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Origen of Alexandria, Origen's Commentary on Matthew
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Origen's Commentary on Matthew.
From the First Book of the Commentary on Matthew.
From the Second Book of the Commentary on the Gospel According to Matthew.
3. The Shining of the Righteous. Its Interpretation.
5. The Field and the Treasure Interpreted.
7. The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price. The Formation and Difference of Pearls.
8. The Parable Interpreted is the Light of These Views.
9. Christ the Pearl of Great Price.
10. The Pearl of the Gospel in Relation to the Old Testament.
11. The Parable of the Drag-Net.
12. The Divine Scriptures Compared to a Net.
13. Relation of Men to Angels.
15. The Householder and His Treasury.
16. Parables in Relation to Similitudes. Jesus in His Own Country.
18. Prophets in Their Country.
19. Relation of Faith and Unbelief to the Supernatural Powers of Jesus.
20. Different Conceptions of John the Baptist.
22. The Dancing of Herodias. The Keeping of Oaths.
24. The Diverse Forms of Spiritual Sickness.
25. Healing Precedes Participation in the Loaves of Jesus.
2. Exposition of the Details of the Miracle.
3. The Exposition of Details Continued. The Sitting Down on the Grass. The Division into Companies.
4. The Multitudes and the Disciples Contrasted.
5. The Disciples in Conflict. Jesus Walks Upon the Waters.
6. Interpretation of the Details in the Narrative. Application Thereof to All Disciples.
7. The Healing of the Sick on the Other Side. The Method of Healing.
10. The Traditions of the Elders in Collision with Divine Law.
11. Exposition of the Prophecy of Isaiah Quoted by Jesus.
12. Things Clean and Unclean According to the Law and the Gospel.
13. The Offence of the Pharisees.
14. Why the Pharisees Were Not a Plant of God. Teaching of Origen on the “Bread of the Lord.”
15. Eating with Unwashed Heart Defiles the Man.
16. Concerning the Canaanitish Woman. Meaning of the “Borders of Tyre and Sidon.”
17. Exposition of the Details in the Narrative.
2. Why the Pharisees Asked a Sign from Heaven.
3. The Answer of Jesus to Their Request.
4. Why Jesus Called Them an Adulterous Generation. The Law as Husband.
5. Concerning the Leaven of the Pharisees.
6. The Meaning of Leaven. Jesus’ Knowledge of the Heart.
7. Relative Magnitude of Sins of the Heart and Actual Sins.
8. The Leaven Figurative Like the Water Spoken of by Jesus to the Woman of Samaria.
11. The Promise Given to Peter Not Restricted to Him, But Applicable to All Disciples Like Him.
12. Every Sin—Every False Doctrine is a “Gate of Hades.”
13. The “Gates of Hades” And the “Gates of Zion” Contrasted.
14. In What Sense the “Keys” Are Given to Peter, and Every Peter. Limitations of This Power.
16. Gradual Growth in Knowledge of the Disciples.
17. Reasons for that Gradual Knowledge.
18. Jesus Was at First Proclaimed by the Twelve as a Worker and a Teacher Only.
19. Importance of the Proclamation of Jesus as the Crucified.
20. Why Jesus Had to Go to Jerusalem.
21. The Rebuke of Peter and the Answer of Jesus.
22. Importance of the Expressions “Behind” And “Turned.”
23. Peter as a Stumbling-Block to Jesus.
24. Self-Denial and Cross-Bearing.
25. Reference to the Saying of Paul About Crucifixion with Christ.
26. The Less of Life And the Saving of It.
27. Life Lost to the World is Saved.
28. The Exchange for One’s Life.
29. The Coming of the Son of Man in Glory.
30. The Word Appears in Different Forms The Time of His Coming in Glory.
31. The Simpler Interpretation of the Promise About Not Tasting of Death.
33. Interpretation of “Tasting of Death.”
34. Meaning of “Until.” No Limitation of Promise.
35. Scriptural References to Death.
36. Concerning the Transfiguration of the Saviour.
37. Force of the Words “Before Them.”
38. The Garments White as the Light.
39. Jesus Was Transfigured—“As He Was Praying.”
40. Discussion of the Saying of Peter.
41. Figurative Interpretation of the Same.
42. The Meaning of the “Bright Cloud.”
43. Relation of Moses and Elijah to Jesus. The Injunction of Silence.
2. “The Spirit and Power of Elijah”—Not the Soul—Were in the Baptist.
6. Influence of the Moon and Stars on Men.
8. Jesus’ Prediction of His “Delivery” Into the Hands of Men.
9. Satan and the “Delivery” Of Jesus.
10. Concerning Those Who Demanded the Half-Shekel.
15. Greatness Varies in Degree.
16. Why the Great are Compared to Little Children.
17. The Little Ones and Their Stumbling-Blocks.
18. Who Was the Little Child Called by Jesus.
19. The Parallel Passages in Mark and Luke.
20. The World and Offences. Various Meanings of World.
21. The “Woe” Does Not Apply to the Disciples of Jesus.
22. What the “Occasions of Stumbling” Are.
23. In What Sense “Necessary.”
24. The Offending Hand, or Foot, or Eye.
25. The Eye or Hand Allegorized.
26. The Little Ones and Their Angels.
27. When the Little Ones are Assigned to Angels.
28. Close Relationship of Angels to Their “Little Ones.”
29. The Little Ones and the Perfect.
31. The Power to Bind on Earth and in Heaven.
2. The Harmony of Husband and Wife.
3. The Harmony of Body, Soul, and Spirit.
4. Harmony of the Old and New Covenants.
7. Exposition Continued: the King and the Servants.
8. The Principle of the Reckoning.
9. The Time Occupied by the Reckoning.
10. The Man Who Owed Many Talents.
11. The Servant Who Owed a Hundred Pence.
12. The Time of the Reckoning.
13. No Forgiveness to the Unforgiving.
14. How Jesus Finished His Words.
17. Union of Christ and the Church.
21. Union of Angels and the Souls of Men.
22. The Marriage of Church Dignitaries.
23. Some Laws Given by Concession to Human Weakness.
23. Peter as a Stumbling-Block to Jesus.
Next we must inquire how He said to Peter, “Thou art a stumbling-block unto Me,”560 Matt. xvi. 23. especially when David says, “Great peace have they that love Thy law, and there is no stumbling-block to them.”561 Ps. cxix. 165. For some one will say, if this is said in the prophet, because of the steadfastness of those who have love, and are incapable of being offended, for “love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, love never faileth,”562 1 Cor. xiii. 7, 8. how did the Lord Himself, “who upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all that be bowed down,”563 Ps. cxlv. 14. say to Peter, “Thou art a stumbling-block unto Me”? But it must be said that not only the Saviour, but also he who is perfected in love, cannot be offended. But, so far as it depends on himself, he who says or does such things is a stumbling-block even to him who will not be offended; unless perhaps Jesus calls the disciple who sinned a stumbling-block even to Himself, as much more than Paul He would have said from love, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I burn not?”564 2 Cor. xi. 29. In harmony with which we may put, “Who is made to stumble, and I am not made to stumble?” But if Peter, at that time because of the saying, “God be propitious to Thee, Lord, this shall not be unto Thee,”565 Matt. xvi. 22. was called a stumbling-block by Jesus, as not minding the things of God in what he said but the things of men, what is to be said about all those who profess to be made disciples of Jesus, but do not mind the things of God, and do not look to things unseen and eternal, but mind the things of man, and look to things seen and temporal,566 2 Cor. iv. 18. but that such still more would be stigmatized by Jesus as a stumbling-block to Him, and because stumbling-blocks to Him, as stumbling-blocks to His brethren also? As in regard to them He says, “I was thirsty and ye gave Me no drink,”567 Matt. xxv. 42. etc., so also He might say, “When I was running ye caused Me to stumble.” Let us not therefore suppose that it is a trivial sin to mind the things of men, since we ought in everything to mind the things of God. And it will be appropriate also to say this to every one that has fallen away from the doctrines of God and the words of the church and a true mind; as, for example, to him who minds as true the teaching of Basilides, or Valentinus, or Marcion, or any one of those who teach the things of men as the things of God.