Origen's 23rd homily on Luke, expounding John the Baptist's preaching to crowds, tax collectors, and soldiers in Luke 3.
Homily on Luke 23 is the twenty-third in Origen's series of short sermons on the Gospel of Luke, delivered to a congregation in third-century Caesarea and preserved only in Jerome's Latin translation. It takes up Luke 3:9-14, the scene in which John the Baptist warns that "the axe is laid at the root of the trees" and then answers three groups who ask him what they should do to be saved: the crowds, the tax collectors, and the soldiers.
Origen first works through the literal sense, arguing that the axe saying was fulfilled historically in the near destruction of the people of Israel rather than at some still-future end of the ages, since too many centuries have already passed. He then reads John's instructions morally and allegorically: the command to give a spare tunic to one who has none applies less to ordinary crowds than to apostles, and at a deeper level describes stripping off vice and clothing a soul that lacks God entirely. The section on tax collectors becomes an extended meditation on being called to account after death by hostile spiritual powers "sitting at the boundaries of the world," likened to toll collectors auditing a debtor, with Jacob's clean dealing with Laban offered as the model of a soul that owes nothing.
The homily closes with a lengthy excursus, prompted by the mention of soldiers and tax collectors receiving instruction, on the idea that preaching is addressed not only to human beings but to angels as well: Origen cites the letters to the angels of the churches in Revelation, Paul's remark about women's head coverings "because of the angels," and the story of Elisha's servant Gehazi, whose eyes were opened to see the angelic host invisible to ordinary sight. The piece matters as a compact example of Origen's three-tiered exegetical method and of his conviction that scripture instructs an audience that includes unseen powers, not just the human congregation in front of him.
“behold, the axe is laid at the root of the trees”
— Homily on Luke 23 · read this chapter →
“Whoever has two tunics, let him give to him who does not have, and whoever has food, let him do likewise”
— Homily on Luke 23 · read this chapter →
“there will be certain beings sitting at the boundaries of the world, scrutinizing most carefully, as if by the office of tax collectors, lest they find anything of their own in us”
— Homily on Luke 23 · read this chapter →
“and Laban found nothing at all with Jacob”
— Homily on Luke 23 · read this chapter →
“Lord, open the eyes of this servant, that he may see, for there are far more with us than with them”
— Homily on Luke 23 · read this chapter →
It is a sermon on Luke 3:9-14, where John the Baptist warns that the axe is laid at the root of the trees and then tells crowds, tax collectors, and soldiers what repentance requires of each. Origen reads the passage on three levels: as fulfilled history, as moral instruction, and as allegory about a soul stripped bare before God.
He first notes it fits apostles more than ordinary crowds, since Jesus told the apostles themselves not to carry two tunics. He then reads it allegorically: the person with no tunic at all is the person who lacks God entirely, so the deeper command is to strip off one's sins and clothe that person.
John's audience includes literal tax collectors, but Origen extends the image to spiritual powers who audit souls after death like toll collectors checking for unpaid debts. He cites Jacob's clean break with his father-in-law Laban -- who "found nothing at all" with him -- as the model of a soul owing nothing to those powers.
Yes. He argues that prophets, apostles, and the Savior preach to angels and invisible powers as well as to people, pointing to the letters to the angels of the churches in Revelation and Paul's comment about women covering their heads "because of the angels."
Origen uses Elisha's servant Gehazi, who could not see the angelic host surrounding them until Elisha prayed for his eyes to be opened, to show that angels are present even when sin keeps human eyes from perceiving them.
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 13 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 14 · Commentary on Matthew, Book 15