Origen · a new plain-English translation from the Greek and Latin
If the oracles of God are found in the Law and the Prophets, and in the Gospels and the Apostles, then the one who is being taught by God's oracles will need to designate God as teacher. For "he who teaches man knowledge" is God, as is also written in the Psalms. And the Savior too testifies that no one ought to be designated teacher on earth, saying: "And do not call anyone teacher on earth,
for one is your teacher, the Father who is in the heavens." Now "the Father who is" in heaven teaches, whether by himself, or through Christ, or in the Holy Spirit, or through Paul, let us say, or through Peter, or through one of the other saints; only let it be God's Spirit and God's Word that comes to dwell and teaches. These things have been said by me, toward
what, has it been said? Because the prophet says: "Make yourself known to me, Lord, and I shall know" — for I shall not know unless you make yourself known to me; but if, by your making yourself known, I come to know, "then" I shall see their practices" and understand what each one does and of what purpose he is. These things the prophet says. Then let us see what the Savior says in the prophet: "I, like a harmless lamb
led to be sacrificed, did not know it. They devised a plan against me, saying: Come, let us cast wood into his bread, and let us blot him out from the land of the living, and let his name no longer be remembered." As also the prophet Isaiah says, Christ "was brought like a sheep to be slaughtered, and as a lamb is silent before the one who shears it, so he does not open his
mouth." There Isaiah speaks concerning him, but here Christ speaks concerning himself: "I," he says, "like a harmless lamb led to be sacrificed did not know it." He did not say what he did not know. For he did not say: I did not know evil things; he did not say: I did not know good things; nor did he say: I did not know sin; but simply "I did not know." To you, then, he has left it
to inquire what he did not know. And learn what he did not know from the saying: "him who knew no sin he made sin for us." For to know sin is to sin, just as to know righteousness is to act righteously. So then, the one who proclaims the things concerning righteousness but does not act righteously has not known righteousness. "They devised a plan against me, saying: Come, let us cast wood into his bread." That
the Jews crucified him is plain, and we proclaim this openly. But how you will fit this to "they devised a plan against me, saying: come, let us cast wood into his bread" is a task to grasp. Jesus' bread is the word in which we are nourished. Since, then, while he was teaching among the people they wished to add the stumbling-block to his teaching
by crucifying him, they said: "let us cast wood into his bread." For whenever the crucifying of the teacher is attached to the word of Jesus' teaching, wood has been cast into his bread. Let those men, then, having plotted out of malice, say: "Come, let us cast wood into his bread." But I will say something more paradoxical: the wood cast into the
has made his bread better. I take an example from the law of Moses: the wood thrown into the bitter water made it sweet. So too the wood of the passion of Jesus Christ, coming into the word, has made his bread sweeter. Before, then, the wood came into his bread, when it was only bread and there was no wood,
in his teaching, “into all the earth” his sound did not “go out.” But since the bread received power through the wood cast into it, for this reason the word of his teaching has been distributed through the whole inhabited world. And then the wood, which was a symbol of the passion of Jesus, through which the bitter water becomes sweet—
for I say that the law, when not understood, is bitter water, but if the wood of Jesus comes and the teaching of my savior takes up residence, the law of Moses becomes sweet and most pleasant when it is read and known. They said, then: “Come, and let us cast wood into his bread.” And they also say: “let us blot him out from the land of the living, and let his
name no longer be remembered.” Thus they killed him, as though obliterating his name. But Jesus knows how he dies and for what reason. Hence he says: “unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” So that the death of Jesus becomes an ear of wheat, producing many times over
what was sown, and abundantly. As if, hypothetically, he had not been crucified nor died, the grain of wheat would have remained alone, and many would not have come from it. Attend, then, to his wording, whether he did not mean to say this: “the grain of wheat, unless it falls into the ground and dies, remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
The death of Jesus bore fruit in all these; but if the death bore fruit in so many, how many will the resurrection bear fruit in? “Lord of hosts, who judges justly, who tests the kidneys and the hearts, may I see your vengeance upon them.” He prays these things prophetically, to see the vengeance from God upon them: “for Jerusalem has been surrounded by armies, and her desolation has drawn near,”
and it has been said to her: “behold, your house is left to you.” “May I see,” then, “your vengeance among them, because I have revealed my cause to you. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the men of Anathoth who seek my life, who say: you shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord, or else you will die by our hands.”
“Behold, I will visit them: their young men will die by the sword, and their sons and their daughters will die by famine. And there will be no remnant of them, upon the inhabitants of Anathoth in the year of their visitation.” For the sake of pretext the name of Anathoth is taken here. But the whole mystery of Judaism is spoken of figuratively in it; for Anathoth is interpreted
Hearkening. Since, then, the hearkening of God was among that people, as also the kingdom of God was, and what happened to the kingdom happened when ‘the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruits,’ in accordance with this it also came about that ‘the men of Anathoth,’ who were in the Hearkening, ‘sought the soul’ — not of Jeremiah
(for the history does not say that men of Anathoth sought the soul of Jeremiah; we have the Books of Kingdoms, and scripture there remembers Jeremiah, and nothing of this sort is said in them, nor in Chronicles — for we have the very book of the prophet, and the men of Anathoth said nothing of the kind) — but these things are said about Christ: ‘Those who sought my soul, who said,
“You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord.”’ The Jews prevented Jesus from teaching. ‘But if not, he will die at our hands. Behold, I will visit it upon them; their young men will die by the sword, and their sons and their daughters will perish by famine.’ They did not die by the sword then, but after his coming a famine has now come upon them,
‘not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of the word of the Lord’ — for it is no longer said among them, ‘Thus says the Lord Almighty.’ This is the famine: that prophecy should exist among them no longer — and why do I say prophecy? Not even teaching. Even if wise men should hold office among them ten thousand times over, there is no longer a word of the Lord among them, since what has been fulfilled is: ‘The Lord will remove from Judea
and from Jerusalem the mighty man and the mighty woman, the giant and the strong man, and the man of war and the judge and the prophet and the diviner and the elder and the captain of fifty and the wondrous counselor and the wise architect and the understanding hearer.’ No longer is there among them anyone able to say, ‘As a wise architect I have laid a foundation’ — the architects moved on, they came to the church, they laid the foundation, Jesus Christ.
On this foundation those who came after them also build. ‘In famine,’ then, that people has been left behind; for ‘he will bring evils upon them,’ upon those who dwell in Anathoth, ‘in the year of their visitation.’ ‘You are righteous, O Lord, for I will plead my case before you; yet let me speak my judgments to you. Why does the way of the impious prosper? Do those who deal treacherously in treachery flourish?’ We still ask whether God is good
— he who gave the law and the prophets — seeing that ‘the way of the impious prospers’ and he does not punish the impious. ‘All who deal treacherously in treachery flourish.’ Those very ones who speak against the creator, who slander him, ‘have flourished, they were planted and took root, they bore children and produced fruit.’ How much fruit did Marcion produce in begetting children, how much did Basilides, how much did Valentinus? For this is what is prophesied and said about the impious
in the phrase, ‘they bore children and produced fruit.’ ‘You are near to their mouth, but far from their inmost parts’ — they name the name of Jesus, but they do not have Jesus, for they do not confess him as they ought. ‘And you, Lord, know me, you have seen me, you have tested my heart before you; consecrate them for the day of their slaughter.’ What
What shall I do to make these things clear? He calls the punishments a purification of those being punished; for "consecrate them," he says, "for the day of their slaughter." Through their being slaughtered, consecrate them: "for the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives." "How long will the land mourn, and the grass of the field wither, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it?" As though the land were ensouled,
here too the prophet speaks, saying that the land mourns because of the wickedness of those who tread upon it. So with each of us, the land either mourns or rejoices: for it either mourns "because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it," or rejoices because of the virtue of those who dwell in it. So in the case of each of us, this very element either rejoices or mourns.
And if perhaps — and perhaps — the same holds also of the other elements. Likewise I will speak also of water and of the angel appointed over the water, so that I may explain the land as mourning or not mourning. For it is not this body, "the earth," that mourns "because of those who dwell in it," but rather — understand me — there is, appointed within the order of the universe, a certain one appointed over
the earth, and another appointed over the waters, and another over the air, and a fourth over the fire. So ascend with me in reasoning to the whole order that governs living creatures, and the order among the heavenly stars. A certain angel is appointed over the sun, and another over the moon, and another over the stars. These,
then, are the angels with whom we are, insofar as we belong to the earth: they either rejoice, if we act righteously, or mourn on our account when we sin. "The land mourns," it says, "because of those who dwell in it." He called the angel by the same name as the earth itself, "land." For just as "the thing made by hand is cursed, and the one who made it," not because the lifeless thing itself is cursed, but the phrase "made by hand" is used
of that which sits enthroned upon the lifeless statue and bears that very name — so too I will say that "land" is spoken of the angel appointed over the land, and "water" is spoken of the angel appointed over the water, according to what is said: "The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and were afraid; the depths were troubled at the abundance of the sound of waters; the clouds gave forth a voice; for indeed your arrows
pass through." "I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance, I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies." Consider for me the one who "exists in the form of God," being in the heavens; consider his house, the house above the heavens. And if you wish to see something still loftier — that he is "in the Father" — consider that his house is God himself. He leaves "father and
mother," the "Jerusalem above," and comes to the earthly place, and says: "I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance." For that was his inheritance — the regions shared with the angels, the rank shared with the holy powers. "I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies." He handed over his soul into the
into the hands of the enemies of the soul, into the hands of the Jews who killed him, into the hands of the rulers gathered against him, into the hands of kings, when “the kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered as one against the Lord and his Christ.” “My inheritance became to me like a lion in the forest.” This is the inheritance on earth
of his which he had inherited: it turned savage against him, against him, and the inheritance became—Jews grown wild against him—“like a lion in the forest.” It is not surprising if his inheritance then became “like a lion in the forest”; even now there are lions in the forest wishing to curse Jesus and slandering him and plotting against those who believe in him. “My inheritance,” then, “became to me
like a lion in the forest. It raised its voice against me; therefore I hated it. Has my inheritance become to me a hyena’s den?” He prophesies concerning this inheritance: has the inheritance become a hyena’s den—the den of the most savage creature, the corpse-eater, the one that haunts the tombs, that eats dead bodies? “Has my inheritance become to me a hyena’s den?”
“Or a cave all around it? Go.” Since they have become such creatures, I command you, the angels, to go and gather the wild beasts and hand them over to the beasts. “Go and gather all the wild beasts of the field, and let them come to devour it.” The “wild beasts of the field” have come; they are devouring that people. See their hearts being devoured by the powers
of the adversaries. If Jesus did not spare those people but said, “Go, gather the wild beasts,” how much more will he not spare us, if we do not carry out the law of God, the word of the gospel? He will say again: go, gather the wild beasts and hand her over. But we have confidence to say in our prayers: “Do not hand over to the wild beasts a soul that confesses you.”
Let us confess our transgressions in repentance, and we will not be handed over to the wild beasts, but to holy angels who will be our nurses, carrying us on their bosoms, transferring us from this age to the age to come in Christ Jesus, to whom is the power and the glory forever. Amen.