Homilies on Genesis and Exodus

Homily IX

HOMILY IX On the Tabernacle F ANYONE PROPERLY UNDERSTANDS THE DEPARTURE of the Hebrews from Egypt or the crossing of the Red Sea and this whole journey through the desert and every single campsite; if he is capable of understanding these things in such a way that he also may receive the Law of God "written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God";1 ifanyone, I say, should give his attention to these matters in the order of their sequence and spiritually fulfilling each should acquire the growth in virtues indicated in each, that man can consequently also attain to the contemplation and understanding of the tabernacle. The divine Scriptures speak about this tabernacle in many places. They appear to indicate certain things ofwhich human hearing can scarecly be capable. The apostle Paul especially, however, relates to us certain indications of a more excellent knowledge about the understanding ofthe tabernacle, but, for some unknown reason, perhaps considering the weakness of his hearers, closes, as it were, those very things which he opens. For he says, writing to the Hebrews, "For a first tabernacle was made which contained the candlestick and the setting forth of loaves. This was called the Holy of Holies. After the second veil, however, is the tabernacle which is called Holy and contains the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant which contained the two tablets and the manna and Aaron's rod which had blossomed."2 But he adds to these words: "Which are not to be spoken of now particularly.',g Some take 1 Cf. 2 Cor 3.3. 2 Heb 9.2-4. 3 Heb 9.5. 334 EXODUS HOMILY IX 335 the words, "Which are not to be spoken of now," to refer to that time in which he was writing the epistle to the Hebrews. But to others it appears that he asserts that the whole present life is insufficient for explaining these things because of the greatness of the mysteries. But the Apostle does not leave us completely dejected. As is his custom, he opens a few things from many so that it might be closed to the indifferent but might be discovered by those who seek and opened to those who knock" He repeats, therefore, about the tabernacle and says, "For Jesus has not entered into holy places made with hands, patterns of the true, but into heaven itself, that he may appear now in the sight of God through the veil, that is his flesh.'" He, therefore, who has interpreted the veil of the interior of the tabernacle as the flesh of Christ, the holy places themselves as heaven or the heavens, the high priest as the Lord Christ, and says that he entered "once into the holy places after he discovered an eternal redemption,"6 from these few words if anyone knows how to understand Paul's meaning, he can observe how great a sea of understanding he has disclosed to us. But they who love the letter of the Law of Moses too much, but flee its spirit hold the apostle Paul suspect when he brings forth interpretations of this kind. (2) Let us see, therefore, if some of the holy men of old also did not hold an opinion of the tabernacle far different than those latter now suppose. Hear how magnificently David, a distinguished man of the prophets, felt about the tabernacle: "While," he says, "it is said to me day after day, 'Where is your God?' I have remembered these things and I have poured out my soul in me, since I shall enter the place of the wonderful tabernacle, unto the house of God."7 And again he says in the fourteenth Psalm, "Lord, who will dwell in your tabernacle? Or who will rest on your holy mountain? He who enters without a spot and works justice," etc.8 What, then, is that "place of the 4Cf. Mt 7.8; Lk 11.10. 5 Heb 9.24, 10.20. 6 Heb 9.12. 7 Ps 41.4-5. 8 Ps 14.1-2. 336 ORIGEN wonderful tabernacle" from which one enters "the house of God," because of whose memory his soul has been poured out in him and, as it were, has been dissipated in a kind of intolerable desire. Are we really to believe that the prophet, desiring that tabernacle which consisted of...