On Prayer 2.5 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Koetschau 2:303

αἱ τοιαῦται δὲ εὐχαὶ αἱ ὄντως πνευματικαὶ, προσευχομένου ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ τῶν ἁγίων τοῦ πνεύματος, ἀνεγράφησαν, πεπληρωμέναι ἀποῤῥήτων καὶ θαυμασίων δογμάτων· ἐν μὲν γὰρ τῇ πρώτῃ τῶν Βασιλειῶν ἐκ μέρους ἡ τῆς Ἄννης (ὅλη γὰρ. „ὅτε ἐπλήθυνε προσευχομένη ἐνώπιον κυρίου, “ λαλοῦσα „ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτῆς, “ οὐκ † ἐχάρη γραφῇ), ἐν δὲ ψαλμοῖς ὁ ἑκκαιδέκατος ψαλμὸς „προσευχὴ τοῦ Δαυΐδ“ ἐπιγέγραπται, καὶ ὁ ἔνατος καὶ ὀγδοηκοστὸς „προσευχὴ τῷ Μωϋσεῖ, ἀνθρώπῳ τοῦ θεοῦ, “ καὶ ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ἑκατοστὸς „προσευχὴ τῷ πτωχῷ, ὅταν ἀκηδιάσῃ καὶ ἐναντίον κυρίου ἐκχέῃ τὴν δέησιν αὐτοῦ“· αἵτινες προσευχαὶ, ἐπεὶ ἀληθῶς ἦσαν προσευχαὶ γινόμεναι πνεύματι λεγόμεναί τε, καὶ τῶν δογμάτων τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ σοφίας πεπλήρωνται, ὥστε εἰπεῖν ἄν τινα περὶ τῶν ἐν αὐταῖς ἐπαγγελλομένων· „τίς σοφὸς, καὶ συνήσει ταύτας; καὶ συνετὸς, καὶ ἐπιγνώσεται αὐτάς;“

English · Claude translation

Such prayers, truly spiritual, when the Spirit was praying in the heart of the saints, were written down, full of secret and wonderful doctrines. In the first book of Kingdoms there is, in part, the prayer of Hannah (for the whole of it, “when she continued praying before the Lord,” speaking “in her heart,” was not … in writing); in the Psalms the sixteenth psalm is entitled “A prayer of David,” and the eighty-ninth, “A prayer of Moses, the man of God,” and the hundred and first, “A prayer of the poor man, when he is weary and pours out his supplication before the Lord.” These prayers, since they were truly prayers, made and spoken in the Spirit, are also filled with the doctrines of the wisdom of God, so that one might say of what they proclaim: “Who is wise, and will understand these things? And discerning, and will know them?”

About this passage

Source

Koetschau 2:303 · 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; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.

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 Sam 1:12 · quotation, high confidence
1 Sam 1:13 · quotation, high confidence
Ps 17:1 (16:1 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
Ps 90:1 (89:1 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
Ps 102:1 (101:1 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
Hos 14:9 · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Prayer, Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

The references are 1 Sam 1:12–13 (1 Kgdms LXX) and the titles of Ps 17, 90, and 102 (16, 89, and 101 LXX; Origen gives the Greek numbering); the closing quotation is Hos 14:9 (14:10 LXX). The text is corrupt at “was not … in writing” (marked †; ἐχάρη, perhaps for ἐχαράχθη, “was engraved”).

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 2.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/2/5/).

Plain text

Origen, Or. 2.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/2/5/).