Scarlet cord — no salvation outside the house
The wise harlot gives the spies a heavenly counsel: Go by the mountain way — flee the low valleys; preach what is high. She sets a scarlet cord in her house — the form of blood; there is no salvation except in Christ’s blood. All found in your house will be saved; we are clear of those who go out. Whoever would be saved, come into this house — the church — where Christ’s blood is the sign of redemption. With those who said His blood be on us and on our children, that blood is unto condemnation. Jesus was set for the fall and rising of many. Outside this house — outside the church — no one is saved. The sign hangs in the window: the incarnation lets us see deity’s light not bare, but as through a window. Cleansed in water and Spirit and in the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Latin
Meretrix sapiens exploratoribus consilium dat: Per montana abite — humilia refugite, excelsa praedicate. Signum coccineum in domo ponit — sanguinis formam; salus nisi in sanguine Christi. Omnes in domo tua salvabuntur; qui exierint, immunes sumus. Si quis salvari vult, veniat in hanc domum — ecclesiam — ubi Christi sanguis in signo redemptionis est. Apud eos qui dixerunt Sanguis eius super nos, sanguis in condemnationem. Extra hanc domum nemo salvatur. Signum in fenestra — incarnationis lumen non merum Deitatis aspectum sed per fenestram. Mundati in aqua et Spiritu et in sanguine Iesu Christi, cui gloria in saecula. Amen.
About this text
Origen’s Homilia III on Joshua (Rufinus’s Latin). Complete on this page: §§1–5.
English follows Baehrens, Origenes Werke VII (GCS 30, 1921), Rufinus’s Latin of Homilia III. Bruce FOTC 105 was not used as wording. This page is Homilia III §§1–5 (closeout).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Baehrens, Origenes Werke VII = GCS 30 (1921) (Latin · Homilia III §§1–5)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.