Homilies on Jeremiah (selected; omitting 8) · §10.1

Divine Teaching and the Teacher

If divine words are present in the Law and Prophets, and also in the Gospels and Apostles, the one being taught must have God as the teacher of divine words, for God is the one who teaches knowledge, as written in Psalms. The Savior also testifies that no one should be called a teacher on earth, saying, 'And you should not call anyone on earth your teacher, for one is your teacher, the Father in heaven.' The Father who teaches either through Himself or through Christ or in the Holy Spirit or through Paul or through Peter or through some other holy one, may it be said, only the Spirit of God and the Word of God should dwell and teach. What is this said for? Because the prophet says, 'Reveal Yourself to me, Lord, that I may know,' for I will not know unless You reveal Yourself to me, and when You reveal Yourself to me, I will see their deeds and understand what each person does and of what kind their choices are.

This is what the prophet says. Then let us see what the Savior says in the prophet: 'I was like a harmless lamb led to be sacrificed and I did not know. They plotted against me, saying, 'Come, let us put a stick into his bread, and cut him off from the land of the living, and his name will no longer be remembered.' As the prophet Isaiah says, 'The Christ was led to slaughter like a lamb, and as a sheep before the shearer is silent, so He did not open His mouth.'

There Isaiah speaks about Him, but here Christ speaks about Himself, saying, 'I was like a harmless lamb led to be sacrificed and I did not know.' He did not say what he did not know. For he did not say, 'I did not know evils,' nor 'I did not know goods,' nor 'I did not know sin,' but simply 'I did not know.' Therefore, you must investigate what He did not know. Learn what He did not know from 'The one who did not know sin, He made sin for us.' For to know sin is to commit sin, just as to know righteousness is to act righteously. Therefore, the one who announces things about righteousness and does not act righteously does not know righteousness.

Greek

Εἰ θεοῦ λόγιά ἐστιν ἐν νόμῳ καὶ προφήταις, εὐαγγελίοις τε καὶ ἀποστόλοις, δεήσει τὸν μαθητευόμενον θεοῦ λογίοις διδάσκαλον ἐπιγράφεσθαι θεόν· «ὁ« γὰρ «διδάσκων ἄνθρωπον γνῶσιν« ὁ θεός ἐστιν, ὡς καὶ ἐν Ψαλμοῖς γέγραπται. καὶ ὁ σωτὴρ δὲ μαρτυρεῖ μὴ δεῖν ἐπιγράφεσθαί τινα διδάσκαλον ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς λέγων· «καὶ ὑμεῖς μὴ καλέσητε διδάσκαλον ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς· εἷς γάρ ἐστιν ὑμῶν ὁ διδάσκαλος, ὁ πατὴρ ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. <«ὁ πατὴρ« δὲ «ὁ ἐν διδάσκει ἤτοι καθ᾿ αὑτὸν ἢ διὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἢ ἐν ἁγίῳ πνεύματι ἢ διὰ Παύλου, φέρ’ εἰπεῖν, ἢ διὰ Πέτρου ἢ διά τινος τῶν ἄλλων ἁγίων, μόνον θεοῦ πνεῦμα καὶ θεοῦ λόγος ἐπιδημείτω καὶ διδασκέτω. ταῦτά μοι πρὸς τί εἴρηται; ἐπειδήπερ φησὶν ὁ προφήτης· «γνώρισόν μοι, κύριε, καὶ γνώσομαι«· οὐ γὰρ γνώσομαι, ἐὰν μὴ σύ μοι γνωρίσῃς ἐὰν δὲ γνωρίζοντός σου ἐμοὶ γνῶ, «τότε« ὄψομαι τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα αὐτῶν« καὶ νοήσω, ὃ ἕκαστος πράττει καὶ ποίας ἐστὶν προαιρέσεως.

Ταύτα ὁ προφήτης. εἶτα ὁ σωτὴρ ἐν τῷ προφήτῃ ἴδωμεν τίνα λέγει· «ἐγὼ ὡς ἀρνίον ἄκακον ἀγόμενον τοῦ θύεσθαι οὐκ ἔγνων. ἐπ ἐμὲ ἐλογίσαντο λογισμόν, λέγοντες· δεῦτε καὶ ἐμβάλωμεν ξύλον εἰς τὸν ἄρτον αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐκτρίψωμεν αὐτὸν ἀπὸ γῆς ζώντων, καὶ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ οὐ μὴ μνησθῇ ἐτι. ὡς φησὶν καὶ ὁ προφήτης Ἡσαΐας, Χριστὸς «ὡς πρόβατον ἐπὶ σφαγὴν ἤχθη, καὶ ὡς ἀμνὸς ἐναντίον τοῦ κείραντος ἄφωνος, οὕτως οὐκ ἀνοίγει τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ.

ἐκεῖ μὲν οὖν περὶ αὐτοῦ Ἡσαΐας λέγει, ἐνταῦθα δὲ ὁ Χριστὸς περὶ αὑτοῦ «ἐγὼ« φησὶν ὡς ἀρνίου ἄκακον ἐπὶ σφαγὴν ἀγόμενον τοῦ θύεσθαι οὐκ ἔγνων. οὐκ εἶπεν τί οὐκ ἔγων. οὐ γὰρ εἴρηκεν· οὐκ ἔγνων κακά, οὐκ εἴρηκεν· οὐκ ἔγνων ἀγαθά, οὔτε εἴρηκεν· οὐκ ἔγνων ἁμαρτίαν, ἀλλ᾿ ἁπλῶς «οὐκ ἔγνων. σοὶ οὐν καταλέλοιπεν ἐξετάξειν τίοὐκ ἔγνω. καὶ μάνθανε τί οὐκ ἔγνω ἀπὸ τοῦ «τὸν μὴ γνόντα ἁμαρτίαν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἁμαρτίαν ἐποίησεν«· γνῶναι γὰρ ἁμαρτίαν ἁμαρτῆσαί ἐστιν, ὡς γνῶναι δικαιοσύνην δικαιοπραγῆσαί ἐστιν. ὁ οὖν ἀπαγγέλλων τὰ περὶ δικαιοσύνης καὶ μὴ δικαιοπραγῶν οὐκ ἔγνω δικαιοσύνην.

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.