Homilies on Numbers — Homily 12
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 the well and its song.
[§1] The reading about the well and the song which Israel sang at the well has been recited to us from the book of Numbers — a reading which we see overflowing with mysteries in the usual measure, or rather perhaps even beyond the usual. For it says: "and from there, the well; this is the well of which the Lord said to Moses: Gather the people, and I will give them water to drink." But in these words the historical letter does not seem to me to possess much claim. For what is it that the Lord so greatly commanded Moses to gather the people, that he might give them water to drink from the well? — as if indeed the people would not of their own accord come together at the well for the sake of drinking. Why, then, is it so emphatically commanded to the prophet, that by his own zeal and labor he should gather the people to draw the water of the well? Hence the cheapness of the letter sends us back to the preciousness of the spiritual understanding. And therefore I think it fitting to gather the mysteries of wells also from other places of Scripture, so that from a comparison of many, if the present passage contains anything of obscurity, it may become clear. The Spirit of God therefore says through Solomon in Proverbs: "Drink waters from your own vessels and from the fountain of your own wells. And let not the waters be overpoured for you outside your own fountain" — although in other copies we have read: "and let the waters be poured out for you outside your own fountain." "Let your waters be for yourself alone, and let no stranger partake of them." Therefore each one of us has, as is designated in these words, a well within himself. Nay, we say something even more: each one of us has not one well, but many wells, and not one vessel of water, but many vessels; for it did not say: "Drink waters from your vessel," but "from your vessels," and it did not say: "and from the fountain of your well," but "from the fountain of your wells." We read that the patriarchs too had wells: Abraham had them, Isaac also had them; and I think Jacob had them as well. And taking your beginning from these wells, run through all Scripture seeking wells, and come even to the Gospels, and there you will find the well above which our Savior sat resting after the labor of the journey — then, when the Samaritan woman came and wished to draw water from the well, the power of the well or of wells in the Scriptures is expounded, and a comparison of waters is made, where also the secrets of the divine mystery are laid open. For it is said that, if anyone drinks from these waters which that earthly well contained, he thirsts again; but whoever drinks from those which Jesus gives, there becomes in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life. But in another place of the Gospel there is now spoken not of a fountain nor a well, but of something more. "He who believes in me," it says, "as the Scripture says, rivers of living water shall proceed from his belly." You see, then, that he who believes in him has within himself not only a well, but wells, and not only fountains, but rivers; and fountains and rivers not such as would console this mortal life, but such as would confer the eternal. Therefore, according to those things which we set forth as written in Proverbs, where wells are named together with a fountain, the Word of God is to be understood as a well indeed, if it covers something of a deep mystery, but as a fountain, if it abounds and flows forth to the peoples. But it must be inquired, not idly, how we can expound the plural number regarding the wells and the singular regarding the fountain, since in Proverbs Wisdom says: "Drink waters from the fountain of your wells." Let us see, then, of which wells it called the fountain one. I think that the knowledge of the unbegotten Father can be understood as one well, but the recognition of his only-begotten Son ought to be understood as another well. For the Son is other than the Father, and the Son is not the same as the Father, as he himself says in the Gospels: "It is another who bears witness of me, the Father." And again I think that the knowledge of the Holy Spirit can be seen as a third well. For he too is other than the Father and the Son, as it is likewise said of him in the Gospels: "The Father will send you another Paraclete, the Spirit of truth." There is therefore this distinction of three persons in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, which is referred to the plural number of wells. But of these wells there is one fountain; for the substance and nature of the Trinity is one. And in this way the distinction of the holy Scripture will be found not idle, which says: "from the fountain of your wells." But it marked the mystical utterances observantly, so that what was said in the plural should belong to the persons, and in the singular should fit the substance. But those also can be seen as wells, of the knowledge of which he spoke who was filled with the wisdom of God: "For he gave me the true knowledge of the things that are, that I might know the substance of the world and the power of the elements, the beginning and end and middle of times, the changes of the vicissitudes and the alterations of the seasons, the cycles of the year and the positions of the stars, the natures of animals and the raging of beasts, the violences of spirits and the thoughts of men, the differences of plants and the powers of roots." You see how many wells there are in the knowledge of things? A well, for example, is the knowledge of plants, and perhaps the nature of each single plant has its own well. And likewise there is a well concerning the knowledge of animals, and perhaps each single species of animals has its own well. And again there is a well concerning the reckoning of times and their vicissitude and change. And since these individual things have a high and deep knowledge, they are rightly called wells figuratively. And as long as the mystery of Christ was hidden from the ages and generations, the knowledge of these things was rightly called wells; but when, as Paul says, God revealed it to believers through his Spirit, all these become fountains and rivers, so that the knowledge of them is no longer held so in secret, but is brought forth to many and waters the believers and satisfies them. And therefore, I believe, the Savior was saying to his disciples that whoever believes in him and drinks the water of his teaching — there will be in him no longer a well nor a fountain, but rivers of living water. For just as this one well, which is the Word of God, becomes innumerable wells and fountains and rivers, so also the soul of man, which is according to the image of God, can have within itself and produce from itself both wells and fountains and rivers. But in truth the wells which are in our soul need one who digs; for they must be cleansed, and everything that is earthly must be removed from them, so that those veins of rational senses which God implanted in it may produce pure and sincere streams. For as long as earth covers the veins of the waters and blocks the eye of the stream, the wave of pure liquid cannot flow forth. Finally, therefore it is written that the servants of Abraham were digging wells, and the Philistines were filling them and covering them with earth. But Isaac too, who had received the inheritance of his father, again dug wells and removed the earth of the Philistines, which they had thrown upon the waters through envy. But we have also observed this in Genesis, from which this history seems to be taken, that as long as Abraham was alive, the Philistines did not dare to fill the wells or throw earth on them; but when he departed from this life, then the Philistines prevailed and lay in wait against his wells. But afterward they are restored through Isaac and return to their state. Moreover the servant of Abraham too, when he goes to betroth and bring back a wife for Isaac, found Rebecca at the wells — she who is interpreted as "patience": she is made the wife of Isaac nowhere else but at the wells. Similarly Jacob too, when he came to Mesopotamia having the command of his father not to take a wife of foreign race or of alien blood, himself also found Rachel at the wells. And Moses found Zipporah at the wells. If, then, you have understood what and of what sort are the wives of the saints, you too, if you wish to take patience to yourself in marriage, or wisdom, or whatever those virtues of the soul are, and to say what was said of wisdom: "Her I sought to bring to myself as a wife" — be frequent, be assiduous around those wells, and there you will find a spouse of this kind. For at the living waters, that is, at the streams of the living word, it is certain that all the virtues of the soul dwell. There are therefore many wells, which we have said to be within the soul. And there are very many others, which are understood in each single word and sense of the Scriptures. Yet more eminent than the rest and outstanding is this well, of which in the present passage Scripture says that it was dug not by any common men whatsoever, but by princes, and by those still more sublime than these, whom it called kings; on account of which also a hymn is sung to God at this same well. And therefore it is written: "Go," it says, "to the well. This is the well of which the Lord said to Moses: Gather the people, and I will give them water from the well, says the Lord." Moses is commanded to gather the people, that it may come together to the well and drink water; and we have often shown that Moses ought to be taken as the Law. It is therefore the Law of God which calls you together, that you may come to the well. What well, except that one of which we spoke above — Jesus Christ the Son of God, subsisting indeed in his own substance, yet named with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the one fountain of the Godhead? To this well, then, that is, to faith in Christ, the Law calls us together. For he himself says: "Moses wrote of me." For what does it call us together? That we may drink the waters and sing to it a song, that is, that we may believe with the heart unto righteousness and confess with the mouth unto salvation.[§2] "Initiate the well for it," it says. This is the sense: set, it says, the well as the beginning of all things, just as the Apostle also says that "he is the beginning, and the firstborn of every creature, and in him all things were created." Initiate the well for it, therefore — that is, confess the well to be the beginning of all things. But it can also be understood in this way, that the words seem to be directed from the person of Moses, exhorting the people and saying: Give a beginning to your heart, that it may begin to understand what the well is, from which the spiritual waters are to be drawn and by which the people of believers is to be refreshed. Initiate this well, therefore, for it, that is, for Israel, so that whoever sees God with the heart may be able to draw the mystical sense from the depths. That Moses, that is the Law, should gather us to this well does not seem to be said in vain. For it can happen that someone may seem to come to this well, but unless he is gathered through Moses, he is not accepted by God. Marcion seems to himself to have come to this well, and Basilides and Valentinus, but because they did not come through Moses nor receive the Law and the prophets, they cannot praise the Lord God from the fountains of Israel. Therefore those who are of this kind do not come to the well which the princes dug and the kings hewed out. But do you wish me to show you from the Scriptures to what wells these men come? There is a certain salt valley, in which valley are wells of bitumen; every heresy therefore and every sin is in a valley, and in a salt valley. For sin and iniquity does not ascend upward, but always descends to the lowest and infernal places. Every heretical understanding, therefore, and every act of sin is both set in a valley and salt and bitter. For what sweet, what pleasant thing can sin have? But it has something even more. For if you come to a heretical opinion, if you come to the bitterness of sin, you have come to the wells of bitumen. Bitumen is food and nourishment for fire. If therefore you too taste water from these wells, if you take up a heretical understanding, if you receive the bitterness of sin, you will prepare within yourself the kindling of fire and the burnings of Gehenna. And therefore to those who are unwilling to drink water from that well which the princes dig and the kings, but from these which are in the valley of sin and feed the fuel of fire, it is said: "Walk in the light of your fire and of the flame which you have kindled for yourselves." What, then, is sung at this well? "Initiate the well for it," it says; "the princes dug it, the kings hewed it out." The princes and the kings can indeed seem to be the same; but if it is necessary to distinguish them, let us understand the princes as the prophets. For they placed the meaning and prophecy concerning Christ dug down and submerged in the depth of the letter, and therefore one of them said: "Unless you hear in secret, your soul will weep." And likewise another prophet says to the Lord: "How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you!" These, then, are the princes who dug this well, but the kings are those who hewed it out. That it said "hewed out" (excuderunt) is said from "hammering out" (excudere), not from "cutting away" (excidere); for that is said to be "hammered out" which is either cut or shaped in stone. The princes therefore, as being somewhat inferior, are said to dig the well, that is, as it were to sink a certain depth in the softness of the earth. But these, whom it calls kings, as being stronger and more eminent, penetrate not only the depth of the earth but also the hardness of the rock, that they may be able to reach the deeper waters and, if it may be said, search out in it the very veins of the abyss, knowing that the judgments of God are a great abyss. These kings, then, who can search out things so deep and so hidden of the well, we may rightly call the Apostles, one of whom said: "But to us God has revealed it through the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." Because, therefore, through the Spirit they too can search out the deep things of God and penetrate the high and deep mysteries of the well, they are for that reason said to be kings, who hewed out this well even in the rock and penetrated the hard and difficult secrets of knowledge. That the Apostles too can be called kings, I think can easily be proved from this, which is said of all believers: "But you are a royal race, a great priesthood, a holy nation." If, then, they call kings those who believed through their word, how much more are they themselves to be held as kings, who make kings? But from this too it is easily gathered: for if kings are named from ruling, then certainly all who rule the churches of God will rightly be called kings, but much more rightly those who by their words and writings rule even those very men by whom the churches are ruled. And on account of this the Lord is rightly called King of kings; for unless these and the rest who imitate them are kings, he will not appear as King of kings. But the Apostle Paul himself too, writing to the Corinthians and rebuking them as it were with a certain irony, says: "Without us you reign; and would that you did reign, that we too might reign with you." In which he certainly declares that the Corinthians ought to be kings and that he himself wishes to reign with them, but he reproaches their elation over an honor not yet assumed according to merit. All these princes, then, dig this well, and the kings of the nations hew it out; for the Apostles are especially the kings of the nations, who gathered the nations to the obedience of faith and laid open the knowledge of Christ to all — in whom are the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God hidden — going around the circle of the earth according to the command of the Lord and fulfilling what was commanded, that they should teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and by these things they hewed out, that is, laid open the knowledge of the well and brought it into the knowledge of all the nations. But these things too which we now have in hand, which have been recited to us, are a well, and all the scripture of the Law and the prophets together; the Evangelical and Apostolic scripture also, all together, is one well, which they cannot dig or hew out unless they are found to be kings and princes. For truly they are to be held kings, truly princes, who can remove the earth from this well and take away the surface of the letter and from the inner rock, where Christ is, bring forth the spiritual senses like living water. This, therefore, it is fitting that those alone do who are either kings or princes; called kings from this, that they have driven out the reign of sin from their body and have prepared the reign of righteousness in their members. For it is fitting that he teach others who has first done the very things which he teaches. For thus it is written: "Whoever shall do and shall so teach men, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." But to be great in the kingdom, this is to be a king. "The kings of the nations hewed it out," it says — in their kingdom, while they ruled over them. For in very truth they cannot dig this well nor open the hidden veins of living water, unless they have first held dominion over the barbarous nations. For everything whatsoever that was wild in them in their acts, whatever was barbarous in their conduct — if they have tamed it and subjected it to the royal understanding and held dominion over it, so that henceforth they act not like the heathen but lawfully — these are truly kings, probing the depths of the well and searching out the hidden and mystical things of the Word of God.
[§3] After these things "they set out," he says, "from the well to Mattanah, and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth, and from Bamoth to the grove which is in the field of Moab, from the top of the hewn mountain that looks toward the face of the desert." These names, which appear to be the designations of places, seem — from their significations, which they denote in their own tongue — to display the sequence of things rather mystical rather than merely a naming of places. "For having set out," he says, "from the well they come to Mattanah." For Mattanah is interpreted "their gifts." You see, then, that if anyone has drunk from this well which the kings and princes dug, he straightway advances to this, that he has gifts to offer to God. But what is it that a person offers to God? This very thing which is written in the law: "my gifts, my offerings." From those things, therefore, which God has given, human beings nonetheless make offerings to God. What did God give to man? Knowledge of himself. What does man offer to God? His faith and his affection. This is what God seeks from man. And indeed it is thus written: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, except that you fear the Lord your God, and walk in his ways, and love him, and keep all his commandments, and serve the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul?" These are the gifts, these the offerings which ought to be given to the Lord. And we give to the Lord these gifts of our heart after we have come to know him and have drunk from the depth of his well the knowledge of his goodness. Observe, however, how the prophet said: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you?" Let these words put to shame those who deny that it lies within man's choice that he be saved. For how would God ask of man, unless man had within his own power that which he ought to offer to God who asks? There are, then, things which are given by God, and there are things which are furnished by man. For example, it lay within the man to make one mina into ten minas, or one mina into five minas; but it was from God that the man had a mina from which he could make ten minas. But when he offered from himself the ten minas, he received in turn from God no longer money, but power and rule over ten cities. Again God asks of Abraham that he offer to him his son Isaac upon a mountain, whichever one he should show him. Abraham offered his only-begotten undaunted, laid him upon the altar, drew the knife to slay him — he is at once restrained, and a ram is given to him for a victim in place of his son. You see, then, that the things which we offer to God remain ours, but we are asked for them to this end, that in them our affection toward God and our faith may be tested. So much for what we said, that the children of Israel set out from the well and came to Mattanah, which is interpreted "their gifts." And from Mattanah we come to Nahaliel, which is interpreted "from God." What is "from God"? After we have offered the things that are from ourselves, we come to this, that we may attain the things that are from God. For when we have offered to him our faith and our affection, then he too bestows upon us the various gifts of the Holy Spirit, of which the Apostle says: "But all things are from God." And from Nahaliel we come to Bamoth, which is interpreted "the coming of death." What coming of death do we understand here, except that by which we die together with Christ, so that we may also live together with him, and by which we ought to mortify our members which are upon the earth, and again: "for we are buried together with him through baptism into death"? If anyone, then, holds to the order of this saving way, he ought to journey through each of these things which we have recalled, and to come after many stages to this place, which we said signifies the coming of death. But, as we are taught from the Scriptures, there is a certain death that is an enemy of Christ, and a certain death that is his friend. He does not, therefore, speak of that death that is the enemy of Christ, of which it is said: "the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed," which is the devil, but of this death, by which we die together with him, so that we may also live together with him — according to which death God says: "I will kill and I will make alive." For he kills, that we may die together with Christ, and he makes alive, that we may live together with him. It is therefore to be wished by us that we come to Bamoth and most readily receive the coming of this blessed death, so that we may deserve also to be made alive with Christ. "And from Bamoth," he says, "to the grove which is in the field of Moab, from the top of the hewn mountain that looks toward the desert." If we walk by this journey, which the reasoning of our explanation has asserted consists not so much of the names of places as of the advances of the soul, after all these things we come to the grove, or, as it stands in other copies, to Janah, which is interpreted "the ascent" or "the top of the mountain." Through these things, therefore, one arrives either at that most renowned grove of the divine paradise and the pleasant delights of the ancient habitation, or certainly at the summit of perfection and the height of blessedness, so that you too may be able to say that "he raised us up together with him, and made us sit in the heavenly places in Christ." Do you see how far one arrives from the well? Do you see by what stations, or rather by what advances, the soul's journey to heaven is prepared? If you examine these things diligently, you yourself, discerning within your own self your daily advances, will perceive in what places you are and how near you are held to be to the kingdom of heaven; just as also that man of whom the Lord said that "you are not far from the kingdom of God."
[§4] After this there follows yet another narrative. For it says: "And Moses sent" — or, as it stands in some copies, "And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites with words of peace, saying: We will pass through your land; by the road we will pass; we will not turn aside either into a field or into a vineyard. We will not drink water from your well; we will go by the royal road, until we pass your borders. And Sihon did not grant that Israel should pass through his borders; and Sihon gathered all his people, and went out to make war against Israel in the desert; and he came to Jahaz, and joined battle with Israel. And Israel struck him down with the slaughter of the sword, and they took possession of his land." The narrative indeed is plain, but let us beseech the Lord that we may be able to discern something worthy in its inner meanings. Sihon has a double interpretation, either "unfruitful tree" or "lifted up." Israel therefore sends messengers to Sihon: it sends to the unfruitful tree, it sends to the one lifted up and proud. Now this Sihon is king of the Amorites, who themselves are interpreted as "those bringing into bitterness" or "speaking." Moses therefore sends to Sihon king of the Amorites with words of peace, saying: "We will pass through your land." If, according to the spiritual understanding, we say that Sihon the king holds the figure of the devil, because he himself is lifted up and unfruitful, I think you ought not to wonder that I have called him a king, since you hear even our very Lord and Savior in the Gospels saying concerning him: "Behold, now comes the prince of this world, and in me he will find nothing," and again: "Behold, now the prince of this world shall be cast out." If therefore he is called in the Gospels the prince of the whole world, it ought not to seem absurd if he is compared to Sihon king of the Amorites, or even to any other kings of the nations whatsoever. But he is called prince of the world not because he created the world, but because there are many sinners in this world. And because he himself is the prince of sin, therefore he has also been called the prince of the world — namely, among those who, not yet abandoning the world, are converted to the Father. For it is according to this that that also is said: "the whole world is set in wickedness." For what does it profit us to say that our prince is Christ, if by our deeds and works we are convicted that the devil holds the princedom in us? Or is it not plain under which prince the unchaste, the incestuous, the unjust man acts? Can a man of this sort say that, set under Christ, he does these things, even if he seems to be reckoned under the name of Christ? In whom Christ bears the princedom, there no uncleanness, no iniquity is admitted, nor can unjust desire have any place. According to this manner, then, rightly will Christ be called the prince of the virtues, and the devil of malice and of all iniquity. Israel therefore sends messengers to the king of the Amorites, the king of those who provoke into bitterness, the unfruitful king, the proud king. In what way will the devil be shown to be proud, in what way lifted up? He it is who said: "By my strength I will act, and by the wisdom of my understanding I will remove the borders of the nations, and I will plunder their might; and I will shake the cities which are inhabited, and the whole circle of the earth I will take in my hand like a nest." And again this lifted-up and proud one says: "I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of heaven I will set my throne, I will sit upon a lofty mountain above the high mountains which are toward the north, I will ascend above the clouds, and I will be like the Most High." Do you still ask whether he himself is lifted up and proud? Nay rather, both he himself is proud and lifted up, and that one who is, as it were, his only-begotten, of whom it is written that "he shall be exalted above everything that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits in the temple of God, showing himself off as though he were God." Everyone therefore who is lifted up and proud is either a son of this lifted-up one, or a disciple and imitator. And for this reason the Apostle says concerning a certain one: "lest perhaps, being lifted up, he fall into the judgment of the devil," showing by this that everyone who is lifted up will be condemned by a like judgment, as the devil is. We therefore are those who wish to pass through this world, that we may be able to arrive at the holy land, which has been promised to the saints; and we send with words of peace to Sihon, promising that we will not dwell in his land nor tarry with him, but only pass through and walk by the royal road, nor turn aside anywhere, neither into a field nor into a vineyard, but that we will not even drink water from his well. Let us see, then, when we promised these things, when we announced these words to the devil. Let each of the faithful call to mind, when he first came to the waters of baptism, when he received the first seals of the faith and approached the fountain of salvation, what words he then used there and what he announced to the devil: that he would not make use of his pomps, nor of his works, nor at all yield to any of his services and pleasures. And this is what is foreshadowed in these words of the law, that Israel would not turn aside either into his field or into his vineyard, but that it promises it will not drink water even from his well. For no longer will the faithful one take the cup of diabolical instruction, not of astrology, not of magic, not at all of any teaching which teaches anything against the piety of God. For he has his own fountains, and Israel drinks from the fountains, drinks from the fountains of salvation; he does not drink water from the well of Sihon, nor, forsaking the fountain of living water, does he gather for himself broken cisterns. But he also professes that he will walk by the royal road. What is the royal road? That one, without doubt, which says: "I am the way and the truth and the life." And rightly royal; for it is he of whom the prophet says: "God, give your judgment to the king." By the royal road, therefore, one must walk, nor turn aside anywhere, neither into his field nor into his vineyard — that is, the mind of the faithful ought no longer to turn aside either to diabolical works or to diabolical senses. In what way, then, do we wish to pass through the borders of the Amorites with peace? The Amorites can be taken as the portion of the unbelievers who are in this world; but these are interpreted, as we said above, either as "those bringing into bitterness" or "speaking." And in what way indeed the unbelievers and the incredulous bring God into bitterness needs no exposition; but what he says, "speaking," can be drawn to that part, that all who are unbelieving and act under the devil as prince know only how to speak, but they speak empty things. For example, as their poets, as the astrologers, as some even of the philosophers, who speak things empty and vain. But the kingdom of the faithful, which is from God, is not in speech, but in power. We therefore wish to pass through the world peacefully, but this very thing rather incites the prince of the world, that we say we are unwilling to remain with him nor to tarry nor to wish to touch anything of his; from that he is the more exasperated, from that he is provoked and grows angry and stirs up persecutions against us, rouses dangers, threatens torments. And therefore it says: "Sihon," it says, "gathered all his people, and went out to fight against Israel." Who is all the people of Sihon, whom he stirs up against Israel? The princes and judges of the world and all the ministers of wickedness, who always assail and persecute the people of God. But what does Israel do? "It came," it says, "to Jahaz." Jahaz is interpreted "the fulfilling of the commandment." If therefore we too come to this place, that is, to the fulfilling of the commandments, even if that lifted-up and proud Sihon, the devil, come against us with his whole army and fight against us, if he stir up all his demons against us, we overcome him, if we fulfill the commandments of God. For to fulfill the commandments is to overcome the devil and his whole army. And then there will be fulfilled in us the prayer of the Apostle, in which he says: "But God will crush Satan under your feet speedily," and that which the Lord says: "Behold, I give you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall harm you." For all these things will be able to do us no harm, if we come to Jahaz, that is, if we keep the commandments and precepts of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.