Origen of Alexandria

In his own words on Exodus

• Exodus 1:14

  Perhaps it is in this sense that God is said to have hardened the heart of Pharaoh, because the substance of his heart was obviously such as to elicit from the Sun of justice not his illumination but his power to harden and to scorch. That no doubt was the reason why this same Pharaoh afflicted the life of the Hebrews with hard work and wore them out with clay and bricks. And certainly the works that he devised came from a heart as miry and muddy! And as the visible sun contracts and hardens the substance of clay, so with the same rays by which he enlightened the people of Israel and by means of those rays' same properties the Sun of justice hardened the heart of Pharaoh that harbored muddy devices.

  COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2.2

• Exodus 1:14

  When the children of Israel were in Egypt, they were afflicted with mortar and brick for the works of Pharaoh the king until they cried out in their groaning to the Lord. And he heard their cry and sent his word to them by Moses and led them out of Egypt. When we were also in Egypt, I mean in the errors of this world and in the darkness of ignorance, we then did the works of the devil in lusts and desires of the flesh. But the Lord had pity on our affliction and sent the Word, his only begotten Son, to deliver us from ignorance of our error and to lead us to the light of divine law.

  HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.2

• Exodus 3:3

  When Moses had seen the bush burning and not being consumed he was astonished at the sight and said, "I will cross over and see this sight." He certainly also did not mean that he was about to cross over some earthly space, or to ascend mountains or to descend the steep sides of valleys. The vision was near him, in his countenance and in his eyes. But he says, "I will cross over," that he might show that he, reminded forcefully by the heavenly vision, ought to ascend to a higher life and cross over to better things than those in which he was.

  HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.2

• Exodus 3:6

  God has been recorded indeed to be the God "of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." He indeed who wishes the light to belong to none other than men (because it is said, "The life was the light of men") will think, according to this analogy, that the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob is the God of no one except these three fathers alone. But he is at least also the God of Elijah, and, as Judith says, the God of her father Simeon, and he is God of the Hebrews. Wherefore, according to the analogy, if nothing prevents him from being the God of others also, nothing prevents the light of men from also being the light of other creatures besides men.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.143

• Exodus 3:6

  For Abraham sets forth moral philosophy through obedience; his obedience was indeed so great, his adherence to orders so strict that when he heard the command "Go forth out of your country, and from your kindred, and out of your father's house" he did not delay but did as he was told forthwith. And he did even more than that: on hearing that he was to sacrifice his son, he does not hesitate but complies with the command and, to give an example to those who should come after of the obedience in which moral philosophy consists, "he spared not his only son." Isaac also is an exponent of natural philosophy when he digs wells and searches out the roots of things. And Jacob practices the inspective science in that he earned his name of Israel from his contemplation of the things of God, and saw the camps of heaven and beheld the house of God and the angel's paths—the ladders reaching up from earth to heaven.

  COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE 3

• Exodus 3:6

  If the God of the universe, having been made familiar to the saints, becomes their God, the being named the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, by how much more will it be possible for the Holy Spirit, having been made familiar to the prophets, to be called their spirit, that the Spirit might thus be said to be the spirit of Elijah and the spirit of Isaiah?

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.68

• Exodus 3:14

  That the activity of the Father and the Son is to be found both in saints and in sinners is clear from the fact that all rational beings are partakers of the word of God, that is, of reason, and so have implanted within them some seeds, as it were, of wisdom and righteousness, which is Christ. And all things that exist derive their share of being from him who truly exists, who said through Moses, "I am that I am"; which participation in God the Father extends to all, both righteous and sinners, rational and irrational creatures and absolutely everything that exists.

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.3.6

• Exodus 4:6-7

  It is difficult to see what this sign can symbolize for us. But since we must not stop seeking and must deliver to the reader what occurs to us as an interpretation, we will say that in many passages the hand is a symbol of deeds. Now the bosom of Moses has two meanings. The first, in accordance with the sense of the letter, makes the deed of the doer like snow, as it says in the Hebrew, and leprous. The second, however, in accordance with the spiritual law, shows that the conduct is pure and that it is restored to the will of the nature of the Word.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.268

• Exodus 4:10

  Moses himself once said: "I am alogos"("wordless"). The Latin version uses a different expression, but we can translate the word alogos exactly as "without words and reason." After he said this, he received reason and speech, which he admitted that he did not have before. When the people of Israel were in Egypt, before they had received the law, they too were without words and reason and thus in a sense mute. Then they received the Word; Moses was the image of it. So these people do not admit now what Moses had once admitted—that they are mute and wordless—but show by signs and silence that they have neither words nor reason. Do you not realize that the Jews are confessing their folly when none of them can give a reasonable explanation of the precepts of their law and of the predictions of their prophets?

  HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 5:3

• Exodus 4:10

  But I shall also bring forth still another passage for you which you cannot contradict. In Exodus where we have written in the codices of the church Moses responding to the Lord and saying, "Provide, Lord, another whom you will send. For I am feeble in voice and slow in tongue," you have in the Hebrew copies, "But I am uncircumcised in lips." Behold, you have a circumcision of lips according to your copies, which you say to be more accurate. If therefore according to you Moses still says that he is unworthy because he has not been circumcised in his lips, he certainly indicates this, that he would be worthier and holier who is circumcised in his lips. Therefore apply the pruning hook also to your lips and cut off the covering of your mouth since indeed such an understanding pleases you in the divine letters. But if you refer circumcision of lips to allegory and say no less that circumcision of ears is allegorical and figurative, why do you not also inquire after allegory in circumcision of the foreskin?

  HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3:5

• Exodus 4:21

  Now many have been troubled by the story of Pharaoh, in dealing with whom God says several times, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart." For if he is hardened by God and through being hardened sins, he is not himself responsible for the sin; and if this is so, Pharaoh has no free will. And someone will say that in the same way those who are lost have no free will and will not be lost on their own account. Also the saying in Ezekiel, "I will take away their stony hearts and will put in them hearts of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my judgments," might lead one to suppose that it was God who gave the power to walk in the commandments and to keep the judgments, by his removing the hindrance, the stony heart, and implanting something better, the heart of flesh.

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.7

• Exodus 4:22

  And is there anything more profound to say of Israel, not of nature but of grace, of whom it was written, "Israel is my firstborn son," when Israel was in dispersion? You yourself will also understand that these are the scattered children of God for whom Jesus was to die in order to gather them together into one.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.185

• Exodus 4:22

  Why too does he blame Pharaoh, saying, "You will not let my people go; behold, I will smite all the firstborn in Egypt, even your firstborn," and all the rest that is recorded as being said by God through Moses to Pharaoh? It is incumbent on him who believes that the Scriptures are true and that God is just, if he is a thoughtful man, to take pains to show how God, in using such expressions as these, can be clearly conceived to be just.

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.9

• Exodus 4:24

  We must also inquire who that being was of whom it is said in Exodus that he wished to kill Moses because he was setting out for Egypt. And afterwards, who is it that is called the "destroying angel," and who also is he who in Leviticus is described as Apopompeus, that is, the Averter, of whom the Scripture speaks thus: "One lot for the Lord, and one lot for Apopompeus"?

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.2.1

• Exodus 6:24

  For though there were three sons of Korah whose names we find in the book of Exodus—Aser, which is, by interpretation, "instruction," and the second Elkana, which is translated "possession of God," and the third Abiasaph, which in the Greek tongue might be rendered "congregation of the father"—yet the prophecies were not divided but were both spoken and written by one spirit and one voice and one soul, which worked in true harmony. And the three speak as one, "As the hart pants after the springs of the water, so pants my soul after you, O God."

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 14.1

• Exodus 8:8

  One should also observe that the term prayer,which often differs in meaning from "invocation," is here employed in the case of one who promises in a vow to do certain things if God grants him certain other things. But the term is also used in the ordinary way. For example, we found this to be so in Exodus after the description of the plague of the frogs, which was the second of the ten plagues: … "But Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said to them: 'Pray to the Lord on my account to take away the frogs from me and my people; and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.' " When Pharaoh employs the word prayer the habitual meaning of "prayer" is conveyed in addition to the above meaning. If anyone finds this difficult to see, it becomes clear in what follows, namely: "And Moses said to Pharaoh: 'Set me a time when I shall pray for you, and for your servants, and for your people, that the frogs may be driven away from you and from your house and from your people, and may remain only in the river.' "We noted, however, that in the case of the sciniphs, the third plague, Pharaoh does not ask that prayer be made, nor does Moses pray. And in the case of the flies, the fourth plague, he says, "Pray therefore for me to the Lord." And then Moses said, "I will go out from you and will pray to the Lord. And the flies shall depart from Pharaoh, and from his servants, and from his people tomorrow." And a little further on we read: "So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to God." Again in the case of the fifth and also of the sixth plague Pharaoh did not ask that prayer be made, nor did Moses pray. In the seventh plague "Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron, saying to them, 'I have sinned this time. The Lord is just, but I and my people are wicked. Pray to the Lord, that the thunderings of God and the hail and the fire may cease.' " And a little further on we read: "And Moses went from Pharaoh out of the city and stretched forth his hands to the Lord; and the thunders … ceased." We shall discuss more suitably at another time why it is not said as on the previous occasions that "he prayed" but rather that "he stretched forth his hands to the Lord." And in the case of the eighth plague Pharaoh says, "And pray to the Lord your God, that he take away from me this death. And Moses going forth from the presence of Pharaoh, prayed to the Lord."

  ON PRAYER 3.2-3

• Exodus 9:27

  See whether it is for this reason that God hardens the heart of Pharaoh, so that at a moment when he was not hardened he could say, "The Lord is just: I and my people are wicked." His heart has to be hardened further, and he has to suffer more, that he may not, because he has been freed of his hardheartedness too quickly, think too lightly of that hardheartedness and so may have to have his heart hardened over and over again.

  ON PRAYER 29.16

• Exodus 10:7

  And the briefly recorded fact that the heart of Pharaoh experienced a kind of softening when he said, "But you shall not proceed far; you shall go a three days' journey and leave your wives behind," and whatever else he spoke when yielding before the marvelous works makes it clear that these signs had some effect even on him, though they did not entirely accomplish their object. Yet not even this would have happened if the idea held by most people about the words, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart," rightly represented what was wrought by him, that is, by God.

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.11

• Exodus 11:3

  About Isaac it is said that "he grew strong until he became great, exceedingly great." Moses was called "great," and John the Baptist was called "great," and now Jesus is called "great," and after this no one is any longer called "great." For before he who is truly "great" had come, in comparison with the rest of men, the saints whom we mentioned earlier were called "great."

  HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 12.2.5

• Exodus 11:3

  When Moses had come to the place which God shows him, he is not permitted to ascend, but first God says to him, "Loose the tie of the shoes from your feet." None of these things are said to Abraham and Isaac, but they ascend and do not put aside their shoes. The reason for this is perhaps that although Moses was "great," he was nevertheless coming from Egypt, and some fetters of mortality were bound to his feet. Abraham and Isaac, however, have none of these, but "they come to the place."

  HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8:7

• Exodus 12:8

  Christians eat the flesh of the lamb every day, that is, they consume daily the flesh of the Word. "For Christ our pasch is sacrificed." And because the law of the pasch is such that it is eaten in the evening, for this reason the Lord suffered in the evening of the world, that you may always eat of the flesh of the Word, because you are always in the evening until the morning comes. And if in this evening you shall be anxious and "in weeping and fasting" and shall lead your life in every labor of justice, you shall be able to say, "In the evening weeping shall have place and in the morning gladness." For you shall rejoice in the morning, that is, in the world to come, if in this world you have gathered "the fruit of justice" in weeping and labor.

  HOMILIES ON GENESIS 10:3

• Exodus 12:8

  But we eat the flesh of the lamb and the unleavened bread with bitter herbs either by being grieved with a godly grief because of repentance for our sins, a grief which produces in us a repentance unto salvation which brings no regret, or by seeking and being nurtured from the visions of the truth which we discover because of our trials.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.102

• Exodus 12:8

  Then too the unleavened bread is commanded to be eaten with bitter herbs; nor is it possible to attain the promised land unless we pass through bitterness. For just as physicians put bitter substances in medicines with a view to the health and healing of the infirm, so also the Physician of our souls with a view to our salvation has wished us to suffer the bitterness of this life in various temptations. [He knows] that the end of this bitterness gains the sweetness of salvation for our soul, just as, on the contrary, the end of the sweetness found in corporeal pleasure, as the example of that rich man teaches, brings a bitter end: torments in hell.

  HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27:10

• Exodus 12:8

  And we must eat the meat roasted with fire with unleavened bread. For the Word of God is not only flesh. He says, indeed, "I am the bread of life," and "This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eat of this bread he shall live forever."36We must not, however, fail to remark that all food is loosely said to be bread, as it is written in the case of Moses in Deuteronomy: "He did not eat bread for forty days, and he did not drink water," instead of saying he partook of neither dry nor wet nourishment. Now I have noted this because it is also said in the Gospel according to John, "And also the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.99-101

• Exodus 12:9

  One must not therefore eat the flesh of the lamb raw, as the slaves of the letter do in the manner of animals which are irrational and quite savage. In relation to men who are truly rational through their desire to understand the spiritual aspects of the world, the former [slaves of the letter] share the company of wild beasts.We must strive, however, in transforming the rawness of Scripture into boiled food, not to transform what has been written into what is flaccid, watery and limp. This is what they do who "have itching ears and" turn them away "from the truth" and transform the anagogical meanings so far as they are concerned to the carelessness and wateriness of their manner of life.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.103-4

• Exodus 12:10

  Consequently let us compare the divine Scripture with itself and follow the path of the solution that it would open to us. For we find in the sacrifice of the Passover that it is ordered to be offered "in the evening." In like manner, the command is given that "nothing will remain of the flesh until morning." It is not insignificant that the divine word wants us to eat not yesterday's meat, but always fresh and new, particularly those who offer to God the Passover sacrifice or "the sacrifice of praise." It commands them to eat this new and fresh meat of the same day. It prohibits yesterday's meat. I remembered the prophet Ezekiel said something similar when the Lord had commanded him to bake cakes for them in "human dung." For he answered the Lord and said, "O Lord, never was my soul contaminated, and dead or unclean things did not enter my mouth. Even yesterday's meat never entered my mouth." In this case I was often asking myself what this exultation of the prophet was that as something great he brought mean before the Lord and said, "I never ate yesterday's meat." But as I see from this place, taught and instructed by these mysteries, this prophet spoke to the Lord saying, I am not a priest so cast down and ignoble that "I eat yesterday's meat," that is, old meat.

  HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 5.8.2

• Exodus 12:23

  And who else could be the destroyer in Exodus, which Moses wrote, except the one who is the cause of destruction to those who obey him and who do not resist and struggle against his wickedness?

  AGAINST CELSUS 6.43

• Exodus 12:23

  We must also inquire who that being was of whom it is said in Exodus that he wished to kill Moses because he was setting out for Egypt. And afterwards, who is it that is called the "destroying angel"? And who also is he who in Leviticus is described as Apopompeus, that is, the Averter, of whom the Scripture speaks thus: "One lot for the Lord, and one lot for Apopompeus"?

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.2.1

• Exodus 13:2

  Males were sacred because they opened their mothers' wombs. They were offered before the altar of the Lord. Scripture says, "Every male that opens the womb.…" This phrase has a spiritual meaning. For you might say that "every male is brought forth from the womb" but does not open the womb of his mother in the way that the Lord Jesus did. In the case of every other woman, it is not the birth of an infant but intercourse with a man that opens the womb. But the womb of the Lord's mother was opened at the time when her offspring was brought forth, because before the birth of Christ a male did not even touch her womb, holy as it was and deserving of all respect.

  HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 14:7-8

• Exodus 13:2

  Therefore let us draw together from the divine Scriptures instances in which we find "holy" used, and discover not only persons but also mute animals that are called "holy," and also find both "the vessels" of the ministry that are called "holy," and the garments which are said to be "holy," and even the places which were located in cities and suburbs and counted as priestly. Indeed, among the brute animals it is commanded through the law that "the firstborn" of calves or cattle be sacrificed to the Lord, and it says, You will not do any work with them because they have been consecrated to the Lord.

  HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 11.1.2

• Exodus 14:15

  But if the mental voice of those who pray should not be extremely loud, though it is not weak, and should they not raise a cry and shout, God still hears those who pray thus. For it is he who says to Moses, "Why do you cry out to me?" when he had not cried out audibly (for this is not recorded in Exodus), but through prayer he had cried out loudly in that voice which is heard by God alone.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.101

• Exodus 14:22

  How hard a temptation it is to pass through the midst of the sea, to see the waves rise piled up, to hear the noise and rumbling of the raging waters! But if you follow Moses, that is, the law of God, the waters will become for you walls on the right and left, and you will find a path on dry ground in the midst of the sea. Moreover, it can happen that the heavenly journey that we say the soul takes may hold peril of waters. Great waves may be found there.

  HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.10

• Exodus 15:1

  As the perfect Bride of the perfect husband, then, she has received the words of perfect doctrine. Moses and the children of Israel sang the first song to God when "they saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore" and when they saw "the strong hand" and the mighty strong arm "of the Lord and [when they] believed in God and Moses his servant." Then they sang, therefore, saying, "Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified." And I think that nobody can attain to that perfect and mystical song and to the perfection of the Bride which this Scripture contains unless he first marches "through the midst of the sea upon dry land" and, with "the water becoming to him as a wall on the right hand and on the left," so makes his escape "from the hands of the Egyptians." [Then] he "beholds them dead on the seashore" and, seeing the strong hand with which the Lord has acted against the Egyptians, believes in the Lord and in his servant Moses. In Moses, I say—in the law, and in the Gospels and in all the divine Scriptures. For them he will have good cause to sing and say, "Let us sing unto the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified."

  COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE 4

• Exodus 15:16

  God is asked that for a short while the Gentiles might be changed into stones—that is what the Greek word apolithōthētōsan really means—"until the Jewish people passes through." There is no doubt but that after they have passed through, the Gentiles will cease to be stone and will receive in place of their hard hearts a human and rational nature in Christ, to whom is glory and power for ages of ages. Amen.

  HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 22.10

• Exodus 16:14

  But if there are some who have come out of Egypt and, following the pillar of fire and cloud, are entering the wilderness, then he comes down from heaven to them and offers them a small, thin food, like to the food of angels; so that "man eats the bread of angels."

  COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 1:4

• Exodus 16:29

  Moreover in regard to the celebrated sabbath, a careful reader will see that the command, "You shall sit each one in your dwellings; let none of you go out from his place on the sabbath day," is an impossible one to observe literally, for no living creature could sit for a whole day and not move from his seat.

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.3.2

• Exodus 16:31

  The Word of God becomes all these things to each and every one according as the capacity or the desire of the participant requires. In just the same way the manna also, although it was one food, yielded its flavor to each person after his desire. So he does not offer himself only as bread to those who hunger and as wine to those who thirst, but he presents himself also as fragrant apples to those who crave delights.

  COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 3:8

• Exodus 17:11

  For in this way, when the eyes are lifted up through thought and contemplation and the hands are lifted up in deeds which lift up and exalt the soul, as Moses lifted up his hands, one may consequently say, "The lifting up of my hands is as the evening sacrifice." In this way the Amalekites and all the unseen enemies will be worsted, and the Israelite reasonings in us will prevail.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.37

• Exodus 19:16

  The third day, however, is always applied to mysteries. For when the people had departed from Egypt, they offer sacrifice to God on the third day and are purified on the third day. And the third day is the day of the Lord's resurrection. Many other mysteries also are anticipated in this day.

  HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8:4

• Exodus 19:19

  But when she [the bride] has become worthy to have it said of her, as also it was said of Moses, that "Moses spoke, and God answered him," then there is fulfilled in her that which he says: "Make me to hear your voice." It is indeed high praise of her that is disclosed in that saying, "Sweet is your voice." For thus also said the most wise prophet David: "Let my speech be sweet to him." And the voice of the soul is sweet when it utters the word of God, when it expounds the faith and the doctrines of the truth, when it unfolds God's dealings and his judgments.

  COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 3.15

• Exodus 20:5

  When men try to seduce us to apostasy, it is useful to reflect upon what God wishes to teach us when he says, "I am the Lord your God, jealous." In my view, just as the bridegroom who wishes to make his bride live chastely so as to give herself entirely to him and beware of any relationship whatever with any man other than her husband, pretends, though he be wise, to be jealous—he uses this pretense as a kind of antidote for his bride—so the Lawgiver, especially when he reveals himself as "the firstborn of every creature," says to his bride, the soul, that he is a jealous God. In this way he keeps his followers from any fornication with demons and pretended gods.

  EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 9

• Exodus 20:5

  Now Christ is especially jealous for the house of God in each of us, not wishing it to be a house of merchandise or that the house of prayer become a den of thieves, since he is Son of a jealous God. This is the case if we understand such words from the Scriptures in a reasonable manner, which were spoken metaphorically from the human viewpoint to set forth the fact that God wishes nothing alien to his will to be mingled with the soul of any, but especially with the soul of those who wish to receive [the teachings of the] most divine faith.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.221

• Exodus 20:5

  [God] warns a man inclined to idolatry not to practice it. But when a man who is not so inclined but yet through cowardice, which he calls "accommodation," pretends to worship idols as the masses do, he does not, it is true, worship idols, but he does bow before them. And I would say that they who abjure Christianity in the courtroom or even before they are brought there do not worship idols, but they do bow down before them; for they apply to inanimate and unheeding matter the name of the Lord God, namely "God".

  EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 6

• Exodus 20:5

  It is obvious that the Jews follow the law where God is represented as saying, "You shall have none other gods but me; you shall not make for yourself an idol nor any likeness of anything in the heaven above and in the earth beneath and in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor worship them." And they worship none other than the supreme God who made heaven and everything else. It is clear then that since those who live according to the law reverence him who made the heavens, they do not reverence the heavens together with God. Furthermore, none of those who serve the Mosaic law worship the angels in heaven. And in the same way that they do not worship the sun, moon and stars, "the world of heaven," they avoid worshiping heaven and the angels in it.

  AGAINST CELSUS 5.6

• Exodus 20:5

  Christians and Jews are led to avoid temples and altars and images by the command "You shall fear the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." … And not only do they avoid them, but when necessary they readily come to the point of death to avoid defiling their conception of the God of the universe by any act of this kind contrary to his law.

  AGAINST CELSUS 7.64

• Exodus 20:7

  Although making a variety of suppositions about him, we all know something of God but do not all know what he is, for few indeed and fewer (if I may say so) than few are they who grasp his holiness in all things. Thus we are rightly taught to pray that our concept of God may be hallowed among us. Thus we shall see his holiness in creating, in providing, in judging, in choosing and abandoning, in accepting and rejecting, in rewarding and punishing each one according to his merits.In these activities and others like them is found, so I may say, the stamp of the personal character of God, that which in my opinion is called in Scripture the "name of God." So in Exodus: "You shall not take the name of your God in vain."

  ON PRAYER 24.2-3

• Exodus 20:12

  And God said, "Honor your father and your mother," teaching that the child should pay the honor which is due to his parents. Of this honor to parents one part was to share with them the necessaries of life, such as food and clothing, and if there was any other thing in which it was possible for them to show favor toward their own parents.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 11.9

• Exodus 20:12

  And again, who would deny that the command which says, "Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you," is useful quite apart from any spiritual interpretation and that it ought certainly to be observed, especially when we remember that the apostle Paul has quoted it in the same words?

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.3.4

• Exodus 21:24

  Celsus does not quote any passages from the law which are apparently in contradiction to what stands in the gospel, so that we might compare them. He says, "And to a man who has struck one once one should offer oneself to be struck again." But we will say that we are aware that "it was said to them of old time, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' " and that we have read also the words "But I say unto you, to him that strikes you on one cheek offer the other one also." However, I imagine that Celsus derived some of his vague notions from those who say that the God of the gospel is different from the God of the law and so made remarks like this. I would reply to his objection that the Old Testament also knows the doctrine that to him that strikes you on the right cheek you should offer the other one also. At any rate, it is written in the Lamentations of Jeremiah: "It is good for a man when he bears a yoke in his youth, he will sit alone and in silence when he has taken it on himself. He will give a cheek to the man who smites him and shall be filled with reproaches." The gospel then does not lay down laws in contradiction to the God of the law, not even if we interpret literally the saying about a blow on the jaw. And neither Moses nor Jesus "is wrong." Nor did the "Father forget when he sent Jesus the commands which he had given to Moses." Nor did he "condemn his own laws, and change his mind and send his messenger for the opposite purpose."

  AGAINST CELSUS 7.25

• Exodus 22:20

  Some people give no thought to the question of demons, that is to say, to the fact that these demons, in order to be able to exist in the heavy atmosphere that encircles the earth, must have the nourishment of exhalations and consequently are always on the lookout for the savor of burnt sacrifices, blood and incense. Since they attach no importance to the matter of sacrifice, we would express ourselves also on this subject. If men who give sustenance to robbers, murderers and barbarian enemies of the great king are punished as criminals against the state, how much more will they be punished justly who through offering sacrifice proffer sustenance to the minions of evil and thus hold them in the atmosphere of the earth! And this holds true especially if knowing the text, "He that sacrifices to gods other than the Lord alone will be destroyed utterly," they nevertheless sacrifice to these authors of evil on earth. In my opinion, when there is question of crimes committed by these demons operating against men, they who sustain them by sacrificing to them will be held no less responsible than the demons themselves that do the crimes. For the demons and they that have kept them on earth, where they could not exist without the exhalations and nourishment considered vital to their bodies, work as one in doing evil to mankind.

  EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 45

• Exodus 23:26

  And we notice that the saying, "The barren has borne seven, and she that has many children is weakened," is in accord with this; as also is that which is said in the blessings: "There shall not be one among you that is childless or barren." This being so, it follows that just as there is one love, known as carnal and also known as Cupid by the poets, according to which the lover sows in the flesh. So also is there another, a spiritual love, by which the inner man who loves sows in the spirit. And, to speak more plainly, if anyone still bears the image of the earthly according to the outer man, then he is moved by earthly desire and love; but the desire and love of him who bears the image of the heavenly according to the inner man are heavenly.

  COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE 2

• Exodus 25:10

  But when the passage about the equipment of the tabernacle is read, believing that the things described therein are types, some seek for ideas which they can attach to each detail that is mentioned in connection with the tabernacle. Now so far as concerns their belief that the tabernacle is a type of something they are not wrong. But in rightly attaching the word of Scripture to the particular idea of which the tabernacle is a type, here they sometimes fall into error.

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.2.2

• Exodus 25:18

  We are told too that "the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in the fire"; again, in another place "the tongue of the just" is said to be "as silver tried by fire." And the cherubim are described as golden, because they are by interpretation the plentitude of knowledge. And it is commanded also that a candlestick of solid gold should be put in the tabernacle of the testimony; and that, it seems to us, is a type of the natural law in which the light of knowledge is contained. But what need is there to multiply proof texts when those who will can easily see for themselves from many Scripture passages that gold is applied to the intellect and mind, whereas silver is referred only to language and the power of speech?

  COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2:8

• Exodus 25:40

  Moreover it was said to Moses himself, "See that you make all things according to the form and likeness which was shown to you in the mount." It seems to me, therefore, that … in this earth the law was a kind of schoolmaster to those who by it were appointed to be led to Christ and to be instructed and trained in order that after their training in the law they might be able with greater facility to receive the more perfect precepts of Christ. So also that other earth, when it receives all the saints, first imbues and educates them in the precepts of the true and eternal law in order that they may with greater facility accept the precepts of heaven which are perfect and to which nothing can ever be added. And in heaven will truly exist what is called the "eternal gospel" and the Testament that is always new, which can never grow old.

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.8

• Exodus 26:33

  If the ancient custom of sacrifices is clear to you, let us see what these things also contain according to the mystical understanding. You heard that there were two sanctuaries, one, as it were, visible and open to the priests; the other, as it were, invisible and inaccessible. With the exception of the high priest alone, the others were outside. I think this first sanctuary can be understood as this church in which we are now placed in the flesh, in which the priests minister "at the altar of the whole burnt offerings," with that fire kindled about which Jesus said, "I came to send fire unto the earth, and how I wish it to be ignited." And I do not want you to marvel that this sanctuary is open only to the priests. For all who have been anointed with the chrism of the sacred anointing have become priests, just as Peter also says to all the church, "But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy people." Therefore you are "a priestly race," and because of this you approach the sanctuary.

  HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9.9.3

• Exodus 29:41

  For do not think that the omnipotent God commanded this and consecrated this in the law that incense be brought to him from Arabia. But this is the incense that God seeks to be offered by human beings to him, from which he receives "a pleasing odor," prayers from a pure heart and good conscience in which God truly receives a pleasing warmth.

  HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 13.5.2

• Exodus 30:10

  Therefore, if I should consider how the true "high priest," my Lord Jesus Christ, having indeed been placed in the flesh, was with the people all year, that year about which he himself says, "He sent me to proclaim good news to the poor and to announce the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of forgiveness," I perceive how "once" in this "year" on the Day of Atonement he enters into "the Holy of Holies." That is, when with his dispensation fulfilled "he penetrates the heavens" and goes to the Father to make atonement for the human race and prays for all those who believe in him. Knowing this atonement by which he propitiates the Father for humans, the apostle John says, "I say this, little children, that we may not sin. But if we should sin, we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the just; and he himself is the propitiation for our sins." But Paul also in a similar way mentions this atonement when he says concerning Christ, "Whom God appointed as a propitiator by his blood through faith." Therefore the Day of Atonement remains for us until the sun sets; that is, until the world comes to an end.

  HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9:8-9

• Exodus 32:7

  Therefore just as the people are God's when they do not sin but are no longer said to be his when they sin, so also the feats are the feats of sinners when they are hated by the Lord's soul, but when they are ordained by the Lord, they are called the Lord's.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.80

• Exodus 33:23

  For it is well known that he, that is, the one who gave the oracles to Moses, says, "You shall not see my face but my back." Certainly these statements must be understood by the aid of that symbolism which is appropriate to the understanding of divine sayings, and those old wives' fables, which ignorant people invent on the subject of the front and back parts of God, must be utterly rejected and despised. Nor indeed must anyone suppose that we have entertained some impious thought in saying that the Father is not visible even to the Savior, but he must consider the exact meaning of the terms we use in controverting the heretics. For we have said that it is one thing to see and be seen, another to perceive and be perceived or to know and be known. To see and be seen is a property of bodies, which it would certainly not be right to apply either to the Father or to the Son or to the Holy Spirit in their relations one with another. For the Trinity by its nature transcends the limits of vision, although it grants to those who are in bodies, that is, to all other creatures, the property of being seen one by another. But incorporeal and above all intellectual nature is capable of nothing else but to know and be known, as the Savior himself declares when he says, "No one knows the Son save the Father, neither does any know the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal him." It is clear then that he did not say, "No one sees the Father save the Son" but "No one knows the Father save the Son."

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.3

• Exodus 33:23

  Like to these is the saying of God to Moses: "Lo, I have set you in a cleft of the rock, and you shall see my back parts." That rock which is Christ is therefore not completely closed but has clefts. But the cleft of the rock is he who reveals God to men and makes him known to them; for "no one knows the Father, save the Son." So no one sees the back parts of God—that is to say, the things that are come to pass in the latter times—unless he be placed in the cleft of the rock, that is to say, when he is taught them by Christ's own revealing.

  COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 3.15