Homilies on Numbers — Homily 7
Latin source: Origen, In Numeros homiliae (Rufinus's Latin translation), from the public-domain critical text of W. A. Baehrens, GCS 30 = Origenes Werke VII (Leipzig, 1921). This English translation is released into the public domain.Again concerning the Ethiopian woman and the leprosy of Miriam, matters which remained over.
[§1] Just as the Apostle says: "all these things happened to them as figures, but they were written for our admonition," I ask what admonition we may receive from that which has been read to us, namely that Aaron and Miriam spoke against Moses and on account of this were rebuked, and Miriam indeed was even made a leper. And so great was the concern of this rebuke that, while Miriam was completing the space of a week in leprosy, the people of God did not make their journey toward the land of promise, nor was the tabernacle of testimony moved. First of all, meanwhile, I am admonished, and usefully and necessarily admonished, from this deed, not to disparage my brother, not to speak evil of my neighbor, not to open my mouth to detract not only from the saints but even from any of my neighbors whatsoever, seeing how great was the indignation of God from this, how great a vengeance proceeded. Indeed, against this sin we see God likewise moved with similar indignation even in the Psalms, and saying: "sitting you spoke against your brother, and against the son of your mother you laid a stumbling-block." And likewise also in another Psalm, from the person of the just man, who knows that this displeases God most greatly, it is said: "him that secretly detracted against his neighbor I persecuted." From all these words, therefore, of divine Scripture, as though from certain swords sharpened on both sides, let us cut away the vice of disparaging our brothers and detracting from the saints: for leprosy follows those who detract and speak evil. But after these things let us pass over from the moral matters to the mystical understanding; although in the earlier treatise a few things have already been said, nevertheless we will add what seems to have been lacking. Let us see, then, who it is that detracts from Moses, who speaks evil of him. Not only the Jew, but also the heretics, who do not receive the law and the prophets, they too detract from Moses. Indeed, they are accustomed even to fasten a charge upon him, saying that Moses was a murderer, for he killed an Egyptian, and they contrive many other things with blasphemous mouth either against him or against the prophets. These men, therefore, because they detract from Moses, have leprosy in their soul and are lepers in the inner man, and for that reason are held to be outside the camp of the Church of God. Whether, then, it be heretics who detract from Moses, or those who are of the Church who disparage their brothers and speak evil of their neighbors, all who are driven by this vice — there is no room for doubt that they are lepers in their soul. And Miriam indeed, by the intervention of Aaron the high priest, is healed on the seventh day; but we, if by the vice of disparagement we fall into the leprosy of the soul, until the end of the week of the world, that is, until the time of the resurrection, will remain lepers in soul and unclean; unless, while there is time for repentance, we are corrected and, turned to the Lord Jesus and supplicating him through repentance, we are cleansed from the uncleanness of our leprosy. But I think that not only that former people, nor only the heretics whom we mentioned above, detract from Moses, but also everyone who understands his writings badly and who receives the spiritual law carnally detracts from Moses, because he teaches men carnally concerning the words of the Spirit. You have heard what judgment the disparagers and evil-speakers gain for themselves, and what condemnation; hear now also how great a benefit they confer upon those whom they disparage. Never do we find that God spoke such great praises about Moses his servant as we now see said, when he was detracted from by men.[§2] Hear, then, in what follows, what the Holy Spirit relates and with what praises he extols Moses. "And the Lord came down," he says, "in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the tabernacle of testimony; and Aaron and Miriam were called, and both stood forth. And he said to them: hear my words; if there be a prophet of yours to the Lord, I will be known to him in visions and I will speak to him in dreams. Not so with my servant Moses, who is faithful in all my house; mouth to mouth will I speak to him, in his form and not in a riddle, and he saw the glory of the Lord; and why were you not afraid to detract from my servant Moses?" And the wrath of the Lord's fury was made upon them, and they departed. And the cloud withdrew from the tabernacle, and behold, Miriam was made leprous as snow. You see what penalty the disparagers brought upon themselves, but what praise they sought out for him whom they had disparaged. For themselves they sought foulness, for him splendor; for themselves leprosy, for him glory; for themselves reproach, for him magnificence. Yet Moses, before he received the Ethiopian woman, it is not written that God spoke to him in his form and not in a riddle; but when he received the Ethiopian woman, then God says concerning him: "mouth to mouth will I speak to him, in his form and not in a riddle." For now, when Moses has come to us and has been joined to this our Ethiopian woman, the law of God is now recognized no longer in figures and in images as before, but in the very form of truth; and the things which before were signified in a riddle are now fulfilled in form and truth. And therefore he who expounded the forms of the figures and riddles says: "but we know that our fathers were all under the cloud, and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual rock following them; and the rock was Christ." You see how Paul resolves the riddles of the law and teaches the forms of the riddles, and says that the rock was in a riddle with Moses, before it was joined to this our Ethiopian woman. Now in form the rock is Christ; for now God speaks mouth to mouth through the law. Before, the baptism in the cloud and in the sea was in a riddle, but now in form there is regeneration in water and the Holy Spirit. Then in a riddle the manna was food, but now in form the flesh of the Word of God is the true food, as he himself says: "my flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink." Thus, therefore, now already Moses, placed among us and joined to this Ethiopian woman, whether he himself to us or God to him, speaks not in a riddle, but in form. And to this is added: "and he saw," he says, "the glory of the Lord." When did Moses see the glory of the Lord? I say, then, when the Lord was transformed on the mountain and Moses was present with him together with Elijah and they conversed with him. And therefore in what follows he rightly adds: "and why were you not afraid to detract from my servant Moses?" Which is evidently directed, at any rate, against those who seem indeed to receive the Gospels, but detract from Moses, and are deservedly reproved, because, when they learn through the Gospel that Moses together with Elijah saw the glory of the Lord, they have dared to detract from the law and the prophets. And therefore let us not detract from Moses nor disparage the law, but let us be not only hearers of the law, but also doers, that with Moses himself we may be counted worthy to be glorified together. But I think that they too furnish material for detracting from Moses who, for example, when the book of Leviticus or the reading of Numbers is read, do not show how these things, which are written in a riddle, ought to be understood through the form — that is, those who do not spiritually expound the things which are read in the law. For necessarily those who hear the rite of sacrifices or the observance of sabbaths or of the other like things recited in the church are offended, and say: what need is there that this be read in the church? What profit to us are the Jewish precepts and the observances of a rejected people? These things are of the Jews, and let the Jews see to them. Therefore, lest offenses of this kind befall the hearers, effort must be given to the knowledge of the law, and, according to this, that the law is spiritual, the things which are read must be understood and explained, lest by the fault of the teachers — nay rather, by their sloth and negligence — Moses be detracted from by the unskilled and unlearned; but let us turn to the Lord, that he may take away from us the veil of the letter, so that not a disfigured countenance of Moses, but a glorious and comely one may appear to us, so that we not only do not disparage him, but even, for the greatness of his meanings, confer praise and glory upon him. "And the wrath of the Lord's fury was made upon them, and they departed. And the cloud withdrew from the tabernacle, and behold, Miriam was made leprous as snow." The wrath of the Lord's fury is brought about upon those who speak evil and detract. But what he says: "the cloud withdrew from the tabernacle, and behold, Miriam was made leprous as snow," must be considered more diligently, that first the cloud withdraws and thus the leprosy fills her: so that it may be shown that, even if there is in someone the grace of the Holy Spirit and he disparages and detracts, it withdraws from him after the disparagement, and thus his soul is filled with leprosy. For that former people too had in itself the grace of God, but after they stretched forth the tongues of their blasphemy against the true Moses, our Lord Jesus Christ, the cloud departed from them, and passed over to us onto the high mountain, when our Savior was transformed and the shining cloud overshadowed his disciples and a voice came from the cloud saying: "this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." After this, therefore, Miriam was made leprous as snow. While the cloud was present, Miriam was not leprous, but when it departed. For while the visitation of God was in that people, it was not leprous; but when it departed, the ignominy of its own countenance covered it. But let us also fear, lest perhaps we put this cloud to flight from us by speaking evil, by acting evilly, by thinking evilly; and then the leprosy of sin will appear in us, when the grace of God has deserted us.
[§3] "And Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses: I pray, Lord, do not lay upon us the sin, since we did not know that we sinned. Let her not be made like death, and like a miscarriage cast out from the mother's womb, and it has consumed half of her flesh." He wishes in this to show that that people was indeed formed in the womb of its mother the synagogue, yet could not arrive at a perfect and whole birth. For just as a miscarriage is an imperfect and unformed birth, so also that people was for a certain time indeed placed within its mother's womb, that is, within the instruction of the synagogue; but, with sins intervening, it could not be formed to completeness and quickened, and therefore they were cast off like an imperfect and untimely miscarriage, sin, as he says, consuming half of its flesh. Yet there is sometimes even a good miscarriage. And it is called a good miscarriage when it is compared with others, just as Ecclesiastes too says: "and I said: a miscarriage is better than that one." Than which one? "He who," he says, "goes forward in vanity and walks in darkness." He does not then call a miscarriage good absolutely, but better than a life which is led in vanity and in the darkness of ignorance. And with him there is a certain comparison of individuals; for the same Ecclesiastes says also elsewhere that the dead are better than the living. And if again you compare a miscarriage with these, you would say it is better than both. If therefore you consider who are the living and who are the dead, than whom a miscarriage is better in that it has not even tasted the beginnings of the life of this world, you will find what the differences are in this comparison. Consider, then, that he there names as living none other than those of whom it is said in the Psalms: "yet truly every living man is vanity." Every man, therefore, who lives in vanity. For not every life is in vanity, but that life which is according to the flesh and according to the errors and pleasures of the world — this is the life of vanity, and above this is everyone who is dead to this life and who says: "but to me the world is crucified, and I to the world," and of whom it is said: "you are therefore dead with Christ." These, therefore, are better than those living. But above these a miscarriage is said to be, because, although it may seem to have come in the flesh, yet it has taken up no beginnings of the vanity of this life. Yet Ecclesiastes introduces also a certain other, as it seems, even better than this one, of whom he says: "and best above these is he who has not yet been born," that is, he who has not even come to the confinement of the fleshly womb and to the injury of a bodily nativity. But this very thing, too, which Ecclesiastes says: "I praised all the dead more than the living, those who live up to now," how does it not evidently show that he calls those better who are dead to the world, and pronounces those inferior who live to the world? For if you wish to understand it according to the letter, how are the dead to be praised more than the living? For one is usually praised in that which he does by good will and purpose. But this common death comes to no one by will nor by purpose. How, then, will anyone seem worthy of praise in that which he suffers against his purpose? Otherwise Pharaoh king of Egypt, who was submerged in the sea, will be praised above Moses, who escaped alive from the sea. And the Egyptians, who died in the waters, will be praised more than the people of God, who passed over on dry ground in the midst of the sea. Do not, then, understand it thus, but know that you are to be praised as dead when you can say: "I am crucified together with Christ. But now it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me." If you have renounced the world, if you have cast off vices, if you are now no longer moved to sin, but are dead to sin, you are better than he who lives to sin, and that death will be praiseworthy in you. For on account of this common death, which comes to each one by the law of nature, no one is praised. These things, although by way of digression, yet it was fitting to call to mind in that place where the word of God says that Miriam, on account of the fault of disparagement and on account of the blow of rebuke, was made a miscarriage, so that we might show that there is both a blameworthy and a praiseworthy miscarriage. Indeed, the Apostle too, knowing that in those ranks of which we spoke above there is a certain praiseworthy rank of miscarriage, says even concerning himself: "and last of all, as by one born out of due time, he was seen also by me," reckoning himself indeed above the living and above the dead, yet after those who have not yet been born. Miriam therefore becomes as a miscarriage; for that people could not be formed to completeness in the law, just as Paul too pronounces, saying: "for the law brought no one to completeness." Indeed the same Apostle, concerning certain ones whom, fallen from the faith and, as it were, turned into a miscarriage, he was restoring again to the institutions of a perfect nativity, says: "my little children, of whom I am again in travail, until Christ be formed in you."
[§4] "And Moses cried out to the Lord, saying: God, I pray you, heal her." And whom did it behoove to pray to the Lord for the healing of that people except Moses? Moses prays for them; and perhaps this was what he was conversing about with the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was transformed on the mountain, asking of him that, when the fullness of the Gentiles had entered in, then all Israel might be saved. "And the Lord said to Moses: if her father had spat in her face, would she not be ashamed for seven days? Let her be separated for seven days outside the camp, and after this she shall enter in." What is it, "if her father had spat in her face, she would be ashamed for seven days"? We placed Miriam in the place of the synagogue; upon her, her father spat in the face. It is a sign of repudiation to be spat upon in the face. Indeed, it is written in the law, where it is commanded that a neighbor should marry the widow left by his neighbor, that if the neighbor should wish to repudiate the marriage, he should, unshod, be spat upon in the face, and this was given as a sign of repudiation. Hence therefore Miriam, that is, that people, when she is repudiated by God, is said to be spat upon in the face. We have also in another place the signification of spittle, when Isaiah says: "all the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are reckoned as spittle." It is shown therefore in this that that people too, like the other nations which are reckoned as spittle, has been cast off. And truly, if you consider that former honor, when the pontifical order flourished among them, when there were the insignia of priests, when the Levitical ministries, when the majesty of the temple, when the prophetic splendor, and when they enjoyed fellowships with the heavenly ones upon the earth — what an honor that was, what glory! And again, if you now look at how they bristle with such great disgrace, without temple, without altar, without sacrifice, without prophet, without priesthood, without any heavenly visitation, scattered through all the earth and living as fugitives: who would not evidently recognize that their father spat in their face and drenched their countenance with ignominy? Seven days, therefore, she is separated outside the camp. We have already said in the earlier passages too that these seven days designate the week of this world; for in the week of days the substances of all the visible creation seem to have been brought forth; for then the things which were not came to be. But in the week of the whole world, by a certain dispensation secret and known to God alone, the things which were then brought forth are unfolded. Meanwhile in this week, in which Miriam is sequestered, the camp of the children of Israel is not moved, but they stand shut up in one place and there is no advance whatever for them, until Miriam is cleansed from her leprosy.
[§5] "And after this," he says, "the people set forward from Hazeroth, and encamped in the desert of Paran." Hazeroth is interpreted "houses of the perfect." The people therefore sets forward, after Miriam has been purged, from the houses of the perfect and comes into Paran, which is interpreted "a visible mouth." It seems to me that a visible mouth can be understood as this, that the Word was made flesh and the invisible was made visible, and that this is signified: that after the end and perfection of all the things which were to be done concerning that people had come, then it passes over and comes to him whom, being the Word made flesh, it had not before believed. "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: send men, and let them view the land of the Canaanites, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession," and the rest, in which things are narrated about the explorers of the land, who, being sent, report that the land is indeed good and admirable, but that the sons of giants dwell in it, in whose sight the people of God seem as locusts. And several indeed despair of being able to be saved from the sons of giants; yet Joshua does not despair, but confirms the faith of the people together with Caleb, who is of the tribe of Judah, and they say: if God loves us, let him bring us into this land. What then is this land according to the spiritual understanding, which land is indeed holy and a good land, but is inhabited by the impious? Who then are these enemies who dwell in the land of the saints? And how are they to be cast out, so that, they being cast out, the saints may succeed into their place? Let us return to the Gospels, let us return to the Apostle. The Gospels promise the kingdoms of heaven to the saints. The Apostle says: "but our citizenship is in the heavens"; in the heavens, therefore, is the place of the inheritance which is promised to the saints. And do we think that in these places which are promised to you there is now no inhabitant whom you ought to drive out from there by fighting? And how then does the Lord say that "from the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent seize it"? For unless there were those to whom violence should be done, unless there were those who ought to be driven out and thrust from there, it would never be said that the kingdom of heaven is to be seized by violence. And unless there were those with whom there was for us a contest and a battle, the Apostle would never say: "our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of these darknesses, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." Concerning whom that saying of God through the prophet also seems to be understood, where he says: "and my sword is made drunk in heaven." It is necessary, therefore, that the spiritual forces of wickedness, which are said to be in the heavenly places, who are the true Canaanites, be conquered by you and expelled from the heavenly places, so that you may dwell there in their stead. Yet know that they are giants. Everyone who resists against God is called a giant. Whoever therefore opposes God and is contrary to the truth, which they principally do, is deservedly called a giant. To you therefore it is granted that you may cast out the giants and enter into their kingdom. Or is it not written concerning a certain one of them: "who shall take spoils from a giant?" Concerning whom the Lord also said in the Gospel: "no one can enter into the house of the strong man and plunder his vessels, unless he first bind the strong man." Now therefore, as regards the comparison of human and demonic nature, we are locusts and they giants — and especially, if our faith be doubtful and if unbelief terrify us, they will truly be giants and we locusts. But if we follow Joshua and believe his words and are filled with his faith, they will be as nothing in our sight. For hear how he exhorts us and says: if God loves us, let him bring us into this land, since it is good and its fruit wonderful. Therefore the type and figure which went before in the fathers is fulfilled in us. They cast out the nations and obtained their inheritance; for they obtained all the land of Judaea and the city of Jerusalem and Mount Zion. These things were fulfilled in them, but to you what is said? "You have not," he says, "come to the things which are visible, but to the invisible. For you have come," he says, "to the mount of the living God and to the heavenly city Jerusalem and to the multitude of angels." But elsewhere too the same Apostle says: "but the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." If anyone does not lend faith to the words of the Apostle saying that Jerusalem is heavenly, he can refuse these our words as well. But if faith is to be given to the words of Paul, as certainly it is to be given, we both believe that there is a heavenly Jerusalem as a type of this earthly one, and, the things which seem to be written concerning this earthly one, we shall more rightly by spiritual understanding transfer to that heavenly one. We have come therefore, as Paul says, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and without doubt also to the heavenly Judaea; and just as they, from the earthly Judaea, cast out the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the remaining nations, so also we who have come to the mount of God and to the heavenly kingdoms, it is necessary that we expel from them the contrary powers and the spiritual forces of wickedness from the heavenly places; and just as they cast out the Jebusite from Jerusalem, and that which before had been called Jebus was afterward called Jerusalem, so we too must first expel the Jebusite from Jerusalem and thus obtain its inheritance. But they indeed did these things with visible arms, we however with invisible ones. They conquered by bodily battles, but we overcome by spiritual contest.
[§6] But if you wish to hear how Paul, who is not only the teacher of the Gentiles but also the master of this warfare, fought first, hear what he himself writes concerning himself, as we have also mentioned above. "Our wrestling," he says, "is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." For this reason he also fits out with spiritual arms and invisible weapons those who are about to fight this spiritual and invisible battle, and says: "put on the breastplate of charity and the helmet of salvation, and take up the shield of faith, in which you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the evil one." "But take up also," he says, "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." When therefore you have armed yourself with such weapons, following Joshua as your leader, do not fear those giants; for you will see how Joshua will subject them to you; and just as the fathers trod upon the necks of the nations, so you too will tread upon the necks of the demons. [For he himself says to those who follow him faithfully: "behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy." For Jesus always wishes to do wonderful things, wishes to conquer giants by locusts, and from those things which are on the earth, to overcome the heavenly wickednesses. And perhaps this was what he said in the Gospels, that he who believes in him will not only do those things which he himself did, but "will do even greater things," he says, "than these." For truly it seems to me greater if a man, placed in the flesh, frail and perishable, armed only with the faith of Christ and his word, should overcome giants, the legions of demons. Although it is he himself who conquers in us, yet he says that it is more that he conquers through us than that he conquers through himself. Only let us be always armed with these weapons and let our citizenship be always in the heavens. Let every motion of ours, every act, every thought, every word be heavenly. For the more ardently we ascend thither, the more headlong they will descend from thence; and the more we are increased, the lower they will become. Our life, if it be holy, if it be according to God, will bring death to them; if it be sluggish and dissolute, it will make them powerful against us and giants. The more therefore we grow in virtues, the more inferior and frail they become, just as, on the contrary, if we are weakened and seek earthly things, they become stronger. And the more we are spread abroad on the earth, the more ample spaces we concede to them in the heavenly places. Wherefore let us rather do this, that as we increase they may be diminished, as we enter in they may be driven out, as we ascend they may fall; just as he fell of whom the Lord says in the Gospel: "behold, I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven," so that, they being cast out from thence, the Lord Jesus may bring us in thither and grant us to receive his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory unto the eternal ages of ages! Amen!