Origen · a new plain-English translation from the Greek and Latin
We want to understand what is said to Jerusalem with much threat, which reads as follows: "Who will spare you, Jerusalem? Or who will be downcast over you? Or who will turn aside to ask about your peace? You have turned away from me, says the Lord. You will go backward, and I will stretch out my hand against you and destroy you, and I will no longer let you go. And I will scatter them in dispersion."
Then, "I was made childless." Perplexity gripped me. I take as an example someone shown to be an enemy of the one who reigns over the earth, because it is not even permitted to show such a person mercy, lest one seem to give offense to the king who condemned him. And it is not permitted to pity such a person either — some carry it further still, not even looking downcast over him, so that by their downcast look they might not seem to be displeased with the one judged by the king. If
you have grasped this, consider for me the one condemned by God on account of his many sins, and observe such a person. Though there are legions of angels appointed to help human nature, he is pitied by none of them. For each of the angels, seeing that the one who condemned him is God, that the one he turned away from is the Creator, that the nature of sins is such that
the good God is compelled — if I may put it this way — to bring the verdict against the one who has sinned, each of those who see it does not spare him, does not look downcast, does not pity, does not turn back to appeal for peace on his behalf. Let this Jerusalem, then — for so she will be called on account of the letter — let her have sinned against my Jesus, and let her have done such things, so that Jesus may say concerning her,
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a bird gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Behold, your house is left to you." Let this Jerusalem be abandoned, as she has been abandoned. Let the angels who always help Jerusalem, through whom also the
law of Moses — "ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator" — was arranged, let them abandon Jerusalem and say: her sins have grown great, they killed Jesus, they laid hands on the Christ. As long as her sins were still smaller, we could still make requests on their behalf and appeal, we could still spare Jerusalem. Who will spare her for this? "If a man sins against
another man, they will pray for him; but if he sins against the Lord, who will pray for him?" "Jerusalem has sinned a sin, therefore she has become a thing tossed about"; and it is said to her, first of all: "Who will spare you, Jerusalem? And who will be downcast over you?" We are not downcast over Jerusalem and her misfortunes and what happened to that whole people —
for by their trespass our salvation has come, so as to provoke them to jealousy. Since their trespass became so great a sin that it caused the Lord's voice to say, "Who then will spare you" — I say this to the one who killed my Jesus — I too say: "Who will spare you, Jerusalem? And who will be downcast over you?" I move on from the letter, though I have followed a path which
the word has given, to every soul already deemed worthy to see peace. For after the divine teachings you became Jerusalem, having previously been Jebus. (The history says that the name of that place was Jebus,) and it changed its name a second time, to Jerusalem. The sons of the Hebrews say that Jebus is interpreted “Trodden Down.” Jebus, then, is “the Trodden Down” by opposing powers,
a soul, has been changed and become Jerusalem, “Vision of Peace.” If, then, when you changed from Jebus into becoming Jerusalem, you sinned, and have trampled the Son of God, and have considered the blood of the new covenant common — as that one did, so have you too considered it — and are in grievous sins, then it will also be said of you: “Who will spare you, Jerusalem? And who will grieve over you,” if
you become such a one as to betray Jesus? Each of us, in sinning — and above all if the sins are greater — sins against Jesus. And if one is even an apostate, he does all the more to Jesus spiritually what Jerusalem did to him bodily. Therefore: “How much worse a punishment do you suppose he will be deemed worthy of, who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has considered common the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified,
and has outraged the Spirit of grace?” If you have trampled underfoot the Son of God and have outraged the Spirit of grace, “who will spare you? Who will grieve over you? Who will turn back to ask after your peace?” The sinful soul has betrayed the very Son of God who asked after its peace; who is able, turning back again, to entreat concerning
peace? Knowing, then, that “those who were once enlightened, and tasted the heavenly gift, and became partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away — for such it is impossible to be renewed again to repentance, since they crucify the Son of God afresh for themselves and hold him up to contempt,” let us do everything, lest it be said of us too, “Who will spare
you, Jerusalem? And who will grieve over you? Or who will turn back to ask after your peace?” And what follows will also fit both interpretations of Jerusalem: “You have turned away from me, says the Lord. You will go backward.” That you have turned away from the Son of God, and that because you have turned away from the Son of God you have turned away from God — what need is there even to say? And
since the Jerusalem in Judea turned away from Christ — by which all the Jews are to be understood — for this reason “you will go backward.” For there was a time when it was not going backward, but forward; but now it goes backward, “and they turned in their hearts toward Egypt,” clearly so that they might go backward. Now concerning what “you will go backward” means, or what it means to reach forward to the things
ahead, we shall set forth as follows. The righteous man reaches forward to the things ahead; clearly the one disposed contrary to the righteous man calls to mind the things behind and does not reach forward to the things ahead. And the one who calls to mind the things behind disobeys Jesus, who teaches and says: “Let him not turn back to take up his cloak,” he disobeys Jesus who says: “Remember Lot’s wife,” he disobeys Jesus
as he says: "No one who puts his hand to the plow and turns back is suited for the kingdom of God." And it is also written in the law that the angels said to Lot as he went out from Sodom: "Do not look back, nor stand anywhere in the surrounding country; escape to the mountain, lest you be swept away with them." And this too holds
a meaning worthy of an angelic spirit: "do not look back" — always stretch forward to what lies ahead. You have left Sodom; do not turn back to Sodom. You have left wickedness and sin; do not turn back to it, "nor stand anywhere in the surrounding country." Even if you keep the first commandment, the one that says, "do not look back," it is not enough for you to be saved, if
you do not also heed the second commandment, which says, "nor stand anywhere in the surrounding country." For one who has begun to progress must not stand still in the country around Sodom, even if he has already crossed beyond Sodom itself, but having crossed beyond it must not stand still in the surrounding country, but must be saved by escaping to the mountain, in accordance with "do not look back, nor stand anywhere in the surrounding country; to the
mountain escape, lest you be swept away with them." If you wish not to be swept away with the Sodomites, never turn back, nor stand in the country around Sodom, nor be anywhere except on the mountain — for it is only there that one can be saved. And the mountain is the Lord Jesus, to whom be the glory and the might for the ages. Amen.