“One iota or one tittle” by the Fathers of the Church

“One dot”378 is not only the letter iota among the Greeks, but also, among the Hebrews, the letter they call iodh.379 It is possible that Jesus said, “one iota or one tittle,”380 symbolically, since the beginning of his name, not only among the Greeks but also among the Hebrews, begins with the letter iodh. And “one iota or one tittle” is Jesus, the Word of God in the Law. He does not abolish the Law “until all things come to pass,”381 and he does not fall.382 For, he falls for the sake of salvation, to bear “much fruit.”383 But, when he falls, it is an easier thing “for heaven and earth to pass away”384 than for “one tittle to fall” of what concerns him in the Law. But, “he fell into the earth”385 and died, to bear more fruit. He was not conquered; he “humbled himself and became obedient unto death, death on a cross.”386

378 Mt 5:18 has “one iota or one tittle”; Luke has only “one tittle.”

379 Origen has ioth.

380 Mt 5:18.

381 Lk 21:32.

382 Luke has literally “one tittle will not fall” from the law. Origen associates this “fall” with the seed falling into the ground and dying in Jn 12:24.

383 Jn 12:24.

384 Lk 16:17.

385 Jn 12:24.

386 Phil 2:8.

Origen, Homilies on Luke and Fragments on Luke, ed. Thomas P. Halton, trans. Joseph T. Lienhard, vol. 94, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), 216.