Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 19.3

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

Summary: Those who follow the broad, crooked road of pleasure, even praying at feasts while drunk, are the ones who pray “at the street corners,” not on Christ's narrow and straight way.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:342–343

ἀλλὰ καὶ πᾶς ὁ τὴν πλατεῖαν καὶ εὐρύχωρον ὁδεύων ὁδὸν, τὴν ἀπάγουσαν ἐπὶ „τὴν ἀπώλειαν, “ οὐδὲν ὀρθὸν καὶ εὐθὲς ἔχουσαν ἀλλὰ πᾶσαν σκολιὰν τυγχάνουσαν καὶ γεγωνιωμένην (κέκλασται γὰρ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἡ εὐθεῖα), ἐν αὐτῇ ἕστηκεν οὐ καλῶς, „ἐν ταῖς γωνίαις τῶν πλατειῶν“ προσευχόμενος, διὰ τῆς φιληδονίας οὐχὶ ἐν μιᾷ ἀλλʼ ἐν πλείοσι γινόμενος πλατείαις· ἐν αἷς οἱ „ὡς ἄνθρωποι“ ἀποθνῄσκοντες διὰ τὸ τῆς θεότητος ἀποπεπτωκέναι τυγχάνουσι δοξάζοντες καὶ μακαρίζοντες τοὺς ἐν ταῖς πλατείαις ἀσεβεῖν αὐτοῖς νενομισμένους. πολλοὶ δὲ ἀεὶ οἱ φαινόμενοι ἐν τῷ προσεύχεσθαι „φιλήδονοι μᾶλλον ἢ φιλόθεοι, “ ἐν μέσοις τοῖς συμποσίοις καὶ παρὰ ταῖς μέθαις ἐμπαροινοῦντες τῇ προσευχῇ, ἀληθῶς „ἐν ταῖς γωνίαις τῶν πλατειῶν ἑστῶτες“ καὶ προσευχόμενοι· πᾶς γὰρ ὁ κατὰ τὴν ἡδονὴν βιοὺς, τὸ εὐρύχωρον ἀγαπήσας ἐκπέπτωκε τῆς στενῆς καὶ τεθλιμμένης ὁδοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. οὐδὲ τὴν τυχοῦσαν ἐχούσης κάμπην καὶ οὐδὲ ὅλως γεγωνιωμένης.

English · Claude translation

But also everyone who travels the broad and spacious way that leads to “destruction,” which has nothing straight or direct but is altogether crooked and full of corners (for the straight line is very much broken on it), stands in it not well, praying “at the street corners”; through love of pleasure he comes to be not in one but in several streets, in which those who die “like men,” because they have fallen from divinity, glorify and call blessed those who are held among them to act impiously in the streets. And there are always many who appear in prayer to be “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,” who in the midst of banquets and drinking bouts insult prayer in their drunkenness, truly “standing at the street corners” and praying. For everyone who lives for pleasure, having loved the spacious way, has fallen from the narrow and hard way of Jesus Christ, which has not the slightest bend and no corners at all.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:342–343 · 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, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions are Matt 7:13–14, Ps 82:7 (81:7 LXX; “you shall die like men,” said to those called “gods,” hence “fallen from divinity”), and 2 Tim 3:4. Origen plays on πλατεῖα, which means both “street” and “broad (way).” The phrase “held among them to act impiously” (ἀσεβεῖν αὐτοῖς νενομισμένους) is obscure; it is translated as printed.

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 19.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/19/3/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 19.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/19/3/).

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