Homilies on Joshua

by Origen, Barbara J Bruce (Translator)

This is a translation of the complete homilies of Origen of Alexandria on the the book of Joshua. With the saga of the Israelites entering and possessing their promised land, Origen unfolds the story of the Christian life from baptism to resurection. He exhorts his hearers to persevere in their own struggles to overcome the enemies of their souls and obtain their own inheritence. As he exhorted, others wrote down his words, words he had asked the people to pray for and the Spirit to supply. Most of the original writings in Greek were lost during the centuries when Origen was offically defamed. What we have today is the Latin translation by Rufinus, the basis of the translations in this volume. In the introduction Bruce duscusses and affirms the reliability of the Latin text, and briefly looks at Origen's minstry, his concept of the nature of Scripture and his method of interpretation.

Genres: Christianity

280 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Origen of Alexandria (c. 184 – c. 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Alexandria. He was a prolific writer who wrote roughly 2,000 treatises in multiple branches of theology, including textual criticism, biblical exegesis and biblical hermeneutics, homiletics, and spirituality. He was one of the most influential figures in early Christian theology, apologetics, and asceticism. He has been described as "the greatest genius the early church ever produced".

Reviews

[R.L.S.D · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute joyride of patristic exegesis, this sermon collection could probably single-handedly have prevented the crusades if Origin hadn't been languishing in the archive as a heretic.

I have only ever had the most anemic idea of Joshua as type of Christ, but right out of the gate, Origin points out that we should probably pay close attention to the first time the name "Jesus" (Joshua/Yeshua) appears in the Bible. When that name shows up, it is the name of the leader who *assumes authority after Moses the law-giver and servant of the Lord is dead*! "If we do not understand how Moses dies, we shall not understand how Jesus reigns." (Homily 2)

Origin proceeds to contrast the manner in which Moses led the people of God through the Red Sea (fleeing their enemies and afraid) with how Jesus son of Nun leads them through the Jordan. The crossing of the Jordan is Jesus' baptismal moment at which God begins to exalt him before the people. (!) Those people then come *through the raging waters* to run *towards* their enemies - not flesh and blood, Origin insists, but sin, death, and the devil in our own hearts - under the headship of Jesus. I had forgotten that when Joshua later commands the sun to stand still, the Bible specifically says that God had *never* listened to a man in that way before - not Adam, not Noah, not Abraham, not Moses - not until the first man called Jesus, a type of the Christ to come.

[Christian Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic read as it illustrates the early churches use of the Old Testament. Origen’s allegorical interpretation is on full display here, but he also emphasizes the literal understanding of the text. The ascetic, devoted, and holy life style that he calls Christians to strive in this book is a great encouragement.

[Dan Glover · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as partial requirements of a Regent College Patristic Exegesis course with Dr. Hans Boersma. No time for a proper review right now. Suffice it to say that Origen has a bad reputation for fanciful allegorical interpretation of Scripture, arbitrarily imposing his own meaning upon texts rather than reading the meaning within the text. Admittedly there are times when I found his interpretation strained and difficult to agree with. However, this happened far less than I expected. Origen repeatedly points to the Apostolic handling of OT Scripture in the NT as his pattern and he seeks always to fall within the bounds of orthodoxy with his interpretations. He sees in Scripture four "incarnations" of the divine Logos: in the person of Jesus Christ born of Mary, in the written Word of Scripture, in the believing soul indwelt by the Logos through the Spirit, and in the Church, the body of Christ. His moral, eschatological/heavenly, and future typological interpretations all fall within this fourfold 'incarnational' framework. To come up with these interpretations, Origen also reads the text of the OT sacramentally, meaning that the OT events and persons not only point forward in time (horizontally) to a greater future fulfillment but the OT events themselves participate in a heavenly (vertical) reality. Thus Joshua fighting the inhabitants of the land points to Christ battling Satan and the powers of hell and death for God's new Israel, the church, but also God's working salvation for Israel participated in the greater victory that was always in God's mind and which was always Christ's vocation from eternity past. Even now, as the church partakes of the Eucharist or fights temptation, we participate in the victory of Christ over sin, death and hell, but also in Joshua's leading the people into the land, which itself ultimately prefigures the greater heavenly inheritance which awaits God's people. For an excellent treatment of Origen's fourfold incarnational exegesis, see Chapter 5 of Hans Boersma's "Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Church."

[Ryan Barkley · Rating 5 out of 5]

6/5 enjoyed myself thoroughly reading these homilies. maybe I'll update this later with a more thoughtful review, but I definitely recommend them to anyone interested in Patristic exegesis of the Old Testament.

[Dominic Venuso · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first, how Origen reads Joshua is strange. And some details will always be dubious. But over time, you find yourself reading the book on your with an eye toward the ways that Jesus saved a people out of Egypt.

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Regular Origen. I prefer his homilies on Numbers, but these are good also, and I will better remember to hear Jesus in Joshua having read them.