Origen contrasts Matthew's and Luke's genealogies of Jesus, reading Matthew's sinners as a descent into human sin and Luke's ascent from baptism as a new, sinless birth, closing with Joseph of Egypt as a type of Christ distributing spiritual wheat.
This homily tackles a problem early Christian readers noticed immediately: Matthew and Luke give Jesus two different genealogies, running in opposite directions and containing different names. Origen does not try to harmonize them mechanically. Instead he treats the divergence as theologically meaningful. Matthew traces the line downward from Abraham to Jesus's birth and includes four women scripture censures as sinners - Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah - because the Savior "assumed the person of sinful and corrupt men," taking on human sin at his descent into the world. Luke, by contrast, narrates the genealogy upward from Jesus's baptism to God, names no women, and traces the royal line through Nathan rather than the sinning Solomon, because this is Jesus's second, higher birth - his baptismal regeneration - not his fleshly one.
Origen builds the argument on small verbal details: Matthew's genealogy repeats "begot" at every step, while Luke's list, read moving from baptism back to God, drops the word almost entirely and instead calls Jesus "son, as was supposed, of Joseph." He also notes that Luke alone says Jesus "was beginning" (about age thirty) at his baptism, which Origen connects to the Exodus command that the month of Israel's departure from Egypt become the calendar's "beginning of months" - baptism inaugurates a new reckoning of life just as the Exodus inaugurated a new calendar.
The homily ends with an extended typological reading of Joseph in Genesis: Joseph's thirty years before his rise to power in Egypt prefigure Jesus's thirty years before his ministry, and the wheat Joseph gathered in years of abundance to feed Egypt during famine prefigures the scriptural "wheat" - words of the prophets, law, and apostles - that Christ has stored in the souls of the apostles to feed a world famished not for bread but for "hearing the word of God." Origen distinguishes the general nourishment Christ gives all nations from the finer grain reserved for his own "brothers," the disciples, urging that this new bread not be mixed with the old.
“he assumed the person of sinful and corrupt men, and willed to be born”
— Homily on Luke 28 · read this chapter →
“but here, because he was about to ascend from baptism, we read”
— Homily on Luke 28 · read this chapter →
“not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of God”
— Homily on Luke 28 · read this chapter →
“I think that Joseph's thirty years, as a type, preceded the thirty years of the Savior”
— Homily on Luke 28 · read this chapter →
“and that we may have new bread ground from the wheat and flour of the Scriptures”
— Homily on Luke 28 · read this chapter →
Origen argues the two genealogies are not competing historical records but describe two different births: Matthew's descending list from Abraham describes Jesus's entry into sinful flesh, while Luke's ascending list starting from his baptism describes his second, regenerate birth up to God. That is why they run in opposite directions and name different ancestors.
Origen says these four women are named specifically because scripture itself censures them as sinners. Since Christ came to 'take upon himself the sins of men,' his descent into the world is traced through a human line that includes recorded sin, in contrast to Luke's line, which names no women at all.
He means Jesus's baptism, described in Luke as the moment Jesus 'was beginning.' Origen treats this as parallel to every believer's baptismal regeneration, in which one 'sets aside your former birth and be born in a second regeneration.'
He reads Joseph's thirty years before rising to power and his gathering of wheat during years of plenty as a type of Christ: Christ's thirty years before his ministry, and the scriptural wheat (from the law, prophets, and apostles) he stores in the souls of the apostles to feed a world facing a famine of hearing God's word.
No, the homily is not concerned with historical accuracy or reconciling contradictions as facts. Origen instead offers a symbolic reading in which each evangelist's differing genealogy conveys a distinct theological truth about Christ's two births, fleshly and baptismal.
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