Judgment on Anathoth and the Loss of Divine Word
Lord of powers judging justly, testing kidneys and hearts, I seek vengeance from them. This is a prophetic prayer, to see vengeance from them, for Jerusalem is surrounded by armies, its desolation declared, and it is said to them: 'Behold, your house is forsaken.' I will see vengeance in them, for I have revealed my cause to you.
Behold, I will visit them; their youths will die by the sword, and their sons and daughters will die by famine. No remnant will remain of them, upon those dwelling in Anathoth in the year of their visitation. For the name of Anathoth is taken here. The whole Jewish mystery is spoken tropically in it, for Anathoth means 'Listening.'
Since listening to God was in that people, as also the kingdom of God, and the kingdom was said to be taken from them and given to a people producing its fruits, thus it happened also to 'the men of Anathoth,' those in the Listening, seeking the soul. Not Jeremiah (for the history does not say that men of Anathoth sought Jeremiah's soul. We have the Books, the Scripture remembers Jeremiah there, nothing such is said in them nor in the Apocrypha. We have the prophet's book, the men of Anathoth have not said anything), but these are said about Christ. 'Those seeking my soul, saying, 'You will not prophesy in the name of the Lord.'
The Jews hindered teaching about Jesus. 'If not, he will die in our hands.'
Behold, I will visit them; their youths will die by the sword, and their sons and daughters will die by famine. They did not die by the sword then, but after the present presence, famine came upon them, not a famine of bread or thirst for water, but a famine of the word of the Lord, for 'Thus says the Lord Almighty' is no longer said among them. This famine, that prophecy no longer is, and what do I say, prophecy? Neither teaching. Even if wise men frequent them, there is no longer the word of the Lord among them, for it is fulfilled that 'The Lord has taken from Judah and from Jerusalem the strong and the mighty, the giant and the strong, and the warrior and the judge and the prophet and the thinker and the elder and the commander and the wonderful counselor and the wise architect and the discerning listener.'
Greek
«Κύριε τῶν δυνάμεων κρίνων δίκαια, δοκιμάζων νεφροὺς καὶ καρδίας, ἔδοιμι τὴν παρὰ σοῦ ἐκδίκησιν ἐξ αὐτῶν. προφητικῶς ταῦτα εὔχεται, ἰδεῖν τὴν παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐκδίκησιν ἐξ αὐτῶν· >κεκύκλωται γὰρ ὑπὸ στρατοπέδων ἡ Ἱερουσαλήμ, καὶ ἤλλισεν ἡ ἐρήμωσις αὐτῆς< καὶ εἴρηται αὐτῇ· «ἰδοὺ αὐφίεται ὑμῖν ὁ οἶκος ὑμῶν. «ἴδοιμι« οὖν «τὴν παρὰ σοῦ ἐκδίκησιν ἐν αὐτοῖς, ὅτι πρὸς σὲ ἀπεκάλυψα τὸ δικαίωμά μου. διὰ τοῦτο τάδε λέγει κύριος ἐπὶ τοὺς ἄνδρας Ἀναθὼθ τοὺς ζητοῦντας τὴν ψυχήν μου, τοὺς λέγοντας· οὐ μὴ προ- φητεύσῃς ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου, εἰ δὲ μή, ἀποθανῇ ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν ἡμῶν.
ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἐπισκέψομαι ἐπ᾿ αὐτούς· οἱ νεανίσκοι αὐτῶν ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ ἀποθανοῦνται, καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτῶν καὶ αἱ θυγατέρες αὐτῶν τελευτήσουσιν ἐν λιμῷ. καὶ ἐγκατάλειμμα οὐκ ἔσται αὐτῶν, ἐπὶ τοὺς κατοικοῦντας Ἀναθὼθ ἐν ἐνιαυτῷ ἐπισκέψεως αὐτῶν. προσχήματος ἕνεκεν τὸ ὄνομα τῆς Ἀναθὼθ ἐνθάδε λαμβάνεται. ὅλον δὲ τὸ Ἰουδαΐκὸν μυστήριον τροπικῶς ἐν αὐτῇ εἴρηται· ἑρμηνεύεται γὰρ Ἀναθὼθ Ἐπακουσμός.
ἐπεὶ οὖν ἐπακουσμὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν ἐκείνῳ ἦν τῷ λαῷ, ὡς καὶ ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ γέγονεν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας τὸ «ἀρθήσεται ἀφ’ ὑμῶν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ δοθήσεται ἔθνει ποιοῦντι τοὺς καρποὺς αὐτῆς«, κατὰ τοῦτο γέγονεν καὶ τὸ «τοὺς ἄνδρας Ἀναθώθ«, τοὺς ὄντας ἐν τῷ Ἐπακουσμῷ, ζητεῖν τὴν ψυχὴν« οὐχ Ἱερεμίου (οὐδὲ γὰρ ἡ ἱστορία λέγει ὅτι ἄνδρες Ἀναθὼθ ἐζήτησαν τὴν ψυχὴν Ἰερεμίου. ἔχομεν τὰς Βασιλείας, μέμνηται ἡ γραφὴ ἐκεῖ τοῦ Ἱερεμίου, οὐδὲν τοιοῦτον ἐν αὐταῖς εἴρηται οὐδ᾿ ἐν ταῖς Παραλειπομέναις· ἔχομεν γὰρ αὐτὴν τὴν βίβλον τοῦ προφήτου, οὐδὲν εἰρήκασιν οἱ ἄνδρες Ἀναθώθ), ἀλλὰ ταῦτα λέγεται περὶ Χριστοῦ. «Τοὺς ζητοῦντας τὴν ψυχήν μου, τοὺς λέγοντας· οὐ μὴ προφητεύσῃς ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι κυρίου.
ἐκώλυσαν Ἰουδαῖοι διδάσκειν Ἰησοῦν. «εἰ δὲ μὴ, ἀποθανῇ ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν ἡμῶν.
ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἐπισκέψομαι ἐπ αὐτούς· οἱ νεανίσκοι αὐτῶν ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ ἀποθανοῦνται, καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτῶν καὶ αἱ θυγατέρες αὐτῶν τελευτήσουσιν ἐν λιμῷ. οὐ τότε τετελευτήκασιν ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ, ἀλλὰ μετὰ τὴν παρουσίαν νῦν λιμὸς ἠλθεν ἐπ’ αὐτούς, >οὐ λιμὸς ἄρτου οὐδὲ δίψα ὕδατος, ἀλλὰ λιμὸς τοῦ λόγον κυρίου< οὐκέτι γὰρ «τάδε λέγει κύριος παντοκρότωρ« λέγεται παρ᾿ αὐτοῖς. αὕτη ἡ λιμός, ἵνα ἡ προφητεία μηκέτι ᾐ, καὶ τί λέγω προφητεία; οὐδὲ διδασκαλια. κἂν μυριάκις χρηματίζωσιν παρ' αὐτοῖς σοφοί, οὐκ ἔστιν λόγος κυρίου ἔτι ἐν αὐτοῖς, ἐπεὶ πεπλήρωτο τὸ «ἀφελεῖ κύριος ἀπὸ τῆς Ἱουδαίας καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰερουσαλὴμ ἰσχύοντα καὶ ἰσχύουσαν, γίγαντα καὶ ἰσχύοντα καὶ ἄνθρωπον πολεμιστὴν καὶ δικαστὴν καὶ προφήτην καὶ στοχαστὴν καὶ πρεσβύτερον καὶ πεντηκόνταρχον καὶ θαυμαστὸν σύμβουλον καὶ σοφὸν ἀρχιτέκτονα καὶ συνετὸν ἀκροατήν. οὐκέτι ἔστιν παρ' αὐτοῖς δυνάμενος εἰπεῖν· «ὡς σοφὸς ἀρχιτέκτων θεμέλιον τέθεικα( μετέβησαν οἱ ἀρχιτέκτονες, ἦλθον ἐπὶ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, ἔθηκαν τὸν θεμέλιον Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν. τούτῳ ἐποικοδομοῦσιν καὶ οἱ μετ' ἐκείνους.
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.