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.
35. Scriptural References to Death.
But since here it is written in the three Evangelists, “They shall not taste of death,”623 Matt. xvi. 28; Mark ix. 1; Luke ix. 27. but in other writers different things are written concerning death, it may not be out of place to bring forward and examine these passages along with the “taste.” In the Psalms, then, it is said, “What man is he that shall live and not see death?”624 Ps. lxxxix. 48. And again, in another place, “Let death come upon them and let them go down into Hades alive;”625 Ps. lv. 18. but in one of the prophets, “Death becoming mighty has swallowed them up;”626 Isa. xxv. 8. and in the Apocalypse, “Death and Hades follow some.”627 Rev. vi. 10. Now in these passages it appears to me that it is one thing to taste of death, but another thing to see death, and another thing for it to come upon some, and that a fourth thing, different from the aforesaid, is signified by the words, “Death becoming mighty has swallowed them up,” and a fifth thing, different from these, by the words, Death and Hades follow them.” And if you were to collect them, you would perhaps find also other differences than those which we have mentioned, by a comparison of which with one another and right investigation, you would find the things signified in each place. But here I inquire whether it is a less evil to see death, but a greater evil than seeing to taste of it, but still worse than this that death should follow any one, and not only follow him, but also now come upon him and seize him whom it formerly followed; but to be swallowed up seems to be more grievous than all the things spoken of. But giving heed to what is said, and to the differences of sins committed, you will not I think, be slow to admit that things of this kind were intended by the Spirit who caused these things to be written in the oracles of God. But, if it be necessary to give an exposition clearer than what has been said of what is signified by seeing the Son of man coming in His own kingdom, or in His own glory, and what is signified by seeing the kingdom of God come with power, these things—whether those that are made to shine in our hearts, or that are found by those who seek, or that enter gradually into our thoughts,—let each one judge as he wills—we will set forth. He who beholds and apprehends the excellency of the Word, as he breaks down and refutes all the plausible forms of things which are truly lies but profess to be truths, sees the Son of man, (according to the word of John, “the Word of God,”) coming in His own kingdom; but if such an one were to behold the Word, not only breaking down plausible oppositions, but also representing His own truths with perfect clearness, he would behold His glory in addition to His kingdom. And such an one indeed would see in Him the kingdom of God come with power; and he would see this, as one who is no longer now under the reign of “sin which reigns in the mortal body of those who sin,”628 Rom. vi. 12. but is ever under the orders of the king, who is God of all, whose kingdom is indeed potentially “within us,”629 Luke xvii. 21. but actually, and, as Mark has called it, “with power,” and not at all in weakness within the perfect alone. These things, then, Jesus promised to the disciples who were standing, prophesying not about all of them, but about some.