Fishers of men, then hunters on the mountains
It is written in the Gospel according to Matthew that our Savior came beside the sea of Galilee and saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. Then the word says that the Savior, seeing them, said: 'Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.' And leaving the nets they followed him. And Jesus made them take up fishing for men. And he found two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with their father mending the nets; and he called them too to the same craft, and made them also fishers of men.
And if anyone has perceived those who have from God a grace of speech woven like nets and composed from the holy writings like a casting-net, so that the weave may be thrown around the souls of the hearers, and has perceived this also being done skillfully according to that craft—now our Savior sends fishers of men, having trained them, so that we may be able to come up from the sea and flee its bitter waves.
But those soulless fish, coming up in seines and casting-nets and nets or on hooks, die a death that life does not succeed. But the one caught by Jesus’ fishers and coming up from the sea also dies—yet he dies to the world, dies to sin, and after dying to the world and to sin he is made alive by the word of God and takes up another life. As if you could, by hypothesis, conceive the soul of a fish changing after leaving the fish’s body and becoming something better than a fish—I took an example; let no one take a wrong handle from it—such a thing you will conceive. You have come up from the sea, falling under the nets of Jesus’ disciples; coming out you change the soul; you are no longer a fish lingering in the salt waves of the sea, but at once your soul changes and is transformed and becomes something better and more divine than what it was before.
That it is transformed and changed, hear Paul saying: 'And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is Spirit.' And this fish, caught by Jesus’ fishers and transformed, leaving its sojourns in the sea, makes its sojourns in mountains, so that it no longer needs fishers who bring it up from the sea, but certain second ones who are called hunters, who hunt from every mountain and from every hill. Therefore go up from the sea yourself, caught in the nets of Jesus’ disciples; change away from the sea, forget it, come to the mountains—the prophets—and to the hills—the righteous—and make your sojourns there, so that afterward, when your time comes, you may be caught by the hunters. Who would these be, if not those appointed to receive the souls that are on the hills, the ones not lying low? And see whether the prophet has not cried these things mystically, setting forth this sense in: 'Behold, I send many fishers, says the Lord, and they will fish them; and after these things I will send many hunters, and they will hunt them upon every mountain and above every hill.'
Greek
Ἀναγέγραπται ἐν τῷ κατὰ Ματθαῖον εὐαγγελίῳ ὁ σωτὴρ ἡμῶν ἐληλυθέναι παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν τῆς Γαλιλαίας καὶ ἑωρακέναι «Σίμωνα καὶ Ἀνδρέαν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ, βάλλοντας ἀμφίβληστρον εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν· ἦσαν γὰρ ἁλιεῖς. εἶτά φησιν ὁ λόγος ὅτι ὁ σωτὴρ ἰδὼν αὐτοὺς εἶπε· «δεῦτε ὐπίσω μου, καὶ ποιήσω ὑμᾶς ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων. οἱ δὲ ἀφέντες τὰ δίκτυα ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ. καὶ πεποίηκεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ ἀνθρώπων ἀναλαβεῖν τὸ ἁλιεύειν. καὶ <ἄλλους δὲ δύο ἀδελφοὺς εὗρεν, Ἰάκωβον τὸν τοῦ Ζεβεδαίου καὶ Ἰωάννην τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ, ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ μετὰ τοῦ πατρὸς καταρτίζοντας τὰ δίκτυα· καὶ τούτους ἐκάλεσεν> ἐπὶ τὴν αὐτὴν ἐπιστήμην, πεποίηκε δὲ κἀκείνους ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων. καὶ εἴ τίς γε κατενόησε τοὺς ἔχοντας ἀπὸ θεοῦ χάριν λόγου πεπλεγμένην ὡς δίκτυα καὶ συγκειμένην ἀπὸ τῶν ἱερῶν γραφῶν ὡς ἀμφίβληστρον, ὥστε περιβάλλεσθαι ταῖς ψυχαῖς τῶν ἀκροατῶν τὸ πλέγμα, κατενόησε δὲ καὶ τεχνικῶς τοῦτο γινόμενον κατὰ τὴν ἐπιστήμην νῦν ὁ σωτὴρ ἡμῶν πέμπει ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων παιδεύσας αὐτούς, ἵνα δυνηθῶμεν ἀπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης ἀνελθεῖν καὶ φυγεῖναὐτῆς τὰ πικρὰ κύματα.
Ἀλλ᾿ ἐκεῖνοι οἱ ἰχθύες οἱ ἄψυχοι ἀνελθόντες ἐν ταῖς σαγήναις καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀμφιβλήστροις καὶ ἐν τοῖς δικτύοις ἢ ἐν τοῖς ἀγκίστροις, ἀποθνῄσκουσι θάνατον οὐχὶ διαδεχομένης ζωῆς τὸν θάνατον. ὁ δὲ συλληφθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν ἁλιέων Ἰησοῦ καὶ ἀνελθὼν ἀπὸ τῆς θαλάσης, καὶ αὐτὸς μὲν ἀποθνῄσκει, ἀποθνῄσκει δὲ τῷ κόσμῳ, ἀποθνῴσκει τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, καὶ μετὰ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν τῷ κόσμῳ καὶ τῷ ἁμαρτίᾳ ζωοποιεῖται ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἀναλαμβάνει ἄλλην ζωήν.
ὡσεὶ ἐδύνω καθ᾿ ὑπόθεσιν νοῆσαι τὴν τοῦ ἰχθύος ψυχὴν μεταβάλλουσαν μετὰ τὸ ἐξελθεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ ἰχθυακοῦ καὶ γινομένην τι κρεῖττον παρ᾿ ἰχθῦν (παράδειγμα ἔλαβον, μὴ ἀφορμάς τις λαμβανέτω † ὧς οὐκ ἤκουσε), τοιοῦτον δὴ τι νοήσεις. ἀνελήλυθας ἀπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης ὑποπεσὼν τοῖς δικτύοις τῶν μαθητῶν Ἰησοῦ, ἐξελθὼν μετα- βάλλεις τὴν ψυχήν, οὐδέτι ἰχθῆς εἶ διατρίβων ἐν τοῖς ἁλμυροῖς τῆς θαλάσσης κύμασιν, ἀλλ᾿ εὐθέως σου μεταβάλλει ἡ ψυχὴ καὶ μεταμορφοῦται καὶ γίνεται κρεῖττόν τι καὶ θειότερον παρ᾿ ὃ ἦν τὸ πρότερον.
ὅτι δὲ μεταμορφοῦται καὶ μεταβάλλεται, ἄκουε Παύλου λέγοντος· «ἡμεῖς δὲ πάντες ἀνακρκαλυμμένῳ προσώπῳ τὴν δόξαν κυρίου κατοπτριζόμενοι τὴν αὐτὴν εἰκόνα μεταμορφούμεθα ἀπὸ δόξης εἰς δόξαν, καθάπερ ἀπὸ κυρίου πνεύματος. καὶ μεταμορφωθείς γε οὗτος ὁ ἰχθῆς ὁ ὑπὸ τῶν ἁλιέων Ἰησοῦ συλληφθείς, καταλιπὼν τὰς ἐν θαλάσσῃ διατριβάς, διατριβὰς ποιεῖται ἐν ὄρεσιν, ὥστε αὐτὸν δεηθῆναι οὐκέτι ἁλιέων τῶν ἀναγόντων αὐτὸν ἀπὸ θαλάσσης, ἀλλὰ δευτέρων τινῶν, οἳ ὀνομάζονται θηρευταί, οἵτινες θηρεύουσιν <ἀπὸ παντὸς ὄρους καὶ ἀπὸ παντὸς βουνοῦ.
Ἀναβὰς οὖν σὺ ἀπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ συλληφθεὶς τοῖς δικτύοις τῶν μαθητῶν Ίησοῦ, μετάβαλε ἀπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης, ἐπιλάθου αὐτῆς, ἧκε ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη, τοὺς προφήτας, καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς βουνούς, τοὺςς δικαίους, καὶ ποιοῦ ἐκεῖ τὰς διατριβάς, ἵνα μετὰ ταῦτα, ὅταν ὁ καιρός σοι τῆς ἁλιεῖς. τίνες δ᾿ ἂν εἶεν οὗτοι ἢ οἱ [ἐπι]τεταγμένοι ἐπὶ τὸ παραλαμβάνειν τὰς ψυχὰς τὰς ἐν βουνοῖς, τὰς μὴ κάτω κειμένας; καὶ ὅρα εἰ μὴ κέκραγε μυστικῶς ταῦτα λέγων ὁ προφήτης καὶ τοῦτον παριστὰς τὸν νοῦν ἐν τῷ «ἰδού, ἐγὼ ἀποστέλλω ἀλιεῖς πολλούς, λέγει κύριος, καὶ ἁλιεύσουσιν αὐτούς· καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἀποστελῶ πολλοὺς θηρευτάς, καὶ [καὶ] θηρεύσουσν αὐτοὺς ἐπάων παντὸς ὄρους καὶ ἐπάνω παντὸς βουνοῦ.
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.