Seek the mountains and the cleft of the rock
If then you wish to be caught by the hunters, take care not to make your sojourns in the valleys, nor to linger somewhere low, but seek the mountains. Go up to the mountain where Jesus was transformed; go up to the mountain on which Jesus, seeing the crowds, went up, and the disciples followed him, where 'opening his mouth he taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens,' and the beatitudes that follow these.
And it is not possible for these hunters to catch anyone from elsewhere than from the mountains and the hills and from the clefts of the rocks. For these three things are spoken in the prophet: 'For I will send many hunters, and they will hunt them upon every mountain and upon every hill and from the clefts of the rocks.'
From where then shall I understand the rocks and the clefts in the rocks? I come to Exodus, seeking to find a trace of an account of the clefts of the rocks; I find Moses there wanting to know God, and God promising him and saying: 'Behold, I will set you in a hole of the rock, and you will behold my back parts; but my face will not be seen by you.' If you understand the rock there and see the hole in the rock, seeing, you look upon God through the hole of the rock, and you will also see the many rocks and their clefts. Which then is that rock—the one rock? 'And the rock was Christ'; for 'they drank from a spiritual rock that followed,' and 'he set my feet upon a rock' is said in the ninth and thirtieth Psalm. What is the hole in the rock? If you see Jesus’ sojourn, understanding him wholly as rock, you will see the hole according to his sojourn, through which hole the things after God are contemplated. For such a thing is meant in: 'and you will see my back parts.'
Greek
εἴπερ οὖν θέλεις συλληφθῆναι ὑπὸ τῶν θηρευτῶν, ὅρα μὴ τὰς διατριβὰς ποιήσῃ ἐν ταῖς κοιλάσι μηδὲ κάτω που διατρίψῃς, ἀλλὰ ζήτει τὰ ὄρη. ἀνάβα εἰς τὸ ὄρος ὅπου Ἰησοῦς μετεμορφώθη, | ἀνάβα εἰς τὸ ὄρος ἐφ᾿ οὗ <ἰδὼν τοὺς ὄχλους ἀναβέβηκεν> ὁ Ἰησοῦς, καὶ ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ οἱ μεθηταί, ἔνθα «ἀνοίξας τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ ἐδίδαξε λέγων· μεκάριοι οἱ πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι, ὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν« καὶ τοὺς ἑξῆς τούτων μακαρισμούς.
Καὶ οὐκ ἔξεστί γε τούτοις τοῖς θηρευταῖς ἀλλαχόθεν συλλαβεῖν ἢ ἀπὸ τῶν ὀρέων καὶ τῶν βουνῶν καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν τρυμαλιῶν τῶν πετρῶν. ταῦτα γὰρ τὰ τρία λέλεκται ἐν τῷ προφήτῃ· «ἀποστελῶ γὰρ πολλοὺς θηρευτάς, καὶ θηρεύσουσιν αὐτοὺς ἐπάνω παντὸς ὄρους καὶ ἐπάνω παντὸς βουνοῦ καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν τρυμαλιῶν τῶν πετρῶν. πόθεν οὖν νοήσω τὰς πέτρας καὶ τὰς ἐν ταῖς πέτραις τρυμαλιάς; ἔρχομαι ἐπὶ τὴν Ἔξοδον, ζητῶ ἴχνος εὑρεῖν διηγήσεως τῶν τρυμαλιῶν τῶν πετρῶν, εὑρίσκω Μωσσέα ἐκεῖ βουλόμενον γνῶναι τὸν θεόν, καὶ τὸν θεὸν ἐπαγγελλόμενον αὐτῷ καὶ λέγοντα· «ἰδού, θήσω σε εἰς ὀπὴν τῆς πέτρας, καὶ κατανοήσεις μου τὰ ὀπίσω· τὸ δὲ πρόσωπόν μου οὐκ ὀφθήσεταί σοι.
ἐὰν νοήσῃς ἐκεῖ τὴν πέτραν καὶ ἴδῃς ἐκεῖ τὴν ὀπὴν τὴν ἐν τῇ πέτρᾳ ἰδὼν βλέπει τὸν θεὸν διὰ τῆς ὀπῆς τῆς πέτρας, ὄψει καὶ τὰς πολλὰς πέτρας καὶ τὰς τρυμαλιὰς αὐτῶν. τίς οὖν ἐκείνη ἡ πέτρα ἡ πέτρα ἡ μία; «ἡ πέτρα δὲ ἦν ὁ Χριστός«· «ἔπινον γὰρ ἐκ πνευματικῆς ἀκολουθούσης πέτρας«, καὶ «ἔστησεν ἐπὶ πέτραν τοὺς πόδας μου« ἐν τῷ ἐνάτῳ καὶ τριακοστῷ λέγεται Ψαλμῷ. τίς ἡ ὀπὴ ἡ ἐν τῇ πέτρᾳ; ἐὰν ἴδῃς τὴν Ἰησοῦ ἐπιδημίαν, ὅλον αὐτὸν νοήσας πέτραν, ὄψει τὴν ὀπὴν κατὰ τὴν ἐπιδημίαν αὐτοῦ, δι᾿ ἧς ὀπῆς θεωρεῖται τὰ μετὰ τὸν θεόν. τοιοῦτον γὰρ νοεῖται ἐν τῷ «καὶ ὄψει τὰ ὀπίσω μου.
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.