Origen preaches on Jeremiah 20 (Pashhur striking Jeremiah, and Jeremiah's 'You deceived me, Lord'), reading both as figures of Christ and the church.
This homily is Origen's live exposition of the passage now numbered Jeremiah 20, delivered to a congregation gathered for readings and prayer. He works through two consecutive units of text: first, the priest Pashhur striking the prophet Jeremiah and casting him into the stocks at the upper chamber by the gate of Benjamin, with Jeremiah's oracle renaming him 'Migrant' (Sojourner) and predicting exile to Babylon for him, his household, and his friends; second, Jeremiah's anguished complaint, 'You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived,' followed by his declaration that the Lord is with him like a strong warrior against his mockers.
Origen treats the literal narrative as secure but insufficient, and moves quickly to figural reading. Pashhur's blow becomes one instance in a chain of prophets and apostles struck for the truth -- Paul struck at the high priest's command, Christ scourged by Pilate and, Origen insists, still being scourged 'daily' whenever the Word of God is mocked by unbelievers. The upper chamber where Pashhur refused to bring Jeremiah becomes an image of the elevated mind, traced through a set of biblical parallels: the widow's upper room for Elijah, the room prepared for Elisha, the apostles' upper room at Pentecost, Peter's rooftop vision, and the upper room of the Last Supper. Babylon becomes 'Confusion,' the destination of anyone -- individual or the church itself, addressed as 'you are Jerusalem now' -- who is handed over to the devil (the 'king of Babylon' read typologically) through sin.
The second half confronts the theological problem of a prophet accusing God of deceiving him. Origen resolves it pedagogically: God 'deceives' the immature the way a parent frightens a child for its own good, citing Jonah's unfulfilled threat against Nineveh as the paradigm case of a saving falsehood. He then contrasts the relatively lenient penalties of the Mosaic law (stoning for adultery) with the far graver, unspecified punishments implied for sin under the gospel, reasoning from Jesus' warning about calling a brother 'Fool' and Hebrews' argument about trampling the Son of God underfoot. The homily matters as a compact display of Origen's exegetical method -- letter, moral application, and Christological allegory in sequence -- applied to a genuinely difficult, morally charged prophetic text.
“See those gathered from the nations, plotting against the Christians, considering in what way they may seize Jesus, and he too”
— Homily on Jeremiah 19 · read this chapter →
“So then, keeping the Passover as Jesus does with Jesus, he is above in a great upper room, in an upper room swept, in an upper room adorned and ready.”
— Homily on Jeremiah 19 · read this chapter →
“You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed; I have become a laughingstock, I have gone on being mocked the whole day”
— Homily on Jeremiah 19 · read this chapter →
“He who said, ‘Yet three days, and Nineveh will be overthrown’—was he speaking truly, or was he not speaking truly, but deceiving with a deception that turns people back?”
— Homily on Jeremiah 19 · read this chapter →
“Anyone who sets aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses; how much worse a punishment, do you suppose, will the one be deemed worthy of who has trampled the Son of God underfoot?”
— Homily on Jeremiah 19 · read this chapter →
It is a sermon on Jeremiah 20 (LXX numbering places it as the passage Origen calls the nineteenth homily), covering Pashhur's striking of Jeremiah and Jeremiah's later complaint that God deceived him. Origen reads the literal events and then draws out moral and Christological meanings for his congregation.
Pashhur is the priest and temple official who strikes Jeremiah and puts him in the stocks after hearing his prophecy. Jeremiah responds by renaming him 'Migrant' (Sojourner) and predicting that Pashhur, his household, and his friends will be exiled to Babylon and die there.
Origen takes Jeremiah's line 'You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived' seriously but explains it as protective, pedagogical deception, comparable to a parent frightening a small child for its own good. He cites Jonah's unfulfilled threat that Nineveh would be overthrown in three days as the clearest biblical example of this kind of saving deception.
He argues that Mosaic law prescribed comparatively lenient penalties, such as stoning for adultery, because it addressed people at an early, childlike stage of moral development. Sin under the gospel, addressed to the spiritually mature, carries penalties he says are harsher than anything named, invoking Jesus' warning about calling a brother 'Fool' and Hebrews' warning against trampling the Son of God underfoot.
Because Pashhur refused to bring Jeremiah up into the temple's upper chamber and instead put him in the stocks below, Origen treats the upper chamber as a figure for the elevated, contemplative mind. He connects it to the rooms of Elijah and Elisha, the apostles' Pentecost gathering, Peter's rooftop vision, and the upper room of the Last Supper.
Reading Jeremiah's suffering as a type of Christ's, Origen extends the Passion scourging beyond its single historical moment, saying Jesus is scourged whenever the Word of God is mocked in synagogues or plotted against by hostile nations.
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