At the last Catechesis Colloquium in San Francisco, Elizabeth Jones, one of the respondents, made an extraordinarily profound comment. Reflecting on Origen’s view that the Israelites’ crossing of the Red Sea marked the entrance into the catechumenate, not baptism (as most other patristic commentators typed the event), she wondered aloud about the implications for life on the other side of the Jordan for those of have not walked through the “desert” of catechesis. She asked:
“How many of us have crossed the Red Sea, thinking that it was the Jordan, but actually we’ve just entered the desert? …. What have we lost by not having that desert experience, not having our soul formed [through catechesis]? Are we not even able to experience the promised land, in a way, because we’re not prepared for it?”
Her question, which warrants further reflection on its own, inspired me to revisit Origen’s comments about the Jordan River as baptism and the Red Sea as entrance into the catechumenate. He references this in a couple of places, but mostly in his fourth and fifth homilies on the Book of Joshua.
The editor of the latest English volume, Cynthia White, notes that Origen did consider the Red Sea as a type of baptism, in addition to entrance into the catechumenate:
Origen considered both the crossing of the Red Sea and the crossing of the Jordan as types of baptism, depending on his text. In Homilies on Exodus 5.5, the Red Sea stood for baptism; in Commentary on John 6.43–44 (FOTC 80:229–31), the Jordan stood for it. Even in Homilies on Numbers, where he interpreted the wilderness journey as stages in the Christian life after baptism, he could still reference the Jordan crossing as baptism (26.4), though he also saw it eschatologically as the flumen Dei (27.5). But in these Homilies [on Joshua], with the emphasis on Jesus as “the leader of a new way” [novi itineris dux], the crossing of the Red Sea with Moses marks the entrance into the catechumenate (as noted in the next paragraph of the Homily), while baptism and the beginning of the battles of the Christian life are identified with the crossing of the Jordan. (FC 105:51-52n7)
The Joshua homilies are focused around Joshua as the prefiguration of Jesus, who serves as a successor to Moses. This typological connection funds the emphasis on the Jordan as the entrance into baptism, for it is entrance into the the death and resurrection of Christ (Rom. 6) that marks entrance into Christ’s body. If it is Christ who leads us into the promised land, then baptism fits more neatly into the Jordan River crossing. This is what causes Origen to “revise” the view of the Red Sea crossing as entrance into the catechumenate instead of baptism.
The great patristics scholar Jean Daniélou also comments on Origen’s distinctive systematic organization of the two river crossings. Whereas both crossings had been used in Christian tradition indifferently to refer to baptism, Origen provided a unique stamp by organizing them chronologically. For Origen, Daniélou notes, “the entire journey, from the departure from Egypt to the arrival in the Promised Land, prefigures the various stages in the process of initiation into Christianity” (Origen, 58).
Origen comments on the Jordan River crossing mostly in his fourth and fifth homilies on Joshua. In the fourth, he sets up the connection between the Old Testament sign and its present day signification.
In the Jordan, the ark of the covenant was the leader for the people of God. The order of priests and Levites stand together, and the waters, as though signifying a certain respect, hold back their course for the ministers of God and are heaped up together into a mass, yielding a harmless journey for the people of God. Lest you marvel when these deeds concerning the former people are applied to you, O Christian, the divine word promises much greater and loftier things for you who, through the sacrament of baptism, have parted the waters of the Jordan, promises a way and a passage for you through the air itself. … (Hom. Jos. 4.1; FC 105: 51-52)
Addressing what appear to be catechumens, Origen textures their experience as a forsaking of Egypt, withdrawing to the Wilderness, submitting to the precepts of the Church, and—in an interesting turn of phrase—devoting oneself to “looking upon the face of Moses,” which I take to be both an instruction in the Old Testament itself as well as the literal meaning of Scripture:
Indeed you who long to draw near to the hearing of the divine law have recently forsaken the darkness of idolatry and are now for the first time forsaking Egypt. When you are reckoned among the number of catechumens and have undertaken to submit to the precepts of the Church, you have parted the Red Sea and, placed in the stations of the desert, you daily devote yourself to hearing the Law of God and to looking upon the face of Moses, through which the glory of the Lord is revealed. But if you also have entered [p. 53] the mystic font of baptism and in the presence of the priestly and Levitical order have been instructed by those venerable and magnificent sacraments, which are known to those who are permitted to know those things, then, with the Jordan parted, you will enter the land of promise by the services of the priests. In this land, Jesus receives you after Moses, and becomes for you the leader of a new way. (Hom. Jos. 4.1; FC 105: 52-53)
Origen later explains why it is that the Jordan is the most fitting sign for baptism:
What great things were manifested before [i.e., in the OT]! The Red Sea was crossed on foot, manna was given from heaven, springs were burst open in the wilderness, the Law was given through Moses. Many signs and marvels were performed in the wilderness, but nowhere is it said that Jesus was “exalted.” But where the Jordan is crossed, there it is said to Jesus, “In this day I am beginning to exalt you in the sight of the people” (Jos. 3:7). Indeed, Jesus is not exalted before the mystery of baptism. But his exaltation, even his exaltation in the sight of the people, assumes a beginning from then on. If “all who are baptized [into Christ Jesus] are baptized into his death” (Rom. 6:3), and the death of Jesus is made complete by the exaltation of the cross, deservedly then, Jesus is first exalted for each of the faithful when that person arrives at the mystery of baptism. (Hom. Jos. 4.2; FC 105:53)
In the conclusion to the homily, Origen reflects on the joy and exultation that follows after—and only after—the preparation in the wilderness.
For after the labors and temptations that we shall have borne in the wilderness of this world, after the crossing of the Red Sea, after the waves of the Jordan, if we shall have been worthy to enter the land of promise, we shall arrive with gladness and exultation, following the priests of the Lord, our Christ and Savior, to whom is “the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen! (Hom. Jos. 4.4; FC 105:57-58)
In the fifth homily, Origen continues this line of thought, now with more reflection on Paul’s typology of baptism in 1 Corinthians and also with the beatitudes. He also pauses to dwell on the particular meaning of the Israelites’ “hasty” crossing.
Concerning those indeed, who passed through the Red Sea, the Apostle said, “All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Cor. 10:1). But concerning those who passed through the Jordan, we also can proclaim that all were baptized into Jesus in the Jordan, so that those things that are reported to have happened in the Jordan may hold the sign of the sacrament that is celebrated through baptism.
But note what is written: “And the people hastened and crossed the Jordan. And it came to pass when all the people had passed through, the ark of the covenant of the Lord also crossed” (Jos. 4:10-11). It seems to me the words, “the people hastened to cross” were not added idly by the Holy Spirit. For this reason, I also think that when we come to baptism for salvation and receive the sacraments of the Word of God, we should not do it idly or negligently, but we should hurriedly press on all the way until we cross over everything.
For to cross over everything is to accomplish all the things that are commanded. Therefore let us hasten to cross, that is, to fulfill at the beginning, what is written: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3). Then, when we have set aside all arrogance and taken up the humility of Christ, we may deserve to attain the blessed promise.
Yet even when we have accomplished this, we must not stand still or loiter, but cross over the other things that follow, so that “we may hunger and thirst after righteousness” [Matt. 5:6]. We must also cross over that which follows so that in this world “we may mourn” [Matt. 5:5]. Then we must quickly cross the remaining things so that we may be made “meek” and remain “peaceable” and thus be able to hear as “sons of God” [Matt. 5:4, 9]. Also we must hasten so that we may pass through the burden of persecution with the virtue of patience. Whenever we seek earnestly and swiftly—not slowly and languidly—those individual things that pertain to the glory of virtue, this, it seems to me, is “to cross over the Jordan with haste.” But when we have crossed over and have been able to possess what we ought to possess, again we should take care to continue with diligence and caution, so that we may not slip and unexpectedly fall because we are walking negligently, just as the prophet says, “My feet have almost slipped” (Ps. 73:2). Indeed our solicitude should not be more slack in preserving than in procuring the virtues.
Origen’s admonishments to attend diligently to catechetical preparation is echoed in another key passage where Origen discusses catechesis. In Contra Celsum 3.8, responding to the charge that Christians only persuaded the gullible and the simple, Origen provides a description of the ideal process of initiation, in which newcomers are carefully scrutinized and instructed:
And if they are not to be blamed for so doing, let us see whether Christians do not exhort multitudes to the practice of virtue in a greater and better degree than they. For the philosophers who converse in public do not pick and choose their hearers, but he who likes stands and listens. The Christians, however, having previously, so far as possible, tested the souls of those who wish to become their hearers, and having previously instructed them in private, when they appear (before entering the community) to have sufficiently evinced their desire towards a virtuous life, introduce them then, and not before, privately forming one class of those who are beginners, and are receiving admission, but who have not yet obtained the mark of complete purification; and another of those who have manifested to the best of their ability their intention to desire no other things than are approved by Christians; and among these there are certain persons appointed to make inquiries regarding the lives and behaviour of those who join them, in order that they may prevent those who commit acts of infamy from coming into their public assembly, while those of a different character they receive with their whole heart, in order that they may daily make them better. (CC 3.8; New Advent)
There's such a depth of wisdom in Origen’s connection of the Red Sea crossing with the catechumenate. It’s not simply a clever typology but a sensitive reflection on how catechumens actually come to baptism. The journey to baptism is often just as important to the Christian life as the journey afterwards. While this is not to detract from the utter novelty—the new birth—of the Christian life at baptism and the washing away completely of the old life, it is also true that the way in which catechumens are “set up” to approach baptism significantly shapes their understanding of the faith. For Origen, catechumens, like those crossing the Jordan, were to do so “with haste.” But this haste referred not to speed but to the diligence with which one sought after virtue and a reformation of life: “when we come to baptism for salvation and receive the sacraments of the Word of God, we should not do it idly or negligently, but we should hurriedly press on all the way until we cross over everything.” To recover this understanding of “haste” would be a marvelous achievement in an age that idolizes speed at the expense of virtue.