On the Lord's Prayer 10
Summary: 'Our Father' is the prayer of believers made God's children, which Cyprian contrasts with those Jews who rejected Christ.
Latin text · CSEL 3.1:273–274
Nec hoc solum, fratres dilectissimi, animaduertere et intellegere debemus, quod appellemus patrem qui sit in caelis, sed coniungimus et dicimus pater noster, idest eorum qui credunt, eorum qui per eum sanctificati et gratiae spiritalis natiuitate reparati filii Dei esse coeperunt. quae uox Iudaeos etiam perstringit et percutit, quia Christum sibi per prophetas adnuntiatum et ad se prius missum non tantum spreuerunt infideliter sed et crudeliter necauerunt: qui iam non possunt patrem Dominum uocare, cum Dominus eos confundat et redarguat dicens: uos de diabolo patre nati estis et concupiscentias patris uestri facere uultis. ille enim homicida fuit ab initio et in ueritate non stetit, quia ueritas non est in illo. et per Esaiam prophetam Deus clamat indignans: filios generaui et exaltaui, ipsi autem me spreuerunt. agnouit bos possessorem suum et asinus praesepium domini sui: Israel autem me non cognouit et populus me non intellexit. uae genti peccatrici, populo pleno peccatis, semen nequam, filii scelesti. dereliquistis Dominum et in indignationem misistis illum sanctum Israel. in quorum exprobrationem christiani quando oramus pater noster dicimus, quia noster esse iam coepit et Iudaeorum qui eum dereliquerunt esse desiuit. nec peccator populus potest esse filius, sed quibus remissa peccatorum datur, eis filiorum nomen adscribitur, eis et aeternitas repromittitur Domino ipso dicente: omnis qui facit peccatum seruus est. seruus autem non manet in domo in aeternum, filius manet in aeternum.
English · Claude translation
Nor ought we to notice and understand only this, dearest brothers, that we call him Father who is in heaven; but we add and say "our Father," that is, of those who believe, of those who, sanctified through him and restored by the birth of spiritual grace, have begun to be sons of God. This word also rebukes and strikes the Jews, because they not only faithlessly spurned the Christ who had been announced to them through the prophets and sent to them first, but also cruelly killed him. They can no longer call the Lord Father, since the Lord confounds and refutes them, saying: "You are born of the devil as father, and you want to do the desires of your father. For he was a murderer from the beginning and did not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him." And through the prophet Isaiah God cries out in indignation: "I have begotten and raised up sons, but they have despised me. The ox has known its owner, and the ass its master's manger; but Israel has not known me, and my people has not understood me. Woe to the sinful nation, a people full of sins, a wicked seed, lawless sons. You have forsaken the Lord and provoked the Holy One of Israel to indignation." In reproach of them we Christians, when we pray, say "our Father," because he has now begun to be ours and has ceased to be the Father of the Jews who forsook him. Nor can a sinful people be a son; but to those to whom remission of sins is given the name of sons is assigned, and to them eternity too is promised, as the Lord himself says: "Everyone who commits sin is a slave. And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever."
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are John 8:44, Isa 1:2–4, and John 8:34–35. The polemic against the Jews is Cyprian's own view, translated as written.
Cite this passage
Cyprian, Dom. or. 10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-dominica-oratione/10/).
Plain text
Cyprian, Dom. or. 10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-dominica-oratione/10/).
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