Origen of Alexandria

In his own words on Ezekiel

• Ezekiel 1:1

  It was not enough for one heaven to be opened; a greater number was opened, so that the angels descended not from one, but from all the heavens on those who were to be saved.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 1:7

• Ezekiel 1:3

  If you want to understand that this word is said about the Savior, do not hold back. The allegory has its own meaning as well, in this way: the Word of God comes to us as he who was born of the virgin, that is, man; as the Word who lives always in the Father.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 1:10

• Ezekiel 1:4

  When you have been purified by the sweeping wind, to the extent that it has swept away every evil from you and everything of evil character in your soul, then you will begin to benefit from the great cloud that envelopes the sweeping wind.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 1:12

• Ezekiel 1:5

  The cherubim are interpreted as the fullness of knowledge. Whoever is full of skill becomes a cherub that God drives.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 1:15

• Ezekiel 1:16

  If you consider the way in which the universe moves in different and contrary ways, whether you think it is in error or whether you think it is of a different nature from us, you see the meaning of "a wheel within a wheel." But as far as all that is concerned, the God of the whole universe directs everything and makes everything to move where he wills, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 1:16

• Ezekiel 1:28

  It is clear … that Ezekiel saw the cherubim and their course, and the firmament above them and the one seated on the throne. What could be more glorious and exalted than these things?

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:23

• Ezekiel 2:6

  Are there not revilings in Ezekiel directed against the people, when the Lord says, "you dwell among scorpions"?

  AGAINST CELSUS 2:76

• Ezekiel 2:10

  I take it to be similar in the case of the book mentioned by Ezekiel, in which had been written lamentation, mourning and woe. The whole book contains the "woe" of those perishing, and the "mourning" of those being saved and the "lamentation" of those in between. John, too, who eats one roll on which there is writing on the back and the front, considered the whole Scripture as one book, which is thought to be sweet at the start, when one chews it, but bitter in the perception of each of those who come to know it.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 5:7

• Ezekiel 10:4

  The prophet did not see the throne but the likeness of the throne, just as he said earlier that he did not see the glory of the Lord but the likeness of the glory of the Lord.

  EXCERPTS ON EZEKIEL 10

• Ezekiel 11:19-20

  Now this is what is said by those who wish to prove by the authority of Scripture that nothing lies within our own power. We shall reply to them that these words must not be understood in that sense but as follows. It is as if an uneducated and uninstructed person becoming conscious of the disgrace of his condition, whether by being stirred at the exhortation of another or by a desire to rival those who are wise, should entrust himself to one by whom he is confident that he can be carefully trained and competently instructed. If then he, who had formerly hardened himself in ignorance, entrusts himself, as we have said, with full purpose of mind to a master and promises to obey him in everything, the master, on seeing clearly his purpose and determination, will on his part undertake to take away from him his lack of education and to implant in him education, not promising, however, to do this if the disciple withholds his assent and co-operation but only if he offers and pledges himself to entire obedience.

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3:1.15

• Ezekiel 11:19-20

  This might lead one to suppose that it was God who gave the power to walk in his commandments and to keep his judgments, if it was he who removed the stony heart, which hindered them from keeping the commandments, and who implanted in them the better and more sensitive one, which is here called a heart of flesh.

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3:1.7

• Ezekiel 13:1

  There is no kind of sin about which Scripture is silent and about which it does not teach its readers.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:1

• Ezekiel 13:2

  If the Word of God accuses me, I will try to be converted.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:2

• Ezekiel 13:2

  If I find in Moses and the prophets the thought of Christ, I speak not according to my own heart but from the Holy Spirit.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:2

• Ezekiel 13:2

  If anyone reading the gospel fits its proper sense to the gospel without understanding that the Lord speaks, he is a false prophet speaking according to his own heart in the gospel.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:2

• Ezekiel 13:2

  The word of the present can agree with those who teach in the church, as long as they do not teach other than what the truth demands.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:2

• Ezekiel 13:2

  False prophets are teachers of the church whose words or life do not properly accord with the doctrine that they preach.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:1

• Ezekiel 13:3

  In the same way that a saint prays with the Spirit and prays with understanding and sings with the spirit and sings with understanding, so the false prophet prophesies according to his own heart and follows not the Spirit of God but his own spirit.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:3

• Ezekiel 13:4

  The fox is an animal good for nothing, sly, wild, ferocious.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:4

• Ezekiel 13:6

  All that they want is false, and they can never see the truth. Take an example. To read the Scripture and to hear something other than what is written is to have an untruthful picture of Scripture; but to hear Scripture and interpret it in accordance with the truth, that is to see the truth.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:5

• Ezekiel 13:7

  This is what we are looking for, that the Lord will be present as a witness to my words, that he may himself confirm what is said by witness of his holy Scriptures.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:5

• Ezekiel 13:7

  Pray for us that our words may not be false.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:5

• Ezekiel 13:17

  Soft are the souls and intentions of those leaders who always compose resonant and harmonious words.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:3

• Ezekiel 13:17

  This face, that is to say the ruling faculty in our soul, if it is not fixed toward what it should understand in the manner that it sees, it announces to its hearers that what it looks at has not in fact been seen.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:1

• Ezekiel 13:17

  It should have a face that wants to be fixed toward what it is striving to understand, and for this reason the order is always first given to those who want to prophecy to make their face firm.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:1

• Ezekiel 13:18

  The Word of God must proclaim what is for the salvation of the hearer, what exhorts him to continence, to the practice of sensible actions, to all the things to which the person who is assiduous in works and not pleasures must apply himself in order to be able to obtain what God has promised.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:3

• Ezekiel 13:18

  Allow me, O Christ, to break all pillows made for the luxury of souls.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:4

• Ezekiel 13:18

  When the work of the speaker is deployed in licentious talk, a veil is placed on the head of everyone regardless of age, not just the children and the young but also the elderly.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:3

• Ezekiel 13:21

  We flee what is bitter, even though it is good for us, and we do not want to labor, because we are softened by pleasures, because we do not know that it is impossible to be a friend of pleasure and at the same time a friend of God.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:5

• Ezekiel 13:22

  Let us pray that God will deliver us even from the hand of such leaders who, wherever they are, speak to please their hearers and cut and divide the church, because many are more fond of pleasures than they are of God.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:6

• Ezekiel 14:3

  No one among us thinks that tortures are inflicted by anyone other than ourselves.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:7

• Ezekiel 14:3

  When the interior person perseveres according to the image of the Creator, then a person is born, and twice is the person made a person according to the exterior and the interior kind.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:8

• Ezekiel 14:13

  Thanks to the churches which reach to the limits of the world, the entire earth cries out with joy toward the God of Israel, and it is capable of good acts in its borders.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 4:1

• Ezekiel 14:13

  Do you think it is true that the word applies not to the inhabitants of the earth but to the earth itself?

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 4:1

• Ezekiel 14:13

  Those who are not healed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, he baptizes with fire, because they are not able to be purified by the purification of the Holy Spirit.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 5:1

• Ezekiel 14:13

  As the experts in medical art put it, in order to perform certain healings in the body, it is necessary to inflict not only a cut but also a burn.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 5:1

• Ezekiel 14:13

  Even though it is a punishment of the mother to be sent into exile, to be deprived of her children or at least to see her children bound for another province, in the same sort of way our mother the earth is chastised for her sins by God when people and beast are removed from her.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 4:3

• Ezekiel 14:14

  Those who are of Abraham are not children of Abraham; although they are of his seed, they are not his children, because they are sinners. In the same way those whose actions resemble the wonder of Daniel are of Daniel, and those who imitate the patience of Job become Job.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 4:4

• Ezekiel 14:21

  All those who are sinners in the church, who have tasted the Word of God and have transgressed it, deserve prayers, but each one will be punished in accordance with his or her degree.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 5:4

• Ezekiel 16:2

  Why is it that I admire Ezekiel? Because the order was given him to make known to Jerusalem its abominations, and he did not place before his eyes any danger that would result from his preaching, but in order to keep only the precepts of God, he spoke whatever he was told. Let us realize that there was a mystery, that there was the revelation of a mysterious kind on the subject of Jerusalem and all that is said against it. Nevertheless, he prophesied, and accused it of fornication.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:1

• Ezekiel 16:3

  If so many things are said in Jerusalem about which such great and wonderful things are written that have been promised to her, what future is there for unhappy me, if I sin? Who will I have for a father, who will I have for a mother?

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:3

• Ezekiel 16:3

  Which of the cities in the world were so elevated and so deep in knowledge as the city of God?

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:3

• Ezekiel 16:4

  It is a great work to be rubbed with salt. If we are seasoned with salt, we are full of grace.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:6

• Ezekiel 16:4

  Not everyone is washed for salvation. We who have received the grace of baptism in the name of Christ are washed, but I do not know who is washed for salvation.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:5

• Ezekiel 16:4

  It is quite difficult that he who is washed should be washed in order to be saved. Listen, catechumens, listen, and from what is said, prepare yourselves, while you are catechumens, while you are not yet baptized, and come to the bath and be baptized for salvation. Do not be so baptized that you are washed but not for salvation.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:5

• Ezekiel 16:4

  The soul that is reborn is barely out of the bath before being enveloped with towels.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:6

• Ezekiel 16:4

  To take an example from human relationships, if the Holy Spirit gives, then I travel on to Jesus Christ and God the Father.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:6

• Ezekiel 16:6

  But see the mercy of God, see his extraordinary goodness. Even though Jerusalem was thrown into the open field, he does not look down on it as thrown out forever, he does not leave it in a state of perversion as entirely forgotten, as not in the end to lift up the fallen. You were thrown out, but I still return to you; my visit is not lacking after your ruin."

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:7

• Ezekiel 16:8

  When we are of a greater age and can therefore sin, angels look for a chance to influence us, and that is as true of the angels of God as it is of the angels of Satan.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:8

• Ezekiel 16:8

  Let us pray that the mercy of God will come on us and wash away the blood from our souls.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:9

• Ezekiel 16:12

  We are not only anointed with this oil, but we also live.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:10

• Ezekiel 16:12

  Almighty God, grant to us to be worthy of the crown and glory on our head.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:10

• Ezekiel 16:17

  The golden and silver vase, the censers, the cups and the rest of that kind we have in the holy Scriptures. But when we turn the meaning of Scripture into another that is contrary to the truth, we kindle the divine words and turn the things of God into other images.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:2

• Ezekiel 16:18

  Whoever is born in the teaching of heretics and has taken these principles for his own faith is a child of Jerusalem the fornicator and sinner.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:5

• Ezekiel 16:18

  Incense and oil are the prayer that is offered to God with understanding and in which God delights.

  EXCERPTS ON EZEKIEL 16:18

• Ezekiel 16:18

  We do not imitate anyone, but if we want to imitate anyone, we should imitate Jesus Christ.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:3

• Ezekiel 16:18

  To me who preaches the gospel in the church, the devil always stretches out a noose, in order to confuse the whole church with my conduct.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:3

• Ezekiel 16:18

  These various clothes and beautiful garments that God has bestowed on us, if we cut them up and rip them and surround them with false teaching to deceive human beings, there is no doubt that we are covering idols with different clothing.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:3

• Ezekiel 16:23

  Their bodies are corrupted, and the soul is wounded.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:6

• Ezekiel 16:25

  Possessing these things, she is of great beauty, but she is corrupted by the divisions of heretics and foreign religious systems.

  HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:7