Origen of Alexandria

In his own words on 1 Peter

• 1 Peter 1:2

  We must not suppose that the Spirit knows God as we do, only through the historic revelation of the Son. For if the Holy Spirit knows God only in this way, then he has passed from ignorance to knowledge, and it is certainly as impious as it is foolish to confess him as the Holy Spirit and then ascribe a prior ignorance to him.

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.3.4

• 1 Peter 1:4

  For God foresaw that the faith and behavior of people would be put right by the teaching of the gospel, and so he chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestinating them to be his children by partaking of the Spirit of sonship. For foreknowledge means no more than seeing what is inside a person. It is now no longer foreknowledge in effect but knowledge of something real which has been foreseen. Those to whom Peter is writing were chosen according to foreknowledge, but the calling does not come to people who are hidden from view, for their innate awareness removes any doubt about their true nature.

  CATENA

• 1 Peter 1:6

  Read "grieve" in this verse in the sense of "suffer," as in "in grief you shall bring forth children." For a woman experiences grief not in bearing children but rather in suffering before birth.

  EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 39

• 1 Peter 1:9

  If it is the mind which prays and sings in the spirit and the mind which receives perfection and salvation, how is it that Peter says: "As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls"? If the soul neither prays nor sings with the spirit, how shall it hope for salvation?

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.8.3

• 1 Peter 2:5

  Even though a man may have departed out of this life insufficiently instructed but with a record of acceptable works, he can be instructed in that Jerusalem, the city of the saints, that is, he can be taught and informed and fashioned into a "living stone," a stone precious and elect, because he has borne with courage and endurance the trials of life and the struggle for piety.

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.11.3

• 1 Peter 2:5

  We learn from Peter that the church is a body and a house of God built from living stones.

  COMMENTARY ON JOHN 10.266

• 1 Peter 2:9

  If you want to exercise the priesthood of your soul, do not let the fire depart from your altar.

  SERMONS ON LEVITICUS 4.6

• 1 Peter 2:9

  Because you are a priestly race you are able to approach the sanctuary of God.

  SERMONS ON LEVITICUS 9.9

• 1 Peter 2:10

  O people of God, chosen to expound the virtues of the Lord: take up the circumcision worthy of the Word of God in your ears, on your lips, in your heart and in the foreskin of your flesh, as well as in every part of you.

  SERMONS ON GENESIS 3.5

• 1 Peter 3:18-19

  If, on the other hand, as it reads in some manuscripts, "even in those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam's transgression," this death, namely that which was keeping souls bound in the underworld, is said to exercise dominion, then we shall understand it to mean that even the saints had fallen prey to that death certainly under the law of dying, even if not under the punishment of sin. But it was on this account that Christ descended into the underworld, not only because he would not be held by death [Acts 2:24], but also in order that he might release those who were held there, as we said, not so much through the crime of transgression as much as by the condition of dying. As it is written, "Many bodies of saints who were sleeping were resurrected with him and entered into the holy city." [Matthew 27:52-53] In this as well the prophet's sayings were fulfilled, in which he said of Christ, "In ascending on high he led captivity captive." [Ephesians 4:8-9] Thus by his own resurrection he has already destroyed the dominions of death, which is also why it is written that he set captivity free.

  Commentary on Romans, Book 5, Section 37

• 1 Peter 3:19

  If the passage about John the Baptist not being worthy to untie Jesus' shoes possesses a hidden meaning, we ought not to pass over it. I think that the incarnation, when the Son of God takes on flesh and bones, is one of the shoes, and the descent into hell is the other. It is said in Psalm 16: "You will not leave my soul in hell." And Peter, in his general epistle, mentions Jesus' descent into hell. Therefore the one who can show the meaning of both sojourns in a worthy manner is able to unloose Jesus' shoes.

  COMMENTARY ON JOHN 6.174-76

• 1 Peter 4:6

  If, on the other hand, as it reads in some manuscripts, "even in those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam's transgression," this death, namely that which was keeping souls bound in the underworld, is said to exercise dominion, then we shall understand it to mean that even the saints had fallen prey to that death certainly under the law of dying, even if not under the punishment of sin. But it was on this account that Christ descended into the underworld, not only because he would not be held by death [Acts 2:24], but also in order that he might release those who were held there, as we said, not so much through the crime of transgression as much as by the condition of dying. As it is written, "Many bodies of saints who were sleeping were resurrected with him and entered into the holy city." [Matthew 27:52-53] In this as well the prophet's sayings were fulfilled, in which he said of Christ, "In ascending on high he led captivity captive." [Ephesians 4:8-9] Thus by his own resurrection he has already destroyed the dominions of death, which is also why it is written that he set captivity free.

  Commentary on Romans, Book 5, Section 37