The Grain of Wheat and the Fruit of Death
They say, 'Let us cut him off from the land of the living, and his name will no longer be remembered.' Thus they killed him, as if erasing his name. But Jesus knows how he dies and why. Therefore he says, 'If the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; if it dies, it bears much fruit.' So the death of Jesus becomes a stalk of wheat, producing abundant and plentiful sown seed.
As if hypothetically he were not crucified or died, the grain of wheat would have remained alone, and many would not have come from it. Consider his word, if he does not intend this: 'The grain of wheat, if it does not fall into the earth and die, remains alone; if it dies, it bears much fruit.' The death of Jesus bore fruit for all, and if the death bore so much, how many will the resurrection bear?
Greek
λέγουσιν δὲ καὶ τὸ «ἐκτρίψωμεν αὐτὸν ἀπὸ γῆς ζώντων, καὶ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ οὐ μὴ μνησθῇ ἐτι. οὕτως αὐτὸν ἀπέκτειναν, ὡς ἐξαφανίζοντες αὐτοῦ τὸ ὄνομα. ἀλλὰ ὁ Ἰησοῦς οἶδεν πῶς ἀποθνῄσκει καὶ διὰ τί. διό φησιν· «ἐὰν μὴ ὁ κόκκος τοῦ σίτου πεσὼν εἰς τὴν γῆν ἀποθάνῃ, αὐτὸς μόνος μένει· ἐὰν δὲ ἀποθάνῃ, πολὺν καρπὸν φέρει«· ὥστε ὁ θάνατος τοῦ Ἰησοῦ στάχυς σίτου γίνεται ποιῶν πολλαπλασίονα καὶ πολύχουν τὸ ἐσπαρμένον. ὡς εἰ καθ᾿ ὑπόθεσιν μὴ ἐσταύρωτο μηδὲ τεθνήκει, ἔμεινεν ἂν μόνος ὁ κόκκος τοῦ σίτου, καὶ πολλοὶ οὐκ ἐγένοντο ἐξ αὐτοῦ. πρόσχες οὐν αὐτοῦ τῇ λέξει, εἰ μὴ τοῦτο βεβούληται λέγειν· «ὁ κόκκος τοῦ σίτου ἐὰν μὴ πεσὼν εἰς τὴν γῆν ἀποθάνῃ, αὐτὸς μόνος μένει· ἐὰν δὲ ἀποθάνῃ, πολὺν καρπὸν φέρει. ὁ θάνατος τοῦ Ἰησοῦ τούτους πάντας ἐκαρποφόρησεν, εἰ δὲ ὁ θάνατος τοσούτους ἐκαρποφόρησε, πόσους καρποφορήσει ἡ ἀνάστασις;
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.