Fathers

Homilies on Jeremiah (selected; omitting 8) · §9.3

God's People and the Living Covenant

We have become God's people, and the righteousness of God is to the people from the nations. For this is the people that is born in entirety, and it is said in the prophet: 'If a nation was born once, a nation was born once when the savior appeared and thousands believed in one day, and were added on another day three thousand. And it is seen that the whole people is born by the word of God and the barren woman, who previously did not bear, is being born in entirety, to whom it is said: 'Rejoice, barren one who does not bear, break forth and cry, you who do not wail, for many are the children of the desolate rather than of the one who has a husband.' The desolate is the church; the desolate is God's law. The one who has a husband is that synagogue which is called the congregation.

What then does God promise me? 'You shall be to me a people, and I shall be to you a God.' Not all are God, but only those to whom He grants Himself, as He granted Himself to that patriarch to whom He said, 'I am your God,' and again to another, 'I shall be your God,' and concerning others, 'I shall be their God.' When then do we attain, as I say individually, to being His God? If you wish to know what God is and to whom He grants His name, He is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And the Savior says this: 'God is not of the dead but of the living.' Who is the dead? The sinner, the one not having the one who spoke.

I am the one having dead works, the one not yet having repented from dead works, about which the apostle says: 'Do not lay again a foundation of repentance from dead works.' If then 'God is not a God of the dead but of the living,' and we know who is the living, because the one living according to Christ and remaining with Him, if we desire one of us to be God, we will put away the works of death, that He may fulfill His promise saying: 'And I shall be to you a God, that I may establish my oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.' For He says: 'I shall establish my oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey,' as not yet having given them the 'land flowing with milk and honey.' For this is not the land which God said 'flowing with milk and honey,' but that which the Savior taught saying: 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land.'

Greek

γεγόναμεν οὖν ἡμεῖς τῷ θεῷ εἰς λαόν, καὶ >ἡ δικαιοσύνη τοῦ θεοῦ τῷ λαῷ τῷ < τῷ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν. οὗτος γὰρ ὁ λαὸς τίκτεται ἀθρόως, καὶ ἐν τῷ προφήτῃ δὲ εἴρηται. «εἰ ἐτέχθη ἔθνος εἶς ἅπαξ. ἐτέχθη δὲ ἔθνος εἰς ἅπαξ, ὅτε ἐπιδεδήμηκεν ὁ σωτὴρ καὶ ἐπίστευσαν ἐν μιᾷ ἡμέρᾳ χιλιάδες πέντε καὶ προσετέθησαν ἄλλῃ ἡμέρᾳ χιλιάδες τρεῖς. καὶ ἔστιν ἰδεῖν ὅλον λαὸν τικτόμενον λόγῳ θεοῦ καὶ άθρόως τίκτουσαν τὴν στεῖραν, τὴν πρότερον οὐ τεκοῦσαν, πρὸς ἣν λέγεται. «εὐφράνθητι στεῖρα ἡ οὐ τίκτουσα, ῥῆξον καὶ βόησον ὴ οὐκ ώδίνουσα, ὅτι πολλὰ τὰ τέκνα τῆς ἐρήμου μᾶλλον ἢ τῆς ἐχούσης τὸν ἄνδρα(. ἔρημος μὲν ἡ ἐκκλησία· νόμου, ἔρημος αὔτη θεοῦ ἡν. ἔχουσα δὲ ἄνδρα τὸν νόμον ἐκείνη ἡ συναγωγὴ λέλεκται.

Τί οὖν μοι ἐπαγγέλλεται ὀ θεός; «ἔσεσθέ μοι εἰς λαὸν κἀγὼ ἔσομαι ὑμῖν εἰς θεόν((. οὐκ ἔστιν πάντων θεὸς ἀλλ' ἢ ἐκείνων οἷς χαρίζεται ἑαυτόν, ὅσπερ ἐχαρίσατο ἑαυτὸν τῷ πατριάρχῃ ἐκείνῳ ᾧ Ι εἶπεν. «ἐγὼ θεὸς σός«, καὶ πάλιν ἄλλῳ «ἐγὼ ἔσομαί σου θεός«, καὶ περὶ ἑτέρων «ἔσομαι αὐτῶν θεός(. πότε οὖν ἄρα ἡμεῖς ἐπιτυγχάνομεν, ὁ καθ’ ἕκαστον λέγω, εἰς τὸ τὸν θεὸν εἶναι ἡμῶν θεόν; εἰ δὲ θέλεις μαθεῖν, τίνων ἐστὶν ὁ θεὸς καὶ τίνι χαρίξεται τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἐπίκλησιν, ἐγὼ φησὶν θεὸς Ἀρβαάμ, θεὸς Ἰσαάκ, θεὸς . καὶ διηγούμενος τὸ τοιοῦτον ὁ σωτήρ φησιν· «ὁ θεὸς οὐκ ἔστιν νεκρῶν ἀλλὰ ζώντων. τίς ὁ νεκρός; ὁ ἀμαρτωλός, ὁ μὴ ἔχων τὸν εἰπόντα.

ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ , ὁ ἔχων νεκρὰ ἔργα, ὁ μηδέπω μετανοήσας ἀπὸ νεκρῶν ἔργων, περὶ ὧν φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος. «μὴ πάλιν θεμέλιον καταβαλλό- μενοι μετανοίας ἀπὸ νεκρῶν ἔργων. εἰ τοίνυν «ὁ θεὸς οὐκ ἔστιν νεκρῶν θεὸς ἀλλὰ ξώντων«, καὶ οἵδαμεν τίς ἐστιν ὁ ζῶν, ὅτι ὁ πολιτευόμενος κατὰ Χριστὸν καὶ μένων μετ' αὐτοῦ, εἰ βουλόμεθα ἕνα ἡμῶν ᾖ ὁ θεός, ἀποταξώμεθα τοῖς ἔργοις τῆς νεκρότητος, ἵνα τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν αὐτοῦ πληρώσῃ τὴν λέγουσαν· «καὶ ἐγὼ ἔσομαι ὑμῖν εἰς θεόν, ὅπως στήσω τὸν ὅρκον μου ὅν ὤμοσα τοῖς πατράσιν ὑμῶν, τοῦ δοῦναι αὐτοῖς γῆν ῥέουσαν γάλα καὶ μέλι. τήρει γὰρ ὅτι λέγει· «στήσω τὸν ὅρκον μου ὃν ὤμοσα τοῖς πατράσιν ὑμῶν, τοῦ δοῦναι αὐτοῖς γῆν ῥέουσαν γάλα καὶ μέλι«, ὡς μηδέπω δεδωκὼς αὐτοῖς τὴν «γῆν τὴν ῥέουσαν γάλα καὶ μέλι. αὕτη γὰρ οὐκ ἔστιν ἡ γῆ, ἣν λατο ὁ θεὸς «ῥέουσαν γάλα καὶ μέλι«, ἀλλ’ ἔστιν ἐκείνη, περὶ ἧς ἐδίδασκεν ὁ σωτὴρ λέγων· μακάριοι οἱ πραεῖς, ὅτι αὐτοὶ κληρονομήσουσι τὴν γην.

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.