Origen of Alexandria

In his own words on Tobit

• Tobit 2:6

  Once the people fell down in the desert and died. Aaron their chief priest came and "stood in the midst of those who died and of those who lived," so that the devastation of death might not advance even further among the rest. And then came the true high priest, my Lord, and he came into the midst between those dying and the living. That is, he came between those Jews who accepted his presence and those who not only did not accept but also killed themselves more completely than him, saying, "The blood of that one be on us and on our children!" So also "all the righteous blood that has been poured forth on the earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah whom they killed between the sanctuary and the altar, will be required from that generation" that said, "His blood on us and on our children." Therefore, these are a part of the dead people because they do not properly perform either the feast of unleavened bread or the feast days. But "their feast days have been turned into sorrow and their songs into lamentations," they who, even if they wished, could not celebrate the feast days in that place that the Lord God chose. And indeed we ourselves did not say to them, "You will have no part in this altar or in the inheritance of the Lord," but they themselves of their own accord refute the true altar and the heavenly high priest and have been brought to such a point of unhappiness that they both lost the image and did not accept the truth. Therefore it is said to them, "Behold, your house is left to you deserted." For the grace of the Holy Spirit has been transferred to the nations; the celebrations have been transferred to us because the high priest has passed over to us, not the imagined but the true high priest, chosen "according to the order of Melchizedek." It is necessary that he offer for us true sacrifices, that is, spiritual, where "the temple of God is built from living stones," which is "the church of the living God" and where true Israel exists.

  HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 26:3

• Tobit 3:1

  Regarding the second kind of prayer, see Daniel: "And Azarias standing up prayed in this manner and opening his mouth in the midst of the fire he said …". And Tobias: "And I began to pray with tears, saying, You are just, O Lord, and all your works are just and all your ways mercy and truth. And your judgments are true and just forever." And since the passage in Daniel has been obelized on the ground that it is not found in the Hebrew text, and those of the circumcision reject the book of Tobias as not being canonical, I shall quote the words of Anna from the first book of Kings: "And she prayed the Lord, shedding many tears. And she made a vow, saying, O Lord of hosts, if you will look down on the affliction of your servant," and so on. And in Habakkuk: "A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet with song. O Lord, I have heard your voice and was afraid. O Lord, I reflected on your works and was astonished. In the midst of two animals you will be known; in the approach of the years you will be recognized." The example just given illustrates very well the definition of prayer inasmuch as he who offers it unites it with praise of God. And again, in the book of Jonah: "Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the fish. And he said, I cried out of my affliction to the Lord my God, and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell you heard the screams of my voice. And you have thrown me into the deep in the heart of the sea, and a flood has surrounded me."

  ON PRAYER 14:4

• Tobit 3:16

  It is not only the high priest who prays with those who truly pray, but also the angels, who "have joy in heaven on one sinner who repents, more than on ninety-nine just who need no repentance, and the souls of the saints who have passed away. This is clear from the case of Raphael offering a reasonable sacrifice to God for Tobias and Sarah. For the Scripture says that after they had prayed, "the prayers of them both were heard in the sight of the glory of the great Raphael, and he was sent to heal them both." And Raphael, in revealing to them his mission to them both, enjoined on him as an angel by God, says, "When you prayed, you and your daughter-in-law Sarah, I offered the memory of your prayer before the Holy One"; and a little further on: "I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who hear the prayers of the saints and enter before the glory of the Holy One." And so, according to the word of Raphael, "prayer is good with fasting and alms and justice." And in the case of Jeremiah, who appears in the Maccabees as "admirable for age and glory" so that "an extraordinary dignity and greatness" was about him, and who "stretched forth his right hand and gave to Judas a sword of gold"21—to him another holy man who had died bore witness saying, "This is he who prays much for the people and for all the holy city, Jeremiah the prophet of God."

  ON PRAYER 11:1

• Tobit 5:21

  There is no other second goodness existing in the Son, except that which is in the Father. And therefore the Savior also rightly says in the Gospel, "There is none good except one only, God the Father." With such an expression it may be understood that the Son is not of a different goodness but of that only that exists in the Father. He is rightly termed the image of the Father because he proceeds from no other source but from that primal goodness. Otherwise there might appear to be in the Son a different goodness from that which is in the Father. Nor is there any dissimilarity or difference of goodness in the Son. Therefore, no one should imagine that there is a kind of blasphemy, as it were, in the words, "There is none good except one only, God the Father," as if someone thinks this denies that either the Son or the Holy Spirit is good. However, as we have already said, the primal goodness is to be understood as residing in God the Father, from whom both the Son is born and the Holy Spirit proceeds, retaining within them, without any doubt, the nature of that goodness that is in the source from which they are derived. And if there is anything else in Scripture that is called good (angels, human beings, servants, treasure, or a good heart or a good tree27), the word good is not used with its proper meaning, since these uses refer to outward goodness, not an essential goodness.

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:2.13

• Tobit 11:14

  It is necessary to observe the means of expression the Evangelist used as to whether he says to us that the eyes of the blind person were opened or that he saw. He expresses that he opened his eyes with the words, "It was the sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes." But it also says that he saw with the words, "He went and returned seeing." We will be able to find the difference between the expressions from Tobit. When white patches had formed over his eyes, it is not written that his eyes were later opened but that he saw. Of the rest, you will be able to observe one or the other aspect in the course of the entire episode related concerning the blind person, where one person asserts one thing and another that, with quite a bit of dissent from each other.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, FRAGMENT 66