Origen of Alexandria : Just as in the case of human beings "hand" and "foot" and "eye" and "ear" and anything else so named are indicative of the members of our body, but in the case of God "hand" means his creative power, "eye" his power of oversight, "ear" his power of hearing, and "foot" the power of his presence whenever he is at work upon something: so also God's "wrath" is said to be the discipline exercised against those who err, and not a passion of God; and "repentance" is the transference of God's dispensation from one course of action to another. For what we do when we repent — that is, we flee the things for which we felt regret, and pursue other, better things — this is what is called God's "repentance." Why? Because it was necessary for the prophets to discourse about God in a more bodily manner to those of the dullest understanding, so that it might be grasped. For those who supposed the images which they carved and cast to be gods — indeed, even irrational things — how could they have grasped what is said about God through spiritual concepts and words? If God foreknows all things, and is not angered or brought to repentance on the basis of things he comes to know afterward, then anger or repentance is not a passion of God; rather, the work of the "wrath" is punishment, and likewise the work of the "repentance" is a withdrawal from the former course and a transference to the other dispensation. So too it is said concerning the sword: "Sword, be sharpened and slay"; so too a "hand of iron" is named (Solomon: "that it may deliver you from the hand of iron") and "of a sword" (as David says: "into the hands of the sword"). So too God's wrath is said "to be angry," and sin to "have a face," according to David, and God's wrath to have "a face," as in the thirty-seventh Psalm, and the rivers to "clap with their hands." But neither do rivers have hands nor do sins have a face. Let us not, then, on account of the things said in a bodily way about God — as the ancients were able to receive them — suppose God to be a body, or that he is filled with passions. The changeableness of human judgment must not be attributed to God; for it is we ourselves who, in our own case, bring about the turns of the divine dispensation that justly come upon us, showing ourselves through our deeds unworthy of the honor granted by God. So then, having condemned Saul and wishing to hand over the affairs of rule to David and to preserve the kingdom for his seed — on account of the King of all creation who was to be born from him according to the flesh — God used human words, speaking to human beings, and said, "I have repented that I anointed Saul as king," instead of, "I wish to give the rule of the kingdom to another, and to make this one cease from his dominion." The "I have repented" on account of Saul means this: he made himself so unworthy of the kingdom that, if indeed I had a nature that repents, I would have changed my mind about him. Why, then, was he anointed? Because at that time he was worthy. But having turned, he again became unworthy. — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 4