Homilies on Leviticus — Homily 11 (Lev. 19–20 — “be holy, for I am holy”; the holiness code)
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.On that which is written: "Be holy, for I too am holy, says the Lord".
1. Recently there was recited in the ears of the Church the word of God saying: "Be holy, for I too am holy, the Lord your God". What this name "holy" intends for itself, and what it signifies in the divine Scriptures, must be inquired into more diligently, so that, when we have learned the force of the word, we may also be able to fulfill its work. Let us therefore gather from the divine Scriptures those things over which we find the word "holy" said, and we discover that not only human beings, but even dumb animals are called "holy"; we find also that "vessels" of the ministry are called "holy", and that vestments are said to be "holy", and no less the places which are set within cities or suburbs and assigned to the priests. Among the dumb animals indeed, the "firstborn" of oxen or of flocks are commanded by the law to be sanctified to the Lord, and it is said: do not, it says, perform any work with them, since they are sanctified to the Lord. Concerning vessels, however, when in the tabernacle of testimony the vessels of the ministry, the "censers" or "bowls" or the rest of this kind, are called "holy" "vessels". Concerning vestments too, when the "robe" of the high priest Aaron and the "linen tunic" and the rest of the vestments of this kind are said to be "holy". If therefore we consider in what sense all these have been named "holy", we shall perceive how we too ought to give effort, that we may be able to be holy. A firstborn ox has been born to me: it is not permitted to me to employ it for common work; for it is consecrated to the Lord, and therefore it is called holy. We understand therefore from this dumb animal how the law, that which it wills to be holy, commands to serve no other but the Lord alone. Again, the "cups" or "bowls" which it calls holy are those which are never commanded to go out from the temple, but always to be in the holy places, nor to serve any human uses whatsoever. Similarly also the "vestments" which are named "holy" are not commanded to serve for use within the house of the high priest, but to be in the temple and never at all to be carried out from there, but to be consecrated to this alone, that the high priest ministering to God with them may be clothed, and that they may always be in the temple; while for the other common uses he uses common garments. Similarly also with these "cups and bowls" which are called "holy", it is not permitted to use them for human and common uses, but only for the divine ministries. But if you have understood how an animal or a vessel or a vestment is called holy, understand consequently that by these observances and laws a human being too is called holy. For if anyone has devoted himself to God, if anyone has entangled himself in no worldly affairs, "that he may please him to whom he has proved himself"; if anyone is separated and set apart from the rest of human beings who live carnally and are bound to mundane affairs, not "seeking the things that are upon the earth, but those which are in the heavens", that one is rightly called holy. For as long as he is mingled with the "crowds" and is tossed about in the multitude of those who are fluctuating, and is not free for God alone, set apart from the common throng, he cannot be holy. For concerning those what shall we say, who hasten with the crowds of the gentiles to the spectacles and defile their own sight and hearing with shameless words and deeds? It is not ours to pronounce concerning such. For they themselves can perceive and see what portion they have chosen for themselves. You therefore, who hear these things, to whom the divine law is recited, whom the very word of God itself addresses, saying: "Be holy, for I too am holy, the Lord your God", understand wisely the things that are said, so that you may be blessed when you have done them. For this is what is said to you: "Separate yourself" from every one, not only every man, but even "from a brother walking disorderly and not according to" the apostolic "traditions". "Be separated", indeed, "you who carry the vessels of the Lord, and go out from the midst of them, says the Lord". "Separate yourself" from earthly deeds, "separate yourself" from the concupiscence of the world: "for everything that is in the world", according to the Apostle, "is the concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes, which is not from God". When therefore you have separated yourself from all these things, devote yourself to God as a firstborn calf; let sin not work through you, nor let malice impose a yoke upon you, but be set aside and set apart, given over only to priestly uses like a firstborn animal. Be set apart and severed, like holy "bowls" and holy "censers" free only for the uses of the temple and for the ministry of God. Separate yourself and set yourself aside from all pollution of sin, and be set aside and set apart within the temple of God like the holy garments of the high priest. For that man is set apart and separated within the temple of God, "who meditates in the law of God day and night" and who "greatly desires his commandments". "Be holy" therefore, "says the Lord, for I too am holy". What is: "for I too am holy"? Just as I, he says, am set apart and far separated from all things that are adored or worshiped whether on earth or in heaven; just as I exceed every creature and am set apart from all things that have been made by me: so also be you set apart from all who are not holy nor dedicated to God. But we say that one is set apart not by places, but by deeds, and not by regions, but by manners of life. Finally, the very word which in the Greek language is spoken, ἅγιος, signifies as it were to be outside the earth. For whoever shall have consecrated himself to God will rightly be seen to be outside the earth and outside the world; for he too is able to say, walking upon the earth: "we have our manner of life in the heavens". Solomon also in the Proverbs says: "it is a snare for a strong man hastily to sanctify something of his own; for after he has vowed it, it comes about that he repents". And this indeed is what he says, lest perhaps anyone, "when he gathers fruit from the threshing floor or wine from the presses", and has said: I wish to offer only so much to the Church, or to supply only so much for the use of the poor or of pilgrims; if afterward he presumes to take something for his own uses out of that measure which he vowed, he has now not presumed upon his own fruits, but has violated the holy things of God. And therefore "it is a snare for the strong man to sanctify something", that is, to vow it to God and afterward, led by repentance, to recall to his own uses those things which he had consecrated. But even if we consecrate and offer ourselves to God, or also if we vow others, let us observe this "snare", lest perhaps, after we have vowed ourselves to God, we again be subjected to human uses or deeds. Now each one vows himself, for example, as the Nazirites used to do, consecrating themselves to the temple of God for three or four or however many years it pleased, so that they might always be free there, observing those things which are written concerning the Nazirites; that they should nourish the hair of the head, and "no iron should go up upon their head" throughout the whole time of their vow, that they should not touch wine nor anything "from the vine", and whatever else the profession of the vow had embraced. But someone also vows another to God, as Hannah did with Samuel; for before he was born, she offered him to God, saying: "and I will give him to the Lord, given all the days of his life". From all which it is clear how each one of us, who wishes to be holy, ought to consecrate himself to God and to be occupied besides with no affairs or deeds which pertain in no way to God.
2. After these things it is written: "keep", it says, "my precepts and do them, I am the Lord", and to these it added: "a man, a man, if he shall have cursed his father or his mother, let him die"; and after many things which it commanded, to which it also appended the penalties of transgression, it adds in the conclusion: "and keep all my precepts and my justifications and my judgments". Whence it seems to me consequent to inquire what is indicated in these single terms. For my part, according to what I have been able to observe, a "precept" or "commandment" is that which, for example, in the decalogue is said: "you shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery"; for this only is enjoined, and the penalty of the deed is not appended. But now indeed the same things are repeated, but with penalties added; for it is said: "a man, a man, whoever shall have committed adultery with the wife of a man and the wife of his neighbor, by death let him die, he who commits adultery and she who is committed adultery with. And if anyone shall have slept with the wife of his father, he has uncovered the shame of his father, by death let them die, both are guilty". Concerning these, however, precepts had already been given in the former passages, but what penalty awaited the one not observing them had not been appended. Now therefore the same things are repeated and the penalty of each single sin is decreed; and therefore these are rightly called justifications and "judgments", by which he who sins is judged to receive what is just. But observe the order of divine wisdom; it did not straightway establish the penalties together with the first precepts. For it wills that you should keep the precepts of the Father not from fear of punishment, but from love of piety; but if you have despised them, the punishment is now enjoined not so much upon a man as upon a despiser. First, therefore, you are summoned by kindness as a son: "for I have said: you are gods, and sons of the Most High, all of you". But if you are unwilling to be an obedient son, you are struck as a despiser, like a slave. After these things it says: "and if anyone shall have slept with his daughter-in-law, by death let them both die, they have done impiety, they are guilty". And these laws or these precepts he had given above without penalties; for he had said: "the shame of your daughter-in-law you shall not lay bare, since she is the wife of your son, you shall not reveal her shame", and all that follows. And this passage he appended in a like manner there without punishments, but here with various kinds of punishments. In which place I recall that word which the blessed Apostle Paul, writing to the Hebrews, says: "anyone making void the law of Moses dies without any mercy under two or three witnesses; of how much greater punishments will he be thought worthy, who shall have trodden underfoot the Son of God and reckoned the blood of the testament polluted, in which he was sanctified, and done contumely to the Spirit of grace?". But for what cause I have made mention of this scripture, listen. According to the law the adulterer or "adulteress by death used to die", nor could they say: we seek repentance and we implore pardon. There was no place for tears, nor was any faculty of amendment conceded, but it was necessary in every way that he be punished who had incurred the law. And this was observed also in each and every crime to which the penalty of death was appended. Among Christians, however, if adultery has been committed, it is not commanded that the "adulterer or adulteress" be punished with bodily destruction, nor is power given to the bishop of the Church to condemn the adulterer to present death, as then according to the law was done by the elders of the people. What then? Shall we say that the law of Moses is cruel which commands the "adulterer or adulteress" to be punished, and that the gospel of Christ, through indulgence, dissolves its hearers into what is worse? It is not so. For this reason we set forth above the word of Paul saying: "by how much more is he worthy of worse punishments who shall have trodden underfoot the Son of God" and so forth. Hear therefore how neither then was the law cruel, nor now does the gospel seem dissolute on account of the largess of pardon, but in both the kindness of God is maintained by a different dispensation. This, that according to the law, for example, the "adulterer or adulteress" was punished with present death: on account of this very thing, that he bore the penalty of his sin and paid the worthy punishments of the crime committed, what will there be after this that threatens vengeance to their souls, if they have transgressed in nothing else, if there is no other sin which condemns them, but they committed this alone and only then, when they were punished and bore the punishment of the law for this? "The Lord will not take vengeance twice for the same thing"; for they received back their sin and the penalty of the crime is consumed. And therefore this kind of precept is found to be not cruel, as the heretics assert, accusing the law of God and denying that anything of humanity is contained in it, but full of mercy, for the reason that through it the people would be purged from their sins rather than condemned. But now the penalty is not inflicted upon the body, nor does the purgation of sin come about through bodily punishment, but through repentance; whether one bears this worthily, so as to be able to merit pardon for it, see to it. For there are many who neither are inclined to this nor seek the refuge of repentance, but, when they have fallen, are unwilling to rise up any further; for they delight to wallow in that mire in which they have stuck. We, nevertheless, do not forget that precept in which it is said: "with what measure you shall have measured, with the same it will be measured back to you". For we say also to God: "you have given us the bread of tears, and have given us to drink in tears in measure". There are therefore those "sins" which are said to be "unto death"; whence it is also consequent that, as often as anyone commits such a sin, so often does he die. For that there are many deaths of sin the Apostle Paul also signifies, when he says: "who has snatched us from so many deaths and will snatch us; in whom we hope that he will still snatch us". What deaths then does he here commemorate as many, except those of sins? For if he were not saying this concerning the deaths of sins, Paul would seem, according to his own opinion, to be going to remain immortal from this common death, who says: "he has snatched us from so many deaths and will snatch us; in whom we hope that he will still snatch us". For if he both "has snatched" and "will snatch", there will never be a time when he dies, whom the Lord will always "snatch". And therefore, according to those things which we have discussed, it must be seen whether perhaps it is even somewhat graver for us, who are by no means punished with this death for a common sin, than for those whom the sentence of the law condemned bodily; because for us vengeance is stored up for the future, while for them the paid punishments of their deed used to absolve them. But even if there is anyone who perhaps has been overtaken in sins of this kind, being now admonished by the word of God let him flee for aid to repentance, so that, if he has committed it once, he may not do it a second time, or, if he has already been overtaken a second time or even a third, he may add no further. For with a just judge there is a moderation of the penalty, not only according to the quality, but also according to the quantity.
3. Among the other sins therefore which are punished with death, the divine law reports that also "he who shall have cursed his father or mother, by death let him die". The name of father is a great mystery, and the name of mother is a hidden reverence. Your father according to the spirit is God; your mother is the "heavenly Jerusalem". Learn these things from prophetic and apostolic testimonies. This same Moses writes in the canticle: "is not this same one your father who acquired you and possessed you?". But the Apostle says concerning the "heavenly Jerusalem" that: "she is free", he says, "who is the mother of us all". First, therefore, your father is God, who begot your spirit, who also says: "I have begotten sons and exalted them". But James the Apostle also says: "let us obey the father of spirits and we shall live". Secondly, your father is the father of the flesh, by whose ministry you were born in the flesh and came into this world, who carried you "in his loins"; as it is said of Levi that: "he was still in the loins of Abraham, when Melchizedek met him", "returning from the slaughter of the kings, and he blessed him, and received tithes from him". Because therefore the name of father is so sacred and so venerable, for that reason "he who shall have cursed his father or mother, by death let him die". Similar things are to be reckoned also concerning the mother, by whose labor, by whose care, by whose ministry you were both born and nourished. And you ought, according to the Apostle, to render an equal thanks to your parents. For if you dishonor your carnal father, the contumely of this returns to the "father of spirits"; and if you do injury to your carnal mother, the injury overflows to that "mother, the heavenly Jerusalem". So too a slave, if he is irreverent to his master, hurls contumely through this bodily master upon the "Lord of majesty"; for that Lord imposed his own name upon this carnal master. And therefore in no manner is a contention to be had against father or mother, not even in word, nor contradiction to be stirred up. He is a father, she is a mother; as seems good to them, let them act, let them do, let them say; they themselves shall know. However much of obedience we render, we do not yet repay the return of the grace by which we were begotten, by which we were carried, by which we drew in the light, by which we were nourished, perhaps also educated and instructed in honorable arts. And by them perhaps as authors we came to know God and came to the Church of God and heard the word of the divine law. On account of all these things, therefore, "whoever shall have cursed his father or mother, by death let him die". But if these things are decreed concerning bodily parents, what will they do who provoke God the Father with cursing voices? who deny that he is the founder of the world, or who, understanding with unworthy senses the "heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all", drag the prophetic sayings to the condition of some earthly city? It is good therefore to take care that we never venerate either the carnal father or the heavenly one with less than worthy honor, and likewise the mother; to observe also every commandment which commends to us modesty and chastity, so that neither in the present life may we be liable to death according to the law, nor according to the spiritual law may the future penalty of eternal fire await us; from which may our Lord Jesus Christ grant to us all to flee and escape, "to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!".