Tractates on the Books of Holy Scripture (Tractatus Origenis) 6.1–6.8

I know, dearest brothers, that I have very often discussed this first-born book, that is, Genesis, and have explained almost all its readings to your eagerness, as reason allowed or the modesty of my understanding permits. But now I have proposed to treat the prophecy of the most holy patriarch Jacob, in which he foretold to his twelve sons what would happen to them, which I had never yet discussed. And since it is too long to discuss everything in one tractate, some things must be discussed and others usefully deferred, because brief things please you more than long ones, since concise things are held in memory more easily than heaped-up ones. So he says: "And Jacob called his sons and said to them: 'Come near, that I may tell you what will happen to you in the last days. Gather and hear, sons of Jacob; hear Israel your father. Reuben,' he says, 'my firstborn, you are my strength and the beginning of my sons, hard in conduct, hard and bold; you boiled over like water; do not blaze up. For you went up onto your father's bed; then you defiled the couch onto which you went up.'" In these words, then, some things, though done according to the flesh, nevertheless foreshadowed an image of mystical meaning, while other things he spoke as one who foreknew the future. For as Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob, so too the people of the circumcision was the firstborn, as it is written: "Israel is my firstborn." And so he says, "You are my strength and the beginning of my sons," since from that people the foundation of faith and the beginning of the sons of God began, as the Lord says in the Gospel: "Salvation is from the Jews." For from there came the patriarchs, from there the prophets, from there Christ our salvation. And the blessed apostle says: "Theirs is the adoption of sons, theirs the promises of the law, theirs the fathers, from whom is Christ, who is blessed forever." And so he is called firstborn and strength, since from them came the strength of God, that is, Christ. And they are the firstborn of whom he says: "I have begotten and exalted sons." And again: "You are gods and all sons of the Most High." But in adding "hard and bold," he says it because that people, after such great divine benefits, had hardened its heart, and was not only not going to listen to the heavenly precepts but was even going to offer the honor owed to God to idols and demons. Hence afterwards, remaining in the same hardness, they not only refused to believe the great miracles and wonders of Christ, but, accusing him, most impiously shed righteous blood. O iron hardness, O unbridled boldness! Not only did they refuse to believe divine miracles, but on top of that they hung the Lord of majesty on a cross. And so under the person of Reuben the people of the Jews is accused of being hard and bold: hard because of unbelief, bold because of the parricide it committed against Christ. As for his adding, "You went up onto your father's bed; then you defiled the couch onto which you went up," he does not say this of him because, as the history indicates, he had his father's wife and so defiled the couch by going up onto his father's bed; something very different is understood here.

For the divine Scripture was indicating things to come, not things past, since the patriarch himself said: "Come near, that I may tell you what will happen to you in the last days." And so, since he foretold these things as coming in the last days, they ought not to be turned back to the past. You see, then, dearest brothers, that he was speaking of the impiety which the Jewish people was going to commit against God the Father, not of what had been done to the patriarch Jacob. When did the Jewish people defile the bed of God its father, if not when it hung on the cross the Lord's flesh, in which, as the apostle says, the fullness of the divinity dwelt bodily, fitted to it, and violated it with iron? "For you defiled it then when you went up." It went up indeed in anger and fury and boldness to win the victory of its iniquity, saying: "Away, away, crucify him." "You boiled over like water; do not blaze up." With this the prophetic Spirit was announcing by way of persuasion that the people which had already boiled over, set on fire by the fiery darts of the devil, should not blaze up all the way in persecution of the righteous. This they did after the Lord's passion by persecuting the apostles and also all who had believed in the name of Christ. And so he said: "You boiled over like water; do not blaze up." So too the Lord says to Cain: "You have sinned; be still." For water that boils in a vessel over a fire either spills over from its swelling or dries up from boiling too much. This also happened to that people, which, set on fire by the devil's fury as if in the vessels of their bodies, was so spilled out that it remained scattered over the whole world, dry of religion itself and of every spiritual grace, parched in its understanding. But because Reuben the firstborn, that is, the first people of the Jews, had some faithful men who afterwards believed through the apostles, as it is written, "And the crowd of believers was added daily," therefore, after the reproach which the Holy Spirit had cast on him concerning the future through his father Jacob, Moses afterwards prays for life for him, saying: "Let Reuben live and not die"; not because Reuben himself was then living, who had long since gone forth in peace, but so that those of that people who believed in Christ might live and never die, because whoever believes in Christ does not die, as the Lord and Savior himself says in the Gospel: "Whoever believes in me does not die, but has eternal life." After this he turns to Simeon and Levi, saying: "Simeon and Levi, brothers, completed iniquity of their own will. Let my soul not come into their counsel, and let my heart not contend over their constancy. For in their fury they killed men, and in their desire they hamstrung a bull. Cursed be their fury, because it is bold, and their anger, because it is hard. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel." Many think that Simeon and Levi are rebuked by their father in this way because, in avenging the virginity of their sister Dinah, they dealt deceitfully with Hamor, king of the Shechemites, and with his son Shechem: since Shechem son of Hamor had violated Dinah their sister, they, wishing to kill him, said that all their males must be circumcised, and so Shechem could have their sister Dinah as wife. And since Shechem burned with vehement impatience in his love for Dinah, they agreed to be circumcised, not only themselves but also all their soldiery and all the men of their city. Then Simeon and Levi are reported to have cut off in that circumcision not only their foreskins but also their sinews. And it happened, after the third day, when all the men were in the greatest pain, that Simeon and Levi came upon them without their father's knowledge and killed them all with the sword, the king Hamor himself with his son Shechem and all the people of that city,

and burned the city itself with fire, and so took their sister Dinah away from there and brought her back. But let none of you think, dearest brothers, that they are so sharply rebuked by their father for this reason, especially since, as we have already treated above, the same Jacob said to his sons: "Come near, that I may tell you what will happen to you in the last days." You see, then, that he was speaking not of a deed past but of one to be done in the future. Therefore, dearest brothers, we must observe more carefully what this iniquity is which Simeon and Levi completed of their own will and with which their father reproaches them. From Simeon came the scribes of the Jews, from Levi the priests, who with one accord in their fury killed men, that is, the prophets who were sent to them by the Lord, and in their desire hamstrung a bull, that is, Christ our Lord. They hamstrung him when they crucified his feet and hands, when they pierced his side with a lance. The prophetic Spirit called him a bull because he first bore the plough of his cross on the gibbet, and prepared the hard hearts of the Gentiles, broken up, for the needful seed, that is, the Holy Spirit; and because in the last days he will come and, like a bull, toss the whole human race with the horns of his cross, and will raise some, that is, believers, to heaven and cast down others, that is, unbelievers, onto the earth. Indeed, that they killed the prophets and that they would kill the Lord himself, the Lord tells them in a parable in the Gospel: "A certain householder planted a vineyard, dug a winepress, and put in tenants. And when that householder had sent servants to seek the fruit from the tenants, they killed some and stoned others. Afterwards he sent many more, and they did the same. Last of all he sent his son, saying, 'Perhaps they will respect my son.' When the tenants saw him, they said, 'This is his son; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' When, then, the householder comes, what will he do to the tenants? They answered: 'He will destroy the wicked wickedly.'" You see, then, dearest brothers, that this is the very thing which the patriarch Jacob also charged against his sons, that in their fury they killed men, that is, the prophets, and in their desire hamstrung a bull, that is, Christ, as we have already shown above. Hence the most holy patriarch withdraws himself from their crime, saying: "Let my soul not come over their boldness, and let my heart not contend." For he does not wish to be seen as a partaker in such great crimes, which they were going to commit in the last days. Indeed what the patriarch, filled with the Holy Spirit, foretold to them here, the same Spirit afterwards speaks through Isaiah, saying: "Your sabbaths and your new moons my soul hates, and your great day I cannot bear. If you bring fine flour, it is vain. Incense is an abomination to me. And if you multiply prayers, I will not hear. And if you stretch out your hands, I will turn my face away from you. For your hands are full of blood."

But since he is kind and merciful, when he had rejected all these things, he gives counsel as to what they should do, saying: "Wash yourselves, be clean." Wash, that is, in the baptism of Christ, of which he says elsewhere: "I will sprinkle them with clean water, and you will be cleansed"; for in the sacrament of baptism all sins and all crimes are forgiven. Indeed he added: "And if your sins are like scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and if like crimson, I will make them like white wool." But what is scarlet and what is crimson? Sins like scarlet are those stained with the blood of the prophets; like crimson, those offenses dyed with the precious blood of Christ; for as far as scarlet, that is, vermilion, differs from crimson, so great is the difference between the blood of Christ and that of the prophets. How great is the kindness, how great the mercy of God our Savior, that he deigns to absolve even his own killers from every offense through the grace of baptism, if they are converted, believe, and repent of their deeds! But he added further: "Cursed be their fury, because it is bold, and their anger, because it is hard." Scripture indicates this cursed fury of theirs, and their bold anger, hardened at the devil's instigation to commit so great a crime, because, kindled with fury and hardened in anger, they came and seized our Savior and Lord, by whom they had seen such great wonders and powers done, and handed him over to Pontius Pilate, shouting and saying: "Away, away, crucify him," and "If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend." O their cursed fury and hardened boldness, that they asked for the release of Barabbas, a robber and murderer, and demanded the crucifixion of the prince of life, who had raised the dead and given light to the blind, made the deaf hear and the lame walk, healed the paralytics, cleansed the lepers, and taken away every kind of illness by the word with which he was strong! Foreseeing these things in the spirit, this most holy patriarch Jacob foretold them in figure. Hence he does not wish to be seen as a partaker in their counsel and deed. For he says: "Let my soul not come into their counsel, and let my heart not contend over their boldness." Since this is so, we must ask what he added below, saying: "I will divide them in Jacob, I will scatter them in Israel." The foreseeing spirit of the patriarch was already warning that from that very people of his sons unbelievers were to be separated from believers. For Jacob, from the Hebrew language, is called in Latin "supplanter," while Israel is interpreted "a man seeing God." And so some were to be divided in Jacob, those who had been supplanters of Christ, and others in Israel, those who were found worthy to believe. So he says: "I will divide them in

Jacob and scatter them in Israel." After this he turns to Judah and says to him: "Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hands will be on the back of your enemies; your father's sons will worship you. A lion's whelp is Judah; from the shoot, my son, you have gone up; lying down you slept like a lion and like a lion's whelp; who will rouse him?" What is this, dearest brothers, that Judah deserved to be praised so, when Simeon and Levi above are rebuked so, if not that Christ was to come from the tribe of Judah, as it is written of him: "The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered"? And so, just as in Reuben and Simeon and Levi he rebukes and brands not so much them individually as those who were to be born of their tribe and who were to do and complete iniquities of their own will against Christ, so here too he was praising not so much Judah himself as Christ, who was to come from the tribe of Judah according to the flesh. Indeed he says: "Judah, your brothers will praise you," because all of his race who believed in Christ were going to praise him for the very powers and wonders of his that they saw. And this happened: for "all," it says, "praised God, because such a prophet had never appeared in Israel." And since Christ was the judge and lord of all, he therefore added: "Your hands will be on the back of your enemies." He calls enemies those who were not going to believe, as it is written: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet." These, then, are the unbelieving enemies who did not set their face to see, but, turning their face away from the sight of God and removing their hearts from faith, turned their backs to forsake the Lord, backs which they will afterwards make ready for the lash in the judgment of God, as he says through the prophet Jeremiah: "They turned their backs to me, and not their faces." And since they will feel as a most severe judge him whom they refused to receive as a kind lord, he therefore says: "Your hands will be on the back of your enemies." On the other hand, concerning those who were going to believe, he says: "Your father's sons will worship you," since many of the Jews themselves, as has been said, believed and worshiped him, and they are called sons of God, as it is written: "To all who believe in him he gave power to become sons of God." And he added: "A lion's whelp," he says, "is Judah; from the shoot, my son, you have gone up; lying down you slept like a lion and like a lion's whelp; who will rouse him?" The lion is the king of beasts. And so our Savior, who is ... the King of kings, was called a lion because of the mighty power by which he conquered the devil in death. But why did he name here a lion's whelp whom elsewhere he had called the conqueror from the tribe of Judah? He named him a whelp to show not the Father himself but the Son of God. For when lion and lion's whelp are spoken of, both Father and Son are indicated, in whom the nature is not divided, but distinct persons are shown. For just as a lion is born from a lion, so God is said to proceed from God and light from light. For just as, when a lion is born from a lion, the nature is not changed but one origin is shown, so God born from God cannot be anything other

than God; but to signify the Son he named a lion's whelp. As for his adding, "From the shoot, my son, you have gone up," he wished to show us that Christ came from the shoot of Judah, as is also said through the prophet Isaiah: "A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall go up from his root." This Jesse was the father of David, from whose root, that is, from whose origin, the Virgin Mary was born, whom Isaiah calls a rod; and the flower from the rod indicates Christ born of the virgin. This is also said through Ezekiel: "Behold, days are coming, and the rod will flower": that is, the virgin will bear Christ, the flower of the human race. And this is what he says: "From the shoot, my son, you have gone up," because, as has been said, Mary came forth from the shoot of the seed of Judah, from whom Christ the flower came. And he added: "Lying down you slept like a lion and like a lion's whelp; who will rouse him?" We have already said that the lion and the lion's whelp indicate the Father and the Son, the begotten and the unbegotten, whose nature is one. Hence the Savior himself says: "I am in the Father and the Father in me." But one cannot be in the other except through the undivided unity of nature. And as for his saying, "Who will rouse him?": who else raised the Son but the Father, as the apostle says: "He who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise your mortal bodies." "But you slept," he says, "like a lion." What is "you slept like a lion"? That is, secure and at rest. For the lion sleeps securely, since it fears nothing but is itself feared by all. So too our Savior slept securely in death, because, by the surpassing power of his nature, he not only did not fear the power of death but even conquered death itself by dying. And so, because of the confident security with which he slept in death, not only fearing nothing but also triumphing over all powers through the cross, he is said to have slept secure and confident, as the apostle says: "Stripping himself of the flesh, he openly triumphed over the powers through the cross." And this is what he says: "You slept like a lion and like a lion's whelp; who will rouse him?" And he added: "A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until the seed comes that is laid up for him, and he is the hope of the nations." This is plain and clear, dearest brothers: the seed of the holy fathers did not fail, nor did a ruler, that is, a king, cease from the origin of Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until Christ, the promised seed from the tribe of Judah and the hope of the nations, was born of the Virgin Mary. For the kingdom of the Jews was from the tribe of Judah, and it did not fail until Christ, the promised seed, shone forth in the world. So if the Jews think Christ has not yet come, then the kingdom of the Jews from the tribe of Judah remains today. Or if the Jews no longer reign, the seed laid up that had been promised to them has come, he who

is the hope of the nations, after whose coming he said the Jewish kingdom would cease. But since the promised seed has already come in Christ, the Jews have no kingdom. But what does he mean by saying: "He will tie his colt to the vine, and the colt of his donkey to sackcloth"? The colt tied to the vine is one, the donkey's colt tied to sackcloth is another. These two colts, then, signified two callings of peoples, of the Jews and of the Gentiles. His own colt was the one announced as going to believe from the Gentiles, since Christ himself was called the hope of the nations, as David too says in the person of Christ: "A people that did not know me has known me; at the hearing of the ear it obeyed me." And so he will tie, it says, his colt to the vine. What this vine is, to which he will tie this colt, that is, the believing people, the Lord himself makes plain when he says: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser; every branch in me that does not bear fruit will be cut off and thrown into the fire." This colt, that is, the people believing in him, the Lord tied to the vine of his body with the bond of love, so that one body of Christ might be made from the members of believers, as the apostle says: "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit." But how is this colt, that is, the people believing from the nations, tied to the vine, that is, to the body of Christ, if not through faith, hope, and love, through the bond of gospel discipline, as it is written: "What will separate us from the love of Christ?" And again: "But for me it is good to cling to God, to put my hope in God." "But to sackcloth," it says, "the colt of his donkey." By the donkey's colt he means the people of the Synagogue, which he calls a donkey, that is, slow-paced and weighed down by the very heavy burden of the law. But why did he tie this colt to sackcloth? Because he placed this same people under repentance for their deeds, as John too said to that same people when they came to him: "Brood of vipers, who showed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear therefore fruits worthy of repentance." Indeed, any of them who were found worthy to believe, repenting of their crimes, asked for the grace of baptism. For when they heard the most blessed apostle Peter preaching about Christ, they said to him: "What shall we do to obtain pardon?" Then he said: "Repent and be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins." This, then, is the colt tied to sackcloth, that is, the people doing penance, because it is guilty of the blood of the prophets, guilty also of the blood of Christ, guilty even of the law itself, in which it thought it had some salvation, since it cannot fulfill the precepts of that law; for it is written: "Cursed is the man who does not do all that is written in the book of the law," although all that is written in the book of the law cannot be done. I will say it briefly. For it is written: "Cursed is the man who violates the sabbath," and "He who is not circumcised on the eighth day, his soul shall perish from his people." Hence, if a child is born on a sabbath, he must be circumcised on a sabbath, that is, on the eighth day. If this is not done, his soul will perish from his people, as it is written. If it is done, the sabbath is violated, because work is done and a wound inflicted. See under what sackcloth of repentance this donkey's colt, that is, the people of the Synagogue, is tied: either, if it does not believe in Christ, it is placed under the curse of the law ... to be baptized with another baptism, which he was saying of his passion; therefore he says: "He will wash his robe in wine," that is, his flesh, which he deigned to put on like a robe. And he added: "And his cloak in the blood of the grape." A cloak (anaboladium) is what is fitted to the body and fastened with a band. He called us who believe in him the cloak. For anaboladium is a Greek word, so called because it is lifted from below to above and joined to the breast. And so he wonderfully called us believers the cloak, whom he both joined to his body and called from lower and earthly things to the heavenly things above, and joined to his breast with the bond of love as with a band, and washed in the wine of his blood, as the apostle writes: "But you have been washed, you have been sanctified in the blood of Christ and in the passion of his power."

"And in the blood of the grape." For he himself is called the cluster of the grape, in figure of whom two spies brought one cluster on a pole from the land of promise, so that by the pole they might show the wood of the cross, and by the cluster Christ hanging on the wood of the cross between two peoples. And so he says, "In the blood of the grape," because just as the grape is pressed out by hard, tight-squeezed wood, so too that cluster, that is, the body of Christ, pressed by the wood of the cross, poured out the blood of his grape and of his body, with which he washed his cloak, that is, the people joined to his flesh through faith, and showed it purified. And he added: "His eyes shining from wine, and his teeth white from milk." Eyes in this place indicated spiritual grace. For the seven eyes are the seven spirits, as the scripture of the Apocalypse testifies. This sevenfold spiritual grace is assigned to the eyes because by it past, present, and future are seen. For the Spirit of God sees all things, searches all things, even the depths of God. Hence the spiritual man too sees all things, searches all things, exposes the hearts of all, and is himself judged by no one. And so he says his eyes are shining, because he sees all things and nothing can be hidden from him, as it is written: "I am God, searching the kidneys and hearts." He says the eyes shine from wine, because from the blood of the Lord's passion, which he calls wine, all spiritual grace has shone out in us. As for "his teeth white from milk": when he names teeth, he means the modulations of the tongue, from which the clear word of preaching proceeds; for infants who have no teeth cannot speak, and toothless old men, lisping as they speak, cannot express the meaning of a word. So no one could have heard the word of God, which declares truth and righteousness, except through the apostles. And so, when he names the Lord's teeth, he indicates the apostles, who teach through the tongue of God, that is, the Holy Spirit, since "my tongue," it says, "is like the pen of a swift-writing scribe"; and since his tongue is the Holy Spirit, the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, preached the mysteries of the heavenly words with measured discipline. For as food is worked by the teeth, so too the word of God, who is the bread of life, worked by the apostolic tradition, which is compared to teeth, is seen to be passed down to all the inner parts of the body of the Church. And so the apostles are said to be whiter than the milk of the ancient law and of the old priests. For that milk is the ancient law, which the scribes and Pharisees and all the old priests, as I said, preached, the apostle proves when he says: "I gave you milk to drink, not food, for you were not yet able, nor are you able even now." So all the patriarchs and prophets and priests who were in the old covenant are compared to milk, and the apostles have been made whiter than they, as they either chew the bread of Christ's body or preach the living food, the word of God, to believers. Indeed David, no longer wishing to be counted under the milk of the law, prays to the Lord thus, saying: "As one weaned," that is, taken from his mother's milk, "so reward your servant," so that, as if now taken from the milk of the law, as I said, and set up as a mature man, he might be found worthy to receive the bread of Christ's body.