Friday, September 01, 2006

Allegorical Interpretation

Ordinary Time

After a little while, I'm starting so see why people went off the whole "allegorical reading of scripture" just a bit.

This is from Origen's Homilies (and Fragments) on Luke, 63:3.
For we find, also, in Genesis concerning the sacrament that Noah anticipated this same thing and projected the figure of the Passion of the Lord there because he drank wine, because he was inebriated, because he was made naked in his home, because he was reclining with his thighs naked and exposed, because the nakedness of the father was noticed by this second son and reported outside, but covered by the other two, the oldest and the youngest, and other things which it is not necessary to follow up since it is sufficient to comprehend this alone: that Noah, showing forth a type of future truth, drank not water, but wine, and so expressed the figure of the Passion of the Lord.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oooo... As we are coming up on Year C this Advent, the Lukan year, I'll have to store this little snippet of Origen away for a sermon illustration! It'll be perfect for Passiontide.

Thanks Kyle! You continue to influence my preaching in ways I had never imagined.

Anonymous said...

Huh?

Matthew Francis said...

Yeah, here O. was perhaps stretching things a bit, but his book "On Prayer" is incredibly good.

Where did you find that icon, Kyle? I've never seen Origen in an icon before, but this image (quite beautiful, by the way), does seem to be appropriate as his true teaching influenced so many other saints.

Anonymous said...

I do agree in many things Origen was a true stud-buzzard. But here he does take the allegorical reading of the text to new and strange heights.

Kyle said...

I'm always happy to help, good Father Richard.

Matthew Francis, good to "hear" from you. :0)

This had surprised me, but it's amazing what you find if you type a name with the word, "icon," in a Google Images search.

Br. Jonathan said...

Shame on you for reading Origen! Now go back in your room and read Polycarp like a good little seminarian.