Origen of Alexandria

In his own words on Malachi

• Malachi 1:11

  And it is astonishing that Moses is called Moses even among us and each of the prophets is addressed by his own name. For Christ did not change the names in them but the understanding. And he changes it there that now later we might not pay attention "to Jewish fables" and "endless genealogies," because "they turn their hearing away from the truth indeed but are turned to fables." He opened, therefore, the wells and taught us, that we might not seek God in some one place but might know that "sacrifice is offered to his name in every land." For it is now that time "when the true worshipers worship the Father neither in Jerusalem nor on Mount Gerizim "but in spirit and truth." God, therefore, dwells in the heart. And if you are seeking the place of God, a pure heart is his place, for he says through the prophet, " 'I will dwell in them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God,' says the Lord."

  HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13:3

• Malachi 3:1

  Someone else will appeal to the text, "Let us make man according to our image and likeness," and maintain that whatever is made according to God's image and likeness is man. To support this, numberless instances are adduced to show that in Scripture "man" and "angel" are used indifferently and that the same subject is called both angel and man. This is true of the three who were entertained by Abraham and of the two who came to Sodom. In the whole course of Scripture, persons are styled sometimes men, sometimes angels. Those who hold this view will say that since persons are styled angels who are manifestly men, as when Zechariah says, "The messenger of the Lord, I am with you, says the Lord almighty," and as it is written of John the Baptist, "Behold, I send my messenger before your face," the angels (messengers) of God are so called on account of their nature. Scripture confirms this view that the names applied to higher powers are not those ofspecies of living beings but those of the orders, assigned by God to this and to that reasonable being.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2:17

• Malachi 3:2

  But as it is in 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 which 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." 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 it is wickedness, and the works which result from it, which are being figuratively called "wood, hay, stubble," God consumes as a fire.

  AGAINST CELSUS 4:13

• Malachi 3:6

  But let us look at what Celsus next with ostentation announces in the following fashion: "And again," he says, "let us resume the subject from the beginning, with a larger array of proofs. And I make no new proofs. And I make no new statement but say what has long been settled. God is good and beautiful and blessed, and that in the best and most beautiful degree. But if he comes down among humanity, he must undergo a change, and a change from good to evil, from virtue to vice, from happiness to misery, and from best to worst. Who, then, would make a choice of such a change? It is the nature of a mortal, indeed, to undergo change and remolding, but of an immortal to remain the same and unaltered. God, then, could not admit such a change." Now it appears to me that the fitting answer has been returned to these objections when I have related what I called in Scripture the "condescension" of God to human affairs. For [this] purpose he did not need to undergo a transformation, as Celsus thinks we assert, nor a change from good to evil, nor from virtue to vice, nor from happiness to misery, nor from best to worst. For, continuing unchangeable in his essence, he condescends to human affairs by the economy of his providence. We show accordingly that the holy Scripture represents God as unchangeable, both by such words as "you are the same" and "I change not." Whereas the gods of Epicurus, being composed of atoms, and, so far as their structure is concerned, capable of dissolution, endeavor to throw off the atoms which contain the elements of destruction. Even the god of the Stoics, as being corporeal, at one time has his whole essence composed of the guiding principle when the conflagration [of the world] takes place; and at another, when a rearrangement of things occurs, he again becomes partly material. For even the Stoics were unable to comprehend distinctly the natural idea of God as a being altogether incorruptible and simple and uncompounded and indivisible.

  AGAINST CELSUS 4:14

• Malachi 4:2

  But do not take the statement that "he sprinkles to the east" as superfluous. From the east came atonement for you; for from there is the man whose name is "East," who became "a mediator between God and humanity." Therefore you are invited by this to always look "to the east" where "the Sun of Righteousness" arises for you, where a light is born for you; that you may never "walk in darkness" and that that last day does not seize you in darkness. [Therefore may] the night and fog of ignorance not come upon you unawares, but [may] you always be found in the light of knowledge, always have the day of faith and always preserve the light of love and peace.

  HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9:10.2

• Malachi 4:5

  And what is the source of your belief that Elijah who is to come will baptize? He did not even baptize the wood on the altar in the times of Ahab, when it needed a bath that it might be burned up when the Lord appeared in the fire. He commanded the priests to do this, and not only once, for he says, "Do it a second time, when also they did it for a second time." And "Do it a third time, when also they did it a third time." How, then, will he who did not baptize at that time but gave the task to others, baptize when he has come in fulfillment of things said by Malachi? Christ therefore does not baptize in water but his disciples. He reserves for himself the act of baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:125

• Malachi 4:5

  Who of those who hear Jesus say of John, "If you wish to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come," would not inquire how John says to those who ask, "Are you Elijah?" "I am not"? Will he not also inquire how one ought to consider John himself to be Elijah who is to come, according to Malachi's statement: … "And behold, I am sending you Elijah the Tishbite before the great and renewed Day of the Lord comes, who will restore the heart of the father to his son and the heart of a man to his neighbor, lest I come and smite the earth utterly"?

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:62