Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 27.5

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

Summary: As Paul says, milk is for spiritual infants and solid food for the mature; even Romans 14 on eating everything or only vegetables refers mainly to spiritual teaching.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:366

ὁ δὲ Παῦλος „νηπίοις“ διαλεγόμενος καὶ „κατὰ ἄνθρωπον“ περιπατοῦσι Κορινθίοις φησί· „γάλα ὑμᾶς ἐπότισα, οὐ βρῶμα· οὔπω γὰρ ἐδύνασθε. ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ ἔτι νῦν δύνασθε· ἔτι γάρ ἐστε σάρκινοι“ καὶ ἐν τῇ πρὸς Ἑβραίους· „καὶ γεγόνατε χρείαν ἔχοντες γάλακτος, οὐ στερεᾶς τροφῆς. πᾶς γὰρ ὁ μετέχων γάλακτος ἄπειρος λόγου δικαιοσύνης, νήπιος γάρ ἐστι· τελείων δέ ἐστιν ἡ στερεὰ τροφὴ, τῶν διὰ τὴν ἕξιν τὰ αἰσθητήρια γεγυμνασμένα ἐχόντων πρὸς διάκρισιν καλοῦ τε καὶ κακοῦ.“ ἐγὼ δὲ ἡγοῦμαι καὶ τὸ „ὃς μὲν πιστεύει φαγεῖν πάντα, ὁ δὲ ἀσθενῶν λάχανα ἐσθίει“ μὴ περὶ σωματικῶν τροφῶν αὐτῷ προηγουμένως λέγεσθαι ἀλλὰ περὶ τῶν τρεφόντων τὴν ψυχὴν λόγων θεοῦ· τοῦ μὲν πιστοτάτου καὶ τελειοτάτου δυναμένου πάντων μεταλαμβάνειν, ὅνπερ δηλοῖ διὰ τοῦ „ὃς μὲν πιστεύει φαγεῖν πάντα, “ τοῦ δὲ ἀσθενεστέρου καὶ ἀτελεστέρου ἁπλουστέροις καὶ μὴ πάνυ εὐτονίαν ἐμποιοῦσι μαθήμασιν ἀρκουμένου, ὅντινα αὐτὸς σημῆναι θέλων λέγει· „ὁ δὲ ἀσθενῶν λάχανα ἐσθίει.“

English · Claude translation

And Paul, speaking to the Corinthians as “infants” who walk “in a human way,” says: “I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not yet able. Nor even now are you able; for you are still fleshly”; and in the Letter to the Hebrews: “And you have come to need milk, not solid food. For everyone who partakes of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is an infant; but solid food is for the mature, who by practice have their faculties trained to distinguish good from evil.” And I think that the words, “One believes he may eat anything, while the weak eats vegetables,” are not spoken by him primarily about bodily food, but about the words of God that nourish the soul: the most faithful and most perfect can partake of all, whom he indicates by “one believes he may eat anything”; while the weaker and less perfect is content with simpler teachings that do not produce much vigor, whom he wishes to indicate when he says, “the weak eats vegetables.”

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:366 · 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, Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are 1 Cor 3:1–3, Heb 5:12–14, and Rom 14:2. Origen's reading of Rom 14:2 as primarily about spiritual food is his own allegorical interpretation.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (two words run together in the digital text): οὔπωγὰρ → οὔπω γὰρ.

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 27.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/27/5/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 27.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/27/5/).

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