Nations from the end of the earth
'Lord, my strength and my help and my refuge in a day of evils; to you nations will come from the end of the earth and will say: How false were the idols our fathers acquired, and there is no profit in them.' From the end of the earth the nations came to God, and the nations have said: 'How false were the idols our fathers acquired, and there is no profit in them.'
How 'from the end of the earth'? There are some who are first of the earth, and there are some who are last of the earth. Who are first? 'The wise of the world' are first of the earth—not simply first, but 'the wise of the world, the well-born,' the rich, those in office. Who are last? 'God chose the foolish things of the world, the ignoble, the despised, the things that are not.' Therefore 'nations will come from the end of the earth,' as if he said: from the last of the humans upon the earth, from the foolish, from the ignoble, from the despised, 'and they will say: How false were the idols our fathers acquired, and there is no profit in them.' Not that there are some true idols, against which the false are spoken by contrast, but idols which by nature are false—'and there is no profit in them.'
Greek
«κύρις, ἰσχύς μου καὶ βοήθειά μου καὶ καταφυγή μου ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κακῶν· πρὸς σὲ ἔθνη ἥξουσιν ἀπ᾿ ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς καὶ ἐροῦσιν· ὡς ψευδῆ ἐκτήσαντο οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν εἴδωλα, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς ὠφέλημα. ἀπ᾿ ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς ἦλθε τὰ ἔθνη πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ εἴρηκε τὰ ἔθνη· «ψευδῆ ἐκτήσαντο οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν εἴδωλα, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς ὠφέλημα«; πῶς «ἀπ᾿ ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς«; εἰσί τινες τῆς γῆς πρῶτοι καί εἰσί τινες τῆς γῆς ἔσχατοι. τίνες πρῶτοι; >οἱ σοφοὶ τοῦ κόσμου< τῆς γῆς πρῶτοι, οὐχ ἁπλῶς πρῶτοι· >οἱ σοφοὶ τοῦ κόσμου, οἱ εὐγενεῖς<, οἱ πλούσιοι, οἱ ἀξιωματικοί. τίνες οἱ ἔσχατοι; >τὰ μωρὰ τοῦ κόσμου ἐξελέξατο ὁ θεός, τὰ ἀγενῆ, τὰ ἐξουθενήμένα, τὰ μὴ ὄντα<. «ἥξουσιν« οὖν «ἔθνη ἀπ᾿ ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς«, ὡσεὶ ἔλεγεν· ἀπὸ τελευταίων τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς ἀνθρώπων, ἀπὸ μωρῶν, ἀπὸ ἀγενῶν, ἀπὸ ἐξουθενημένων, «καὶ ἐροῦσιν· ὡς ψευδῆ ἐκτήσαντο οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν εἴδωλα, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς ὠφέλημα. οὐχ ὅτι ἔστι τινὰ εἴδωλα ἀληθῆ, ὧν πρὸς ἀντιδιαστολὴν λέγεται τὰ ψευδῆ, ἀλλὰ εἴδωλα, ἅτινα τῇ φύσει ἐστὶ ψευδῆ· «καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς ὠφέλημα.
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.