My wound is hard; if you turn I will restore you
'My wound is hard; from where will I be healed?' Those who overpower me strike me, and my wound is hard. Whether he prophesies the Lord's cross (for the cross is a hard wound, as far as it lies with those who crucify him), or whether it is said about all the righteous in whom he receives a hard wound, or even if you hear this upon the prophet (for he too suffered the things written in the prophecy), it admits the same sense according to the wording that says: 'My wound is hard.' 'From where will I be healed?' Even if the Savior says: 'From where will I be healed?' he prophesies the resurrection from the dead after the hard wound; and even if it is taken upon the righteous, after the wounds healing comes again. 'Coming to be it became for me as false water, not having faith'; for the wound does not remain but passes. 'Therefore thus says the Lord: If you turn, I will also restore you.' These things are said again toward each whom God will call to turn toward him. And a mystery seems to me to be announced here in the 'I will restore you.' No one is restored into some place never having been there at all, but restoration is into what is one's own. For example if a limb of mine becomes dislocated, the physician tries to make a restoration of the dislocation.
Whenever someone comes to be outside the fatherland, whether justly or unjustly, and then receives again the power to be in the fatherland according to the laws, he was restored upon his own fatherland. Think the same with me also upon a soldier cast out from his own battle-line and being restored. So here he says toward us who turned away that, if we turn, he will restore us. For the end of the promise is also such, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles in the 'until times of restoration of all things which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old' in Christ Jesus, to whom is the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
Greek
«Ἡ πληγὴ μου στερεά, πόθεν ἰαθήσομαι;« οἱ κατισχύοντές με πλήσσουσί με, καὶ ἡ πληγή μου ἐστὶ στερεά. εἴτε προφητεύει τὸν σταυτόν τοῦ κυρίου (στερεὰ γὰρ πληγή ἐστιν ὁ σταυρός, ὅσον ἐπὶ τοῖς σταυροῦσιν αὐτόν), εἴτε περὶ πάντων τῶν δικαίων λέγεται ἐν οἷς πληγὴν στερεὰν λαμβάνει, εἴτε καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ προφήτου ἀκούεις τοῦτο (καὶ γὰρ καὶ αὐτὸς πέπονθε τὰ ἀνγεγραμμένα ἐν τῇ προφητείᾳ), τὸν αὐτὸν ἐπιδέχεται [τὸν] νοῦν κατὰ τὴν λέγουσαν λέξιν· «ἡ πληγή μου στερεά. «πόθεν ἰαθήσομαι;« κἂν ὁ σωτὴρ λέγῃ· «πόθεν ἰαθήσομαι«, τὴ ἀνάστασιν τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν προφητεύει μετὰ τὴν στερεὰν πληγήν, κἂν ἐπὶ τοῦ δικαίου δὲ λαμβάνηται, μετὰ τὰς πληγὰς γίνεται πάλιν ἴασις. «γινομένη ἐγενήθη μοι ὡς ὕδωρ ψευδές, οὐκ ἔχον πίστιν«· οὐ γὰρ με΄νει ἠ πληγή, ἀλλὰ παρέρχεται. «Διὰ τοῦτο τάδε λέγει κύριος· ἐὰν ἐπιστρέψῃς, καὶ ἀποκαταστήσω σε. ταῦτα πάλιν λέγεται πρὸς ἕκαστον, ὃν παρακαλέσει ὁ θεὸς ἐπιστρέψαι πρὸς αὐτόν. μυστήριον δέ μοι δοκεῖ ἐνταῦτθα κηλοῦσθαι ε'ν τῷ «ἀποκαταστήσω σε. οὐδεὶς ἀποκαθίσταται εἴς τινα τόπον μηδαμῶς ποτε γενόμενος ἐκεῖ, ἀλλ᾿ ἡ ἀποκατάστασίς ἐστιν εἰς τὰ οἰκεῖα. οἷον ἔξαρθρόν μου ἐὰν γένηται μέλος, ὁ ἰατρὸς πειρᾶται ἀποκατάστασιν ποιῆσαι τοῦ ἐξάρθρου.
ὅταν ἔξω τις γένηται τῆς πατρίδος, εἴτε δι- καίως εἴτε ἀδίκως, ἀπολαμβάνῃ δὲ τὸ δύνασθαι πάλιν ἐν τῇ πατρίδι εἶναι κατὰ τοὺς νόμους, ἀπεκατέστη ἐπὶ τὴ πατρίδα τὴ ἑαυτοῦ. τὸ αὐτ[ο νόει μοι καὶ ἐπὶ στρατιώτου ἐκβληθέντος ἀπὸ τῆς ἰδίας παρατάζεως καὶ ἀποκαθισταμένου. λέγει οὖν ἐνθάδε πρὸς ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀποστρέψαντας ὅτι, ἐὰν ἐπιστρέψωμεν, ἀποκαταστήσει ἡμᾶς. καὶ γὰρ τὸ τέλος τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν, ὡς ἐν ταῖς Πράξεσι τῶν ἀποστόλων γέγραπται ἐν τῷ «ἄχρι χρόνων ἀποκαταστάσεως πάντων ὧν ἐλάλησεν ὁ θεὸς διὰ στόματος τῶν ἁγίων αὐτοῦ ἀπ᾿ αἰῶνος προφητῶν« ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, ᾧ ἐστιν ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμή.
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.