Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 16.1

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

Summary: Christians should not be divided by praying some to the Father and some to the Son, but should pray to God through Christ, serving him out of love rather than fear.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:336

Ταῦτʼ οὖν λέγοντος ἀκούοντες Ἰησοῦ τῷ θεῷ διʼ αὐτοῦ εὐχώμεθα, τὸ αὐτὸ λέγοντες πάντες μηδὲ περὶ τοῦ τρόπου τῆς εὐχῆς σχιζόμενοι. ἢ οὐχὶ σχιζόμεθα, ἐὰν οἱ μὲν τῷ πατρὶ οἱ δὲ τῷ υἱῷ εὐχώμεθα, ἰδιωτικὴν ἁμαρτίαν κατὰ πολλὴν ἀκεραιότητα διὰ τὸ ἀβασάνιστον καὶ ἀνεξέταστον ἁμαρτανόντων τῶν προσευχομένων τῷ υἱῷ, εἴτε μετὰ τοῦ πατρὸς εἴτε χωρὶς τοῦ πατρός; προσευχώμεθα τοίνυν ὡς θεῷ ἐντυγχάνωμεν δὲ ὡς πατρὶ δεώμεθα δὲ ὡς κυρίου εὐχαριστῶμεν δὲ ὡς θεῷ καὶ πατρὶ καὶ κυρίῳ, οὐ πάντως δούλου ὄντι κυρίῳ· ὁ γὰρ „πατὴρ“ εὐλόγως ἂν νομισθείη τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ κύριος καὶ τῶν διʼ αὐτὸν γενομένων υἱῶν κύριος· ὥσπερ δὲ „οὐκ ἔστι θεὸς νεκρῶν ἀλλὰ ζώντων, “ οὕτως οὐκ ἔστι κύριος ἀγενῶν δούλων ἀλλὰ τῶν κατὰ μὲν τὰς ἀρχὰς φόβῳ διὰ τὴν νηπιότητα ἐξευγενιζομένων μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα κατὰ τὴν ἀγάπην μακαριωτέραν τῆς ἐν φόβῳ δουλείαν δουλευόντων· εἰσὶ γὰρ καὶ ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ μόνῳ τῷ καρδίας βλέποντι χαρακτῆρες φανεροὶ δούλων θεοῦ καὶ υἱῶν αὐτοῦ.

English · Claude translation

Hearing Jesus say this, then, let us pray to God through him, all saying the same thing and not being divided about the manner of prayer. Or are we not divided, if some of us pray to the Father and some to the Son? Those who pray to the Son, whether with the Father or without the Father, commit a sin of simple people through great simplicity, because they have not tested or examined the matter. Let us pray, then, as to God; let us intercede as to a Father; let us make supplication as to a Lord; let us give thanks as to God and Father and Lord—though not by any means the Lord of a slave. For the Father might reasonably be thought both Lord of the Son and Lord of those who have become sons through him; but just as “he is not the God of the dead but of the living,” so he is not the Lord of ignoble slaves, but of those who at first, because of their infancy, are ennobled by fear, but afterwards serve with a service according to love, more blessed than that in fear. For there are clear marks in the soul, visible only to him who sees hearts, of the servants of God and of his sons.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:336 · 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 allusions are 1 Cor 1:10, Matt 22:32, 1 John 4:18 and Rom 8:15 (fear and love), and 1 Sam 16:7. Origen's judgment that praying to the Son is a “sin of simple people” reflects his distinctive view on prayer, which the later church did not adopt; the church has prayed to Christ from early times (e.g. Acts 7:59).

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (missing accent and breathing in the digital text): Ταῦτʼ ουν → Ταῦτʼ οὖν.

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 16.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/16/1/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 16.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/16/1/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage