Origen · a new plain-English translation from the Greek and Latin
There are two visions read in succession in Jeremiah, of which the first concerns the clay vessel in the potter's hand, which admits of correction after being broken (for it can be reshaped), while the other vision concerns the earthenware jar, which once shattered has no remedy. For when it was clay, if it was broken,
even if it had already been shaped, since it was clay, it could again become a second lump and be created a second time; but once, after being clay, it had already become earthenware and been hardened by fire, then it was no longer possible for it to receive a remedy after the earthenware was broken. So then, let us first consider in general what these things mean, and then, if it is granted, examine them word for word.
As long as we are in this life, we are being formed - to use such a term because of our clay vessel - after the manner of pottery, and we are formed either according to vice or according to virtue. Yet we are formed in such a way that our vice too admits of being broken, so that a better new creation may come to be, and our progress resolved, after its shaping, into something better, and our progress resolved after
its shaping, into a clay vessel. But when, after the present age, we come to be near the end of life, and are then set on fire, either by the fire of the evil one's fiery darts, becoming whatever we then become, or by the divine fire (since indeed "our God is a consuming fire"), if, I say, we become whatever we become by this or that fire,
if we are broken - whether we are broken and perish after having become good vessels, or after having become worthless ones - we are not remade, nor does our making admit of improvement. For this reason, as long as we are here, being as it were in the potter's hand, even if the vessel falls from his hands, it still admits of remedy and of being remade. Let this be said somewhat summarily, before
we examine in discourse what remains, concerning the two kinds of vessels: the clay one not yet turned to earthenware, and the second, already become earthenware. Let us see from the very text what is said about the clay vessel in the potter's hand, and how the word itself in the prophet - the Lord
who prophesies in him - gives occasion also for other, not slight, interpretations concerning the shaping done in the potter's hand. "The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Arise and go down to the potter's house." Jeremiah is above; he has risen above the clay vessels. Below are the clay vessels, and the nature that administers
the clay vessels, descending along with them, is itself below among those being administered. For this reason the word said to have come to Jeremiah from the Lord says to him: "Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there you will hear my words." To Moses it is said: 'Go up to the mountain and hear'; to Jeremiah it is said: 'Go down to the potter's house and hear.' For each of those who hear the word, either
...he is taught about the things above, or he learns about the things below. If I am being taught the lower things, I go down in my reasoning, so that I may see the lower things; but if I am learning the higher things, I go up in my reasoning to the higher things, so that I may behold what is there. And so that all of you may follow, as far as you are each able, what is being said, I will use examples drawn from scripture, and in addition to the
example I will also bring forward clarity to support the interpretation given. "At Jesus' name every knee shall bow — of beings heavenly, earthly, and those beneath the earth, and every tongue shall acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of the Father, God." Now there is a certain wisdom concerning each of these: wisdom concerning the heavenly things, how the heavenly things are ordered; wisdom concerning the things under the earth, since it is the wisdom of God
that concerns also the ordering of the things under the earth, and likewise concerning the things on earth. If I am going to grasp the wisdom concerning the heavenly things, I go up to the heavens, just as Moses went up to the top of the mountain, so that the voice from heaven might be heard by him, as it is written. For he was about to be taught about heavenly acts of worship; for it was a shadow and a copy of heavenly
mysteries, contained in the written laws of worship, as the apostle taught when he said: "who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things." Just as, then, when I am about to be taught about the heavenly things I go up, so too, if I have need to learn about the things under the earth, even if I should become a prophet, I go down. And perhaps for this reason Samuel, when he was taught the things under the earth, went down below and came to be in Hades, not
standing trial so as to be in Hades, but so as to become a spy and observer of the mysteries of the things under the earth. Such, too, can be what is said by the apostle concerning wisdom, when it is distinguished by the knowing of "what is the breadth and length and depth and height." When you are about to know the height, you go up in your reasoning to the height; when you are about to know the things between the height
and the depth, you come to know the breadth and the length. Everywhere the mind that is able to follow the Son of God arrives, led by the reasoning of the one who teaches about all things. And it follows him by renouncing the world and taking up the cross; for this one is able to follow Jesus, who is able to say: "The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." It was necessary to explain the words "Go down to
the house of the potter, and there you will hear my words." For it was necessary to compare this with "Go up, and you will hear my words." For of those who hear, some go up in order to be taught — though they do not go up in a bodily way at all — while others go down and yet keep their soul above, in order to see the reasoning that from the highest place concerns the lowest things. My own Lord Jesus
Christ himself has gone up and gone down; for "he who ascended is himself also he who descended," above all the heavens. If, then, you too are about to understand the reasoning that concerns the highest things as spoken by the one who ascended to the highest place, and to comprehend the one who teaches about the lowest things as the one who descended to the lowest places, "do not say: Who shall go up into heaven?" — meaning, so as to fetch Christ down; or:
Who will go down to the abyss? That is, to bring Christ back up. Or, who will descend into the abyss? That is, to raise Christ back up from the dead. But what does scripture say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,” by which you ascend into heaven. And concerning the ascent, “the word is near you,” and concerning
the lowest things, “near you is the word.” For what else can the holy one have within himself but the word that is everywhere? For “the kingdom of heaven is within you.” The prophet, then, goes down to the potter’s house and relates what he saw, saying: “and behold, he was doing work with his hands, and
the vessel that he was making with his hands in the clay fell apart; and again he made it into another vessel, as it pleased him to make it.” But I do not know what the prophet saw when he came to be with the potter. For he saw the potter working; the vessel that had been made was of clay; the vessel fell apart. Why did it not say precisely: he let the vessel fall
from his hand, nor did it ascribe the blame to the potter? But since the discourse concerns living bodies, which fall apart of their own accord, for this reason it is said: “the vessel fell apart from his hands.” Take heed, then, you too, to yourself, lest, while you are in the potter’s hands and are still being formed, you fall apart from his hands through your own doing. “No one”
indeed snatches it “from his hands,” according to what is said in the Gospel according to John. Yet it is not written that, just as no one snatches, so no one falls apart from his hands; for the power of free choice is free. And I say: no one will snatch from the hand of the shepherd, no one can take us from the hand of God; but we
can, through negligence, fall apart from his hands. “And a word from the Lord came unto me, saying: shall I not be able to make you as this potter does, house of Israel? says the Lord.” Each person understands what is written according to his capacity: one more superficially, drawing his understanding from them as from a spring on the surface, another more deeply, as drawing from a well.
And both can be helped, since the same thing is a spring for the one and a well for the other. The Gospel bears witness to this, when it narrates the matters concerning the Samaritan woman; for there the same thing is called both “spring” and “well,” and in turn it is called at one point spring and at another well. Let whoever is able consider this, so as to know that the same thing, in its substance, is for the one who is on the surface a spring,
while for the one who is deeper it is a well. This is a preface for me to the exposition to come, concerning the clay vessel that fell apart from the potter’s hand and was formed anew. Some have looked at these things more simply and understood them thus. I will set before you their account and exposition; afterward, if we have anything deeper, we will expound that too. It is possible, they say, that here is signified
concerning the resurrection. For if the clay vessel fell from the hands of the potter, and from that same material of the clay he makes it into another vessel, just as it pleased him, then the potter who is God of our bodies, the maker of our formation, when this falls and is broken for whatever cause, is able to take it back
and renew it and make it more beautiful and better, "another vessel, just as it pleased him to make." Let this account too have its grace. But let us hear the Lord himself narrating and saying: "Shall I not be able to make you as this potter does, house of Israel? says the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hands, so are you in my hands.
At one time I will speak against a nation and a kingdom, to uproot it and destroy it; and that nation will turn from the evils about which I spoke to it, and I will repent of the evils that I planned to do to them. And at another time I will speak concerning a nation and a kingdom, to build it up and plant it; and they will do evil before me, so as not to hear
my voice, and I will repent of the good things I spoke of doing for them, says the Lord." We see that this word about the potter's house refers not to some one individual, but to two nations; for beginning, he says <that> he is about to speak concerning nations, so as to suggest something to those able to hear ineffable mysteries: "At one time I will speak against a nation." Look also
for the "at another time" and the earlier nation, <of which he speaks> the things of destruction on account of their sins; and having spoken the things of destruction on account of their sins, he nonetheless promises that if they repent, he will repent of the evils he spoke of doing to them. And again he speaks concerning another, second nation, "to be built up and to be planted," a whole nation; and
since this nation being built up and planted has a good promise, yet it is possible for it to sin, he says, after speaking these things, that if they depart from good works: "I will repent of the good things which I spoke of doing for them." What, then, are the two nations, the first one named, to which the word issues a threat, and the second, to which it makes a promise? It threatens, indeed, so that if
it should repent, he would not carry out the things of the threat. He promises, so that if the second nation should fall away and prove unworthy of the promises, it would not obtain them. It is above all concerning two nations that the entire economy of God toward the people in the world is set forth. The first nation to come into being was Israel; the second, from the coming of Christ, is this nation. To the former
God threatened what he threatened, and we see the things of that threat fulfilled against the former nation: it has gone into captivity, its city has been razed, its sanctuary destroyed, its altar thrown down, and nothing of its former dignities is any longer preserved among them. For God said to that nation: repent, and they did not repent. After these things had been spoken to them, God says to this second nation
...the things concerning its rebuilding. He sees that this nation too consists of people who are capable of falling away again. For this reason he also threatens this nation and says: even if I have foretold the things concerning the building and the things concerning the planting and the cultivation, yet if this nation too is going to sin, then to it also, once it has sinned, the same things will happen that have been said to that other nation because of
their sins, and they will suffer them if they do not repent. Search the whole of Scripture, and you will find that most of it speaks about these two nations. God chose the fathers, gave a promise to them, brought a people out of the family of the fathers from Egypt, was patient with them when they sinned, disciplined them as a father does, brought them in, gave them the land of promise, sent them
prophets at various times, disciplined them and turned them back from their sins. He was always patient, sending those who would heal them, until the chief physician should come — the prophet who surpasses the prophets, the physician who surpasses the physicians. When he had come, they betrayed and killed him, saying, "Away with him, away with such a man from the earth; crucify him, crucify him." At once a visitation came upon the nation, the place where my Jesus had been crucified was made desolate,
and God chose another nation. See how great the harvest is, even though the workers are few. And in another way too God so arranges things that the net is always being cast upon the sea of this life, and fish of every kind are gathered together. He sends "the many fishermen," he sends "the many hunters"; they hunt from "every mountain," they hunt
from "every hill." See how great is the providence concerning the salvation of the nations. "See, then, the kindness and the severity of God: upon" the former nation, the one that fell, "severity, but toward you," the second nation, "promises" and "kindness, if you continue in his kindness; since you too will be cut off." For it is not the case that the axe was laid only then against the root of the trees.
The axe is again ready to come. "The" axe "is laid against the root of the trees" — my Jesus was saying this then, prophesying concerning Israel, beside which the axe lay. He himself was the axe of the unfruitful tree, and he said, "Already the axe is laid against the root of the trees." All the trees that were there and did not bear fruit were cut down
and thrown into the fire and have been punished. But now another cultivated field has come to be, corresponding to the former one, concerning which it has been said: "bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance, in the place you have made ready for your dwelling." God brought his nation into the mountain of his inheritance. The mountain I seek is not, as the Jews suppose, among lifeless materials. The mountain is Christ.
In him we were planted, upon him we have been kept. See to it, then, that even if he is patient, it may not happen that the master of the house comes and says: "already for three years I have come to this fig tree and it has borne no fruit; cut it down; why does it even render the ground useless?" For it renders useless the good ground, Christ, the mystery of the church, when he who comes upon the congregation finds no fruit. "The end
"I will speak against a nation or even against a kingdom." It will seem that the "outcome" is simply what has been stated. But what has been said is of this sort: in the phrase "I will speak against a nation or a kingdom," the outcome is such as this: for the former nation it is called "I will tear down," for the second nation, "I will build you up." And again, "I will uproot" is said of the former, and "I will plant" of the latter. Is it then necessary, once the outcome has been declared, that the outcome
come to pass? God, though he does not change his mind, is said in Scripture to "repent." Let us pay close attention to the wording, so that, if we are able to give an account of how these things are said, we may accept the statement. "An outcome I will speak," it says, "against a nation or against a kingdom, to uproot them and destroy them; and if that nation turns from the evils which I spoke against it, then I too
will repent of the evils which I had planned to do to them. And an outcome I will speak against a nation or a kingdom, to build it up and to plant it; and they will do evil before me, so as not to hear my voice, and I will repent of the good things which I said I would do for them." Concerning God's "repentance" we are required to give an account, for it seems to be a fault
and unworthy — not only of God, but even of a wise man — to repent. For I cannot conceive of a wise man repenting; rather, one who repents, so far as the ordinary use of the word goes, repents because he did not counsel well. But God, being one who foreknows the future, cannot fail to counsel well, and therefore cannot repent. How then has Scripture
brought him in saying "I will repent" — not to mention that in the Books of Kingdoms it is said, in the phrase "I repent that I anointed Saul as king," and it is stated of him generally: "and repenting of the evils." But observe what we are taught about God in general terms. Where it says "God is not as a man, to be made uncertain, nor as a son of man, to be threatened," we learn through this wording
that God is not as a man; but through another passage which says that God is as a man: "for the Lord your God disciplined you, as a man would discipline his son," and again, "he bore his son as a man bears his son." Therefore, whenever the Scriptures speak theologically of God in himself, and do not intertwine his providential ordering with human affairs, they say that he is not as a man. For
"of his greatness there shall be no end," and "he is to be feared above all gods," and "praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts; praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all stars and light." And you could gather countless other such statements from the sacred writings
to which you might apply "God is not as a man." But whenever the divine providential ordering is intertwined with human affairs, it takes on a human mind and manner and mode of speech. And just as, if we converse with a two-year-old child, we lisp on account of the child — for it is not possible, while keeping the dignity proper to a man of mature age, to speak to children without
coming down to their manner of speech to make the children understand — think of God in this same way, whenever he manages the affairs of the human race, and especially of those who are still infants. See how even we, when we are grown men, change our words for babies: we call bread by a special name for them, and we call drinking by another word, not using the speech
we use with grown people our own age, but some other, childish and infantile way of speaking. And if we name garments for children, we put other names on them, as though fashioning a childish name. Are we then imperfect at that moment? And if someone were to hear us talking with children, he would say that this old man has lost his sense, that this man has forgotten
his beard, the maturity of a grown man. Or is it granted, by way of accommodation, that one conversing with a child not speak with the speech of an elder, nor with a fully mature one, but with a childish one? And God indeed speaks to children: "Behold," says the Savior too, "I and the children whom God has given me." It could be said of the old man who speaks to the child in a childish way, or, to put it more emphatically, in an infantile way,
that you have borne your son's manner and have put on the manner of the infant and have taken up his condition. Understand, then, in this way also the scripture that says: "The Lord your God bore your manner, as a man would bear the manner of his son." And it appears that those who translated from Hebrew, not finding the word set down among the Greeks, have coined this word too, as they have done for many
others, and have made the phrase: "The Lord your God bore your manner (that is, he bore your manners), as a man would bear the manner (according to this example I have given) of his son." Since, then, we ourselves repent, whenever God converses with us as with people who are repenting, he says: "I repent," and when threatening us he does not pretend to be a foreknower, but threatens as one speaking to infants.
He does not pretend that he foreknew "all things before their coming to be," but as though — if I may put it this way — playing the part of the infant, he pretends not even to know the things that are to come. And indeed he threatens a nation on account of its sins and says: "If the nation repents, I too will repent." O God, when you were threatening, did you not know whether the nation would repent or would not repent? What then? When
you promised, did you not know whether the man would remain worthy of the promises, or the nation, to whom the word was addressed, or would not remain worthy? But he does not pretend to know. And you would find many such human traits in scripture, as also: "Speak to the sons of Israel; perhaps they will listen and repent." God has not said this "perhaps they will listen" as one in doubt; for God is not in doubt,
so as to say "perhaps they will listen and will repent," but so that he might display abundantly your free will, and that you might not say: "If he foreknew that I would perish, I must perish; if he foreknew that I would be saved, I must be saved along with everyone." He does not pretend, then, to know what is to come concerning you, so that he might preserve your free will by not having anticipated it or foreknown it beforehand, whether
"...you will repent or not." And he says to the prophet: "Speak, perhaps they will repent." For you will find countless other things of this kind said about God accommodating himself to man's condition. If you hear of God's wrath and his anger, do not think that anger and wrath are passions of God. These are dispensations in the use of words, meant to turn the infant back and make it better; since we too, with
children, put on a fearsome face not out of any disposition but as a matter of management. If we kept the kindliness of our soul toward the infant visible in our face, and displayed the affection we have for it, without distorting ourselves or, so to speak, changing our expression to bring about that child's turning back, we would ruin it and make it worse. So too, then, God is said both to grow angry and
to be enraged, so that you may turn back and become better. And in truth he neither grows angry nor is enraged; but you will experience the effects of wrath and of anger, coming to be amid hard-to-bear pains on account of wickedness, whenever he disciplines you with what is called the wrath of God. Next, after the discourse concerning the two nations, the former to which the threat is given, and the second to which
the promise is given, he says (he clearly said it to the former): "And now I have said to the men of Judah and to those dwelling in Jerusalem: thus says the Lord: behold, I am shaping evils against you." Because these things that I am shaping against you are in my hand, they can fall away. Make these things fall away from my hand, so that I may change the evils I am shaping against you
and do good things instead. You would not find: "Behold, I shape good things against you" and the corresponding words said in sequence after this, so that after this it might show that the good things he shapes he releases from his hands, so as to make them evils. Rather, he shapes evils according to the example stated, and in shaping evils he administers them (apart from the interpretation given for "it fell from my
hands"), so that if it falls, I do not know what sort of outcome the evils being shaped will come to. "Let each one turn back from his evil way, and make your practices better." Sometimes the more simple-minded say: blessed are the people of old, because they heard the Lord speaking through the prophet, saying: "and the Lord spoke to them." And now the Lord speaks
to us too, through the things written, the words "let each one turn back from his evil way"; the Lord himself converses with you, saying: "and make your practices better." But those to whom the exhortatory words about repentance were spoken made a reply, and let us see what they replied, so that we too may not give such a reply. What then do they say in reply? "We will act boldly, for after our own
turnings-away we will go, and each one of us will do the pleasing things of his evil heart." And even if you do not say it in these words, but your life is such that you sin, you too are in effect saying, through your evil deeds, after the exhortatory words, that "we will act boldly, for after our own turnings-away we will go, and each one of us will do the pleasing things of his
we will do evil." But what does "we will go after our own turnings-away" mean? Those who began to "put the hand to the plow" and were stretching forward to what lies ahead turned away from base things. So then, whenever someone who has put his hand to the plow turns back, he will go "after his turnings-away"; for he will go after those very things from which he had turned away, and he runs back again to those sins which he had left behind. And of those
who hear these things, then, whether catechumens who have left behind the pagan way of life, or believers who have already made progress in "stretching forward to what lies ahead," if their life has become base, they say nothing other than "we will go after our turnings-away, and each will do the things pleasing to his heart," not simply so, but "of his evil heart." For there is an evil heart and there is a good heart.
Let no one, then, go "after his own turnings-away," nor let him do "the things pleasing to his evil heart." "Because of this," to those who answer in this way, "the Lord says: ask now among the nations: who has heard such terrible things, which the virgin of Israel has done so exceedingly?" This too will seem to have been said simply. But if the church from the nations, indeed among the nations, hear what
she has done to God, it will be said: "ask now among the nations: hear what exceedingly terrible things the virgin of Israel has done." For let us compare the life of those who sinned with the life of those who turned back and believed, and we shall know that the former have done terrible things, having killed "the Lord of glory," while the latter, after the former had done terrible things, turned back to him, who was destroyed and
put to death for the sins of the world by those men. "Ask," then, "among the nations: who has heard such terrible things, which the virgin of Israel has done so exceedingly?" "Will the breasts fail from the rock, or the snow from Lebanon? Or will water carried forcibly by the wind turn aside? For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense in vain, and they will grow weak on their ways, eternal paths, walking tracks that have no road for a way,
so as to appoint their land for destruction and everlasting hissing." Here he has spoken of differences among waters. First in "will the breasts fail from the rock?"; second in "or the snow from Lebanon?"; and third in "will water carried forcibly by the wind turn aside?" These three kinds of water are the springs of the waters which
the soul of the righteous, likened to the deer, longs for, so that each might say: "as the deer longs for the springs of water, so my soul longs for you, O God." Who, then, has become a deer at war with the race of serpents, suffering nothing from their venom, as is recorded concerning the deer? Who has thirsted for God so
that one might say: "my soul has thirsted for the living God"? Who has thirsted so for the breasts of the rock? "Now the rock was Christ." Who has thirsted so for the Holy Spirit that one might say: "as the deer longs for the springs of water, so my soul longs for you, O God"? Unless the
Should we thirst for three fountains of waters, we would not find even one fountain of waters. The Jews seemed to have thirsted for one fountain of waters, God; but since they did not thirst for Christ and the Holy Spirit, they are not able to drink even from God. Those from the heresies seemed to have thirsted for Christ Jesus; but since they did not thirst for the Father, who is God over both Law and Prophets,
for this reason they do not drink even from Jesus Christ either. But those who hold fast to one God, while setting the prophecies at nought, did not thirst for the Holy Spirit that is in the prophets; for this reason they will not drink even from the paternal fountain, nor from him who cried out in the temple and said, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and
drink." The breasts, then, do not fail "from the rock." But those people "abandoned the fountain of living water"; the fountain of living water did not abandon them. For God removes himself far from no one, but "those who remove themselves far from him will perish." Rather, God draws near to some and meets the one who comes to him. At any rate, when the son who had devoured his substance returned, the father met
him. And he makes a promise through the prophets, saying, "I will draw nearer to them than the tunic to their skin." For he says, "I am a God who draws near, and not a God far off, says the Lord." The breasts, then—the waters of Jesus—will "not fail from the rock," "nor the snow from Lebanon"—the paternal waters. For frankincense too is a sacred offering
according to the law of God, and "clear frankincense, in equal measure," is offered upon the altar. And the mountain shares its name with this frankincense, and there is snow coming down from Lebanon, in the way the water of the Holy Spirit does, concerning which it is said, "Will not water be turned aside when it is carried violently by the wind?" And indeed it is carried by the wind. It does not "turn aside," the water of the
Holy Spirit does not flee; but each of us, by sinning, himself becomes a fugitive from drinking of the Holy Spirit. "Because my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense in vain." Now everyone who sins has forgotten God, but the righteous man says, "All these things have come upon us, and we have not forgotten you, nor have we dealt unjustly"; and he burned incense in vain. But what is meant by "in vain
they burned incense" must be considered. If we take up what was said earlier in the hundred-and-fortieth Psalm, we will understand what "they burned incense in vain" means. For something of this sort was said in that Psalm: "Let my prayer be set forth as incense before you." My prayer, then, is composite . . . of a fine heart, and when our heart is not thickened, it becomes, as it is sent up, like incense
before God. If, then, the prayer of the righteous man is incense before God, the prayer of the unjust man is indeed incense too, but incense of such a kind that it can be said of it, and of the unjust man who prays it, "they burned incense in vain"; just as it is written concerning Judas, "Let his prayer become sin." That man, in the very act of praying, burned incense in vain. But who is the
burning incense in vain, let us understand this all the more from what follows. "Three times a year," it says, "every male of yours shall appear before the LORD your God," to which it immediately adds: "You shall not appear before me empty." So then, of those who come to appear ...