Origen of Alexandria

In his own words on Zephaniah

• Zephaniah 1:14

  But since these are light as perceived by the sense, which are said in Moses to have come into existence on the fourth day, they are not the true light because they enlighten the things on the earth. The Savior, on the other hand, is the light of the spiritual world because he shines on those who are rational and intellectual, that their mind may see its proper visions. Now I mean he is the light of those rational souls which are in the sensible world, of which the Savior teaches us that he is the Maker, being, perhaps its directing and principal part, and, so to speak, the sun of the great Day of the Lord.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1:161

• Zephaniah 3:9-10

  If anyone is able, insofar as he found that Israel is saved "after the full number of pagan nations," let him consider having passed over by reason the remaining period, when it is that "all serve God under a single yoke," according to what is said in Zephaniah, "And from the ends of Ethiopia they offer sacrifices to him," when, as it is said in the sixty-seventh psalm, "Ethiopia stretches forth its hand to God," and "to the kings of the earth" the word commands, saying, "Sing to the Lord, raise a psalm to the God of Jacob."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5:4.3