Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 24.4

Origen · On Prayer · ca. 233–234 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: To exalt God's name together is to reach a shared true knowledge of God; one exalts God by dedicating one's own soul to him as a house.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:355

ὥσπερ δὲ τὰ ἐνθάδε δεῖ νοεῖν τὸν εὐχόμενον, αἰτεῖν αὐτὸν ἁγιασθῆναι „τὸ ὄνομα“ τοῦ θεοῦ· οὕτως ἐν ψαλμοῖς τὸ „ὑψώσωμεν τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ“ λέγεται, προστάσσοντος τοῦ προφήτου μετὰ πάσης συμφωνίας ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ νοῒ καὶ ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ γνώμῃ φθάσαι ἐπὶ τὴν ἀληθῆ καὶ ὑψηλὴν γνῶσιν τῆς ἰδιότητος τοῦ θεοῦ. τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι τὸ ὑψοῦν „τὸ ὄνομα“ τοῦ θεοῦ „ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ, “ (ὅτε) μεταλαβών τις ἀποῤῥοῆς θεότητος τῷ ὑπειλῆφθαι ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ κεκρατηκέναι τῶν ἐχθρῶν. ἐφησθῆναι πτώσει αὐτοῦ μὴ δυναμένων, ὑψοῖ αὐτὴν τὴν δύναμιν, ἧς μετείληχε, θεοῦ· ὅπερ δηλοῦται ἐν εἰκοστῷ ἐνάτῳ ψαλμῷ διὰ τοῦ „ὑψώσω σε, κύριε, ὅτι ὑπέλαβές με καὶ (οὐκ) εὔφρανας τοὺς ἐχθρούς μου ἐπʼ ἐμοί.“ ὑψοῖ δέ τις τὸν θεὸν, ἐγκαινίσας αὐτῷ οἶκον ἐν ἑαυτῷ, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἡ (ἐπι)γραφὴ τοῦ ψαλμοῦ οὕτως ἔχει· „ψαλμὸς ᾠδῆς τοῦ ἐγκαινισμοῦ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ Δαυΐδ.“

English · Claude translation

And just as the one who prays must understand these things when he asks that the “name” of God be hallowed, so in the Psalms it is said, “Let us exalt his name together,” the prophet commanding us, in all harmony, in the same mind and the same judgment, to attain to the true and lofty knowledge of God's distinctive character. For this is exalting the “name” of God “together”: when someone, having shared in an emanation of divinity through being upheld by God and having overcome his enemies, who cannot rejoice over his fall, exalts the very power of God in which he has shared; as is shown in the twenty-ninth psalm by the words, “I will exalt you, O Lord, for you have upheld me and have not made my enemies rejoice over me.” And a person exalts God by dedicating a house to him within himself, since the title of the psalm is: “A psalm of a song at the dedication of the house of David.”

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:355 · 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
  • Ps 34:3 (33:4 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
  • Ps 30:1 (29:2 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
  • 1 Cor 1:10 · echo, low confidence
Topics
Prayer

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Ps 34:3 (33:4 LXX), Ps 30:1 (29:2 LXX; Origen gives the Greek number), and the title of Ps 30 (29:1 LXX).

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 24.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/24/4/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 24.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/24/4/).

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