On Prayer 24.1

Summary: Origen asks how a human being can pray that God's name be made holy, and what God's “name” and its hallowing mean.

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Greek text · Koetschau 2:353

„Ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου.“ ὅτε μὲν παρίστησι τὸ μὴ γεγονέναι πω, περὶ οὗ εὔχεται, ὁτὲ δὲ τούτου τυχὼν τὸ μὴ παραμένειν αὐτὸ καὶ τηρεῖσθαι ἀξιοῖ, φανερὸν ὅσον ἐπὶ τῇ λέξει ἐνταῦθα, ὡς μηδέπω ἁγιασθέντος τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ πατρὸς, κελεύεσθαι λέγειν ἡμᾶς κατά γε τὸν Ματθαῖον καὶ τὸν Λουκᾶν τό· „ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου.“ καὶ πῶς, εἴποι τις ἂν, ἄνθρωπος ἀξιοῖ ἁγιάζεσθαι „τὸ ὄνομα“ τοῦ θεοῦ ὡς μὴ ἡγιασμένον; τί „τὸ ὄνομα“ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τί τὸ ἀγιάζεσθαι αὐτὸ, κατανοήσωμεν.

English · Claude translation

“Hallowed be your name.” Whether this presents what the one praying asks for as not yet having happened, or whether, having obtained it, he asks that it may remain and be kept, it is clear from the wording here that, as though the Father's name were not yet hallowed, we are commanded, at least according to Matthew and Luke, to say, “Hallowed be your name.” And how, someone might say, can a man ask that the “name” of God be hallowed, as though it were not hallowed? Let us consider what the “name” of the Father is, and what its being hallowed is.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:353 · 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
Topics
Prayer

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotation is Matt 6:9 (Luke 11:2).

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 24.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/24/1/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 24.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/24/1/).

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