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Fragments from the Catena
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FRAGMENTS FROM THE CATENA or the righteous is not in youth,1 since being perfected in a short time he fulfilled long years.2 For regarding one who is not in blamable ways the text says, Do not say,”I am too young,” 3 as was Roboam, who forsook the counsel of the elders and followed the ways of the younger men;4 for that reason he also has not maintained the kingdom in the way he received it.5 2. The caldron on the fire is fired up from the face of the north.6 For he is an enemy and also at the same time an avenger. Hence he who has sinned is delivered to Satan either in blasphemy so that he might learn not to blaspheme, or he is delivered to Satan in fornication for the destruction of the flesh so 280 1. As noted in our introduction, these fragments include all of those which do not duplicate texts already present in the extant homilies. It is a translation of the Greek text edited by Klostermann in GCS 6:199–232. His numbering is followed throughout. Three manuscripts are noted in his text: c (10th century a.d.), l (11th) and o (11th). 2. Wis 4.13. 3. Jer 1.10. 4. Cf. 3 Kings 12.13–14. 5. Nautin, 1:30, doubts the authenticity of this fragment because it has a different exegesis of Jer 1.10 than that given in Hom in Jer 1.6. Nautin may be right that this fragment is not from the homilies, but would the different exegesis be enough to prove that it is not Origen’s thought? Origen often gave more than one interpretation to a text, depending on the context. This fragment may have been pulled from a work other than the homilies, perhaps from one which was discussing the text from Kings or the meaning of “youth” or some other passage from the Prophets. It is difficult to be certain, of course, since it is, after all, a fragment which is abridged and only one part of a discussion. We know that the fragments are usually abridgments and have on occasion been wrongly attributed, but, knowing only this much, and without much stronger evidence than Nautin offers here, we must take care in our judgment of them. 6. Jer 1.13. FRAGMENTS FROM THE CATENA 281 that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.7 And whom does he fire up? The inhabitants but not the sojourners on the earth.8 For he releases the flaming darts9 on those who do not keep every watch over their hearts, as under such sins he brings flames. 3. About those who will smite10 them he mentions a lion and a wolf and a leopard.11 The meaning with respect to actions seems to be under what was spoken allegorically as lions, and the meaning with respect to knowledge is under those who want to mislead the discernment of the soul. For the leopard especially is said to pounce upon the eyes, and the lion, it is recorded, after it has grown old, prowls about the cities, wishing to hunt for men.12 And it is also said that fire emerges from its bones when they are struck or ground up. Both the lion and the leopard may equally be also Nebuchadnezzar, who conquered the city and as a leopard removed its eyes— the king with his chiefs—but later on who also cut out the eyes of Zedekiah.13 And Nebuzaradan, after he burnt the city to ashes, observed its bones.14 4. The statements which say, a sacrifice to God is a broken spirit15 and offer a sacrifice of righteousness,16 clearly give the means to investigate what the passage about sacrifices teaches.17 And those who do not understand it in this way but have been excited over bodily sacrifices the Savior converts when he says, But if you had known what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice , you would not have condemned the guiltless.18 And that there is such a principle concerning sacraments Paul taught in saying , They serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly.19 7. 1 Tim 1.20; 1 Cor 5.5. 8. Jer 1.14; Gen 12.10. This distinction between inhabiting and sojourning is made also by Philo in De confusione linguarum. 1.416–17. See also Origen, Sel in Gen 12...