On Prayer 12.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Koetschau 2:324

Πρὸς δὲ τούτοις δυνάμεως πεπληρωμένους νομίζω τοὺς λόγους τῆς τῶν ἁγίων εὐχῆς, μάλιστα ὅτε προσευχόμενοι „πνεύματι“ προσεύχονται „καὶ τῷ νοΐ, “ φωτὶ ἐοικότι ἀνατέλλοντι ἀπὸ τῆς τοῦ εὐχομένου διανοίας καὶ προϊόντι ἐκ στόματος αὐτοῦ ὑπεκλύειν δυνάμει θεοῦ τὸν ἐνιέμενον νοητὸν ἰὸν ἀπὸ τῶν ἀντικειμένων δυνάμεων τῷ ἡγεμονικῷ τῶν ἀμελούντων τοῦ εὔχεσθαι καὶ τὸ „ἀδιαλείπτως προσεύχεσθε“ ἀκολούθως ταῖς τοῦ Ἰησοῦ προτροπαῖς εἰρημένον παρὰ τῷ Παύλῳ μὴ φυλαττόντων. ὡσπερεὶ γὰρ βέλος ἀπὸ τῆς τοῦ εὐχομένου ψυχῆς τῇ γνώσει καὶ τῷ λόγῳ ἢ τῇ πίστει πρόεισιν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἁγίου, τιτρῶσκον ἐπὶ καθαιρέσει καὶ καταλύσει τὰ ἐχθρὰ τῷ θεῷ πνεύματα, τοῖς τῆς ἁμαρτίας δεσμοῖς περιβαλεῖν ἡμᾶς θέλοντα.

English · Claude translation

Besides these things, I think that the words of the prayer of the saints are full of power, especially when in praying they pray “with the spirit” “and with the mind also”; like a light rising from the understanding of the one who prays and going forth from his mouth, by the power of God they weaken the spiritual poison injected by the opposing powers into the ruling faculty of those who neglect to pray and do not keep the command “Pray without ceasing,” spoken by Paul in accordance with the exhortations of Jesus. For like an arrow, it goes forth from the soul of the saint who prays, by knowledge and reason or by faith, wounding, to their destruction and overthrow, the spirits hostile to God that wish to throw around us the bonds of sin.

About this passage

Source

Koetschau 2:324 · Paul Koetschau, ed., Origenes Werke 2: Buch V–VIII gegen Celsus, Die Schrift vom Gebet, GCS 3 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1899), 297–403 · Greek text: P. Koetschau, Origenes Werke 2 (GCS 3, 1899), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Koetschau, GCS 3. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Koetschau, GCS 3; made independently of existing English translations. No public-domain English translation exists; reviewed against the Greek.

Scripture

1 Cor 14:15 · quotation, high confidence
1 Thess 5:17 · quotation, high confidence
Eph 6:16 · echo, low confidence

Topics

Prayer

Notes

Translation notes

The quotations are 1 Cor 14:15 and 1 Thess 5:17; the image of arrows echoes Eph 6:16.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (missing accent and breathing in the digital text): τῷ λόγῳ η τῇ πίστει → τῷ λόγῳ ἢ τῇ πίστει.

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 12.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/12/1/).

Plain text

Origen, Or. 12.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/12/1/).