Homilies on Numbers — Homily 15
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 prophecy of Balaam.
[§1] Although the order of the readings which are recited demands rather that we speak of those things which the reader has set forth, nevertheless, since some of the brethren earnestly ask that rather those things which are written concerning the prophecy of Balaam be brought forward for the discourse of our discussion, I have thought it right to satisfy not so much the order of the readings as the desires of the hearers. First of all, then, let us inquire concerning Balaam himself, why in the Scriptures he is set forth now as blameworthy, now as praiseworthy. For he is blameworthy when, though forbidden by God to come to the king, he persists in coming, and, greedy for reward, consults God again, again inquires, until he is left to his own desires and goes in his own wishes. He is culpable when he builds altars and places victims upon them for demons and by magical apparatus seeks divine counsels. He is culpable when he gives that most wicked counsel, that the people be deceived through the Midianite women and the worship of idols. Again he is shown to be praiseworthy, when the word of God is placed in his mouth, when the Spirit of God comes upon him, when he prophesies concerning Christ, when he foretells to Jews and Gentiles the future mysteries concerning the coming of Christ, when instead of curses he bestows blessings upon the people and exalts the name of Israel above visible glory with mystical utterances. Since, then, divine Scripture indicates concerning him things so diverse and so varied, it seems very difficult to me to determine with any definiteness his person, to whom not only this diversity may suit, but to whom that also may be fitted which he himself, as though prophesying, says concerning himself: "Let my soul die among the souls of the righteous, and let my seed be as the seed of the righteous." But also through the prophet Micah the Lord gives such a testimony concerning him, where he says: "My people, what have I done to you? Answer me; for I called you back from the land of Egypt, and from the house of bondage I freed you, and I sent before your face Moses and Aaron and Miriam. My people, remember what Balak king of Moab plotted against you, and what Balaam son of Beor answered him from the ropes even to Gilgal, that the righteousness of the Lord might be known." He shows, then, through these words that, in order that the righteousness of the Lord might be recognized, for this reason Balaam son of Beor answered to king Balak all those things which are reported as written in the books. And who, do you think, will be found of such a kind as to be able to show from Balaam's very answers that the righteousness of God is made manifest in them? For truly, if the word of God has been placed in his mouth, and the Spirit of God has come upon him, and the righteousness of God is recognized and made manifest from his answers, then in every way the things which are said by him must be believed to be nothing other than prophetic and divine. And yet we scarcely read anywhere written that the Spirit of God came upon any of the prophets; but rather "the vision which he saw," or "the taking up of the word of God," or "the word of God came to" this one or that one, and certain other such things we read concerning the prophets. But that the Spirit of God came upon any of the prophets, I do not for the present recall to have read, except that concerning David I remember it thus written: "And the Spirit of God appeared," or "shone forth, upon David from that day and thereafter"—yet the Spirit of God was not "made" upon David. But concerning Saul I remember it thus written: "And the Spirit of the Lord shall fall upon you, and you shall prophesy with them, and you shall be turned into another man"; and again concerning the same it is said: "And the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord confounded him"; and again: "And it came to pass, when the evil spirit was upon Saul, David took up the psaltery and played with his hands, and struck it, and it was well with him, and the evil spirit departed from him." These things I have noted because that which is written, "and the Spirit of God came upon him," can seem to be something intermediate. Wherefore we too, according to what we had understood in the earlier treatise, shall now also attempt to explain this same Balaam under the person of the Pharisees and scribes and those like them. But come now, let us look at the words of his prophecy, which he is written to have spoken when he had taken up his parable. "From Mesopotamia," he says, "Balak king of Moab has called me, from the mountains of the East." By Mesopotamia he means the land which lies between the rivers of Babylonia, concerning which it is written: "Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, while we remembered Zion." If, then, anyone is among these rivers of Babylon, if anyone is flooded by the streams of lust and washed about by the heats of wantonness, he is said not to stand, but to sit; and therefore those who were caught there said: "Upon the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept, while we remembered Zion." But they cannot even weep before, except when they have remembered Zion; for the remembrance of good things makes the causes of evils to be lamented. For unless a person remembers Zion, unless he looks upon the law of God and the mountains of the Scriptures, he does not begin to weep for his own evils. From these rivers, then, Balaam is called, and from these mountains of the East he is invited. These mountains are not those holy mountains, concerning which it is written: "Its foundations are in the holy mountains," and again: "Jerusalem, which is built as a city, whose sharing is together in one": "Mountains are round about it, and the Lord is round about his people." The mountains of Mesopotamia, then, are not such, but rather those of which it is said: "dark mountains," and again, of which it is said: "Behold, I am against you, O corrupt mountain." These are the mountains in which is "every height lifting itself up against the knowledge of God." From these mountains, then, this Balaam too is summoned. And of what kind these mountains are, such also is their East; for he too who "transforms himself as an angel of light" has the rising of his own light; he has that light concerning which it is written: "The light of the ungodly shall be extinguished." And just as this light of the ungodly, and that light which "transforms itself as an angel of light," is contrary to that light which said: "I am the light of the world," so also this East is contrary to that East concerning which it is written in Jeremiah: "Behold a man, the East is his name." From the borders of that East, then, not of this one, Balaam came, illumined without doubt by that Lucifer concerning whom it is said: "How has Lucifer fallen from heaven, who rose in the morning?"[§2] But let us see what Balak king of Moab, who summoned him from the midst of the rivers from the mountains of the East, says to him. "Come," he says, "and curse me Jacob, and come, curse me Israel." In Latin speech the repetition seems almost superfluous, which says: "Curse me Jacob, and curse me Israel." But in the Greek text, under the name of Israel, there is in the cursing an addition of a preposition, which our translators omitted, either believing it to be said less fittingly, or reckoning that no force could be added to the expression from this. But we, though contrary to custom, coin an expression, so that we may gather the sense in full; it can therefore be said: "Come, curse me Jacob, and come, over-curse me Israel." By which it is shown that the speech was repeated for this reason, that Balak seems to demand a curse upon Israel with greater force and greater intensity than upon Jacob. For as long as anyone is only Jacob, that is, placed only in acts and works, he is assailed with lesser curses. But when he has advanced and has begun to sharpen and rouse the inner man, with the eye of the mind unveiled, to see God, then he will be assailed by the enemy not only with curses, but even with over-curses, that is, with more violent darts of curses. But at that time indeed Balaam's mouth was "full of cursing and bitterness, and under his tongue was labor and pain," and "he sat in ambush with the rich"; for he was awaiting rewards from the rich king, that "in secret places he might slay the innocent." But God, "who alone always does wonders," works salvation out of enemies; for he cast a word into his mouth, although his heart could not yet receive the word of God. For there was still in his heart the greed for reward, on account of which even after the word of God, which he had in his mouth, he said to Balak: "Come, and I will give you counsel," and he taught him how he might put a stumbling-block in the sight of the children of Israel, that they might eat things sacrificed to idols and might commit fornication. On account of which the people also fell, and a great plague came upon them, until Phinehas, having slain the Israelite who was fornicating with the Midianite woman, appeased the wrath of the Lord. And after these things, it says, Phinehas led out an army against the Midianites, and they killed twelve thousand men, and Balaam son of Beor by the sword. But these things we have introduced before their time, by a kind of digression, in order to show that Balaam had the word of God not in his heart, but only in his mouth. Meanwhile, what he brings forth, what he speaks, he speaks from the word of God, and therefore what he says is the word of God.
[§3] He says, then: "What shall I curse, whom the Lord does not curse? Or what shall I over-curse, whom the Lord does not over-curse?" "Over-curses" we venture to say according to the manner of the Greek speech, desiring to show the force of the word from the addition of the preposition. What, then, shall we say? The Lord indeed does not curse Jacob, nor Israel, but does he perhaps curse some other? We read it written that the Lord says to the serpent: "Cursed are you among all the beasts of the earth"; and again to Adam: "Cursed is the earth in your works"; but also to Cain: "And now cursed are you from the earth, which opened its mouth to receive the blood of your brother from your hands"; and: "Cursed is everyone who makes a graven or molten image." But lest you think that these things are contained only in the old writings, you will find similar things also in the Gospels; for it is written that the Lord will say to those who are on the left: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire." But also when he says: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" and: "Woe to you rich!" and each thing of this kind, with what else than curses does he seem to press them? But what shall we say to the fact that a commandment is given through the Apostle, where he says: "Bless and do not curse"? Does he, then, himself do that which he does not wish to be done by men—he who sets an example of life for men? It is not so. For God, when he curses any, designates the desert of him who is cursed, and pronounces sentence, inasmuch as neither the quality of the sin nor the disposition of the sinner escapes him. But since a man cannot know these things—for one cannot see or know the purpose and mind of another—therefore, even if he utters a curse with the intent of one judging or pronouncing sentence, there cannot be a just cause for cursing where the disposition of the sinner is unknown, especially since human vice knows how to utter curses precisely when it is perhaps provoked by insults or injuries. Wishing to cut away this vice, that we may not provoke curses with curses and insults with insults, the Apostle lays down a necessary commandment, that we bless and do not curse; whereby the vice of reviling may be cut away, not whereby the truth of judging—which is hidden from men—and the authority of pronouncing sentence may be destroyed. And nevertheless, what the reason is that the Lord does not curse Jacob nor Israel, let us hear more carefully from Balaam himself, or rather from the word which God placed in his mouth: "For from the peaks of the mountains," he says, "I shall behold him, and from the hills I shall understand him." Because, he says, Israel is placed upon lofty mountains and high hills, that is, in a lofty and steep life, for beholding and understanding which one does not easily become fit unless he ascends to eminent and lofty knowledge, therefore, he says, God does not curse him; for his life is high and exalted, not lowly and cast down. Yet this does not seem to me to have been said concerning that Israel which is Israel according to the flesh, but concerning that one whose conversation, as he walks upon the earth, is in heaven. Or if these words are to be referred also to that people, he rightly says with a distinction: "I shall behold and I shall understand," so as to signify a future time, that one without doubt when all Israel, coming to the faith of Christ, shall be saved and shall be beheld from the mountains and hills; from those, without doubt, who, rising together with Christ, shall have practiced a lofty and heavenly life upon the earth. But also the fact that he said concerning Jacob "I shall see," but concerning Israel "I shall understand," this too is to be taken with a most apt distinction, so that the one may be referred to visible acts, the other to invisible faith and intelligible knowledge. Or if we turn these things to the future age, that is, to the time of the resurrection, "Jacob I shall see" can be understood as said of the bodies, but "Israel I shall understand" can be understood to signify the spirits and souls of those who rise again. "Behold," he says, "the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." This can indeed stand also according to the letter; for the people of Jacob alone is not mingled with the rest of men, nor is it reckoned among the other nations: for it had certain fixed privileges in its observances and in its ordinances, by which it was held to be set apart from the other nations. For just as the tribe of Levi is not mingled among the other tribes nor is numbered among them, in this same way all Israel too is neither mixed with the other nations nor reckoned among them. These things indeed will have been in that people according to the pattern of future good things; but the true Jacob and the spiritual Israel shall truly dwell alone among the nations. For if we have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and have come to the spiritual Judea, which is God's portion, and, placed on earth, have our conversation there, truly we are not reckoned among the other nations, nor are the borders of the remaining nations mingled with our borders, even if Sodom be restored to its ancient state and Egypt return to its condition, and whatever else of this kind is written in the prophets. Nevertheless, to that Jacob and spiritual Israel, when they shall have ascended to the church of the firstborn, none will be made equal, none will be mingled, even if these nations shall have been restored according to the prophetic sayings. For unless the branch of the wild olive has been grafted in and has become a partaker of the root of the olive's richness, how can it be associated and joined to Jacob or Israel, since without that root no one can be called either Jacob or Israel? Neither, then, if anyone of Jacob or Israel sins, can he be called Jacob or Israel; nor, if anyone of the nations has entered the church of the Lord, will he any longer be reckoned among the nations. "Who shall search out the seed of Jacob, and who shall number the peoples of Israel?" This is like that which is written: "God led Abraham outside and said to him: Look up to heaven and number the stars, if you can number them. And he said: So shall your seed be." "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness." But Abraham indeed, and any other of men, or even of angels, and perhaps also of the higher powers, could not number the stars, nor the seed of Abraham, concerning which it is written: "So shall your seed be"; but God, concerning whom it is written: "who numbers the multitude of the stars, and calls them all by names," and who said: "I have given command to all the stars," is able to search out the seed of Jacob and to number the peoples of Israel. For he alone knows who is truly Jacob and who is truly Israel. For he does not look to him who is a Jew openly, nor to that circumcision which is openly in the flesh, but he sees him who is a Jew in secret, and who is circumcised in heart, not in flesh. He alone, then, is the one who can number and search out, and he, according to his ineffable and incomprehensible wisdom, in accordance with that heavenly pattern which he alone can know, has appointed also these numbers which we have in hand; in which he commanded that, according to their kindreds, according to the houses of their families, by name every male be numbered head by head from twenty years and upward, everyone who goes forth in the host of Israel, and there is gathered a certain sacred number of them, concerning which we have already spoken above, as the Lord granted. But this number is sacred and pleasing to God only then, when it is numbered at his own command. But if anyone should wish to number contrary to the commandment of the Lord, though he be David, though a great prophet, he acts against the law and is reproved through the prophet and suffers those things which we read written in the second book of Kingdoms. He alone, then, who numbers the multitude of the stars and who has brought forth all things by measure and number and weight, searches out the seed of Jacob and numbers the peoples of Israel.
[§4] After these things he seems to prophesy certain things as though concerning himself, when he says: "Let my soul die among the souls of the righteous, and let my seed be as the seed of the righteous." But this, as far as regards the person of that Balaam and that Israel, neither happened nor could happen; for he died not among them, but by them. Rather, then, as we have said, it will suit the person of those who, although in the present age they are held to be a vain people, because they are without the grace of the Holy Spirit, yet at the end of the age, when the fullness of the Gentiles shall have come in, and all that prophecy which is spoken concerning Israel shall have been fulfilled in the spiritual Israel, then their soul shall die with the souls of the righteous. For it will take up in itself the faith of Christ, so that they too may say: "We who were baptized in Christ were baptized in his death. For we were buried together with him through baptism into death," and again: "For if we die together, we shall also reign together." And thus it will truly be fulfilled for the intelligible Balaam, that his soul may die among the souls of the righteous. But that which he says: "and let my seed be as the seed of the righteous," could indeed be understood also of that Balaam according to this, that those magi who, coming from the East, first adored Jesus, seem to be of his seed, whether through succession of lineage or through the handing down of a teaching. For it is evidently established that they recognized the star which Balaam had foretold would arise in Israel, and that thus they came and adored the king who was born in Israel. Yet it will suit also that people according to what we said above; for not so much they themselves as their seed will become as the seed of the righteous, namely of those who, believing from among the nations, have been justified in Christ. Hence it is manifest that, as the Apostle says: "neither circumcision is anything nor uncircumcision, but faith, which works through love." And therefore let no one either boast in the antiquity of circumcision or glory in the newness of uncircumcision, but, as the Apostle says: "let each one prove his own work, and then he will have glory in himself alone." So finally the prophet too says: "Behold, the man and his work"; and the reward is said to be "in the sight of the Lord," that "he may render to each according to his works," in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.