The calf flayed and divided limb by limb
They shall flay the burnt offering and cut it limb from limb; Aaron’s sons put fire, wood, and the divided pieces on the altar. The calf is Christ; stripping the hide of the letter opens the spiritual sense. To divide limb by limb is to order progress — fitting teaching to beginners, to those advancing, and to the perfect. Altar wood reaches to the wood of the passion; the fire from above is divinity. Inwards and feet washed with water announce the sacrament of baptism — who is clean needs only to wash the feet.
Latin
Excoriant holocaustum et divident illud membratim; filii Aaron ignem et ligna et membra divisa imponunt. Vitulus — Christus; corium litterae detractum spiritalem sensum aperit. Membratim dividere — ordinare profectus: incipientibus, proficientibus, perfectis aptare doctrinam. Ligna altaris — usque ad lignum passio carnis; ignis desursum divinitatis. Interanea et pedes aqua lavantur — baptismi sacramentum.
About this text
Origen’s Homilia I on Leviticus (Rufinus’s Latin). Complete on this page: §§1–5.
English follows Baehrens, Origenes Werke VI (GCS 29, 1920), Rufinus’s Latin of Homilia I. Barkley FOTC 83 was not used as wording. This page is Homilia I §§1–5 (closeout).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Baehrens, Origenes Werke VI = GCS 29 (1920) (Latin · Homilia I §§1–5)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.