On Prayer

Origen, tr. Oulton, 1954

If there is a difference between the Church and the synagogue (the Church properly so …

If there is a difference between the Church and the synagogue¹ (the Church properly so called “not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,” but “being holy and without blemish”²: into which neither he that is “born of fornication entereth,” nor the “eunuch,” nor an “emasculated”³ person, nor yet “an Egyptian” or “an Idumaean,” save that “sons born to them” of “the third generation” may scarcely join “the assembly,”⁴ nor yet the “Moabite” or “Ammonite,” unless the tenth “generation” is fulfilled and “the age” is accomplished⁵; the synagogue, on the other hand, being “built” by “a centurion,” who did this in the times before the sojourn with us of Jesus, when as yet witness had not been borne to him that he had such “faith” as the Son of God “found not in Israel”⁶), he who “loves to pray in the synagogues” is not far from “the corners of the streets.”⁷ But the saint is not such a one: for he does not “love [φιλεῖ] to pray,” but rather has a deep concern⁸ [ἀγαπᾷ] to do so, and not “in synagogues,” but in churches, and not “in corners of streets,” but in the straightness of “the narrow and straitened way”⁹; nor yet again that he “may be seen of men,”¹⁰ but that he “may appear before the Lord God.”¹¹¹² For he is a male person,¹³ perceiving “the acceptable year of the Lord,”¹⁴ and keeping the commandment which says: “Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God.”¹¹

We must pay careful attention to “they may be seen,”¹⁰ since “nothing that is seen is good,”¹⁵¹⁶ being in appearance, as it were, and not truly, deceiving the imagination and not forming a distinct or true image. The actors of a drama in the theatre¹⁷ are not what they say they are or what they appear to be in accordance with the character they assume. Similarly, those who simulate in appearance an impression of the good are not righteous but are actors of righteousness, and are themselves acting in their own theatre, “the synagogues and the corners of the streets.”⁷ But he who is not an actor, and on the contrary puts aside everything that is not his own, and prepares to delight himself in a place that is greater and far surpasses any of the theatres mentioned above, “enters into” his own “inner chamber, shutting”¹⁸ himself in upon the riches laid up in store,¹⁹ “the treasure of wisdom and knowledge.”²⁰ And never bending outside nor gaping at the things outside, he “shuts” every “door” of the faculties of sense,²¹ so that he may not be enticed by the impressions of sense and their image may not penetrate into his mind. Thus he prays to the Father, who does not flee from or abandon such a secret place,²² but rather “dwells”²³ in it, his only begotten²⁴ being also present with him. For, says he, “I and the Father²⁵ will come unto him and make our abode with him.”²⁶ It is evident that if indeed we pray thus, we shall make intercession not only with the righteous God but also with the Father, as One who is not absent from his sons but is present in our secret place, and watches over it, and increases what is in “the inner chamber,” if we “shut the door”²⁷ of it.

Notes

XX, 1. a difference between the Church and the synagogue] …, according to the Scriptures, from the “church” (the ecclesia of the LXX of Deut. 23:2) the type of person there mentioned and strangers were excluded, because it was holy and without blemish; but the “synagogue” could be built by a Gentile (Luke 7:5). This indicates the inferiority of the synagogue, and so to “the synagogue” is given that moral connotation which in the previous section is given to “the corners of the streets.” Historically considered, the basis of this distinction is that Christians took over as the name of their society the word ecclesia from the Jews, leaving almost entirely to their use the word “synagogue.”
Eph. 5:27.
Deut. 23:1, 2.
Deut. 23:7, 8.
Deut. 23:3.
Luke 7:2, 5, 9.
Matt. 6:5.
XX, 1. love . . . has a deep concern] There is clearly a distinction here between the meaning of φιλεῖ and ἀγαπᾷ, whether or not such a distinction holds generally. φιλεῖ has in this passage a definite suggestion of natural desire and of self-pleasing —a meaning that is helped out by the wider context, in which (XIX, 3) we read of “love of pleasure” (φιληδονία) and “lovers of pleasure” (φιλήδονοι). ἀγαπᾷ, on the other hand, describes the desire of a person whose thoughts are centred, not on self or his fellow-men, but on God, and who seeks to tread the narrow way of self-discipline.
Matt. 7:14.
Matt. 6:5.
Deut. 16:16.
XX, 1. that he “may appear before the Lord God”] i.e., as a true Israelite who belongs to the ecclesia, which is now the Christian Church.
XX, 1. he is a male person] The Christian corresponds to the male under the Old Covenant, who was required to appear before the Lord, since in prayer he appears not unto men to pray but unto God.
Isa. 61:2 (Luke 4:19).
Ignatius, Romans, 3.
XX, 2. nothing that is seen is good] A textual quotation from Ignatius, Romans, 3. Koetschau refers to several passages in Origen (contra Celsum, IV, 93; VII, 13; VIII, 13, 36; Exhort., 12) in which he detects echoes of Ignatius; but strangely enough he fails to note this direct quotation.
XX, 2. The actors of a drama in a theatre] The illustration is doubtless suggested by the fact that the word ὑποκριτὴς which occurs in Matt. 6:5 in the sense of “hypocrite” also means “actor.” Cf. XXVIII, 3.
Matt. 6:6.
Cf. I Tim. 6:18, 19.
Col. 2:3.
XX, 2. he “shuts” every “door” of the faculties of sense] Cf. IX, 2.
Cf. Matt. 6:6.
Eph. 3:17.
John 1:14, etc.
John 10:30.
John 14:23.
Matt. 6:6.