ACC ~ Matthew 15 v7 - 8

THEIR HEART IS FAR FROM ME

ORIGEN: I have previously quoted [1] some of the words of Isaiah that precede the verse quoted in the Gospel and some of the words that follow the verse quoted in the Gospel. [2] In this way we may show the way in which the word promises that it will close “the eyes” of those of the people who were “out of their senses” and “drunken” and who had been given to drink a “spirit of stupefaction.” The word also promises to “close the eyes both of their prophets and their rulers” who claim to “see the hidden things.”

I suppose that these very things happened after the Savior had dwelt with these people. For “all the words,” the words of the Scriptures in their entirety and also those of Isaiah, became to them “as the words of a sealed book.” Now the word sealed was said as if the book was sealed with obscurity and not opened with clarity. The book is unclear to those who right from the start are “not able to read it” simply because “they are illiterate.” It is also equally unclear to “those who are literate” because they do not understand the meaning in the things that have been written.

Hence the word rightly adds to these things that the people would “fall into unconsciousness” because of their sins and would be “out of their senses” with madness against the word. [3] The word also adds that the people would “be drunk” against it “with a spirit of stupefaction.” The Lord would give them this “spirit of stupefaction” to drink when he “closed their eyes,” because they were unworthy of seeing. This would happen to the eyes of “both their prophets and their rulers” that claimed to “see the hidden things” of the mysteries in the divine Scriptures. The word says that when all these things had happened and when their eyes had been closed, then the prophetic words [4] would be sealed and concealed from them. This is exactly what the people experienced along with those who did not believe in Jesus as Messiah. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.11. [5]

[1] Consult Is 29 in more detail to make the connection between what Origen says and what Matthew says.

[2] Mt 15:8-9 is a quotation from Is 29:13. Origen argues, however, that all of the words in Is 29:9-14 apply to the people Jesus was addressing, not just what Isaiah said in Is 29:13. These allusions are to Is 29:9-14.

[3] The phrase is literally either “with madness against it” or “with madness against him.” The pronoun could be either “it” (the word) or “him” (Jesus). The same ambiguity applies in the next sentence when it refers to being drunk “against it” or “against him.” The previous lines refer to “the book” and the following lines refer to the “Scriptures” and “the prophetic words.”

[4] Is 29:11.

[5] GCS 40:51; ANF 9:439-40.