Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 23.2

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

Summary: The Son's “going to the Father” is not a movement from place to place but his return from his humble state to his own fullness, an ascent of the mind rather than of the body.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:350

οὐχὶ δέ γε ταῦτα τοπικῆς μεταβάσεως νοουμένης περὶ τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὸν υἱὸν πρὸς τὸν ἀγαπῶντα τὸν λόγον τοῦ Ἰησοῦ γίνεται, οὐδʼ ἄρα τοπικῶς ταῦτα ἐκδεκτέον· ἀλλʼ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ, ἡμῖν συγκαταβαίνων καὶ ὡς πρὸς τὴν ἰδίαν ἀξίαν, ὅτε παρὰ ἀνθρώποις ἐστὶ, ταπεινούμενος, μεταβαίνειν λέγεται „ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου πρὸς τὸν πατέρα, “ ὅπως καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐκεῖθι τέλειον αὐτὸν θεασώμεθα, ἀπὸ τῆς παρʼ ἡμῖν κενότητος, ἣν „ἐκένωσεν ἑαυτὸν, “ ἐπὶ τὸ ἴδιον „πλήρωμα“ παλινδρομοῦντα· ἔνθα καὶ ἡμεῖς, αὐτῷ ὁδηγῷ χρώμενοι, πληρωθέντες πάσης κενότητος ἀπαλλαγησόμεθα. ἀπιέτω τοίνυν „πρὸς τὸν πέμψαντα“ αὐτὸν ἀφεὶς τὸν κόσμον ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγος, καὶ „πρὸς τὸν πατέρα“ πορευέσθω. καὶ τὸ ἐπὶ τέλει δὲ τοῦ κατὰ Ἰωάννην εὐαγγελίου· „μή μου ἅπτου· οὔπω γὰρ ἀναβέβηκα πρὸς τὸν πατέρα μου“ μυστικώτερον νοῆσαι ζητήσωμεν· τῆς ἀναβάσεως „πρὸς τὸν πατέρα“ τοῦ υἱοῦ θεοπρεπέστερον μετὰ ἁγίας τρανότητος ἡμῖν νοουμένης, ἥντινα ἀνάβασιν νοῦς μᾶλλον ἀναβαίνει σώματος.

English · Claude translation

But these things do not happen through a local movement of the Father and the Son to the one who loves Jesus' word; so neither are the former to be taken in a local sense. Rather, the Word of God, condescending to us and humbled, as regards his own dignity, when he is among men, is said to pass “out of this world to the Father,” so that we too may behold him there in his perfection, returning from the emptiness among us, in which “he emptied himself,” to his own “fullness”; where we too, using him as our guide, shall be filled and set free from all emptiness. Let the Word of God, then, leave the world and go away “to him who sent” him, and let him go “to the Father.” And let us seek to understand in a more mystical way also the words at the end of the Gospel according to John, “Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father,” when we understand the Son's ascent “to the Father” in a manner more worthy of God, with holy clarity, as an ascent in which the mind ascends rather than the body.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:350 · 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

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations and allusions are John 13:1, Phil 2:7, John 16:5, John 14:28, and John 20:17.

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 23.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/23/2/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 23.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/23/2/).

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