On Prayer 29.15
Summary: Idolaters given up to shameful passions receive the penalty of their error; but the purifying fire and prison of God's judgment are a benefit, cleansing sinners so that they may freely turn from evil.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:389–391
τὸ ὅμοιον οὖν τούτοις πείσονται οἱ ἀλλάξαντες „τὴν δόξαν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀφθάρτου ἐν ὁμοιώματι εἰκόνος φθαρτοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ πετεινῶν καὶ τετραπόδων καὶ ἑρπετῶν, “ διὰ τοῦ ἐγκαταλείπεσθαι παραδιδόμενοι „ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῶν καρδιῶν αὐτῶν εἰς ἀκαθαρσίαν, τοῦ ἀτιμάζεσθαι τὰ σώματα“ τῶν εἰς ἄψυχον σῶμα καὶ ἀναίσθητον καταβιβασάντων τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πᾶσι τοῖς αἰσθομένοις λογικοῖς οὐ μόνον τὸ αἰσθέσθαι ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ λογικῶς αἰσθέσθαι τισὶ δὲ καὶ τελείως καὶ ἐναρέτως αἰσθέσθαι καὶ νοεῖν χαρισαμένου. καὶ εὐλόγως οἱ τοιοῦτοι παραδίδονται ὑπὸ τοῦ καταλειφθέντος ὑπʼ αὐτῶν θεοῦ, ἀντικαταλειπόμενοι ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ, εἰς τὰ τῆς „ἀτιμίας“ „πάθη, “ „τὴν ἀντιμισθίαν“ „τῆς πλάνης“ διʼ ἧς ἠγάπησαν ψωρώδους ἡδονῆς „ἀπολαμβάνοντες.“ μᾶλλον γὰρ ἡ ἀντιμισθία „τῆς πλάνης“ αὐτοῖς ἐγγίνεται, παραδιδομένοις „εἰς πάθη ἀτιμίας, “ ἤπερ τῷ φρονίμῳ πυρὶ καθαιρομένοις καὶ ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ ἐκπρασσομένοις μέχρι τοῦ ἐσχάτου κοδράντου ἕκαστον τῶν ὀφλημάτων. ἐν γὰρ τῷ πάθεσιν „ἀτιμίας“ οὐ μόνον τοῖς κατὰ φύσιν ἀλλὰ καὶ πολλοῖς τῶν παρὰ φύσιν παραδίδοσθαι μολύνονται καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς σαρκὸς παχύνονται, οἱονεὶ οὐκέτι ἔχοντες τότε ψυχὴν οὐδὲ νοῦν ἀλλʼ ὅλοι γινόμενοι σάρκες· ἐν δὲ τῷ πυρὶ καὶ τῇ φυλακῇ οὐκ „ἀντιμισθίαν“ „τῆς πλάνης“ ἀλλʼ εὐεργεσίαν ἐπὶ καθάρσει τῶν ἐν τῇ πλάνῃ κακῶν μετὰ σωτηρίων λαμβάνοντες πόνων, ἑπομένων τοῖς φιληδόνοις, ἀπαλλάττονται παντὸς ῥύπου καὶ αἵματος, ἐν οἷς ἐῤῥυπωμένοι καὶ πεφυρμένοι οὐδὲ τὸ ἐννοῆσαι περὶ τοῦ σῴζεσθαι ἐδύναντο τῇ σφῶν ἀπωλείᾳ. „ἐκπλυνεῖ“ τοιγαροῦν ὁ θεὸς „τὸν ῥύπον τῶν υἱῶν καὶ τῶν θυγατέρων Σιὼν, καὶ τὸ αἷμα ἐκκαθαριεῖ ἐκ μέσου αὐτῶν πνεύματι κρίσεως καὶ πνεύματι καύσεως“· „εἰσπορεύεται“ γὰρ „ὡς πῦρ χωνευτηρίου καὶ ὡς πόα πλυνόντων, “ ἀποπλύνων καὶ καθαίρων τοὺς τοιούτων φαρμάκων δεδεημένους διὰ τὸ μὴ δεδοκιμασμένως θέλειν „ἔχειν ἐν ἐπιγνώσει“ „τὸν θεόν“· οἷς παραδοθέντες ἑκόντες μισήσουσι τὸν „ἀδόκιμον νοῦν“· οὐ γὰρ βούλεται ὁ θεός τινι τὸ ἀγαθὸν ὡς κατὰ ἀνάγκην γενέσθαι ἀλλὰ ἑκουσίως, τάχα τινῶν ἐκ τοῦ ἐπὶ πλεῖον ὡμιληκέναι τῇ κακίᾳ μόγις τὸ αἶσχος αὐτῆς κατανενοηκότων καὶ ἀποστρεφομένων αὐτὴν ὡς ψευδῶς ὑποληφθεῖσαν εἶναι καλήν.
English · Claude translation
Those who have exchanged “the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and reptiles” will suffer something like this, being given up, through being abandoned, “in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies”—they who have brought down to lifeless and senseless matter the name of him who has granted to all sentient rational beings not only sensation but rational sensation, and to some perfect and virtuous sensation and understanding. And such people are reasonably given up by God, whom they abandoned, being abandoned in turn by him, to “passions” “of dishonor,” “receiving” “the due penalty” “for the error” through which they loved a scabby pleasure. For the due penalty “for the error” comes to them more in being given up “to dishonorable passions” than in being cleansed by the wise fire and being made to pay in prison every debt to the last quadrans. For in being given up to passions “of dishonor,” not only natural ones but also many that are against nature, they are defiled and thickened by the flesh, as though no longer having soul or mind but becoming wholly flesh; while in the fire and the prison they receive, not a “penalty” “for the error,” but a benefit for the cleansing of the evils committed in error, with saving pains that follow upon lovers of pleasure, and they are freed from all the filth and blood with which they were so defiled and soiled that they could not even think of being saved, in their own destruction. So God “will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning”; for he “comes in like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap,” washing and cleansing those who need such remedies because they did not see fit “to have God in knowledge”; given up to these, they will of their own will hate the “unfit mind.” For God does not wish that good should come to anyone as by necessity, but willingly; perhaps some, from long association with wickedness, have hardly perceived its shamefulness and turned from it, having falsely supposed it to be good.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations and allusions are Rom 1:23–24, 1:26–28, 1 Cor 3:13–15 (“wise fire”), Matt 5:25–26, Isa 4:4, and Mal 3:2. The view that the fire of judgment is remedial and purifying is characteristic of Origen; it was later disputed, especially where it was taken to imply that all punishment is temporary. The passage uses the language of Rom 1:26–27 on same-sex relations (“against nature”) as Paul does.
Cite this passage
Origen, Or. 29.15 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/29/15/).
Plain text
Origen, Or. 29.15 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/29/15/).
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