Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 34.1

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

Summary: Origen closes by asking Ambrose and Tatiana to read his work with indulgence and to pray that he may later write more worthily on prayer.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:403

Ταῦτα κατὰ δύναμιν ἐμὴν εἰς τὸ τῆς εὐχῆς πρόβλημα καὶ εἰς τὴν ἐν τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις εὐχὴν τά τε πρὸ αὐτῆς παρὰ τῷ Ματθαίῳ εἰρημένα ἡμῖν διήθληται, φιλομαθέστατοι καὶ γνησιώτατοι ἐν θεοσεβείᾳ ἀδελφοὶ, Ἀμβρόσιε καὶ Τατιανή. οὐκ ἀπογινώσκω δὲ, „τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν“ ὑμῶν ἐπεκτεινομένων καὶ τῶν ὄπισθεν ἐπιλανθανομένων εὐχομένων τε ἐν τούτοις ὄντων περὶ ἡμῶν, πλείονα καὶ θειότερα εἰς πάντα ταῦτα δυνηθῆναι χωρῆσαι ἀπὸ τοῦ διδόντος θεοῦ καὶ λαβὼν πάλιν περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν διαλαβεῖν μεγαλοφυέστερον καὶ ὑψηλότερον καὶ τρανότερον· πλὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος μετὰ συγγνώμης τούτοις ἐντεύξεσθε.

English · Claude translation

These are the things I have struggled through, as far as I was able, on the question of prayer, and on the prayer in the Gospels and what is said before it in Matthew, most studious and most genuine brother and sister in piety, Ambrose and Tatiana. I do not despair that, as you strain forward “to what lies ahead” and forget what lies behind, and pray for me in these matters, I may be able to receive from God who gives more and more divine things about all these, and, having received them, treat the same subjects again in a nobler, loftier, and clearer way. But for the present, read this with indulgence.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:403 · 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 allusion is Phil 3:13.

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 34.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/34/1/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 34.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/34/1/).

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