Homilies on Numbers — Homily 10
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.On what is written: and the Lord said to Aaron: you and your sons and your father's house with you shall take upon yourselves the sins of the holy ones.
[§1] Those who are better always take upon themselves the faults and sins of their inferiors. For so also the Apostle says: "you who are stronger, bear the weaknesses of the weak." If an Israelite sins, that is, a layman, he cannot himself take away his own sin, but he requires a Levite, he needs a priest; nay rather, he seeks something still more eminent than these: he has need of a high priest, that he may be able to receive remission of his sins. But if a priest or a high priest offends, he can himself purge his own sin, provided nevertheless that he does not sin against God; for concerning sins of this kind we do not easily see any remission designated in the letter of the law. Now these things we have said on account of what has been read to us. And "the Lord," it says, "spoke to Aaron, saying: you and your sons and your father's house with you shall take upon yourselves the sins of the holy ones." This passage can indeed be expounded thus, that in reference to those things which the high priest offers for the sin of each person and by which he purifies the one for whom he has offered, it is written: "you and your sons with you shall take upon yourselves the sins of the holy ones." Yet to me it does not seem idle that it makes mention of the sins of the holy ones; for in many places of Scripture this saying is repeated. Whence it must be inquired how certain persons are called holy and yet it is written concerning their sins. For it is not, as some suppose, that as soon as anyone has begun to be holy he can no longer sin and is straightway to be thought without sin. For if the holy one did not sin, it surely would not have been written: "you shall take upon yourselves the sins of the holy ones." If the holy one were without sin, the Lord would not say through the prophet Ezekiel to the angels whom he was sending to punish sinners: "and you shall begin from my holy ones." For if the holy are without sin, how is it that they themselves first succumb in the punishments of sinners? If the holy were without sin, Scripture would never say that "the just man is his own accuser at the beginning of his speech." If the holy were without sin, the Apostle Paul would never say, writing to the Romans: "do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God," to whom at the beginning of the epistle he had written: "to all who are at Rome, beloved of God, called to be holy." And again the same Apostle, writing to the Corinthians, says: "Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ," and a little later: "to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy." These, then, whom he calls sanctified and holy, hear how great the sins are which he reprehends in them. For he says in what follows: "for since there are among you rivalries and contentions, are you not carnal and walking according to man?"; and again: "already you have become rich, you reign without us, and would that you did reign"; and again: "but as though I were not coming to you, some are puffed up"; and a little later: "it is altogether heard that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the gentiles." And in what follows indeed: "and you," he says, "are puffed up, and have you not rather mourned?" In which he leaves surely no one exempt, since to some he ascribes the crime of fornication, to others that of being puffed up and of pride. He marks them also in the following passages concerning lawsuits, and says: "already indeed it is altogether a fault in you, that you have lawsuits among yourselves." He rebukes those whom he had called holy, also for this, that they eat things sacrificed to idols, and, as though pronouncing sentence among them, he says: "but thus sinning against your brethren and wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ." But also concerning this he nonetheless refutes them, that they presume to take not only what is sacrificed but also the cup of demons, and he says: "you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons, you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons." To them also he says this: "when you come together in the church, I hear that there are schisms"; and again: "for each one takes his own supper beforehand in the eating, and one indeed is hungry, but another is drunk." And for these faults he says: "for this reason among you many are weak and sick, and many sleep. But if we judged ourselves, we surely would not be judged." After these things, however, he now aggravates in them not moral faults but the crime of faith. For he says: "how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?"; and again: "but if Christ has not risen, your faith is vain, and you are still in your sins." It is, moreover, a long matter and not fitting for the present time, that we should bring forward very many testimonies concerning these things, by which it may be proved that those who are called holy are not to be understood as being straightway also without sin; but let those hold such opinions who attend to the divine Scriptures neither carefully nor diligently, in which it is taught that there are many differences among the holy, as has been said by us more fully in other treatises, and even now, so far as the passage requires, we shall speak. Those are called holy and likewise also sinners who have indeed devoted themselves to God, and have set apart their life from the manner of life of the common crowd for this end, that they may serve the Lord; such a man, therefore, according to this, that having cut off his other activities he has bound himself over to the Lord, is called holy; but it can come about that in this very thing, that he serves the Lord, he does not so do all things as it is fitting for them to be done, but offends in some points and sins. For just as one who sets himself apart and separates himself from all other occupations, in order, for example, to attain the discipline of medicine or of philosophy, will not surely, as soon as he has given himself over to disciplines of this kind, be so perfect that he is not found to sin in anything, but rather, offending in very many matters, will scarcely at some time arrive at perfection—and yet, as soon as he has given himself over to schools of this kind, it is certain that he is numbered either among the physicians or among the philosophers—so also concerning the holy it must be understood that straightway indeed, as soon as anyone binds himself over to the pursuits of holiness, according to that which he has purposed, he is called holy. But according to this, that it is necessary for him to offend in many things until by practice and discipline and diligence the habit of sinning is cut away from him, he will be called, as we said above, also a sinner. And I add moreover something further: that unless someone has a holy purpose and pursues the study of holiness, when he has sinned, he does not know how to feel penitence for his sin, he does not know how to seek a remedy for his fault. Those who are not holy die in their sins; those who are holy feel penitence for their sins, perceive their wounds, understand their lapses, seek out the priest, demand healing, seek purification through the high priest. Therefore, then, the word of the law designates cautiously and significantly that the high priests and priests take upon themselves the sins not of just anyone, but only of the holy; for he is holy who cures his sin through the high priest.[§2] But let us return to our high priest, the great high priest who has penetrated the heavens, our Lord Jesus, and let us see how he together with his sons—the Apostles, namely, and the martyrs—takes upon himself the sins of the holy. And indeed that our Lord Jesus Christ came to take away the sin of the world and by his death blotted out our sins, no one who believes in Christ is ignorant. But how his sons also take away the sins of the holy, that is, the Apostles and martyrs, we shall attempt, if we can, to prove from the divine Scriptures. Hear first Paul saying: "for gladly," he says, "will I spend and be spent for your souls"; and in another place: "for I am already being sacrificed," he says, "and the time of my departure," or "of my dissolution, "is at hand." For those, then, to whom he was writing, the Apostle says that he is spent and sacrificed. But when a victim is sacrificed, it is sacrificed for this end, that the sins of those for whom it is slain may be purged. Now concerning the martyrs the Apostle John writes in the Apocalypse that the souls of those who were slain for the name of the Lord Jesus stand beside the altar; but he who stands beside the altar is shown to perform the office of a priest; and the office of the priest is to make supplication for the sins of the people. Whence I fear lest perhaps, from the fact that martyrs are not made and the victims of the holy are not offered for our sins, remission of our sins may not come about. And therefore I fear lest, with our sins remaining in us, there may befall us that which the Jews say concerning themselves: that having neither altar nor temple nor priesthood, and on this account not offering victims either, our sins, they say, remain in us and therefore no pardon follows. On the contrary we ought to say: because the victims of the martyrs are not offered for us, therefore our sins remain in us; for we do not deserve to suffer persecution for Christ nor to die for the name of the Son of God. And therefore also the devil, knowing that through the passion of martyrdom remission of sins comes about, does not wish to stir up against us the public persecutions of the gentiles; for he knows that, if we are brought before kings and governors for the name of Christ as a testimony to Jews and gentiles, it will be for us joy and exultation, because our reward is great in the heavens. This the enemy does not do, either because he himself envies our glory, or perhaps because he who foresees and foreknows all things knows that we are not fit to endure martyrdom. Yet the Lord knows who are his, and among those in whom it is not hoped for he has his treasures: for "God does not see as man sees." I do not doubt that in this assembly too there are some, known to him alone, who are already martyrs before him by the testimony of conscience, ready, if anyone should demand it, to pour out their blood for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; I do not doubt that there are some who have taken up their cross and follow him. These things, although by a kind of digression, yet seem to have been said of necessity, that we might understand how through the high priest and the sons of the high priest remission of sins comes about among the holy.
[§3] There follows after these things: "and you," it says, "and your sons shall take upon yourselves the sins of your priesthood. And your brethren, the tribe of Levi, the people of your father, take to yourself, and let them be joined to you and minister to you, and you and your sons with you in the sight of the tabernacle of testimony shall keep your watches and the watches of the tabernacle." It befits those especially who glory in the priestly order to observe more diligently and to attend to these things which are written, that they may know what it is that the divine law prescribes to them to be observed. "You," it says, "and your sons with you in the sight of the tabernacle of testimony, keep your watches and those of the altar and of the tabernacle." The commands indeed are certain and evident, that we ought to keep the watches of the tabernacle and of the altar and of the priesthood; but who indeed it is that keeps and does those things which are commanded to the priests, and who it is that makes use indeed of the order and honor of the priesthood, but does not observe the work and ministry of the priesthood, he alone can know who searches hearts and reins. Now there are commanded to be observed not only those things which are without, but "those things," it says, that the priests should especially attend to, which are within the veil, as though it said: let it be the care of the priests both to fulfill the evident and manifest commands of the divine law, and to contemplate its mysteries, hidden and veiled, with all perspicacity. But if you wish to refer the tabernacle of testimony to man, since indeed Paul calls the body of man a tabernacle when he says: "for we who are in this tabernacle groan, being weighed down, in which we do not wish to be stripped, but to be clothed upon"—if, then, we refer the tabernacle to man, the interior parts of the veil, where inaccessible things are covered, we shall call the ruling part of the heart, which alone can receive the mysteries of truth and be capable of the secrets of God. But the two altars, that is, the interior and the exterior, since the altar is an indication of prayer, that one I think signifies what the Apostle says: "I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the mind." For when I have prayed in the heart, I enter to the interior altar, and this I think is also what the Lord says in the Gospels: "but you, when you pray, enter into your chamber, and shut your door, and pray to your Father in secret." He, therefore, who prays thus, as I have said, enters to the altar of incense, which is interior. But when someone with clear voice and with words uttered with sound, as though to edify the hearers, pours out prayer to God, this man prays with the spirit and seems to offer a victim on the altar which is outside, appointed for the burnt offerings of the people. It behooves the priests, therefore, especially to attend to and guard those things which are covered within the interior veil, that nothing there be found polluted, nothing be found unclean; that is, to attend to the interior man and the secrets of the heart, that there they may remain immaculate. By the cherubim and the propitiatory the knowledge of the Trinity is to be understood; for the interpretation of "cherubim" indicates a multitude, that is, a perfection, of knowledge; and what is other perfection of knowledge except to have known the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? These things, therefore, are to be attended to by the priests, that they may be kept uncontaminated and unharmed. But also the urn holding the heavenly food of manna is surely a treasure of the divine word. And the golden ark, in which are the tables of the testament, is, as I think, declared to be nothing other than our mind, in which we ought to have the law of God written. And this mind ought to be golden, that is, pure and precious, in which we may always have the law of God written, as the Apostle says: "written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but on the fleshly tables of the heart." For this is also what is said concerning certain persons: "who show the work of the law written in their hearts." But who has written in their hearts, except God with his finger? The natural law, surely, which God gave to the human race and wrote in the minds of all; whence we also take our beginnings and receive certain seeds for searching out the truth; which seeds, if we cultivate them well, will bring forth in us the fruit of life in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.