On Prayer 19.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Koetschau 2:341

Ἐπεὶ δὲ, ὡς ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέροις εἰρήκαμεν, πρῶτον δεῖ καταστῆναί πως καὶ διατεθῆναι τὸν προσευχόμενον εἶθʼ οὕτως εὔξασθαι, ἴδωμεν πρὸ τῆς ἐγκειμένης προσευχῆς παρὰ τῷ Ματθαίῳ τοὺς περὶ αὐτῆς ὑπὸ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἀπηγγελμένους (λόγους), οἵτινες οὕτως ἔχουσιν· „ὅταν προσεύχησθε, οὐκ ἔσεσθε ὥσπερ οἱ ὑποκριταί· ὅτι φιλοῦσιν ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς καὶ ἐν ταῖς γωνίαις τῶν πλατειῶν ἑστῶτες προσεύχεσθαι. ὅπως φανῶσι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις. ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἀπέχουσι τὸν μισθὸν αὐτῶν. σὺ δὲ ὅταν προσεύχῃ, εἴσελθε εἰς τὸ ταμεῖόν σου καὶ κλείσας τὴν θύραν σου πρόσευξαι τῷ πατρί σου τῷ ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ, καὶ ὁ πατήρ σου ὁ βλέπων σε ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ ἀποδώσει σοι. προσευχόμενοι δὲ μὴ βαττολογήσητε ὥσπερ οἱ ἐθνικοί· δοκοῦσι γὰρ ὅτι ἐν τῇ πολυλογίᾳ αὐτῶν εἰσακουσθήσονται. μὴ οὖν ὁμοιωθῆτε αὐτοῖς· οἶδε γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὧν χρείαν ἔχετε πρὸ τοῦ ὑμᾶς αἰτῆσαι αὐτόν. οὕτως οὖν προσεύχεσθε ὑμεῖς.“

English · Claude translation

Since, as we have said above, the one who prays must first be settled and disposed in a certain way and then pray, let us look, before the prayer found in Matthew, at the words spoken about it by our Savior, which run thus: “When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room and shut your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees you in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not babble as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, then; for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this.”

About this passage

Source

Koetschau 2:341 · 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

Matt 6:5 · quotation, high confidence
Matt 6:6 · quotation, high confidence
Matt 6:7 · quotation, high confidence
Matt 6:8 · quotation, high confidence
Matt 6:9 · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Prayer

Notes

Translation notes

The quotation is Matt 6:5–9.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (missing accent and breathing in the digital text): οτι φιλοῦσιν → ὅτι φιλοῦσιν.

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 19.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/19/1/).

Plain text

Origen, Or. 19.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/19/1/).