Origen · a new plain-English translation from the Greek and Latin
As far as Luke's narrative is concerned, Jesus had not yet stayed in Capernaum, nor is he described as having done any sign there, since he had not yet been there. But before he came to Capernaum, he is recorded to have been in his own homeland, that is, in Nazareth, and to have said to his fellow citizens: "Surely you will say to me this parable: Physician, heal yourself. Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum,
do here also in your own homeland." From this I think that something of a mystery lies hidden in the present passage, and that Nazareth stands as a type of the Jews, Capernaum as a type of the Gentiles who came first. Knowing, then, that he would not have honor in his own homeland, neither he himself nor the prophets nor the apostles, Jesus was unwilling to preach there, but preached among the Gentiles, so that it might not be said to him by the people of his homeland: "Surely you will say to me this
parable: Physician, heal yourself." For there will be a time when the people of the Jews will say: "Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum" among the Gentiles — signs and wonders — "do also among us in your own homeland"; the things you have shown to the whole world, show also to us; preach your word to your own people Israel, so that at least, "when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel
may be saved." For this reason it seems to me that the Savior, in answering the people of Nazareth as they questioned him, spoke consistently and in due order: "No prophet is accepted in his own homeland." And I think that what is said is true more according to the mystical sense than according to the letter. For Jeremiah too was not accepted in Anathoth, his own homeland, and Isaiah, whatever his homeland was, and the rest of the prophets likewise; but it seems to me rather that it should be
understood in this way: that we should say the homeland of all the prophets was the people of the circumcision, and that this people did not receive the prophets and their prophecies; while the nations, which had been far from the prophets and had no knowledge of them, received the prophecy of Jesus Christ. "No one is" therefore "accepted in his own homeland" — that is, among the people of the Jews. But we, who were strangers to the covenant and foreigners
to the promises, have received the prophets with our whole heart, and we possess "Moses and the prophets" concerning Christ more truly than those do who, because they did not receive Jesus, did not receive those either who announced him. For this reason, in addition to what he had said — "no prophet is accepted in his own homeland" — he said also this: "For in truth I say to you, that there were many widows in the days of Elijah in
Israel, when heaven was shut for three years and six months." What he says is this: Elijah was a prophet, and he was among the people of the Jews; but when he was about to do something marvelous, though there were many widows in Israel, he left them and went "to a woman in Zarephath of Sidon," to a Gentile woman, thereby unfolding a figure of the matter — because, while the people Israel were gripped "not by hunger
nor thirst for water, but by hunger for hearing the word of God" — he came to the widow, of whom the prophet also testifies, saying, "the children are many, more than hers who has a husband," and when he had come, he multiplied her food. You were the widow in Zarephath of Sidon, from whose territory "the Canaanite woman goes out" and desires that her daughter be healed, and by reason of her faith she deserved that
...was asking. 'Now there were many widows among the people of Israel, and Elijah was sent to none of them, except to a widow woman in Zarephath.' But he also says something else bearing on the same point: 'There were many lepers in Israel in the days of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, except Naaman the Syrian,' who of course was not from... Consider, up to
the present day, many lepers in the flesh of 'Israel'; see, by contrast, those defiled with the squalor of leprosy being cleansed by Elisha, our Lord and Savior, through the sacrament of baptism, and being told: 'Arise and go to the Jordan and wash, and your flesh will be restored to you.' Naaman arose and went, and once washed he fulfilled baptism, 'and his flesh became
like the flesh of a child.' A child? He who was born 'in the washing of regeneration' is Jesus, to whom is glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.