Origen of Alexandria: Commentary on Proverbs (Part Two)

Fragments from the Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon

Origen of Alexandria

(185-283)

Part Two

For Part One, see here.  For selections from the Septuagint version of Proverbs, see here.  The source for this selection is PG 13:25D-33D.

Crown of graces (Prv 1:9): the enclosure[1] of the virtues, through which they are bound to each other.

Golden collar around your neck (Prv 1:9): he calls the surrounding splendor and circular blaze of the divine words “golden collar.”   And he calls the mind “neck.”

We will remove his memory from the earth (Prv 1:12): for those who say these things are also those saying: This is the heir; come, let us slay him, so that the inheritance will become ours (Mt 21:38).

And cast your lot among yourselves[2] (Prv 1:14): leaving that society, be among yourselves, make the Sabbath among yourselves, prepare the unleavened bread among yourselves, and may you keep the other parts of the law.

For they are partakers of slaughter (Prv 1:18): for God is the giver of goods, but we are the causes of evils, that is, of harmful things.  And you can also say these things about those partaking in the blood of the Jews, of the prophets, and of Christ Himself.

Wisdom hymns in the exit-ways (Prv 1:20): being made silent by a wise man, she does not hymn; but, having an exit, she hymns.

For it shall be, when you call upon me (Prv 1:28): for thus we call upon the Lord, Christ being wisdom.  Thus the one calling upon Christ, if he knows who He is, calls upon wisdom, understanding, holiness, righteousness, and every virtue, and if not with lips, then with deeds.  But let us not become such a kind of person that He will not listen when we call upon Him.

If, having received the saying of my commandment, you hide it with yourself (Prv 2:1): for someone hides it, not doing this for empty glory, but being eager to be overlooked.

Then you will understand fear of the Lord (Prv 2:5): see, then, after how much we will understand fear of the Lord; for it is also obscure, as is made clear by the simpler ones; for some are to be seen fearing the Lord among those who ought not, and some not fearing, among those who ought.

And give your voice to understanding (Prv 2:3): for each gives his own voice to something, be it to wrath, when he speaks of it, or to sorrow, or to sexual immorality.  But the blessed dedicates all his voice to the Lord, so that what he speaks is wisdom.  And as another seeks silver, so should you seek wisdom, being, as it were, silver-loving[3] in this.

Let evil council not seize you (Prv 2:17): those outside the Church have proclaimed one thing at the beginning, another at the end; for, at the beginning, they desert idolatry and approach the Maker, then, being changed, they reject the Old Scripture, opposing it to elementary newness.[4]  But for ecclesiastical teachers, the ends are in symphony with the elements in the beginning.

And let your heart guard my sayings (Prv 3:1): after the precepts and prohibitions of the law of God, the sayings of the wisdom of God announce the unfalse knowledge of the things that are.  Such is the Out of Sion the law will go forth, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem (Is 2:3).  For the one keeping the laws will acquire wisdom.  For sow, it says, righteousness among yourselves; you will gather at the season of life (Hos 10:12).  Then, after the action, it adds: Light in yourselves the light of knowledge (Hos 10:12).[5]

Provide for good things before the Lord and men (Prv 3:4): if you do what is done in wisdom, you will be a son of God, as is said: You have done all in wisdom (Ps 104:24).

Honor the Lord from your righteous labors (Prv 3:9): the godly Scripture usually uses the name “honor” for “gift”; for it says, Honor widows, those who are truly widows (1 Tim 5:3), instead of “Give,” not saying “almsgiving,” lest it humiliate the widow.  And the Savior, too, says: It is written in the law: “Honor your father and your mother” (Mt 19:9), and the rest.  For it says from righteous labors, lest it be from robbery and greed.  And let no one shrink from giving: for he has no defense after the widow in the holy Gospel tossed in all of her life, and was justified, not above those tossing in the proceeds of robbery, but above those tossing in the proceeds of excess (Lk 21:1-14).  For all giving to God is a work of sober-mindedness and the other virtues.  For it is necessary, too, to give first-fruits from all produce to the Church and to the poor, and, too, from the appointed sleep, to give first-fruits of prayer to God, and it is fitting to give the first-fruits of words: psalms.  For thus it has been said to you, And blessed your storehouses and your remnants (Dt 28:5)—and he speaks of the things of the soul.

God founded the earth by wisdom (Prv 3:19): but the faithful soul is also earth, bearing fruit a hundred-fold.  For she becomes wise from fatness, which is wisdom, founding herself upon that wisdom of God.  For she establishes the entrance of teaching upon it, forming the fastness with wisdom, and she ever completes the prepared heaven, purest creation, dwelling-place of angels and holy minds.  Receiving the sense of what is, and understanding the exactness of things, she begins to divide and dissect them.

Make your way far from her (Prv 5:8): he calls “way” the mind making its way to virtue, and he commands that virtue separate from evil.

For woman catches the precious souls of men (Prv 6:26): and the soul caught by woman is precious by nature; for it is not earthy by nature.  Or, since the mind and the soul of the manly[6] are precious, she likewise catches these.

I was that in which He rejoiced (Prv 8:30): the “I was” does not indicate “time” in regards to God; for it is timely when it indicates something subject to time, like “I was in the agora.”  For if she was harmonizing (Prv 8:30) with the beginning-less God, she, too, is eternal.

It enriches (Prv 10:22): if everyone blessed by the Lord is rich, and those walking in the law of the Lord are blessed by the Lord, and the prophets walked in the law of the Lord, therefore, they were rich.

In laughter the senseless does evil things (Prv 10:23): doing evil things, he takes pleasure and rejoices.  But wisdom in a man gives birth to sense (Prv 10:23), practical virtue.

The one not conversing with his own house will inherit winds[7] (Prv 11:29): our house is God, in Whom we move and are (Acts 17:28).  Therefore, the one not walking in the commandments of God will be a co-heir with the opposing powers.

From the fruit of righteousness grows the tree of life (Prv 11:30): the fruit of righteousness is the end of virtue.  One has as many trees of life as he has fruits of righteousness.  This tree of life is the one that grew in the midst of paradise, which Adam was forbidden to touch after sin, tossing away the seeds of righteousness, from which grows the tree of life. 

The wrath of the king is the angel[8] of death; but the wise man will calm him (Prv 16:14): since the holy one is passionless, or the wrath allegorical.

But in the places of the impious, men are captured (Prv 28:12): for their places are also the gatherings of heretics.

And three things are impossible for me to understand (Prv 30:18): impossible is it for the beginner to bring this proposition to knowledgeable thought,[9] and impossible is it for man to contemplate and understand the things beyond man, due to care for the fleshy, even if angels stand before him; impossible is it for someone to understand, too, what has never happened, nor could happen, such as, that three would be four.  Therefore, this seems said about things which are not.  For not losing track of the eagle’s trail in flying around the air, analogous to those losing track of the trails, in the sandy earth, of those who walked upon it, is impossible to understand; so, also, with a serpent: in soft earth, it is possible to see the paths, but not on the rock (Prv 30:19).

And the paths of the seafaring ship (Prv 30:19): and perhaps “ship,” in these words, is said of Jesus and His disciples, and perhaps of them alone; not seafaring: for Immediately the ship was on the land, to which they were going (Jn 6:21), by godly power.  For the ship not bearing Jesus is searfaring, and this is always shaken about by opposing spirits.  And since the things of life are vanity, always seafaring, and no one among men is approaching eternal life, their paths cannot be understood.  Therefore, no foreign work of piety is left by the glorious kings or princes of the earth after death.  For quenched was their glory.  For also unknown, it says, are the ways of man in youth (Prv 30:19), burning with desires due to unstable manners, and those of the adulterous woman (Prv 30:20), likewise, due to shamelessness.  For this is the Church of the nations,[10] which, after being washed through Baptism, says that it has done nothing untoward.  But the righteous one is not in youth, since having been perfected in a few, he fulfilled long times (Wis 4:13).  Such, also, is every adulterous woman, who is estranging herself from the bridegroom, and a soul abandoning her man, and going after lovers.

And it marched out,[11] in good order, at the first command (Prv 30:27): and the locust is praised as “good-ordered,” having trusted in the command of God’s words.  Such a one is the Church: through looking down upon men, she is compared to the locust, how it looks down at living upon earth; and through going along after Jesus and not being scattered, but putting on the armor of God, so that she would resist the methods of the devil (Eph 6:11), the Church is marching forth in good order at the first command; and she is unruled[12] by Pharaoh, but not by God, and the labors of the Egyptians are handed over to her.[13]  Similarly, then, to our not being ruled in opposition to Christ’s rule, unruled is the locust.  For it has no leader, like the bees, but each leads.  These are the resolutions lifting us up from earthly things, leading to ordered life.  And the locusts, whosoever want to fly by their own minds, being unable, run a little along the ground.  But if they share in the act, they are brought together into one active order.

And the he-goat leading the herd (Prv 30:31): in three ways[14] the he-goat is interpreted, according only to the phrase leading the herd: growing and fulfilling it and leading it to the pastures in the heights.  For no herd of animals thus comes up to the heights.  Such is the one leading Christ’s flock, bringing them, in a herd, to the height.  In another way, the he-goat is a type of Christ, being offered for sins.  The whole throng of the pious follow Him, being in the height.  

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[1] Περιοχη means generally refers to the boundaries separating off a portion of something; it can mean “circumference,” “compass” or “extent,” “inclusion,” as well as a “fence” or “fortification.”  It can even refer to a section of a book.

[2] The common Septuagint text instead reads “us” (ημιν) instead of Origen’s “you” or “yourselves” (υμιν); in Greek, these two words are only one letter different, and, in some pronunciations, they sound identical.

[3] This is the literal meaning of the word (φιλαργυρος), typically translated as “greedy.”

[4] Probably a reference to the Marcionites, who rejected the Old Testament as depicting an evil creator god, and instead proclaimed the God of the New Testament alone (though their New Testament only include a shorter version of Luke and ten of St. Paul’s epistles).  They called the god of the Old Testament “the Maker” (Δημιουργος), the same word Origen uses earlier in this sentence. 

[5] This is the Septuagint’s phrase; most modern translations, based on the Masoretic Text, are different: “break up your fallow ground” (RSV-CE).

[6] This is the literal meaning of ανδρειων; the concept of ανδρεια, “manliness,” looms large in the Fathers, connoting courage, fortitude, resistance to temptation, strength in asceticism.  It was not solely the domain of men, either: St. Gregory of Nyssa praises his sister Macrina for becoming “manly” in virtue, so much so that “I do not know if it is proper to call her ‘woman’ after her nature, she who became above her nature” (Life of Saint Macrina, PG 46:960B).

[7] In the main Septuagint text, this is the singular “wind,” not plural “winds.”

[8] Or, “messenger.”

[9] This phrase (αδυνατον εις νοησιν επιστημονικην εισαγομενω θεωρημα) is unclear in meaning.  Θεωρημα means a “sight,” or an “object of contemplation,” or a “speculative proposition”; επιστημονικος means “capable of knowledge” or “scientific.”  The Latin translation included in the Patrologia Graeca renders it this way: “for the one who is first introduced, it is impossible to so understand this proposition that he would have knowledge [scientiam] of it.” 

[10] That is, the Gentiles.

[11] The main Septuagint text has “it wages war” (στρατευει) instead of “it marched out” (εκστρατευει).

[12] This is from the first part of cited verse: “Unruled is the locust, and it marches out, in good order, at the first command” (Prv 30:27).

[13] Probably a reference to the despoiling of the Egyptians’ jewelry by the departing Israelites (Ex 12:35-36).  In his Letter to Gregory Thaumaturgos §2, Origen famously used this passage as an allegory of how Christians can use the riches of pagan philosophy and literature, thus “despoiling them.”  See the English translation here.

[14] The three interpretations appear to be 1) the he-goat actively leads the herd to the heights, to which they wouldn’t go on their own; 2) the he-goat is sacrificed (on the height?), like Christ; 3) the he-goat is on the height, and the herd spontaneously goes up to him.

Translation ©2023 Brandon P. Otto.  Licensed via CC BY-NC.  Feel free to redistribute non-commercially, as long as credit is given to the translator.