Homilies on Jeremiah · §8.9 · Origen of Alexandria

A little of God’s foolishness overcomes the world’s wisdom

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The Word is about to say something paradoxical: that “the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God,” and “God has made foolish the wisdom of the world.” Did he then make foolish the world’s wisdom in wisdom? And can the world’s wisdom contain the wisdom, so that it may be convicted of being foolish? For does God’s wisdom contend against the world’s wisdom, so that it may be convicted against it? But there is need of a little something—which little is God’s foolishness—so that by this brief foolishness of God the world’s wisdom may be made foolish and convicted; for the wisdom of this world did not bear the wisdom of God.

As an example, so that you may understand that “the foolishness of God” “made foolish the wisdom of the world,” let it be granted that I contend—seeming to know many and more things—against someone senseless and uneducated and understanding nothing and not contending for noble words of any kind whatever. Do I have need of dialectic toward that one, or of deeper theorems, if his thoughts are foolish? Do I not need one little word a little sharper than his wording, so that I may be able to convict his foolishness?

Thus, so 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 foolishness of God suffices, because the foolishness of God is wiser than human beings, and the weakness of God is stronger than human beings.

And my Savior and Lord has taken up all the opposites, so that by the opposites he may loose the opposites, and we may be strengthened from the weakness of Jesus and made wise from the foolishness of God, and having been led into these things may 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.

Greek

Παράδοξόν τι μέλλει λέγειν ὁ λόγος, ὅτι «ἡ σοφία τοῦ κόσμοι μωρία παρὰ τῷ θεῷ ἐστιν«, καὶ «ἐμώρανεν ὁ θεὸς τὴν σοφίαν τοῦ κόσμου. ἀρα ἐν σοφίᾳ ἐφώρανει. τὴν σοφίαν τοῦ κόσμου; καὶ δύναται χωρῆσαι τὴν σοφίαν, ἱν ἐλεγχθῇ μωρὰ εἶναι, ἡ τοῦ κόσμου σοφία; ἀγωνίζεται γὰρ ἡ σοφία τοῦ θεοῦ πρὸς τὴν σοφίαν τοῦ κόσμου, ἵνα ἐλεγχθῇ πρὸς αὐτήν; ἀλλ' ὀλίγου τινὸς χρεία ἐστὶν ὅπερ ὀλίγον μωρὸν τοῦ θεοῦ έστιν, ἵνα τούτῳ τῷ βραχεῖ μωρῷ τοῦ θεοῦ μωρανθῇ ἡ σοφία τοῦ κόσμου καὶ ἐλεγχθη οὐ γὰρ ἔφερεν ἡ σοφία τοῦ κόσμου τούτου τὴν σοφίαν τοῦ θεοῦ. οἷον ἐπὶ παραδείγματος, ἵνα νοήσῃς ὅτι «τὸ μωρὸν τοῦ θεοῦ« «ἐμώρανεν τὴν σοφίαν τοῦ κόσμου«, δεδόσθω με ἀγωνίξεσθαι, δοκοῦντά με εἰδέναι πολλὰ καὶ πλείονα, πρός τινα ἀνόητον καὶ ἀπαίδευτον καὶ μηδὲν συνιέντα καὶ μὴ ἀγωνιξόμενον ὑπὲρ λόγων γενναίων ὁποιωνδήποτε. ἆρα χρείαν ἔχω διαλεκτικῆς | πρὸς ἐκεῖνον ἢ θεωρημάτων βαθυτέρων, ἐὰν ᾖ μωρὰ αὐτοῦ τά νοή- ματα; οὐχ ἑνός μοι λεξιδίου χρεία ἐστὶν ὀλίγῳ δριμυτέρου παρὰ τὴν ἐκείνου λέξιν,, ἵνα ἐλέγξαι δυνηθῶ τὴν ἐκείνου μωρίαν; οὕτως ἕνα μωρανθῇ ἡ σοφία τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, οὐ χρεία τῆς σοφίας τοῦ θεοῦ ἀγωνιζομένης πρὸς αὐτήν αὐτὴ γὰρ κάτω ἐστίν), ἀλλὰ ἀρκεῖ τὸ μωρὸν τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅτι τὸ μωρὸν τοῦ θεοῦ σοφώτερον τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐστίν, καὶ τὸ ἀσθενὲς τοῦ θεοῦ ἰσχυρότερον τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐστίν((. καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐναντία ὁ σωτήρ μου καὶ κύριος ἀνείληφεν, ἵνα τοῖς ἐναντίοις λύσῃ τὰ ἐναντία, καὶ ὴμεῖς ἰσχυροποιηθῶμεν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀσθενείας Ἰησοῦ καὶ σοφισθῶμεν ἀπὸ τοῦ μωροῦ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ εἰσαχθέντες ἐν τούτοις δυνηθῶμεν ἀναβῆναι ἐπὶ τὴν σοφίαν, ἐπὶ τὴν ἰσχὺν τοῦ θεοῦ, Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν, ᾦ ἐστιν ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Άμήν.

About this text

Origen on Jeremiah. Twenty Greek homilies survive. This page has 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.