Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 27.13

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

Summary: Origen prefers his derivation of “daily” from “being” to one from “the coming day,” and explains that in Scripture “today” can mean this whole age and “yesterday” the past age.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:371–373

τούτων δὴ οὕτως ἐχόντων καὶ τοσαύτης διαφορᾶς βρωμάτων οὔσης, εἷς παρὰ πάντας τοὺς εἰρημένους ἐστὶν ὁ ἐπιούσιος ἄρτος, περὶ οὗ εὔχεσθαι δεῖ, ἵνα ἐκείνου ἀξιωθῶμεν καὶ τρεφόμενοι τῷ „ἐν ἀρχῇ“ „πρὸς θεὸν“ θεῷ λόγῳ θεοποιηθῶμεν. ἐρεῖ δέ τις τὸ „ἐπιούσιον“ παρὰ τὸ ἐπιέναι κατεσχηματίσθαι, ὥστε αἰτεῖν ἡμᾶς κελεύεσθαι τὸν ἄρτον τὸν οἰκεῖον τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος, ἵνα προλαβὼν αὐτὸν ὁ θεὸς ἤδη ἡμῖν δωρήσηται, ὥστε τὸ οἱονεὶ αὔριον δοθησόμενον „σήμερον“ ἡμῖν δοθῆναι, „σήμερον“ μὲν τοῦ ἐνεστῶτος αἰῶνος λαμβανομένου αὔριον δὲ τοῦ μέλλοντος. ἀλλὰ βελτίονος οὔσης τῆς προτέρας ἐκδοχῆς ὅσον ἐπʼ ἐμοὶ κριτῇ, τὸ περὶ τῆς „σήμερον“ παρὰ τῷ Ματθαίῳ τούτοις προσκείμενον ἢ τὸ „καθʼ ἡμέραν“ παρὰ τῷ Λουκᾷ γεγραμμένον ἐξετάσωμεν. ἔθος δὴ πολλαχοῦ τῶν γραφῶν τὸν πάντα αἰῶνα „σήμερον“ καλεῖσθαι, ὥσπερ ἐν τῷ „οὗτος πατὴρ Μωαβιτῶν ἕως τῆς σήμερον ἡμέρας“ καὶ „οὗτος πατὴρ Ἀμμανιτῶν ἕως τῆς σήμερον ἡμέρας“ καὶ „ἐφημίσθη ὁ λόγος οὗτος παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις ἕως τῆς σήμερον, “ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ψαλμοῖς· „σήμερον ἐὰν τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ ἀκούσητε, μὴ σκληρύνητε τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν.“ ἐν δὲ τῷ Ἰησοῦ σαφέστατα οὕτω τοῦτο εἴρηται· „μὴ ἀπόστητε ἀπὸ κυρίου ἐν ταῖς σήμερον ἡμέραις.“ εἰ δὲ „σήμερον“ ὁ πᾶς οὗτος αἰὼν, μή ποτε „ἐχθὲς“ ὁ παρεληλυθώς ἐστιν αἰών. τοῦτο δὲ ἐν ψαλμοῖς καὶ παρὰ τῷ Παύλῳ ἐν τῇ πρὸς Ἑβραίους λέγειν ὑπειλήφαμεν, ἐν ψαλμοῖς οὕτως· „χίλια ἔτη ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς σου ὡσεὶ ἡμέρα ἡ ἐχθὲς, ἥτις διῆλθεν“ (ἥτις ποτέ ἐστιν ἡ διαβόητος χιλιονταετηρὶς, (ἣ) ὁμοιοῦται τῇ „ἐχθὲς“ ἡμέρᾳ. διαφερούσῃ τῆς „σήμερον“), παρὰ δὲ τῷ ἀποστόλῳ γέγραπται· „Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς χθὲς καὶ σήμερον ὁ αὐτὸς καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας.“ καὶ οὐδὲν θαυμαστὸν τῷ θεῷ τὸν ὅλον αἰῶνα τῆς παρʼ ἡμῖν μιᾶς ἡμέρας διαστήματος λόγον ἔχειν, ἐγὼ δʼ οἶμαι ὅτι καὶ ἐλάττονος.

English · Claude translation

This being so, and there being such a difference of foods, one bread, beyond all those mentioned, is the daily bread, for which we must pray, so that we may be counted worthy of it and, nourished by God the Word who was “in the beginning” “with God,” may be made divine. But someone will say that epiousios is formed from epienai (“to come”), so that we are commanded to ask for the bread belonging to the age to come, so that God may anticipate it and give it to us now; so that what will be given as it were tomorrow may be given us “today,” “today” being taken as the present age and tomorrow as the age to come. But since the former interpretation is better, in my judgment at least, let us examine “today,” added to these words in Matthew, or “each day,” written in Luke. It is customary in many places of Scripture for the whole age to be called “today,” as in “He is the father of the Moabites to this day,” and “He is the father of the Ammonites to this day,” and “This story has been spread among the Jews to this day,” and in the Psalms, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” And in Joshua it is said most clearly thus: “Do not depart from the Lord in the days of today.” And if this whole age is “today,” perhaps “yesterday” is the past age. We have supposed that this is said in the Psalms and by Paul in the Letter to the Hebrews; in the Psalms thus: “A thousand years in your eyes are like yesterday, which has passed” (whatever is the famous millennium, which is likened to the day “yesterday,” as distinct from “today”); and in the apostle it is written: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.” And it is no wonder that for God the whole age has the proportion of the length of one of our days; indeed I think even less.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:371–373 · 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, Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are John 1:1–2, Gen 19:37–38, Matt 28:15, Ps 95:7–8 (94:7–8 LXX), Ps 90:4 (89:4 LXX), and Heb 13:8 (attributed to Paul). The words attributed to Joshua are not found verbatim; the closest is Josh 22:29 (LXX), which has “in the days of today” (compare 22:16–18). “The famous millennium” may refer to the thousand-year reign of Rev 20, but Origen does not say so.

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 27.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/27/13/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 27.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/27/13/).

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