Origen · a new plain-English translation from the Greek and Latin
Those who call the prophets blessed, and who in calling them blessed pray to have their portion with the prophets, gather together from the prophetic words the distinctive marks of their prophecy. Seeking this, then, they might be persuaded — if they live according to these things (even though it will prove hard for them in this life to imitate the prophetic life) — that they will obtain rest and blessedness with
the prophets. Now it is possible to gather the distinctive marks of the prophets from many places: their freedom, their vigor, their watchfulness, their alertness — that when they found themselves in difficult circumstances they gave no thought to it, because of their freedom, only so that they might reprove, so that they might turn people back, as the prophets did, by speaking the word of God with boldness, rebuking sinners, even if those being reproved seemed to hold great power.
Still, even though it is possible to do this from every quarter, let us look also at what was read today. The prophet reproved many, and the prophet spoke against many; for he arose among people who had become sinners, as is clear from the fact that the captivity took place in his own time. Having reproved many, and having been judged by many, he speaks certain words of this kind. Let us first look at them from the prophetic word itself, and then also according to the higher sense, if
it is a prophecy of a prophet. "Woe is me, mother, for what a man you bore me, one to be judged and disputed with in all the earth!" O mother, why have you borne me a man who is judged against all who are on the earth, and disputed against all who are on the earth? For this task lay before this prophet, and before Isaiah too,
and the rest — the prophetic task: to teach, to reprove, and to turn back. It lay before this prophet too, then, to dispute, to reprove, being able both to judge and to be judged along with the sinners, to reprove the sins of the people. And as for all that the people did to them, what need is there even to say? One they stoned, another they sawed in two, another they killed "between the temple and the altar," this one
they threw into a pit of mud when he reproved them. And our Savior did all this, and indeed better than they did, since he is Lord of the prophets. For indeed, though he himself was scourged and crucified and handed over by the Jews, or by the teachers of the Jews and the leader of the people, he said: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites"; and he adds, for each
case, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites"; and he adds, for each, "Woe," and "because of this," this and that. So then let us too, if we are eager for the blessings pronounced on the prophets, do the same things, so that, on account of speaking and on account of being judged by many people, we may also say: "Woe is me, mother, for what a man you bore me, one to be judged and disputed with in
all the earth!" This can be more properly prophetic when referred to the Savior. Let it be granted that the prophet says this, but he will not say it truly — rather, perhaps, hyperbolically; for he was not disputed against by the whole earth. But if I come to my Savior and Lord, especially on account of "he will come to judgment" and "so that
'...that you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged' — I see that my Savior and Lord is about to stand before the Father, being judged together with all of us human beings. And he is judged with all human beings. I mean: he too is judged, he too is examined, and he stood as one vindicating the truth, not as an accuser. 'Woe is me, mother, as'
'—for what sort of man did you bear me, one who goes to law and is judged in all the earth?' A prophet cannot say 'in all the earth.' Rather it is our Lord — yet there are also those who love him who are nonetheless indignant, and say that it is not the Savior who speaks, that this utterance does not apply to the Son of God. But it must be shown that it is not foreign to the Son of God to say the
'Woe is me, mother'; 'My soul is deeply grieved, even to death,' and 'My soul is troubled' — and likewise what is said in the prophets applies here too: 'Woe is me, mother, for what sort of man did you bear me, one who goes to law and is judged in all the earth,' or as when the gleanings have perished so that no cluster of grapes can be found: 'Woe is me, my soul, for the devout man has perished from the earth, and
there is no one who does right among men.' Who is it there who says, 'Woe is me, for I have become like one gathering stubble at the harvest'? For does the prophet gather, and wish to gather? Does the prophet have a field? But it belongs to no one to gather in everything from the harvest and from what has been sown, except the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Since, then, there are many
falls among the nations, but also among us who have sins, he says: 'Woe is me, for I have become like one gathering stubble.' Let each of us examine himself: is he an ear of grain? Will the Son of God find in him something to gather in the vintage or to reap? We shall find that some of us are blighted by the wind; and if indeed we still have a little left in ourselves, two or three grains, our sins
are many against us. Seeing, then, the churches too, those bearing the name, filled with sinners, he says: 'Woe is me, for I have become like one gathering stubble at the harvest, and like gleanings at the vintage.' He came seeking fruit in the vineyard; for each of us is planted . . . and like a vine 'in a fertile place,' and 'he brought a vine out of Egypt,' 'but I planted you
as a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true.' He comes, seeking somehow to gather the vintage; he finds only some gleanings and scanty clusters, neither flourishing nor many. Which of us has clusters of virtue? Which of us has the offspring of God? 'O Lord our God, how wonderful is your name in all the earth.' Let this have been said by me as a digression on 'Woe is me, mother.' For it is not
foreign to the divinity of our Savior, who beholds the sins of men, that he now says 'Woe is me' — the Savior speaking not as God but as man, not as wisdom but as soul. For this reason I cited that prophetic text: 'Woe is me, my soul, for the devout man has perished from the earth, and there is no one who does right among men.' He came into the life
human, the blessed soul, took up a body on behalf of human beings. If it sees the sins, it says to the Father: “What benefit is there in my blood, in my going down into corruption? Will dust confess to you?” But let it not say “woe is me” about us, let the angels of the heavens not say it about us. Since our savior says “woe is me—”
they too will say “woe is me”; for they are not better than our savior, and they too see our failings. But blessed are those about whom the angels do not say “woe is me,” but are instead called blessed; for “joy comes to be in heaven over one sinner who repents more than over ninety-nine who have no need of repentance.” This much by way of consolation. “Woe is me, mother, as
whom did you bear me?” Whom does he call mother? Among women, can he not mean both the soul and Mary? But if someone accepts “just now my mother the Holy Spirit took me, and carried me up to the great mountain Tabor,” and what follows, he can see his mother in that. “Woe is me, mother, as whom did you
bear me, a man contended with and disputed against in all the earth?” He is contended with by all the earth and disputed against, and he is about to say to each one: I have done this and that, and my dispensation has accomplished this and that, and I endured for your salvation. When the savior says these things, what shall we do? For he is about to be disputed against in all the earth. I want to see what comes next.
It is possible, on one and the same account, to refer this both to the prophet and to the savior. Let us also look at what follows: “I owed nothing, nor did anyone owe me anything.” “The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me.” And truly he owed nothing. But each of us is a debtor for our sins, and is a debtor holding a handwritten bond. After his bond had been wiped out—
his bond — †how many bonds have they made? “He who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth,” made no bond. But what, then, of “not even one owed me”? How shall we explain “not even one owed me” in reference to the savior? Even though we have read it this way, we must also know that most of the copies of the edition
of the Seventy do not have it this way; but later, on examining the remaining editions as well, we recognized this to be a scribal error. And yet, “not even one owed me”? So that not even one owed him anything, he forgave all of them their debts. “A certain moneylender had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, the other fifty. Since they had nothing with which to repay him, he forgave both.” Do you want to see the two debtors,
the one owing five hundred and the one owing fifty? From two peoples they have come to believe in God: the people from the Jews, not believing in Christ, owes the fifty; perhaps we who are from the nations, having become more impious than all, owe the five hundred—the ones concerning whom that saying about the repentant prostitute is also spoken. And yet someone might say, how could the…
five hundred is applied to her, from the passage ‘and what sort of woman is this who touches him,’ in reference to which he said to Simon: ‘A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, the other fifty,’ and so on. This is on account of ‘I owed nothing, nor did anyone owe me anything,’ which it was necessary to set before you: ‘I owed nothing, nor did anyone owe me anything; my strength
failed among those who curse me.’ Even if he died ‘from weakness, yet he lives by the power of God.’ Then, since many words have already been gone through, it would be possible to speak also about each of the things said, but time does not allow it, since it is pressing upon us. Let us then speak about the passage read next, ‘Cursed is the man who has his hope set on man.’ From the † those
who think that the man was the Son of God, the Savior (for they dared, along with the many other human evils, to say this too: that the Only-Begotten, the Firstborn of all creation, is not God) — for ‘cursed is he who has his hope set on man.’ It is clear that those who set their hope on man are cursed. I would say that I do not
set my hope on man, but hope in Christ Jesus; I do not know a man. Not only do I not know a man, but I know wisdom, righteousness itself, a man through whom ‘all things were created, among the authorities.’ ‘Cursed is the man who has his hope set on man.’ And even if the Savior testifies that the one he bore was a man — well, even if he was a man,
yet now he is by no means a man. For ‘even if,’ says the apostle, ‘we have known Christ according to the flesh, we no longer know him’ in that way. Because of him I am no longer a man, if I follow his words; but he says, ‘I said, you are gods, and sons of the Most High, all of you.’ Therefore, just as he is ‘firstborn from the dead,’ so he has become firstborn of all men, having been changed into God. ‘Cursed,’
then, is ‘the man who has his hope set on man, and makes flesh his arm’ — whoever ratifies what is fleshly, whoever acquires bodily strength and does battle according to the flesh. But the holy man is not like this: ‘for he does not make flesh his arm,’ since ‘he always carries the deadening of Jesus in his body,’ and puts to death ‘the
members that are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness.’ Having put these to death, ‘he does not make flesh his arm.’ ‘Cursed is he who has his hope set on man.’ At the same time this is also directed against those who hope in high positions. ‘So-and-so is my friend, a centurion, he is a procurator; so-and-so is my friend, and he is rich, and he provides for me.’ To such a person too, then, this is said:
‘Cursed is the man who has his hope set on man.’ We hope in no man, even if they seem to be our friends; for it is not in them but in our Lord that we hope, who is Christ Jesus, to whom is the glory and the power for the ages of ages. Amen.