Tractates on the Books of Holy Scripture (Tractatus Origenis) 12.1–12.5

"And Joshua son of Nun sent two men from Shittim as spies secretly." Hoshea son of Nun, then, whose name was abolished and changed so that he deserved to be called Jesus (that is, Joshua), in order that the army might hear its new commander inaugurated, namely, with the Lord's name, when he led the people of the sons of Israel into the land of promise, lest the people seem to have been led in as it were through the law of Moses, and not rather through the Savior whose name that Jesus had received as a fitting one, bearing the figure of Christ, gave proofs of many virtues. Since it would be long to review them all now, we must treat only the present reading. "And Jesus son of Nun," it says, "sent from Shittim two men as spies secretly, saying: 'Go up and see the land and Jericho.' And the two young men came and entered Jericho, and they went into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there." Attend to the arrangements of this mystery, dearest brothers, and inquire into the causes of things: why such great men, for whom the Lord was doing such great powers and wonders, went in to a harlot, as though they could not find lodging elsewhere. But I think they did this not by chance but deliberately, with a prophetic purpose. For in many places I find this harlot not only as the hostess of the saints but also as their wife. Indeed the most holy prophet Hosea is commanded by the Lord to take a harlot as his wife: "For the Lord said to me," he says, "'Take for yourself a wife of harlotry, and make children of harlotry.'" Our Lord and Savior himself too, when he sat down by the well in Samaria, spoke there to no one before the harlot. When he said to her, "You have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not yours," then she believed and confessed that he was the Messiah, that is, the Christ. Moreover a sinful woman washed the feet of the Savior himself with her tears, wiped them with the hair of her head, and, kissing those feet, poured ointment on them. Let us see, then, whose figure our hostess put on. This Rahab, though called a harlot, nevertheless bore, foreseeing, the mysteries of the virgin Church and the shadow of the things to come at the end of the age; protected, she alone was preserved for life when all were perishing. For when it was said to the prophet Hosea, "Take for yourself a wife of harlotry," already then the image of the Church coming from the Gentiles was certainly prefigured, because from the harlotry of the nations and the fornication of idols (for "they committed fornication," it says, "after foreign gods") a people was to be gathered, whence it is called the Church, because "church," from Greek into the Latin word, means an assembly of the people. And just as, as the apostle says, "the unbelieving wife is sanctified through the believing husband," so too the Church, coming from the unbelief of the Gentiles and the fornication of images, was sanctified and counted in the body of Christ, whose members we have learned, on the same apostle's authority, that we are. So, since the Church gathered from the multitude of the Gentiles was then called a harlot, this Rahab is found as the hostess of the saints in the figure of the Church. Hence it came about that, when the trumpet of the priests, breathing the divine spirit, running far through the air, gave life to the song of victory, when the sevenfold walls of Jericho fell and the new slaughter of the falling peoples covered the whole crowd of the pagans, Rahab alone, as I said, was found worthy to be kept safe. This was prefigured because in the last times, when the disaster of the world comes and the sevenfold heavenly plagues, through the seven trumpets or the seven bowls of the angels, strike the whole human race with Antichrist, no one in this world will be saved except one who has been shut in the house of Rahab, that is, in the Church of Christ. For great grace, great power, great indulgence and happiness was given by Christ to the Church from the Gentiles, that, restored by the precepts of the law and sanctified by the benefit of the Gospel, she who once was common should become the chaste wife of the one Holy Spirit. For she is washed and purified of the other filth of shameful deeds by the divine washing, and becomes a virgin from a former harlot of sin; as the Lord himself said to the Jews, "Prostitutes will go before you into the kingdom of heaven"; she who, while she is joined to the holy body through faith in Christ and cleansed by the sanctification of the life-giving washing, is thereafter said to go before in the kingdom of God. Hence it must now be plain to you that Rahab our hostess, who received the two spies of Israel into her house, already then outlined the figure of the Church coming from the Gentiles.

But who are these two spies, if not the two testaments of the law and of the Gospels, whose precepts spy out the whole land, that is, all flesh, set in the grace of the law and of faith, since flesh is figuratively called earth, which the Lord will give back to believers as the promised inheritance in the first resurrection? These spies, then, that is, the law and the Gospel, no other house was found worthy to receive and keep than the Church coming from the Gentiles, because whoever keeps the precepts of the law is himself kept for life. Under this figure too in the Gospel the sinful woman, as I said, washed the Lord's feet with her tears; since she had put on the type of the Church coming from the Gentiles, she washed away her old crime with abundant tears of repentance, and with her hair loosened she already then wiped the holy footprints that would profit her. And she poured ointment on the beautiful feet, so that, while she kissed the Lord's feet, she might advance to approaching his mouth, and, while she believed the prophets sent before, she might also enjoy the Lord's living voice. For so it is written in that wedding song called the Song of Solomon: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth, for your breasts are better than wine." This is the kiss of the Lord's mouth: that Christ the bridegroom should speak to his bride the Church face to face, and give the word of divine peace like a kiss. What is truer than the kiss of the voice? It is what he said: "My peace I give to you"; for joined by the honey of peace they were not divided even in death. See, so the Lord kisses the Church with the kiss of his mouth, when he draws forth into her the honey of the psalms, when, pointing out the honeycomb of the law, he speaks with his own mouth, when what he had foretold through the prophets he himself bestowed and fulfilled, as it is written: "I who spoke have come." This, then, is the kiss of his mouth, which the Lord, as I said, gave face to face to the Church, to whom he also sealed the ring of faith, as the pledge of spiritual marriage. And hence what we said before, that the famous prophet Hosea is commanded to take a harlot as wife ... of the Gentiles and from the harlotry of idols, the Church now rather cleaves to the Lord's body than the Synagogue, to which he testifies through the same prophet that he has given a bill of divorce. He declares that she is no longer his wife, nor is he her husband. Indeed, of the children he received from that harlot, he gave one the name "Not my people" and called the other "Not beloved": "For it will be," he says, "that not my people will be my people, and she who was not beloved will be beloved." For "It will be," he says, "that where it was said 'not my people,' there they will be called sons of God." This is because we, who formerly were not his people while we lived among the nations of the Gentiles, were, believing through faith in Christ, to be made his people and called sons of the living God, and the Church too, which once was not beloved before it was taken up by Christ, was afterwards to become beloved.

But the divine Scripture added further: "And when the king of Jericho knew," it says, "that two men, spies from Israel, had gone in to Rahab the harlot, he sent to her, saying: 'Bring out the men who came into your house by night.'" We have already said that these two men bore the figure of the two testaments, through which the whole earth, that is, all flesh, is explored by the Lord, and that the king of Jericho indicated the likeness of the devil, who is the enemy of the New and Old Testaments and has always persecuted all the saints, and also this prophetic and wise woman, who truly foretold the type of the Church in everything. For "she hid," it says, "these two men in the flax loft." That is, in the secret of her heart she hid the law and the Gospel, whom it calls men; she hid them, certainly, so that the devil should not have the power to tear the word of God away from those who were to serve God through the Gospel. Indeed in the Acts of the Apostles too the figure of the Church is shown to the blessed apostle Peter in a linen vessel tied at four corners, because the Church was to suffer in the world labors as great as the cultivation of flax is a manifold and laborious work. But there will be another, clearer place to discuss this; let us explain what we have begun. This keeping, then, is threefold. First they enter the house, second they are hidden in the loft, third they are moved to the upper part of the house. "But they came," it says, "by night," because she was still set in the darkness of the nations and in the night of ignorance, so that afterwards she who was called a harlot because of the worship of idolatry ... So too the Lord commanded Noah to make the ark with three stories in the figure of the Church. For first the word of the law enters the catechumen, as into the lodging of the body. Then, for the candidate for baptism, the mystery of the sacrament is hidden in the secret of the soul, as in the flax loft. Third, for the baptized believer, one arrives at the upper part of the house, through the steps of the virtues, at the summit of the Holy Spirit. Hence the blessed apostle Paul too, writing to the Thessalonians, says that man is threefold: "that your spirit and soul and body may be kept whole without blame for the day of the Lord." The flesh of man, then, receives the word of God as a guest; the soul keeps and guards it; the Spirit lifts and raises it. Hence this woman Rahab, who received the spies into her house, hid them in the loft and set them in the upper part of the house, asking them to show her mercy when they had won the victory. So too the Church asks God, through the law and the Gospel, through which he explores and spies out the flesh, which he calls earth, that she may be freed from the destruction of the world and from eternal death, at the time, that is, when he will judge the world by fire and comes to reign with the saints.

But listen more carefully, I ask, to what sign is set forth for preserving the house. "Hang scarlet tied to a cord from the window," it says, "and gather into your house all who belong to you. But if anyone is found outside, we shall be free from this oath which we ourselves have made with you." We must observe more carefully what this mystery is, that scarlet is hung from the window on a cord or rope of broom. A window gives light to a house and lights up its interior. Since we have said that the earth is the flesh of man, what else should we take the window to be than the belief of faith? For through faith light is poured into the mind, and all the inner parts of the heart are lit up. "But hang scarlet," it says. What does the scarlet indicate here, if not the glorious blood of the Lord's passion? By it those are saved who are destined for the reward of eternal life. Indeed something similar had gone before in the mystery of the Passover, that the doorposts and thresholds were marked with the blood of the lamb sacrificed in the figure of Christ, and, at the sight of it, the angel of destruction, who was to strike all Egypt, was kept from the houses marked with blood. Hence it is that the lips of the Church, which is flesh, are compared in the Song of Songs to a scarlet cord; for it says: "Bride, your lips are like a scarlet cord." For she had once dragged the cord of sin, while she still lived among the nations of the Gentiles, as Solomon says, "Each one is bound by the cords of his sins," and Isaiah, "Those who drag sins," he says, "like a long rope." But this cord of sin, which she had dragged before she believed, she afterwards dyed with the scarlet of Christ's blood, stained it with the juice of the Lord's gore. Hence it is that her cheeks too, in the same book, are said to be like the rind of a pomegranate. Hence the brother white and ruddy is heard of there, pierced by the soldiers' lance. Hence too he washed his robe, that is, his body, in the wine of the passion, the body which impious Judas had sold, which Israel pressed out like a winepress. Hence it is that he triumphed, bringing red firstfruits from Edom, which is the name of the rival brother. Hence it is that he came with red garments from Bozrah, which is assigned as the place of murder, slain by the Jewish people as by his brother Ham. See: so, for our offense, while righteous blood is shed, the cord of sins is dyed with scarlet. And so this scarlet of faith was hung from the window, which is the light of the mind, so that in the time of destruction, in which this world is to be destroyed, the house and family of believers might be preserved by the sign of the Lord's passion. As for his saying that the scarlet must be hung from broom or a cord, it is not as if there were no other kind of tie from which to hang the scarlet, but because the broom indicated the figure of the Gentiles, who, gathered from the forest of the world, rough, that is, and uncultivated, and bound with the bond of the Trinity, were to be set in order by the scarlet, that is, by the blood of the Lord's passion. Hence Solomon too says, "A threefold cord will not be broken": that is, the Gentiles who believe in the Trinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit cannot be broken.

But perhaps someone may ask why the divine Scripture promises grace to believers in one place white as snow, in another purple as scarlet: for Gideon too found a fleece and set the lamb's wool as a sign. What concerns the snowy whiteness of the wool indicates the mystery of baptism, by which alone sins are cleansed, by which the stains of crimes are washed away, as the Lord says through Isaiah, "If your sins are like scarlet, I will make them white as snow," and elsewhere, "The Nazirites were made whiter than snow." Purple is assigned to the martyrs, whom the happiness of their own blood adorns. Indeed from Christ's side too blood and water flowed, to show the blood of the passion and the sacrament of baptism: for baptism makes people white, the passion makes them red. But though scarlet and purple have one material, namely wool, there is a great difference between scarlet and purple. For purple does not give such light or prevail with such brightness, though it too offers redness. But if you lift up the dye of scarlet, it shines back, and raised up it gleams. And though, as I said, the material is one, since we too receive the wool of the lamb, yet as this is most beautiful in color, so that is more sublime in brightness. Let every prophet forgive me who, as it is written in the Gospel, was killed by faithless teachers as a forerunner of the Lord; let the glorious martyrs forgive me, I say, whose faith the purple blood of their own passion makes illustrious. I recognize no blood brighter than that of our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered for us. For this blood of Christ alone adorned and dyed all, according to the merit of their deeds. And so the chief brightness of the divine blood must shine through faith, by which ornaments shone on the others, though the material of the body taken up, like that of the wool, is one. And so in the scarlet the passion of Christ is shown, in the purple the blood of martyrdom. Hence Rahab, who bore the type of the Church, hung scarlet from the window as the sign of her salvation, to indicate that the Lord's passion is the salvation of the Gentiles. As, then, when the city of Jericho was destroyed and burned and its king killed, only the house of Rahab and those in it were saved through the sign of the scarlet, so too, when this world is set on fire and the devil, who now reigns in the world, is killed, no one else will be kept for salvation and eternal life unless he has been found within the house of the Church, which has been marked with the sign of the scarlet, that is, with the blood of Christ; just as in the flood no one escaped the shipwreck of the world except him who was found worthy to be kept in the ark of Noah, which foretold the type of the Church.