Fragments on Proverbs

1Fragments from the commentaries on Proverbs. From Origen on the Proverbs of Solomon. Chapter 1.

Proverbs of Solomon, son of David. The Savior too is called son of David. This peaceable Savior of ours, who came from David seed according to the flesh, reigned in Israel. That is why, as he completed the economy for human beings, he was also labeled: This is the King of the Jews. Jews are Israel — those over whom the peaceable Savior reigns as over people who see clearly — if they are truly Israel. For not all who are Abraham seed are also children, when they do not do Abraham works.

To know wisdom and training. Wisdom is knowledge that takes hold of divine and human affairs. Some say it is a vapor of God power and a pure outflow of the Almighty glory; nothing dark falls into it. It is a radiance of everlasting light, a spotless mirror of God working, and an image of his goodness. Whoever knows wisdom works knows these: that radiance, that spotless mirror, that image of goodness. And that is nothing other than to know the Son of God love, and the Wisdom who is Christ. For Christ is God power and God wisdom. This is not unveiled from flesh and blood, but from the heavenly Father. Whoever also knows the science of the divine oracles — of the Law and the prophets, of the Gospels and the apostles — knows wisdom.

He sets the foundation on the rock, that is on faith in Christ, so that it can hold against rains and winds and spirits — against temptations from whatever quarter. And if Luke says he praised the steward of injustice, he stretched the word, taking the praise for shrewdness and for sharpness of mind. That seems to show also in the serpent was shrewdest of all the beasts, and in the saying be shrewd as serpents — as if not inexperienced in the serpent tricks.

He will also understand a parable and a dark saying, sayings of the wise and riddles. Let us see how these differ. First, what is a parable, from the Gospel materials we have? Others used the name, and Matthew writes: On that day Jesus went out of the house, sat beside the sea, and the whole crowd stood on the shore, and he spoke many things to them in parables: Look, a sower went out to sow. A parable, then, is speech as about something that happened, which did not happen according to the letter yet could happen, and which points figuratively to realities by transferring what the parable says. For the sower went out did not happen as history happens; yet it could happen according to the letter.

I think that when Jesus speaks in parables to those outside — to whom, being outside, it was not given to know the mysteries of God kingdom — he has gone out of the house, as Matthew reports, and not without reason when he writes that on that day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Toward those who could not enter the house but stood outside it, it was fitting that he go out. That Matthew intends this is clear from what follows: leaving the crowds, he entered his house and opens the parable to the disciples. Watch how he speaks to the crowds in parables and says nothing to them without a parable — as he still does, for crowds cannot take an interpretation of parables. Attend also to Leaving the crowds, he entered his own house,

2…very wisely written, because the crowds could not come to him, but only those who separated themselves from the crowds — his disciples — who could speak freely enough to enter Jesus e, not as people outside but able to be inside, they come to the teacher and ask to learn the inner sense of the parables. Because they could follow him as he went into the house, he answered Explain the parable to us with what he said.

Jesus does not only leave his house so that, standing outside, he may speak parables to those outside; he also sits beside the sea, hinting that the crowds and the outsiders are not far from the sea waves and its salt water. Watch this: many crowds gathered to Jesus who had left the house and sat by the sea; yet it is no longer many crowds, but the few who travel the narrow, hard road and find the way that leads to life — disciples — who enter to him into the house.

Testing what fits a gospel word as far as I can, and Jesus purpose when he stepped into the boat and spoke in parables to the whole crowd on the shore, I say: perhaps the Word, not having planted a foot and not standing, but being in sea water, speaks as he is carried on what can, as far as possible, stand on water — and that is called a boat. Do not be surprised if such thoughts are brought in with more beauty, so that the outsider and the crowd will not think there is no hidden mind at all, dense and elegant, stored for the gospel disposition; for that too was a work of the grace that manages God Word.

I also try to hear more deeply: The disciples came and said, Why do you speak to them in parables? and Leaving the crowds he came into his house; and his disciples came saying, Explain the parable to us. Crowds who hear a parable never even pause over it as needing explanation. Disciples see that he speaks in parables to crowds because they are outside; they follow Jesus as he leaves the crowds; they see they can learn the parables nowhere else than by entering Jesus house; so they enter, come to him, and say, Explain to us the parable we want to learn. That is the parable.

Next is the dark saying. In the Scriptures some things are said so deliberately dark that no one can catch even a casual sense in them without much hard examination — muddled in phrasing, in thought, and in how the wording is put together. I take that to be what a book calls a dark saying. An example from the Psalms, from Psalm 32: Because I was silent, my bones grew old, and what follows. Of ordinary thought you can grasp the letter, as we will show; of a dark saying, not even that. Compare Isaiah: Woe, wings of a land of ships beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, sending hostages by sea and papyrus letters on the water. Clarifying each of these and lighting its darkness by interpretation is not for this moment, lest we digress too far. It is enough to clarify the psalm saying somehow. As long as I cried out hymning God and spoke of God all day, nothing in me grew old; I was being made new. But when I fell idle from theology and was silent, oldness sank as far as my bones and what seemed firmest in me. Then followed Your hand heavy on me night and day, and so from earlier oversight your weighted hand was turned into my misery. I deserved it: a thorn was fixed in me when cares, or wealth, or life pleasures held me. That the prophet meant this is clear from what follows: I made known my sin, and so on. After that we can ask what the sayings of the wise are, then what riddles are — sayings of which wise men the hearer becomes wiser than himself. Are they only of the wise according to God and

3…his truth — or not of these alone, but also of those whose craftiness God will seize? For the word has named those people wise too. Why should the hearer understand the sayings of the blessed wise, yet not stretch to the words of the other wise, and have a mind smaller than the mind of this world wise, unable to follow what they say?

Is it not as with the eye, whose work is not only to see what is in order but also what is otherwise — or as craft wishes in such cases — so also with the mind: its work is to contemplate both thoughts that hit and thoughts that miss, so that it is not caught by the persuasiveness in falsehoods, and so that it can rescue those who are caught, if it also understands the sayings of the other wise wherever they play at wisdom, how they reason falsely, how the sophism is loosed, and how the false reasoning is exposed. That is how, through his own wise, God threatens to set aside wisdom that deserves to perish because of falsehood, and the deceptive understanding of those not intelligent according to him, and so through his own he will seize the craftiness of this age wise.

At once: if the Lord disciples did not understand the sayings of worldly wise people, how did they campaign to cast down strongholds, casting down reasonings and every height that lifts itself against the knowledge of God? And how could anyone keep Peter word perfectly — Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a word about the hope in you — without full preparation in speech, so as to be ready to defend that hope before every Greek and barbarian, every wise and senseless person, by understanding wise sayings, accusing some, overturning others, and establishing and proving these? Do not wonder if the one truly wise according to God is hard to find now; most of the exceptional gifts have failed, so they appear either not at all or rarely.

It remains to say what riddles are. I take a riddle to be an extended account about things as if they happened that did not happen and cannot happen, yet that signify something unspeakable in hiddenness. Sample from Judges: The trees went to anoint a king over themselves. Which three fruit trees — fig, vine, olive — refused to reign over trees unworthy of their kingship, and what is the thorny bramble that sends fire from itself to eat Lebanon cedars — the wise person sees, referring these to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the bramble to the opposing one. In Kingdoms there is such a riddle too: The thorn in Lebanon sent to the Cedar in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son as wife, and what follows. In the prophets you also find riddles, as in Ezekiel: The great eagle, long-winged, long in stretch, full of feathers, and what follows.

So much we could hold for now toward what is before us: parable and dark saying, sayings of the wise and riddles. A parable is speech as about something that happened which did not happen according to the letter yet could happen, pointing figuratively to riddles — as The sower went out to sow, which did not happen by the wording even if it is led up into other things. And how does Open my mouth in parables fit? What he added did happen: Before their fathers he did wonders. According to the letter he split a sea and led them through; all of it happened, even if those events are symbols of the modes of gospel parables. Someone else will say Open my mouth in parables is not aimed at Exodus but at Christ parables in the Gospel, as he speaks in the prophet: Attend, my people, to my law, and what follows.

A crown of graces: the circuit of the virtues, because they are bound to one another. A golden collar about your neck: he calls the golden collar the surrounding radiance and circular gleam of the divine oracles, and he calls the neck the mind. Let us lift his memory from earth. Those who said This is the heir; come, let us kill him so the inheritance may be ours would also say this. Cast your lot among us: leave that way of life, be with us, keep sabbath with us, keep the unleavened rites with us, and the other law observances. For they themselves share in the murder.

4…leave that way of life, be with us, keep sabbath with us, keep the unleavened rites with us, and the other law observances. For they themselves share in the murder. God gives good things; we are causes of evils — of things that harm. You would also say this of the Jews who shared in blood, both of the prophets and of Christ himself. These are the roads of all who complete lawless deeds. To complete, I think, is not merely to do something, but to fill the measure of their fathers, and to be liable for every blood from Abel to Zechariah.

Wisdom is hymned in goings-out. Kept silent by a wise man, it is not hymned; once it obtains a going-out, it is hymned. For there will be a time when you call upon me. As Lord we call upon the wisdom that is Christ. So whoever calls upon Christ, if he understands who he is, calls upon wisdom, understanding, sanctification, righteousness, and every virtue — if not with lips, then with practices. But let us not become the sort who call, only for him not to listen.

Chapter 2: If, receiving a saying of my commandment, you hide it with yourself. Someone hides it not for empty glory, but eager to escape notice. Then you will understand fear of the Lord. See after how many steps we will understand that fear; it too is unclear, as simpler people show: some fear the Lord where they need not, and do not fear where they ought. And give your voice to understanding. Each person gives his voice to something — to anger speaking its lines, or to grief, or to sexual immorality. The blessed one dedicates his whole voice to the Lord, so that whatever he speaks may be wisdom. As another seeks silver, seek wisdom that way, becoming a lover of silver in this. Let a bad counsel not overtake you. Those alien to the Church promise one thing at the start and another at the end: first they pull people from idolatry toward the Creator; then they change and set aside the Old Scripture, opposing elemental youth. With church teachers the ends agree with the first elements.

Chapter 3: Let your heart keep my words. After the commands and bans of God law, the words of God wisdom announce unlying knowledge of the things that are. Such also is Out of Zion will go the law, and a word of the Lord out of Jerusalem. Whoever keeps the laws will take up wisdom. Sow for yourselves righteousness; harvest into a time of life. Then next to the practical comes: Light for yourselves a light of knowledge. Provide good things before the Lord and humans. If you do what you practice in wisdom, you will be a son of God, as it says: You made all things in wisdom. Honor the Lord from your just labors. Divine Scripture customarily takes honor for a gift: Honor widows, the true widows means Share, so as not to humble the widow by refusing to say alms. The Savior also says: It is written in the law: Honor your father and your mother, and what follows. He said from just labors so it would not be from seizure and greed. Let no one hesitate to give; after the Gospel widow who threw her whole living and was justified — not beside those who threw from seizure, but beside those who threw from surplus — no one has a defense. Everything is a gift toward God: works of temperance and the other virtues. Give firstfruits from every offspring to Church and poor; rising from sleep give prayer as firstfruit to God; give a firstfruit of words — psalms. Then it will be said to you: Blessed are your storehouses and your leftovers — meaning the things of the soul.

God founded earth by wisdom. The faithful soul too is earth, bearing fruit a hundredfold. From that richness, which is wisdom, she becomes wise, as God founds her upon it. He seats the introduction of teaching for her, fixing it from wisdom, and as she always advances he works her into a heaven — a most pure creature, a dwelling of angels and thinking essences. Taking perception of what is, and contemplating the exactness of affairs, she begins to divide and cut them through. Chapter 5: Make your road far from her. He calls road the mind traveling on virtue; or he also commands to separate virtue from vice. And a woman of men hunts precious souls

5She hunts. And the soul hunted by a woman is precious by nature, for it is not earthy by nature. Or again: since the mindset and soul of the brave are precious, she still hunts even these.

Chapter 8: “I was the one in whom he rejoiced.” Said of God, “I was” does not mark time. It is temporal when it points to something under time, as in “I was in the marketplace.” But if she was with God in a way that fits the One without beginning, she herself is everlasting.

Chapter 10: “She enriches.” If everyone the Lord blesses is rich, and those who walk in the Lord’s law are blessed by the Lord, and the prophets walked in the Lord’s law, then those prophets were rich. “In laughter a fool does evil”: while he does evil he takes pleasure and rejoices. Wisdom, by contrast, bears understanding for a man—practical virtue.

Chapter 11: “Whoever does not go about with his own house will inherit winds.” Our house is God, in whom we move and are. So the one who does not walk in God’s commandments will share inheritance with the opposing powers. “From the fruit of righteousness a tree of life grows.” The fruit of righteousness is virtue’s end. A person has as many trees of life as fruits of righteousness. This is the tree of life planted in the middle of paradise, which Adam is barred from touching after the sin, having thrown away the seeds of righteousness from which that tree grows.

Chapter 12: “He will be a friend to himself.” Origen does not mention this line at all; it was found in

6…in certain manuscript copies; for it stands neither in the Seventy nor in the others.

Chapter 16: “A king’s wrath is a messenger of death, but a wise man will propitiate him”—if the holy one is free of passion; or else the wrath must be read allegorically.

Chapter 25: “But in the places of the ungodly people are caught.” Their places are also the gatherings of the heretics.

Chapter 30: “Three things are impossible for me to understand.” For someone being led into scientific grasp, a theorem can be impossible; for a human it is impossible to contemplate and know what is beyond the human—say, the healing of the crab, even if angels know it; and it is impossible for anyone to understand what in no way exists and cannot come to be, for example that three is four. So the saying seems to concern things that do not exist. When an eagle leaves no tracks while flying through the air—unlike the tracks left in sandy ground by those who step on it—those tracks cannot be grasped; so also with a snake: on yielding earth paths can be known, but not on rock. “And the paths of a ship going through the sea.” Perhaps here the ship should be called Jesus and his disciples, and sometimes them alone—not sea-going, for at once the boat was at the land toward which they were going, by divine power. But a ship that does not carry Jesus

7…goes through the sea, and does so always, thrown off balance by opposing winds. And since life’s affairs are vanity—people always at sea, and no one advancing into eternal life—their paths cannot be grasped. So of the famous kings of the earth, or rulers too, no work foreign to piety is left after death; their glory has gone out.

He also says the ways of a man during youth are not recognized, inflamed by desires because manners are unstable; and of the adulteress likewise, because of shamelessness. Or this is the Church of the nations, which after washing through baptism says she has done nothing out of place. The righteous one is not “in youth,” since, perfected in a little, he filled long times. Such also is every adulterous woman—or a soul that alienated herself from the bridegroom, left her husband, and went after lovers.

“And she marches out from one command in good order.” The locust too is praised as orderly, obeying the command of God’s Word. Such is the Church: despised by people and compared to a locust as to living on the earth; yet because she gathers with Jesus

8…and not scattering, but putting on the full armor of God so as to stand against the devil’s schemes, camping in good order from one command. She is without a king under Pharaoh, but not under God, and the labors of the Egyptians are handed over to her. Perhaps because we were not under a king before Christ’s kingship, the locust is called kingless. They have no leader as bees do; each one leads. These are those lightened by choice from earthly things, walking an ordered life. Or locusts are also those who want to fly by intellect yet cannot, and so climb only a little from the earth. But if they share in the practical life, they will be led into one practical rank.

“And a he-goat leading a flock of goats.” Third is the he-goat—according to the Seventy alone—leading a goat flock, increasing and multiplying it and guiding it to pastures on the heights. No herd of animals climbs the high places like this. Such is the one who leads Christ’s people in the goat flock, raising them toward height. Otherwise the he-goat types Christ, offered for sin. To this one who is on high the whole multitude of the godly follows.