Homilies on Jeremiah and 1 Kings 28

Homily 27 : Jeremiah 27.23–29

HOMILY 27 (50) Jeremiah 27.23–29 (50.23–29) ( from Jerome’s Latin translation) On what was written, “How was the hammer of the whole earth broken and crushed? How was Babylon brought to destruction?” up to the place where it says: “Render to her according to her works; and do to her all that she has done, for she has stood up against the Lord God the Holy One of Israel.” ow, he says, was the hammer of the whole earth broken and crushed? How was Babylon brought to destruction?1 One needs to inquire here who is the hammer of all the earth or in what way its brokenness is prophesied, since it was broken before it was crushed, so that after bringing together what has been written elsewhere about the hammer, when we find its name, we will also investigate the meaning of the name from these examples that we have brought forth.2 (2) At one time there was constructed a house of God, according to the third book of Kings,3 and it was Solomon who built and erected it; and it was said here, as if in praise, about the house of God, that hammer and axe were not heard in the house of God.4 Therefore as the hammer is not heard in the house of God, since the house of God is the Church, so the hammer is not heard in the Church. Who is this hammer who wants to obstruct , insofar as he can, the stones for building the Temple, so that, broken, they are not suited for its foundations. See with me if the Devil is not the hammer of the whole earth. 245 1. Jer 27.23. 2. On what follows, compare Fragment 30. 3. 3 Kings 6.1. 4. 3 Kings 6.7. (3) I will also proclaim confidently that there is someone who cannot be affected very much by the hammer of the whole earth. And since the example was offered of a perceptible hammer, I will seek a material stronger than the hammer which does not feel the blows from it. In searching for it I find it too in what was written: Behold a man standing above the adamant walls, and in his hand adamant.5 History records about adamant that it is stronger than every hammer striking it, remaining unbroken and unyielding. Even if the hammer, the Devil, stands above and the Serpent, who as an indomitable anvil,6 may position himself below, still adamant endures nothing when resting in the hand of the Lord and in his regard. Thus the two opposites to this adamant are the hammer and the immovable anvil. Yet there is indeed among the nations a much-used proverb in the common language concerning those who are pressed by anxieties and extremely bad situations; they say: “They are ‘between a hammer and an anvil.’” Still you can say that this refers to the Devil and the Serpent, who are always signified by names of this sort in the Scriptures for a variety of purposes. And you can say that the holy man, who is as an adamant wall or is adamant in the hand of the Lord, is not affected either by the hammer or by the anvil, but the more he is struck, the brighter will his virtue shine. They say that gem merchants, when they want to test adamant, since they are unaware whether it is adamant or not until it comes into contact with the hammer and the anvil, are indeed then persuaded that it is the most genuine adamant if the rock survives unscratched between the anvil and the hammer, if when the hammer strikes it from above and the anvil is placed below, the harder nature of the rock is unmarked. Such is a holy man before temptations . By those who do not know how to test rocks he is unknown ; only God knows for certain the nature of the adamant rocks which is unknown by most. I myself do not know as yet whether with a hammer coming and hitting me I ORIGEN 246 5. Amos 7.7. 6. Job 41.15. HOMILY 27 247 will be broken and crushed, smashed because I may not be adamant. Or will I certainly appear as true adamant, if with the attacks of persecutions, dangers, temptations I am not so much broken by...