Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 24.3

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

Summary: Scripture's “name of God” means his distinctive quality: it is taken in vain when misapplied, and it is called upon by teachers whose words refresh hearers like rain and dew.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:354–355

ἐν τούτοις γὰρ καὶ τοῖς παραπλησίοις. ἵνʼ οὕτως εἴπω, χαρακτηρίζεται ἰδία ποιότης τοῦ θεοῦ, ἥντινα νομίζω „ὄνομα θεοῦ“ λέγεσθαι κατὰ τὰς γραφὰς, ἐν μὲν τῇ Ἐξόδῳ· „οὐ λήψῃ τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου ἐπὶ ματαίῳ“ ἐν δὲ τῷ Δευτερονομίῳ· „προσδοκάσθω ὡσεὶ ὑετὸς τὸ ἀπόφθεγμά μου, καταβήτω ὡσεὶ δρόσος τὰ ῥήματά μου, ὡσεὶ ὄμβρος ἐπʼ ἄγρωστιν καὶ ὡσεὶ νιφετὸς ἐπὶ χόρτον· ὅτι ὄνομα κυρίου ἐκάλεσα, “ ἐν δὲ ψαλμοῖς· „μνησθήσονται τοῦ ὀνόματός σου ἐν πάσῃ γενεᾷ καὶ γενεᾷ.“ ὅ τε γὰρ οἷς μὴ δεῖ ἐφαρμόζων τὴν ἔννοιαν τοῦ θεοῦ λαμβάνει „τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ“ „ἐπὶ ματαίῳ, “ ὅ τε δυνάμενος ἀποφθέγξασθαι ὑετὸν, τοῖς ἀκούουσι συνεργοῦντα τῇ καρποφορίᾳ τῶν ψυχῶν αὐτῶν, καὶ ῥήματα δρόσῳ ἐοικότα παρακλητικὰ προσαγόμενος τῇ τε ῥύμῃ τῆς οἰκοδομῆς τῶν λόγων ὄμβρον ὠφελιμώτατον ἐπάγων τοῖς ἀκροαταῖς ἢ νιφετὸν ἀνυσιμώτατον, διὰ τοῦτο ταῦτα δύναται. ταῦτα ἐπινοήσας ἑαυτὸν δεόμενον θεοῦ τοῦ τελειοῦντος καλεῖ παρʼ ἑαυτὸν τὸν τῶν προειρημένων κυρίως χορηγόν· πᾶς τε τρανῶν καὶ τὰ περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ ὑπομιμνήσκεται μᾶλλον ἢ μανθάνει, κἂν ἀπό τινος ἀκούειν δοκῇ ἢ εὑρίσκειν νομίζῃ τὰ τῆς θεοσεβείας μυστήρια.

English · Claude translation

For in these and similar things, so to speak, the individual quality of God is characterized, which I think is called “the name of God” in the Scriptures: in Exodus, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”; in Deuteronomy, “Let my utterance be awaited like rain, let my words come down like dew, like a rainstorm on the grass and like snow on the herbage; for I have called on the name of the Lord”; and in the Psalms, “They will remember your name in every generation and generation.” For the one who applies the conception of God to things to which it must not be applied takes “the name of the Lord God” “in vain”; while the one who can utter rain that helps the hearers to bear fruit in their souls, and offers encouraging words like dew, and by the force of edifying speech brings a most useful rainstorm or a most effective snow upon his hearers, can do these things for this reason: understanding that he himself needs God who perfects, he calls to himself the one who properly supplies these gifts. And everyone who sets out clearly the things of God recalls them rather than learns them, even if he seems to hear them from someone or thinks he finds the mysteries of piety.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:354–355 · 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
Extrabiblical texts
  • Plato, Meno 81c–d (Plato (works)) · echo, low confidence
Topics
Prayer

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Exod 20:7, Deut 32:2–3 (LXX), and Ps 45:17 (44:18 LXX). That knowledge of God is “recalled rather than learned” echoes Plato's doctrine of recollection (Meno 81c–d; Phaedo 72e).

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 24.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/24/3/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 24.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/24/3/).

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