Origen of Alexandria

In his own words on Job

• Job 19:4

  "And if I—let us suppose—had done things that should not have been done, even if I had been in such a condition, was it not necessary just the same that you felt ashamed while seeing my afflictions, disease, worms and loss of goods? But you approach me without commiserating with me and without feeling any sympathy for my adversities."

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 13.15, 29

• Job 19:5

  "And if I—let us suppose—had done things that should not have been done, even if I had been in such a condition, was it not necessary just the same that you felt ashamed while seeing my afflictions, disease, worms and loss of goods? But you approach me without commiserating with me and without feeling any sympathy for my adversities."

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 13.15, 29

• Job 19:7

  "I will cry out, and there is nowhere judgment; I still contend." This is as if Job had said, "I cried out like an athlete in the stadium, but my judgment is nowhere there. Indeed, I still fight. But if I do not bring my fight to a close, I will not get my crown." We actually say these things lest we accuse God of the fact that Job suffered such misfortunes and there was judgment for him nowhere.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 13.15, 29

• Job 20:14

  They have theories that are not sweet but as the gall of asps, that is, evil; and those theories come from the wine of their doctrine. "For their wine comes from the vine of Sodom." The gall of asps is in the belly of the heretics and those who declare impious dogmas contrary to truth.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 14.41

• Job 20:15

  What other riches are unjustly gathered but those which are in their speeches? Indeed, they are unjustly gathered. But God, in his benevolence, does not allow those mad people to keep forever their unjustly gathered riches. He will cause them to vomit them up again.… The angel, in fact, through the action and benevolence of God, drags him out of his wickedly built house, that is, the church of those who behave wickedly; it is their house. But the angel drags him out of his house.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 14.43, 47

• Job 20:28-29

  [The wrath of God strikes] both the circumcised, who act impiously against Christ, and the heretic and indeed any who are ungodly. The retribution of each is according to what has been shown above. Do you understand who is the overseer mentioned here? God is called "overseer," and his bishops must endeavor in every way to put into practice his model, if they are good. And as one who emulates a royal model is honored, because he has emulated it in a proper way, so the blessed bishop who meditates upon the true bishop and imitates him also becomes like a god among humans. He really has in himself that bishop and has made himself a bishop in Jesus Christ.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 14.106, 110

• Job 21:11

  "And they remain as eternal sheep." What is the meaning of these words? They are those words that Christ spoke, "My sheep hear my voice, and I give them eternal life." The faithful are the eternal sheep; the heretics are imitators. They want to imitate the flock of Christ. They ordain their own bishops, presbyters, deacons, doctors, congregation and catechumens, and by imitating the eternal sheep they fulfill the prediction, "And they appear as eternal sheep." They clearly are not eternal sheep but "appear as eternal sheep."

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 15.23

• Job 21:11

  "And their children play before them, taking up the psaltery and harp." Our children take up the psaltery and the harp, praising and glorifying God. But "their [the heretics'] children," who are foolish in themselves, also "play taking up the psaltery and the harp." Every time they usurp the words of the Old Testament, they play and mock the oracles of the Law and the Prophets. By taking up the harmonies that were once the psaltery of the law and the prophetic harp, they play with them.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 15.25

• Job 22:1-2

  The things that are administered by the Holy Spirit are worthy of description. Therefore, they are described, so that the reader may take advantage of the things being read. If the speeches of those three who came to Job were not useful, so that the reader might gain nothing from what was said to Job through them, to be sure the divine Providence would have not reported the speeches of those three in the book of Job. It is possible, therefore, to obtain a certain advantage from their speeches by observing carefully their doctrine.Notice that the fault in their speeches is singular: every time they accuse Job, they believe that he is suffering his misfortunes because he had sinned. They do not see that there are many reasons why adversities happen to people. It was established that these are the things that happen, both good and bad, or whatever you want to call them. "Is it not the Lord that teaches understanding and knowledge?" This statement is wise. Indeed, the true doctor of virtue cannot be a person. "He that teaches man knowledge" is also mentioned in the psalms and is no one else but God. And the prophet says, "Teach me your ordinances," because he knows that God is the true and perfect doctor. In truth God teaches, by lighting the soul of the pupil from him and by illuminating his mind with his light, his truthful word. For this reason, the righteous men, who received the grace of teaching, teach us.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 16.4

• Job 22:7

  All these things are accusations, and certainly very reproachful ones. But they are not true with regard to Job and are unjustly pronounced against him. These things happen in times of hardship. Sometimes, when one has only a piece of bread, even though he does not have an entire loaf, we take it away from him by saying, "You are in debt."

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 16.22-23

• Job 22:22-25

  This is what he means, in my opinion: "Confess your sins; receive from God's mouth his support after your confession; and take his words into your heart." Certainly Eliphaz said these things, as he believed, by making himself equal to Job.… However, he pronounces a correct dogma here. He, in fact, thinks that Job suffers his adversities because of his sins but also so that he will be purified through the endurance of his afflictions. Once he is purified, he will be delivered from any extraneous element and freed from any involvement with iniquity. And like gold refined in a melting pot, he will appear to be tested. If you, he says, endure what has happened to you, God will make you pure, like silver purified with fire.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 16.61, 69

• Job 35:5

  The one who looks at the heavens is not he who raises his physical eyes and observes the heavens. Indeed, also dogs and donkeys look at the heavens in this manner. No one who loves the world looks at the heavens, but only he who does not love the world and the things which are in it. If we love the things that are here, we do not look to the heavens. The clouds are not so high and so removed from us that, if I follow the life and conduct of Moses, through which he was pleasing to God, and recognize my weakness and humility, I will not be able to gain a higher and even more removed cloud. If I imitate Jesus, son of Nun, and the life of the blessed prophets and carefully examine their actions, I will fulfill what was written.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 24.11-12

• Job 35:6-7

  If you look at the heavens and contemplate the clouds, you will understand that you sinned. And what do you need to do? It is necessary that you approach the high priest and implore him to offer a victim for you. "If any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the expiation of our sins." If you will do this, you will dissolve your numerous sins. And for those irremediable sins from which we cannot be cured, Jesus Christ came from heaven to cure what was irremediable, and so that it might happen that "blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered."

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 24.15-16

• Job 35:11

  "Who makes me different from the four-footed beasts of the earth?" If you are a sinner, you were not distinguished from the four-footed beasts of the earth. "Man that has honor does not understand, he is compared to the senseless cattle, and is like them." If you are a sinner, you were not distinguished from the four-footed beasts of the earth, but it is said to you, "So that you might not be like horses and mules that have no understanding." If you are a sinner, if you are licentious, if you are reckless, you are not distinguished from the four-footed beasts. "They became like wanton horses." For this reason he audaciously said that he was segregated. "Who makes me different from the four-footed beasts of the earth?"

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 24.25

• Job 40:6-7

  "I will question you, and you answer me." The perfect rewards of the struggles are reserved after this life to those who fought bravely. The grace of God nevertheless offers a sort of pledge to the athletes. For this reason, Job faced the hardest fights; while losing his riches, he praised him who gave him these afflictions. After losing his children, he glorified him who had taken them away. While realizing that worms grew out of his body, he was not defeated by his diseases. God gave him the firstlings and the pledge of his fights by speaking to him out of the clouds and the whirlwind. After he had listened to the former speeches, when it was necessary to speak to God, he was silent, as if he had no faculty to speak to him. In fact, he did not know yet what would have been written by Moses, "Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice." Therefore, he was like someone who did not know that he did not want to answer God. But God conceded him forgiveness to speak. The benevolence of God is such that he does not play the role of the judge but that of the lawyer, who discusses the case with a man.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 28.7

• Job 40:10-11

  A slanderer conspired against you. Sometimes he said to me, "Stretch out your hand now." He said to me, "Touch all that he has," and he added about you that "you would have cursed me to my face." But, on the contrary, you were victorious. Therefore I say to you, "Clothe yourself with glory. Abase the slanderer completely. Humiliate his angels. He was arrogant against you, but you destroy the arrogant. He was impious against you, but you strike him by lightning."

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 28.21

• Job 41:7-9

  ["And all the ships come together would not be able to bear the mere skin of his tail."] All the ships come together are not capable to mortify the extreme and main parts of the dragon. People using bodies or ships cannot by themselves lift a single piece of the skin of his tail. But with the favor of divine virtue, they can bear not only a piece of the skin of his tail but also his entire body, and [they can] mortify it. Each of us mortifies what is in him, that is, the devil, according to the words of the apostle, "Then God will soon crush Satan under your feet."

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 28.85

• Job 41:14

  Why did he not say, "Who can disclose his face?" What is the purpose of these doors? "Who can open," he says, "the doors of his face?" In order to understand what is said here, let us take the example of the actors, who wear masks not in order to show what they are but in order to show what they want to look like. Indeed, those who play a certain character on the scene wear masks, so that they sometimes play the role of a general or a king, and often of a woman. Therefore, their real face is concealed, and they do not show what they are, while only what they want to look like is seen. The dragon acts in the same way. He never shows his face, but by assuming a mask in order to deceive humankind, he takes advantage of it. The enemy has many masks and wears a mask of virtue for any vice. And who can detect the mask that he wears? Who can disclose and show how the dragon is inside? Such are also his other followers, "who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves."

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 28.95

• Job 41:19

  I believe that all the impious teachers of immoral doctrines are properly the limbs of the dragon. What are the names, if you want to listen, of the limbs of the dragon? The mouth of the dragon can be metaphorically interpreted as the main limb, because all the dangerous speeches come from it. "From his mouth go flaming torches." From it you hear the insulting speech under the guise of Christianity, the speech vilifying the Creator, or on the other hand that openly supports the theories of Marcion, Basilides and Valentinus. Whenever they speak about the Founder of heaven and earth, whenever they assert that he does not exist and has no spiritual essence—there you will see flaming torches coming out of their mouths and sparks of fire leaping up. Therefore, let us preserve ourselves without deliberating those impious theories, so that those flaming torches may never burn us and sparks of fire may never touch us.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOB 28.114