "and it came to pass in the year in which King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord". For each one of us "Uzziah" is alive, or Pharaoh, and we do not "groan" while doing the "works" of Egypt. But if he "dies", then we "groan", as it is written in Exodus. If "Uzziah" lives, we do not "see the glory of God"; but if he "dies", then we "see"—as soon as "Uzziah dies"—"the glory of God", provided only that the Word "reign" in us, the Word who said: "but I have been appointed king by him", and that wrath does not "reign". Indeed there is also a "king" of "sin"; the Apostle, knowing this, says: "let sin therefore not reign in your mortal body". Wretched is that man in whom "sin reigns", who hands himself over to such a "king", despising the kingdom of God and subjecting himself to pleasure. Therefore the lover of pleasure is not a lover of God, and according to the Apostle it is said of certain persons: "loving pleasure more than God". And indeed this very thing was said not of those who are entirely unbelievers, but of those who dwell within, "loving pleasure more than God, having a semblance of piety but denying its power". These things are said on account of the death of "King Uzziah", after whose demise the prophet says he "saw the vision". But what is the "vision"? "I saw the Lord seated upon a throne lofty and exalted". Not everyone who "sees the Lord" "sees" him "seated upon a throne lofty and exalted". I know that another prophet "saw the Lord" and "saw" him "seated upon a throne", but not "lofty" nor "exalted". Expounding the Scripture, Daniel says: "thrones were placed", and that "throne" was not "lofty". And: "I will come to sit in judgment over the people in the valley of Jehoshaphat". Therefore here he "sat in the valley", and "in the valley" when he is about "to judge", when he is about to condemn. But it is another thing "to see him seated upon a throne lofty and exalted". And in Micah "God goes forth and descends". And in order to see Sodom, "he descends": "Descending", he says, "I will see whether they have carried out to the full according to the cry of them that comes to me". God, therefore, is sometimes seen above, sometimes below, according to the dignity of the matters at hand. "I saw the Lord", then, Isaiah says, "seated upon a throne lofty and exalted". If I "see God" reigning over those who are here, I do not "see" him "upon a throne lofty and exalted"; if I "see" him "reigning" over the heavenly powers, I "see" him "upon a throne lofty and exalted". What do I mean by the heavenly powers? "Thrones, dominions, principalities, powers" are the heavenly powers. And if I "see" him, how he "reigns" over these in the Word, "I saw the Lord seated upon a throne lofty and exalted". "And the house was full of his glory". On high, where his "throne" is "exalted", "the house is also full of his glory". I do not think that this house which is on earth "is full of glory". "The Lord's is the earth and the fullness thereof". But the "fullness of the glory of God" you will not find in the present; yet if anyone builds a temple to God, the "glory of God" will be seen, and if he keeps what has been said, "the house" will be seen to be "full of the glory of God". But I do not know whether the "house" is filled with "glory" in this way. And in Leviticus, insofar as concerns the present, not yet—but, God granting, it will be read in the assembly that follows—it is said that the Lord commanded certain things to be done, that the "glory of the Lord" might be seen. Nor will the "glory of God" ever appear if these things are not done. And we shall come to know those things when they have been read.
2. "And the Seraphim stood round about him, six wings to the one, and six wings to the other". I see two "Seraphim", each of them having in itself "six wings". Then the arrangement of the "wings". "And with two wings indeed they covered the face"—not their own, but God's—"and with two wings they covered the feet"—not their own, but God's—"and with two wings they were flying". According to what is written, it seems contradictory: if they "stood", they could not "fly". But it is written: "they stood round about him, six wings to the one and six wings to the other; and with two they covered the face and with two they covered the feet, and with two they were flying; and they cried one to another". Truly these "Seraphim", who are around God, who by knowledge alone say: "Holy, Holy, Holy!", on this account keep the mystery of the Trinity, because they too are holy; for among all the things that are, nothing is holier than these. And not lightly do they say "one to another": "Holy, Holy, Holy!", but they proclaim with a cry the confession that is salutary for all. What are these two "Seraphim"? My Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And do not think that the nature of the Trinity is divided, if the functions of the names are preserved. "They covered the face" of God; for the beginning of God is unknown. But also the "feet"; for what last thing is comprehended in our God? Only the middle things are seen; what was before these, I do not know. From the things that are, I understand God; what will come after these, insofar as they are to come, I do not know. "Who has declared it to him?" said Ecclesiastes. "Announce to me the first things and the last things that shall be, and I will say that you are gods", said Isaiah. From which, if anyone should tell the "past things" and be able to tell the "last things", he is "God"; who, then, can tell them except the "Seraphim"? Who can say: "Holy, Holy, Holy!" except the "Seraphim"? But they laid bare which part of God, so to speak—his middle—and "they cried one to the other", standing beside God "and saying": "Holy, Holy, Holy!". They "stand", therefore, and are moved; they "stand" with God, they are moved in making God known; for understand that "they cover the face, they cover the feet"—they do not move the things that are covered, they do not "cover" the things with which "they fly". And they say: "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of his glory". The coming of my Lord Jesus Christ is announced; and so now "the whole earth is full of his glory". Or else it is not yet "full", but it is to come to pass that it be filled, when that prayer shall have been fulfilled by which the Lord himself commanded us to "pray" to the "Father", saying: "when you pray, say: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name! Thy kingdom come! Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth!". As yet the "will" of the "Father" is "in heaven"; "on earth" his "will" is not yet fulfilled; and Jesus himself, according to the dispensation of the flesh which he had put on, says: "he gave me all power, as in heaven so on earth"—not that he did not have "power on earth", he who had it "in heaven", and that he received something of the world, he who "had come into his own", but that God might so be believed "on earth" as he was believed "in heaven"; therefore the man Christ received "power" which before he did not have, and up to the present he does not yet have "power" over all "on earth". For over those who sin he does not yet reign; but when the "power" over these too has been given to him, when "all things have been made subject" to him, then the "power" will be complete and he will go about "subjecting all things to himself". But some do not yet wish to be "made subject" to him, but as yet are "subjected" to his enemies. Let us, moreover, say: "shall not my soul be made subject to God? for from him is my salvation".
3. "And with two they were flying, and they said one to another: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of his glory. And the lintel was lifted up by the voice with which they cried", by the "voice" of Jesus Christ and the "voice" of the Holy Spirit. If any one of us hears the "voice" of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit "crying out", the "lintel is lifted up" and becomes higher than at that time when "it was lifted up" and when it was said: "lift up the gates, your princes, and be lifted up, everlasting gates, and the king of glory shall enter in".
4. "And the house was filled with smoke". From the remission of the fire the whole "house was filled". And "smoke" is the vapor of fire. "And I said: O wretched me, for I am pierced with remorse, since, although I am a man and have unclean lips". I cannot suppose that Isaiah humbled himself; rather, the Scripture says and gives testimony that his "lips are cleansed" by "one of the Seraphim", who "was sent" to "take away his sins". And "one" of the "Seraphim" is my Lord Jesus Christ, who was sent by the Father to "take away" our "sins", and he says: "behold, I have taken away your iniquities and have cleansed away your sins". And do not think it an affront to his nature, if the Son is sent by the Father. Indeed, that you may recognize the unity of the deity in the Trinity, Christ alone in the present reading now forgives "sins", and yet it is certain that "sins" are forgiven by the Trinity. For he who has believed in one, believes in all. Let there be brought to me, then, from the heavenly altar the "tongs", that it may touch my lips. If the "tongs" of the Lord touch "my lips", it "cleanses" them. And if it "cleanses" them and "cuts away" their vices, as we said just now, I shall open my mouth to the Word of God, and no longer shall an "unclean" word go forth from my mouth, "since, although I am a man and have unclean lips, I also dwell in the midst of a people that has unclean lips". The "Seraphim" that was sent cleansed the "lips" of the prophet, but did not "cleanse the lips of the people". For he himself confessed that "he had unclean lips and dwelt in the midst of a people that has unclean lips". But this "Seraphim" that "was sent" did not judge any of the "people" worthy to have "their lips" too "cleansed", and therefore they still act impiously, therefore they still repudiate my Lord Jesus Christ, still curse him with "unclean lips". But I pray that the "Seraphim" may come and "cleanse" my "lips".
5. "And I saw with my eyes the King, the Lord of Sabaoth". Why should we not set forth in the present a certain tradition of the Jews, plausible indeed yet not true, and why should we not find its solution? They say that Isaiah was for this reason sawn asunder by the people, as one transgressing the law and proclaiming things beyond the Scriptures. For the Scripture says: "no one shall see my face and live", but this man says: "I saw the Lord of Sabaoth". Moses, they say, did not "see", and you have "seen"? And for this reason they sawed him and condemned him as impious; for they did not know that "with two wings the Seraphim covered the face of God". "I saw the Lord". If Isaiah "saw the face", Moses also "saw". Moses "saw the back parts", as it is written; nevertheless he "saw the Lord", even though he did not "see" his "face". And so this man too "saw", although he did not "see" the "face". Wrongly, therefore, did they condemn the prophet. "And I saw with my eyes the King, the Lord of Sabaoth; and one of the Seraphim was sent to me". There is not one single coming of my Lord Jesus Christ by which he descended to the earth; he came both to Isaiah and to Moses, and to the "people" he came, and to each one of the prophets he came; and do not you fear: even though he has now been received up, he will come again. But that he came also before his coming in the flesh, receive as witness the one who declares and says: "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often have I wished to gather your children!". "How often have I wished". He does not say: I did not see you except at this coming, but he says: "how often have I wished". And turning himself through each of the prophets, saying, I was Christ, who spoke through the prophets: do not you fear; and now Jesus Christ is sent. He does not lie. "I am with you", he says, "all the days until the consummation of the age". He does not lie. "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them". Since, therefore, Jesus Christ is at hand and stands beside us, and the high priest is ready and girded to offer to the Father our supplications, let us rise and through him offer sacrifices to the Father. For "he" is "the propitiation for our sins", "to whom is the glory and the dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"