The interpretation timeline

Num 25:10

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

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Num 25:10 · Douay-Rheims
“And the Lord said to Moses:”
Patristic before A.D. 750
254
A.D.
Origen Patristic
c. A.D. 184–253
“And lest we appear to you to bring these things forth from our own understanding rather than from the authority of the divine Scriptures, go back to the book of Numbers and recall what Phinehas the priest did when he saw a harlot of the Midianite people with an Israelite man clinging in impure embraces in the eyes of all. Filled with the wrath of divine jealousy, he drove a sword, which he had seized, through the breast of both. This work was imputed to him by God for righteousness when the Lord says, "Phinehas appeased my rage, and it shall be imputed to him for righteousness." That earthly food of anger therefore becomes our food when we use it rationally for righteousness.”
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.