The emptied sojourn; God’s foolishness wiser than humans
The Word is about to dare something and say that what sojourned in the life emptied itself, so that by its emptying the world might be filled. And if that which sojourned in the life emptied itself, that emptying was wisdom.
“Because the foolishness of God is wiser than human beings.” If I had said “the foolishness of God,” how would the fault-finders have accused me? How would they have blamed me? How—when things thought good even by them had been said, but this, as they think, not well said—could I have been accused for saying “the foolishness of God”?
But now Paul, as wise and having apostolic authority, dared to say that all earthly wisdom—and that in himself and in Peter and the apostles—all wisdom that has come into the world is “the foolishness of God.”
For as regards that wisdom which no earthly place can contain, as regards that heavenly, above-world wisdom, this sojourning foolishness of God is such.
But this: “the foolishness of God is wiser than human beings.” Than which humans? Not the foolish, I say, but it is wiser even than the wise humans. Even if you speak of the wise of this age, whether rulers or prophets—the rulers of this age—“the foolishness of God,” as I have said, “is wiser than human beings.”
Greek
Μέλλει τι ἐπιτολμᾶν ὁ λόγος καὶ λέγειν, ὅτι τὸ ἐπιδημῆσαν τῷ βίῳ ἐκώνωσεν ἑαυτό, ἵνα τῷ κενώματι αὐτοῦ πληρωθῇ ὁ κός- μος. εἰ δὲ ἐκένωσεν ἑαυτὸ ἐκεῖνο τὸ ἐπιδημῆσαν τῷ βίῳ, ἐκεῖνο τὸ κένωμα σοφία ἠν. «ὅτι τὸ μωρὸν τοῦ θεοῦ σοφώτερον τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐστίν. εἰ ἐγὼ εἰρήκειν· «τὸ μωρὸν τοῦ θεοῦ«, πῶς ἂν οἱ φιλαίτιοι ἐνεκάλεσάν μοι; πῶς ἂν ἐμέμψαντό μοι; πῶς ἂν μὲν εἰρημένων τῶν νομιξομένων καὶ αὐτοῖς καλῶν, τούτου δὲ ὡς οἴονται οὐ Ι καλῶς εἰρημένου κατηγορήθην, διότι εἶπον «τὸ μωρὸν τοῦ θεοῦ«; νυνὶ δὲ Παῦλος ὡς σοφὸς καὶ ἐξουσίαν ἔχων ἀποστολικὴν ἐτόλμησεν εἰπεῖν πᾶσαν τὴν ἐπὶ γὴν σοφίαν, καὶ τὴν ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ τὴν ἐν Πέτρῳ καὶ τοῖς ἀποστόλοις, πᾶσαν τὴν ἐπιδημήασαν τῷ κόσμῳ εἰναι «τὸ μωρὸν τοῦ θεοῦ.
ὡς γὰρ πρὸς ἐκείνην τὴν σοφίαν, ἣν οὐ χωρεῖ ἐπὶ γῆς τόπος, ὡς πρὸς ἐκείνην τὴν σοφίαν τὴν ὑπερουράνιον, τὴν ὑπερκόσμιον, τοῦτο τὸ ἐπιδημῆσαν μωρὸν τοῦ θεοῦ. ἀλλὰ τοῦτο «τὸ μωρὸν τοῦ θεοῦ σοφώτερον τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐστίν. ποίων ἀνθρώπων; οὐ τῶν μωρῶν λέγω, ἀλλὰ σοφώτερόν ἐστι καὶ τῶν σοφῶν ἀνθρώπων. κἂν τοὺς σοφοὺς εἴπῃς τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου εἴτε ἄρχοντας εἴτε προφήτας, τῶν ἀρχόντων τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου «τὸ μωρὸν τοῦ θεοῦ«, ὅ διηγησάμην, «σοφώτερον τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐστίν.
About this text
Origen on Jeremiah. Twenty Greek homilies survive. This page publishes the Pass B English for Homilies 1–20. The rest of the volume is still being translated.
English follows Erich Klostermann, Origenes Werke III (GCS, 1901). A second transcription of that same edition (First1KGreek TEI) was checked; where the TEI drops or garbles a line, the page image wins. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition of the Greek. Homilies that survive only in Jerome’s Latin are not on this page yet. When they are, they will be marked at those homilies.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Klostermann, Origenes Werke III (GCS, 1901) (Greek · Homilies 1–20 Greek (this page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20))
- Checked print Archive.org page image and DjVu of GCS III (Greek · Same print as the copy-text)
- Checked print First1KGreek TEI of GCS III (Greek · Same print; encoding errors deferred to the page image)
Where the prints differ
- Homily 1.1 — The TEI omits Ἑβραῖον. English follows the GCS page image: Jonah is “a Hebrew prophet.”
- Homily 1.5 — The TEI dropped Ἰσαάκ. English follows the GCS page image: Isaac born of promise.
- Homily 1.11 — The TEI/OCR of this line is garbled. English follows the GCS page image and the quoted verse: “I have sanctified you.”
- Homily 3.2 — The TEI gaps Matthew 5:45 (sun on the evil and [gap]; rain on [gap] and the unjust). English follows the Gospel wording.
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.