Bede : Now there was there a man of the servants of Saul... and his name was Doeg, etc. There were among the preaching apostles false brothers, the foremost being Judas; indeed within the Church, constituted by the mystery of faith, but moved from the firmness of their stability, bloodthirsty to betray the peace of fraternity (for Doeg is called the Edomite, a bloodthirsty man), the most powerful of the Jewish persecutors, because he received it recently. Nor do I think it should be overlooked that this Doeg, according to the Septuagint interpreters, was not merely any shepherd, but a muleteer; evidently, a shepherd of a sterile and unfruitful flock. For we know a mule, because it is a hybrid from a mare and a donkey, just as conversely a hinny from a stallion and a she-donkey, tends to seek the pleasure of mating without the fruit of generating. Their works are similar to the unfruitful works of darkness, produced from a defiled seed, so to speak, of luxurious or deceitful thoughts. For both animals are equally lustful. Whence it is said of certain ones: "Whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is as the issue of horses" (Ezekiel 23). But the donkey's kind, moreover, with more acute sense, is always intent upon deceptions and snares. By these same wicked works, accumulating to a greater degree, with any movement itself from justice, and he is prompt to weave frauds against the just, he is placed in charge with impious zeal, as if feeding, Doeg the Edomite is preferred over the flock of mules. — Commentary on Samuel Origen of Alexandria : "The Neessar": this indicates either that Doeg the Edomite was detained on account of sin, being tended before the Lord and making confession, or that, being demon-possessed like Saul, he was not out pasturing the she-mules. — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 11 Origen of Alexandria : Saul bears the type of the evil spirit, when Israel, then taking rule to itself, said, "We have no king." For indeed the people of old, having despised the Lord who reigned over them, asked that Saul be given to them as ruler. — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 12