Homilies on Isaiah — Homily 7 (Isaiah 8:18)
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.Concerning what is written: "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me", and so on.
1. "Give a wise man an occasion, and he will be the wiser," said the divine saying. Taking, then, our "occasion" from the most sacred Apostles for the understanding of the prophetic words, let us pray to God that we may receive wisdom and be able to become "the wiser" through the "occasion" of the Apostles for expounding the prophets. The Apostle, recalling this saying, "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me," then goes on and expounds: "Since therefore the children shared in blood and flesh, he too became near to them, being made a partaker of theirs, that through death he might destroy him who had the dominion of death, that is, the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were, throughout their whole life, subject to the guilt of bondage." Therefore, "since the children were made partakers of blood and flesh," our Savior too "shared in blood and flesh." For it was foreign to his nature and his divinity to take up "blood and flesh"; but for our sake he took up those things which were foreign to him, that he might make us his own household, who had been made foreign through sin. And the Apostle indeed expounded it thus, saying: "Since therefore the children shared in blood and flesh, he too became near to them, being made a partaker of theirs"; but I would say that, just as "since the children shared in blood and flesh, he too became near to them, being made a partaker of theirs," so, since the "children" cannot hear the stronger discourses — for they must, as "children," hear the words of God — for this reason, having been "made present" in the "blood of the children" for the sake of those who "shared in flesh and blood," speaking "as to little ones," he speaks not divine and unutterable things, but only such things as "little ones" can grasp. And "little ones" are all men, if you compare them to the perfection of the Word; you may name Moses, you may name one of the prophets, you may name John, than whom "there was none greater among those born of women," you may come to the Apostles, to Peter, against whom "the gates of hell shall not prevail," or to Paul, who "was caught up to the third heaven and heard unspeakable words" — you do not lower their glory by saying that they too, in the things they understood, in comparison with the things they did not understand, were trained in the disciplines of "little ones," which are handed down to men. The Savior therefore speaks not of those whom Paul calls "little ones" in Christ and declares must be "given milk to drink" and not "solid food," but of all men together: "Behold, I and my little ones, whom God has given me." But just as among "children" some are more eager than others and more quickly attain the things handed down to them, so, I say, Moses and the prophets, and also the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, were made like gifted "children." Therefore, being aware of themselves — that, even if they made progress, they made the progress of "children" — they said: "We know in part and we prophesy in part." For they did not yet behold the realities of truth, but the shadows of the realities, nor the full light, but a dim image; and so they repeated, saying: "For now we see through a glass and in a riddle, but then face to face." Who then, reading and understanding these things, will be puffed up and exalt himself over his knowledge, or over any of the gifts? For since the things which have come to "children" are far inferior to those which are reserved for grown men, those who seem among the "children" to be of keener and quicker wit ought not to be lifted up and grow proud. And these "children" he calls all men, whom the Savior also pointed out, saying: "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me." The Savior too received a gift from God; for "no one comes to" him, "unless he who sent" him "has drawn" the one coming to the Savior, as we have learned in the Gospel which is according to John. And because he received from the Father, as a gift, those who believe, therefore, prophesying about them, he says: "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me." Nor is he who received to be thought to be without them, since he who "gave" still has them himself.
2. Then in what follows the Savior prophesies in the prophet, saying that it will come to pass that, when he has received the "children," "signs and wonders shall come to pass in Israel." For it stands thus: "And there shall be signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Sabaoth, who dwells on Mount Zion." For he who "dwells in" the watchtower and can behold the truth in every soul, he it is who works "signs and wonders" through the Savior, and after the Savior through the Apostles; and wherever a soul is found fit for the ministry of the "signs and portents" of God — whether according to spiritual healing or perceptibly, for exhorting to faith those who see — God, who then wrought "signs and wonders," is not idle to work them even now. "And if they say to you: seek out ventriloquists and those who cry out from the earth, who speak empty things, who cry out from the belly — does not a nation seek to its own God? Why do they seek the dead among the living?" Attend, for these things are spoken obscurely, and the meaning must, by God himself granting and revealing it, cohere with what went before. He teaches us therefore not to be disciples of any discourses save the heavenly and the good. For there are certain men "who speak" and who promise true teaching, who "speak" not heavenly but earthly things. "He who is of the earth speaks of the earth; he who comes from heaven is above all; what he has seen and heard, that he testifies." If anyone, he says, to the "children" who believe in me "shall say: seek out ventriloquists and those who cry out from the earth, who speak empty things, who cry out from the belly" — as if to say "seek out" demons (for from the single kind of the "ventriloquist" demon he named, τροπικῶς [figuratively], all demons) — "if they say to you: seek out ventriloquists," that is, "seek" from demons either divination or truth or sacred contemplation, answer them these things which I say. What are the things he teaches them? He says in what follows. And there are certain men who send you — and rather the catechumens, so far as in them lies — to the "ventriloquists." For those who wish you to go to idols, of which it is written "all the gods of the nations are demons," wish you to go not only to "ventriloquists" but to every kind of demon. Yet may "our God, who does what he wills in heaven and on earth," tear us away from demons and make us his own household through our Savior Jesus Christ. See, then, lest at any time the soul of one of you be deceived and still waver and doubt, when it hears that such and such a man in that idol had a demon cure that ailment, or that it divined this thing and that; all these are idols of demons and of men not knowing the truth. Ascend in mind to him who is the "creator of all," and compare this true piety with every piety that is announced to be piety and is not piety, and see that you are blessed. For "who is like you, O people saved by the Lord?" And "blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord its God, the people whom he has chosen for his inheritance." For the nation of the Jews was once a "blessed nation," but it lost its blessedness and was cast out from its place, because him who was sent and had the testimony of the Father — not only through the law and the prophets, but also through "signs and wonders" — it plotted against and slew. The blessedness therefore has passed over to us, the disciples of Jesus Christ, and we believe in him, living unshaken and steadfastly according to that which we have been taught.
3. "And if they say to you: seek out ventriloquists and those who cry out from the earth, who speak empty things." He named them "empty-speakers." Every discourse that is spoken is either empty or full of truth. Every discourse is empty which is false, but that is full of truth which has the knowledge of the God of the universe and teaches us to believe God, who promises the kingdom of heaven to his saints. See, then, what they say who were not "empty-speakers" nor ever appeared empty in the sight of the Lord God: "We have all received of his fullness." Those who are "empty-speakers" do not have "all of the fullness," but they are "all" empty of truth, empty of virtue, empty of Christ. "If they say to you: seek out those who cry out from the earth, who speak empty things, who cry out from the belly." I wish to state also the reason why the discourse has now taken up this chief one of the "ventriloquist" demons, so as to say: "If they say to you: seek out ventriloquists." You will find that all who make promises and do not have the truth are serving their own belly and in a way do everything for the sake of its pleasure and its abundance — and not only the Gentiles, but also those who, while promising the religion in Christ, are heretics; and not only those, but even among us who are of the Church you will find someone who does everything for the filling of the belly, that he may be honored and receive the gifts which are brought into the church. Such a man speaks "from the belly," and the "fountain" of his discourses is situated in the "belly"; for the "fountain" of his discourses does not "flow" from the heart, does not "flow" from good thoughts, nor from the Holy Spirit. If therefore anyone at any time promises to teach, observe whether his discourses have their beginning "from the belly" or not. But the objection which can be raised against me, I will myself bring forward, lest perhaps someone among you, hearing it from someone, should think either that the Scripture is contrary to itself or that we did not examine how one ought to approve this discourse accusatory against those "who cry out from the belly." What then is the objection? "If anyone," he says, "believes in me, rivers shall flow from his belly, a fountain of water leaping up unto life eternal." Let someone therefore of those who raise the objection say: if the Savior promises "from the belly a fountain of water leaping up unto life eternal," it issues from the just man, and the just man "cries out from the belly," if indeed the "fountain of water" which the Savior promises is in "his belly." But it must be said that perhaps we have two "bellies," and one is bodily, the other spiritual — just as the other parts which seem to be named in the body, such as the eyes, are indeed some of the body, some of the soul. For if it is said of the "eyes": "The commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes," I do not think this is to be referred to the bodily "eyes." And if it is said: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear," this is not to be thought to be said of the "ears" of the body, but of the soul, which those who are pure possess, in the hearing of the soul. But also, if it is said in a promise: "Your foot shall not stumble," this is not to be judged to be said of the "foot" of the body; for there is a certain "foot" of the heart entering into him who said: "I am the way." So therefore, like the bodily "belly," there is a "belly" of the soul, of which the just man speaks: "From fear of you, O Lord, we conceived in the belly and were in labor and brought forth the spirit of your salvation, which you have made upon the earth." But whosoever have a "belly" full of empty discourses "which are of the earth," they have a "belly" subsisting "of the earth," of which it is written: "But God will destroy both this and these." The saints therefore have a "belly" in which "from the fear of the Lord they have also conceived," and their "belly" is "full of fountains of water leaping up unto life eternal." Of this "belly" that one says: "And my belly is like new wine without vent, bound up." For he said these things not of the bodily "belly"; for his bodily "belly" was not "full" of divine things and of things near to them, "of wine bound up in a wineskin." Let these things stand for the resolution of the objection.
4. Now let us return to what we had begun. "If" therefore "they say to you: seek out ventriloquists and those who cry out from the earth, who speak empty things, who cry out from the belly" — "does not a nation seek to its own God?" — answer them these things; but it is said elliptically, ‘answer them these things: "does not a nation seek to its own God?"’ Every "nation," if it "seeks," refers to its own "God" what it has "sought": answer them these things. But you, O Israelites, having the true "God, who is over all," when you "seek," do not "seek out ventriloquists" nor "those who cry out from the earth" nor "empty-speakers," but your own "God." "Why do they seek the dead among the living?" For "dead" are the demons, deprived of the true "life," which says: "I am the life." Do not therefore inquire of the "dead" concerning living matters, for you have received the "law." O you, who could not be persuaded to "seek" those things from the "ventriloquists" and "from those who cry out from the earth" empty discourses — attend to the word of truth and the "law," receiving it "for a help to your law." In your "law" it is written: "you shall not" follow "idols"; acting according to the "law," do not attend to "ventriloquists," nor to "those who cry out from the earth." "For he gave the law for a help, that they may say: not like this word, for which no gifts are to be given." For he who has taken up the "law" and has come to know that "the law is for a help" and above all "spiritual" — the law which forbids "ventriloquists" and auguries — he, when he has understood the "law," ought in wonder to say that there is no word in the world, among Greeks or Barbarians, such as is the word of the "law"; for from every word, from all teaching which promises truth, the "law" differs — the law which was given to us by God. "For he gave the law for a help, that they may say: not like this word." What is it that "is not like this word"? There are many words, but "not like this word." For there is no word after the "word" of Moses, after the "word" of the prophets, and much more after the "word" of Jesus Christ and his Apostles. See whether the mind of God has not "cried out" in what has been said: "For he gave the law for a help, that they may say" — those who have received the "law for a help" — "it is not like this word," such as Moses spoke in "the law enacted through angels in the hand of a mediator." But far more worthily can the Church say this: "It is not like this word," which "was made flesh," which "dwelt among us," whose "glory we beheld," not veiled "as Moses" was with a veil, but "glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." "It is not like this word," which the Church has received, in which it believes, "through which also it shall be saved," the "word" which "in the beginning was with God, God," the "word" "to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"