Nations and kingdoms in the soul; the child who chooses the good
Everyone who has received words from God and has the grace of the heavenly words has received them in order 'to uproot nations and kingdoms and to pull them down.' But if it is said that everyone who has received words from God 'uproots nations and kingdoms,' do not take the nations and the kingdoms for me in a bodily way. Look at human souls, ruled by sin, as the apostle said: 'Do not let sin reign in our mortal body.' And seeing the many kinds of sins, take the nations and the kingdoms as a figure: the bad things in the souls of men, which are uprooted and pulled down by the words of God given either to Jeremiah or to anyone at all.
The first things, which press us as regards the Savior, can also fit Jeremiah; and the second things can fit Jeremiah for the one who knows how to read them as a figure. Someone among the hearers will say to me: Work the other reading too, and try to show that all that is written fits the Savior. Do not be anxious about the second things. It is clear that the Savior uprooted the kingdoms of the devil and pulled down the nations, taking away the life of the nations. Here, at what seems ill-sounding as regards the Savior, work the word somehow: how can the Savior say, 'I do not know how to speak, because I am younger,' and the rest? You see that the argument is in a tight place.
We know the Savior is Lord. We are seeking, according to the dignity of the Word and according to the truth, to refer these things to the Savior. Witnesses must be taken from the Scriptures. For our guesses, if they have no witness, and our interpretations, are not to be trusted. And 'every word shall be established at the mouth of two or three witnesses' fits interpretations more than it fits men, so that I may establish the words of the interpretation by taking two witnesses from the New and the Old Covenant, taking three from gospel, from prophet, from apostle. For so every word will stand.
How then can we refer these things to the Savior? Bring the Old Covenant as a witness: 'Before the child knows good or evil, he refuses evil to choose the good.' And these things are said outright about the Savior in Isaiah: 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.' And there it is added: 'before the child knows.' And if an example must also be taken from the gospel: Jesus, not yet become a man but still a child, since 'he emptied himself,' was advancing. For no one who is already perfected advances; he advances who still needs advance. So he 'advanced in stature, advanced in wisdom, advanced in grace with God and men.' If he emptied himself coming down here, and emptying himself was taking again from what he had emptied himself of, having emptied himself willingly, what is strange if he also advanced 'in wisdom and stature and grace with God and men,' and if what I set down from Isaiah is true of him: before he knows good or evil he will choose the good and refuse evil?
Greek
πᾶς ὁ λαβὼν λόγους ἀπὸ θεοῦ καὶ ἔχων τὴν χάριν τῶν οὐρανίων λόγων, ἔλαβεν αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ τῷ «ἔθνη καὶ βασιλείας ἐκριζοῦν καὶ κατασκάπτειν. ἀλλὰ «ἔθνη καὶ βασιλείας‘ ἐὰν λέγηται «ἐκριζοῦν« πᾶς ὁ λαβὼν λόγους ἀπὸ θεοῦ, μὴ σωματικῶς μοι νόει τὰ ἔθνη καὶ τὰς βασιλείας, ἀλλὰ κατανοήσας τὰς ἀνθρωπίνας ψυχὰς βασιλευομένας ὑπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας κατὰ τὸ εἰρημένον παρὰ τῷ ἀποστόλῳ· «μὴ οὐν βασιλευέτω ἡ ἁμαρτία έν τῷ θνητῷ ἡμῶν σώματι«, βλέπων δὲ καὶ τὰ πολλὰ εἴδη τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων, τροπολόγει καὶ τὰ ἔθνη καὶ τὰς βασιλείας, τὰ φαῦλα τὰ ἐν ταῖς ψυχαῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὄντα, ἅτινα ἐκριζοῦται καὶ κατασκάπτεται ὑπὸ τῶν δεδομένων ειτε Ἱερεμίᾳ εἴτε ᾡτινιοῦν λόγων τοῦ θεοῦ. καὶ δύναται καὶ τὰ πρῶτα, τὰ θλίβοντα ὡς πρὸς τὸν σωτῆρα, ἐφαρμόσαι τῷ Ἱερεμίᾳ καὶ τὰ δεύτερα τῷ εἰδότι τροπολογεῖν ἐφαρμόσαι τῷ Ἱερεμία.
Ἐρεῖ μοί τις τῶν ἀκουόντων· γύμνασον καὶ τὸν ἄλλον λόγον καὶ ὅλα πειράθητι παραστῆσαι τὰ γεγραμμένα ἀρμόζοντα τῷ σωτῆρι. περὶ τῶν δευτέρων μὴ ἀγωνία· φαίνεται γὰρ ὅτι ὁ σωτὴρ ἐξερρίζωσε τὰς τοῦ διαβόλου βασιλείας καὶ τὰ ἔθνη κατέσκαψε τὸν ἐθνικὸν βίον καθελών.
ἐνταῦθα, κατὰ τὸ δοκοῦν δύσφημον ὡς πρὸς τὸν σωτῆρα, γύμνασόν πως τὸν λόγον, πῶς δύναται λέγειν ὁ σωτήρ· «οὐκ ἐπίσταμαι λαλεῖν, ὅτι νεώτερος ἐγώ εἰμι« καὶ τὰ ὁρᾷς ὅτι ὁ λόγος στενοχωρεῖται; τὸν σωτῆρα οἴδαμεν κύριον. ζητοῦμεν κατὰ τὴν ἀξίαν τοῦ λόγου καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ταῦτα ἐπὶ τὸν σωτῆρα, ἀναγαεῖν. μάρτυρας δεῖ λαβεῖν τὰς γραφάς· ἀμάρτυροι γὰρ αἱ ἐπιβολαὶ ἠμῶν καὶ αἰ ἐξηγήσεις ἄπιστοί εἰσιν. καὶ τὸ «ἐπὶ στόματι δύο καὶ τριῶν μαρτύρων σταθήσεται πᾶν ῥῆμα« μᾶλλον ἁρμόζει ἐπὶ τῶν διηγήσεων ἢ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἕνα στήσω τὰ ῥήματα τῆς ἑρμηνείας λαβὼν μάρτυρας δύο ἀπὸ καινῆς καὶ παλαιᾶς διαθήκης, λαβὼν μάρτυρας τρεῖς ἀπὸ εὐαγγελίου, ἀπὸ προφήτου, ἀπὸ ἀποστόλου· οὕτως γὰρ σταθήσεται πᾶν ῥῆμα( πῶς οὖν δυνάμεθα ταῦτα ἐπὶ τὸν σωτῆρα ἀναγαγεῖν; φέρε μάρτυρα παλαιὰν διαθήκην· «διότι πρὶν ἢ γνῶναι τὸ παιδίον ἀγαθὸν ἢ κακόν, ἀπειθεῖ πονηρίᾳ τοῦ ἐκλέξασθαι τὸ ἀγαθόν. καὶ ἄντικρυς ταῦτα περὶ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἐν τῷ Ἡσαΐᾳ λέλεκται· «ἰδοὺ ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὸ ἕξει καὶ τέξεται υἱόν, καὶ καλέσουσι τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἐμμανουήλ. καὶ ἐκεῖ ἐπιφέρεται· «πρὶν ἢ γνῶναι τὸ παιδίον.« εἰ δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου δεῖ λαμβάνειν παράδειγμα, Ἰησοῦς οὐκ ἀνὴρ γενόμενος, ἀλλ᾿ ἔτι παιδίον ὢν, ἐπεὶ «ἐκένωσεν ἑαυτόν«, προέκοπτεν οὐδεὶς γὰρ προκόπτει τετελειωμένος, ἀλλὰ προκόπτει δεόμενος προκοπῆς)· οὐκοῦν >προέκοπτεν ἡλικίᾳ, προέκοπτε σοφίᾳ, χάριτι παρὰ θεῷ καὶ ἀνθρώποις καταβαίνων ἐνταῦθα, καὶ κενώσας ἑαυτὸν ἐλάμβανε πάλιν ἀφ᾿ ὧν «ἐκένωσεν ἑαυτὸν« ἑκὼν κενώσας ἑαυτόν, τί ἄτοπον αὐτὸν καὶ προκεκοφέναι «σοφίᾳ καὶ ἠλικίᾳ καὶ χάριτι παρὰ θεῷ καὶ ἀνθρώποις« καὶ ἀληθεύεσθαι περὶ αὐτοῦ τὸ πρὶν ἢ γνῶναι αὐτὸν καλὸν ἢ πονηρὸν ἐκλέξεται τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ ἀπειθεῖ πονηρίᾳ< καὶ ἃ παρεθέμην ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἡσαΐου;
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.