Scarlet Fire

Videamus ergo qua ratione coccum dixerit duplicatum. Color iste, ut diximus, ignis indicat elementum. Ignis autem duplicem habet virtutem, unam qua illuminat, aliam qua incendit. Haec est historiae ratio. Veniamus et ad intellectualia. Etiam in ipsis ignis duplex est. Est ignis quidam in hoc saeculo, est et in futuro. Dominus Jesus dicit, 'Ignem veni mittere in terram.' Ignis iste illuminat. Item rursus Dominus dicet in futuro operariis iniquitatis: ' Ite in ignem aeternum, quem praeparavit Pater meus diabolo et angelis ejus.' Ille ignis incendit. Verumtamen iste ignis, quem venit mittere Jesus, illuminat quidem omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum, habet tamen aliquid quod et incendat, sicut confitenetur illi qui dicunt, 'Nonne cor nostrum ardens erat infra nos, cum adaperiret nobis Scripturas?' Simul ergo et incendebat et illuminabat, adaperiens Scripturas. Nescio autem si et ille ignis in futuro saeculo qui incendit, habeat aliquid quod et illuminet. Est ergo, ut ostendimus, natura ignis duplex, et ideo jubetur offerri occus duplicatus. Quomodo ergo nos offerre possumus ignem istem duplicatum ad aedificium tabernaculi, videamus. Si doctor es, exstruis tabernaculi aedificans Ecclesiam Dei; dicit ergo et ad te Deus quod et ad Jeremiam dixit: 'Ecce dedi verba mea in os tuum,' id est ignem. Si ergo docens et aedificans Ecclesiam Dei, increpes tantomodo et arguas et castiges, et peccata populi exprobes, nihil autem consolationis proferas de Scripturis divinis, obscurum nihil explanes, nihil scientiae profundioris attingas, nec aliquid intelligentiae sacratiores a aperies, obtulisti quidem coccum, sed non duplicatum. Ignis enim tuus incendit tantummodo, et no illuminat. Et rursum si docens mysteria legis aperias, secretorum arcana discutias, peccantem vero non arhuas, negligentem non corripias, severitatem disciplinae non teneas, obtulisti quidem coccum, sed non duplicatum. Ignis enim tuus tantum illuminat, non accendit. Qui ergo recte offert, et recete dividit, coccum offert duplicatum, ut cum scientiae lumine igniculum serveritatis admisceat. Origenes, In Exodum Homilia XIII, Interprete Rufino Aquileiense

Let us see, therefore, for what reason Moses said 'scarlet doubled.'1 This colour, as we have said, indicates the element of fire. Fire, however, has a double power: one which enlightens, another which burns. This is the historical reason. Let us come also to the spiritual reason. Even in this fire is double. There is a certain fire in this age and in the future. The Lord Jesus says, 'I came to cast fire on the earth.' 2 That fire enlightens. Again the same Lord says in the future to the workers of iniquity: 'Go into the eternal  fire my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels.'3 That fire burns. Nevertheless, that fire which Jesus came to cast enlightens, indeed, 'every man coming into this world.'4 But it has something also which burns, as those acknowledge who say, 'Was not our heart burning within us when he opened to us the Scriptures?'5 Therefore, by opening the Scriptures he both burned and enlightened at the same time. I do not know, however, whether that fire in the world to come which burns also has power to enlighten. The nature of fire, therefore, as we have shown is double and, for that reason, it is ordered that 'scarlet doubled' be offered. Let us see, therefore, how we can offer that doubled fire for the building of the tabernacle. If you are a teacher you are erecting a tabernacle when you edify the church of God. God, therefore, says to you also what he said to Jeremiah: 'Behold I have made my words in your mouth as fire.' 6 If, therefore,when you teach and edify the Church of God, you rebuke only and reprove and censure and upbraid the sins of the people, but you offer no consolation from the Sacred Scriptures, you explain nothing obscure, you touch nothing of more profound knowledge, you do not open any more sacred understanding, you have offered scarlet, indeed, but not doubled. For your fire burns only and does not enlighten. And again, if, when you teach, you open the mysteries of the Law, you discuss hidden secrets, but you do not reprove the sinner nor correct the negligent, nor hold to severity of discipline, you have offered scarlet, to be sure, but not doubled. For your fire enlightens only; it does not burn. He, therefore, who offers rightly and divides rightly offers scarlet doubled, so that he mixes the small flame of severity with the light of knowledge Origen, Twelfth Homily on Exodus, Translated by Rufinus of Aquileia. 1 Ex 35.5 2 Lk 12.49 3 Mt 25.41 4 Jn 1.9 5 Lk 24.32 6 Jer 1.9