Origen of Alexandria

In his own words on Daniel

• Daniel 1:17

  In regard to the prophets among the Jews, some of them were wise men before they became divinely inspired prophets, while others became wise by the illumination that their minds received when divinely inspired. They were selected by divine providence to receive the divine Spirit and to be the depositaries of his holy oracles, on the ground of their leading a life of almost unapproachable excellence, intrepid, noble, unmoved by danger or death.

  AGAINST CELSUS 7:7

• Daniel 2:21

  Many other things may also be called gifts of God, such as riches and bodily strength, physical beauty and earthly power. These things are also given by God, as Daniel says: "He deposes kings and sets up kings," but they are not spiritual gifts.

  COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS 1:12

• Daniel 3:4

  And we know that once we have been persuaded by Jesus to abandon idols and the atheism of worshiping many gods, the enemy cannot persuade us to commit idolatry, though he tries to force us. That is why he empowers those over whom he has authority to do such things.…It is not just of old that Nebuchadnezzar's image of gold was set up or only then that he threatened Ananias, Azarias and Misael that he would throw them into the burning fiery furnace unless they worshiped it. Even now Nebuchadnezzar says the same thing to us, the true Hebrews in exile from our homeland. But as for us, let us imitate those holy men so that we may experience the heavenly dew that quenches every fire that arises in us and cools our governing mind.

  EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 32-33

• Daniel 6:13

  And he prays "constantly" (deeds of virtue or fulfilling the commandments are included as part of prayer) who unites prayer with the deeds required and right deeds with prayer. For the only way we can accept the command to "pray constantly" as referring to a real possibility is by saying that the entire life of the saint taken as a whole is a single great prayer. What is customarily called prayer is, then, a part of this prayer. Now prayer in the ordinary sense ought to be made no less than three times each day. This is evident in the story of Daniel, who prayed three times each day when such great peril had been devised for him.

  ON PRAYER 12:2

• Daniel 7:9

  Next they come to Libnah, which means "whitewashing." I know that in some respects whitewashing has a pejorative connotation, as when we speak of a "whitewashed wall" and "whitewashed tombs." But this whitewashing is that concerning which the prophet says, "You will wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." And again Isaiah says, "Though your sins are like scarlet, I will whiten them like snow and will make them white like wool." Again in the psalm, "They were whitened with snow in Zalmon." And the hair of the Ancient of Days is said to be dazzling, white, that is, white like wool. So then, this whitewashing must be understood to come from the radiance of the true light and to descend from the brightness of heavenly visions.

  HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27:12

• Daniel 7:10

  But as it is in the mockery that Celsus says we speak of "God coming down like a torturer bearing fire" and thus compels us unseasonably to investigate words of deeper meaning, we shall make a few remarks, sufficient to enable our hearers to form an idea of the defense that disposes of the ridicule of Celsus against us, and then we shall turn to what follows. The divine word says that our God is "a consuming fire" and that "he draws rivers of fire before him"; no, that he even enters in as "a refiner's fire and as a fuller's herb," to purify his own people. But when he is said to be a "consuming fire," we inquire what are the things that are appropriate to be consumed by God. And we assert that they are wickedness and the works that result from it and that, being figuratively called "wood, hay, stubble," God consumes as a fire. The wicked person, accordingly, is said to build up on the previously laid foundation of reason, "wood and hay and stubble." … And, in like manner, "rivers of fire" are said to be before God, who will thoroughly cleanse away the evil that is intermingled throughout the whole soul.

  AGAINST CELSUS 4:13

• Daniel 7:10

  And to him to whom we offer firstfruits we also send up our prayers, "having a great high priest who has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God," and "we hold fast this profession" as long as we live; for we find God and his only-begotten Son, manifested to us in Jesus, to be gracious and kind to us. And if we would wish to have besides a great number of beings who shall ever prove friendly to us, we are taught that "thousand thousands stood before him, and ten thousand times ten thousand ministered to him." And these, regarding all as their relations and friends who imitate their piety toward God and in prayer call on him with sincerity, work along with them for their salvation, appear to them, deem it their office and duty to attend to them, and as if by common agreement they visit with all manner of kindness and deliverance those who pray to God, to whom they themselves also pray. "For they are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation."

  AGAINST CELSUS 8:34

• Daniel 8:17

  The first definite person we find named in Scripture "son of man" is, speaking at the moment from memory, Daniel. And after him, Ezekiel. They were prophets in the captivity, so far as our researches go in the undisputed books that pass currently as inspired, there is no one named by this title.… It was, as we think, because the people of captivity were sinners that Daniel alone, to their reproach, because they preserved the dignity of human nature, made according to the image and the likeness, was addressed as the son of man. As much may be said also of Ezekiel. For the name "man" was first given to him who was made by God according to his image and likeness, so that he would be man in the true sense.

  SELECTIONS IN PSALMS

• Daniel 9:24-27

  When Origen came to deal with this chapter, he urged us to seek out what information we do not possess; and because he had no leeway for allegorical interpretation, in which one may argue without constraint, but rather was restricted to matters of historical fact, he made this brief observation in the tenth volume of the Stromata: "We must quite carefully ascertain the amount of time between the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, and the advent of Christ, and discover how many years were involved, and what events are said to have occurred during them. Then we must see whether we can fit these data in with the time of the Lord's coming."

  St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, Chapter Nine

• Daniel 10:13

  Accordingly we find in the holy Scriptures that there are rulers over individual nations, as for instance, we read in Daniel of a certain "prince of the kingdom of the Persians" and another "prince of the kingdom of the Greeks," who, as is clearly shown by the sense of the passage itself, are not humans but powers.

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3:3.2

• Daniel 13:3

  It is well to make use of this testimony in order to exhort parents to educate with the divine law and testimony of God not only their sons but also their daughters.

  STROMATEIS 10 (VIA ON DANIEL 13:3)

• Daniel 13:5

  A Hebrew informed us that they were Achiah and Zedekiah, those whom "the king of Babylon roasted in the fire because their conduct in Israel was an outrage, having committed adultery with the wives of their neighbors."

  STROMATEIS 10 (VIA ON DANIEL 13:5a)

• Daniel 13:7

  "In the morning" Susanna went to take a walk. It is not at all out of place (in order to pacify those who find examples in the sacred writing for everything that we do) to take a walk at a time such as this, for example, since back then one did well to take a walk in order to keep his own body healthy.

  STROMATEIS 10 (VIA ON DANIEL 13:8b-9)

• Daniel 13:8-9

  The Greek word pathos is better rendered for us with the term "disturbance" rather than with the term "passion." Therefore this disturbed and covetous desire stimulated, or rather it churned violently, in the heart of the elders. But because their souls were like plowed soil and they could only think about getting what they desired, their own feelings became perverted, and, once perverted, their eyes were turned toward earth so that they did not see the celestial truths, and they forgot about sound judgment, they forgot about God, about honesty, about the nature oriented toward the good inborn in every person.

  STROMATEIS 10 (via ON DANIEL 13:8b-9)

• Daniel 13:22

  He calls sin death. In the same way, therefore, that for the one who commits adultery, adultery is death, so every sin that leads to death must be called death. And we are convinced that we die every time we sin mortally, whereas we rise again and recover life every time we do works worthy of life.

  STROMATEIS 10 (VIA ON DANIEL 13:22)

• Daniel 13:56

  Let us pay attention, just as Joshua says, so that we can prevail over the Canaanites, because if they prevail over us and hold us captive, they may turn us from Israelites to Canaanites, just as it happened to him who was won over by the enticements of the flesh, to which the prophet said, "Race of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has seduced you." Let it not happen to us, therefore, that we hear, "race of Canaan," because "cursed is the son of Canaan; he will be a servant to his brothers." May the Lord instead grant that we may be children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, heirs according to the promise and brought forth from stones so that we may be children of Abraham, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

  HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 22:6