Origen's verse-by-verse exposition of Matthew 17:10-18:35, covering Elijah/John the Baptist, the temple tax and the fish's coin, and Peter's binding-and-loosing authority.
Book 13 of Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew works through a continuous stretch of text from the disciples' question about Elijah (Matthew 17:10) to the parable of the unforgiving servant that closes chapter 18. Origen proceeds the way he does throughout the commentary: he quotes a phrase of Matthew, then unpacks it clause by clause, cross-referencing other scriptures and weighing rival interpretations before settling one.
The book opens with an extended argument against the idea that John the Baptist was a reincarnation of Elijah's soul, which Origen calls 'a notion alien to God's church, neither handed down by the apostles nor appearing anywhere in the scriptures.' He works out an alternative reading in which John came 'in the spirit and power of Elijah' rather than in Elijah's soul, using the angel Gabriel's language to Zechariah as his anchor text. From there he moves to the coin found in the fish's mouth for the temple tax, reading the stater and its two didrachmas typologically -- Peter's catch stands for the rational soul drawn up out of the sea of this world and freed of debt. The book's back half works through the disciples' question 'who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven,' the warning about scandalizing little ones, the lost sheep, and finally the procedure for admonishing a sinning brother once, twice, and before the whole church, ending with reflection on the specific scope of the authority Christ gives to Peter to bind and loose.
The book matters as a specimen of how the first systematic Christian exegete read a Gospel: attentive to Greek wording and manuscript variants ('according to other copies'), willing to flag doctrines as un-apostolic, and consistently reading concrete narrative details (a coin, a net, a child) as figures for the soul's condition and discipline within the church.
“The disciples who had gone up”
— Commentary on Matthew, Book 13 · read this chapter →
“a notion alien to God's church, neither handed down by the apostles nor appearing anywhere in the scriptures”
— Commentary on Matthew, Book 13 · read this chapter →
“Who then is greater in the kingdom of the heavens?”
— Commentary on Matthew, Book 13 · read this chapter →
“you have gained your brother”
— Commentary on Matthew, Book 13 · read this chapter →
“none of those in heaven annuls the verdict of the one who bound him”
— Commentary on Matthew, Book 13 · read this chapter →
It comments verse by verse on Matthew 17:10 through 18:35: the disciples' question about Elijah, the transfiguration aftermath, the temple tax and the coin in the fish, the question of who is greatest in the kingdom, the parable of the lost sheep, and the procedure for confronting a sinning brother, ending with Peter's authority to bind and loose.
No. In Book 13 he explicitly rejects the idea that John the Baptist was Elijah's soul reborn, calling it 'a notion alien to God's church, neither handed down by the apostles nor appearing anywhere in the scriptures,' and argues instead that John came only 'in the spirit and power of Elijah.'
He treats Peter's catch and the stater in its mouth as figures for the soul: the fish drawn from the sea of the world represents a person 'caught by the rational hook,' and the coin's two didrachmas are read against the 'holy two-drachma' tax prescribed in the Law, contrasting a holy versus an unholy payment.
He argues Peter's grant of binding-and-loosing is distinct in scope from the authority given to any group of admonishing brothers: what Peter binds is bound in every heaven, while what others bind through the church's admonition process is bound only in a single heaven.
The commentary on Matthew survives complete only in the ancient Latin translation (the Vetus interpretatio) for many books alongside partial Greek fragments; this translation renders the received text of Book 13 into English.
Commentary on John, Book 1 · Commentary on John, Book 10 · Commentary on John, Book 2 · Commentary on John, Book 4 · Commentary on John, Book 5 · Commentary on John, Book 6 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 10 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 11 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 12 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 14 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 15 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 16