Passing The Walls

Ἀνάστα ἐλθέ ἡ πλησίον μου καλή μου περιστερά μου καὶ ἐλθὲ σύ περιστερά μου ἐν σκέπῃ τῆς πέτρας ἐχόμενα τοῦ προτειχίσματος· δεῖξόν μοι τὴν ὄψιν σου καὶ ἀκούτισόν με τὴν φωνήν σου ὅτι ἡ φωνή σου ἡδεῖα καὶ ἡ ὄψις σου ὡραία Βούλεται τὴν ψυχὴν ὑπερβῆναι τὰ αἰσθητά· ὡς ἐπὶ πόλεως δὲ τεῖχος καὶ προτείχισμα, τὸν αἰσθητὸν κόσμον κελαῖ· δεῖ οὖν τὴν τῷ λόγῳ κοινωνοῦσαν ψυχὴν ἐν σκέπῃ τῆς πέτρας, οὐ μόνον ἔξω τοῦ τείχους τῆς πόλεως, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ προτειχίσματος γενέσθαι· ὡς πλησίον γενομένην ἀνακεκαλυμμένῳ προσώπῳ τὴν δόξαν τοῦ Κυρίου κατοπτρίζεσθαι· πειθομένην τῷ λέγονται Δειξόν μου τὴν ὅψιν σου· ἐπιθυμεῖ δὲ καὶ ιαλεγομενῆς ἀκοῦσαι, τὴν φωνὴν ὡς ἡδεῖαν θαυμάζων· προετείχισμα δέ ἐστιν, ὅπερ Ἠσαῖας περίτειχον ὀνομάζει, λέγων· θήσει τεῖχος, ἤ περίτειχος· βούλεται τοίνυν τῶν σωματικῶν ἐξελθοῦσαν, οὐ μόνον ἐν τῷ τείχει γενέσθαι, ὅπερ εἴναι τὸν περὶ τοῦ κσμοῦ λόγον νομίζω, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐχόμενα τοῦ προτειχίσματος· ὅς λόγος μέν ἐστι τελευταῖος τῶν σωματικῶν, ἀρχὴ δὲ τῶν ἀσωμάτων. Ὠριγένης, Εἰς Τo Ἀσμα Των Ἀσμάτων, Κεφάλαιον Β' Source: Migne PG 17 264d-266a

Rise up, my dear one, my beauty, and come, my dove, in the clefts of the stone, in the hollows of outwork. Show me your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet as your face is fair. 1 He wishes that his soul pass beyond sensible things, and speaks of the material world being a wall of a city and an outwork. The soul, then, should, participating in reason, in the cleft of the rock, not only go outside the city walls, but also be beyond the outwork, that being nearer to the face uncovered, it look on the glory of the Lord, and having being persuaded in the speech, 'Show me your face,' he yet also desires to hear the one speaking, amazed at the sweetness of the voice. The outwork is the same which Isaiah named the exterior wall, saying, 'He has placed a wall,' or an outwork. 2 He wishes then to be released from corporeal things, not only not to be within the wall, that is, so I think, in the world, but even in the hollows of the outwork, which is the limits of the corporeal, which signifies the beginning of the incorporeal. Origen, from the Commentary On The Song Of Songs, Chapter 2 1 Song 2.13-14 2 Isa 26.1