Tractates on the Books of Holy Scripture (Tractatus Origenis) 11.1–11.4

"And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 'Send men to view the land of the Canaanites, which I am giving to the sons of Israel as a possession, one man,' he says, 'from each tribe, by their fathers' clans,'" and so on. The divine laws, which are not inscribed on stones but fixed in hearts, not cut in oak or bronze but placed in the soul and mind, contain either moral precepts or natural decrees; some of them are open and clear, others riddling and figurative and stored away in the secret of mysteries, which the spirit nevertheless attains by investigating with the greatest zeal, as the blessed apostle says: "The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." Indeed this reading not only indicates the history of an event, but already then showed by figurative prefiguration what was to come concerning Christ. And since old things agree with new not in time but in meaning, we, comparing by that same meaning the new with the old and the old with the new, show that the two testaments have one cause and meaning through the one Spirit of God. For there is one God and his Word, that is, the Son of God, and one Holy Spirit, who works all in all, who spoke both in the law in types and in the apostles openly, as the Lord himself says: "The kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure new things and old," that is, the law and the Gospel, because the law is the testimony of the Gospel and the Gospel the fulfillment of the law. But since there are, as has been said, not only appearances of things but also images of providence, which occur and appear at appointed times, new and old, ancient and present, early and antique, which nevertheless, their names changed while their cause and dignity remain or succeed, receive their end without destruction (for we take "end" to mean the perfection of a thing, not its failure), or follow after and preserve the first, all things nevertheless have their causes, orders, and arrangements. Listen, then, I ask, more carefully to what this reading indicates. "And the Lord spoke," it says, "to Moses, saying: 'Send men to view the land of the Canaanites, which I am giving to the sons of Israel as a possession, one man from each tribe, by their fathers' clans.' And when he had sent them, they came to the valley of the Cluster and looked at it, and they cut from there a branch with a cluster of grapes, and carried that cluster on a pole; and they also brought with them pomegranates and figs, to show the richness of the land by the quality of its fruits. When they had brought them, they nonetheless troubled all the people, saying: 'The land which we passed through to view, that land devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw are men of huge size. And we saw giants there too, and we were before them like locusts.' Hearing this, the whole congregation raised its voice, and the people wept all that night. And all the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron. And they said to one another: 'Let us make ourselves a leader and return to Egypt.' And Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the whole congregation of the sons of Israel. But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb, these two of the twelve who had viewed the land, tore their clothes and said to the whole congregation of the sons of Israel: 'The land which we viewed is exceedingly good. If the Lord has chosen us, he will bring us into that land and give us a land flowing with milk and honey. But do not become deserters from the Lord, and do not fear the people of this land, for they are food for us. For their time has departed from them, but the Lord is with us;

do not fear them.'" And when the people wanted to stone them, then the glory of God appeared in a cloud over the tabernacle of testimony, intending to strike and crush the whole people of the sons of Israel. But Moses asked the Lord to spare them. The Lord answered him that all who murmured against the Lord would not enter that land; but to their sons, who they said would become the prey of their enemies, who did not know good or evil, to them, he says, "I will give that land. And all who provoked me will not see that land, except Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh; and the children who they said would be plundered, I will bring them in, and they will possess the land from which you have departed ..." Now that we have spoken briefly of the faithlessness of the Jews, it remains for us to follow the order of the prophecy. For "all these things," says the apostle, "happened to them in figure; but they were written for our correction, on whom the ends of the ages have come." If, then, all these things happened in figure, let us see what the figure of this matter was. Spies, it says, were sent into the land of promise, and from there they brought one cluster on a pole, and also pomegranates and figs. These are the great and rich fruits of that land which they brought to the people as the height of wonder. When all Israel saw them, they murmured against the Lord, judging themselves unworthy to possess the good things of that land. But we must observe more carefully who these spies are, or whose image they bore. I, dearest brothers, as far as I am able to fulfill the office of interpreter, understand that these spies bore the figure of none other than the scribes and Pharisees and all the priests of the people of Israel, who had been commanded through the law to watch for and seek the coming of Christ and the great things that were to happen at his coming, and thence ought to hope for and obtain the fruits of righteousness. The land of promise is the flesh of the Virgin Mary, because flesh is called earth by the Lord in the divine Scriptures, as the Lord says to Adam: "You are earth, and to earth you shall go." Notice carefully, I ask, what kind of fruits they brought from this land: "a cluster on a pole, and figs, and pomegranates." What is this cluster from the land of promise, if not Christ from the flesh of the virgin? For God had said: "Behold, a virgin will conceive in the womb." Indeed, as that cluster carried on a pole hung suspended between two men, so too Christ was hung on the wood of the cross between two peoples, the Jews and the Christians. And since the cross of Christ, as the apostle said, is folly to those who are perishing but to those who are to be saved it is the power of God, therefore the one who went in front was the figure of the Jewish people, which because of its unbelief was going to leave Christ behind it; the one who came behind indicated the image of our people, which, believing afterwards and having Christ before its eyes, was always going to follow him as a servant his master and a disciple his teacher, as the Lord himself says in the Gospel: "Whoever wishes to be my disciple, let him take up his cross and follow me." This, then, dearest brothers, was the meaning and the cause of the prophecy that the cluster was carried on a pole: the pole indicated the Lord's cross, and the cluster, as I have said, Christ, who was to be hung on the cross. The two men too were the figure of two peoples, as has been said. This cluster, then, pressed by the venerable wood of the cross, gave us who believe in him the wine of his blood to drink, so that the blessed apostles and the whole people of believers were said to be full of new wine.

But they brought with them not only the cluster but also figs. I will say briefly what the fig signifies. The Lord himself showed in the Gospel that the fig bears the image of the ancient law, saying: "A certain householder," he says, "planted a vineyard, and in his vineyard he planted a fig tree." Who is the householder, if not God, who is the father of his household? He planted a vineyard, then, that is, a people, since "You brought a vine out of Egypt," it says, "you drove out the nations and planted it." And certainly it was a people, not a vine, that he had brought out of Egypt, so that you may know that the vineyard must be understood as the people, as Isaiah says: "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel." But in his vineyard he planted a fig tree, that is, he placed the law among his people. Indeed, when Adam and Eve after the transgression made themselves aprons of fig leaves, they signified that the transgressor would be under the shadow of the law, because the law, as the apostle said, "was given not for the righteous but for sinners." For just as the fig tree throws to the ground its first fruits, dry and useless, and then renews others, which it brings forth with rich sweetness to due ripeness, so the ancient law, which we have said bears the image of the fig, cast off the first people of the Jews as useless, that is, sinful, and thereafter, the early figs (to use a Greek word, the sycophants), that is, the first people of Israel, being rejected, afterwards through Christ renewed in us the rich and abundant fruits of the Gospels of sweetest taste. For there is a kind of fig tree that brings even its first fruits to ripeness, which is called the twice-bearing, as it is written: "The Lord loved them like the forerunners of the fig." The forerunners are the patriarchs and prophets, who in the old covenant bore before them the fruit of righteousness, preaching the coming of Christ, and, having hope in the new, received the sweetest grace of the Gospels. But of the people of Israel, and of ours, Jeremiah says: "And the Lord showed me two baskets of figs, one of very good figs, the other of very bad." This, as I have often said, already then indicated the image of two peoples. For those two baskets bore the figure of the Synagogue of Israel and of the Church from the Gentiles. Hence the basket of very bad figs shows the rejected people of the Synagogue, while the one of very good figs foretold the people of the Church, sweetest and richest in faith and truth. Though they are born from the root of one tree, that is, of one law, they are distinguished in the fruits of faith. For one fig is that which first comes out with the leaf but cannot reach ripeness, which befell the people of the Jews, which was begotten with the very leaf of the fig, that is, with the very first word of the divine law, but did not deserve to reach the perfection of gospel ripeness; another is that which, having lost its first fruits, is afterwards restored, and which is reckoned the best in the divine Scriptures: that is the Christian people, which after the stumbling of the Jews obtained the grace of divine sweetness, as it is written, "In your sweetness you have prepared your people," and "Taste and see that the Lord is sweet." Hence it must now be plain to you, dearest brothers, that this fig bore the image of the law, just as it is clear that the cluster is a figure of Christ, because neither can Christ be without the law nor the law without Christ. For the law is the testimony of the Gospel, and the Gospel the fulfillment of the law.

But the Scripture further adds that pomegranates were brought along with the cluster and the figs. What should these pomegranates be understood to mean? I, dearest brothers, understand that these pomegranates bore the figure of the Church. For as pomegranates have outside the very firm protection of their rind, which is neither knocked down by a beating wind nor struck by any injury, so the Church, fortified by the power of the Holy Spirit and hanging on the cross of Christ by the firmness of its faith, endures against all the storms of the world with firm and steady perseverance in the nature of its tree, that is, on the wood of the cross. And as this kind of fruit, though enclosed outside by one rind, has within many seeds, white with red, so too the Church, though fortified, as I said, by the power of the one Holy Spirit, contains and preserves the multitude of believers enclosed within it. For the many seeds of the pomegranate show the multitude of the people. And since those seeds are white with red, they doubtless show the type of baptism and of passion: for baptism makes people white, passion makes them red. They also have juices that are sweet mixed with sharpness, because we are commanded to be simple as doves and shrewd as serpents. For there is no goodness so sweet that it does not have the sharpness of the strictest discipline. And since we have already said that the many seeds indicate the multitude of the people, which, though enclosed outside by one rind, are nevertheless separated by an inner membrane, so too in the Church, though we are all brought together as members into the one body of Christ, yet within there are ranks and honors and divisions of dignities and distinctions of gifts, as the apostle says: gifts and graces and merits and offices are distributed to each by one and the same Spirit in one and the same Church. And so, since all these things were offered to the people of Israel in the figure of the divine law and of Christ's Church, and they not only judged themselves unworthy to receive this grace but even wished to return to Egypt, that is, to the world, they did not deserve to receive the land of promise flowing with milk and honey. For what land is it from which the Scripture testifies that milk and honey flow? If you say Judea, no one has ever yet recalled honey flowing from rock or milk from earth there. But the land from which milk and honey are said to flow is the flesh of Christ, from which the milk of the ancient law flows and is given as nourishment to believers, and honey, that is, the sweetness of the Gospels, is granted from the overflowing of Christ; as also the new wine from the cluster that was carried on a pole, and the ripeness of the law in the fig, and the pomegranates in the unity of the Church. And all the good things of the heavenly kingdom that had been promised to the Jews we have obtained through faith in Christ, we who are called by the Lord true Israelites.