Homilies on Jeremiah · §16.3 · Origen of Alexandria

Many rocks: prophets, apostles, angels

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

But I found one hole of one rock; I move in the word from the hole to the cleft of the rock, and I seek also the many rocks. If I come to the choir—whether of the prophets or of the apostles or even of holy angels who have gone up higher—I say that all who imitate Christ, as he is a rock, become rocks. And just as he has a hole through which God’s back parts are contemplated, in the same way each one, giving a way for God to be understood through the things said by him, makes a hole in himself—or if you wish to name it otherwise, a cleft.

From that hole or cleft you will see through Moses the law, through Isaiah his prophecy, through Jeremiah other words of God. And if an angel also speaks, as he spoke according to what is said in: 'and the angel who speaks in me,' (Isaiah 6:8 or John 12:49 (cf. Christ speaking through angelic voice)) there too I stand upon the angel, and there too I see a rock and a hole of a rock, and I see God in an angelic way.

Greek

Ἀλλ᾿ εὗρον μίαν ὀπὴν μιᾶς πέτρας, μεταβαίνω τῷ λόγῳ ἀπὸ τῆς ὀπῆς ἐπὶ τὴν τρυμαλιὰν τῆς πέτρας, ζητῶ καὶ τὰς πολλὰς πέτρας. ἐὰν ἔλθω ἐπὶ τὸν χορὸν εἴτε τῶν προφητῶν εἴτε τῶν ἀποστόλων εἴτε καὶ ἐπαναβεβηκότων ἁγίων ἀγγέλων, λέγω ὅτι πάντες οἱ Χριστοῦ μιμηταί, ὡς ἐκεῖνος πέτρα ἐστί, πέτραι γίνονται. καὶ ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνος ἔχει ὀπὴν δι᾿ ἧς κατανοεῖται τὰ ὀπίσω τοῦ θεοῦ, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον ἕκαστος ὁδὸν διδοὺς τοῦ νοεῖσθαι θεὸν διὰ τῶν λεγομεένων ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ, ποιεῖ ἐν αὑτῷ ὀπήν, εἰ δὲ καὶ ἄλλως βούλει ὀνομάσαι, τρυμαλιάν. ἀφ᾿ ἧς ὀπῆς ἢ τρυμαλιᾶς ὄψει διὰ μὲν Μωσέως τὸν νόμον, διὰ δὲ Ἡσαΐου τὴν προφητείαν αὐτοῦ, διὰ δὲ Ἱερεμίου ἄλλους λόγους θεοῦ. εἰ δὲ καὶ ἄγγελος ἔσται λαλῶν, ὡς ἐλάλησε κατὰ τὸ εἰρημένον ἐν τῷ «ὁ δὲ καὶ ἄγγελος ὁ λαλῶν ἐν ἐμοί«, κἀκεῖ ἵσταμαι ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀγγέλου, καὶ βλέπω κἀκεῖ πέτραν καὶ ὀπὴν πέτρας καὶ βλέπω ἀγγελικῶς τὸν θεόν.

About this text

Origen on Jeremiah. Twenty Greek homilies survive. This page has Homilies 1–20. The rest of the volume is still being translated.

English follows Erich Klostermann, Origenes Werke III (GCS, 1901). A second transcription of that same edition (First1KGreek TEI) was checked; where the TEI drops or garbles a line, the page image wins. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition of the Greek. Homilies that survive only in Jerome’s Latin are not on this page yet. When they are, they will be marked at those homilies.

Witnesses

Copy-text Klostermann, Origenes Werke III (GCS, 1901) (Greek · Homilies 1–20 Greek (this page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20))
Checked print Archive.org page image and DjVu of GCS III (Greek · Same print as the copy-text)
Checked print First1KGreek TEI of GCS III (Greek · Same print; encoding errors deferred to the page image)

Where the prints differ

Homily 1.1 — The TEI omits Ἑβραῖον. English follows the GCS page image: Jonah is “a Hebrew prophet.”
Homily 1.5 — The TEI dropped Ἰσαάκ. English follows the GCS page image: Isaac born of promise.
Homily 1.11 — The TEI/OCR of this line is garbled. English follows the GCS page image and the quoted verse: “I have sanctified you.”
Homily 3.2 — The TEI gaps Matthew 5:45 (sun on the evil and [gap]; rain on [gap] and the unjust). English follows the Gospel wording.

This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.