Cosmas Indicopleustes : from the prophecy of Lamech, the father of Noah, we learn that Noah, by means of the world-carrying Ark, was to convey men and the brute beasts into this earth of ours, for the prophecy runs somewhat to this effect: This same shall give us rest concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord God hath cursed. For this reason also Lamech gave Noah his name, which means rest — The Christian Topography, Book 2 Cosmas Indicopleustes : Fifthly, again, we are taught through Lamech the father of Noah, who prophesied and said that his son would deliver us from toils and the curse, and would conduct us to the enjoyment of a better condition. — The Christian Topography, Book 6 Jerome : (Verse 29.) And he called his name Noah, saying: This one shall bring us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. — Hebrew Questions on Genesis Origen of Alexandria : But now, first beseeching Him who alone can take away the veil from the reading of the Old Testament, let us try to inquire what this magnificent construction of the ark also contains of spiritual edification. I think, then, so far as I for the smallness of my understanding am able to attain it, that that flood, by which an end was then almost given to the world, holds the figure of that end of the world which will truly come. This the Lord Himself also declared, saying: "For as in the days of Noah they bought, sold, built, married, and gave in marriage, and the flood came, and destroyed all: so also shall be the coming of the Son of man." In which He evidently designates one and the same figure of the flood which preceded and of the end of the world which He says will come. As, therefore, it was then said to that Noah, that he should make an ark and bring into it with himself not only his sons and his kinsmen, but also animals of diverse kinds, so also to our Noah, who alone is truly just and alone perfect, the Lord Jesus Christ, it was said by the Father, at the consummation of the ages, that He should make for Himself an ark out of squared timbers and give it measures filled with heavenly mysteries. For this is designated in the Psalm, where it says: "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession." He builds, therefore, the ark and makes in it nests, that is, certain storerooms, in which animals of diverse kinds may be received. Of which the prophet also says: "Go, my people, enter into your storerooms, hide yourself for a little while, until the fury of my wrath passes by." This people, then, which is saved in the Church, is compared to all those, whether men or animals, which were saved in the ark. But since the merit of all is not one, nor is the advancement in faith one, therefore the ark too does not furnish one and the same dwelling to all these, but the lower parts are double-chambered and the upper parts triple-chambered, and nests are distinguished in it, so as to show that in the Church also, although all are contained within one faith and are washed by one baptism, nevertheless the advancement is not one and the same for all, "but each in his own order." Those indeed who live by rational knowledge and are fit not only to govern themselves, but also to teach others, since they are found to be very few, hold the figure of the few who are saved with Noah himself and are joined to him by the nearest kinship, just as our Lord too, the true Noah, Christ Jesus, has few kinsmen, few sons and relatives, who are partakers of His word and capable of His wisdom. And these are they who are placed in the highest rank and are settled in the top of the ark. But the rest, the multitude of irrational animals or even beasts, is held in the lower places, and most of all those whose savage ferocity not even the sweetness of faith has softened. But somewhat above these are those who, though they keep less of reason, keep nevertheless very much of simplicity and innocence. And thus, as one ascends through the individual ranks of dwellings, one arrives at Noah himself, who is interpreted as 'rest' or 'just,' who is Christ Jesus. For it does not fit that Noah what his father Lamech says: "for this one," he says, "will give us rest from the works and from the sorrows of our hands and from the earth which the Lord God cursed." For how will it be true that that Noah gave rest to that Lamech or to the people who were then held on the earth, or how did the sorrows and toil cease in the times of Noah, or how was the curse of the earth, which the Lord had given, taken away, where rather both the divine anger is shown to be greater and God is related to say, "It repents me that I made man upon the earth," and again He says, "I will destroy all flesh which is upon the earth," and above all the sign of the highest offense, the destruction of the living, is given? But if you look to our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it is said, "behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sin of the world," and again of whom it is said, "having been made a curse for us, that He might redeem us from the curse of the law," and again when He says, "come to me, you who labor and are heavily laden, and I will refresh you, and you shall find rest for your souls," you will find that this is He who truly gave rest to men and freed the earth from the curse with which the Lord God cursed it. To this spiritual Noah, then, who gave rest to men and took away the sin of the world, it is said: "You shall make for yourself an ark out of squared timbers." — HOMILIES ON Genesis 2.3 Origen of Alexandria : Pray that your flight may not happen in winter or on the Sabbath. God made the works of the world in six days and rested on the Sabbath (but he "rested from the works" of the world which he had begun to make); yet the works of righteousness he always works, without beginning, and will work without end. So too, before the coming of Christ, the whole race of men wrought all the works of the world, and no one rested from them, keeping a perpetual Sabbath from good works. But when our Lord came—our Sabbath and our rest—he brought to us the rest of his Sabbath, so that, just as he rested on the Sabbath from the works of the world, yet did not rest from the works of righteousness, so too we, through him, might keep Sabbath from the worldly and carnal and harmful works, but might always practice the works of righteousness. And that he himself was going to bring us a Sabbath of this kind, in which we do no servile work, he himself bears witness through the prophet, speaking thus of the unworthy Jews: "until I swore in my wrath: they shall not enter into my rest". And again Lamech, in imposing on his son the name Noah in a mystery of Christ, spoke thus of him: "and he called his name Noah, saying: this one shall give us rest from our sorrows and from the works of our hands and from the earth, which the Lord has cursed". Everyone, therefore, who lives in Christ always lives in the Sabbath and rests in rest, resting from evil works, but he works the works of righteousness without ceasing. But many, having the name of Christ, not the grace, on the contrary keep Sabbath from good works, but work evil works. And the middling sort sometimes give up the Sabbath-keeping of evil works and keep Sabbath from good works, not working good things but evil. But certain ones both keep Sabbath from evil works, yet do not practice good works, whereas one ought not only to flee evil things but also to practice good ones. On such a Sabbath, then, of good works—when the Christian man does not do good works—Christ commands us to pray that our flight may not happen on it. For when you cease from good works, if indeed you stand before the face of the abomination and of your own accord submit yourself to it, you have willingly died by the sword of the lying word. But if you should wish to flee and the abomination of desolation should pursue you: either it will break you by its persecutions, because your good works do not work in you the virtue of patience; or it will capture you by its seductions, because your good works do not work in you the light of understanding. For no one in such a peril of false doctrine is easily overcome and deceived, except one who is stripped of good works. Therefore the Apostle too says concerning this very peril: "because they did not receive the love of the truth, he will give them the working of error, that they may believe the lie, that all may be judged who did not believe the truth but consented to iniquity". But when we shall have seen "the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place", we shall also see a great tribulation at hand, such as was not made from the beginning of the world until that very one, nor shall be afterward. For what greater tribulation is there than to see our brothers seduced, on account of the holy place, by the abomination of desolation standing in it? And if indeed the bodily death of some friend or neighbor works great tribulation for one who has not been prepared to endure it, what tribulation do you suppose comes to be for him who suffers-together, when one member has suffered, and for him who is even set on fire, when some brother has been made to stumble? But if anyone should see himself moved and disturbed by the abomination "of desolation" as though it were not the abomination of desolation, and should see himself imperiled on account of the love which he has for the holy place, so that he almost consents to that abomination as though it were God and hands himself over to the abomination as though to God, how great a tribulation do you suppose he is troubled with—such as was not for him from the beginning, from when he came into the world, until that time? But neither will any other such tribulation ever be able to seize him, and most of all if one is drawn to reckon "the abomination standing in the holy place" to be not "the abomination of desolation", but God the Word. Furthermore, even if someone should indeed see plainly "the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place", and should follow it, taking to himself an excuse from the divine Scriptures, as though it were a matter of indifference and permitted to deny Christianity—saying that denial is not denial, and reckoning the foods of things sacrificed to be as though harming nothing the one who eats them (bringing forward examples from the Scriptures), and that it is indifferently permitted at one and the same time to be joined to diverse women, as though the fathers too did these things of old—greater than all these sins is the abomination of desolation, that is, the word which takes its stand in the place of the holy Scriptures, speaking "iniquity on high" and persuading men to depart from the Creator, who alone is also the true God, and to believe in some other god I know not whom above this one, to whom none is like, though our Savior, being such as he is, says: "the Father, who sent me, is greater than me". A great tribulation, therefore, is generated by the abomination of desolation standing "in the holy place", so that such things as these are said of it: and unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been made safe; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened. And so great and so great a tribulation comes to be in that abomination of desolation, that God works a shortening of the days of that tribulation, cutting off the superfluity of them which is added by the abomination of desolation. For otherwise it is not possible that all the flesh which is to be healed should be healed, unless it should receive a shortening from God. Those days are understood as the precepts and doctrines of the truth set in the Scriptures for the illumination of the souls that understand. But all the understandings coming from the "knowledge of the false name", which are added to and joined to the words of the Scriptures—understand these, I pray you, to be additions upon the natural magnitude of the days of Scripture; and this addition the good God shortens through whom he wills. And as often as you see, at the coming of the word of truth into your understanding, the heights that exalt themselves "against the knowledge of God" being cut off, so often understand that the days of tribulation are shortened and that the superfluous magnitude is circumcised, which, contrary to nature, the abomination of desolation always adds to the days of the Lord that are in the Scriptures. And for the sake of the elect those days are shortened, so that, seeing in their understanding the cutting-off of the superfluity of the days and that light alone remaining which is according to the word of truth, they may suffer nothing from the abomination of desolation, or from that which had been added upon the true and natural days of the Scriptures. — COMMENTARY ON Matthew 45