Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 27.10

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

Summary: The daily bread is also the tree of life and the wisdom of God, the food of the angels, which the psalm calls “the bread of angels.”

Greek text · Koetschau 2:369–370

οὗτος δὴ ὁ ἐπιούσιος ἄρτος ἄλλῳ ὀνόματι δοκεῖ μοι ἐν τῇ γραφῇ „ξύλον ζωῆς“ ὠνομάσθαι, ἐφʼ ὅπερ ὁ ἐκτείνας „τὴν χεῖρα“ καὶ λαβὼν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ „ζήσεται εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα.“ καὶ τρίτῳ ὀνόματι τοῦτο τὸ „ξύλον“ „σοφία“ τοῦ θεοῦ ὀνομάζεται παρὰ τῷ Σολομῶντι διὰ τούτων· „ξύλον ζωῆς ἐστι πᾶσι τοῖς ἀντεχομένοις αὐτῆς, καὶ τοῖς ἐπερειδομένοις ὡς ἐπὶ κύριον ἀσφαλής.“ ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι σοφίᾳ τρέφονται θεοῦ, ἀπὸ τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἀλήθειαν μετὰ σοφίας θεωρίας δυναμούμενοι πρὸς τὸ τὰ ἴδια ἔργα ἐπιτελεῖν, λέγεται ἐν ψαλμοῖς καὶ τοὺς ἀγγέλους τρέφεσθαι. κοινωνούντων τῶν ἀνθρώπων τοῦ θεοῦ, οἵτινες Ἑβραῖοι προσαγορεύονται, τοῖς ἀγγέλοις καὶ οἱονεὶ καὶ συνεστίων αὐτοῖς γινομένων. τοιοῦτον δέ ἐστι τὸ „ἄρτον ἀγγέλων ἔφαγεν ἄνθρωπος.“ μὴ γὰρ ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον πτωχεύσαι ὁ νοῦς ἡμῶν, ὡς οἰηθῆναι σωματικοῦ τινος ἄρτου, τοῦ ἱστορουμένου οὐρανόθεν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἐξεληλυθότας τὴν Αἴγυπτον καταβεβηκέναι, τοὺς ἀγγέλους ἀεὶ μεταλαμβάνοντας τρέφεσθαι, τούτου αὐτοῦ κεκοινωνηκότων τῶν Ἑβραίων τοῖς ἀγγέλοις, τοῖς λειτουργικοῖς τοῦ θεοῦ πνεύμασιν.

English · Claude translation

This daily bread seems to me to be called by another name in Scripture, “the tree of life”: whoever stretches out “his hand” to it and takes from it “will live for ever.” And by a third name this “tree” is called the “wisdom” of God by Solomon, in these words: “She is a tree of life to all who lay hold of her, and to those who lean upon her as upon the Lord she is secure.” And since the angels too are nourished by the wisdom of God, being strengthened by the contemplation of truth with wisdom to accomplish their own works, it is said in the Psalms that the angels too are nourished, the men of God, who are called Hebrews, sharing with the angels and becoming as it were their table companions. Such is the meaning of “Man ate the bread of angels.” For let our mind not be so impoverished as to think that the angels are always nourished by partaking of some bodily bread, the one recorded to have come down from heaven for those who had come out of Egypt, and that the Hebrews shared this very bread with the angels, the ministering spirits of God.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:369–370 · 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 Gen 3:22, Prov 3:18 (LXX), and Ps 78:25 (77:25 LXX); the manna is Exod 16, and “ministering spirits” is Heb 1:14.

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 27.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/27/10/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 27.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/27/10/).

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