Origen of Alexandria

In his own words on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:2-3

  God is ready at hand to do good, but slow to punish those who deserve punishment. Indeed, though He is able to bring punishment upon those condemned by Him in silence, without giving warning beforehand, He by no means does this; but even when He condemns, He speaks, since His purpose in speaking is that the one about to be condemned may turn back from the condemnation. Of these things one can take many examples from the Scriptures, but a few of those that fall to hand in the present suffice, so that we may also come to the aim of the passages set before us. For the Ninevites had become sinners and were condemned by God: "Yet three days, and Nineveh was about to be overthrown." God did not wish to condemn her in silence, but, giving them a place for repentance and conversion, He sent a Hebrew prophet, so that, when he had said, "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," those who had been condemned might not be condemned, but, having repented, might obtain the mercy of God. Those in Sodom and Gomorrah had been condemned, as is clear from the words of God to Abraham; but nevertheless the angels did their own part, wishing to save those who did not wish to be saved, saying to Lot: "Are there for you here any sons-in-law, or sons, or daughters?"—not being ignorant that those men would not follow Lot, but doing what belonged to their own kindness and love for humanity, and at the same time to that of Him who sent them. You will find the like also in the matters concerning Jeremiah. The time of his prophecy is recorded, when it began and until when he prophesied. Then the one who reads, if he does not attend to the reading nor examine the intent of the passages written, will say that it is a mere narrative, and that it has been recorded when Jeremiah began to prophesy and after how long a time of prophesying he ceased prophesying. What, then, is this narrative to me? I have read it, I have learned that he began to prophesy "in the days of Josiah the son of Amos, king of Judah, until the thirteenth year of his reign"; then "it came to pass in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah," that he prophesied "until the completion of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah." And I have learned that his prophecy extended through three kings "until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month." What, then, are we taught through these things, if we attend to the reading? God condemned Jerusalem because of her sins, and they had been judged to be abandoned into captivity. Nevertheless the God who loves humanity, when the appointed time had drawn near, sends also this prophet before the third reign, the one under which the captivity fell, so that those who were willing, having understood, might repent through the prophetic words. He sent forth a prophet to prophesy also under the second king after the first, and under the third, up to the very times of the captivity. For the long-suffering God gave a reprieve even, as one might say, up to a single day before the captivity, urging those who heard to repent, so that the sorrows of the captivity might cease; whence it is written that "until the captivity of Jerusalem Jeremiah prophesied, until the fifth month." The captivity began, and still he prophesied, as if to say: You have become captives; even so, repent; for if you repent, the affairs of the captivity will not go forward, but the mercy of God will be established over you. We have, then, something useful from the record that contains the times of the prophecy, namely, that God, according to His love for humanity, urges those who hear not to suffer the things of the captivity. Such things concern us too. If we sin, we also are going to become captives. For the "handing over of such a one to Satan" differs in no way from handing over those from Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar; for as they were handed over to him because of their sins, so we are handed over because of our sins to Satan, who is a Nebuchadnezzar. And "those whom I handed over to Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme," says the apostle concerning other sinners. See, then, how great an evil it is to sin, so that men are handed over to Satan, who takes captive the souls of those abandoned by God—God abandoning not without cause nor without judgment those whom He abandoned. For when He sends rain upon the vineyard, and the vineyard bears thorns instead of grapes, what will God do but "command the clouds not to rain rain" upon the vineyard? Because of our sins, captivity lies upon us also, and we are going to be handed over, unless we repent, to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, so that the intelligible Babylonians may tear us apart. While these things lie upon us, the words of the prophets, the words of the law, the words of the apostles, the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ speak to us about repentance, they exhort us to conversion; if we will hear, let us believe Him who said: "I also will repent concerning all the evils which I said I would do to them." So much for the prologue.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1

• Jeremiah 1:5

  Now whether it is said to Jeremiah or to the Savior: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you"—when you have read Genesis and observed the things said concerning the creation of the world, you will find that Scripture, most precisely in its terms, did not say "Before I made you in the womb I knew you." For when the one "according to the image" was created, "God said: Let us make man according to our image and likeness," He did not say: Let us form. But when He took "dust from the earth," He did not make the man, but "He formed the man," and "He set in paradise the man whom He had formed, to work it and to guard it." See the difference between making and forming, that the Lord, whether to Jeremiah or to the Savior, did not say: "Before I made you in the womb I knew you"; for that which is made does not come to be in a womb, but that which is formed from the dust of the earth, this is created in a womb. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." If the Lord knew all men, He would not have said to Jeremiah, as something exceptional, "and I knew you." Therefore God knows those who are superior, God knows those who are worthy of His knowledge, and "the Lord knew those who are His," but the unworthy God does not know, just as also the Savior says: "I never knew you." We human beings, insofar as we advance, judge certain things to be worthy of our knowing them; and certain things we do not even wish to hear, so that we may not know them nor perceive them, but certain things we wish to know. But what of the God of all? He wishes to know Pharaoh, He wishes to know the Egyptians, but they are not worthy of the knowledge of God; but Moses is worthy, and each of the prophets is of such great worth. Much must you accomplish rightly, so that God may begin to know you. For Jeremiah He knew "before He formed him in the womb"; but another He begins to know when he has become thirty years old, another when he has become forty years old. There are ineffable words, not sought after concerning the Savior, but concerning Jeremiah requiring attention from those who have ears. How does He say: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb I sanctified you"? God sanctifies certain ones for Himself. This one He did not wait for, so as to sanctify him after he had come into birth, but before he came forth from the womb He had already sanctified him. If you refer it to the Savior, it is not difficult to say that before He came forth from the womb He was sanctified. If you refer it to the Savior, not only before He came forth was He sanctified, but even still earlier was He sanctified. But this Jeremiah was sanctified before he came forth from the womb. "I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." In the case of Jeremiah, if you inquire into "I have appointed you a prophet to the nations," observe in what follows that he is commanded to prophesy "against all the nations," and there is a heading: "The things which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations," to "Elam," to "Damascus," to "Moab." And we have it that "he prophesied against all the nations," as regards the literal statement that "I have appointed you a prophet to the nations" with respect to that one. But if with respect to the higher sense—if in the case of Jeremiah, we have spoken already; but if in the case of the Savior, what need is there even to say it? He truly prophesied against all the nations; for He is, just as He is countless other things, so also a prophet. As He is high priest, as He is Savior, as He is physician, so also a prophet. Moses, at any rate, prophesying concerning Him, called Him not only a prophet, but also exceptionally so, saying: "A prophet from among your brethren the Lord God will raise up for you like me; Him you shall hear, and it shall be that whoever does not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among his people." This one, then, is He who has both been appointed a prophet "to the nations" and has received grace from God poured out upon His lips, so that not only when He was present in the body, but also now, when He is present in power and in the Spirit, He may prophesy "against all the nations," so that from all the nations His prophecy may accomplish its work and may draw human beings to salvation.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1

• Jeremiah 1:5-10

  We are not ignorant that some refer these things, as being too great for Jeremiah, to our Savior and Lord; and one must know that most of them are in accord with Him and can be referred to the Savior, which I will set forth; but a few of the things said to Jeremiah press hard upon the argument, being unable, as they can with respect to the many, to be fitted to the Savior. What, then, are the things that fit the Savior? "To all to whom I shall send you, you shall go, and according to all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid before their face, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord." These would not yet seem to be referred to the Savior; but what follows—"and the Lord stretched out His hand to me and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: Behold, I have given my words into your mouth. Behold, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to root out and to pull down"—presses hard upon the interpretation concerning Jeremiah. What nations did Jeremiah root out, what kingdoms did he overthrow? For it is written: "Behold, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to root out and to pull down." And what authority did Jeremiah have "to destroy," which is said as if to Jeremiah in the phrase "and to destroy"? And how many so great did Jeremiah build up, that it should be said "and to build"? Jeremiah says: "I have not benefited, nor has anyone benefited me." How then has "to build and to plant" been given to him? How will "to plant" fit Jeremiah? These things, referred to the Savior, do not press hard upon the interpreter, since Jeremiah in these matters is a symbol of the Savior. But the things that are to be set forth press hard, even upon the very most intelligent man who wishes to show how these too can fit the Savior: "And I said: O You who are, Master, Lord, behold, I do not know how to speak." He who is wisdom, who is the power of God, who has brought to us "the fullness of the Godhead, which dwelt in Him bodily"—how, then, can "I do not know how to speak" fit the Savior? But also "I am young" is forbidden with respect to the Savior, as though He spoke it not rightly. For if the Lord says to him, "Do not say this," it is clear that He forbids it as being not rightly said. These things, then, do not fit the Savior. But those others do not seem to abash us when referred to the Savior. Now to say that these things are referred to Jeremiah, while those others are referred to the Savior, is not difficult. Yet the fair-minded man will be very much pressed at this point, seeing that to cut, within a sequence of words, the words spoken whether to Jeremiah or to the Savior, and to say that these, since they are lesser, fit not Christ but Jeremiah, and those, since they are greater than Jeremiah, fit not Jeremiah but Christ—this is the mark of the ill-disposed. Let the whole, then, be referred to Jeremiah; and let these things that seem to be too great for Jeremiah also be interpreted.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1

• Jeremiah 1:5

  We forget that the words "Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness" apply to each person. When we fail to remember the one who formed a person in the womb, and formed all people's hearts individually and understands all their works, we do not perceive that God is a helper of those who are lowly and inferior, a protector of the weak, a provider of shelter of those who have been given up in despair and Savior of those who have been given up as hopeless.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13:167-68

• Jeremiah 1:5

  Now after the prologue it is written that "the word of the Lord came to him," clearly to Jeremiah. And what does the word of the Lord say to him? Something exceptional beyond what was said to the rest of the prophets. For this we have found said to none of the prophets. Abraham was declared a prophet in the words, "he is a prophet and will pray for you," and yet God did not say to him: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb I sanctified you." But Abraham was sanctified at some later point, when he came forth from his land and from his kindred and from his father's house; from the promise Isaac was born, and we have not found even to him this saying spoken. And what need have I to enumerate what follows? Jeremiah obtained an exceptional gift, that of "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb I sanctified you."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1

• Jeremiah 1:6-8

  Someone of those who hear will say to me: Exercise the other argument as well, and try to present all the things written as fitting the Savior. Concerning the second matters, do not be anxious; for it is evident that the Savior rooted out the kingdoms of the devil and pulled down the nations, having destroyed the heathen life. Here, in what seems ill-omened as regards the Savior, exercise the argument somehow, how the Savior can say: "I do not know how to speak, for I am young," and what follows. Do you see that the argument is hard pressed? We know the Savior as Lord. We seek, according to the worth of the passage and according to the truth, to refer these things to the Savior. We must take the Scriptures as witnesses; for our undertakings are without witnesses, and expositions without witnesses are untrustworthy. And "By the mouth of two and three witnesses shall every word stand" fits the case of expositions rather than of human beings, so that I may establish the words of the interpretation by taking two witnesses from the New and Old Testament, and by taking three witnesses from the gospel, from a prophet, from an apostle; for thus shall every word stand. How, then, are we able to refer these things to the Savior? Bring the Old Testament as a witness: "For before the child knows good or evil, he refuses wickedness so as to choose the good." And these things are said outright concerning the Savior in Isaiah: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel." And there it is added: "Before the child knows." But if we must also take an example from the gospel—Jesus, not having become a man, but while still being a child, since He "emptied Himself," was advancing (for no one who has been perfected advances, but he advances who is in need of advancement); therefore "He advanced in wisdom and stature and grace before God and men," coming down here, and having emptied Himself, He received again those things from which "He emptied Himself," having willingly emptied Himself. What is strange in His having also advanced "in wisdom and stature and grace before God and men," and in that being truly said of Him: "Before he knows good or evil he shall choose the good and refuses wickedness," and the things I set forth from Isaiah? But someone will say: Even if you can refer "he does not know" to the Savior, and can say such a thing of the Savior and take Him to be a child, does it not offend you to say these things concerning the Only-begotten, concerning the firstborn of all creation, concerning Him who before conception was announced by good tidings according to the words, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you"—and do you say: He does not know how to speak? See whether you can behold anything worthy of note and great concerning the Savior in this passage: that, not knowing certain things, He is greater in not knowing them than in knowing them. And I make use of His own voice testifying that He does not know certain things. He says, at any rate, to those who assert to Him: "Did we not eat in your name, and drink in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works?"—"Depart from me, I never knew you." Does, then, the saying "I never knew you," said there by the Savior, present His power as lesser, or as greater and more wonderful, in that He did not know the worse and those who are perishing? For He knew the superior and better things, and "the Lord knew those who are His," and "if anyone is ignorant, he is not known." Therefore the sinner is not known by God. Someone of the hearers will say to me: You have shown that He does not know the sinners, you have shown that He does not know those who work lawlessness; for they are not worthy of His knowledge. How then will you present as great and glorious the saying "I do not know how to speak," said by the Savior? To speak is a human thing; to speak is to make use of a language, so as to utter, let us say, the tongue of the Hebrews, or of the Greeks, or of some others. If you ascend to the Savior and know Him as the Word "in the beginning with God," you will see that He does not know how to speak, since speaking is a human thing, but He does not know it because that which He knows is greater than speaking. And if you compare the tongues of angels with the tongues of men, and know that He is greater even than the angels, as the apostle testified in the Epistle to the Hebrews, you will say that He was greater even than the tongue of angels, when God the Word was with the Father. He learns, then, and as it were takes up knowledge, not of great things, but of things inferior and smaller. And just as I learn, forcing myself to lisp, when I converse with little children (for, not knowing how to speak in a childish way, so to speak, I force myself, being full-grown, to converse with children), in the same manner the Savior also, being "in the Father" and existing in the majesty of the glory of God, does not speak human things, does not know how to utter to those below. But when He comes into a human body, He says, at the beginning: "I do not know how to speak, for I am young"—young because of the bodily birth, but elder according to "the firstborn of all creation," young because "at the consummation of the ages" and later in time He came to dwell in this life. He says, then, "I do not know how to speak"—I know something greater than speaking, I know something greater than this human utterance. Do you wish me to speak to men? I have not yet taken up a human language; I have Your language, that of God; I am Your Word, the Word of God; I know how to converse with You, with men I do not know how to speak; "I am young." "Do not say that I am young, for to all to whom I shall send you, you shall go." Thus He stretches out His hand, He touches his mouth, He gives him words, and He gives him words for the sake of the kingdoms, so that he may root them out. But did He have need of words that root out when He was "in the Father"? He had no need of words that pull down and demolish the worse things; for there was nothing worthy of demolition there, there was nothing worthy of rooting out. Great, then, is the "I do not know you, for you are workers of lawlessness," said thus by the Savior because of the surpassing greatness of His glory, being equivalent to "I do not know how to speak human things," the saying "I do not know how to speak."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1

• Jeremiah 1:6-8

  "And I said: O You who are, Master, Lord, behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am young. And the Lord said to me: Do not say that I am young, for to all to whom I shall send you, you shall go." We have often said that it is possible to be a child according to the inner man, even though one be in the aged stage of the body; and it is possible sometimes to be a child according to the outer man, but according to the inner a man. Such was Jeremiah, already having the grace from God while still being in the childhood stage as regards the body. Therefore the Lord says to him: "Do not say that I am young." And a sign that he is not young, but "a perfect man," is the "to all to whom I shall send you, you shall go, and according to all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid before their face." The Word of God knows that those who serve as ambassadors of the Word are in danger among their hearers; for, being convicted, men hate them, being rebuked, they persecute them. The prophets suffer anything whatsoever: "A prophet is not without honor except in his own homeland and in his own house," which we also mentioned recently. God knows, then, when He sends the prophet, how many dangers he will take upon himself, and He says to him: "Do not be afraid before their face, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord." The things Jeremiah suffered are recorded: he was cast into a pit of mire, he remained there "eating one loaf a day" and drinking only water, and countless other things which his prophecy has made clear that he suffered. "Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?" is said to the Jews. And it is necessary that "those who wish to live godly in Christ Jesus be, in every case, persecuted by the opposing powers through the vessels which they find." Therefore let those who are persecuted, not being astonished, do all things, only praying that they may be persecuted unjustly and not justly, not for injustice, not for sin, not for greed. But if anyone is ever persecuted for righteousness' sake, let him also hear the "Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say every evil word against you, lying, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for your reward is great in the heavens; for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1

• Jeremiah 1:7

  But our present question may, perhaps, be solved in this way, that as every man is a man of God, simply because God created him, but not every man is called a man of God, but only he who has devoted himself to God, such as Elijah and those who are called men of God in the Scriptures, thus every man might be said in ordinary language to be sent from God, but in the absolute sense no one is to be spoken of in this way who has not entered this life for a divine ministry and in the service of the salvation of mankind. We do not find it said of any one but the saints that he is sent by God. It is said of Isaiah as we showed before; it is also said of Jeremiah, "To whomsoever I shall send thee thou shalt go"; and it is said of Ezekiel, "I send thee to nations that are rebellious and have not believed in Me." The examples, however, do not expressly speak of a mission from the region outside life into life, and as it is a mission into life that we are enquiring about, they may seem to have little bearing on our subject. But there is nothing absurd in our transferring the argument derived from them to our question. They tell us that it is only the saints, and we were speaking of them, whom God is said to send, and in this sense they may be applied to the case of those who are sent into this life.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2:184

• Jeremiah 1:9

  In sacred language God is called a fire. For instance, Scripture says, "Our God is a consuming fire." It also speaks as follows concerning the substance of the angels when it says, "He makes his angels spirits and his ministers a burning fire." In another place, "The angel of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire in the bush." We have, moreover, received a commandment to be "fervent in spirit," which undoubtedly means that the Word of God is hot and fiery. The prophet Jeremiah also hears from him who gave him his answer, "Behold, I have put my words into your mouth like a fire." Since God, then, is a fire, and the angels a flame of fire and all the saints are fervent in spirit, so, on the contrary, those who have fallen away from the love of God are undoubtedly said to have cooled in their affection for him and to have become cold. For the Lord also says that "because iniquity has grown, the love of many will grow cold."

  ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2:8.3

• Jeremiah 1:9

  We pray that words may be given us, as it is written in the book of Jeremiah that the Lord said to the prophet: "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth as fire. See, I have set you this day over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, and to build and to plant."

  AGAINST CELSUS 4:1

• Jeremiah 1:9

  "For I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord. And the Lord stretched out his hand toward me, and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me." Observe the differences between Jeremiah and Isaiah. Isaiah says, "Having unclean lips, in the midst of a people having unclean lips I dwell, and I saw with my eyes the King, the Lord of Sabaoth." And since he confessed that he had no unclean deeds, but only trifling words (for up to that point he was a sinner), the Lord did not "stretch out his hand," but "one of the Seraphim touched his lips with his hand, and said: Behold, I have taken away your iniquities." But since this man was sanctified "from the womb," neither are tongs sent to him, nor a coal "from the altar" (he had nothing worthy of the fire), but the very hand of the Lord touched him. Therefore he says: "The Lord stretched out his hand toward me and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. Behold, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to root up."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1

• Jeremiah 1:10

  Everyone who has received words from God and has the grace of the heavenly words has received them for the purpose of "rooting out and pulling down nations and kingdoms." But if it is said that everyone who has received words from God "roots out" "nations and kingdoms," do not understand the nations and the kingdoms in a bodily sense for me, but, having observed that human souls are ruled over by sin according to what is said by the apostle—"Let not sin therefore reign in our mortal body"—and seeing also the many kinds of sins, interpret figuratively the nations and the kingdoms as well, that is, the evil things that are in the souls of human beings, which are rooted out and pulled down by the words of God given whether to Jeremiah or to anyone whatever. And one can fit both the first things, those that press hard as regards the Savior, to Jeremiah, and the second things to Jeremiah, who knew how to interpret figuratively.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1

• Jeremiah 1:10

  Who is so blessed as to root up, by the words given by God, the kingdoms which are many, which "the devil displays," being kingdoms of adverse powers, kingdoms corresponding to the sins? For it is written: "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. Behold, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to root up." And just as there are kingdoms, so also there are nations; nor can anything be called a kingdom unless it be one having nations under it. For example, there is a kingdom of fornication, and the nations of fornication are each individual fornication. One kingdom is the generic sin itself of covetousness and defrauding, and there are many kingdoms among those who have many species of sins. Then, in the case of each of the sinners, understand for me the nations under the kingdom, so as to say that so-and-so has many nations of the kingdom according to fornication, so-and-so has many nations of the kingdom according to defrauding, according to slander, according to anger. It is the work of the words of God, sent out over "nations and kingdoms," "to root up and to pull down." To root up what? The Savior taught, saying: "Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant shall be rooted up." There are certain things within, in the souls, which "the heavenly Father did not plant"; for all the "evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies" are plantings planted not by the heavenly Father. And if you wish to see whose plantings such thoughts are, hear that "an enemy, a man, has done this," the one who sowed over them "the tares in the midst of the wheat." God, then, stands ready having his seeds, and so does the devil. If we give "place to the devil," "the enemy" sows over us a planting "which the heavenly Father did not plant," which will assuredly be rooted up; but if we do not give "place to the devil," but give place to God, God rejoicing sows his seeds upon our ruling faculty. Do not, therefore, suppose that Jeremiah received some gloomy gift from God, because he is set "over nations and over kingdoms, to root up." God is good in rooting up, through the words, the evil things, the kingdoms hostile to the kingdom of the heavens, the warring nations hostile to the nation of God. "To root up and to pull down." There is a certain building of the devil, and there is a certain building of God. The building "upon the sand" is the devil's, for it has been established upon nothing firm and stable and unified; but the building "upon the rock" is God's. See what is said to those who belong to God: "You are God's tilled field, God's building." The words of God, then, are over "nations and kingdoms," "to root up and to pull down and to destroy." If a thing be rooted up, but what is rooted up be not destroyed, the rooted-up thing still exists. If a thing be pulled down, but the stones of the demolition be not destroyed, the demolished thing still exists. It is therefore a work of the goodness of God, after the rooting up, to destroy what has been rooted up, and after the tearing down, to destroy what has been torn down. Read carefully, in the case of the things destroyed and rooted up, how such things are destroyed: "But the chaff burn with unquenchable fire," and "bind the tares in bundles and deliver them to the fire"; thus, after being rooted up, it is destroyed. If you wish to see also, after the demolition, the things of the building of evil matter being destroyed—that house which has been torn down on account of the leprosy becomes dust, and, having become dust, is cast out "outside the city," so that not even a stone may remain, in like manner to "I will grind them fine as the mud of the streets"; for the worse things must in no way hold together. If something is pulled down, let not the stones be useful for the other building which the evil one is able to build; if it is rooted up, let him not again find seeds from the rooted-up things, so as to sow over them again the tares—for surely, having the seeds of the tares, he sowed them over. For this reason, "bind the tares and burn them with fire," so that after being rooted up it may be destroyed, and after being pulled down the building of the devil may be destroyed. But the words of God do not stand still in these things, in the "rooting up and pulling down and destroying." For let the evil things be rooted up from me, the worse things pulled down—what benefit is it to me, if in place of the things rooted up the better things be not planted? What benefit is it to me, if in place of these the more excellent things be not built up again? For this reason the words of God do first, of necessity, the "rooting up and pulling down and destroying," after which the "building and planting." And always in Scripture we have observed the gloomy-appearing things, so to name them, being named first, then the things that seem to be cheerful being spoken of second. "I will kill and I will make alive." He did not say, "I will make alive," and after this, "I will kill"; for it is impossible that what God has made alive should be killed by him or by any other. But "I will kill and I will make alive." Whom shall I kill? Paul the traitor, Paul the persecutor; "and I will make alive," so that there may come to be "Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ." If the wretches who come from the heresies had understood these things, they would not continually have brought them forward to us, saying: Do you see how the God of the Law is savage and inhuman and says: "I will kill, and I will make alive"? Do you not behold in the Scriptures the promise of the resurrection of the dead? Or do you not see the resurrection of the dead already being prefigured in each one? "We were buried together" with Christ "through baptism" and we rose together with him. Accordingly, he begins from the more gloomy utterances, but the necessary ones, such as "I will kill," then, having killed, "and I will make alive; I will strike, and I myself will heal"; for "whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives." First he strikes, and after this he heals; "for he himself makes to feel pain and again restores." And so also here: "I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to root up and to pull down and to destroy and to build up again and to plant." Yet the first thing is that those evil things be taken away from us. God cannot build in the place of the evil building. "For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? What fellowship has light with darkness?" The evil must be rooted up from the foundations, the building of evil must be consumed away from our soul, so that after these things the words of God may build and plant; for I cannot understand otherwise the things that are written: "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth." What do the words do? "Root up and pull down and destroy." Words root up "nations," words pull down kingdoms—but not those bodily and worldly kingdoms. Worthily of words that pull down, worthily of words that root up, understand the things rooted up by words, the things pulled down by words. Is there not, then, right now in the things being spoken a power, if God grants it (according to the saying "the Lord will give the word to those who proclaim the good news with great power"), a power that roots up, if there be any unbelief, if any hypocrisy, if any wickedness, if any licentiousness? Is there not one that pulls down, if anywhere an idol-temple has been built up in the heart—so that, when that has been pulled down, a temple of God may be built, and the glory of God may be found in the temple built up again, and there may come to be not a grove, but a planting, a paradise of God, where the temple of God is in Christ Jesus; to whom is the glory and the might unto the ages of the ages. Amen.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1

• Jeremiah 1:13

  Place that candlestick in the south that it may look to the north. For when the light has been lit, that is, when the heart is watchful, it ought always to look to the north and watch for "him who is from the north," as also the prophet says he saw "a kettle or pot kindled and its face was from the face of the north," for "evils are kindled from the north for the whole earth." Be watchful, therefore, apprehensive and zealous. Always contemplate the slyness of the devil and always watch the place from which temptation may come, from which the foe may invade, from which the enemy may creep up. For the apostle Peter also says, "Your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour."

  HOMILIES ON EXODUS 9:4

• Jeremiah 2:21-22

  The God who "brings forth the sun on the evil and the good" is a desert to no one. To no one is he who "rains on the just and unjust" ever a land made dry. How is he a desert, when he brings forth the day and causes the night to rest? How is he a desert, when he causes the land to bear fruit? How is he a desert, when he provides for each person in his soul so that it is endowed with reason, so that it can grasp knowledge and exercise its intelligence, and in the body so that it has healthy sense faculties? And so with respect to the way of what is universal, God is not a desert.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 3:2.1

• Jeremiah 2:21-22

  Let us attempt to discuss also a third exposition at the moral level. If there is anyone who, while evils are increasing and vices are overflowing, can turn from the things that are in flux and passing away and fallen and can hear the word of God and the heavenly precepts, this person is building an ark of salvation within his own heart and is dedicating a library, so to speak, of the divine word within himself. He is erecting faith, love and hope as its length, breadth and height. He stretches out faith in the Trinity to the length of life and immortality. He establishes the breadth of love with the compassion of gentleness and kindness. He raises the height of hope to heavenly and exalted places. For while he walks on the earth, he has his "citizenship in heaven." But he brings the sum of his acts back to one. For he knows that "all indeed run, but one receives the palm of victory," of course, being that one who was not changeable with a variety of thoughts and instability of mind. But he does not construct this library from planks that are unhewn and rough but from planks that have been squared and arranged in a uniform line, that is, not from the volumes of secular authors but from the prophetic and apostolic volumes. For these authors, who have been hewn by diverse temptations, all vices having been curtailed and excised, contain life that has been squared and set free in every part. For the authors of secular books can indeed be called "lofty trees" and "shady trees"—for Israel is accused of having fornicated "under every lofty and shady tree"—because they speak indeed in a lofty manner and use flowery eloquence; they have not, however, acted as they have spoken. They cannot, therefore, be called "squared planks" because life and speech will by no means be equal in them.

  HOMILIES ON GENESIS 2:6

• Jeremiah 2:21-22

  Thus does Paul also boast that the observance of the law and the whole glory of the Jewish system was to him like garbage, so that he might be found in Christ, having not his own justification that was of the law, but the justification from God. In this sense, therefore, Paul did not keep his own vineyard—that is to say, he did not keep the Jews' tradition after he had received the faith of Christ. Perhaps the reason why he did not keep it was that, though it had been planted by God as a true vine, it had turned into the bitterness of a strange vine. "For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah … their clusters are bitter; their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps."

  COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2:3

• Jeremiah 2:21

  "God did not make death, nor does he delight in the destruction of the living; for he created all things that they might exist, and the generative forces of the world are salutary, and in them there is no poison of destruction, nor is the kingdom of Hades upon the earth." Then, passing over a little of the text, I will say whence death entered: "but by the envy of the devil death entered into the world." If, then, God has made everything that is best concerning us, while we ourselves have created for ourselves wickedness and sins — for this reason here too the beginning of the reading in the prophet says, as it were in a manner of raising a difficulty, to those who have acquired in their soul a bitterness contrary to the sweetness which God fashioned for it: "How were you turned to bitterness, O alien vine?" As if it said: God did not make lameness, but made all men sound of foot; what, then, has become the cause of those who are lamed? And God made all the members sound at the outset, but what has become the cause of some suffering harm? In the same way the soul came to be "according to the image" not of the first man only, but of every man. For the words "let us make man according to our image and likeness" reach unto all men. And just as in Adam there is that which is prior — which most people understand as the "according to the image" of what was taken up together with him, when because of sin he bore "the image of the man of dust" — so in all men the "according to the image of God" is prior to the worse image. We, being sinners, "have borne the image of the man of dust"; let us, repenting, "bear the image of the heavenly man." Yet the creation came to be in the image of the heavenly man. Here, then, the word is at a loss, speaking reprovingly to those who sin: "How were you turned to bitterness, O alien vine? For I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true." It has been said in what precedes, and taking up a few points again I will persuade you that God planted a good vine, the soul of man, but each one, having turned aside, has become contrary to the will of the one who created him. "But I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly" — not "true" in part, nor partly true and partly false, but — "I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true; how were you turned?" — When I made you wholly a true vine, how were you turned to bitterness and become an alien vine?

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 2

• Jeremiah 2:21

  Thus does Paul also boast that the observance of the law and the whole glory of the Jewish system was to him like garbage, so that he might be found in Christ, having not his own justification that was of the law, but the justification from God. In this sense, therefore, Paul did not keep his own vineyard—that is to say, he did not keep the Jews' tradition after he had received the faith of Christ. Perhaps the reason why he did not keep it was that, though it had been planted by God as a true vine, it had turned into the bitterness of a strange vine. "For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah … their clusters are bitter; their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps."

  COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2:3

• Jeremiah 2:22

  After this let us look at the words: "though you wash yourself with nitre and multiply soapwort for yourself, you are stained in your iniquities before me, says the Lord." Did some sinful soul suppose that, by taking nitre and washing herself with perceptible nitre, she would cease from the stain and cease from sin? And did someone imagine that, by taking this soapwort which springs up from the earth, and washing and scrubbing himself with it, his soul would be cleansed — since here the word says to her who was turned to bitterness and became an alien vine: "though you wash yourself with nitre and multiply soapwort for yourself, you are stained in your iniquities before me, says the Lord"? But one must know that the word has every power; and just as it has the power of every writing, so the word has the power of every medicine, and it is the power of everything that cleanses, and is most effective for scouring: "for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword." And whatever you may say, where there is need, this lies in the power of the word. There is, then, a certain word that is nitre, and there is a certain word that is soapwort, which, when spoken, cleanses such filth. But since not every sin is healed by such a word which is nitre, and by such a word which is soapwort — but there are sins that need neither nitre nor soapwort — it is said to her who thinks she has sins such as can be washed away by nitre and soapwort: "though you wash yourself with nitre and multiply soapwort for yourself, you are stained before me in your iniquities, says the Lord." And just as of wounds there are some that are healed with a poultice, and others healed with oil, and others need a bandage and are thus made whole, but there are other wounds concerning which it is said: "there is no poultice to apply, nor oil, nor bandages; but your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire" — so there are certain sins which defile the soul, and for these sins a man needs a word of nitre, a word of soapwort; but there are certain sins which are not healed in this way, for they are not even comparable to filth. Therefore the Lord in Isaiah, knowing the differences of sins, see how he says: "the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse away the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning." Filth and blood: filth by a spirit of judgment, blood by a spirit of burning. If you have sinned, though not "unto death," you are defiled. "The Lord will wash away," then, "the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse away the blood from their midst." Then there is the correspondence: for "the filth" a "spirit of judgment," and for "the blood" a "spirit of burning"; and the many of us, when we commit worse sins, have need not of nitre nor of multiplying soapwort, but of the spirit of burning. For this reason Jesus baptizes (perhaps now I find the meaning) "in [the] Holy Spirit and fire." Not that he baptizes the same person "in the Holy Spirit and fire," but the holy one "in the Holy Spirit," while the one who, after believing, after being counted worthy of the Holy Spirit, has again sinned, he washes in "fire" — so that the same person is not baptized by Jesus "in the Holy Spirit and fire." Blessed, then, is the one baptized in the Holy Spirit and having no need of the baptism that comes from fire. But thrice-wretched is that one who has need to be baptized with fire. Yet Jesus has both. For "there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall come up out of the root." A "rod" upon those who are punished, a "flower" upon the righteous. Thus "God is a consuming fire," and "God is light": a consuming fire to sinners, light to the righteous and holy. And "blessed is the one who has a part in the first resurrection," the one who has kept the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Who is the one saved in another resurrection? The one who has need of the baptism that comes from fire, when he comes to that fire, and the fire tests him, and that fire finds wood, hay, and stubble, so as to burn them up. Therefore, since these things are said, let us with all our power gather together the words of the Scriptures, and lay them up in our heart, and try to live according to them, if perchance we may be able to become pure before our departure, and, having prepared our works for the departure, may go forth in those very good things and be taken up in them and be saved in Christ Jesus, to whom is the glory and the might unto the ages of ages. Amen.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 2

• Jeremiah 2:31

  At the beginning of what has been read, the Lord says concerning Israel that he did not become a "wilderness" to him, nor "a parched land." Who then, coming to this passage, would not inquire, examining the intention of what is written? Grant that God did not become a wilderness in Israel, that he did not become in Israel a parched land: has the Lord then become a wilderness to Israel today, or is he now to him a parched land? And what of this: when to Israel he was neither a wilderness nor a parched land, was he to the nations a wilderness and a parched land? For if to all he is always not a wilderness, and to all he is always not a parched land, what need was there for it to be said to Israel in particular and by way of exception, "Have I become a wilderness to the house of Israel, or a parched land?" But it is possible to come first to the universal benefactions of God, and then, after his universal benefactions, to the particular ones. To no one is God a wilderness, "making his sun to rise upon the wicked and" — and to no one is he a parched land, "sending rain upon" the just "and the unjust." How is he a wilderness, who makes the day to rise and the night for rest? How is he a wilderness, who makes the earth to bear fruit? How is he a wilderness, who administers each person according to the soul, that it may be rational, that it may take up knowledge, that its faculty of understanding may be trained with respect to the body, that it may have "the organs of perception" in vigor? Therefore, as regards the universal account, God is a wilderness to no one. But as regards the particular account, I come to the affairs of Israel and say: he was neither a wilderness nor a parched land, when in Egypt he was working the signs and the wonders for the people. But if there was any time when they were forsaken, he became, as it were, a wilderness to them — though he himself was not a wilderness. When, however, to Israel he was not a wilderness nor a parched land, to the nations, according to the particular account, he was a wilderness and a parched land. But when he turned away from Israel and became to that Israel a wilderness and a parched land, then the grace was poured out upon the nations, and Christ Jesus has now become to us not a wilderness but full, and not a parched land but bearing fruit; for "many are the children of the desolate one, more than of her that has the husband." And he threatens those to whom he did not become a wilderness nor a parched land, saying: I indeed have not become to you "a wilderness" nor "a parched land," but you have said, "We will not be lorded over; we will not come to you any longer." Have the sons of Israel then said, in their reckless folly, according to the wording, "We will not be lorded over" […]

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 3

• Jeremiah 3:1-2

  Scripture designates the children of adulterers as imperfect. Such a soul, to be sure, that prostrates itself totally to the tendencies of the flesh and bodily desires, has forsaken union with the spirit, and as if turned away from God will shamelessly hear, "You have the face of a harlot. You have made yourself shameless to all." She will be punished, therefore, like a harlot, and her children will be ordered to be prepared for slaughter.

  HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1:15

• Jeremiah 3:6-11

  The very wording of the passage that has been read has something obscure in it, which must first be understood; and after this, if God grants it, we shall come to know his mystical intent. Now he wants us to know this: that, as is written in the books of Kingdoms, the people were divided in the times of Rehoboam into the kingdom of the ten tribes under Jeroboam and into that of the two tribes under Rehoboam; and those under Jeroboam were called Israel, but those under Rehoboam Judah. And this division of the people has remained, so far as concerns the historical record, down to the present; for we know of no historical account that has gathered Israel and Judah together into one. Now Israel sinned first and more grievously — the people under Jeroboam and his successors — and sinned so much beyond Judah that they were condemned by Providence to become captives "into Assyria," as the Scripture says, "unto this day." After this the sons of Judah also sinned and were condemned to captivity into Babylon, not "unto this day" as Israel, but for "seventy years," concerning which Jeremiah prophesied, and which Daniel also mentioned. If we understand these things as spoken with reference to that people of that time, look at the words of the prophet, whether they do not indicate something of this sort. For he accuses, as it were, the sins of Israel, and says that, when so many sins had been committed by Israel, the congregation of Judah, having heard of their transgressions and in what manner I made them come to be in captivity, was not instructed but added to its sins, so that, because of this addition of sins when compared with the sins of Israel, righteousness was found in Israel over against Judah. Then, upon these things, the prophet is commanded to prophesy, since Judah had become worse than Israel, in order that after its sins it might turn back. So after the prophecy addressed to Israel commanding it to turn back, the prophet prophesies that Israel and Judah are going to come together and that there is at some time to be one kingdom of them both. Let whoever is concerned with the readings take up the words of the whole of today's reading, and then he will see that these meanings have been made plain. "And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king: Have you seen what the house of Israel has done to me" — not Judah, but Israel first? "She went up upon every high mountain and beneath every leafy tree and there played the harlot; and I said, after she had committed all this fornication: Turn back to me; and she did not turn back. And the faithless Judah saw her faithlessness," the faithlessness of the congregation of Israel. "And they saw" — those of Judah — "that for all the things in which the house of Israel had been caught, in which she committed adultery, I also sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce." Judah ought to have been instructed — for I sent away Israel, the congregation of Israel, I cast them out into the Assyrians "and gave her a bill of divorce into her hands" — "and the faithless Judah did not fear." But after so many things as I did to Israel, sending her away, giving her a bill of divorce, when the congregation of Judah ought to have been instructed by what those others suffered, they not only were not instructed but added to their sins, so that the sins of the congregation of Israel, by comparison with the sins of the congregation of Judah, seemed to be righteousness. "And I gave her a bill of divorce into her hands; and the faithless Judah her sister did not fear, and she went and played the harlot herself also, and her fornication became as nothing to her, and she committed adultery with wood and stone. And in all these things the faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood" she turned to me. She was not ashamed before me for what I had done to Israel, so as to turn completely; but though she ought to have turned in truth, she instead turned in falsehood. "And in all these things the faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood. And the Lord said to me: Israel has justified his soul as against the faithless Judah." The sins of Israel, compared with the transgressions of Judah, have become a justification of the soul of the congregation of Israel.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 4

• Jeremiah 3:6

  If, then, he says that first I sent away Israel because of its sins and sent it into deportation, but Judah, hearing what had happened to Israel, did not turn back, he speaks concerning our own sins. Since the things that befell Israel are read, and the transgressions concerning that people, we ought to fear, and: "if he did not spare the natural branches, how much more will he not spare us either; if that One who is both kind and at the same time loving to mankind, God, did not spare but cut off those who boasted to be a 'cultivated olive tree,' those rooted in 'the root' of the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, how much more will he not spare us." For he is not kind and yet not severe, nor severe and yet not kind. For if he were only kind but not severe, we would to a greater degree despise "his kindness." If he were severe but not kind, perhaps we would even despair over our sins. But as it is, as God — for we human beings need his kindness when we repent, but his severity when we persist in our sins — God is both kind and severe, and he speaks to us through the prophets and says: "Have you seen what the house of Israel has done to me?" Understand that Israel to be that people of mine: "She went up upon every high mountain and beneath every shady tree." If you see the Pharisee going up into the temple boastfully and not beating his own breast nor being anxious about his own evils, but saying: "I thank you that I am not as the rest of mankind, robbers, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax-collector; I fast twice on the sabbath, I tithe my possessions" — you will see that he has gone up "upon every high mountain" in a blameworthy manner, having loved high-mindedness, and, according to his boasting and according to his arrogance, upon every high hill, and he has come to be "beneath every tree" that is not fruitful, but "leafy"; for the leafy tree is one thing, and another is the tree that men plant into groves. When they plant trees into groves, they plant not the fruit-bearing ones, not a fig tree nor a vine, but only barren trees for the sake of delight. Such you will find the words of the heterodox and the beauties of their persuasive arguments, which do not turn back those who hear. Whenever, then, someone gives himself over to such words, he has gone "beneath every leafy tree." He did not say "every tree" and fall silent, nor again did he add: every fruitful tree, but he said "beneath every leafy tree." Because of this you will understand what indeed the lawgiver means when he says: "You shall not plant any tree beside the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall not make a grove"; for you have also the very name of the grove forbidden.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 4

• Jeremiah 3:7-8

  "And she played the harlot there. And I said, after she had committed all this fornication: Turn back to me; and she did not turn back, and the faithless Judah saw her faithlessness." We too have been reproached — I mean those of us who sin and do not keep the covenants of God, nor look to the fact that those others destroyed the covenant though they were nobly born, being of Abraham, having received the promise. We ought, then, to reckon that, since those others fell out of the blessings and the promises and it profited them nothing to be from the fathers, how much more shall we, when we sin, be forsaken. "If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham," the Savior says to them. And again John: "Do not begin to say among yourselves, We have Abraham as father; for I tell you that God is able out of these stones to raise up children to Abraham" — hinting by "stones" at us who have the stony heart and are hardened against the truth. And truly the powerful God has raised up children to Abraham from the stones, if we remain in the childbearing and keep the spirit of adoption. So the "faithless Judah" saw "her faithlessness," the faithlessness of the house of Israel — she who did not keep the covenants toward God — and she saw "that for all the things in which that one had been caught" (for we, who are Judah, behold all these things, if we read the Scripture): that concerning the things in which the house of Israel had been caught, in which she committed adultery, God sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce. We ought to be instructed by what he did to those others when he judged them according to their sins, forsaking them and delivering them into captivity and delivering them to slaughter and delivering them to their enemies; from these things we ought to turn back, and each of us ought to reckon that, if God did not spare the natural branches, how much more will he not spare us. If he thus drove out those from the fathers when they became sinners, what shall we who have been called from the Gentiles suffer — we who reckoned none of these things, though we were called in order that that people might be provoked to jealousy, seeing the slave honored, beholding the base-born one drawn near? And if those others suffered so many things, how much more, if we sin, shall we be forsaken? "In the things in which the house of Israel committed adultery, I sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce into her hands; and the faithless Judah did not fear" the things I had done to the house of Israel, namely that "I sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce." She "did not fear" because of what had happened to those others. Someone entered into the house of a master of a household; he is newly bought, he inquires which of the former household servants the master honored and why, which of the servants he dishonored and why. Having carefully considered, if he wishes to remain in the house of the master, he guards against falling into those things which the former slaves did who sinned and were cast out and delivered over to punishment. Then, having learned what the former slaves did who were well approved, and upon what terms they obtained their freedom, he emulates those. And we too were not slaves of God, but of idols and demons, Gentiles; yesterday and the day before we drew near to God; let us read the Scripture, let us see who was justified, who was condemned, let us imitate those who were justified, let us guard against falling into those things into which those fell who were taken captive, who were cast out from God.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 4

• Jeremiah 3:7

  This is a new kind of his goodness that even after adultery God nevertheless would receive the soul that returns and repents from the heart as he also says through the prophet, "If a woman leaves her husband and sleeps with another man, shall she return to her husband? Will she not be contaminated? You, however, have committed fornication with your many shepherds and returned to me." He says the same thing elsewhere, "After you committed fornication, with all these, I said, 'Return to me.' And you have not thus returned, says the Lord."

  HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8:5

• Jeremiah 3:8-10

  "And the faithless Judah did not fear, and she went and played the harlot herself also." Israel having played the harlot first, Judah too played the harlot afterward. "And her fornication became as nothing, and she committed adultery with wood and stone." Whenever we sin, we do nothing else than, becoming stony-hearted, commit adultery with "the stone." Whenever we sin and play the harlot "beneath every leafy tree," we too commit adultery with "the wood." "And the faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood." If we turned to God, but deficiently, we are charged as not having turned "with the whole heart." Therefore "the faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart." He did not say: and the faithless Judah turned, and stood firm, but: "and the faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood" she turned. The true conversion, then, is to read the things of old, to know those who were justified, to imitate them, to read those things, to see those who were blamed, to guard against falling into those blames, to read the books of the New Testament, the words of the apostles, and after reading to write all these things upon the heart, to live according to them, so that a bill of divorce may not be given to us also, but that we may be able to come to the holy inheritance, and, when the fullness of the Gentiles has been saved, then Israel may be able to enter in; for if the fullness of the Gentiles enters in, then all Israel shall be saved, "and they shall become one flock, one shepherd," teaching us to glorify God the Almighty in Christ Jesus himself, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of the ages. Amen.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 4

• Jeremiah 3:8

  "Go," therefore, "and read these words toward the north." If the wording has been understood, let us see what it means to make plain in these things. The calling of the Gentiles took its beginning from the transgression of Israel, and the apostles, when they preached to the synagogues of the Jews, say: "To you the word of salvation was sent; but since you judge yourselves unworthy, behold, we turn to the Gentiles." And the apostle, knowing what he knows about these matters, says: "By their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy." So then the many sins of that people brought about that they were forsaken and that we came to the hope of life — we who were strangers to the covenants, aliens to the promises. For how does it come to me, who wherever I chanced to be born was a stranger to what is called the holy land, now to discourse about the promises of God, and to believe in the God of the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and by the grace of God to receive Jesus Christ who was proclaimed beforehand by the prophets? If you understand these two peoples, the one from Israel and the one from the Gentiles, consider for me the deportation of Israel with regard to that people of Israel, and understand it written concerning that people: "I have sent her away and given her a bill of divorce"; for God sent away that people and gave it a bill of divorce. This is something of the following sort in the case of those who have married: if the wife is displeasing to the husband, the law of Moses says, a "bill of divorce" was made out from the husband and the wife was sent away, and it was permitted to the one who had sent away his former wife, because she seemed to have behaved unseemly, to marry another woman. Thus in the spiritual sense behold those people receiving a bill of divorce. And since they received the bill of divorce, therefore they were utterly forsaken. For where are there prophets any longer among them? Where are signs any longer among them? Where is the manifestation of God? Where is the worship, the temple, the sacrifices? They were cast out from their own place; so he gave Israel a "bill of divorce." Then we, being Judah (and Judah because of the Savior who arose from the tribe of Judah; for it is plain that our Lord has arisen out of Judah), have turned to the Lord, and our last state — which may it not now already be — seems to be becoming much like their last state, if indeed it is not even worse. For that such things will be also in our own case at the consummation of this age is plain from what was said by the Savior in the Gospel, in which he says: "Because iniquity is multiplied, the love of the many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end, he shall be saved"; and: "He will do signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect." Such will our own case be, so that the Savior says concerning his own coming, since among so many churches a faithful one is scarcely to be found: "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he indeed find faith upon the earth?" And truly, if we judge matters by truth and not by crowds, and if we judge matters by moral choice and not by seeing many gathered together, we shall see that now we are not faithful. But they were faithful then, when the noble martyrdoms were taking place, when, having escorted the martyrs from the burial-places, we came to the assemblies, and the whole church attended, unafflicted, and the catechumens were catechized amid the martyrdoms and amid the deaths of those confessing the truth "unto death," "not frightened" nor troubled "before the living God." Then we know that they had also seen paradoxical signs and marvels. Then there were faithful — few indeed, but truly faithful — journeying the narrow and afflicted way that leads "unto life." But now, when we have become many, since it is not possible for the elect to be many (for he does not lie who said, Jesus: "Many are called, but few are chosen"), out of the multitude of those who profess godliness exceedingly few are those who attain to the election of God and to blessedness.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 4

• Jeremiah 3:22

  It is clearly written in the Acts of the apostles that the apostles first went into the synagogue of the Jews, proclaiming to them, as to kinsmen through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the things written concerning the coming of Jesus Christ. But when, since those men would not receive what was said, it was necessary that there should be other hearers of what was spoken, then, having defended their cause to them, they left them behind; for it is written: "It was necessary that the word of God should be proclaimed to you; but since you judge yourselves unworthy, behold, we turn to the nations." And this thing, though it is clearly stated in the Acts of the apostles, is in effect said in many places also by the prophets. For the Holy Spirit first speaks through the prophets to those of that people, but if ever, after it has said much, it is not heard, it prophesies the word that is proclaimed to the nations. And this very thing has come about at the beginning of today's reading, since before it there is said, to those of Israel, the words: "Even if you call me Father, yet from me you shall not be turned away. But as a wife plays false against him who is with her, so has the house of Israel played false against me, says the Lord." And when these things concerning Israel had been said first, and the sons of Israel had heard "that they did wrong in their ways and forgot God their holy one," next the Holy Spirit transfers the word to us who are of the nations and says: "Turn back, you turning sons, and I will heal your fractures." For we are the ones filled with fractures — so each might say, even if now he has been cleansed and healed from the fractures — "for we too were once foolish, foolish, going astray, enslaved to lusts and to many and various pleasures, passing our lives in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another; but when the kindness and love toward man of God our Savior appeared, through the washing of regeneration he poured out his mercy upon us." And yet, having once mentioned that apostolic saying, I will try to set it forth more plainly. For he did not say: "we were once foolish, disobedient" (only of the nations); but Paul, the apostle, the one from Israel, the one who "became blameless as regards the righteousness that is in the law," says: "for we too" (those from Israel) "were once disobedient, foolish"; so that not only those of the nations were foolish, nor were those of the nations alone disobedient, nor were those alone sinners, but we also who have been taught the law happened to be such before the coming of Christ. Therefore, after the things spoken to Israel, it is said to us who are of the nations: "Turn back, you turning sons, and I will heal your fractures." But someone will say: these things were spoken to Israel, and you are dragging them over onto those of the nations. We wish to show that not after many words, but immediately, wherever he wishes to speak to Israel the things concerning turning back, he adds the name of Israel. In what follows, at any rate, it is said: "If Israel turns back to me, says the Lord, then he shall be turned back; and if he removes his abominations out of his mouth, and stands in awe before my face, and swears, 'The Lord lives,' in truth and in judgment and in righteousness, then the nations shall be blessed in him." The first words, then, were spoken to those of the nations; and then, since, "when the fullness of the nations enters, then all Israel shall be saved," according to what is said by the apostle in the Epistle to the Romans. Notice in what manner God on the one hand exhorts us who are turning to turn back completely, promising that if, "turning," we turn back to him, he will heal our "fractures" through Jesus Christ; and we on the other hand, answering — we who do not delay nor are slow concerning salvation as that Israel was — say: "Here we are, we will be yours." God said: "Turn back, you turning sons, and I will heal your fractures"; and those of the nations say: "We will be servants," we who were not formerly "yours," but belonged to demons, but chanced to be under the opposing powers. For "when the Most High divided the nations," we came to be not your portion, nor a measured cord of your inheritance together with the people of Jacob, but we became the portions of others; yet even we who once became the portions of others, when you have said to us "Turn back, you turning sons, and I will heal your fractures," answer: "Here we are"; for this alone we were awaiting — the call. Not as those men were called and made excuses, do we, being called, make excuses. For we have it in the parables of the Gospel that, when certain men had first been called, "the one said, 'I have married a wife, hold me excused,' and another, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, I am going to test them, hold me excused.'" We, then, who are of the nations, were not called and make excuses in that way. Why? Over what field, that we should be busied about it? Over what wise wife? But over what other thing might we be occupied? God, then, has said to us: "Turn back, you turning sons, and I will heal your fractures"; and, seeing our own fractures and the promise concerning healing, we immediately answer and say: "Behold, we will be yours, for you are the Lord our God." Having heard, then, and having said "we will be yours," let us remember that we promised to God, saying to him "we will be yours"; and, having said to him "we will be yours," let us belong to no other, let us not belong to a spirit of anger, nor to a spirit of grief, nor to a spirit of lust, let us not belong to the devil, nor to his angels; but having been called and having said "Behold, we will be yours," let us show by our works that, having promised to become his, we have dedicated ourselves to no other than to him. And we say: "for you are the Lord our God"; for we confess no other god — not the belly, as the gluttons do, "whose god is the belly"; not silver, as the lovers of money do, and greed, which is idolatry; nor do we deify and make a god of any other thing, of the sort the many make gods; but for us the God who is over all things, "the God over all, through all, and in all," is God, and since we are attached to the love toward God — for love glues us to God — we say: "Behold, here we are, we will be yours, for you are the Lord our God."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5

• Jeremiah 3:23

  Then, having condemned our former evils — when we thought the idols great and lofty things, and worshipped and regarded as wonderful the things we served; but now have condemned them, judging that all those things were false and were nothing — we say, turning back: "Truly the hills were for a lie," we too having condemned our former lofty things and our former wonders. And perhaps, if we exercise some skill, we shall find the difference between the hills and the mountains among the nations, which, having forsaken, those who said "Behold, here we are, we will be yours, for you are the Lord our God" accuse them as false, both the hills and the mountains. What, then, is the difference between the mountains and the hills among the nations, which, having condemned, we say: "Truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains"? This we say, having condemned our former things. Of the objects of worship among the nations, some are worshipped as gods, and some as heroes. For they themselves confess concerning certain of them that they were formerly men and were deified. They worship Heracles not as a god by birth, but as one changed from a man into a god; they worship Asclepius as one who, from among men, on account of virtue, was changed into a god. But whenever they worship the fathers of these, named gods among them, they worship them not as having changed from men into gods, but, as those men suppose, as being gods from the beginning. Those, then, who are reckoned by the nations to be gods from the beginning will be the mountains and "the power of the mountains," while those reckoned among them now to be gods, but formerly to have been men, these are "the hills." Having come to know, then, both ranks of the objects of worship, "truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains." For those who serve them do not suppose that these things are false. On this account they think that the oracles and the cures are true cures, not seeing the difference between all "power and signs and wonders of falsehood, in all deceit of unrighteousness among those who are perishing," and every power of signs and wonders of truth. For the things which Christ Jesus did, these were signs of truth, and, before him, the things which Moses did were a power of truth. But the things which the Egyptians did were indeed signs and wonders, but of falsehood. And so also the things which Simon the magician did after Jesus, so as to lead astray the nation of Samaria and to be reckoned to be a power of God — these too were signs and wonders of falsehood. When, therefore, we condemn those things, we who have condemned them say: "Truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains." Then, since we who are of the nations know that "by the trespass of Israel we received a way of salvation," and that they have been cast outside until our fullness enters, and since we know that if "the fullness of the nations enters, after this all Israel shall be saved," for this reason we say first the words "truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains," and second, concerning Israel who shall be saved after the fullness of the nations: "yet through the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel." And since we once mentioned the apostolic text which says that "by the trespass by which Israel fell aside, salvation has come to the nations," and that when "the fullness of the nations enters," while Israel remains outside, after the entering fullness of the nations "then all Israel shall be saved," come, let us unfold the matters touching these passages. There was an Israel being saved. The greater part of Israel fell away, but "a remnant according to the election of grace has come to be," concerning which remnant it is mystically said "in Elijah": "I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bent the knee to Baal." And, interpreting concerning this remnant, the apostle says: "So then also in the present time a remnant according to the election of grace has come to be." Therefore Israel — even if a remnant being saved — the rest of Israel having been left behind. These two ranks, if you are able, transfer for me also onto those of the nations. For he did not say: when all the nations are saved, then all Israel shall be saved; but "when the fullness of the nations enters, then all Israel shall be saved": not some Israel shall be saved after all the nations, but after "the fullness of the nations." If anyone is able, let him henceforth, just as he found Israel being saved after the fullness of the nations, having passed over by the word, consider when all shall serve — according to what is said — "God under one yoke, and from the ends of Ethiopia sacrifices"; when, as is said in the sixty-seventh Psalm: "Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand before God," and the word gives command to the kingdoms "of the earth," saying: "Sing to the Lord, make music to the God of Jacob."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5

• Jeremiah 3:24

  Therefore we who are of the nations say, concerning ourselves, repenting over the false things which we thought to be true: "Truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains"; and concerning Israel who shall be saved after us: "yet through the Lord our God is the salvation of the house of Israel." Then, confessing concerning the sins in which both our fathers came to be and we ourselves, worshipping idols, we say: "But shame has consumed the toils of our fathers from their youth, their sheep and their oxen, their sons and their daughters." "Shame has consumed the toils of our fathers," and the rest of what is said. If, then, the wretched toil and the false work of the fathers is to be consumed, shame must come about; for before shame the toil of the fathers is not consumed, and the things brought in after. On this account let us consider the differences of those who sin. There are those who sin and are not ashamed nor feel any shame over their sins, nor blush. Such are those who have become past feeling and have given themselves over to all licentiousness and all uncleanness. For look at those of the nations, in what manner they at times recount their fornications and their adulteries as though they were deeds of valor, not even ashamed to confess that they have done such things, and they do not call them sins. Insofar as they are not ashamed, their toils are not consumed. Their sins are not consumed. It is the beginning of good things that a man be ashamed of the things of which he was not ashamed. On this account I do not think that a curse is being spoken in the prophets in the words "Let all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back." For he prays that those who are without perception of the works of shame may come to a sense of it, so that, being ashamed, they may be able to consume their toils and their sins. And the irrational motions of the fathers he called "sheep" and "calves." For not all irrational things are praiseworthy; but there are certain irrational things that are blameworthy, such as the sheep of the fathers who have sinned; and there are certain irrational things that are praiseworthy, as: "My sheep hear my voice." These too were sheep, to which we have reason analogous, having the good shepherd in our souls. For whenever the Savior says, "I am the good shepherd," I do not hear it only as all hear it, that he is a shepherd of those who believe (for this too is sound and true), but also in my own soul I ought to have Christ within me, within me the good shepherd, shepherding the irrational motions within me, so that they may no longer go out to pasture at random, but, being led by the shepherd, these things which once chanced to be alien to him may become his own. On this account now, if the shepherd is in me, he rules over my senses; they are no longer under an alien mind, or under Pharaoh, or under Nebuchadnezzar, but under the good shepherd. "Shame," then, "has consumed the toils of our fathers from their youth, their sheep and their oxen." There is something in us that farms us, whether farming us badly — to speak of the "badly" as concerning the one farming — or farming well. If, then, it farms badly, it is a toil of the fathers being consumed by their shame; but if it farms well, it is not a toil of the fathers; rather it is a toil from which the firstfruits are brought up upon the altar of God. "Their sons and their daughters," these say. Whose sons and daughters, save "the fathers'," are consumed by their shame, and the daughters? Often we have said that the offspring of the soul, that the thoughts are sons, and the works and the deeds done through the body are daughters. Since, then, there are certain wretched thoughts, such as those of the nations thought, and there are also wretched works, on this account sons and daughters are consumed from those who have made them, so that shame may arise in them concerning the things sinned. But may it not be ours to make sons and daughters that need consuming by shame.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5

• Jeremiah 3:25

  After these things, these who make confession say: "We have lain down in our shame"; and after this they say: "and our dishonor has covered us over." Concerning the veil that lies upon the face of those who do not turn back to the Lord it has often been said by us. Because of this veil, "if Moses is read," the sinner does not understand him; for "a veil lies upon his heart." Because of this veil, if the old covenant is read, the hearer will not understand. Because of this veil the Gospel too is veiled to those who are perishing. We were saying, then, concerning the veil, that the shame is the veil. For insofar as we have "the works of shame," it is clear that we have the veil, according to what is said somewhere in the forty-third Psalm: "and the shame of my face has covered me." I set forth that he who does not have works of shame does not have a veil; such was Paul, saying: "But we all, with unveiled face, behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord." Paul, then, has an unveiled face; for he does not have works of shame. He who is not as Paul has a veiled face. As, then, there "the shame of my face has covered me" is said in the forty-third Psalm, in the same manner it is said here: "our dishonor has covered us over." Insofar as we work works of dishonor, we have a veil lying upon our heart. If we wish to lay aside the veil that is from dishonor, let us arrive at the works of honor and let us understand that saying of the Savior, "that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father," and let us understand also that which is said by the apostle: "Through the transgression of the law you dishonor God. The righteous man, as he honors the Father, honors the Son." The dishonor, whenever I dishonor the Son — that very dishonor by which I dishonor the Father or the Son — becomes a covering of my face, and I say: "and our dishonor has covered us over." On this account, having understood the veil that lies upon us from the works of shame, from the deeds of dishonor, let us take away the veil. It is in our power for the veil to be taken away; it belongs to no other. For "when Moses turned back to the Lord, the veil was taken away." Do you see how Moses is sometimes taken also as representing the people? Insofar as he did not turn back to the Lord, being a symbol of the people that does not turn back to the Lord, he had a veil lying upon his face; but when he turned back to the Lord, becoming a symbol of those who turn back to the Lord, then "the veil was taken away." And it is not that God commanded him: put on the veil (for the Lord did not say to Moses, put on the veil), but Moses, seeing that the people could not look upon his glory, then put "the veil upon his face," and did not wait for God to say, take off the veil, "when he turned back to the Lord." This, then, was written so that you too, who put the veil upon your face through the works of dishonor and the works of shame, might yourself also work the taking away of the veil. If you turn back to the Lord, then you take away the veil, and you will no longer say the words "our dishonor has covered us over." For instance, anger lying upon our soul against someone lies as a veil upon our face. On this account, if we wish, while praying, to say, "The light of your face has been marked upon us, O Lord," let us take away the veil and let us do that apostolic thing, "I wish, then, that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without anger and disputings." If we take away the anger, we have taken away the veil; if we take away all the passions. But insofar as these things are in our mind, in our reasoning, there lies upon the inner face, upon our ruling faculty, the veil and the dishonor, so that we do not behold the glory of God shining. It is not God who hides his glory from us, but we, putting the veil that comes from wickedness upon the ruling faculty. "Because before our God we have sinned, we and our fathers." Would that we too might say, as these do according to the prophet's impersonation: "We have sinned." "We have sinned" is not the same as "we are sinning"; for he who is still in sin, let him not say "we have sinned," but he who has previously sinned, and has strictly repented, let him say "we have sinned," as also in Daniel there is written a confession of those who no longer sin, saying: "We have sinned, we have done iniquity," and in the Psalms: "Remember not our ancient iniquities," says the prophet. Let us too, then, confess our sins — would that they were not of yesterday, would that they were not of three days ago, but would that, making confession, we might confess concerning sins committed fifteen years before, by having no more sin after those things for fifteen years. But if we sinned yesterday, we are not yet trustworthy in confessing concerning our sins; nor is there room for these sins of ours to be wiped out. "Because we have sinned, we and our fathers, from our youth until this day." Let those first things be said, in another vein, for teaching concerning the best manner of confession; but these are an accusation of sinning from long ago. "From youth," he says, "until this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God"; we have sinned, and we have not obeyed until the present. Then, having turned back and having a beginning of turning, they say: "We have sinned, and we have not obeyed." For not at the very moment of wishing to obey do we already immediately obey; for there is still need of time — just as with wounds, toward healing, so also with the turning, toward turning completely and purely back to God.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5

• Jeremiah 4:1-2

  Upon these things God says concerning Israel: "If Israel turns back to me, says the Lord, then he shall be turned back"; that is, if he turns completely, then he shall be turned back with a turning — not if he as it were begins to turn. Then he says: "and if he removes his abominations out of his mouth, and stands in awe before my face, and swears, 'The Lord lives,' in truth and in judgment and in righteousness, then the nations shall be blessed in him." If they do these things, "the nations shall be blessed in him." But what are these things they are to do, so that the nations may be blessed in him? "If he removes his abominations out of his mouth." And what is it to remove the abominations out of the mouth? Whatever we speak badly are abominations in our mouth. Let us therefore remove the abominations out of our mouth, taking away slanders, vain words, idle words that are going to cause us to be accused "in the day of judgment; for by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned." If, then, we wish that the words "and the nations shall be blessed in him, and in him they shall praise God in Jerusalem" should meet us, let us do the things said from the beginning. And which first? To remove "the abominations out of our mouth." Next is also the "you shall stand in awe before my face." As the second thing let us do this, not simply that we may stand in awe; for perhaps there is an awe that comes about, but not from the face of God. Those, at any rate, who fear without knowledge, but set themselves to fear, do not stand in awe from the face of God; but as many as stand in awe with knowledge, by ever beholding and picturing to themselves "the face of God that comes upon those who do evil things, to cut off from the earth the memory of them," these are the ones who stand in awe from the face of God. "If he removes his abominations out of his mouth, and stands in awe before my face, and swears, 'The Lord lives,' in truth and in judgment and in righteousness." Let us look at ourselves who swear, in what manner we swear not in judgment but without judgment, so that our oaths come about by custom rather than by judgment. We are carried away, at any rate, and, reproving this, the word says: "and if he swears, 'The Lord lives,' in truth and in judgment and in righteousness." We know that it was said in the Gospel by the Lord to the disciples: "But I say to you, do not swear at all"; but let us look also at this text; and, if God grants it, both will be examined together. For perhaps one must first swear "in truth and in judgment and in righteousness," so that after this, having advanced, one may become worthy of not swearing at all, but of having a "yes" that needs no witnesses that this is so, and of having his "no" that needs no witnesses that it is truly "no." "And he swears," then, "'The Lord lives,' in truth." In the one who swears I first seek that there be no falsehood, but the truth, so that he may swear with truth; but we wretches even swear falsely. But let it be "with truth" — not even so does the oath come about well, but "in judgment." For grant that I swear by custom: I do not swear "in judgment." If one must take up, for such an oath, the God of the universe, and his Christ, over this matter, how great must the matter be, that I should set my knees and swear? In view of unbelief arising in some concerning my word, tending it as a physician, I might perhaps do this at some time; but if I should swear at random, if I should swear thus, I would sin. "If," then, "he swears, 'The Lord lives,' with truth and in judgment" — not without judgment — "and in righteousness" — not unrighteously — "then the nations shall be blessed in him." He united both, those of the nations and Israel. He spoke concerning the nations, he spoke also concerning Israel.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5

• Jeremiah 4:3

  He adds: "And the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him they shall give praise to God in Jerusalem. For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to those who dwell in Jerusalem." He has spoken to those from the nations, he has spoken also to those from Israel, and he now speaks to those from Judah. I remember the figurative interpretations spoken earlier concerning Judah and those who dwell in Jerusalem. For we too dwell in Jerusalem, if God grants it. Since "where the treasure is, there also is the heart," if we lay up treasure in heaven, we also have our heart in the Jerusalem above, concerning which the apostle says: "But the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother, as it is written," and what follows. "Thus," then, "says the Lord to the men of Judah and to those who dwell in Jerusalem: Break up for yourselves fresh ground, and do not sow among thorns." This saying is spoken above all to those who teach, that they should not first entrust the things they say to their hearers before they have made fresh ground in their souls. For when, having "put their hand to the plow," they have made fresh ground in the souls, then, since these hear according to "the good and fair land," when they sow, they do not sow among thorns. But if, before the plow and before making fresh ground in the ruling faculty of the hearers, someone takes the holy seeds—the word about the Father, the word about the Son, the word about the Holy Spirit, the word about the resurrection, the word about punishment, the word about rest, the word about the law, the word about the prophets, and in a word about each of the things written—and sows them, he transgresses the commandment that says, first, "Break up for yourselves fresh ground," and second, "and do not sow among thorns." But one of the hearers will say: I do not teach, I am not subject to this commandment. Then you too, become a farmer of yourself, and do not sow among thorns, but make fresh ground of the field for me, which God of all has entrusted to you. Consider the field, see where the thorns are, where are "the cares of this life and the deceit of riches" and love of pleasure. And having considered the thorns in your soul, seek the rational plow, concerning which Jesus says: "No one who has put his hand to the plow and turned back is fit for the kingdom of God." Having sought it and found it, having gathered from the Scriptures the working oxen that are clean, plow and break up the ground anew, and, so that it may no longer be old, make it new: "having put off the old man with his deeds and having put on the new man who is renewed unto knowledge," you will make fresh ground for yourself; and if you make the fresh ground, take seeds from those who teach, take seeds from the law, take from the prophets, from the writings of the gospel, from the apostolic words; and having taken these seeds, sow your soul through memory and meditation. These will seem to spring up of themselves; but in truth it is not they that will spring up after the memory of them, but God will make them grow: "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth." And if anyone has been able to consider the Scriptures, this man has made fresh ground, and having made fresh ground he has sown not among thorns. These seeds are ordered by God not to become an ear of grain suddenly, but, as in the Gospel according to Mark, "first the blade, then the ear, then it becomes ripe." When it becomes ripe for harvest, those who are sent out for the harvest will come; when it becomes ripe for harvest, they will come, to whom the word says: "Lift up your eyes and behold the fields, for they are already white for harvest." He says to us, then: "Break up for yourselves fresh ground, and do not sow among thorns." But if, before you have cleansed your soul, while you still have thorns, you approach one who teaches—whether one who is able, or one reputed to be so—or even ask for lessons and spiritual seeds, you transgress the commandment that says: "Do not sow among thorns."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5

• Jeremiah 4:4

  Note the kindness and severity of God. For he is not kind without being severe or severe without being kind. For if he were only kind and not severe, we would not think much of his kindness. If he were severe and not kind, perhaps we would also despair in our sins. But God is both a kind and a severe God—for we who repent need his kindness, but those of us who persist in sins need his severity.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 4:4.2

• Jeremiah 4:4

  And next to this it is said: "Be circumcised to your God, circumcise the foreskin of your heart." "Be circumcised to your God"—of necessity is added "to your God." You will understand this from the perceptible example: they are circumcised, I mean according to the perceptible sense, not only those of the circumcision according to the law of Moses, but also many others. Among the Egyptians the priests of the idols are circumcised, but that circumcision is a circumcision to idols and is not a circumcision made to God; whereas that of the Jews was perhaps, but at all events then, made to God. If, then, the word says, "Be circumcised to your God," having understood the literal sense, pass over also to the figurative interpretation, so that you may find how, among those circumcised figuratively (so that perhaps some of them might say, "We are the circumcision"), some are circumcised to God, while others are indeed circumcised, but not to God. For there are indeed other words besides the word of truth, besides the word of the Church. They circumcise the manners and the heart, so to speak they bring to sober-mindedness, those who philosophize; they bring to sober-mindedness, those from the heresies, and a circumcision comes about for them. But it is indeed a circumcision, yet not to God; for among them a circumcision comes about by a false word. But when, according to the ecclesiastical rule, according to the purpose of sound teaching, you are one who shares in the common life, you are not only circumcised, but you are circumcised "to God." "Be circumcised," then, to your God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart." Who does not pass over these words as though they were plain? Yet there is a certain foreskin of the heart, and this must be circumcised. He who has examined the word precisely, seeking such things in this passage, will inquire: the foreskin is born with us, the circumcision is acquired, and what has come from birth, this the circumcision removes. If, then, the word commands the removal of "the foreskin of the heart," there must be something born together with the heart, which it calls a foreskin, which must be removed, so that one may be circumcised as to "the foreskin of the heart." If anyone understands "we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest," if anyone understands "the body of our lowliness" in which we were born, if anyone understands "no one is clean from filth, not even if his life be but a single day; and his months are numbered," he will see in what manner we were born with the uncleanness and foreskin of our heart. But that it may be spoken by the simpler example that is able to bring you to see "the foreskin of the heart," I will set forth that in the first age false opinions altogether arise in the soul; for it is not possible for a man from the beginning to receive true and pure doctrines. But the divine word made provision beforehand for history and for the writing according to the letter, so that it might nourish the one born according to the flesh to Abraham in the words that are according to the flesh first, and that the one from the slave-girl might become first, in order that after him could be born the son of "the free woman" and the one through the promise. If it be understood why this was included, the foreskin of the heart can be understood as coming before the circumcision. There is need, then, for us to receive the word that purifies the doctrines and removes all the things that have arisen in us according to false opinion. This, then, is to put away the foreskin of our heart; for if the heart is that which has in us the ruling faculty, where the thoughts are, whence "the reasonings come forth" that are evil, he who removes the evil reasonings removes "the foreskin of the heart"; he who puts away the false opinion has circumcised "the foreskin of his heart" and becomes "a man of Judah and one dwelling in Jerusalem," being circumcised. But if anyone does not put away "the foreskin of his heart," let us see what the word threatens against him: "Lest," he says, "my wrath go forth like fire and be kindled, and there be none to quench it." The wrath of the Lord goes forth, then, like fire upon those not circumcised to God, upon those who have not put away "the foreskin of their heart," "and there shall be none to quench it, because of the wickedness of their doings." That fire has for its fuel the wickedness of our doings. Where there is no wickedness of doings, the fire has nowhere to feed. And that the fuel of that fire is the wickedness of the doings, hear the prophet saying: "and there shall be none to quench it, because of the wickedness of your doings."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5

• Jeremiah 4:5

  "Declare it in Judah, and let it be heard in Jerusalem; say, declare, signal with a trumpet upon the earth, and cry aloud." These things, he says, which are announced, say in Judah, to those from the tribe of Judah of Christ; "for it is evident that our Savior arose out of Judah." "Signal with a trumpet upon the earth." The lofty word, which rouses the hearer, which prepares him for the war against the passions, for the war against the workings of the adversaries, which prepares him for the heavenly feasts—for it is spoken with reference to both of these—is taken as a trumpet. In Numbers such a word is a trumpet; for instance, the word commands me, and if it is given to anyone else (it is given to the one who wishes and who has sought the meaning of the Scriptures), it commands to make "trumpets of hammered silver." Thus the word says: "Signal with a trumpet upon the earth, and cry aloud; say: Gather together and let us enter into the walled cities." The word of God does not wish us to enter into an unwalled city, but into the church of the living God, walled about by the word of the Lord (for this is the wall)—it stands in the seventeenth Psalm, that God also is a wall.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5

• Jeremiah 4:6-7

  "Take up your baggage and flee to Zion"; as many of you as are outside Zion, "take up your baggage and flee to Zion; hasten, do not stand still," you who are in progress hasten to the Watchtower, "for I bring evils from the north and great destruction"—of the evils brought "from the north," from the north of the adversary, as has often been said; and whoever is found not to have hastened, nor to have entered "into the walled cities," not having come to be in "the churches of God," but standing outside, he himself, being seized by the enemies, will be destroyed. And who is the enemy? Let us see from what follows in what manner it is said: "A lion has gone up from his lair, destroying he has cut off nations." This is the enemy, whom we must flee. A lion pursues us. Who is this? Peter teaches us, saying: "Your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour; resist him, firm in the faith." And according to the ninth Psalm, "he lies in wait in secret, he lies in wait like a lion in his lair." And this lion lies in wait not by day, but when night comes; for according to the hundred and third Psalm: "You appointed darkness, and it became night. In it all the beasts of the forest will pass through, young lions roaring to seize and to seek their food from God."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5

• Jeremiah 4:7-8

  "A lion has gone up," then, "from his lair." Where? When? He is fallen below, he has gone down into the lowest parts of the earth. "A lion has gone up from his lair." You are a man, you are higher than the devil; for you are stronger than he, whatever sort you may be; he, because of his wickedness, is below. "A lion has gone up," then, "from his lair, destroying he has cut off nations"; having gone up "from his lair," from the place proper to his own punishment, "destroying he has cut off nations; he has gone forth from his place to make your land a desolation." He wishes to enter into your land, concerning which we were speaking a little while ago. He wishes to feed upon each of us. He comes, then, "to make your land a" desolation, that the lion may trample down the seeds, that he may make your land desolate. "And your cities shall be pulled down so that they are not inhabited. For these things gird yourselves with sackcloth." Since, then, a lion has gone up and a lion threatens you and wishes to destroy your land, gird yourself with sackcloth, weep and mourn, through prayers entreat God, that he may utterly destroy this lion from you and that you may not fall into his mouth. For "just as when the shepherd snatches out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a lobe of an ear"—this lion seeks to take you by the ears, so that through your greediness, casting false words upon you, he may remove you from the truth; he wishes to snatch your feet away from the truth and devour them. But do you gird yourselves with sackcloth and beat your breast and weep and wail, seeing the enemy who is at hand, that "the fierceness of the Lord's anger" may be turned away from you, and, when the wrath has been turned away, you may be able, coming to be in freedom from care, the lion no longer creeping in upon you, because you have entered into the walled city, to glorify God who delivers you in Christ Jesus, to whom is the glory and the might unto the ages of the ages. Amen.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5

• Jeremiah 5:3

  Then let us look at what is said concerning sinners: "You scourged them, and they felt no pain." These perceptible scourges, when applied to living bodies, produce pain in them whether those scourged wish it or not; but the scourges of God are of such a kind that some of those scourged feel pain, while some of those scourged do not feel pain. Let us see whether we can explain what it is to feel pain from God's scourges and what it is not to feel pain, and that those who feel no pain from God's scourges are wretched, whereas those who do feel pain from God's scourges are blessed. For Wisdom says, "Who will set scourges over my thought, and over my lips a seal of prudence, that they may not spare me in my ignorances, and my sins may not destroy me?" Give heed to the "Who will set scourges over my thought?" So then there are scourges that scourge the thought. The scourges of God scourge the thought; for a word that fastens upon the soul and brings it to a sense (synaisthēsis) of the things it has done wrong scourges it; and it scourges the blessed man who feels pain at the scourges, for the things said reach him, and he does not despise the one who rebukes him. But whenever someone is found, so to speak, insensible, it will be said concerning him, "You scourged them, and they felt no pain." For when the same word is spoken by way of rebuke — let us say, so as to reach the mind of one whose conscience is defiled by some sin — if one of the hearers is grieved, so that it is said of him, "You have seen how so-and-so was pierced to the heart," but another of the hearers is not grieved but is insensible to those who rebuke, plainly it will be said of the one who does not even perceive, "You scourged them, and they felt no pain." This is one explanation concerning the "they felt no pain" or "they felt pain"; but let us see whether we have another as well. There occur in bodies certain deadenings and witherings of some parts, and often the deadened members suffer such things, in contrast to the living ones, that when things capable of producing pain are applied to a living member, the one to whom that which causes pain is applied feels pain, but when the things that cause pain are applied to the insensible member, that person does not feel it, whenever there is a deadening about it. If indeed you have seen these things in the body, transfer them to the soul, and see that there is also a certain soul with deadened members, so that it does not perceive from the scourges, even if some painful things are applied. Terrible things are applied, but a certain soul will not perceive them, while another will perceive them. And perhaps the one who does not perceive the pains applied to him grieves more, as it were, over not perceiving than he would over perceiving — praying rather to feel pain if painful things were applied (since this is a sign of his being alive), and being distressed at not perceiving the painful things. Just as this happens in the case of bodies, so I think that in the words "they shall wish that they had been burned up with fire" something of this sort is indicated: namely, when fire is applied to someone and the burning one does not perceive it, they will wish — having grasped the comparison of those who do not perceive their pains and those who do — to perceive at the fire rather than not to perceive. And one might pray, even when that judgment-fire is applied to the sinners, to perceive rather than not to perceive. These things are on account of the words "You scourged them, and they felt no pain."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 6

• Jeremiah 5:3

  "Lord," he says, "your eyes are toward faithfulness," just as "the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous," for he turns them away from the unrighteous; so too the eyes of the Lord are toward faithfulness, for he turns them away from faithlessness. Therefore it is well said, by one who understands what he is saying in his prayer, "Lord, your eyes are toward faithfulness." Now what is written here is "Lord, your eyes are toward faithfulness." But since "if a man of understanding hears a wise word, he will praise it and add to it," see how many things it is possible to make out of the words "Lord, your eyes are toward faithfulness." Paul says, "But now these three abide: faith, hope, love; and the greatest of these is love." Just as the eyes of the Lord are toward faithfulness, so the eyes of the Lord are toward hope, the eyes of the Lord are toward love. And since there is "a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline," the eyes of the Lord are toward love, and so the eyes of the Lord are toward power, and so the eyes of the Lord are toward self-discipline […] the eyes of the Lord toward righteousness. In this way the eyes of the Lord are upon all the virtues. If, then, you too wish the rays of the spiritual eyes of God to reach as far as you, take up the virtues. And it will be that, just as "Lord, your eyes are toward faithfulness," so "Lord, your eyes" are toward each of the good things you may acquire. And if you become so great that the eyes of the Lord shine upon you, you will say, "The light of your countenance has been marked upon us, O Lord."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 6

• Jeremiah 5:3-4

  "They made their faces harder than rock." This too you will understand from things more bodily. Of those who sin, some, hearing words of rebuke over their sin, blush and shrink back and give way, when the rebuking word touches them; but others are of such a kind that they are shameless, feeling no shame over the things for which they are rebuked, for the things in which they have sinned. You might therefore say concerning these who feel no shame, "They made their faces harder than rock." If you have understood this in bodily terms, pass over with me in thought to the soul, understanding the "face" concerning which it is said, "but then face to face." And behold a hardened soul, such as was the hardened heart of Pharaoh, so that it stands unyielding against the things announced to it and, as it were, casts off what is said, not being molded according to the things announced. For there you will find that the words fit, "They made their faces harder than rock, and they refused to turn back. And I said, Perhaps they are poor, because they did not wish to know the way of the Lord and the judgment of God. I will go to the great ones and speak to them." Having understood these things concerning those who do not wish to be instructed, who take no notice of God's scourges, he speaks having understood the cause of these things. Poor is their soul. "And I said, Perhaps they are poor, because they were not able, because they did not know the way of the Lord and the judgment of God."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 6

• Jeremiah 5:3

  "You consumed them, and they refused to receive instruction." When God, who exercises providence over all things, performs the purifying works for the salvation of a soul, then as far as it depends on him he has consumed it. And you will understand the words "You consumed them, and they refused to receive instruction" from the example of the one who hands on knowledge and the one who is unwilling to receive the knowledge from the one who hands it on. For let the teacher do everything that is in his power and bring everything to completion for the handing on of knowledge, while the other does not accept what is said; I would say concerning such a one to the teacher, "You consumed this man, and he was unwilling to receive instruction." Whenever, then, all that comes from providence is done toward us, so that we may be consumed and perfected, but we do not accept the things of the providence that draws us toward perfection, it might be said by one who understands, to God, "Lord, you consumed them, and they refused to receive instruction."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 6

• Jeremiah 5:5

  "I will go to the great ones and speak to them." Those who are great in soul are spoken of in praise. For among the Greeks too "greatness" (to hadron) is continually used to name the grandeur of the rational soul. For whenever someone undertakes great matters and has purposes worthy of account and always considers what is fitting — how he may live according to right reason, wishing and looking upon nothing lowly and small — such a one has the greatness and grandeur in his soul. These men, then, since they were poor — the former ones whom the word blamed — did not listen, says the prophet. For this reason they did not listen, because they are poor. "I will go to the great ones and speak to them." And if it is a blessed thing to speak "into the ears of those who hear," it is a blessed thing if one meets with a great and mighty hearer. Therefore, since these things are so spoken, knowing that it is no loss to those who speak, so much as to those who hear, not to accept the things announced, and that it accuses the poverty of their mind and of their understanding, let us beseech to receive from God, as the word increases greatness and grandeur in us in Christ Jesus, that we may be able to hear the sacred and holy words — to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of ages. Amen.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 6

• Jeremiah 5:18

  God, who judges "little by little," gives to those being chastised room for repentance, and does not, in punishing at the very moment of sin, bring the full completion of the punishment upon the one who has sinned. For this reason, "judging little by little," he chastises. And an example of this is in Leviticus; for in the curses against those who transgress the Law it is written, after the earlier punishments: "And it shall be, if after these things you do not turn back, says the Lord, I too will add to you seven plagues." And again he recounts another punishment: "And it shall be, if after these things you do not turn back, but walk toward me crookedly, I too will walk with you in crooked wrath." And you will find God measuring out punishments with sparing restraint, since he wishes to lead the one who has sinned to conversion, and does not repay them all at once. Such things, then, so far as the letter goes, had come about concerning the people; and the word, threatening them with what they will suffer, says after those things: "And it shall be in those days, says the Lord your God, I will not strike you unto complete destruction." But whether these things especially reach even to the punishments that are to come — if not, let the one who is able pass over from the things that befell the people in this life to those punishments as well; for I, being persuaded, would say that just as "they serve a copy and shadow of heavenly things," so it was with a copy and shadow of the true punishments that that people was punished for their own sins, so that every punishment according to the Law and the Prophets which concerns the people contains a shadow of the true punishments. If, then, for those people no complete destruction came upon them for their sins, but at some point in the end there would be — nor will there ever fail to be, even after the departure, a punishment upon those who have sinned. But the complete destruction came upon Jerusalem when the captivity is that of Nebuchadnezzar. And yet someone will say that not even then was there complete destruction, nor even in the times of the Maccabees. But the complete destruction came upon the people at the coming of my Lord Jesus Christ. For as long as the Savior was not saying to them, "Behold, your house is forsaken to you," it was not forsaken. But when he wept over Jerusalem, saying, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to her, how often have I wished to gather together your children, in the way a hen gathers together her chicks under her wings, and you would not? Behold, your house is left to you desolate," the house was forsaken, "Jerusalem was surrounded by armies," as the house had been forsaken, and "her desolation drew near." Then, after their transgression, salvation came to us. So those people were being chastised, and complete destruction did not reach them until the sojourn of my Lord Jesus. But I consider whether such things may also be the case concerning us, and whether certain punishments come about, so that these here have no experience of second punishments but are content with the former, while others come even to the second, though not also to the third, and others will come even to the fourth. For the phrase "I will add seven plagues" indicates some mystery, since one plague comes, and a second, and a third, up to the seven that have been mentioned, upon certain people. But not all are struck with seven plagues; rather, I think some will be struck with six plagues, others five, others four, others three or two, while those most inferior of all in punishments I suppose will be struck with one plague. God, then, knows the things concerning the plagues as well. Therefore it is written here at the beginning of the reading: "And it shall be in those days," those concerning the things spoken of, "I will not make you unto complete destruction." But it is not in those days that complete destruction comes; for there are certain days, when he will make those whom he will make unto complete destruction.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 7

• Jeremiah 5:19

  "And it shall be, when you say, 'For what reason has the Lord our God done to us all these evils?' — and you shall say to them, 'Because you forsook me and served other gods in your land, so shall you serve in a land not your own.'" Let the letter be understood, and it suffices for the present to set forth the reminder from the letter for those able to hear. So then, the sons of Israel had the holy land, the temple, the house of prayer. They ought to have served God. But transgressing the divine commandments, they both practiced idolatry and took up the idols of Damascus, as it is written in the books of Kingdoms, and they took up other idols of the nations into the holy land. Through the idols of the nations which they took up, they made themselves worthy to be cast down into the land of the idols, to end up there where they worshiped the idols. So the word says to them according to the letter: "Because you forsook me and served foreign gods in your land, so shall you serve foreign gods in a land not your own." Everyone who deifies anything serves foreign gods. Do you make a god of foods and drinks? Your god is "the belly." Do you honor silver as a great good, and the wealth here below? Your god and lord is mammon. For Jesus called it lord of the lovers of money, saying: "You cannot serve God and mammon; no one can serve two lords." Therefore the one who honors silver and admires wealth and considers it to be a good, and welcomes the rich as gods, while despising the poor as not having their God — this one deifies silver. If anyone, being in the land of God, the Church, worships foreign gods, deifying the things not worthy to be deified, he will be cast out into a foreign land, and let him worship the gods whom he worshiped within. Let the lover of money be outside, cast out from the Church; let the glutton be outside, having been put out of the Church. These things according to one figurative interpretation, so that I may not now busy myself with what is beyond me — concerning the land, about which the Savior said, "Who will give you what is our own?" — and that, when worship has taken place in someone's land, God so arranged that some should be cast out from his own land and come to the land about which it is written: "Hear, O Israel, why is it that you are in the land of your enemies? You were reckoned together with those going down into Hades. You forsook the fountain of life, the Lord. If you had walked in the way of God, you would have dwelt in peace for time everlasting." Now, then, we are in a foreign land, and we pray to do the opposite of what the sons of Israel did in the holy land. For they worshiped foreign gods in the holy land; but we, in a foreign land, worship the God who is foreign to the land, foreign to the affairs upon the earth. For the ruler of this age rules here, and God is foreign to his sons. But when I say "foreign," I do not mean this — not that he did not create the world, but that he is foreign to the lord of wickedness, foreign to the present sins. And yet, even wishing to worship the God who is foreign to the affairs of sin in this land of affliction, let us see what we do. Do we not say, "How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land?" But rather: How shall we sing the song of the Lord not in a foreign land? We seek a place for this, of singing the song of the Lord, a place for worshiping the Lord our God in a foreign land. What, then, is the place? I have found it: he came to this land bearing the body that saves, taking up "the body of sin" "in the likeness of the flesh of sin," so that in this place, because of Christ Jesus who has sojourned here and abolished the ruler of this age and abolished sin, I might be able to worship God here, and after this I shall worship in the holy land. For if one who worshiped the idols in the holy land departed into the foreign land, one who has worshiped God in the foreign land will depart to the holy land in Christ Jesus, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages. Amen.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 7

• Jeremiah 6:8

  Behold the mercy and piety of the good God. When he wishes to be merciful, he says that he is displeased and angry. As he says through Jeremiah, "You will be chastised, Jerusalem, with pain and a scourge, lest my soul depart from you." If you understand these words, it is the voice of God having compassion when he is angry, when he is jealous, when he brings pains and beatings. "For he scourges every one whom he receives."

  HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8:5

• Jeremiah 7:17-18

  You will find at least in the book of Jeremiah the words of God censuring by the mouth of the prophet the Jewish people for doing obeisance to such objects and for sacrificing to the queen of heaven and to all the host of heaven. The writings of the Christians, moreover, show, in censuring the sins committed among the Jews, that when God abandoned that people on account of certain sins, these sins of idol worship also were committed by them.

  AGAINST CELSUS 5:8

• Jeremiah 7:18

  "God is jealous" and does not wish the soul that he betrothed to himself in faith to remain defiled by sin, but he wishes it to be purified immediately, wishes it to cast out all its impurities immediately, if it has been, by chance, snatched away by some of them. But if the soul continues in sins and says, "We will not hear the voice of the Lord, but we will do what we wish and will burn incense to the 'queen of heaven,' " a practice condemned by the prophet, it will then be held over for that judgment of Wisdom: "Since I indeed called you and you did not listen but jeered at my words, therefore I will laugh at your ruin, too," or is that judgment that has been placed on those in the Gospel when the Lord says, "Depart from me into the eternal fire that God has prepared for the devil and his angels."

  HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8:6

• Jeremiah 9:21

  We can take the windows as meaning the bodily sense through which life or death gains entrance to the soul. That is what the prophet Jeremiah means when, speaking of sinners, he says, "Death is coming up through your windows." How does death come up through windows? If the eyes of a sinner should "look on a woman to lust after her." He who has looked on a woman thus "has committed adultery with her in his heart." Then death has gained entrance to that soul through the windows of the eyes.

  COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 3:13

• Jeremiah 9:21

  One window is one of our senses. The Bridegroom looks out through it. Another window is another sense. Through it he gazes with active concern for our well-being. For what senses are there through which the Word of God does not look out? The following example teaches us what "looking out through the windows" means and in what way the Bridegroom sees through them. Where he does not look out, there is death found coming up, as we read in Jeremiah: "See, death is come up through your windows." When you look on a woman to lust after her, death comes up through your windows.

  HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2:12

• Jeremiah 9:23-24

  The only true salvation is if Christ saves me, for then I will be saved. The horse is a false hope for deliverance. False also are all others besides God for salvation. On account of this I might say to him, "Save me, Lord, and I will be saved," and I say this if I can say also the next words after every boast that is renounced. For you are my boast or when I fulfill the commandment that says, "Let not the wise person boast in his wisdom, and let not the strong person boast in his strength, or the rich person in his riches; let him who boasts boast in this, to understand and know that I am Lord." Blessed is one who has renounced every boast here below, such as in so-called noble birth and in beauty and in corporeal things, in riches, in vainglory, since he is content with one boast, that he may say, For you are my boast.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 17:5

• Jeremiah 9:23

  "Let not the wise person glory in his wisdom or the strong person in his strength," for that which is worth boasting about is not ours but is the gift of God. The wisdom is from him, and the strength is from him and so with the rest.

  COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 10:19

• Jeremiah 9:26

  The novelty of the expression may perhaps deter not only the Jews but even some of our brothers. For Paul, who introduces "circumcision of the heart," seems to assume things that are impossible. For how shall it be possible that a member be circumcised that, covered by the internal viscera, lies hidden even from the view of people? Let us return, therefore, to the words of the prophets that, with the aid of your prayers, these matters about which we are inquiring might become clear. Ezekiel the prophet says, "No stranger uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh shall enter my sanctuary." Likewise elsewhere no less the prophet, reproaching, says, "All strangers are uncircumcised in the flesh, but the sons of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart." It is pointed out, therefore, that unless one has been circumcised in the heart and the flesh, "he shall not enter the sanctuary" of God.

  HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3

• Jeremiah 10:12

  The prophet of God, having taken up as it were three excellences of His—His strength, His wisdom, and His understanding—assigns to each of them a work proper to it: to the strength the earth, to the wisdom the inhabited world, and to the understanding the heaven. For listen to the passage as it says: "The Lord who made the earth in His strength, who set upright the inhabited world in His wisdom, and in His understanding stretched out the heaven." And we too, as regards our earth (for it was said to Adam, "Earth you are, and to earth you shall depart"), have need of the strength of God, and apart from the power of God we are not able to accomplish these things, all that is not according to "the mind-set of the flesh." And when "the members that are upon the earth" have been put to death, then there will be what is according to the will of the Spirit, since "by the Spirit the deeds of the flesh," according to the apostle, are put to death. "The Lord," then, "who made the earth in His strength." And if you come also to this earth, if you are able to see what is written in Job, as we found in the more accurate copies, that He set it "upon nothing," you will see that by the strength of God it lies at the very midmost point. I come also to the inhabited world. I know of a soul that is inhabited, I know of a soul that is desolate. For if it does not have God, if it does not have Christ, who said, "I and my Father will come to him, and we will make our abode with him," if a soul does not have the Holy Spirit, it is desolate. But it is inhabited when it has been filled with God, when it has Christ, when the Holy Spirit is in it. And these things are said in the Scriptures in various and diverse ways—that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are in the soul of a human being. David, at any rate, in the psalm of confession, asks the Father concerning these spirits, saying: "With a governing spirit uphold me," "renew an upright spirit in my inward parts," "and take not your Holy Spirit from me." What are these three spirits? The governing one is the Father, the upright one is Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit—these to establish that the inhabited world is inhabited in no other way than in the wisdom of God. For "wisdom will help the wise man more than ten rulers who are in the city." "But he who despises wisdom and instruction is wretched, and his hope is empty, and his labors are unprofitable, and his works are useless," says the Wisdom inscribed to Solomon. On this account, so far as is possible, since the inhabited world is set upright in the wisdom of God, let us ourselves also wish to have our own inhabited world set upright, which has perhaps fallen. For this inhabited world has fallen when we came to the place of affliction; this inhabited world has fallen when "we sinned, we acted impiously, we did wrong," and it needs to be set upright. It is God, then, who has set upright the inhabited world. But if you do not take "who has set upright the inhabited world" in this way, but understanding the inhabited world more commonly, seek from what condition He is the one who set the inhabited world upright, seek the fall of the inhabited world, so that having found its fall you may see its being set upright. If, then, anyone is in this inhabited world, if you understand the inhabited world in that way, before being set upright it had fallen. And if it has fallen, it is clear that it needs to be set upright, but no one who has not fallen needs to be set upright. And if it was set upright, let us see—it is clear that each of those in the inhabited world has fallen from sin. And "the Lord is the one who sets upright those who have been broken down," and "He supports all who are falling," "in Adam all die," and thus the inhabited world has fallen and needs to be set upright, so that "in Christ all" may be made alive. So then I have rendered the matters concerning the inhabited world in two ways, in one place showing with respect to each single person how each soul is either an inhabited world or a desolation, and in another place setting the discourse upon the inhabited world itself. "And in His understanding He stretched out the heaven." It was not by chance that he took up understanding in connection with the heaven. For you will find it said in the Proverbs: "God in wisdom founded the earth, and He prepared the heavens in understanding." There is, then, a certain understanding of God, which you should not seek except in Christ Jesus. For all such things as are of God, Christ is. He Himself is the wisdom of God, He Himself the power of God, He Himself the righteousness of God, He Himself sanctification, He Himself redemption; thus He Himself is the understanding of God. But the underlying subject is one, and by conceptions the many names apply to different aspects. And you do not conceive the same thing about Christ when you conceive Him as wisdom and when you conceive Him as righteousness. For when you conceive Him as wisdom, you take up the knowledge of things divine and human; and when as righteousness, the power that distributes according to desert in the whole; and when as sanctification, that which brings it about that those who believe and are devoted to God become holy. Thus, then, you will conceive Him also as understanding, when it is the knowledge of goods and evils and things that are neither. Since, then, it is distinguished for those who dwell in heaven or for those who bear the heavenly man, having separated the evils from the goods, so that that heaven may no longer be defiled—because the heaven has been stretched out by the understanding of God—neither the one who is a righteous heaven (and the righteous man too is heaven, as has been said). "And He stretched out the heaven by His understanding." How, then, is the heaven stretched out? By wisdom stretching it out. And it is made clear that wisdom stretches out in the words "since I stretched out words and you did not attend," and it speaks of there being a certain stretching-out of words; thus the heaven is stretched out. And in the one hundred and third psalm it is said, "who stretches out the heaven like a curtain," and our soul too, previously contracted, is stretched out, so that it may be able to contain the wisdom of God. But let us return to what is before us. We were speaking about the heaven having come to be in understanding. And we say that those who bear the heavenly man are themselves also heaven. For if it is said to the one who sins, "Earth you are, and to earth you shall depart," would it not be said to the righteous man, whose is the kingdom of the heavens, "Heaven you are, and to heaven you shall depart"? Or rather, on account of the earthy man will it be said to the one who bears "the image of the earthy," "Earth you are, and to earth you shall depart," but on account of the heavenly man, when you have borne "the image of the heavenly," it will no longer be fitting to say it—"Heaven you are, and to heaven you shall depart"? Each of us, then, has works heavenly and works earthly. Earthly are the works which bring down to the earth akin to them the one who lays them up as treasure upon the earth and does not lay up treasure in heaven. Again, to the regions akin to the works, those in heaven, they lead up the one who lays up treasure in heaven, the one who has borne "the image of the heavenly," the things done according to virtue.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 8

• Jeremiah 10:13

  "And He brought up clouds from the end of the earth." This saying fell to us recently also in the psalm, and we were saying how God "brought up clouds from the end of the earth." Which things it is necessary to take up again—for those who know, for the clarification and reminder of what has been said, but for those who have forgotten or were not present, for the plain understanding of this, whether it be revealed and made manifest or however it may be understood. And we were saying that the saints are clouds. For the phrase "your truth is unto the clouds" cannot be referred to the lifeless clouds; but the truth of God is unto the clouds, which hear the commandment of God and know where they should send forth rain and from what places they should withhold it. For, as of clouds which exist, to which God gives command not to rain or to rain, it is written, "I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it." Now in the case of these clouds, when there is no rain, God does not command the clouds not to rain rain upon the vineyard or upon the land, but no cloud appears at all, as is written in the third book of Kingdoms, where, during the time of the drought, no cloud appeared; but when, according to the word of the prophecy of Elijah, the rain was about to come, a trace of a cloud appeared "like the trace of a man," and it became a cloud producing the rain. But as of clouds that do exist, yet are ordered not to rain when the soul happens to be unworthy of the rain, it is said, "I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it." Therefore each of the saints is a cloud. Moses was a cloud, and as a cloud he said: "Attend, O heaven, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Let my utterance be awaited like rain." If he were not a cloud, he would never have said, "Let my utterance be awaited like rain, and let my words come down like dew." As a cloud he says: "As a shower upon the grass, and as snowfall upon the herbage; because I have called upon the name of the Lord." Thus, as a cloud, Isaiah too says: "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, because the Lord has spoken." And since he too was a cloud, and called those who prophesied together with him clouds, he says, prophesying: "I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it." And if it has been understood by us who the clouds are, let us see how God is the one who brings up "clouds from the end of the earth." How from "the end of the earth"? The Savior says, "He who wishes to be first among you shall be last of all." Paul kept this commandment, and he was last in this world. Therefore he says: "For I think that God has exhibited us the apostles as last, as men doomed to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men." If, then, anyone keeps the commandment of the Savior and becomes last as regards this life, this man becomes a cloud. And God brings up clouds not from the foremost of the earth, not from men of consular rank does He bring up clouds, not from rulers does He bring up clouds, not from the rich; for "blessed are the poor, because yours is the kingdom of God." Do you see how from the last God brings up and gives bodily form to the clouds? On this account, if we wish to become clouds, upon which the truth of God arrives, let us become last of all and say, in works and in disposition, "For I think that God has exhibited us the apostles as last"; and even if I am not an apostle, it is possible for me to become last, so that God, bringing up clouds from "the end of the earth," may bring me up. "And He made lightnings into rain." Those skilled in these matters say that the generation of lightnings comes from the clouds rubbing against one another. For what happens with the fire-striking stones on the earth, so that when two stones strike together fire is produced, this they say happens also in the case of the clouds. When the clouds strike together during storms, the lightning is produced. Therefore, for the most part, the lightning occurs together with thunder, the thunder manifesting the sound of the collision of the clouds, and the lightning generating the light. If you have understood the illustration, look with me also at the spiritual cloud. Moses was a cloud, Jesus the son of Nave was a cloud. These, indeed, converse with one another, and from their words lightning is produced. Jeremiah was a cloud, Baruch was a cloud. They discourse with one another, the lightning came from the words of Jeremiah and the words of Baruch. Thus, if you can, gather from the Scriptures in what manner the lightning comes. And in the new covenant Paul and Silvanus were two clouds. They came together, the lightning of the epistle came to be. God, then, "made lightnings into rain, and brought forth winds from His treasuries." Are, then, these winds in treasuries? Or is not their nature apparent, when they blow upon the earth, in what manner it subsists? But there are certain treasuries of winds, treasuries of spirits: "a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and strength, a spirit of knowledge and piety," "a spirit of the fear of God," "a spirit of power and love and self-control." And you yourself can gather these winds from the Scriptures. These spirits are in treasuries; who are the treasuries? "In whom are the treasuries of wisdom and knowledge hidden"? These treasuries are in Christ. From there, then, come these winds, these spirits, so that one may be wise, another faithful, another may have knowledge, and another may have taken up whatever gift of God: "for to one is given through the Spirit a word of wisdom, to another a word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit." "He brought up," then, "clouds from the end of the earth, and made lightnings into rain, and brought forth winds from His treasuries." And we too, on account of God, hope to arrive at these treasuries. And since there are many treasuries, perhaps according to the ranks of those who are raised up there will be places of rest in the treasuries of God. What I mean is such as this. The resurrection of the dead comes about in certain ranks; for the apostle says, "but each in his own rank." And since the ranks are not jumbled together as it may chance, this rank will be in a certain treasury of God, and that rank in another treasury of God, and a third, another rank, will be in yet another treasury. All these treasuries, however, have one treasury, in which they dwell. Therefore it is said in Paul: "in whom are the treasuries both of wisdom and of knowledge hidden." And just as I acquire the "one precious pearl" through the many pearls, so I come to the treasury of the treasuries, the Lord of lords, the King of kings, when I have become worthy of the spirits from the treasuries of God; for "He brought forth winds from His treasuries."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 8

• Jeremiah 10:14

  "Every man was made foolish from knowledge." If every man was made foolish from knowledge, and Paul too is a man, Paul was made foolish from knowledge; for "knowing in part and prophesying in part," he was made foolish from knowledge; "seeing through a mirror," seeing in an enigma, seeing and grasping a small fraction, and, if one may say so, an infinitesimal fraction of things. But you will understand from the contrary "every man was made foolish from knowledge." There are sins of Jerusalem, and sins also of Sodom, but by comparison with the worse sins of Jerusalem, the sins of Sodom are righteousness; for it says, "Sodom was justified from you." As, then, the sins of Sodom are not righteousness but injustice, yet as compared with the greater injustice it is righteousness, so, from the contrary, knowledge—the knowledge that belongs to Paul—as compared with that knowledge which is in the heavens, as compared with the perfect knowledge, is foolishness. On this account "every man was made foolish from knowledge." Some such thing, I think, Ecclesiastes was grasping when he said: "I said, I will become wise; and it withdrew from me, far beyond what it was, and a deep depth—who will find it?" The discourse is about to venture something and to say that the one who came to sojourn in this life emptied himself, so that by his emptying the world might be filled. And if that one who came to sojourn in this life emptied himself, that very emptying was wisdom. "For the foolish thing of God is wiser than men." If I had said, "the foolish thing of God," how would the fault-finders have accused me? How would they have blamed me? How would I have been charged—while the other things said, which are reckoned even by them to be noble, were approved, but this, as they suppose, not being nobly said—because I said "the foolish thing of God"? But now Paul, as one who is wise and has apostolic authority, dared to say that all the wisdom upon earth, both that in himself and that in Peter and the apostles, all that has come to sojourn in the world, is "the foolish thing of God." For as compared with that wisdom which no place upon earth can contain, as compared with that supra-celestial wisdom, this thing that has come to sojourn is the foolish thing of God. But this "foolish thing of God is wiser than men." Than which men? I do not mean than the foolish, but it is wiser even than the wise men. And even if you name the wise men of this age, whether rulers or prophets, than the rulers of this age "the foolish thing of God," which I have expounded, "is wiser than men." The discourse is about to say something paradoxical, that "the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God," and "God made foolish the wisdom of the world." Did He, then, in wisdom make foolish the wisdom of the world? And can the wisdom of the world contain the wisdom, so as to be proved foolish? For does the wisdom of God contend against the wisdom of the world, in order to be tested against it? But there is need of some little thing, which is the little foolish thing of God, so that by this small foolish thing of God the wisdom of the world may be made foolish and refuted; for the wisdom of this world did not endure the wisdom of God. As, for example—so that you may understand that "the foolish thing of God" "made foolish the wisdom of the world"—let it be granted that I am contending, I who seem to know many things and more, against someone senseless and uninstructed and understanding nothing and not contending on behalf of noble words of any sort whatever. Do I, then, have need of dialectic against that man, or of deeper speculations, if his notions are foolish? Do I not have need of one little word slightly sharper than his diction, so that I may be able to refute his foolishness? Thus, in order that the wisdom of this world may be made foolish, there is no need of the wisdom of God contending against it (for it itself is below), but the foolish thing of God suffices, since "the foolish thing of God is wiser than men, and the weak thing of God is stronger than men." And my Savior and Lord took up all the contrary things, so that by the contraries he might dissolve the contraries, and that we might be made strong from the weakness of Jesus and made wise from the foolish thing of God, and, being introduced through these things, might be able to ascend to the wisdom, to the strength of God, Christ Jesus, to whom is the glory and the might unto the ages. Amen.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 8

• Jeremiah 11:1

  According to the recorded coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, His sojourn came about bodily in a certain universal way, shining upon the whole world, when "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." For "there was the true Light which enlightens every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." Yet one must know that even earlier He sojourned, though not bodily, in each of the saints, and that after this His visible coming He sojourns among us again. And if you wish to receive a demonstration of these things, attend to the passage: "The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Hear," and what follows. For what is "the word which came from the Lord," whether to Jeremiah or to Isaiah or to Ezekiel or to whomever, other than He who was in the beginning with God? I know of no other word of the Lord than this, concerning which the evangelist has said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And this too we must know, that it is above all when it is possible to profit from them that the coming of the Word is to each one. For what benefit is it to me if the Word has sojourned in the world, but I do not have Him? On the contrary, even if He has not yet sojourned in the whole world, grant that I have come to be among the prophets—I have the Word. And I would say that Christ came to Moses, to Jeremiah, to Isaiah, to each of the righteous, and that what was said by Him to the disciples, "Behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age," was in fact fulfilled and came to pass even before His coming; for He was with Moses and He was with Isaiah and with each of the saints. How could those men have spoken the word of God if the Word of God had not sojourned in them? These things are especially necessary to be known by us who belong to the Church, who wish the God of the Law and of the Gospel to be the same, and Christ to be the same both then and now unto all ages. But there will be those who sever the Godhead older than the coming of the Savior—so far as their own supposition goes—from the Godhead proclaimed by Jesus Christ. But we know one God both then and now, one Christ both then and now. These things because of "the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 9

• Jeremiah 11:2

  What then are we also to hear? "Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." We are men of Judah because of Christ; for it is plain that our Lord "has arisen out of Judah," and if I establish, according to Scripture, that the name of Judah refers to Christ, then the men of Judah will not be the Jews who disbelieve in Christ, but ourselves, as many as believe in Christ. "Judah, may your brothers praise you. Your hands are upon the back of your enemies"—"may they praise you." His brothers did not praise that Judah, the son of Jacob. But this Judah his brothers will praise, since this Judah says, "I will declare your name to my brothers, in the midst of the church I will hymn you." It is not said with reference to that Judah. "Your hands are upon the back of your enemies": where is that Judah found laying his hands upon the back of his enemies? The narrative has recorded nothing of the sort concerning him. But if you understand the coming of the Lord Jesus abolishing the devil, stripping off "the principalities and powers" and making a show of them and triumphing over them in the wood, you see how upon this Judah the prophecy that says this has been fulfilled: "Your hands are upon the back of your enemies." If this is so, and the word now speaks "to the men of Judah," to whom would it be speaking except to those who believe in Christ, called in a certain manner Judah too because of the tribe of Judah? "To the men of Judah" the word is spoken, and "to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." This is the church. For the city of God is the church, the Vision of peace; in her is the peace which He brought us, if indeed we are children of peace, and it is multiplied and seen.

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 9

• Jeremiah 11:3

  "Hear," then, "the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed is the man who will not hear the words of the covenant which I commanded your fathers." Who most of all hears "the words of the covenant which God commanded the fathers"? Is it those who believe in Him, or those who are shown not even to believe Moses by the very fact that they have not believed in the Lord? For the Savior says to those men: "If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote concerning me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" Therefore those men have not believed in Moses, but we who believe in Christ believe the covenant given through Moses, and it is spoken to us, that we may not become accursed: "Cursed is the man who will not hear the words of the covenant which I commanded the fathers." Those men, then, have this—to be accursed. For they did not hear "the covenant which God commanded the fathers."

  HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 9