Selections on Judges · §1 · Origen of Alexandria

The Spirit helped Jephthah but did not prompt his rash vow

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

Origen opens his commentary on Judges by asking how the Spirit of the Lord could be upon Jephthah when he made an unfitting vow.

And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord (Judges 11:30). If the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, how could he vow what was not fitting? For a dog could have met Jephthah as he returned. Did the Spirit make a mistake, then? Not at all. The Spirit came to help, not to suggest the absurd vow. Jephthah himself made the mistake by promising rashly.

Greek

Καὶ εῦξατο Ἱεμθάε τῷ Κυφίῳ. Εἰ Πνεῦμα Κυρίου ἐπ᾿ αὐτὸν, πῶς εὔχεται ἃ μὴ προσήκει; Ἐνῆν γὰρ καὶ κύνα ἀπαντῆσαι ἐπανιόντι τῷ Ἰεφθάε. Ἆῤ οὖν ἐσφάλη τὸ Πνεῦμα; οὐδαμῶς· ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν Πνεῦμα βοηθεῖν παραγέγονεν, οὐχ ὑποβάλλειν τὴν ἄτοπον εὐχήν· αὐτὸς δὲ σφάλλεται ἀπερισκέπτως ὑποσχόμενος.

About this text

Origen's selections on Judges, answering hard passages such as Jephthah's vow and the Shibboleth test.

Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–c. 254) wrote these selections on Judges. They are not his homilies on Judges, and they are not his notes on Judges. He addressed them to readers who found certain passages morally troubling or hard to understand. His purpose was to defend the text against objections and to explain difficult words, customs, and objects.

He responds to apparent problems such as Jephthah's rash vow, the pronunciation test used against the Ephraimites, and the temporary barrenness of Samson's mother. Origen argues that divine help and human error can be distinguished in Jephthah's case, and that the Benjamites' early defeats were a just punishment for a prior wrong.

A reader should know that the test word rendered here as "ear of grain" is the Hebrew term behind the famous "shibboleth" episode in Judges 12:6. The "books of Kingdoms" refers to what are now called the books of Samuel and Kings. The "preceding cause" of the Benjamites' punishment is the atrocity described in Judges 19–20. Origen also explains that the ephod was a priestly garment, while the theraphin were idolatrous objects.

New English from the Greek base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from Migne PG 12 (1862) (Greek)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.