Ἅγιος ὁ Θεός, Ἅγιος ἰσχυρός, Ἅγιος ἀθάνατος, ἐλέησον ἡμᾶςKatholikon

Library › Origen › On Prayer

On Prayer

Origen, tr. Oulton, 1954

Inasmuch as the greatest themes surpass man’s understanding, and transcend exceedingly …

Introduction
Chapters I and II

Inasmuch as the greatest themes surpass man’s understanding, and transcend exceedingly our perishable nature, it is impossible for the reason of the race of mortals to grasp them; nevertheless this becomes possible by the will of God, in the abundant and immeasurable grace of God that is poured forth by him upon men, through Jesus Christ, who ministers unto us his unsurpassable grace, and through his fellow-worker the Spirit. Certainly, it is impossible for human nature to acquire that wisdom by which “all things” have been “established”2 (for, according to David, God “made all things in wisdom”3). What is impossible, however, becomes possible through our Lord Jesus Christ, who “was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”4 “For what man shall know the counsel of God? Or who shall conceive what the Lord willeth?” Because “the thoughts of mortals are timorous, and our devices are prone to fail. For a corruptible body weigheth down the soul,5 and the earthy frame lieth heavy on a mind that is full of cares. And hardly do we divine the things that are on earth. But the things that are in the heavens, who ever yet traced out?”67 Nevertheless, this impossibility becomes possible by “the exceeding grace of God.”8 For he who “was caught up” into “the third heaven”9 “traced out”10 perchance the things in the three heavens, because he had “heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”11 But who can say that it is possible for “the mind of the Lord” to be “known”12 by man? Nevertheless, even this God bestows through Christ,13 [who says,14 “Ye are my friends, if you do the things which I command you. No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known unto you.”15 They who hear the gospel rejoice] when it teaches them the will of their Lord, no longer willing to be Lord, but changing to be a friend for those to whom he was formerly Lord. Nevertheless, “since none among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him, even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God.”16 But if “none knoweth the things of God, save the Spirit of God,” it is impossible for man to “know the things of God.” Consider also, however, how it becomes possible. “But we,” he says, “received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth.”17

Notes

  1. Title On Prayer] A Title is wanting in Codex T. There can, however, be little or no doubt that “On Prayer” is correct. In the course of the work Origen himself speaks of its subject as περὶ εὐχῆς (II, 1); and in his Apologia pro Origene (as translated by Rufinus) Pamphilus writes (ch. VIII): “Denique in tam multis et tam diversis eius libris nusquam omnino invenitur ab eo liber proprie De anima conscriptus, sicut habet vel De Martyrio, vel De Oratione, vel De resurrectione” (P.G., XVII, 603). Cf. also the title of the fragments in Codex Col. (see Introduction, p. 234) containing the last part of the treatise: τοῦ ὠρϊγένους τὸ τῆς εὐχῆς ἀκροτελεύτϊον.
  2. Cf. Heb. 3:4.
  3. Ps. 104:24.
  4. I Cor. 1:30.
  5. I, 1. “a corruptible body weigheth down the soul,” etc.] Thus, at the outset of his treatise Origen states in the words of the Wisdom of Solomon his philosophical position, akin to that of Plato (Phaedo, XXX, 81C), concerning the relation of the soul to the body. This was fundamental in all Origen’s thinking.
  6. Wisdom of Solomon 9:13–16.
  7. I, 1. “the things that are in the heavens, who ever yet traced out?”] The impossibility of knowing God, apart from revelation, is yet another fundamental conviction. De Faye, III, 31, 32: “Origène élève son Dieu audessus de toute pensée. Il le relègue dans une insondable abstraction.” See Introduction, p. 189.
  8. II Cor. 9:14.
  9. II Cor. 12:2.
  10. Wisdom of Solomon 9:16.
  11. II Cor. 12:4.
  12. Cf. Rom. 11:34; I Cor. 2:16 (Isa. 40:13).
  13. A lacuna of three and a half lines occurs here in the MS. T, which Koetschau conjecturally fills up as above.
  14. I, 1. God bestows through Christ, who says, etc.] I have included in this case in the text the conjectural filling up of the lacuna by Koetschau, since a quotation from John 15:14, 15 is obvious, being demanded by the words that follow. The sentence “They who hear the gospel . . . of whom he was formerly Lord” follows an emendation by F. Leo (in Hautsch, T.U., XXXIV, 155), accepted by Koetschau in his translation.
  15. John 15:14, 15.
  16. I Cor. 2:11.
  17. I Cor. 2:12, 13.

· Contents ·