And as he is Firstborn among brothers and rose from the dead the firstfruits of them that slept;^[1] so, since it became him in all things to have the preeminence,^[2] therefore he is created a beginning of ways, that we, walking along it and entering through him who says, I am the Way and the Door and partaking of the knowledge of the Father, may also hear the words, Blessed are the undefiled in the Way,^[3] and Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.^[4]

Jesus said, If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. This statement of our Savior is very helpful for salvation, and we must ponder it attentively. We will be blessed if we know the heavenly commands, yet still more so if we eagerly pursue in our works the things that we know. One who neglects to keep his known commandments is not capable of being happy; one who scorns finding out about these [commandments] is separated much further away from the heritage of the blessed. The psalmist agrees with this. Weighing the hearts of mortals and in like manner perceiving that everyone loves happiness but few ask where it is, he clearly testified as to what is the greatest happiness of human beings in this life, saying, Blessed are those who are undefiled in the way, who walk in the Lord’s law. And lest it be supposed that this way of the undefiled and blessed can be laid hold of indiscriminately by the ignorant and the untaught, he subsequently continued and said, Blessed are they who search his testimonies and seek him with their whole heart.

What is so generally or so forcefully commanded as obedience, by which the commandments of God are observed? Yet we find that it is the object of petition. You have commanded your commandments to be kept most diligently. Then follows, O! that my ways may be directed to obey your decrees. Then shall I not be confounded, when I shall look into all your commandments. He [the psalmist] begged that this thing be fulfilled by him, which he stated God had commanded.

Let us listen, then, to the master of precaution: I said, I will pay attention to my ways; that is, I said to myself: in the silent biddings of my thoughts, I have enjoined on myself, that I should pay attention to my ways. Some ways there are that we ought to follow; others as to which we ought to pay attention. We must follow the ways of the Lord and pay attention to our own ways, lest they lead us into sin. One can pay attention if one is not hasty in speaking. The law says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God.^[1] It said not speak but hear. Eve fell because she said to the man what she had not heard from the Lord her God. The first word from God says to you, Hear! If you hear, pay attention to your ways; and if you have fallen, quickly amend your way. For how does a young person amend his way; except by paying attention to the word of the Lord? Be silent therefore first of all, and listen, so that you do not fail in your tongue.

To sum up, David in the Psalms speaks about obedience: How shall a young person keep his path straight? The answer comes immediately: By keeping your Word with his whole heart. Jeremiah says, These are the Lord’s words: do not follow the paths of the Gentiles.^[1]

And what wonder is it the Spirit works life, who enlivens as does the Father and as does the Son? And who can deny that giving new life is the work of the eternal Majesty? For it is written, Give life to your servant. He, then, is enlivened who is a servant, that is, a person, who before he did not have life but received the privilege of having it.

Let us then see whether the Spirit is enlivened, or himself giving life. Now it is written, The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.^[1] So, then, the Spirit enlivens.

But that you may understand that the enlivening of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is no separate work, read how there is a oneness of quickening also, since God gives life through the Spirit, for Paul said, He who raised up Christ from the dead shall also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who dwells in you.^[2]

We should ask the Father of the Word during each individual reading when Moses is read,^[1] that he might fulfill even in us that which is written in the Psalms: Open my eyes, and I will consider the wondrous things of your law. For unless he himself opens our eyes, how shall we be able to see these great mysteries that are fashioned in the patriarchs, that are pictured now in terms of wells,^[2] now in marriages,^[3] now in births,^[4] now even in barrenness?^[5]

ORIGEN: Therefore, let us fall, if it is necessary, into your^[1] detractions so long as the church, which has already turned to Christ the Lord, may know the truth of the Word that is completely covered under the veil of the letter. For thus the apostle said, if anyone turns to the Lord, the veil will be removed; for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.^[2] Thus, the Lord, the Holy Spirit, must be entreated by us to remove every cloud and all darkness that obscures the vision of our hearts hardened with the stains of sins in order that we may be able to behold the spiritual and wonderful knowledge of his law, according to him who said, Take the veil from my eyes, and I shall observe the wonders of your law.

Now it was in the law and in the prophets that he was foreordained and prefigured. For this reason too the prophets were called seers,^[1] because they saw him whom others did not see. Abraham saw his day and was glad.^[2] The heavens that were sealed to a rebellious people were opened to Ezekiel. Open my eyes, David says, that I may behold wonderful things out of your law. For the law is spiritual,^[3] and a revelation is needed to enable us to comprehend it and, when God uncovers his face, to behold his glory.

Hear me, therefore, my fellow servant, my friend, my brother; give ear for a moment that I may tell you how you are to walk in the holy Scriptures. All that we read in the divine books, while glistening and shining without, is yet far sweeter within. He who desires to eat the kernel must first break the nut.^[1] Open my eyes, says David, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. Now, if so great a prophet confesses that he is in the darkness of ignorance, how deep, do you think, must be the night of misapprehension with which we, mere babes and unweaned infants, are enveloped! Now this veil rests not only on the face of Moses^[2] but on the Evangelists and the apostles as well. To the multitudes the Savior spoke only in parables and, to make it clear that his words had a mystical meaning, said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.^[3] Unless all things that are written are opened by him who has the key of David, who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens,^[4] no one can undo the lock or set them before you.

God does not wish us merely to listen to the words and phrases contained in the Scriptures but to do so with a great deal of prudent reflection. Therefore, blessed David frequently prefixed to his psalms the expression a meditation and also said, Open my eyes, and I will consider the wondrous things of your law. And after him, his son also pointed out by way of instruction that one must seek for wisdom even as for silver, or, rather, to trade in it more than in gold.

This is true wisdom in a person: to know that he is imperfect; and, if I may say so, the perfection of all the just, living in the flesh, is imperfect. Whence, also, we read in Proverbs: To understand true justice.^[1] For unless there were also false justice, the justice of God would never be referred to as true justice. And the apostle continues in the same passage: And if in any point you think otherwise, this also God will reveal to you.^[2] It is a strange thing that I hear. He who but a moment ago had said Not that I have already obtained it or have already been made perfect; he, who was the chosen vessel, who dared to say with the confidence of Christ dwelling within him, Do you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me?^[3] and yet frankly confessed that he had not been made perfect, now ascribes to the multitude something that he specifically denied to himself, and he associates himself with the others and says, Let us then, as many as are perfect, be of this mind.^[4] But he explains in the following verses what he meant by this statement. Let us, he says, who wish to be perfect, according to the measure of human frailty, be of this mind, that we have not yet obtained it; that we have not yet laid hold of it; that we have not yet been made perfect. And because we have not yet been made perfect, and, perhaps, think otherwise than is demanded by true and perfect perfection, if we think of and understand anything that is different from what is consistent with the knowledge of God, this, also, God will reveal to us, so that we may pray with David and say, Open my eyes, and I will consider the wondrous things of your law.

Terrified by my sins and the dead weight of my misery, I had turned my problems over in my mind and was half determined to seek refuge in the desert. But you forbade me to do this and gave me strength by saying, Christ died for us all, so that being alive should no longer mean living with our own life but with his life who died for us.^[1] Lord, I cast all my troubles on you and from now on I shall contemplate the wonders of your law. You know how weak I am and how inadequate is my knowledge: teach me and heal my frailty. Your only Son, in whom the whole treasury of wisdom and knowledge is stored up,^[2] has redeemed me with his blood. Save me from the scorn of my enemies,^[3] for the price of my redemption is always in my thoughts. I eat it and drink it and minister it to others; and as one of the poor I long to be filled with it, to be one of those who eat and have their fill. And those who look for the Lord will cry out in praise of him.^[4]

Our wish, you see, is to attain to eternal life. We wish to reach the place where nobody dies, but if possible we do not want to get there via death. We would like to be whisked away there while we are still alive and see our bodies changed, while we are alive, into that spiritual form into which they are to be changed when we rise again. Who wouldn’t like that? Isn’t it what everybody wants? But while that is what you want, you are told, Quit. Remember what you have sung in the psalm: A lodger am I on earth. If you are a lodger, you are staying in someone else’s house; if you are staying in someone else’s house, you quit when the landlord bids you. And the landlord is bound to tell you to quit sooner or later, and he has not guaranteed you a long stay. After all, he did not sign a contract with you. Seeing that you are lodging with him for nothing, you quit when he tells you to. And this, too, has to be put up with, and for this, too, patience is very necessary.

The right will is, therefore, well-directed love, and the wrong will is ill-directed love. Love, then, yearning to have what is loved, is desire; and having and enjoying it, is joy; fleeing what is opposed to it, it is fear; and feeling what is opposed to it, when it has befallen it, it is sadness. Now these motions are evil if the love is evil; good if the love is good. What we assert let us prove from Scripture. The apostle desires to depart, and to be with Christ.^[1] And, My soul desired to long for Thy judgments;^[2] or if it is more appropriate to say, My soul longed to desire Thy judgments. And, The desire of wisdom bringeth to a kingdom.^[3]

I bid you, therefore, be considerate enough to regard in a natural sense our plausible discourse and to weigh our statements in simplicity of mind and with attentive intellect. Do not follow the traditions of philosophy or those who gather the semblance of truth in the vain deceit^[1] of the arts of persuasion. Rather, accept, in accordance with the rule of truth, what is set forth in the inspired words of God and is poured into the hearts of the faithful by the contemplation of such sublimity. For it is written: Strengthen me in your words. The wicked have told me fables but not as your law, O Lord. All your statutes are truth.^[2] Therefore, not the nature of the elements but Christ himself, who created the world in the abundance and plenitude of his divinity, should be our standard in the examination of what was created and in the question as to what natural power is able to achieve. The people who beheld with their own eyes the miracles related in the Gospel of the healing of the leper and that of giving sight to the blind did not regard these as a medical process but rather, marveling at the power of the Lord, gave praise to God, as it is written.^[3] Moses did not follow the calculations of the Egyptians and the conjunctions of the stars and the relations of the elements when he stretched out his hand to divide the Red Sea, but he was complying with the commands of divine power. Hence, he says, Your right hand, O Lord, is magnified in strength. Your right hand, O Lord, has broken the enemy.^[4] To him, therefore, you faithful people, lift up your mind and bring to him all your heart. God does not see as people do: God sees with his mind; people see with their eyes. Therefore, people do not see as God does. Pay attention to what God saw and what he praised. Do not, therefore, estimate with your eyes or weigh with your mind the problem of creation. Rather, you should not regard as a subject for debate what God saw and approved of.

And you, it says, may dwell securely in your land.^[1] The wicked person is never secure but is always disturbed and wavering. He is tossed about by every wind of doctrine to deceitful error, by the craftiness of people. However, the just person who observes God’s law dwells in security on his land, because he governs his body in fear of God and brings it into subjection. His understanding is firm when he says to God, Strengthen me according to your words, O Lord. Strengthened, secure and well-rooted, he dwells on the earth, founded in faith. His house is not built on sand but is established on solid ground.

Therefore, as I am about to speak of what is useful, I will take up those words of the prophet: Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to covetousness, that the sound of the word useful may not rouse in us the desire for money. Some indeed put it thus: Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to what is useful, that is, that kind of usefulness that is always on the watch for making gains in business and has been bent and diverted by the habits of people to the pursuit of money. For as a rule most people call useful only what is profitable, but we are speaking of that kind of usefulness that is sought in earthly loss that we may gain Christ,^[1] whose gain is godliness with contentment.^[2] Great, too, is the gain whereby we attain to godliness, which is rich with God, not indeed in fleeting wealth but in eternal gifts, and in which rests no uncertain trial but constant and unending grace.

Next you say,^[1] and all his pomp. The pomp of the devil is the craze for the theater, the horse races in the circus, the wild-beast hunts and all such emptiness, from which the saint prays to God to be delivered in the words, Turn away my eyes that they may not behold worthless things. Avoid an addiction to the theater, with its portrayal of sinful conduct, the lewd and unseemly antics of actors and the frantic dancing of degenerates. Not for you, either, the folly of those who, to gratify their miserable appetite, expose themselves to wild beasts in the combats in the amphitheater. They pamper their belly at the cost of becoming themselves, in the event, food for the mouths of savage beasts; of these gladiators it is fair to say that in the service of the belly that is their god they court death in the arena. Shun also the bedlam of the races, a spectacle in which souls as well as riders come to grief. All these follies are the pomp of the devil.

Therefore David, who had experienced those very glances that are dangerous for a man,^[1] aptly says that the one is blessed whose every hope is in the name of God.^[2] For such a person does not have regard to worthless things and follies if he always strives toward Christ and always looks on Christ with his inner eyes. For this reason David turned to God again and said, Turn away my eyes, that they may not see vanity. The circus is vanity, because it is totally without profit; horse racing is vanity, because it is counterfeit as regards salvation; the theater is vanity, every game is vanity. All things are vanity!^[3] as Ecclesiastes said, all things that are in this world. Accordingly, let one who wishes to be saved ascend above the world, let him seek the Word who is with God, let him flee from this world and depart from the earth. For one cannot comprehend that which exists and exists always, unless he has first fled from here. On this account also, the Lord, wishing to approach God the Father, said to the apostles, Arise, let us go from here.^[4]

We are instructed in all this, but the prophet has already experienced it.^[1] He says, This hope has consoled me in my humility, for your word has given me life. The hope is the hope that God has implanted in him. It has consoled him in his humility, that is, when he is spurned, mocked, vexed by injustices, dishonored by insults, for he knows that he is soldiering through his present trials. But the hope instilled by the Lord consoles him in these wars endured in his weakness, and he is lent life by the utterances of God. By these he knows that the glory of his weakness is outstanding in heaven. He knows that his soul, renewed by the utterances of God, contains within it, so to say, the nourishment of eternal life. He lives by God’s utterances and is untroubled by the empty fame of the proud, for he knows that his need is richer than their wealth. He knows that his fasting is abundantly fed by the blessing of heaven and the gospel, that his humility will be rewarded by the glorious prize of honor. So he added, The arrogant mock me without restraint, but I do not turn from your law.

So there you are, I have said a few words to prevent the boats from sinking.^[1] Something much more dreadful happened at that catch of fish,^[2] and that is that the nets were broken. The nets were broken, heresies arose. What else, after all, are schisms, but tears of the fabric? The first catch of fish has to be endured and tolerated in such a way that nobody grows weary, even though it is written, Weariness has taken hold of me because of sinners who forsake your law. It is the boat crying out that it is being overloaded by the mob, as though the boat itself is giving voice to these words, I have become weary because of sinners who forsake your law. Even if you are being overloaded, always see to it that you do not sink. Bad people are to be put up with now, not to be separated and cut off. Mercy and judgment we shall sing to the Lord.^[3] First of all mercy is extended, and later on judgment is exercised; separation will happen at the judgment. Now may the good person listen to me and become better; may the bad person too listen and become good, while it is the time for repentance, not for sentence.

The possession of God is owed to such as these, as Isaiah says: This is the inheritance of those who believe in the Lord.^[1] Very aptly does he say, This is the inheritance, for that alone is the inheritance; there is no other. The inheritance is not a treasure that people stumble on blindly, and passing things have not the quality of an inheritance. The only inheritance is that in which God is the portion, as the Lord’s holy one says: God is my inheritance, and again: I have become an heir of your precepts.^[2] You see what are the possessions of the just person: God’s commandments, his words, his precepts. In these he is rich; on these he feeds; with these he is delighted as if by all riches.

Let each of these considerations find entrance into your mind and check the swollen growth of wrath. By such preparations and by acquiring such dispositions, we quiet the leaping and throbbing of the heart and restore it to tranquil steadiness. This, indeed, is the implication in the words of David: I am ready and am not troubled. You must, therefore, repress the violent and frenzied movement of the soul by recalling the example of saintly people. How gently, for instance, the mighty David bore the fury of Shimei. He did not allow himself to grow angry but turned his thoughts to God, saying, The Lord has bid him curse David.^[1]

Accordingly, let us condition ourselves to not be easily distracted from the task of approaching God constantly with our prayers day and night, and especially at night. Night is the time when there is no one to hinder us, when there is great peace of mind, when there is complete repose. It is also the time when all turmoil is left outside the house, when no one is likely to put us off or distract us from entreaty, and when our mind happens to be set at rest and is able to propose everything precisely to the physician of souls. I mean, if blessed David, king as he was as well as inspired author and beset with so many worries, clad in mantle and crown, could say, At midnight I rise to praise you for the rulings of your justice, what should we say who, despite leading a private and carefree life, do not even do the same as he? In other words, since by day he had much on his mind, a great mass of business, terrible confusion, and could not find a suitable time for the proper kind of prayer, he prayed during the time of respite that others devote to sleep, lying on soft beds, tossing and turning. On the contrarythe king, though caught up in such responsibility, devoted the time to prayer, conversing privately with God, directing sincere entreaties to him of the most intense kind, and thus he achieved whatever he set his mind to. Through these prayers he was successful in wars, inflicting defeat and adding victory to victory. He enjoyed, you see, an invincible weaponry, an ally from on high sufficient not merely for battles conducted by human beings but also for the cohorts of the demons.

Prayer offered up at night possesses a great power, more so than the prayer of the daytime. Therefore all the righteous prayed during the night, while combating the heaviness of the body and the sweetness of sleep and repelling corporeal nature. And this the prophet also says, I toiled in my groaning; every night I will wash my bed, with tears will I water my couch,^[1] while he sighed in fervent prayer. And again, At midnight I arose to give thanks unto Thee for the judgments of Thy righteousness. And for every entreaty for which they urgently besought God, they armed themselves with the prayer of night vigil, and at once they received their request.

In petition one asks for mercy for one’s sins, in thanksgiving you give thanks to your Father who is in heaven, while in praise you praise him for his works. At a time when you are in trouble, offer up petition, and when you are well supplied with good things, you should give thanks to the Giver, and when your mind rejoices, offer up praise. Make all these prayers of yours with discernment to God. See how David was always saying, I have risen to give thanks to you for your judgments, O just One. And in another psalm he said, Praise the Lord in heaven, praise him in the heights.^[1] Again he says, I will bless the Lord at all times, and at all times his praises are in my mouth.^[2] Do not pray using only one kind of prayer, but pray them at different times.

If the soul, with its capacity for pleasure and delight, has tasted this true and highest good and has adhered to both^[1] with the means at its disposal, putting away sorrow and fear, then it is wonderfully inflamed. Having embraced the Word of God, it knows no bounds, it knows no satiety, and says, You are sweet, O Lord, and in your joy teach me your laws. Having embraced the Word of God, the soul desires him above every beauty; it loves him above every joy; it is delighted with him above every perfume; it wishes often to see, often to gaze, often to be drawn to him that it may follow. Your name, it says, is as oil poured out,^[2] and that is why we maidens love you and vie with one another but cannot attain to you. Draw us that we may run after you, that from the odor of ointments we may receive the power to follow you.

Sin abounded by the law because through the law came knowledge of sin,^[1] and it became harmful for me to know what through my weakness I could not avoid. It is good to know beforehand what one is to avoid, but, if I cannot avoid something, it is harmful to have known about it. Thus was the law changed to its opposite, yet it became useful to me by the very increase of sin, for I was humbled. And David therefore says, It is good for me that I have been humbled. By humbling myself I have broken the bonds of that ancient transgression by which Adam and Eve had bound the whole line of their succession. Hence, too, the Lord came as an obedient man to loose the knot of human disobedience and deception. And as through disobedience sin entered, so through obedience sin was remitted. Therefore, the apostle says, For just as by the disobedience of one man the many were constituted sinners, so also by the obedience of the one the many will be constituted just.^[2]

But though we were to allow some prerogative to the Protoplast^[1] as having been deemed worthy of the hand of God, still it must be one of honor, not of nature. For he came from the earth, as other people, and the hand that then fashioned Adam is also both now and ever fashioning and giving entire consistency [same human nature] to those who come after him. And God declares this to Jeremiah, as I said before: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you;^[2] and so he says of all, All those things have my hand made;^[3] and again by Isaiah, Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, and he that formed you from the womb, I am the Lord that makes all things; that stretches forth the heavens alone; that spreads abroad the earth by myself.^[4] And David, knowing this, says in the psalm, Your hands have made me and fashioned me; and he who says in Isaiah, Thus says the Lord who formed me from the womb to be his servant,^[5] signifies the same. Therefore, in respect of nature, Christ differs nothing from us though he precede us in time, so long as we all consist and are created by the same hand.

Without doubt, if what I said is true and you not only heard this true thing but also understood it, two things happened there; distinguish them, hearing and understanding. Hearing occurred through me; through whom did understanding occur? I spoke to the ear that you might hear; who spoke to your heart that you might understand? Without a doubt, someone also said something to your heart so that not only did that sound of words strike your ear but something of truth descended into your heart. Someone spoke also to your heart, but you did not see him. If you understand, brothers, your heart has also been spoken to. Understanding is a gift of God. If you understood, who spoke this in your heart? He to whom the psalm says, Give me understanding that I may learn your commands.

Futile is the act of the father and mother, unless the Creator’s work and will also touch the offspring. Your hands have made me and formed me. And elsewhere it is written, You have formed me and have laid your hand on me.^[1] Therefore, we do not owe our birth and life to ourselves, but we owe them entirely to our Creator.