Fragments on Lamentations · §49 · Origen of Alexandria

Liturgical vessels handed over; altar of the soul

He handed over the liturgical vessels, no longer being well-pleased with the sacrifices from the impious according to: “whole burnt offerings of rams and fat of lambs and blood of bulls and goats I do not want.” (Isaiah 1:11) And he also handed over the wall holding together the houses of the city—or the palaces, as Symmachus rendered. And the hostile ones, having taken even the temple, were then celebrating as upon a complete victory, shouting. And altar of a soul is the rational part in us, through which the passions are sacrificed when being put to death (Isaiah 1:11).

Greek

Klagel. Jerem. 2, 7. Τὰ λειτουργικὰ παρέδωκε σκεύη, μηκέτι ταῖς παρ' ἀσεβῶν θυσίαις εὐαρεστούμενος κατὰ τὸ «ὁλοκαυτώματα κριῶν καὶ στέαρ ἀρνῶν καὶ αἶμα ταύρων καὶ τράγων οὐ βούλομαι. παρέδωκε δὲ καὶ τὸ συνέχον τεῖχος τὰς οἰκίας τῆς πόλεως, ἤγουν τὰ βασίλεια καθάπερ ἐξέδωκε Σύμμαχος. οἱ δὲ δυσμενεῖς παραλαβόντες καὶ τὸν νεὼν ὡς ἐπὶ τελείᾳ νίκῃ λοιπὸν ἑώρταζον ἀλαλάζοντες. ψυχῆς δὲ θυσιαστήριον τὸ ἐν ἡμῖν λογικόν, δι' οὖπερ ἱερουργεῖται τὰ πάθη νεκρούμενα.

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About this text

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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