May they be guided; I stood before you in their evils
'May it be, Lord, when they are guided; if I did not stand before you in the time of their evils.' What is 'May it be, Lord'? Let the one able gather such a thing from himself. 'Master Lord, when they are guided'—may the strength that fails among those who curse come to be, when, having repented after speaking ill of me, they turn to the straight way and travel it. 'May it be, Master, when they are guided; if I did not stand before you.' Then he justifies himself about those who speak ill of him saying: 'If I did not stand before you in the time of their evils.' He stood before the Father as 'atonement for our sins' and pleaded about them in that very time of our evils. For he did not stand after the time of our evils, but 'while we were still sinners Christ died for us'—'if I did not stand before you in the time of their evils, in the time of their afflictions, for good against the enemy.' And in the time of their affliction, he says, the one toward the enemy, I stood before you for them. And who is the enemy but 'our adversary the devil,' who afflicted us? And clearly in the time of that enmity against humans our Savior stood before the Father and begged about our captivity, that we might be redeemed and delivered from the enemy. Let the Savior or the prophet have said these things; for the prophet too can have said such things and prayed about the people in 'the time of their evils.'
Greek
«Γένοιτο, κύριε, κατευθυνάντων αὐτῶν· εἰ μὴ παρέστην σοι ἐν καιρῷ τῶν κακῶν αὐτῶν. τί «γένοιτο, κύριε«; ὁ δυνάμενος ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ συναγαγέτω τὸ τοιοῦτον. [τὸ γένοιτο] «δέσποτα κύριε, κατευθυνάντων αὐτῶν« γένοιτο ἰσχὺς ἐκλείπουσα ἐν τοῖς καταρωμένοις, ὅταν μετανοήσαντες μετὰ τὸ κακῶς με εἰπεῖν τραπῶσι τὴν εὐθεῖαν καὶ αὐτὴν ὁδεύσωσι. «γένοιτο, δέσποτα, κατευθυνάντων αὐτῶν· εἰ μὴ παρέστην σοι. εἶτα δικαιογεῖται περὶ τῶν κακολογούντων αὐτὸν λέγων· «εἰ μὴ παρέστην σοι ἐν καιρῷ τῶν κακῶν αὐτῶν. παρέστη τῷ πατρὶ > ἱλασμὸς ὢν περὶ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν< καὶ παρεκάλεσε περὶ αὐτῶν ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ καιρῷ τῶν κακῶν ἡμῶν. οὐδὲ γὰρ παρέστη μετὰ τὸν καιρὸν τῶν κακῶν ἡμῶν, ἀλλ᾿ > ἔτι ὄντων ἁμαρτωλῶν ἡμῶν Χριστὸς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἀπέθανεν< «εἰ μὴ παρέστην σοι ἐν καιρῷ τῶν κακῶν αὐτῶν, ἐν καιρῷ τῶν θλίψεων αὐτῶν, εἰς ἀγαθὰ πρὸς τὸν ἐχθρόν. καὶ ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς θλίψεως αὐτῶν, φησί, τῆς πρὸς τὸν ἐχθρὸν ἐγὼ παρέστην σοι ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν. τίς δὲ ὁ ἐχθρὸς ἤ «ὁ ἀντίδικος ἡμῶν διάβολος«, ὅς ἔθλιψεν ἡμᾶς; καὶ σαφῶς ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς ἔχθρας ἐκείνου τῆς κατὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων παρέστη τῷ πατρὶ ὁ σωτὴρ ἡμῶν καὶ ἐδεήθη περὶ τῆς ἡμετέρας αἰχμαλωσίας, ἵνα λυτρωθῶμεν καὶ ῥυσθῶμεν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐχθροῦ. ταῦτα μὲν ὁ σωτὴρ ἢ ὁ προφήτης εἰρηκέτω· καὶ γὰρ ὁ προφήτης δύναται τὰ τοιαῦτα εἰρηκέναι καὶ ηὖχθαι περὶ τοῦ λαοῦ ἐν τῷ «καιρῷ τῶν κακῶν αὐτῶν.
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.