The interpretation timeline

Ezek 16:18

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Ezek 16:18 · Douay-Rheims
“And thou tookest thy garments of divers colours, and coveredst them: and settest my oil and my sweet incense before them.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
254
A.D.
Origen Patristic
c. A.D. 184–253
“These various clothes and beautiful garments that God has bestowed on us, if we cut them up and rip them and surround them with false teaching to deceive human beings, there is no doubt that we are covering idols with different clothing.”
254
A.D.
Origen Patristic
c. A.D. 184–253
“To me who preaches the gospel in the church, the devil always stretches out a noose, in order to confuse the whole church with my conduct.”
254
A.D.
Origen Patristic
c. A.D. 184–253
“We do not imitate anyone, but if we want to imitate anyone, we should imitate Jesus Christ.”
254
A.D.
Origen Patristic
c. A.D. 184–253
“Incense and oil are the prayer that is offered to God with understanding and in which God delights.”
254
A.D.
Origen Patristic
c. A.D. 184–253
“Whoever is born in the teaching of heretics and has taken these principles for his own faith is a child of Jerusalem the fornicator and sinner.”
166 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
420
A.D.
Jerome Patristic
c. A.D. 347–420
“We do this whenever we surround our first heresy with prudence … and all the virtues.”
420
A.D.
Jerome Patristic
c. A.D. 347–420
“(Verse 18) And you took your multicolored garments and covered them: masculine images are understood: so that every form that he had received for use, he would turn into blasphemy. But we do this whenever we surround heretical depravity with prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice, and all virtues, and under the guise of these, we deceive even the simple; so that seeing the sweet honey of virtues, they do not beware of the poison of vices. And you have set my oil and my incense before them. And you have set my bread (or as the Septuagint translated, my loaves) which I gave to you; fine flour, and oil, and honey, with which I nourished you, you have set them before them as a sweet-smelling aroma. The oil of which we have spoken above, and the incense, or the offering, of which the Psalmist proclaims: Let my prayer be directed as incense before you (Ps. 140:2); and the bread of the Presence, which we are commanded to offer to God: also the fine flour, the purest meaning of the Scriptures, and the honey, which Jonathan tasted, and his eyes were opened and he was strengthened (1 Sam. 14), miserable Jerusalem set before idols, or before male images, so that they might be for them a sweet-smelling aroma, which by their nature are sweetest and most pleasant: but while they are offered to idols and false doctrines, they are turned into bitterness.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.