Tractates on the Books of Holy Scripture (Tractatus Origenis)

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–1.6 · 2.1–2.4 · 3.1–4.4 · 5.1–5.5 · 6.1–6.8 · 7.1–8.4 · 9.1–10.5 · 11.1–11.4 · 12.1–12.5 · 13.1–14.3 · 15.1–16.4 · 17.1–18.3 · 19.1–20.3

1. 1.1Gregory introduces Gen 2:7 and 1:26 and states the problem raised by the Anthropomorphites, who take the bodily members ascribed to God in Scripture literally.
2. 1.2Man consists of body, soul and (by grace) spirit; God, simple and incorporeal Spirit, cannot be composed of members, so the image of God cannot be bodily.
3. 1.3Man is twofold: the inner man created in God's image (shown by Paul and by the rich man and Lazarus) and the outer man formed from the earth.
4. 1.4The image of God lies in the soul's invisibility, immortality, reason and motion; the likeness lies in holy deeds and is restored in Christ, the second Adam.
5. 1.5The likeness is a holy life by which a man becomes a god by grace; the bodily members ascribed to God signify his works, read spiritually.
6. 1.6Each member ascribed to God signifies a divine work; God is wholly eye, ear and hand, beyond all reckoning, to be believed rather than judged.
7. 2.1Abraham at Mamre bears four figures; his tent at the crossroads foreshadows the call of the Gentiles, the oak the cross, the tent Jerusalem.
8. 2.2The one Lord whom Abraham worshiped came with two companions, Moses and Elijah, as at the Transfiguration; Abraham saw Christ's day and washed his feet.
9. 2.3Abraham's meal is read typologically: the fattened calf is Christ's flesh, the milk the law, the butter John the Baptist's preaching, all leading to the Gospel.
10. 2.4The three measures of flour are Noah's three sons, whose believing descendants become one bread of Christ's body through repentance and baptism; Sarah figures the Church.
11. 3.1Sarah's demand to cast out Hagar and Ishmael is a mystery: Hagar is the Synagogue, whose son cannot inherit with Isaac, the people of faith born of the free Church.
12. 3.2Sarah's late conception figures the Church of the Gentiles; Isaac's name means laughter; Ishmael's play with Isaac signifies persecution and the flesh's flattery of the spirit.
13. 3.3Hagar carrying Ishmael and the failing waterskin figure the Synagogue burdened by its people and the failure of the law's letter; the tree is the cross, where some will find refuge.
14. 3.4Ishmael's cry and the well shown to Hagar figure the Jews who will repent and be baptized; only a remnant, to be gathered under Elijah, will believe, while the rest receive Antichrist.
15. 3.5The one who spoke to Hagar is called both angel and God, showing that it was the Son, the messenger of great counsel and true God, against the Patripassians.
16. 4.1Against the Jews, Gregory asks why circumcision was given: the righteous before Abraham were uncircumcised, and the law of the eighth day collides with the sabbath.
17. 4.2Many uncircumcised were saved and many circumcised perished; circumcision has a threefold reason (fault, race, figure), and as figure it points to faith, the true circumcision.
18. 4.3True circumcision is of the heart by faith, which saved the righteous of old; the second reason for fleshly circumcision is Abraham's fault in taking Hagar at Sarah's urging, punished in the member that sinned.
19. 4.4The third reason is a mark of race, to distinguish Israelites in captivity and in death; all reasons ceased with Christ, whose new circumcision is baptism and faith.
20. 5.1Joseph's resistance to Potiphar's wife is both history and figure; Gregory praises his chastity and the victory over desire.
21. 5.2Conquest of desire brings peace and freedom; chastity is defined; Joseph's many-colored tunic, dreams and sale figure the Church of the nations and Christ's betrayal and passion.
22. 5.3Potiphar's wife figures the adulterous Synagogue that accused Christ; Joseph's prison is the underworld, and the two eunuchs figure the believing and unbelieving peoples.
23. 5.4Pharaoh's seven good years figure the seven gifts of the Spirit and the lean years the famine under Antichrist; Joseph's chariot, herald, name, ring and robe figure Christ's exaltation.
24. 5.5The famine figures the end-time famine of the word under Antichrist; Isaac's blessing of Jacob points to the renewed earth in the kingdom of God.
25. 6.1Gregory begins on Jacob's blessings: Reuben, the firstborn, hard and bold, figures the Jewish people, first in privilege but hardened against Christ.
26. 6.2Reuben's defiling of his father's bed foretells the crucifixion of Christ's flesh; Moses' prayer for Reuben concerns Jews who believe; Simeon and Levi's oracle is introduced with the story of Shechem.
27. 6.3Simeon and Levi figure the scribes and priests who killed the prophets and 'hamstrung the bull', Christ, as in the parable of the tenants and Isaiah's rebuke.
28. 6.4Isaiah's call to wash points to baptism, which forgives even Christ's killers; Jacob's curse on Simeon and Levi's fury foretells the demand for Christ's death; 'divide in Jacob' separates unbelievers from believers.
29. 6.5Judah's blessing points to Christ, praised by believers and judge of his enemies; the lion and lion's whelp show Father and Son, one in nature and distinct in person.
30. 6.6The shoot of Judah is Mary, the flower Christ; the lion's sleep is Christ's secure death and the Father raised him; Gen 49:10 proves the Messiah has come, since Judah's kingdom has ceased.
31. 6.7The colt tied to the vine is the Gentile Church joined to Christ; the donkey's colt tied to sackcloth is the Synagogue under repentance; the robe washed in wine is Christ's flesh, the cloak the believers.
32. 6.8The grape cluster on the spies' pole figures Christ on the cross; the eyes shining from wine are the Spirit's grace from his blood, and the teeth whiter than milk are the apostles, surpassing the law.
33. 7.1Egypt figures the world and Pharaoh the devil; the bricks of mud and straw are vices joined to empty thoughts; Christ, the new Moses, breaks the devil's power.
34. 7.2Pharaoh's order to kill the males figures the devil's attack on the soul's virtues; the midwives are holy souls; the infant Moses, hidden three months, figures Christ hidden in the old covenant.
35. 7.3The basket figures the holy people; the river is baptism; Moses' sister is the Israel that will believe under Elijah; Pharaoh's daughter is the Gentile Church that receives Christ.
36. 7.4Moses returned to his mother to be nursed figures Christ ministering first under the law to Israel, then given to the Gentile Church after the resurrection; Pharaoh's daughter figures nations reborn in baptism.
37. 8.1Against Jewish sabbath observance, Gregory argues that the sabbath law was given with cattle, and that Moses, Elijah, Daniel, Zechariah and Joshua broke the sabbath rest without fault.
38. 8.2The Shunammite's sabbath journey to Elisha and Judas Maccabeus's sabbath victory show that the sabbath does not forbid doing good; God and all creation work on the sabbath.
39. 8.3There are two sabbaths, temporary and eternal; the temporary sabbath was a test for a forgetful people, unknown to the patriarchs; the working days were blessed as much as the seventh.
40. 8.4The true sabbath is a whole life at rest from sin, fulfilled in the seventh millennium, the kingdom of the saints, when the devil is bound; the law's sabbath was a shadow ended by Christ.
41. 9.1The Passover lamb, to be taken 'from the sheep and the goats', is a figure of Christ, the lamb of whom Jeremiah and Isaiah speak; the puzzle of its double origin is posed.
42. 9.2Christ is the lamb 'from sheep and goats' because he descends from Boaz the Israelite and Ruth the Moabite; the male, year-old, mature lamb of the first month figures his strength, ministry and passion.
43. 9.3The bitter herbs foretell the bitterness of the Jews' deeds in the passion; the blood on the doorposts, the Red Sea and the details of eating the lamb are read of Christ, baptism and the Trinity.
44. 9.4The ban on leaven teaches believers who share in the Lord's passover to cast out the leaven of malice; the passover, fulfilled in Christ's passion and resurrection, is to be kept with reverence.
45. 10.1The sacrifices of Leviticus point to spiritual offerings: martyrdom, virginity, almsgiving, continence, purity of heart and prayer, the living sacrifice of the believer's life.
46. 10.2A living sacrifice is a life without sin; false virgins and fraudulent almsgivers offer appearances of death; blind, torn and crushed victims figure blind minds and believers dragged back to the world.
47. 10.3The victim with its tongue cut off figures those who deny God in persecution; the worm-ridden figures bodies stirred by unclean spirits; field mange figures the gross sins of the pagan world.
48. 10.4Ringworm figures heretics' endless circular questions; the victim with its ear cut off figures hearers who do not obey; the tail figures the grace of faith that drives off demons.
49. 10.5The victim without a tail figures one who has lost the chrism of faith; the castrated victim figures men who lie with males; the gift from a stranger figures works done at the devil's will.
50. 11.1Introducing the spies sent into Canaan, Gregory affirms the one Spirit speaking in both testaments and recounts the spies' report and the people's rebellion.
51. 11.2The spies figure the scribes, Pharisees and priests; the land of promise is Mary's flesh; the cluster on the pole is Christ on the cross between two peoples, Jews going before and Christians following.
52. 11.3The figs figure the law: the first fruits cast off are the unbelieving people, the later ripe figs the Church; the two baskets of Jeremiah are Synagogue and Church.
53. 11.4The pomegranates figure the Church: one rind holding many white and red seeds, the multitude of the baptized and martyrs, united yet distinct in ranks and gifts; the land flowing with milk and honey is Christ's flesh.
54. 12.1Rahab the harlot who sheltered Joshua's spies, like Hosea's wife and the Samaritan woman, figures the Church gathered from the Gentiles' idolatry, alone saved when Jericho, the world, falls.
55. 12.2The two spies are the two testaments, received by the Gentile Church; the woman who kissed Christ's feet and the bride of the Song figure the Church; Hosea's children show the Gentiles becoming God's people.
56. 12.3Rahab hiding the spies from Jericho's king figures the Church guarding the two testaments from the devil; the threefold hiding figures the stages of catechumen, candidate and baptized believer.
57. 12.4The scarlet cord in Rahab's window is the blood of Christ's passion, shown through faith, which preserves the household of the Church in the end-time destruction, as the Passover blood did.
58. 12.5White wool signifies baptism and purple martyrdom, but Christ's blood, the scarlet, is brighter than all; as only Rahab's house survived Jericho, only those within the Church will be saved at the end.
59. 13.1Interpreting Judges 13 spiritually, Gregory reads Manoah's barren wife as the Synagogue, and the ban on wine as a warning against debauchery and madness.
60. 13.2Strong drink is fleshly pleasure; the field where the angel speaks shows the Synagogue leaving the city of the law; Manoah is the law, the woman's husband, and her sitting signifies her fall.
61. 13.3Manoah's kid offered on a rock shows the Synagogue's sin and hardness of heart; Samson, 'moth', figures the Jewish people, partly unbelieving and partly faithful, wed like him to idolatry through the lust of the eyes.
62. 13.4Samson killing the lion's whelp in the vineyard figures the leaders of Israel killing Christ, the lion of Judah, who was reckoned among sinners and made a curse to bring the blessing.
63. 13.5The bees and honey in the lion's carcass figure the apostles and believers gathered at Christ's tomb after his death, and the sweetness of the Gospel and the heavenly kingdom.
64. 14.1Gideon's three hundred, the Greek tau, figure the cross; his fear figures Christ's human fear in Gethsemane, against docetists; his servant figures John the Baptist, forerunner of Christ even in the underworld.
65. 14.2Midian's locust-like host figures the demonic powers; the barley loaf rolling in a trough is Christ born of Mary, who overthrows the devil; the three hundred in three companies figure the cross and the Trinity; the lapping 'dogs' are believing Gentiles.
66. 14.3Gideon's trumpets, empty jars and torches figure the soul: the jars are bodies broken by mortification or martyrdom and remade in baptism; the torches are the light of faith and martyrdom; Abraham's 318 show the cross and Jesus' name.
67. 15.1Elisha's healing of Jericho's waters with salt in an earthen vessel figures the Word made flesh, whose baptism made the waters fruitful to beget children of God.
68. 15.2Christ was baptized not for forgiveness but to sanctify the water; the sweetened waters of Marah, the struck rock, the water and blood from his side, and the twelve springs of Elim all figure baptism and the apostles.
69. 15.3The grace of baptism is equal for all, forgiving every sin, like the one denarius and the equal manna; afterwards believers are distinguished by their deeds, as in the parable of the sower.
70. 16.1Gregory asks why Isaiah's book is titled a 'vision' though it opens with rebuke, and explains that Scripture deliberately reverses order and speaks in figures to hide its sense from the devil while revealing it to those with the Spirit.
71. 16.2The four kings in Isaiah's title show the long duration of his warnings; heaven and earth, angels and holy men, are called to witness Israel's ingratitude toward the God who begot, exalted and delivered them.
72. 16.3The ox and donkey that know their master shame unbelieving Israel; Christ compares himself to a hen, not an eagle, because he gathers under the wings of his cross the chicks of other nations too.
73. 16.4Israel provoked Christ, the true 'Israel' who alone sees God; the untreatable wounds of Isa 1:6 are cured only by repentance, almsgiving, chrism and gospel discipline, as in the parable of the Good Samaritan.
74. 17.1On Ezekiel's dry bones, Gregory defends the resurrection of the flesh against heretics who read the vision only of Israel's return from exile and who misuse 'flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom'.
75. 17.2Ezekiel's opened tombs and Paul's arguments in 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians prove the resurrection of the flesh, modeled on Christ's own bodily resurrection.
76. 17.3Paul excludes from the kingdom not the substance of the flesh but its works; Christ rose in the flesh, the flesh shares the sacraments and will share the reward, and nature itself foreshadows resurrection.
77. 17.4All will rise, the wicked to unending punishment in the fire that burns without consuming, as burning mountains show; so believers should persevere in good deeds to rise to glory.
78. 18.1On the feast of martyrs, Gregory praises the three youths who refused to worship Nebuchadnezzar's statue; their faith, trusting God either way, was preserved in the fire, and Christ's promises to those who conquer urge persevering faith.
79. 18.2The devil spoke through Nebuchadnezzar to name the Son of God in the furnace; the golden statue, sixty by six cubits, prefigures Antichrist and his number 666; the world's six thousand years will be followed by the kingdom of the saints.
80. 18.3The three youths refused to worship Antichrist's image before Christ suffered; much more should Christians, soldiers sworn in baptism, endure every torment and even death for Christ; Gregory ends asking the martyrs to remember the faithful.
81. 19.1The high priest Jesus (Joshua) of Zechariah's vision is Christ, the great eternal priest after Melchizedek, opposed by the devil through Herod, the temptation, the Jews and Judas, and the devil will be rebuked at the judgment.
82. 19.2Joshua's filthy garments figure the flesh, liable to sin, that Christ put on without sin; the 'brand plucked from the fire' is not the devil but human nature, rescued by Christ from Gehenna.
83. 19.3Joshua clothed in the priestly robe figures the risen Christ, the high priest through whom all the sacrifices of the fathers were accepted, whose healings show that he is what he does, and who offered himself.
84. 20.1Excusing his unskilled speech as Moses did, Gregory preaches on Pentecost: the promised Spirit, poured out on the apostles, is received according to each believer's capacity and faith.
85. 20.2The Spirit came at the incarnation and again on Christ at his baptism so that, resting in Christ's flesh, he might flow from him to the baptized; Gregory lists the Spirit's works in regeneration, sanctification, orthodoxy and the gifts sent at Pentecost.
86. 20.3To receive the Spirit, believers must prepare pure souls; the Spirit strengthened the apostles and adorns the Church with prophets, teachers, tongues, healings and other gifts.