On Prayer 2.6

Summary: Origen prays for the Spirit's help before beginning his treatise on prayer.

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Greek text · Koetschau 2:303–304

ἐπεὶ τοίνυν τηλικοῦτόν ἐστι τὸ περὶ τῆς εὐχῆς διαλαβεῖν, ὡς δεῖσθαι τοῦ καὶ εἰς τοῦτο φωτίζοντος πατρὸς καὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ πρωτοτόκου λόγου διδάσκοντος τοῦ τε πνεύματος ἐνεργοῦντος εἰς τὸ νοεῖν καὶ λέγειν ἀξίως τοῦ τηλικούτου προβλήματος, εὐξάμενος ὡς ἄνθρωπος (οὐ γάρ που ἐμαυτῷ δίδωμι χωρεῖν τὴν προσευχὴν) τοῦ πνεύματος πρὸ τοῦ λόγου τυχεῖν τῆς εὐχῆς ἀξιῶ, ἵνα λόγος πληρέστατος καὶ πνευματικὸς ἡμῖν δωρηθῇ, καὶ αἱ ἐν τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις ἀναγεγραμμέναι σαφηνισθῶσιν εὐχαί. ἀρκτέον οὖν ἤδη τοῦ περὶ τῆς εὐχῆς λόγου.

English · Claude translation

Since, then, to treat of prayer is so great a task that it needs the Father to enlighten us for this too, and his firstborn Word himself to teach, and the Spirit to work in us so that we may understand and speak worthily of so great a question, I pray as a man (for I do not credit myself with the capacity for prayer), and ask to obtain the Spirit before the discourse on prayer, so that a most complete and spiritual word may be given us, and the prayers recorded in the Gospels may be made clear. So let us now begin our treatise on prayer.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:303–304 · 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.
Topics
Prayer

Notes

Notes on the original text

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

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 2.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/2/6/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 2.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/2/6/).

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