Origen of Alexandria, On First Principles 11

Let us now briefly consider what we should think about the promises as well. It is certain that no living creature can be completely idle and immobile; by nature it must always be in motion, acting, and desiring something. I regard it as clear that this impulse belongs to every living thing. Therefore, the rational animal — that is, human nature — must all the more always be moving or acting in some way. If a person is forgetful of himself and ignores what befits him, his whole intention is directed toward bodily needs, and through all his movements he is occupied with bodily pleasures and desires. But if he is the sort who strives to care for or provide something for the common good — whether consulting for the state, obeying magistrates, or practicing whatever else seems certainly useful in common — he exercises himself in that. Now if someone understands something better than these bodily things and devotes himself to wisdom and knowledge, he will without doubt direct all his industry toward such studies, so that he may come to know the investigated truth of things and their reason. Just as in this life one person judges the body's greatest good to be pleasure, another seeks the common good, and another devotes himself to study and intelligence, so we ask whether in that true life — the life "hidden with Christ in God" (Col 3:3), that is, eternal life — there might be some such order or status of living for us.

Some people, in a way rejecting the labor of intelligence and clinging to the surface of the letter of the law while indulging their own pleasure and desire, disciples of the letter alone, think that the future promises are to be expected in bodily pleasure and luxury. Because of this they especially desire to have flesh again after the resurrection — flesh that would never lack the ability to eat and drink and do all things that belong to flesh and blood — not following the apostle Paul's teaching about the "spiritual body" of the resurrection (1 Cor 15:44). Consequently they also add that marriages and the procreation of children will continue after the resurrection. They imagine for themselves the earthly city of Jerusalem rebuilt with precious stones laid in its foundations, its walls raised from jasper, its battlements adorned with crystal, and its surrounding wall made of chosen and varied stones: jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardius, onyx, chrysolite, chrysoprase, hyacinth, and amethyst (Rev 21:19–20). They also think that foreign ministers of their delights will be given to them — tillers, vineyard cultivators, builders of walls — from whom their ruined and collapsed city will be rebuilt. They think they will receive the riches of the nations to eat and will dominate in their wealth, so that even the camels of Midian and Ephah will come and bring them gold, frankincense, and precious stones (Isa 60:6). They try to confirm this from prophetic authority, from what is written about the promises to Jerusalem: that those who serve God will eat and drink, but sinners will hunger and thirst, and that the just will rejoice but the impious will be possessed by confusion (Isa 65:13–14). They also bring forward the Savior's voice from the New Testament, where he promises his disciples the joy of wine, saying he will not drink from this cup until he drinks it new with them in his Father's kingdom (Matt 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18). They add, too, that the Savior called blessed those who now hunger and thirst, promising they will be satisfied (Matt 5:6; Luke 6:21), and they cite many other scriptural examples whose force they do not think should be understood figuratively or spiritually. Then, following the form of this life and the dispositions of this world — its dignities, orders, and eminent powers — they think they will be kings and princes, just like these earthly ones, because of what is said in the gospel: "You will have authority over five cities" (Luke 19:19; cf. Matt 25:21, 23). To put it briefly, according to the conduct of this life they want everything expected from the promises to be similar in all respects — that is, for what is to be again. These are the thoughts of those who believe in Christ but understand the divine scriptures in a certain Jewish sense, presuming nothing worthy of the divine promises.

But those who receive the theory of the scriptures according to the apostles' sense hope that the saints will indeed eat — but the bread of life, which nourishes the soul with the foods of truth and wisdom, illuminates the mind, and intoxicates it with the cups of divine wisdom. This is just as divine scripture says: "Wisdom has prepared her table, has killed her victims, has mixed her wine in the cup, and cries out with a loud voice: 'Turn to me and eat the bread I have prepared for you, and drink the wine I have mixed for you'" (Prov 9:2, 5). Nourished by these foods of wisdom, the mind is restored to integrity and perfection, just as man was made from the beginning in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26). So even if someone departs this life less educated but has brought forth probable works, he may be instructed in that city of Jerusalem of the saints — that is, taught, formed, and made a living stone, a precious and chosen stone, because he has borne the struggles of life and the contests of piety strongly and constantly (1 Pet 2:5). There he will know more truly and clearly what has already been predicted here: that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deut 8:3; Matt 4:4; Luke 4:4). The princes and rulers, too, are to be understood as those who rule, teach, instruct, and establish the inferiors in divine things.

Now if these things seem less worthy to those who hope for them, let us inquire — repeating a little — how natural and innate to the soul is the desire for the thing itself, so that we may finally describe the species themselves of the bread of life, the quality of its wine, and the property of the principalities through the consequence of theory. Just as in those arts usually fulfilled by hand, the reason — what or how or for what use something is made — resides in the mind, while the effectiveness of the work is carried out by the ministry of the hands, so in the works of God, which he has made, we must understand that the reason and intelligence of those things we see made by him remain hidden. And just as when our eye sees things made by an artisan, if it perceives something especially well made, the soul immediately burns to investigate how or in what way or for what use it was made: much more, and beyond all comparison, the soul burns with ineffable desire to know the reason of those things made by God which we see. We certainly believe this desire — this love — has been implanted in us by God. Just as the eye naturally requires light and sight, and our body desires food and drink by nature, so our mind has its own natural desire to know the truth of God and the causes of things. We have received this desire from God not so that it may never be fulfilled, lest the love of truth seem to have been inserted in our mind by the Creator God in vain if it is never satisfied.