Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 4.2

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

Summary: Hannah both prayed and made a vow; her promise to give her son to God was a vow like Jephthah's, not a prayer in the strict sense.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:307–308

δύναται μέντοι γε τὶς οὐκ ἀπιθάνως ἐνταῦθα, ἐπιστήσας τῷ „προσηύξατο πρὸς κύριον“ „καὶ ηὔξατο εὐχὴν, “ εἰπεῖν ὅτι, εἰ τὰ δύο πεποίηκε, τουτέστι „προσηύξατο πρὸς κύριον“ „καὶ ηὔξατο εὐχὴν, “ μή ποτε τὸ μὲν „προσηύξατο“ ἐπὶ τῆς συνήθως ἡμῖν ὀνομαζομένης τέτακται εὐχῆς τὸ δὲ „ηὔξατο εὐχὴν“ ἐπὶ τοῦ ἐν Λευϊτικῷ καὶ Ἀριθμοῖς τεταγμένου σημαινομένου. τὸ γὰρ „δώσω αὐτὸν κυρίῳ δοτὸν πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς ζωῆς αὐτοῦ, καὶ σίδηρος οὐκ ἀναβήσεται ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ“ κυρίως οὐκ ἔστι προσευχὴ ἀλλʼ ἐκείνη ἡ εὐχὴ, ἥντινα καὶ Ἰεφθάε ηὔξατο ἐν τούτοις· „καὶ ηὔξατο Ἰεφθάε εὐχὴν τῷ κυρίῳ καὶ εἶπεν· ἐὰν παραδώσει παραδῷς μοι τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἀμμὼν ἐν χειρί μου, καὶ ἔσται ὃς ἐὰν ἐξέλθῃ ἐκ τῶν θυρῶν τοῦ οἴκου μου εἰς ἀπάντησίν μου ἐν τῷ ἐπιστρέψαι με ἐν εἰρήνῃ ἀπὸ τῶν υἱῶν Ἀμμὼν, καὶ ἔσται τῷ κυρίῳ, καὶ ἀνοίσω αὐτὸν ὁλοκαύτωμα.“

English · Claude translation

One could, however, not unpersuasively, attending here to “she prayed to the Lord” and “she vowed a vow,” say that if she did both, that is, “prayed to the Lord” and “vowed a vow,” perhaps “prayed” is used of what we customarily call prayer, while “vowed a vow” is used in the sense found in Leviticus and Numbers. For “I will give him to the Lord as one given all the days of his life, and no iron shall come upon his head” is not properly a prayer but that kind of vow which Jephthah also vowed in these words: “And Jephthah vowed a vow to the Lord and said: If you will indeed deliver the sons of Ammon into my hand, then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon shall be the Lord's, and I will offer him up as a whole burnt offering.”

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:307–308 · 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 quotations are 1 Sam 1:10–11 (1 Kgdms LXX) and Judg 11:30–31.

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 4.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/4/2/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 4.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/4/2/).

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