Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Origen on the Ark's Animals' Poop

I have been reading some Origen lately, currently his Homilies on Genesis.  In his second homily, which is about Noah, he works through all of the details of the ark's construction in both the biblical account and in traditions handed down to fill in the gaps.  One major gap that Origen notices is that there is nothing to account for all of the excrement the animals would surely expel during their tenure upon the boat.  He explains this absence as follows,
Certainly since Scripture related nothing about the places which we said were set apart for the excrement of the animals, but tradition preserves some things, it will appear opportune that silence has been maintained on this about which reason may sufficiently teach of its importance.  And because it could less worthily be fitted to a spiritual meaning, rightly, therefore, Scripture, which rather fits its narratives to allegorical meanings, was silent about this. (Genesis Homily 2; trans. Ronald E. Heine, p. 75).  
The last sentence gives Origen's operating assumption about scripture: that it is made to be allegorized; anything that might fit a literal interpretation but not an allegorical one has been omitted - though he admits there are some traditions that try to close the gap.  

Ultimately, however, you just can't spiritualize crap.