Shame consumes the fathers’ toil—or good tillage offers firstlings
'Shame,' then, 'has consumed the labors of our fathers from their youth—their sheep and their oxen.' What is there in us that is tilling us—whether tilling badly (so that 'badly' is said of the tiller) or tilling well? If it tills badly, that is labor of the fathers being consumed by their shame. If it tills well, it is not the fathers' labor, but labor from which the firstborn are offered upon God's altar. They say 'their sons and their daughters.' Whose 'their'? Are the sons of 'them' or of 'the fathers' consumed by their shame? And we have often said that the offspring of the soul are these: thoughts are sons, and the works and bodily practices are daughters.
Since there are wicked thoughts—such as those from the nations thought—and wicked works as well, sons and daughters are consumed by those who made them, if shame arises in them over what was sinned. May it not be that we make sons and daughters for a consumption that comes from shame.
Greek
«Ἡ αἰσχύν« οὖν «κατηνάλωσεν τοὺς μόχθους τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν ἀπὸ νεότητος αὐτῶν, τὰ πρόβατα αὐτῶν καὶ τοὺς βόας αὐτῶν. τι ἔστι τι ἑν ἡμῖν γεωρηοῦν ἡμᾶς, ἤτοι δὲ κακῶς γεωργοῦν, λέγειν τὸ κακῶς ἐπὶ τοῦ γεωργοῦντος, ἢ καλῶς γεωργοῦν[τος]. εἰ μὲν οὖν κακῶς γεωργεῖ, μόχθος ἐστὶ τῶν πατέρων καταναλισκόμενος ὑπὸ τῆς αἰσχύνης αὐτῶν· εἰ δὲ καλῶς γεωργεῖ, οὐκ ἔστι τῶν πατέρων μόχθος· ἀλλὰ μόχθος ἐστὶν ἀφ᾿ ὡν τὰ πρωτότοκα ἀναφέρεται ἐπὶ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου τοῦ θεοῦ. «τοὺς υἱοὺς αὐτῶν καὶ τὰς αὐτῶν« λέγουσιν οὑτοι. τίνων «αὐτῶν« ἢ «τῶν πατέρων« οἱ υἱοὶ ἀναλίσκονται ὑπὸ τῆς αἰσχύνης αὐτῶν καὶ αἱ πολλάκις εἴπομεν τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς γεννήματα, ὅτι τὰ νοήματα μέν εἰσιν υἱοί, τὰ δὲ ἔργα καὶ αἱ πράξεις αἱ διὰ τοῦ σώματος θυγατέρες.
ἐπεὶ οὖν ἐστί τινα νοήματα μοχθηρά, ὁποῖα ἐνόησαν οἱ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν, ἔστιν δὲ καὶ ἔργα μοχθηρά, διὰ τοῦτο υἱοὶ καὶ θυγατέρες ἀναλίσκονται ὑπὸ τῶν πεποιηκότων, ἐὰν αἰσχύνη αὐτοῖς ἐγγένηται περὶ τῶν ἡμαρτημένων. ἡμᾶς δὲ μὴ εἴη ποιεῖν υἱοὺς καὶ θυγατέρας ἀναλώσεως τῆς ἀπὸ τῆς αἰσχύνης.
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.