Sin hands the soul to a spiritual Babylon
See then how great an evil it is to sin, so that people are handed over to Satan, who takes captive the souls of those left by God. God does not leave without cause, and not without judgment, those he has left. For when he sends the rain on the vineyard, and the vineyard bears thorns instead of grapes, what will God do but 'command the clouds not to rain' on the vineyard?
Because of our sins a captivity hangs over us too, and we are about to be handed over, if we do not repent, to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, so that the spiritual Babylonians may tear us. With these things hanging over us, the words of the prophets, the words of the Law, the words of the apostles, the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, speak to us about repentance and call us to a turning. If we hear, let us believe the one who said, 'I also will repent of all the evils which I spoke of doing to them.' So much for the preface.
Greek
ὅρα οὖν πηλίκον κακόν ἐστι τὸ ἁμαρτάνειν, ἵνα παραόοθῶσι τῷ σατανᾷ αἰχμαλωτίζοντι τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν ἐγκαταλειπομένων μένων ὑπὸ θεοῦ, οὐκ ἀναιτίως δὲ οὐδὲ ἀκρίτως ἐγκαταλιπόντος θεοῦ, οὓς ἐγκατέλιπε· ἐπὰν γὰρ πέμψῃ τὸν ὑετὸν ἐπὶ τὸν ἀμπελῶνα, ὁ δὲ ἀμπελὼν φέρῃ ἀντὶ σταφυλῆς ἀκάνθας, τί ποιήσει ὁ θεὸς ἢ >ταῖς νεφέλαις ἐντελεῖται τοῦ μὴ βρέξαι ὑετὸν> ἐπὶ τὸν ἀμπελῶνα; ἐπίκειται διὰ τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν καὶ ἡμῖν αἰχμαλωσία καὶ μέλλομεν παραδίδοσθαι, ἐὰν μὴ μετανοῶμεν, τῷ Ναβουχοδονόσορ καὶ τοῖς Βαβυλωνίοις, ἵνα ἡμᾶς σπαράξωσιν οἱ νοητοὶ Βαβυλώνιοι. ἐπικειμένων τούτων οἱ λόγοι τῶν προφητῶν, οἱ λόγοι τοῦ νόμου, οἱ λόγοι τῶν ἀποστόλων, οἱ λόrοι τοῦ κυρίου καὶ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ λέγουσιν ἡμῖν περὶ μετανοίας, παρακαλοῦσιν ἡμᾶς εἰς ἐπιστροφήν· ἐὰν ἀκούσωμεν, πιστεύωμεν τῷ εἰρηκότι· «μετανοήσω κἀγὼ περὶ πάντων τῶν κακῶν ὡν ἐλάλησα τοῦ ποιῆσαι αὐτοῖς. ταῦτα μὲν εἰς τὸ προοίμιον.
About this text
Origen on Jeremiah. Twenty Greek homilies survive. This page publishes the Pass B English for Homilies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Homily 8 remains a machine draft and is not shipped yet. The rest of the volume is still being translated.
English follows Erich Klostermann, Origenes Werke III (GCS, 1901). A second transcription of that same edition (First1KGreek TEI) was checked; where the TEI drops or garbles a line, the page image wins. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition of the Greek. Homilies that survive only in Jerome’s Latin are not on this page yet. When they are, they will be marked at those homilies.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Klostermann, Origenes Werke III (GCS, 1901) (Greek · Homilies 1–20 Greek (this page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20))
- Checked print Archive.org page image and DjVu of GCS III (Greek · Same print as the copy-text)
- Checked print First1KGreek TEI of GCS III (Greek · Same print; encoding errors deferred to the page image)
Where the prints differ
- Homily 1.1 — The TEI omits Ἑβραῖον. English follows the GCS page image: Jonah is “a Hebrew prophet.”
- Homily 1.5 — The TEI dropped Ἰσαάκ. English follows the GCS page image: Isaac born of promise.
- Homily 1.11 — The TEI/OCR of this line is garbled. English follows the GCS page image and the quoted verse: “I have sanctified you.”
- Homily 3.2 — The TEI gaps Matthew 5:45 (sun on the evil and [gap]; rain on [gap] and the unjust). English follows the Gospel wording.
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.