How does Origen interpret the ark of Noah and its dimensions as a symbol of the Church, the house of salvation?

Origen interprets the ark of Noah and its dimensions in a symbolic way that refers to the Church of Christ. He says, “The width has the number fifty which has been consecrated as the number of forgiveness and remission. For according to the law there was a remission in the fiftieth year … Therefore Christ, the spiritual Noah, in his ark in which he frees the human race from destruction, that is, in his Church, has established in its breadth the number fifty, the number of forgiveness. For if he had not given forgiveness of sins to those who believe, the breadth of the Church would not have been spread around the world”¹⁰⁵⁸

Here, forgiveness was symbolized by the number “fifty” but without any reference to the Pentecostal liturgy, which we can find in a different place: “the order of the fifty—the number which embraces the remission of sins, in accordance with the mystery of the Jubilee which took place every fifty years, and of the feast at Pentecost (Lev. 25:11).”¹⁰⁵⁹

This symbolism of Pentecost as signifying forgiveness has a particular importance for Origen for in the seven liturgical weeks he sees the figure of the age-long weeks of weeks through which is achieved the complete forgiveness of all sins and the restoration of all humanity in its perfection through successive existences: “We must also inquire whether the words written about feasts or public festivals that take place according to days or months or seasons or years may be given a higher reference to ages [ aeons ] (cf. Gal. 4:10). For if the Law has a shadow of things to come (cf. Heb. 10:1), it is necessary that the many sabbaths are a ‘shadow’ of many days of some kind and that new moons are fixed at intervals of time and accomplished by the conjunction of I do not know what moon and sun.”¹⁰⁶⁰

1057 Origen, In Lib. Issu Nave 3.5 (Battenson, p. 3360–7).

1058 Origen, Homilies on Genesis 2.5 (FOTC 71:83).

1059 Origen, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 11.3 (ANF 10:433; PG 13:908A).

1060 Origen, “On Prayer” in Origen, An Exhortation to Martyrdom: Prayer, First Principles: Book IV, Prologue to the Commentary on the Song of Songs , Homily XXVII on Numbers, trans. Rowan A. Greer (NY: Paulist Press, 1979) 27.14: p. 145.

It is interesting to notice that Origen, in his Homilies on Numbers, found in Scripture the implication that Pentecost is a symbol of forgiveness: “We have often and abundantly shown in many passages of the Scriptures that the number fifty contains the mystery of forgiveness and pardon. For there is both the fiftieth year which is called Jubilee by the Hebrews, in which there is remission of property, slavery and debt. There is also the tradition in the law that the fiftieth day after Passover is a feast day. Moreover, in the Gospel, when the Lord was teaching the parable of forgiveness and pardon, he introduces some debtors, ‘one who owed fifty denarii and the other five hundred’ (Luke 7:41).”¹⁰⁶¹