On Prayer 23.3
Summary: To think God is in a bodily place implies he is a body, divisible and corruptible; so passages like God walking in paradise must not be taken literally.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:351–352
ταῦτα ἡγοῦμαι συνεξητακέναι τῷ „πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς“ ὑπὲρ τοῦ ταπεινὴν περὶ θεοῦ ὑπόληψιν τῶν νομιζόντων αὐτὸν εἶναι τοπικῶς „ἐν οὐρανοῖς“ περιελεῖν καὶ μὴ ἐᾶν τινα ἐν σωματικῷ τόπῳ εἶναι τὸν θεὸν (ἐπεὶ τούτῳ ἀκόλουθόν ἐστι καὶ σῶμα αὐτὸν εἶναι) λέγειν, ᾧ ἕπεται δόγματα ἀσεβέστατα, τὸ διαιρετὸν καὶ ὑλικὸν καὶ φθαρτὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι ὑπολαμβάνειν· πᾶν γὰρ σῶμα διαιρετόν ἐστι καὶ ὑλικὸν καὶ φθαρτόν· ἢ λεγέτωσαν ἡμῖν μὴ κενοπαθοῦντες ἀλλὰ τρανῶς καταλαμβάνειν φάσκοντες. πῶς οἷόν τε ἐστὶν ἑτέρας (εἶναι) φύσεως παρὰ τὴν ὑλικήν. ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ πρὸ τῆς σωματικῆς Χριστοῦ ἐπιδημίας γραμμάτων πολλὰ τὸ ἐν σωματικῷ τόπῳ εἶναι τὸν θεὸν λέγειν δοκεῖ. οὐκ ἄτοπόν μοι φαίνεται ὀλίγα κἀκείνων παραθέσθαι ὑπὲρ τοῦ πάντα περισπασμὸν ἀφελεῖν ἀπὸ τῶν διὰ τὸν ἰδιωτισμὸν τὸ ὅσον ἐπʼ αὐτοῖς μικρῷ καὶ βραχεῖ τόπῳ ἐμπεριλαμβανόντων τὸν ἐπὶ πάντων θεόν. καὶ πρῶτόν γε ἐν τῇ Γενέσει „Ἀδὰμ“ καὶ Εὔα, φησὶν, „ἤκουσαν τῆς φωνῆς κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ περιπατοῦντος τὸ δειλινὸν ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ· καὶ ἐκρύβησαν ὅ τε Ἀδὰμ καὶ ἡ γυνὴ αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ προσώπου κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ ξύλου τοῦ παραδείσου.“ ἐροῦμεν πρὸς τοὺς εἰς τοὺς θησαυροὺς τῆς λέξεως ἐλθεῖν μὴ βουλομένους ἀλλὰ μηδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν κρούοντας „τὴν θύραν“ αὐτῆς, εἰ δύνανται παραστῆσαι κύριον τὸν θεὸν, τὸν πληροῦντα „τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν, “ τὸν, ὡς αὐτοὶ ὑπολαμβάνουσι, σωματικώτερον „οὐρανῷ“ θρόνῳ χρώμενον καὶ „τῇ γῇ“ ὑποποδίῳ „τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ, “ ὑπὸ οὕτω βραχέος συγκρίσει τοῦ παντὸς οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῆς γῆς περιέχεσθαι τόπου, ὥστε ὃν ὑπολαμβάνουσι σωματικὸν παράδεισον μὴ ἐκπληροῦσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀλλὰ τοσούτῳ αὐτοῦ εἶναι τῷ μεγέθει μείζονα, ὡς καὶ περιπατοῦντα χωρεῖν αὐτὸν, ἀκουομένης „φωνῆς“ ἀπὸ τῆς βάσεως τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ. ἔτι δὲ κατʼ ἐκείνους ἀτοπώτερον τὸ αἰδουμένους τὸν θεὸν διὰ τὴν παράβασιν τὸν Ἀδὰμ καὶ τὴν Εὔαν κρύπτεσθαι „ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ ξύλου τοῦ παραδείσου.“ οὐδὲ γὰρ λέγεται ὅτι οὕτως ἠθέλησαν κρύπτεσθαι, ἀλλʼ ὄντως „ἐκρύβησαν.“ πῶς δὲ κατʼ αὐτοὺς πυνθάνεται τοῦ Ἀδὰμ ὁ θεὸς λέγων· „ποῦ εἶ;“
English · Claude translation
I think I have examined these things together with “Our Father in heaven” in order to remove the base conception of God held by those who think he is “in heaven” in a local sense, and to allow no one to say that God is in a bodily place (for it follows from this that he is also a body), from which follow most impious doctrines: to suppose that he is divisible, material, and corruptible; for every body is divisible, material, and corruptible. Or let them tell us, not with empty imaginings but claiming to understand clearly, how it is possible for it to be of a nature other than material. And since many passages of the Scriptures written before Christ's bodily coming also seem to say that God is in a bodily place, it does not seem out of place to me to set out a few of them too, in order to remove every distraction from those who, through simplicity, confine the God over all, as far as they can, in a small and narrow place. First, in Genesis, it says, “Adam” and Eve “heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the paradise in the evening; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God in the midst of the tree of the paradise.” We shall say to those who do not wish to enter the treasures of the text, and do not even knock at its “door” at all, whether they can show that the Lord God, who fills “heaven and earth,” who, as they suppose, in a rather bodily way uses “heaven” as a throne and “the earth” as a footstool “for his feet,” is contained by a place so small in comparison with the whole heaven and earth that the paradise they suppose to be bodily is not filled by God but is so much greater than he in size that it holds him even as he walks, his “voice” being heard from the tread of his feet. And still more absurd, on their view, is that Adam and Eve, ashamed before God because of the transgression, hid “from the face of God in the midst of the tree of the paradise.” For it is not said that they wished to hide in this way, but that they actually “hid.” And how, on their view, does God ask Adam, “Where are you?”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Gen 3:8–9, Jer 23:24, and Isa 66:1; “knock at its door” echoes Matt 7:7. Origen's teaching on God's incorporeality is argued at length in On First Principles 1.1. His discussion in his commentary on Genesis, mentioned in 23.4, is lost.
Cite this passage
Origen, Or. 23.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/23/3/).
Plain text
Origen, Or. 23.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/23/3/).
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