Homilies on Jeremiah and 1 Kings 28

Homily 16 : Jeremiah 16.16–17.1

HOMILY 16 Jeremiah 16.16–17.1 On “‘Behold, I am sending many fishers,’ says the Lord,” up to, “A sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, with a point of a diamond; it is engraved on the tablet of their heart.” 1 t is recorded in the gospel according to Matthew that our Savior came beside the sea of Galilee and saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then the word states that the Savior, when he saw them, said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him,2 and Jesus has made them to take up fishing for men.3 And he found two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with their father mending the nets, and he called them4 to the same knowledge,5 and he made them also fishers of men. And if one considered those who hold from God a gift of word woven6 as7 a net and bound together 8 from the sacred Scriptures as a casting net, so that what is woven is thrown around the souls of the hearers, and he also consid166 1. “On . . . heart,” an addition of Klostermann from Jerome. 2. Matt 4.18–20. 3. “Men,” an addition of Koetschau and Klostermann from Jerome. 4. Cf. Matt 4.21. 5. “Knowledge” (ejpisthvmh), a practical knowledge, meaning the total of skill and information required by people who perform a particular profession, as distinct from gnw'si", which often involves a mystical or contemplative knowledge. 6. “Woven” (peplegmevnhn), a correction of Klostermann from Jerome. S has peplhrwmevnhn. 7. “As” (wJ"), a correction of Cordier from Jerome. S has h{n. 8. “Bound together” (sugkeimevnhn), a correction of Huet. S has sugkeimevnwn. HOMILY 16 167 ered9 this as a skill which arises according to the knowledge which Jesus taught, he will see in what way not only then, but now, our Savior sends out fishers of men, having taught them so that we can come up from the sea and flee its harsh waves. (2) But those fish, those without soul,10 that come up in the dragnets and in the casting nets and in the small nets or in fishhooks, die a death without a life which succeeds death.11 But he who was caught by the fishers of Jesus, and who comes up from the sea, he also dies, but he dies to the world, he dies to sin, and after having died to the world and to sin, he is made to live by the Word of God, and receives another life. Just as, if you could apprehend hypothetically when the soul of the fish changed, after coming out from the fishly body, it became something better than the fish—I have taken an example, let no one take as pretext what he did not hear12 —you will then apprehend13 something such as this. Having come up from the sea, falling into the nets of the disciples of Jesus, after you come out you change the soul, you are no longer a fish who struggles in14 the salty waves of the sea, but your soul immediately changes and transforms itself and becomes better and more godly than what it was formerly. But that it does transform itself and change, hear Paul who says, And we all with unveiled face, reflecting the glory of God, are being transformed to the same image from glory into glory , just as from the Lord, the Spirit.15 And this transformed fish which was caught by the fishers of Jesus, after it has abandoned the way of life in the sea, makes his way in the mountains so that he no longer needs the fishers who brought him 9. “Considered” (katenovhse), a correction of Klostermann. S has katanoh'sai. 10. “Those without soul,” is missing from Jerome. 11. “Without a life which succeeds death,” missing from Jerome. 12. Origen does not want his hearers to think he teaches that people can in some way be or become fish. 13. “You will apprehend” (nohvsei"), a correction of Koetschau. S has nohvsh. 14. “In,” an addition of Klostermann. 15. 2 Cor 3.18. up from the sea, but he needs a certain second group called hunters who hunt from every mountain and from every hill.16...