Shame that consumes the fathers’ toil
So we who come from the nations say about ourselves, repenting of the false things we once counted true: 'Truly the hills and the power of the mountains were for a lie.' And about Israel who will be saved after us: 'Yet through the Lord our God is the salvation of the house of Israel.' Whether we are confessing the sins in which our fathers stood and in which we ourselves were idolaters, we say: 'Shame has consumed the labors of our fathers from their youth—their sheep and their cattle, their sons and their daughters.' Shame has consumed the labors of our fathers—and what follows.
If the wicked toil and false work of the fathers is to be consumed, shame must come first. Before shame, the fathers' toil is not consumed, nor what is added to it. So let us notice differences among those who sin. Some sin and feel no shame, no reverence over their sins, no blush. Such are those who have grown callous and handed themselves over to every licentiousness and every impurity. For people from the nations sometimes list their fornications and adulteries as if they were feats of valor. They are not even ashamed to confess they have done such things, and they do not call them sins.
As long as they are not ashamed, their toils are not consumed. Their sins are not consumed. The beginning of good things is to be ashamed of what one was not ashamed of. That is why I do not take as a curse what the prophets say: 'Let all who hate Zion be ashamed and confounded.' The prayer is that those numb to shameful works come to awareness, so that once ashamed they can consume their toils and their sins.
Greek
Οὐκοῦν λέγομεν ἡμεῖς οἱ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν περὶ μὲν ἑαυτῶν, μετανοοῦντες ἐπὶ τοῖς ψευδέσιν ἃ ἐνομίζομεν εἶναι ἀληθῆ· «ὄντως εἰς ψεῦδος ἦσαν οἱ βουνοὶ καὶ ἡ δύναμις τῶν ὀρέων«· περὶ δὲ τοῦ μεθ’ ἡμᾶς σωθησομένου Ἰσραήλ· «πλὴν διὰ κυρίου θεοῦ ἡμῶν ἡ σωτηρία τοῦ οἴκου Ἰσραήλ. εἶτε ἐξομολογούμενοι περὶ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων, ἐν οἷς καὶ οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν γεγόνασιν καὶ ἡμεῖς αὐτοὶ εἰδωλολατροῦντες, φαμέν· «ἡ δὲ αἰσχύνη κατηνάλωσεν τοὺς μόχθους τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν ἀπὸ νεότητος αὐτῶν, τὰ πρόβατα αὐτῶν καὶ τοὺς βόας αὐτῶν, τοὺς υἱοὺς αὐτῶν καὶ τὰς θυγατέρας αὐτῶν. «ἡ αἰσχύνη κατηνάλωσεν τοὺς μόχθους τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν«, καὶ τάδε τὰ εἰρημένα. οὐκοῦν εἰ μέλλει καταναλίσκεσθαι ὁ μοχθηρὸς μόχθος καὶ τὸ ψευδὲς ἔργον τῶν πατέρων, αἰσχύνην δεῖ γενέσθαι· πρὶν γὰρ αἰσχύνης οὐ καταναλίσκεται ὁ μόχθος τῶν πατέρων < καὶ τὰ ἐπιφερόμενα. διὰ τοῦτο κατανοήσωμεν ἁμαρτανόντων διαφοράς. εἰσὶν ἁμαρτάνοντες καὶ οὐκ αἰσχυνόμενοι οὐδὲ αἰδούμενοι ἐπὶ ταῖς ἁμαρ- τίαις αὐτῶν οὐδὲ ἐρυθριῶντες. τοιοῦτοί εἰσιν οἱ ἀπηλγηκότες καὶ ἑαυτοὺς παραδόντες πάσῃ ἀσελγείᾳ καὶ πάσῃ ἀκαθαρσίᾳ γὰρ τοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν τίνα τρόπον ὡς ἀριστείας ἔσθ᾿ ὅτε καταλέγουσιν τὰς προνείας πορνείας καὶ τὰς μοιχείας ἑαυτῶν, οὐδὲ αἰδούμενοι ὁμολογεῖν τὰ τοιαῦτα πεποιηκέναι, καὶ οὐ λέγουσιν αὐτὰ ἁμαρτήματα.
ὅσον οὐκ αἰσχύνονται, οὐκ ἀναλίσκονται αὐτῶν οἱ μόχθοι. οὐκ ἀναλίσκεται αὐτῶν τὰ ἁμαρτήματα. ἀρχὴ ἀγαθῶν ἐστιν τὸ αἰσχυνθῆναί σχυνθῆναί τινα ἃ οὐκ ᾐσχύνετο. διὰ τοῦτο ἐγὼ οὐ κατάραν νομίζω ἐν τοῖς προφήταις λέγεσθαι ἐν τῷ «αἰσχυνθήτωσαν καὶ ἐντραπήτωσαν πάντες οἱ μισοῦντες Σιών. εὔχεται γὰρ τοὺς ἀναισθήτους τῶν αἰσχύνης ἔργων εἰς συναίσθησιν ἔρχεσθαι, ἵνα αἰσχυνθέντες δυνηθῶσιν ἀναλῶσαι τοὺς μόχθους καὶ τὰ ἁμαρτήματα αὐτῶν.
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.