On Prayer 29.16
Summary: God's hardening of Pharaoh and his snares are just and remedial; we should pray to do nothing that would deserve being led by God's judgment into temptation.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:391
ἐπίστησον δὲ εἰ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ σκληρύνει τὴν τοῦ Φαραὼ καρδίαν ὁ θεὸς, ἵνʼ ὅπερ εἶπε μὴ σκληρυνθεὶς δυνηθῇ εἰπεῖν· „ὁ κύριος δίκαιος. ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ ὁ λαός μου ἀσεβής.“ ἀλλʼ ἐπὶ πλεῖον δέεται τοῦ σκληρύνεσθαι καὶ ἐπὶ πλεῖον πάσχειν τινὰ, ἵνα μὴ ἐκ τοῦ τάχιον τοῦ σκληρύνεσθαι παύεσθαι καταφρονῶν ὡς κακοῦ τοῦ σκληρύνεσθαι ἔτι πλεονάκις ἄξιος τοῦ σκληρύνεσθαι γίνηται. εἰ τοίνυν „οὐκ ἀδίκως ἐκτείνεται δίκτυα πτερωτοῖς“ κατὰ τὰ ἐν ταῖς Παροιμίαις εἰρημένα, ἀλλὰ εὐλόγως εἰσάγει ὁ θεὸς „εἰς τὴν παγίδα“ κατὰ τὸν εἰπόντα· „εἰσήγαγες ἡμᾶς εἰς τὴν παγίδα, “ καὶ „ἄνευ“ τῆς βουλῆς „τοῦ πατρὸς“ οὐδὲ τὸ εὐτελέστερον τῶν ἐπτερωμένων στρουθίον ἐμπίπτει „εἰς τὴν παγίδα“ (τοῦ ἐμπίπτοντος „εἰς τὴν παγίδα“ διὰ τοῦτο ἐμπίπτοντος. ἐπεὶ μὴ καλῶς τῇ τῶν πτερῶν ἐχρήσατο δεδομένων ἐπὶ τὸ ὑψοῦσθαι ἐξουσίᾳ). εὐχώμεθα μηδὲν ἄξιον ποιῆσαι τοῦ ὑπὸ τῆς δικαίας κρίσεως τοῦ θεοῦ εἰσενεχθῆναι „εἰς“ τὸν „πειρασμὸν, “ εἰσφερομένου παντός τε τοῦ παραδιδομένου ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ „ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις“ τῆς καρδίας ἑαυτοῦ „εἰς ἀκαθαρσίαν“ καὶ παντὸς τοῦ παραδιδομένου „εἰς πάθη ἀτιμίας“ καὶ παντὸς τοῦ, „καθὼς οὐκ ἐδοκίμασε τὸν θεὸν ἔχειν ἐν“ ἑαυτῷ, παραδιδομένου „εἰς ἀδόκιμον νοῦν, ποιεῖν τὰ μὴ καθήκοντα.“
English · Claude translation
Consider whether it is for this reason that God hardens Pharaoh's heart too, so that he may be able to say what he did not say when not hardened: “The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are ungodly.” But he needs to be hardened further and to suffer something further, so that he may not, because he quickly ceased to be hardened, despise hardening as an evil and become worthy of being hardened still more often. If, then, “nets are not spread unjustly for birds,” according to what is said in Proverbs, but God reasonably brings “into the snare,” according to the one who said, “You brought us into the snare,” and without the counsel “of the Father” not even a sparrow, the least of winged creatures, falls “into the snare” (the one that falls “into the snare” falls for this reason, that it did not use well the power of its wings, given for rising on high), let us pray to do nothing worthy of being brought “into” the “temptation” by the just judgment of God—into which is brought everyone given up by God “in the desires” of his heart “to impurity,” and everyone given up “to dishonorable passions,” and everyone who, “since he did not see fit to have God in” himself, is given up “to an unfit mind, to do what is not proper.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations and allusions are Exod 9:27 (with Exod 9:12 and 10:1 on the hardening), Prov 1:17, Ps 66:11 (65:11 LXX), Matt 10:29, and Rom 1:24, 26, 28. Origen treats the hardening of Pharaoh at greater length in On First Principles 3.1.8–11.
Cite this passage
Origen, Or. 29.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/29/16/).
Plain text
Origen, Or. 29.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/29/16/).
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