Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 6.3

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

Summary: God foreknows our free choices from the creation of the world, but his foreknowledge does not cause them; it lets him fit each choice into the government of the universe.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:313

εἰ δὴ τὸ ἐφʼ ἡμῖν σῴζεται, μυρίας ὅσας ἀπονεύσεις ἔχον πρὸς ἀρετὴν ἢ κακίαν καὶ πάλιν ἢ πρὸς τὸ καθῆκον ἢ πρὸς τὸ παρὰ τὸ καθῆκον, ἀναγκαίως τοῦτο μετὰ τῶν λοιπῶν, πρὶν γένηται, τῷ θεῷ ἔγνωσται „ἀπὸ κτίσεως“ καὶ „καταβολῆς κόσμου“, ὁποῖον ἔσται· καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν, οἷς προδιατάσσεται ὁ θεὸς ἀκολούθως οἷς ἑώρακε περὶ ἑκάστου ἔργου τῶν ἐφʼ ἡμῖν, προδιατέτακται κατʼ ἀξίαν ἑκάστῳ κινήματι τῶν ἐφʼ ἡμῖν τὸ καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς προνοίας αὐτῷ ἀπαντησόμενον ἔτι δὲ καὶ κατὰ τὸν εἱρμὸν τῶν ἐσομένων συμβησόμενον, οὐχὶ τῆς προγνώσεως τοῦ θεοῦ αἰτίας γινομένης τοῖς ἐσομένοις πᾶσι καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ἐφʼ ἡμῖν κατὰ τὴν ὁρμὴν ἡμῶν ἐνεργηθησομένοις. εἰ γὰρ καὶ καθʼ ὑπόθεσιν μὴ γινώσκοι ὁ θεὸς τὰ ἐσόμενα, οὐ παρὰ τοῦτο ἀπολοῦμεν τὸ τάδε τινὰ ἐνεργήσειν καὶ τάδε θελήσειν· πλέον δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς προγνώσεως γίνεται τὸ κατάταξιν λαμβάνειν εἰς τὴν τοῦ παντὸς διοίκησιν χρειώδη τῇ τοῦ κόσμου καταστάσει τὸ ἑκάστου ἐφʼ ἡμῖν.

English · Claude translation

If, then, what is in our power is preserved, having countless inclinations toward virtue or vice, and again toward what is fitting or what is contrary to it, then necessarily, along with everything else, what it will be is known to God before it comes to be, “from the creation” and “foundation of the world.” And in all that God preordains in accordance with what he has seen about each act that is in our power, there has been preordained, according to the worth of each movement of what is in our power, what will also meet it from providence, and what will moreover happen according to the sequence of future events; God's foreknowledge is not the cause of all the future events that will be brought about by what is in our power, according to our impulse. For even if, by hypothesis, God did not know the future, we should not on that account lose the power to do these particular things and will these particular things. Rather, what results from foreknowledge is that what is in each person's power receives an arrangement in the government of the universe that is useful for the order of the world.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:313 · 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 phrases “from the creation” and “foundation of the world” echo Rom 1:20 and Eph 1:4 (Matt 25:34).

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 6.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/6/3/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 6.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/6/3/).

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