Homilies on Leviticus — Homily 1 (prologue — the spiritual sense beneath the letter of the Law; Lev. 1 (the whole burnt offering))
Latin source: Origen's Greek homilies on Leviticus, surviving only in Rufinus of Aquileia's Latin translation (c. 403–405), from the reading text of W. A. Baehrens (ed.), Origenes Werke VI (GCS 29, Leipzig, 1920), pp. 280–507. This English translation is released into the public domain.[No title is transmitted: the title is absent in the manuscript classes (Baehrens); Homily I stands without a title.]
1. Just as "in the last days" the Word of God, clothed with flesh from Mary, came forth into this world, and one thing indeed was that which was seen in him, another that which was understood — for the appearance of the flesh in him lay open to all, but the recognition of his divinity was granted to few and to the elect —, so also, when through the prophets or the lawgiver the Word of God is brought forth to men, it is not brought forth without fitting garments. For as there it is covered by the veil of the flesh, so here by the veil of the letter, so that the letter indeed is looked upon as flesh, but the spiritual sense lying hidden within is perceived as divinity. Such, then, is what we now also find as we unroll the book of Leviticus, in which the rites of sacrifices and the diversity of victims and the ministries of the priests are described. But these things according to the letter, which is as it were the flesh of the Word of God and the garment of his divinity, perhaps both the worthy may look upon or hear and the unworthy also. But "blessed are those eyes" which see the divine Spirit concealed within under the veil of the letter; and blessed are those who bring pure ears of the inner man to hear these things. Otherwise, in these discourses they will plainly perceive "the letter that kills." For if, following the simple understanding of even certain of our own people, and without any — as they are wont to laugh at us — trick of word or cloud of allegory, I take up the voice of the lawgiver, then I, a churchman living under the faith of Christ and placed in the midst of the Church, am compelled by the authority of the divine precept to sacrifice bull-calves and lambs and to offer fine flour with frankincense and oil. For this is what they do who force us to be slaves to the history and to keep the letter of the law. But it is time for us to use against the wicked elders the words of holy Susanna, which they indeed, repudiating the history of Susanna, cut out of the catalogue of the divine volumes, but which we both receive and, opportunely, bring forth against them, saying: "Straits are upon me on every side." For if I consent to you, to follow the letter of the law, "it will be death to me"; but if I do not consent, "I shall not escape your hands. But it is better for me, without any deed, to fall into your hands than to sin in the sight of the Lord." Let us therefore, we too, if it is thus necessary, fall into your detractions, provided only that the Church, now turned to Christ the Lord, may know the truth of the Word of God covered under the covering of the letter; for so the Apostle also said, that: "if anyone shall be turned to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away; for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Therefore the Lord himself, the Holy Spirit himself, must be entreated by us, that he may deign to take away every mist and every darkness which, thickened by the filth of sins, obscures the sight of our heart, so that we may be able to contemplate the spiritual and wonderful understanding of his law, according to him who said: "Uncover my eyes, and I will consider the wonders of your law." Therefore, as briefly as we can, let us touch upon a few things out of many, not so much striving after the explanation of individual words — for to do this belongs to one who writes at leisure — but bringing forth the things that pertain to the edification of the Church; that we may rather give the hearers occasions of understanding than pursue a breadth of expositions, according to that which is written: "Give occasion to the wise man, and he will be the wiser."
2. The beginning, then, of Leviticus says that "the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of testimony," that he might promulgate to the sons of Israel the laws of sacrifices and of offerings, and it says: "If a man offer an offering to God, let him offer from the oxen or the flock," that is, lambs or kids; "but if from the birds, turtledoves or young of doves." "But if" not a man, but "a soul offer an offering to God, from fine flour," it says, "let him offer unleavened loaves baked in the oven, or indeed fine flour from the pan sprinkled with oil, or from the griddle likewise kneaded in oil." Then next we are taught that nothing "leavened" ought at all to be offered at the altar of God, nor should "honey" anywhere be mixed with the sacrifices, but every sacrifice or offering should be salted with "salt." In the second place he gave precept concerning the "sacrifices of the first-fruits," which he commands to be offered to the Lord "fresh, roasted," well purged. After these things, under the same content of the law, there is joined the matter of the "peace offerings," first "from the oxen," second "from the sheep," in which nevertheless it is permitted, whether in "lambs" or in "kids," to offer either "females" or "males," and he decrees that nothing besides these animals is to be offered in the peace offerings. But let us go back a little and see, first of all, what it is that he says: "a man from among you, if he offer an offering," as though indeed some other than a man could offer. And surely it would have sufficed to say: if any one of you offer an offering; but now he says: "a man from among you, if he offer an offering"; while in what follows he says: "but if a soul offer an offering." Further, in the later passages, when the Lord speaks a second time to Moses and gives command concerning the sacrifices to be offered for sin, he says thus: "If the high priest shall have sinned, let him offer this and that." Or "if the whole synagogue shall have sinned," or "if the ruler shall have sinned," or if "one soul shall have sinned," it is commanded to each several one what they are to offer. What then? Do we think this distinction of persons to be empty, that one thing is commanded to be offered under the designation of "man," another under that of "soul," another under that of "high priest," another under that of "synagogue," and yet another under the name of "ruler" or of "one soul"? I, meanwhile, according to the smallness of my understanding, judge that in this place "the man" — whom he named and set first of all for offering an offering to God — is to be understood as the whole human race, and that he is called man who offers as a "whole burnt offering" a "bull-calf from the oxen without blemish." But this "bull-calf without blemish" — see whether it is not that "fatted calf" which the father slaughtered for that son who had perished and was restored to him, and who "had squandered all his substance," and made a great banquet and had joy, so that "the angels rejoiced in heaven over one sinner doing penance." This man, then, who "had perished and was found," since he had nothing of his own substance to offer — for he "had squandered all, living luxuriously" — found this calf, sent indeed from heaven, but coming from the order of the patriarchs and the linked successions of the generations from Abraham; and therefore he did not say a calf and remain silent, so that any commanded calf might seem meant, but a calf from the oxen, that is, coming from the generation of the patriarchs. And it is "a male without blemish." He is truly "a male" who knows not sin, which is of feminine frailty. He alone, therefore, is "male," he alone is "without blemish," who "did no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth," and who, "accepted before the Lord," is offered "at the door of the tabernacle." "At the door of the tabernacle" is not within the door, but outside the door. For Jesus was outside the door, because "he came unto his own, and his own received him not." He did not, therefore, enter that tabernacle to which he had come, but "at the door" of it he was offered as a "whole burnt offering," because he suffered "outside the camp." For those wicked "husbandmen also cast the son of the householder, when he came, forth outside the vineyard and killed him." This, then, is what is offered "at the door of the tabernacle, accepted before the Lord"; and what is so "accepted" as the victim of Christ, "who offered himself to God"?
3. And yet: "he shall lay his hand," it says, "upon the head of the victim, and they shall slaughter the calf before the Lord, and the sons of Aaron the priest shall offer the blood, and they shall pour out the blood at the altar round about, which is at the door of the tabernacle of testimony." It can indeed seem to have been said for this reason, that Annas and Caiaphas and the rest were of the sons of Aaron, "all who, taking counsel against Jesus, pronounced him guilty of death" and poured out his blood "around the base of the altar of the tabernacle of testimony." For there the blood is poured out where the altar and its base were, as the Lord himself also said: "because it does not befall a prophet to perish outside Jerusalem." He "placed," then, also "his hand upon the head of the calf," that is, he laid the sins of the human race upon his own body; for he himself is the head of the body of his Church. But this too perhaps happens not without cause, that, when he had said above: "he shall bring it to the door of the tabernacle of testimony," in the later passages he repeats and again says: "to the altar, which is at the door of the tabernacle of testimony," as though it had not sufficed to have designated the same place once under the same narration. Unless perhaps he wished this to be understood, that the blood of Jesus was poured out not only in Jerusalem, where the altar and its base and the tabernacle of testimony were, but that this same blood also sprinkled the heavenly altar, which is in the heavens, where also is "the Church of the firstborn," as the Apostle too says, that: "he made peace through the blood of his cross both for the things that are on earth and for the things that are in the heavens." Rightly, therefore, he names a second time "the altar which is at the door of the tabernacle of testimony," because Jesus was offered as a victim not only for earthly things but also for heavenly ones; and here indeed for men he poured out the very corporeal matter of his blood, but in the heavenly places, with priests ministering — if there be any there — he immolated the vital power of his body as a kind of spiritual sacrifice. But do you wish to know that there was a twofold victim in him, suited to earthly things and fitted to heavenly ones? The Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, says: "through the veil, that is, his flesh." And again he interprets the inner veil as "heaven," which Jesus "penetrated," and "now stands before the face of God for us," "always," he says, "living to make intercession for these." If, therefore, two veils are understood, which Jesus entered as a high priest, consequently a twofold sacrifice too must be understood, through which he saved both earthly things and heavenly ones. In short, the things that follow also seem to be fitted more to the heavenly sacrifice than to the earthly.
4. "And flaying," it says, "the whole burnt offering, they shall divide it limb by limb, and the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and shall pile up wood on the fire; and the sons of Aaron the priest shall lay on the divided limbs and the head and the fat and the wood which are upon the altar. But the entrails and the feet they shall wash with water, and the priest shall lay all upon the altar; it is a victim and a sacrifice, an odor of sweetness to the Lord." How the flesh of the Word of God, which here is named a "calf," is flayed, and how it is divided "limb by limb" by the priests, is worth observing. I think that that priest strips off the hide of the "calf" offered as a "whole burnt offering" and draws off the skin by which its limbs are covered, who strips from the Word of God the veil of the letter and lays bare its inner parts, which are the limbs of spiritual understanding; and these limbs of the inner Word he places not in some lowly place, but sets them on high and holy, that is, "upon the altar," when he opens the divine mysteries not to unworthy men who lead a lowly and earthly life, but to those who are the altar of God, in whom the divine fire ever burns and the flesh is ever consumed. Upon such as these, then, this "calf of the whole burnt offering," divided limb by limb, is placed. For he divides the "calf limb by limb" who can explain in order and discourse with fitting distinction what was the progress of one who "touched the fringe" of Christ, but of another who "washed his feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of the head," and how much more excellent than these it is to have "anointed his head with myrrh"; and also what eminence he has who "reclined upon his breast." To discourse, then, on the causes of each of these, and to fit some things to beginners, other things to those who are already advancing in the faith of Christ, and yet other things to those who are already perfect in his knowledge and love — this is "to have divided the calf limb by limb." But also one who knows how to show what were the beginnings of the law, what progress too was made in the prophets, and what fullness of perfection is held in the Gospels; or who can teach with what "milk" of the word the "little ones" in Christ are to be fed, and with what "herb" of the word "those who are weak in the faith" are to be refreshed, and what also is that "solid and strong food" by which the athletes of Christ are to be fattened; whoever knows how to divide these single things by spiritual reasoning, such a teacher can be seen as that priest who "places upon the altar the whole burnt offering divided into limbs." He also adds "wood" to the altar, that the fire may be quickened and burn, who mingles his discourse not only concerning the corporeal virtues of Christ, but also concerning his divinity. For the divinity of Christ is from above, whither this fire hastens. Fittingly, therefore, the heavenly fire consumed all these things that were done in the body by the Savior, and restored them all to the nature of his divinity. Yet with wood applied this fire is kindled; for up to the wood was the passion of Christ in the flesh. But when he was hung upon the wood, the dispensation of the flesh was ended; for rising from the dead he ascended to heaven, whither the nature of fire shows its course. Whence the Apostle also said, that: "even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know him." For the whole burnt offering of his flesh, offered through the wood of the cross, joined earthly things to heavenly and human things to divine. "The entrails" indeed "together with the feet" the word of the precept commands "to be washed with water," announcing the sacrament of baptism under a figurative proclamation. For he washes the "entrails" who purges the conscience; he washes the feet who receives the consummation of the sacrament and knows that "he who is clean has no need except to wash his feet," and that "no one can have a part with Jesus unless he wash his feet."
5. But if you wish to incline these things also to the moral level, you too have a "calf" which you ought to offer. Your flesh is a "calf," and indeed a very proud one; and if you wish to offer it as an offering to the Lord, so as to keep it chaste and modest, lead it "to the door of the tabernacle," that is, where it may be able to receive the hearing of the divine books. Let your offering be "male," let it not know woman, let it spurn concupiscence, let it flee frailty, let it seek nothing dissolute or soft. "Lay" also "your hand upon" your "victim," that it may be acceptable to the Lord, and slaughter it "before the Lord," that is, place upon it the bridle of continence, and do not take away from it the hand of discipline, just as that man laid his hand upon his own flesh who said: "I macerate my body and subject it to servitude, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should be made a reprobate." And slaughter it "before the Lord," mortifying without doubt your "members which are upon the earth." But let "the sons of Aaron the priest" also offer its blood. The priest in you is the mind which is in you, and his sons are your senses, which are rightly called the priest or "the sons of the priest"; for they alone are the ones that understand God and are capable of the knowledge of God. The divine word wishes, therefore, that with a rational sense you offer your flesh to God in chastity, according to what the Apostle says: "a living victim, holy, pleasing to God, your reasonable service." And this is to offer blood to the altar through the priest or the sons of the priest, when one is made chaste both in body and in spirit. For there are also others who indeed offer their flesh as a whole burnt offering, but not through the ministry of the priest. For they do not offer knowingly, nor according to the law which is in the mouth of the priest, but they are indeed chaste in body, while in mind they are found unchaste. For either they are stained by the concupiscence of human glory, or they are polluted by the greed of avarice, or they grow foul with the unhappiness of envy and spite, or they are vexed by the monstrousness of raging hatred and anger. Whoever, then, are such, though they be chaste in body, yet they do not offer their whole burnt offerings through the hands and ministry of the priest. For there is not in them the counsel and prudence which discharges the priesthood before God, but they are among those "five foolish virgins" who were indeed virgins and kept the chastity of the body, but knew not how to store up the "oil" of charity and peace and the remaining virtues "in their vessels," and were therefore shut out from the bridal chamber of the bridegroom, since the continence of the flesh alone cannot reach the Lord's altar, if it is deserted by the remaining virtues and the priestly ministries. And therefore we who read or hear these things, let us give our effort on both sides to be chaste in body, upright in mind, clean in heart, amended in morals, to advance in works, to be watchful in knowledge, to be perfect in faith and in acts, in deeds and in understandings, so that we may deserve to be conformed to the likeness of the victim of Christ, through our Lord Jesus Christ himself, through whom to God the Father almighty, with the Holy Spirit, is "glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."