Fragments on Lamentations · §114 · Origen of Alexandria

Apostles hunt childish Jews off the broad way

For by the Savior having been appointed “fishers of human beings,” (Matthew 4:19) they were hunting Jews childish in thoughts, not to walk the broad and roomy road of their fathers—whom indeed the Savior also was hinting saying: “let the children come to me.” (Matthew 4:19) (Matthew 7:13) (Matthew 19:14)

Greek

Klagel. Jerem. 4, 18. Υπὸ γὰρ τοῦ σωτῆρος >ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων< ἀποδειχθέντες οἱ ἐθήρευον Ἰουδαίους ταῖς φρεσὶ νηπίους, μὴ τὴν πλατεῖαν καὶ εὐρύχωρον τῶν πατέρων αὐτῶν βαδίζειν ὁδόν· οὓσπερ δὴ καὶ ὁ σωτὴρ ὑπῃνίττετο λέγων· «ἐάσατε τὰ παιδία ἐλθεῖν πρός με.

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Origen on Lamentations: Jeremiah's grief for captive Jerusalem, read also as the soul taken captive by sin and set free by Christ.

Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–c. 254) was a Christian teacher in Alexandria and head of the catechetical school. This English is his fragments on Lamentations.

The full commentary is lost. What survives are short passages kept in later chains of quotations. He sets out the literal sense, the Hebrew form of the book, and its historical setting, and he compares the Greek translations.

A reader meets Jeremiah lamenting the fall of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem read both as the city and as the soul. Origen quotes Symmachus, Aquila, and Theodotion. He also cites Paul, David, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Zechariah, and Daniel. He uses Septuagint book names and Psalm numbering.

EditionKlostermann, Origenes Werke III (GCS 6, 1901)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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