Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IX/Origen on John/Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John/Book VI/Chapter 33

33.&#160; A Lamb Was Offered at the Morning and Evening Sacrifice.&#160; Significance of This.

Now we find the lamb offered in the continual (daily) sacrifice.&#160; Thus it is written, &#8220;This is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually, for a continual sacrifice.&#160; The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning, and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and a tenth part of fine flour mingled with beaten oil, the fourth part of a hin; and for a drink-offering the fourth part of a bin of wine to the first lamb.&#160; And the other lamb thou shalt offer in the evening, according to the first sacrifice and according to its drink-offering.&#160; Thou shalt offer a sweet savour, an offering to the Lord, a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of tent of witness before the Lord, where I will make myself known to thee, to speak unto thee.&#160; And I will appoint thee for the children of Israel, and I will be sanctified in my glory, and with sanctification I will sanctify the tent of witness.&#8221;&#160; But what other continual sacrifice can there be to the man of reason in the world of mind, but the Word growing to maturity, the Word who is symbolically called a lamb and who is offered as soon as the soul receives illumination.&#160; This would be the continual sacrifice of the morning, and it is offered again when the sojourn of the mind with divine things comes to an end.&#160; For it cannot maintain for ever its intercourse with higher things, seeing that the soul is appointed to be yoked together with the body which is of earth and heavy.