Miriam DeCock: Origen’s Homiletic Discernment of the Voice of God in the Old Testament Psalms and the Prophets

In her Hermeneutical Procedure and Theological Structure in Origen’s Exegesis, Karen Jo Torjesen demonstrated that for Origen, the reader of the Old Testament encountered the Logos through the mediation of the biblical author’s encounter with the Logos, whereas in the New Testament, one encountered the Logos directly. In this paper, I will highlight another subject’s mediation of the Logos in the context of Origen’s Old Testament exegesis, namely, that of the (spiritually mature and technically rigorous) homiletic exegete. In order to examine Origen’s understanding of the homilist’s mediating role in discerning the communication of the Logos in the Old Testament, we will examine several passages from his recently discovered Greek Homilies on the Psalms and from his Greek Homilies on Jeremiah(HomPs15 1.2, 7; 73 1.2-4 andHomJer1.16; 4.1–2; 19.10-11, 15). In both works, we catch glimpses of Origen’s understanding of the interplay between the exegetical homilist’s skill and the divine grace revealed. His comments take the form of prayers to the Trinity for insight concerning a given verse, invitations to his hearers to “see” with him, the divine revelation that is given in the very moment of his preaching, and expressions ofthanksgiving to the Trinity for the provision of said insight concerning the verse’s meaning and import forhis hearers. I will gesture toward the differences in Origen’s articulation of his mediating role as the exegetical homilist with respect to the two different biblical genres.