Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 21.1

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

Summary: Prayer should be speech about God, not babbling; to babble is to ask God for bodily and earthly things, as the Gentiles do.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:345

Ἀλλὰ προσευχόμενοι μὴ βαττολογήσωμεν ἀλλὰ θεολογήσωμεν. βαττολογοῦμεν δὲ, ὅτε μὴ μωμοσκοῦντες ἑαυτοὺς ἢ τοὺς ἀναπεμπομένους τῆς εὐχῆς λόγους λέγομεν τὰ διεφθαρμένα ἔργα ἢ λόγους ἢ νοήματα, ταπεινὰ τυγχάνοντα καὶ ἐπίληπτα, τῆς ἀφθαρσίας ἀλλότρια τοῦ κυρίου. ὁ μέντοι βαττολογῶν ἐν τῷ εὔχεσθαι ἤδη καὶ ἐν τῇ χείρονι τῶν προειρημένων ἡμῖν συναγωγικῇ ἐστι καταστάσει τε (καὶ) χαλεπωτέρᾳ τῶν ἐν ταῖς πλατείαις γωνιῶν ὁδῷ, οὐδὲ ἴχνος σῴζων κἂν ὑποκρίσεως ἀγαθοῦ. βαττολογοῦσι γὰρ κατὰ τὴν λέξιν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου μόνοι „οἱ ἐθνικοὶ, “ οὐδὲ φαντασίαν μεγάλων ἔχοντες ἢ ἐπουρανίων αἰτημάτων. πᾶσαν εὐχὴν (περὶ) τῶν σωματικῶν καὶ τῶν ἐκτὸς ἀναπέμποντες. ἐθνικῷ οὖν βαττολογοῦντι ὁμοιοῦται ὁ τὰ κάτω ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ὑπὲρ τὰ ὕψη τῶν οὐρανῶν κατοικοῦντος κυρίου αἰτῶν.

English · Claude translation

But when we pray, let us not babble (battologein) but speak of God (theologein). We babble when, without examining ourselves or the words of prayer we send up for blemishes, we speak of corrupt deeds or words or thoughts, which are base and blameworthy, foreign to the incorruption of the Lord. The one who babbles in prayer is already in the worse of the synagogue conditions we have described, and on a way harder than that of the street corners, keeping not even a trace of the pretence of good. For according to the words of the gospel only “the Gentiles” babble, who have not even an idea of great or heavenly requests, sending up every prayer about bodily and external things. So the one who asks for things below from the Lord who dwells in heaven and above the heights of the heavens is like a babbling Gentile.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:345 · 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

  • Origen plays on βαττολογεῖν (“babble,” Matt 6:7) and θεολογεῖν (“speak of God”). The quotation is Matt 6:7.

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 21.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/21/1/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 21.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/21/1/).

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