Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 15.4

Origen · On Prayer · ca. 233–234 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: Origen imagines Christ saying: do not pray to me but to the Father, through me as your High Priest and brother.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:335–336

πῶς δὲ οὐκ ἔστι κατὰ τὸν εἰπόντα· „τί με λέγεις ἀγαθόν; οὐδεὶς ἀγαθὸς εἰ μὴ εἷς ὁ θεὸς, ὁ πατὴρ“ εἰπεῖν ἄν· τί ἐμοὶ προσεύχῃ; μόνῳ τῷ πατρὶ προσεύχεσθαι χρὴ, ᾧ κἀγὼ προσεύχομαι· ὅπερ διὰ τῶν ἁγίων γραφῶν μανθάνετε. ἀρχιερεῖ γὰρ τῷ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν κατασταθέντι ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ παρακλήτῳ ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς εἶναι λαβόντι εὔχεσθαι ὑμᾶς οὐ δεῖ ἀλλὰ διʼ ἀρχιερέως καὶ παρακλήτου, δυναμένου συμπαθεῖν „ταῖς ἀσθενείαις ὑμῶν, “ πεπειρασμένου „κατὰ πάντα“ ὁμοίως ὑμῖν, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸν δωρησάμενόν μοι πατέρα πεπειρασμένου „χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας.“ μάθετε οὖν, ὅσην δωρεὰν ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρός μου εἰλήφατε, διὰ τῆς ἐν ἐμοὶ ἀναγεννήσεως τὸ τῆς „υἱοθεσίας πνεῦμα“ ἀπειληφότες, ἵνα χρηματίσητε „υἱοὶ θεοῦ“ ἀδελφοὶ δὲ ἐμοῦ. ἀνέγνωτε γὰρ τὴν διὰ τοῦ Δαυῒδ ὑπʼ ἐμοῦ εἰρημένην περὶ ὑμῶν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα φωνήν· „ἀπαγγελῶ τὸ ὄνομά σου τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς μου, ἐν μέσῳ ἐκκλησίας ὑμνήσω σε.“ ἀδελφῷ δὲ προσεύχεσθαι τοὺς κατηξιωμένους ἑνὸς αὐτῶν πατρὸς οὐκ ἔστιν εὔλογον· μόνῳ γὰρ τῷ πατρὶ μετʼ ἐμοῦ καὶ διʼ ἐμοῦ ἀναπεμπτέον ἐστὶν ὑμῖν προσευχήν.

English · Claude translation

And how would he not say, like the one who said, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, God the Father”: “Why do you pray to me? You must pray to the Father alone, to whom I too pray; which you learn through the holy Scriptures. For you must not pray to the High Priest appointed for you by the Father, who has received from the Father the office of advocate, but through the High Priest and Advocate, who is able to sympathize ‘with your weaknesses,’ having been tempted ‘in every respect’ as you are, but, because of the Father who has granted it to me, tempted ‘without sin.’ Learn, then, how great a gift you have received from my Father, having received through your rebirth in me ‘the spirit of adoption,’ so that you may be called ‘sons of God’ and my brothers. For you have read the words spoken by me through David to the Father about you: ‘I will declare your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will sing your praise.’ And it is not reasonable for those counted worthy of one Father to pray to a brother; for you must send up prayer to the Father alone, with me and through me.”

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:335–336 · 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
Topics
Prayer, Christology, Trinity

Notes

Translation notes

  • The words in quotation marks are Origen's imagined speech of Christ. The quotations are Mark 10:18 (Luke 18:19; “the Father” added), Heb 4:15, Rom 8:15 and 8:14, and Ps 22:22 (21:23 LXX; Heb 2:12). Origen's teaching that prayer should be addressed to the Father alone, through the Son, is his own position (see the note on 15.1).

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 15.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/15/4/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 15.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/15/4/).

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