Origen · a new plain-English translation from the Greek and Latin
God is ready at hand for doing good, but slow to punish those who deserve punishment. Although he is able to bring punishment on those he condemns in silence, without giving warning beforehand, he never does this; rather, even when he condemns, he speaks, since it is his practice to speak beforehand, so that the one who is to be condemned may turn back from condemnation. Of these things one can take many examples from the scriptures,
and a few will suffice from those that come to hand, so that we may arrive also at the aim of the readings set before us. The Ninevites had become sinners and had been condemned by God: "yet three days and Nineveh" was to be overthrown. God was not willing to condemn her in silence, but, giving them a place for repentance and turning back, he sent a prophet, so that when he had said,
"yet three days and Nineveh will be overthrown," those who had been condemned might not be condemned, but by repenting might obtain God's mercy. Those in Sodom and Gomorrah had been condemned, as is clear from God's words to Abraham; nevertheless the angels did their part, wishing to save those who did not wish to be saved, saying to Lot: "Do you have here any
sons-in-law, or sons, or daughters?" not being ignorant that these would not follow Lot, but doing what belonged to their own kindness and philanthropy, together with that of the one who sent them. You will find the same thing also in what concerns Jeremiah. The time of his prophecy has been recorded, when he began and until when he prophesied. Then the reader, if he does not attend to the reading
nor examine the intent of the readings that have been written, will say that this is history, and that it has been recorded when Jeremiah began to prophesy and up to what time, prophesying, he came to the end of his prophesying. What then is this history to me? I have read, I have learned that he began to prophesy "in the days of Josiah son of Amos, king of Judah, until the thirteenth year of his reign"; then, "it came to pass in the
days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah," he prophesying "until the completion of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah." And I have learned that his prophecy extended through three kings "until the captivity of Jerusalem, in the fifth month." What then are we taught by these things, if we attend to the reading? God condemned Jerusalem for her sins, and
they had been judged to be abandoned to captivity. Nevertheless, when the time was at hand, the God who loves mankind sends this prophet too, beyond the third reign before the captivity, so that those who wished, upon giving heed, might repent because of the prophetic words. He sent forth a prophet to prophesy both in the reign of the second king after the first, and in that of the third, up to the very time of the captivity itself. For
the long-suffering God was granting forbearance even, one might say, up to the very day before the captivity, urging those who heard to repent, so that the grim events of the captivity might cease. Hence it is written that "Jeremiah prophesied until the captivity of Jerusalem, until the fifth month." He began, and he was still prophesying, as if saying: You have become captives, yet even so repent; for if you repent, the
of the captivity, but the mercy of God will be set over you. So we have something useful from the record which contains the times of the prophecy: that God, out of his own love for humanity, urges those who hear not to suffer the fate of captivity. Such things also hold for us: if we sin, we too are going to become captives. For “handing such a person over to Satan” is no
different from handing over those from Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar. For just as they were handed over to him because of their sins, so we are handed over to Satan because of our sins, he being our Nebuchadnezzar. And “whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may be taught not to blaspheme,” says the apostle concerning other sinners. See, then, how great an evil sinning is, that one should be handed over to Satan, who takes captive the souls of those abandoned
by God — and it is not without cause nor without judgment that God abandons those whom he abandons. For when he sends rain upon the vineyard, and the vineyard bears thorns instead of grapes, what will God do but command the clouds not to rain upon the vineyard? Because of our sins, captivity lies in wait for us too, and we are about to be handed over, unless we
repent, to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, so that the spiritual Babylonians may tear us apart. While these things lie in wait, the words of the prophets, the words of the law, the words of the apostles, the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ speak to us about repentance and call us to conversion. If we listen, let us believe the one who said, “I too will repent concerning all the evils that
I spoke of doing to them.” These things belong to the introduction. After the introduction it is written that “the word of the Lord came to him” — clearly, to Jeremiah. And what does the word of the Lord say to him? Something exceptional, beyond what was said to the rest of the prophets. For we have found this said of none of the prophets. Abraham was designated a prophet in the saying “he is
a prophet, and he will pray for you,” but God did not say to him, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I sanctified you.” Rather, Abraham was sanctified later, when he went out from his land, away from his relatives, and away from his father's household, from
a promise he was born; and we have not found this saying said even to him. And what need do I have to list what follows? Jeremiah obtained an exceptional gift, that of “before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I sanctified you.” We are not unaware that some apply these words, as being greater than Jeremiah, to
our Savior and Lord. And one must know that most of them harmonize with him and can be applied to the Savior — which I shall set forth — but a few of the things said to Jeremiah strain the sense, being unable, as regards the majority, to be fitted to the Savior. What, then, are the things that fit the Savior? “To all to whom I send you, you shall go, and”
you shall speak all that I command you. Do not be afraid before them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.’ These would not yet seem to be referred to the Savior, but what follows: ‘And the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: Behold, I have given my words
into your mouth. Behold, I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to root out and to tear down’ — this passage presses hard on the interpretation concerning Jeremiah. What nations did he root out, what kingdoms did he destroy? For it is written: ‘Behold, I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to root out and to tear down.’ But what authority did Jeremiah have for ‘to destroy,’ which is said with reference to Jeremiah in
the phrase ‘and to destroy’? And how many did Jeremiah build, that it should be said ‘and to build’? Jeremiah says: ‘I have profited no one, nor has anyone profited me.’ How then is ‘to build and to plant’ given to him? How will ‘to plant’ apply to Jeremiah? When these things are referred to the Savior, they do not trouble the interpreter, because Jeremiah in these matters is a symbol of the Savior. But the things
about to be set out trouble greatly even the shrewdest person who wants to show how these too can be fitted to the Savior: ‘And I said: O Master, Lord, behold, I do not know how to speak.’ He who is wisdom, he who is power, who brought us the fullness of the deity, which dwelt in him bodily — how then can ‘I do not know’ fit the Savior? But also the phrase
‘I am too young’ rules out the Savior, as though he were speaking improperly. For if the Lord says to him, Do not say this, it is clear that he forbids it as something not well said. These things, then, do not fit the Savior. But those other things do not seem to trouble us when applied to the Savior. Yet to say that these apply to Jeremiah, and those to
the Savior, is not difficult. Yet the truly fair-minded person will be greatly troubled at this point, seeing that to cut apart, within a connected sequence of words, statements spoken either to Jeremiah or to the Savior, and to say of these — since they are lesser — that they do not fit Christ but rather fit Jeremiah, and of those — since they are greater than Jeremiah — that they fit not Jeremiah but Christ, is the mark of thoughtless people.
Should the whole passage, then, be referred to Jeremiah? And let even these things that seem to be greater than Jeremiah be interpreted so. Everyone who has received words from God and has the grace of heavenly words has received them for ‘rooting out and tearing down nations and kingdoms.’ But if it is said that everyone who has received words from God ‘roots out’ ‘nations and kingdoms,’ do not understand
the nations and kingdoms in a bodily sense; rather, consider human souls ruled as kings by sin, according to what is said by the apostle: ‘Let not sin, then, reign in our mortal body,’ and, looking also at the many kinds of sins, interpret figuratively both the nations and the kingdoms as the base things existing in human souls, which
It is uprooted and torn down by the words given, whether to Jeremiah or to whomever, of God. And it is possible to apply the first things, which press hard as regards the Savior, to Jeremiah, and the second things, to one who knows how to interpret figuratively, also to apply to Jeremiah. Someone among the hearers will say to me: exercise the other line of argument too, and try to show that all the things written fit the Savior.
Do not be troubled about the second set; for it appears that the Savior uprooted the kingdoms of the devil and tore down the nations, having abolished the pagan way of life. Here, in what seems ill-omened as regards the Savior, exercise the argument somehow: how can the Savior say, "I do not know how to speak, for I am too young"? And... do you see that the argument runs into difficulty?
We know the Savior to be Lord. We seek, in a manner worthy of the subject and in accordance with the truth, to refer these things to the Savior. We must take the scriptures as witnesses; for our own attempts are unattested, and our interpretations are unreliable. And "on the testimony of two or three witnesses shall every word stand firm" fits the interpretations better than it fits the persons, so as to establish
one interpretation by taking two witnesses from the New and Old Testament, taking three witnesses from Gospel, from Prophet, from Apostle — for thus "every word shall be established." How then can we refer these things to the Savior? Bring forward as witness the Old Testament: "for before the child knows good or evil, he refuses what is evil so as to choose the good." And
these very things are said plainly of the Savior in Isaiah: "See, the virgin will conceive in her womb and give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel." And there it adds: "before the child comes to know..." But if an example must also be taken from the Gospel: Jesus, not yet having become a man but still being a child, since "he emptied himself," was advancing — for no one
advances who has already been made perfect; rather, one who needs advancement advances. Therefore he was advancing in age, advancing in wisdom, descending here in grace before God and men, and having emptied himself he was receiving back what he had emptied himself of, having emptied himself willingly. What is strange in his having also advanced "in wisdom and age and grace before God and men," and in its being true of him that before he knows good or
evil he chooses the good and refuses what is evil — and the things I have cited from Isaiah? But someone will say: even if you can refer to the Savior this "he does not know," taking it as applying to him, does it not trouble you to say these things about the Only-begotten, about the firstborn of all creation, about the one announced as good news before his conception, according to: "the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and
the power of the Most High will overshadow you" — and yet you say: he does not know how to speak? See whether you can perceive something worthwhile and great about the Savior in this passage: that in not knowing certain things, he is greater in not knowing them than he would be in knowing them. And I use his own voice as a witness that he does not know certain things. At any rate he says to those who say to him: "Did we not eat in your name, and"
we drank in your name, and in your name we cast out demons, and did many mighty works? Depart from me, I never knew you.' Does then this phrase, 'I never knew you,' spoken there by the Savior, show a lesser power in him, or a greater and more marvelous one, because he did not know those who are worse and those who are perishing? For he knew the things that excel and are better, and 'the Lord knew
those who are his,' and 'if anyone is ignorant, he is not known.' So then the sinner is not known by God. One of my hearers will say to me: you have shown that he does not know the sinners, you have shown that he does not know those who work lawlessness, for they are not worthy of his knowledge. How then will you show it to be something great and glorious, this saying 'I do not know how to speak,' spoken by the
Savior? To speak is a human thing; to speak is to make use of a language, so as to use, let us say, the tongue of the Hebrews or of the Greeks <or of some others>. If you rise up to the Savior and know him as the Word 'in the beginning with God,' you will see that he does not know how to speak, since speaking belongs to what is human, but <he does not know it> because what he knows is greater than speaking.
But if you also compare the tongues of angels with the tongues of men, and know that he is greater even than the angels, as the apostle testified in the letter to the Hebrews, you will say that he was greater also than the tongue of angels, when as God he was the Word with the Father. He learns, then, and as it were takes up knowledge not of great things, but of lesser and smaller ones. And just as I learn,
forcing myself to babble, when I converse with little children (for not knowing how to speak, so to say, in the language of children, I force myself, though grown, to converse with children), in the same way the Savior too, being 'in the Father' and existing in the majesty of the glory of God, does not speak human things, does not know how to utter the things below. But when he comes into a human body, he says,
at the beginning: 'I do not know how to speak, for I am younger' -- younger on account of his bodily birth, but older according to 'firstborn of all creation'; younger, because at the consummation of the ages he later came to dwell in this life. He says, then, 'I do not know how to speak,' meaning: I know something greater than speaking, I know something greater than this human sound. Do you want me
to speak to men? I have not yet taken up human language; I have the language of you, my God, I am the Word of you, of God; to you I know how to converse, but to men I do not know how to speak,' 'I am younger.' <'Do not say that I am younger,'> 'for to all to whom I shall send you, you shall go.' Thus he stretches out his hand, touches his mouth, gives him words, and gives him words for
the kingdoms, so that he might uproot; for he had need of words that uproot when he was 'in the Father,' he did not have need of words that overturn and tear down the worse things; for nothing there was worthy of demolition, nothing was worthy of uprooting. It is a great thing, like 'I do not know you, because you are workers of lawlessness,' spoken thus by the Savior on account of the surpassing greatness of his glory,
This is equivalent to "I do not know how to speak human things" — "I do not know how to speak." Whether it is said to Jeremiah or to the Savior, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you," if you read Genesis and observe what is said about the creation of the world, you will find that Scripture, with the greatest precision, did not say that before I made
you in the womb I knew you. For when "the image also" was being created, "God said, Let us fashion man in keeping with our image and likeness," he did not say, let us form. But when he took "dust from the earth," he did not make the man, but "formed the man," and placed in paradise the man whom he had formed, to work it and to keep it, <and of forming>
, that the Lord, whether to Jeremiah or to the Savior, did not say: "before I made you in the womb" — you, from the dust of the earth — this is created in the womb. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." If the Lord knew everyone [† in regard to "I do not know how to speak," since the Lord—of everyone must it be said
—] he would not have spoken it to Jeremiah as something exceptional: "and I knew you." Therefore God knows those who are distinguished; God knows those worthy of his knowledge, and "the Lord knew those who are his," but God does not know the unworthy, just as the Savior too said, "I never knew you." We, being human, to the extent that we make progress, judge some things
to be worthy of our knowing them; and some things we do not even wish to hear, so that we may neither come to know them nor be acquainted with them, while other things we wish to know. But what of the God of the universe? He wishes to know Pharaoh, he wishes to know the Egyptians, yet they are not worthy of the knowledge of God. Moses, however, is worthy, and so is each of the prophets, of such stature. You must accomplish much,
in order for God to begin to know you. For Jeremiah he knew before forming him in the womb; but another he begins to know at thirty years of age, <another> at forty years of age. There are sayings that are hidden — concerning the Savior they raise no question, but concerning Jeremiah they require attention from those who have ears. How does he say, "Before I formed you in the womb
I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I sanctified you"? God sanctifies certain people for himself. He did not wait for this one to come into being and then sanctify him, but before he came out of the womb he had already sanctified him. If you refer this to the Savior, it is not hard to say that before he came out of the womb he was sanctified. If you refer it to the Savior, he was sanctified not only before he came out,
but even still earlier he was sanctified. But this Jeremiah was sanctified before he came out of the womb. "I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." If you look into "I have appointed you a prophet to the nations" as applied to Jeremiah, observe in what follows that he is commanded to prophesy "against all the nations," and there is a superscription: "The things that Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations," against "Elam," against "Damascus,"
"To Moab." And we have it that "he prophesied against all the nations," corresponding to the saying "I have appointed you a prophet to the nations," which was addressed to him. But if we turn to the higher sense—if it applies to Jeremiah, we have already spoken of it; but if to the Savior, what need is there even to say it? He truly prophesied against all the nations; for just as he is countless other things, so also
he is a prophet. As he is high priest, as he is savior, as he is physician, so too he is prophet. Moses, indeed, prophesying about him, called him not merely a prophet but singled him out with special emphasis, saying: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me; to him you shall listen, and whoever does not listen to that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from his people." This, then,
is the one who has been appointed a prophet "to the nations" and who received grace poured out from God upon his lips, so that not only when he was present in the body, but even now, when he is present in power and in spirit, he might prophesy "against all the nations," so that from all the nations he might carry out his prophecy and draw people to salvation. "And I said,
O Lord, Master, behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am too young. And the Lord said to me: Do not say, I am too young; for to all to whom I shall send you—we have often said that according to the inner man it is possible to be a child, even if one is of an elderly bodily age; and it is possible at times, according to the outer man, to be a
child, but according to the inner man, a man. Such was Jeremiah, already possessing grace from God while still at a childlike age in body. Hence the Lord says to him, "Do not say, I am too young." And a sign that he was not too young, but a "perfect man," is this: "to all to whom I shall send you, you shall go,
and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid before them." The word of God knows that those who bear the word are in danger among those who hear it; for when they are reproved, they hate them, and when they are rebuked, they persecute them. The prophets suffer whatever comes their way: "a prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house"—which
we mentioned a little while ago as well. God, then, in sending the prophet, knows how many dangers he will undergo, and says to him: "Do not be afraid before them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord." What Jeremiah suffered has been recorded: he was cast into a pit of mud, and remained there "eating one loaf of bread a day" and drinking only water, and countless other things which his own prophecy has
made plain. "Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?" is said to the Jews. And it is necessary that "those who wish to live godly lives in Christ Jesus" should, without exception, "be persecuted" by the hostile powers, through whatever instruments they find. Therefore let those who are persecuted, without being taken aback, do everything, praying only that they be persecuted unjustly and not justly, not on account of wrongdoing, not
for sin, not for greed. But if someone is ever persecuted for the sake of righteousness, let him also hear the words, "Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say every kind of evil against you falsely on my account. Be glad and exult, since great is your reward within the heavens; for thus were the prophets before you persecuted." "For I am with you
to rescue you, says the Lord. And the Lord stretched out his hand to me, and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me." Note the differences between Jeremiah and Isaiah. Isaiah says: "Having unclean lips, and dwelling in the midst of a people that has unclean lips, I dwell there, and I have seen the King, the Lord Sabaoth, with my eyes." And since he confessed that he did not
have unclean deeds, but only trifling words (for he was a sinner only to that extent), the Lord did not "stretch out his hand," but one of the Seraphim touched his lips with his hand, and said: "Behold, I have taken away your iniquities." But since this man was sanctified "from the womb," no tongs are sent to him, nor a coal "from the altar" (for he had nothing deserving
of the fire), but the very hand of the Lord touched him. Hence it says: "The Lord stretched out his hand to me and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. Behold, I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot." Who is so blessed as one who, amid many kingdoms
that exist—kingdoms which the devil displays, kingdoms of opposing powers, kingdoms arranged according to sins—can uproot them by the words given by God? For it is written: "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. Behold, I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot." And just as there are kingdoms, so too there are nations, for a thing cannot be called a kingdom unless it has
nations under it. For instance, there is a kingdom of fornication, and the nations of that kingdom are each instance of fornication. There is one kingdom which is itself the generic sin of greed and defrauding, and there are many kingdoms among those who have many kinds of sins. Then, for each of the sinners, understand for me the nations that belong to the kingdom, so to speak, in that so-and-so has
many nations of the kingdom of fornication, and so-and-so has many nations of the kingdom of defrauding, or of slander, or of anger. It is the work of the words of God, sent out over "nations and kingdoms," "to uproot and to tear down." To uproot what? The Savior taught, saying: "Every plant that my heavenly Father did not
plant will be uprooted." There are certain things within souls which "the heavenly Father did not plant"; for all evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies, are plantings planted not by the heavenly Father. And if you wish to see whose plantings such thoughts are, hear that "an enemy has done this," the one who has sown
"Tares in the midst of the wheat." God, then, stands ready holding the seeds, and so does the devil. If we give "place to the devil," "the enemy" sows in addition a planting "which the Father did not plant" — the devil's own — one certain to be uprooted. If we do not give "place to the devil," but give place to God, God rejoices and sows his seeds upon our governing faculty. Do not
think, then, that Jeremiah has received some grim gift from God, because he is appointed "over nations and over kingdoms, to root out." God is good even in the words by which he roots out base things — the kingdoms hostile to the kingdom of heaven, the warlike nations opposed to the nation of God. "To root out and to tear down." There is a certain building of the devil, there is a certain building
of God. The building "upon the sand" belongs to the devil, for it is founded on nothing stable and firm and unified; but the building "upon the rock" belongs to God. See what is said to those who belong to God: "You are God's farmland, God's building." The words of God, then, are "against nations and kingdoms," "to root out and to tear down and to destroy."
If a thing is uprooted, but what is uprooted does not perish, <the uprooted thing still exists>. If a thing is torn down, but the stones of the demolition do not perish, the demolished thing still exists. It is, then, the work of God's goodness that, after uprooting, what has been uprooted should perish, and after tearing down, what has been torn down should be destroyed. Read carefully, in the case of things destroyed and uprooted, how such things perish.
"But the chaff burn with unquenchable fire," and "bind the tares in bundles and hand them over to the fire" — thus after being uprooted it perishes. If you wish to see, also after demolition, the things destroyed belonging to the building of base matter: that house becomes dust which has been torn down on account of leprosy, and is cast out, having become dust, "outside the city," so that not even a stone remains
standing — like "I will grind them fine as the clay of the streets": for what is worse must in no way hold together. Something was torn down — let its stones not be useful for another building, the one the evil one is able to build; something was uprooted — let him not find, from the things uprooted, seeds for a city, so that he might sow the tares again; for surely, having the seeds of the tares, he would sow them. For this reason, bind
the tares and burn them with fire, so that after being uprooted it may perish, and after being torn down the devil's building may perish. But the words of God do not stop there, at "rooting out and tearing down and destroying." For suppose the base things have been uprooted from me, the worse things torn down — what benefit is it to me, unless in place of the things uprooted the better things
are planted? What benefit is it to me, unless in place of these the superior things are built up? For this reason the words of God necessarily do first the work of "rooting out and tearing down and destroying," after which comes "building and planting." And we have always observed in Scripture that the things which appear grim, if I may call them so, are named first, and then the things that seem to be cheerful are named second. "I will put to death"
"...and I will make alive." <It did not say, "I will make alive," and after this, "I will kill."> For it is impossible that what God has made alive should be killed, whether by him or by someone else. But rather, "I will kill, and I will make alive." Whom will I kill? Paul the betrayer, Paul the persecutor. "And I will make alive," so that "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ," might come to be. If the wretched people who
come from the heresies had understood these things, they would not constantly bring them forward to us, saying: "Do you see how the God of the law is savage and inhuman, and says, 'I will kill, and I will make alive'? Do you not see in the scriptures the promise of the resurrection of the dead? Or do you not see the resurrection of the dead already being prefigured in each instance? 'We were buried' with Christ 'through baptism' and rose with
him. He therefore begins with words that are grimmer, yet necessary, such as "I will kill"; then, having killed, "and I will make alive; I will strike, and I will heal." "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives." First he strikes, and afterward he heals; "for he himself causes pain, and again restores." And so it is here too: "I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot
and to tear down and destroy, to build and to plant.” Yet first those base things must be taken away from us. God cannot build on the site of a base structure. “For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? What fellowship has light with darkness?” Wickedness must be uprooted from its foundations; the structure of wickedness must be consumed away from our soul,
so that after this the words of God may build and plant. For I cannot understand what is written in any other way: "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth." What do the words do? "Uproot and tear down and destroy." Words uproot "nations," words tear down "kingdoms" — but not these, the worldly ones. Worthy of words that tear down, worthy
of words that uproot, understand the things uprooted by words, the things torn down by words. Is there not, then, in the things now being spoken, a power — if God grants it (according to "the Lord will give a word to those who proclaim good news, with great power") — a power that uproots, whatever unbelief there is, whatever hypocrisy, whatever wickedness, whatever licentiousness? Is there not a power that tears down, wherever some idol-shrine has been built in the heart,
so that, once that has been torn down, the temple of God may be built, and the glory of God may be found in the temple thus rebuilt, and it may become not a sacred grove, but a planting — the paradise of God, where the temple of God is in Christ Jesus, to whom belongs the glory and the might, for the ages of ages. Amen.