Are these words going to be regarded as simply the words of one mere woman giving thanks for the birth of her son? Are people’s minds so turned away from the light of truth that they do not feel that the words poured out by this woman transcend the limit of her own thoughts? Surely, anyone who is appropriately moved by the events whose fulfillment has already begun, even in this earthly pilgrimage, must listen to these words and observe and recognize that through this woman (whose very name, Hannah, means God’s grace^[1]), there speaks, by the spirit of prophecy, the Christian religion itself, the City of God itself, whose king and founder is Christ. There speaks, in fact, the grace of God itself, from which the proud are estranged so that they fall, with which the humble are filled so that they rise up, which was in fact the chief theme that rang out in her hymn of praise. Now it may be that someone will be ready to say that the woman didn’t utter a prophecy but merely praised God in an outburst of exultation for the son who was granted in answer to her prayer. If so, what is the meaning of this passage, He has made weak the bow of the mighty ones, and the weak have girded themselves with strength. Those who were full of bread have been reduced to want, and the hungry have passed over the earth. Because the barren woman has given birth to seven, while she who has many children has become weak. Had Hannah herself really borne seven children, although she was barren? She had only one son when she spoke these words; and even afterwards she did not give birth to seven, or to six, which would have made Samuel the seventh. She had in fact three male and two female children. And then observe her concluding words, spoken among that people at a time when no one had yet been king over them: He gives strength to our kings and will exalt the horn of his anointed. How is it that she said this, if she was not uttering a prophecy?

Therefore, let the church of Christ speak, the city of the great king,^[2] the church that is full of grace,^[3] fruitful in children. Let it speak the words that it recognizes as spoken prophetically about itself, so long ago, by the lips of this devout mother, My heart is strengthened in the Lord; my horn is exalted in my God. Her heart is truly strengthened and her horn truly exalted, because it is in the Lord her God, not in herself, that she finds strength and exaltation.

What is the meaning of my horn? Scripture frequently employs this phrase, remember, as when it says, His horn was exalted and The horn of his anointed was exalted.^[1] So what on earth does horn mean? Force, glory, prominence, using a metaphor from the brute beasts: God implanted in them only the horn by way of glory and weaponry, and if they lose it, they lose most of their force; and like a soldier without weapons a bull without horns is also easily disposed of. So by this the woman means nothing other than this, my glory is exalted. How is it exalted? In my God, she says. Hence the exaltation is also secure, having a firm and permanent root: while glory from human beings corresponds to the baseness of those glorifying, and so is very liable to disappear, God’s glory is not like that, remaining forever permanent.

Be holy, for I also am holy.^[1] But however much one might advance in sanctity, however much purity and sincerity one might acquire, a human being cannot be holy like the Lord, because he is the bestower of sanctity, the human being its receiver, he is the fountain of sanctity, the human being the drinker from the fountain, he is the light of sanctity, the human being the contemplator of the holy light. Thus there is none holy like the Lord, there is none besides thee. What it means to say There is none besides thee, I do not understand. If it had said, There is no God but you or There is no creator but you or had added something like this, there would be no problem. But if it now says There is none besides thee, this is what it seems to me to mean here: none of those things which are possess their existence by nature. You alone, O Lord, are the one to whom your existence has not been given by anyone. Because all of us, that is the whole creation, did not exist before we were created; thus, that we are, is [due to] the will of the Creator. And because there was a time when we were not, it is not wholly right if it is said of us, without qualification, that we exist. . . . For the shadow is nothing in comparison with the body; and in comparison with the fire, smoke too is nothing.

No sensible person, then, will be proud of his wisdom . . . but will follow the excellent advice of blessed Hannah and of the prophet Jeremiah, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom and let not the strong man glory in his strength and let not the rich man glory in his riches. But what is true glory and what makes one great? In this, says the prophet, let him that glories, glory, that he understands and knows that I am the Lord.^[1] This constitutes the pinnacle of human dignity, this is his glory and greatness: truly to know what is great and to cleave to it, and to seek after glory from the Lord of glory.

Certainly his making alive is to take place after he has killed. As, therefore, it is by death that he kills, it is by the resurrection that he will make alive. Now it is the flesh which is killed by death; the flesh, therefore, will be revived by the resurrection. Surely if killing means taking away life from the flesh, and its opposite, reviving, amounts to restoring life to the flesh, it must needs be that the flesh rise again, to which the life, which has been taken away by killing, has to be restored by vivification.

These words refer to the return of Christ or to the return of God to heaven. His teaching [will be] heard like thunder by all, and holy Scripture foretells his future judgment of all afterwards. And after this it is said that the Lord will give strength to our kings. And these would be the apostles of Christ, of whom it is written in Psalm 67: The Lord will give a word to the preachers of the gospel with much power. Here, also, he mentions Christ by name, humanly known as our Savior, whose horn he says shall be exalted, meaning his invisible power and kingdom. For it is usual for Scripture to call a kingdom a horn. It is found also in Psalm 88: And in my name shall his horn be exalted.

Samuel bore with the wicked sons of Eli, his debased sons whom the people would not bear and who were thereupon accused by divine truth or disciplined by divine wrath; finally he bore with the people themselves in their pride and rejection of God. . . . Let them read who wish, and who can, the heavenly language. They will find that all the saints have had to tolerate among their own people those who were recognized as servants and friends of God.

When Hannah had once offered in the tabernacle the son whom she had vowed to God, she never took him back: for she thought it unbecoming that one who was to be a prophet should grow up in the same house with her who still desired to have other sons. Accordingly after she had conceived him and given him birth, she did not venture to come to the temple alone or to appear before the Lord empty but first paid to him what she owed, and then, when she had offered up that great sacrifice, she returned home; and because she had borne her firstborn for God, she was given five children for herself. Do you marvel at the happiness of that holy woman? Imitate her faith.

Because their father [Eli] did not chastise them with enough severity . . . he moved the forbearance of God to wrath so great that foreign peoples rose up against them and killed those sons of his in war in one day. His entire nation, furthermore, was vanquished, and a considerable number of his people fell. Now, this happened even with the ark of the holy covenant of God nearby—an unheard of thing—so that the ark, which it was not lawful at any time for the Israelites or even for all their priests themselves to touch and which was kept in a special place, was carried hither and yon by impious hands and was put in the shrines of idols instead of the holy temples. Under such circumstances one can readily conjecture the amount of laughter and mockery that was inflicted upon the very name of God by these foreigners. Add to this, also, that Eli himself is recorded to have met a most pitiable end after hearing the threat that his seed would be removed from the priestly dignity; and so it happened.

Such, then, were the disasters which befell that nation. Such griefs did the father suffer because of the iniquity of his sons, even though no accusation was ever made against Eli’s personal life. Moreover, he did not bear with those sons of his silence, but he earnestly exhorted them not to persist longer in those same wicked deeds, saying, Do not act this way, my sons; for I hear no good report concerning you. And to stress the enormity of their sin, he confronted them with an alarming view of their perilous state. If one man shall sin against another, he said, they will pray for him to the Lord; but if a man shall sin against God, who shall pray for him? Yet, as I said, because he did not exercise a suitable rigor of zeal in their regard, the disaster recounted above took place. And so I find throughout the Old Testament a great many instances of this kind illustrating the condemnation of all disobedience.

The sin of one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit is unpardonable. Compare with this judgment what is said in the book of Kings [Samuel]: If one man shall sin against the Lord, who shall pray for him? Thus, it is one and the same sin whether we blaspheme against the Holy Spirit or against God, and it is inexpiable. Hence, the nature of the Holy Spirit begins to dawn in our minds. THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 17.^[1]

PRIESTLY AUTHORITY AND FORGIVENESS. ORIGEN: The law prohibits priests in the case of certain sins from offering a sacrifice to gain people forgiveness for the transgressions for which sacrifices are made. For though the priest has authority to make an offering for certain inadvertent sins or transgressions, nevertheless he does not offer a burnt offering and a sin offering for adultery, deliberate murder, or any other graver fault. Therefore, it is in the same way that the apostles and those like the apostles, since they are priests according to the great High Priest, have received knowledge of God’s healing and know, since they are taught by the Spirit, for what sins sacrifice must be offered and when and how; and they know for what sins it is wrong to do this. Thus, Eli the priest, when he knew that his sons Hophni and Phinehas were sinning, realizing he could in no way contribute to the forgiveness of their sins, acknowledged it as a hopeless case and said, If a man sins against a man, they will pray for him; but if he sins against he Lord, who will pray for him?