ACC ~ Titus 1 v14

SPIRITUAL VERSUS LITERAL INTERPRETATION. ORIGEN: Let us see, however, what sort of rule of interpretation the apostle Paul taught us about these matters. Writing to the Corinthians he says in a certain passage, “For we know that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all were baptized in Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. And they drank of the spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.” Do you see how much Paul’s teaching differs from the literal meaning? What the Jews supposed to be a crossing of the sea, Paul calls a baptism. What they supposed to be a cloud, Paul asserts is the Holy Spirit. … What then are we to do who received such instructions about interpretation from Paul, a teacher of the church? Does it not seem right that we apply this kind of rule which was delivered to us in a similar way in other passages? Or as some wish, forsaking these things which such a great apostle taught, should we turn again to “Jewish fables”? HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5.1.

ORIGEN: But the apostles, who were about to say, “If you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing,” and who were also about to say, “Let no one judge you in food, or in drink, or in participation of a feast day, or in new moons, or sabbaths, which are shadows of what will be,” they are prohibited from having two tunics so that they might inwardly and completely repudiate observances of this kind according to the letter of the law and not concern the disciples “with Jewish myths” and “place a yoke on them which neither they nor their fathers would have been able to bear.” But one is sufficient for them, and this one “inward.” For they do not want this tunic of the law that is external but that which comes from above. For Jesus permits them to have one, and that one is “interior.” HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 6.3.

CONFUSING PAST AND PRESENT, FALSE AND TRUE. CHRYSOSTOM: The Jewish tenets were fables in two ways, because they were imitations and because the thing was past its season, for such things become fables at last. For when a thing ought not to be done, and being done, is injurious, it is a fable even as it is useless. HOMILIES ON TITUS 3.

THEODORET OF CYR: Paul uses the term “Jewish fables” not to describe the law but the interpretation of the law put forward by the Jews. The Lord accuses them of this very thing when he says, “Why do you transgress the law for the sake of your own traditions?” INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO TITUS.

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