Bitter word, blessed laughter, saving grief
'For with my bitter word I will laugh.' There is a promise of laughter, of which promise the patriarch Isaac is namesake; for he is interpreted Laughter. And that laughter is a promise is clear from 'Blessed are those who weep now'—and the promise is 'that they will laugh.' As there is a promise 'they will be called sons of God,' and 'they will see God,' and 'they will inherit the earth,' and 'theirs is the kingdom of the heavens,' so there is a promise of laughter; to which promise the opposite—for the one being blessed—is weeping.
And you will seek whether this good laughter, according to one and another sense, agrees with the blessed weeping, but is opposed by another weeping stored up for the opposites. For 'Woe to those who laugh now, for they will mourn and weep'—one weeping is the blessed, another is stored up for those who have lived badly. And whether even that one has a beneficial end, I do not know. Hear Paul. That he taught, he worked at grieving the hearers. And he confesses that then especially he rejoiced when someone was grieved by him; for he says: 'And who is the one who makes me glad if not the one grieved by me?' And if someone is able to move a hearer’s soul, especially one who has sinned, he prays to speak such words which, announced from power and array and divinity and sacred thoughts, will shake the hearer’s soul and move it unto mourning and unto weeping and unto tears, so that the speaker rejoices when he sees the hearing turned and filled upon what is said. For where he leads unto promises, as through the narrow and afflicted way in being grieved unto life, he also leads through weeping unto the blessed laughter. But when he does not accomplish this, I fear lest he say such things: 'Woe to those who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.'
Toward what has this been said by me, if not wanting to hint that he says 'with my bitter word I will laugh,' and to set beside laughter a weeping, and that weeping which those laughing here will weep—perhaps God working to beget weeping in them? For 'there will be the weeping…'
Greek
(19,) «Ὅτι πικρῷ λόγῳ μου γελάσομαι. ἔστι τις ἐπαγγελία γέλως, ἧς ἐπαγγελίας ἐπώνυμός ἐστιν Ὀ πατριάρχης Ἰσαάκ· ἑρμηνεύεται γὰρ Γέλως. ὅτι δὲ ἐπαγγελία γέλως, δῆλον [ὅτι] ἐκ τοῦ «μακάριοι οἱ κλαίοντες νῦν«· ἡ δὲ ἐπαγγελία «ὅτι γελάσονται.
ὥσπερ ἐπαγγελία «υἱοὶ θεοῦ κληθήσονται«, καὶ «τὸν θεὸν ὄψονται«, καὶ «κληρονομήσοσι τὴν γῆν. καὶ «αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν«, οὕτως ἐστὶν ἐπαγγελία γέλως· ᾗ ἐπαγγελίᾳ τὸ ἐναντίον ὁ μακαριζόμενός ἐστι κλαυθμός. ζητήσεις δέ, εἰ τούτῳ τῷ ἀγαθῷ γέλωτι καθ᾿ ἑτέραν καὶ ἑτέραν ἐπίνοιαν συνᾴδει μὲν ὁ μακαριζόμενος κλαυθμός, ἐναντιοῦται δὲ ὁ τοῖς ἐναντίοις ταλανιζόμενος ἀποκείμενος κλαυθμὸς ἕτερος. «οὐαὶ« γὰρ «οἱ γελῶντις νῦν, ὅτι πενθήσουσι καὶ κλαύσονται«· ἄλλος γὰρ κλαυθμὸς ὁ μακαριζόμενος, ἄλλος ὁ ἀποκείμενος τοῖς κακῶς βεβιωκόσιν. εἰ δέ τι κἀκεῖνος τέλος ἔχει ὠφέλιμον, οὐκ οἶδο. τί λέω; [εἱ δέ τι κακεῖνος τέλος ἔχει ὡφέλιμον, οὐκ οἶδα] ἄκουε Παύλου.
ὅτι ἐδίδασκεν, ἐπραγματεύετο λέγων λυπῆσαι τοὺς ἀκούοντας. καὶ ὁμολογεῖ ὅτι τότε μάλιστα εὐφραίνετο, ὅτε ἐλυπεῖτό τις ἐξ αὐτοῦ· φησὶ γάρ· «καὶ τίς ἐστιν ὁ εὐφραίνων με εἰ μὴ ὁ λυπούμενος ἐξ ἐμοῦ;« καὶ εἴ τίς γε ἱκανός ἐστι κινῆσαι ψυχὴν ἀκροατοῦ μάλιστα ἡμαρτηκότος, τοιούτους εὔχεται λόγους λέγειν, οἵτινες ἀπὸ δυνάμεως καὶ παρατάξεως καὶ θειότητος καὶ νοημάτων ἀπαγγελλόμενοι ἱερῶν σείσουσι τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ ἀκούοντος καὶ κινήσουσιν ἐπὶ πένθος καὶ ἐπὶ κλαυθμὸν καὶ ἐπὶ δάκρυα, ὡς χαίρειν τὸν λέγοντα, † ὅτε ἴδῃ τὸ ἀκροατήριον τερπόμενον καὶ γέμον ἐπὶ τοῖς λεγομένοις.
ὅπου μὲν γὰρ εἰς ἐπαγγελίας ἄγει, ὡς >διὰ στενῆς καὶ τεθλιμμένης τῆς ἐν τῷ λυπεῖσθαι ὁδοῦ ἐπὶ τὴν ζωήν<,καὶ διὰ τοῦ κλαυθμοῦ ἄγει ἐπὶ τὸν μακαριζόμενον γέλωτα. ὅτε δὲ οὐ τοῦτο ἀνύει, [οὐ] φοβοῦμαι μὴ τοιαῦτα λέγῃ· «οὐαὶ οἱ γελῶντες νῦν, ὅτι πενθήσετε καὶκλαύσετε.
Πρὸς τί δέ μοι τοῦτο εἴρηται, ἢ βουλομένῳ ὑπαινίξασθαι ὅτι λέγει, «πικρῷ λόγῳ μου γελάσομαι«, καὶ παραστῆσαι γέλωτα κλαυθμοῦ, καὶ κλαυθμὸν ἐκεῖνον ὃν κλαύσονται οἱ ἐνταῦθα γελῶντες, τάχα τοῦ θεοῦ πραγματευομένου ἐγγεννῆσαι αὐτοῖς κλαυθμόν; «ἐκεῖ« γὰρ «ἔσται ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων. καὶ τοῦτο πραγματεύεται ὁ θεὸς ὁρὼν ὅτι ὁ κλαίων ἐπὶ τοῖς ἰδίοις ἁμαρτήμασιν, ὁ θρηνῶν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἰδίοις παρανομήμασιν ἤδη εἰς συναίσθησιν ἐλήλυθε τῶν ἰδίων κακῶν. ὡς εἴθε ἕκαστος ἡμῶν καθ᾿ ἕκαστον ἁμάρτημα ἔλεγε· «λούσω καθ᾿ ἑκάστην νύκτα τὴν κλίνην μου, ἐν δάκρυσί μου τὴν στρωμνήν μου βρέξω. ὡς εἴθε ἕκαστος ἡμῶν ἔλεγεν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἰδίοις ἁμαρτήμασι κλαίων· «ἐγενήθη μοι τὰ δάκρυα ἄρτος ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτός.
ἐάν μου ὁ λόγος πικρότερος ἐνταῦθα ᾖ, πικρότερος δὲ διὰ τὸ θλίβεσθαί με δι᾿ αὐτὸν, ἀηδίζονται οἱ ἀκούοντες. οἱ ἐλεγχόμενοι, ὅταν βαρῶνται τὸν λέγοντα, οἶδα ὅτι ἐπὶ τῷ πικρῷ λόγῳ μου τὸ τέλος ἐστὶ γελᾶν, γελᾶν δὲ τὸν τῶν μακαριζομένων γέλωτα. καὶ τοῦτο τάχα εἰδὼς ὁ προφήτης ἔλεγεν· «ὅτι πικρῷ λόγῳ μου γελάσομαι«· ἤδη «πικρῷ λόγῳ«, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἤδη γελῶ, ἀλλὰ «πικρῷ λόγῳ μου γελάσομαι.
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.