Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 28.6

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

Summary: Remembering our own unpaid debts to God and others should make us gentle toward those who fail in their duties to us.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:378–379

εἰ δὲ τοσούτοις ὀφείλομεν, πάντως καὶ ἡμῖν τινες ὀφείλουσιν· οἱ μὲν γὰρ ὀφείλουσιν ἡμῖν ὡς ἀνθρώποις οἱ δὲ ὡς πολίταις, ἄλλοι δὲ ὡς πατράσι καί τινες ὡς υἱοῖς, καὶ μετὰ τούτους ὡς ἀνδράσι γυναῖκες ἢ ὡς φίλοις φίλοι. ἐπὰν οὖν ἀπὸ τῶν πλείστων ἡμῖν ὀφειλετῶν ἀσθενέστερόν τινες περὶ τὴν ἀπόδοσιν τῶν πρὸς ἡμᾶς καθηκόντων ἀναστραφῶσι, φιλανθρωπότερον ποιήσομεν ἀμνησικάκως ἐνεχθέντες πρὸς αὐτοὺς καὶ ἰδίων μεμνημένοι ὀφειλῶν, ὅσας πολλάκις παραλελοίπαμεν οὐ μόνον πρὸς ἀνθρώπους ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν τὸν θεόν. μεμνημένοι γὰρ ὧν ὀφειλέται ὄντες οὐκ ἀποδεδώκαμεν ἀλλὰ ἀπεστερήσαμεν παραδραμόντος τοῦ χρόνου, ἐν ᾧ ἐχρῆν ἡμᾶς τάδε τινὰ πρὸς τὸν πλησίον πεποιηκέναι, πρᾳότεροι ἐσόμεθα πρὸς τοὺς καὶ ἡμῖν ὀφλήσαντας καὶ μὴ ἀποδεδωκότας τὴν ὀφειλήν· καὶ μάλιστα ἐὰν μὴ ἐπιλανθανώμεθα τῶν εἰς τὸ θεῖον ἡμῖν παρανενομημένων καὶ τῆς „εἰς τὸ ὕψος“ ἀδικίας ἡμῖν λελαλημένης ἤτοι κατὰ ἄγνοιαν τῆς ἀληθείας ἢ κατὰ δυσαρέστησιν τὴν πρὸς τὰ συμβάντα ἡμῖν περιστατικά.

English · Claude translation

And if we owe so many, certainly some also owe us: some owe us as men, some as fellow citizens, others as fathers, and some as sons, and besides these wives to us as husbands, or friends to us as friends. When, then, some of our many debtors are rather slack in paying the duties owed to us, we shall act more humanely if we bear with them without grudges and remember our own debts, how many we have often neglected, not only toward men but toward God himself. For remembering the debts we owed and did not pay but withheld, when the time passed in which we ought to have done certain things for our neighbor, we shall be gentler toward those who owe us and have not paid their debt; especially if we do not forget our transgressions against the Deity, and the unrighteousness we have spoken “against the height,” whether through ignorance of the truth or through discontent with the circumstances that befell us.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:378–379 · 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 73:8 (72:8 LXX) · allusion, medium confidence
Topics
Prayer, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusion is Ps 73:8 (72:8 LXX, “they spoke unrighteousness against the height”).

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 28.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/28/6/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 28.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/28/6/).

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