We eat the flesh of the Lamb, with bitter herbs, and unleavened bread, when we repent of our sins and grieve with the sorrow which is according to God, a repentance which operates for our salvation, and is not to be repented of; or when, on account of our trials, we turn to the speculations which are found to be those of truth, and are nourished by them. We are not, however, to eat the flesh of the Lamb raw, as those do who are slaves of the letter, like irrational animals, and those who are enraged at men truly reasonable, because they desire to understand spiritual things; truly, they share the nature of savage beasts. But we must strive to convert the rawness of Scripture into well-cooked food, not letting what is written grow flabby and wet and thin, as those do who have itching ears, and turn away their ears from the truth; their methods tend to a loose and flabby conduct of life. But let us be of a fervent spirit and keep hold of the fiery words given to us of God, such as Jeremiah received from Him who spoke to him, \u201cBehold, I have made My words in thy mouth like fire,\u201d and let us see that the flesh of the Lamb be well cooked, so that those who partake of it may say, as Christ speaks in us, \u201cOur heart burned by the way, as He opened to us the Scriptures.\u201d Further, if it is our duty to enquire into such a point as the roasting of the flesh of the Lamb with fire, we must not forget the parallel of what Jeremiah suffered on account of the words of God, as he says: \u201cAnd it was as a glowing fire, burning in my bones, and I am without any strength, and I cannot bear it.\u201d But, in this eating, we must begin at the head, that is to say, at the principal and the most essential doctrines about heavenly things, and we must end at the feet, the last branches of learning which enquire as to the final nature in things, or about more material things, or about things under the earth, or about wicked spirits and unclean demons. For it may be that the account of these things is not obvious, like themselves, but is laid away among the mysteries of Scripture, so that it may be called, tropically, the feet of the Lamb. Nor must we fail to deal with the entrails, which are within and hidden from us; we must approach the whole of Scripture as one body, we must not lacerate nor break through the strong and well-knit connections which exist in the harmony of its whole composition, as those do who lacerate, so far as they can, the unity of the Spirit that is in all the Scriptures. But this aforesaid prophecy of the Lamb is to be our nourishment only during the night of this dark life of ours; what comes after this life is, as it were, the dawn of day, and why should we leave over till then the food which can only be useful to us now? But when the night is passed, and the day which succeeds it is at hand, then we shall have bread to eat which has nothing to do with the leavened bread of the older and lower state of things, but is unleavened, and that will serve our turn until that which comes after the unleavened bread is given us, the manna, which is food for angels rather than men.
\n— Origen. Commentary on the Gospel of John X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We eat the flesh of the Lamb, with bitter herbs, and unleavened bread, when we repent of our sins and grieve with the sorrow which is according to God, a repentance which operates for our salvation, and is not to be repented of; or when, on account of our trials, we turn to the speculations which are found to be those of truth, and are nourished by them. We are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[111],"class_list":["post-1368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-origen","tag-passover"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":444,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/origen-feasts-of-the-christian-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":1368,"position":0},"title":"Origen: Feasts Of The Christian Life","author":"Nemo","date":"January 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"We ourselves are accustomed to observe certain days, as for example the Lord\u2019s day, the Preparation, the Passover, or Pentecost. To the perfect Christian, who is ever in his thoughts, words, and deeds serving his natural Lord, God the Word, all his days are the Lord\u2019s, and he is always\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Origen"","block_context":{"text":"Origen","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/origen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":676,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/clement-of-alexandria-mystery-of-the-eucharist\/","url_meta":{"origin":1368,"position":1},"title":"Clement of Alexandria: Mystery of the Eucharist","author":"Nemo","date":"January 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The holy Apostle Paul says, preserving the prophetic and truly ancient secret from which the teachings that were good were derived by the Greeks: \u201cHowbeit we speak wisdom among them who are perfect; but not the wisdom of this world, or of the princes of this world, that come to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Clement of Alexandria"","block_context":{"text":"Clement of Alexandria","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/clement-of-alexandria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21856,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/the-passover-controversy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1368,"position":2},"title":"The Passover Controversy","author":"Nemo","date":"January 4, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A question of no small importance arose at that time. For the parishes of all Asia, as from an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon, when the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should be observed as the feast of the Saviour\u2019s passover, on which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eusebius of Caesarea"","block_context":{"text":"Eusebius of Caesarea","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/eusebius\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1317,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/lactantius-on-the-spiritual-significance-of-the-works-and-sufferings-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":1368,"position":3},"title":"Lactantius On the Spiritual Significance of the Works and Sufferings of Christ","author":"Nemo","date":"January 3, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Works of Christ [Those divine works which He performed] had a figurative meaning and great significance, and power, which had weight both for the present, but also for the future. [Christ] opened the eyes of the blind, and gave light to those who did not see; and by this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lactantius"","block_context":{"text":"Lactantius","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/lactantius\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":446,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/origen-what-is-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":1368,"position":4},"title":"Origen: What Is Worship","author":"Nemo","date":"January 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Altar, Statue, and\u00a0Temple We regard the spirit of every good man as an altar from which arises an incense which is truly and spiritually sweet-smelling, namely, the prayers ascending from a pure conscience. Therefore it is said by John in the Revelation, \u201cThe odours are the prayers of saints;\u201d and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Origen"","block_context":{"text":"Origen","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/origen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":507,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/origen-threefold-meaning-of-the-scripture\/","url_meta":{"origin":1368,"position":5},"title":"Origen: Threefold Meaning of The Scripture","author":"Nemo","date":"January 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Threefold Scripture For Tripartite Man The way, then, as it appears to us, in which we ought to deal with the Scrip\u00adtures, and extract from them their mean\u00ading, is the following, which has been ascer\u00adtained from the Scriptures themselves. By Solomon in the Proverbs we find some such rule as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Origen"","block_context":{"text":"Origen","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/origen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peqR9l-m4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}