Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 22.1

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

Summary: The Old Testament calls God Father and his people sons, but Origen finds no prayer there in which anyone addresses God as “Father.”

Greek text · Koetschau 2:346

„Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς.“ ἄξιον ἐπιμελέστερον ἐπιτηρῆσαι τὴν λεγομένην παλαιὰν διαθήκην, εἰ ἔστι που εὑρεῖν ἐν αὐτῇ εὐχήν τινος λέγοντος τὸν θεὸν πατέρα· ἐπὶ γὰρ τοῦ παρόντος κατὰ δύναμιν ἐξετάσαντες οὐκ εὕρομεν. οὐ τοῦτο δέ φαμεν, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς πατὴρ οὐκ εἴρηται, ἢ οἱ πεπιστευκέναι νομιζόμενοι θεῷ υἱοὶ οὐκ ὠνομάσθησαν θεοῦ, ἀλλʼ ὅτι ἐν προσευχῇ τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ σωτῆρος κατηγγελμένην παῤῥησίαν περὶ τοῦ ὀνομάσαι τὸν θεὸν πατέρα οὐχ εὕρομέν πω. ὅτι δὲ εἴρηται πατὴρ ὁ θεὸς καὶ υἱοὶ οἱ τῷ λόγῳ τοῦ θεοῦ προσεληλυθότες, πολλαχοῦ ἔστιν ἰδεῖν ὥσπερ καὶ ἐν Δευτερονομίῳ· „θεὸν τὸν γεννήσαντά σε ἐγκατέλιπες, καὶ ἐπελάθου θεοῦ τοῦ τρέφοντός σε, “ καὶ πάλιν· „οὐκ αὐτὸς οὗτός σου πατὴρ ἐκτήσατό σε καὶ ἐποίησέ σε καὶ ἔκτισέ σε, “ καὶ πάλιν· „υἱοὶ, οἷς οὐκ ἔστι πίστις ἐν αὐτοῖς“· καὶ ἐν τῷ Ἡσαΐᾳ· „υἱοὺς ἐγέννησα καὶ ὕψωσα, αὐτοὶ δέ με ἠθέτησαν“· καὶ ἐν τῷ Μαλαχίᾳ· „υἱὸς δοξάσει πατέρα, καὶ δοῦλος τὸν κύριον αὐτοῦ. καὶ εἰ πατήρ εἰμι ἐγὼ, ποῦ ἐστιν ἡ δόξα μου; καὶ εἰ κύριός εἰμι ἐγὼ, ποῦ ἐστιν ὁ φόβος μου;“

English · Claude translation

“Our Father in heaven.” It is worth examining the so-called Old Testament more carefully, to see whether one can find in it anywhere a prayer of someone calling God “Father”; for we have examined it as far as we could for the present and have not found one. We do not say that God is not called Father, or that those thought to have believed in God were not named sons of God; but that we have not yet found in prayer the boldness proclaimed by the Savior to name God “Father.” That God is called Father, and those who have come to the Word of God sons, can be seen in many places, as in Deuteronomy: “You forsook God who begot you, and forgot God who nourishes you,” and again, “Is not he himself your father, who acquired you and made you and created you?”, and again, “Sons in whom there is no faith”; and in Isaiah, “I begot sons and raised them up, but they rejected me”; and in Malachi, “A son will honor his father, and a servant his master. And if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear?”

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:346 · 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 Deut 32:18, 32:6, 32:20, Isa 1:2, and Mal 1:6 (all LXX).

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 22.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/22/1/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 22.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/22/1/).

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