Day for work; night when no one can work
Perhaps we will understand what is written by using a Gospel saying spoken by the Savior that runs like this: 'Work while it is day; night comes when no one can work.' There he named day this age (but I necessarily added 'there'; for I know that other things are indicated to others elsewhere); so he named day this age, and darkness and night the consummation because of the punishments. For 'Why do you desire the day of the Lord? And this is darkness and not light,' says Amos the prophet.
If you see what is grim after the consummation of the world—what follows as almost the whole race of human beings are punished for what was sinned—you will see that what surrounds then grew dark, and no longer can anyone glorify God, if indeed the word of God also commanded the righteous saying: 'Go, my people, enter into your storeroom, shut your door, hide yourself a little while, until my wrath of anger passes.' And together with these things, if anyone can, let him observe that he said 'a little while.' But that 'little' is little to God; it is not little to a human being. For one must see that for each there is something little and great. And from an example I will show that for each there is something little or great.
For each living thing food of such-and-such amount is little by comparison with its constitution, and much food of such-and-such amount again by comparison with its makeup. And so what is little for a human being is great for another living thing. What is little, say, for a man is much for a child. So the whole time of human life is a little time, and that of one long-lived, as toward the whole of the present age. So also what is little to God is much toward us, and a whole age is God's little.
If then it is said: 'Go, my people, enter into your storerooms, shut your door, hide yourself a little while,' that little must be thought said not toward the relation of the one commanded to go and enter his own storerooms, but toward the relation of the one commanding these things, to whom what is much to this one is little. For if until the wrath of God's anger passes some must enter their own storerooms, and there are those for whom sins are not forgiven not only through this whole age but also through the whole age to come, clearly that little stretches alongside what was said.
Greek
Τάχα νοήσομεν τὸ γεγραμμένον χρησάμενοι λέξει εὐαγγελικῇ εἰρημένῃ ὑπὸ τοῦ σωτῆρος οὕτως ἐχούσῃ· ἐργάζεσθε ὡς ἡμέρα ἐστίν· ἔρχεται νὺξ ὅτε οὐδεὶς δύναται ἐργάζεσθαι. ἡμέραν ἐκεῖ ὠνόμασε τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦτον (ἀλλὰ ἀναγκαίως προσέθηκα τὸ ἐκεῖ· οἶδα γὰρ ἄλλοις ἄλλα πόλιν δηλούμενα) ἡμέραν οὖν ὠνόμασε τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦτον, σκότος δὲ καὶ νύκτα τὴν συντέλειαν διὰ τὰς κολάσεις. «ἵνα τί« γὰρ «ὑμῖν ἐπιθυμεῖν ἡμέραν κυρίου; καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶ σκότος καὶ οὐ φῶς« φησὶν Ἀμὼς ὁ προφήτης.
ἐὰν ἴδῃς τί τὸ σκυθρωπὸν μετὰ τὴν συντέλειαν τοῦ κόσμου, τὸ ἐπακολουθοῦν ὡς σχεδὸν παντὶ τῷ γένει τῶν ἀνθρώπων κολαζομένων ἐπὶ τοῖς ἡμαρτημένοις, ὄψει ὄψει συνεσκότασε τότε τὸ περιέχον καὶ οὐκέτι οὐδεὶς δύναται δοξάζειν τὸν θεόν, εἴγε καὶ τοῖς δικαίοις προσέταξεν ὁ λόγος θεοῦ λέγων· «βάδιζε, λαός μου, εἴσελθε εἰς τὸ ταμιεῖόν σου, ἀπόκλεισον τὴν θύραν σου, ἀποκρύβηθι μικρὸν ὅσον ὅσον , ἕως ἂν παρέλθῃ ὁ θυμὸς τῆς ὀργῆς μου( ἅμα δὲ ἐν τούτοις, εἴ τις δύναται, τηρείτω ὅτι εἴρηκε· «μικρὸν ὅσον ὅσον. ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνο τὸ «μικρὸν ὅσον« μικρόν ἐστι θεοῦ, οὐκ ἔστι μικρὸν ἀνθρώπῳ· χρὴ γὰρ βλέπειν ὅτι ἑκάστῳ ἐστί τι μικρὸν καὶ μέγα. καὶ ἀπὸ παραδείγματος παραστήσω ὅτι ἑκάστῳ ἐστί τι μικρὸν ἢ μέγα.
ἑκάστῳ ζώῳ μικρὰ τροφὴ ἡ τοσήδε ὡς πρὸς σύγκρισιν τῆς συστάσεως αὐτοῦ, καὶ πολλὴ τροφὴ ἡ τοσήδε ὡς τὴν σύγκρισιν πάλιν τῆς κατασκευῆς αὐτοῦ. καὶ οὕτως τὸ μικρὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἄλλῳ ζώῳ μέγα ἐστί. τὸ μικρόν, φέρ’ εἰπεῖν, ἀνδρὶ πολύ ἐστι παιδίου. οὕτως μικρὸς χρόνος ἐστὶν ὁ τῆς ζωῆς τῆς ἀν- θρωπίνης πᾶς καὶ ὁ τοῦ πολυχρονίου ὡς πρὸς ὅλον τοῦ παντὸς ἐνεστηκότος αἰῶνος. οὕτω δὴ καὶ τὸ μικρὸν τοῦ θεοῦ Πολύ ἐστιν ὡς πρὸς ἡμᾶς, καὶ αἰών ἐστιν ὅλος τὸ μικρὸν τοῦ θεοῦ.
ἐὰν λέγηται οὐν· «βάδιζε, λαός μου, εἴσελθε εἰς τὰ ταμιεῖά σου, ἀπόκλεισον τὴν θύραν σου, ἀποκρύβηθι μικρὸν ὅσον ὅσον«, τὸ μικρὸν ἐκεῖνο νομιστέον λέγεσθαι οὐ πρὸς τὴν σχέσιν τοῦ κελευομένου βαδίζειν καὶ εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὰ ταμιεῖα ἑαυτοῦ, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὴν σχέσιν τοῦ αὐτὰ προστάσσοντος, ᾡ μικρόν ἐστι τὸ τούτῳ πολύ. εἰ γὰρ «ἕως ἂν παρέλθῃ ὁ θυμὸς τῆς ὀργῆς« τοῦ θεοῦ, δεῖ τινας εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὰ ταμιεῖα ἑαυτῶν, εἰσὶ δὲ οἷς >οὐκ ἀφίεται τὰ ἁμαρτήματα οὐ μόνον παρ’ ὅλον τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦτον ἀλλὰ καὶ παρ’ ὅλον τὸν μέλλοντα<, δῆλον ὅτι τὸ μικρὸν τοῖς εἰρημένοις παρεκτείνεται.
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.