Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 29.18

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

Summary: Examples from Genesis show that temptation reveals what was already in the heart: Eve's weakness, Cain's wickedness, Ham's impiety, Esau's profanity, and Joseph's self-control.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:392

εἰ δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ἱστορίας ἀναμνησθῆναι βουλόμεθα, ἰστέον ὅτι τὸ (τῆς Εὔας) εὐεξαπάτητον καὶ τὸ σαθρὸν τοῦ λογισμοῦ αὐτῆς οὐχ, ὅτε παρακούσασα τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ὄφεως ἤκουσεν, ὑπέστη ἀλλὰ καὶ πρότερον ὂν ἠλέγχθη, τοῦ ὄφεως διὰ τοῦτο αὐτῇ προσεληλυθότος, ἐπεὶ τῇ ἰδίᾳ φρονιμότητι ἀντελάβετο τῆς ἀσθενείας αὐτῆς. ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ ἐν τῷ Κάϊν πονηρία ἤρξατο γίνεσθαι, ὅτε „ἀπέκτεινε“ „τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ“ (καὶ πρότερον γὰρ „ἐπὶ τῷ Κάϊν καὶ ταῖς θυσίαις αὐτοῦ οὐ προσέσχεν“ „ὁ καρδιογνώστης θεὸς“), εἰς φανερὸν δὲ ἦλθεν ἡ κακία αὐτοῦ, ὅτε ἀνεῖλε τὸν Ἄβελ. ἀλλὰ καὶ εἰ μὴ πιὼν οὗ ἐγεώργησεν „οἴνου“ „ἐμεθύσθη“ ὁ Νῶε καὶ ἐ(γε)γύμνωτο, οὐκ ἂν ἀνεφάνη οὔτε ἡ τοῦ Χὰμ προπέτεια καὶ εἰς τὸν πατέρα ἀσέβεια οὔτε ἡ τῶν ἀδελφῶν αὐτοῦ σεμνότης καὶ αἰδὼς πρὸς τὸν γεγεννηκότα. καὶ ἡ κατὰ τοῦ Ἰακὼβ τοῦ Ἠσαῦ ἐπιβουλὴ πρόφασιν ἔδοξεν ἐσχηκέναι τὴν „τῆς εὐλογίας“ ἀφαίρεσιν, καὶ πρότερον δὲ τούτου ῥίζας τοῦ „πόρνος“ καὶ „βέβηλος“ εἶναι εἶχεν αὐτοῦ ἡ ψυχή· τήν τε λαμπρότητα τῆς τοῦ Ἰωσὴφ σωφροσύνης, παρεσκευασμένου πρὸς τὸ μὴ ἁλῶναι ὑπό τινος ἐπιθυμίας, οὐκ ἂν ἐγνώκειμεν, μὴ ἐρασθείσης αὐτοῦ τῆς δεσποίνης.

English · Claude translation

And if we wish to be reminded from the history too, we must know that Eve's readiness to be deceived and the unsoundness of her reasoning did not come into being when she disobeyed God and listened to the serpent, but existed before and was exposed; for the serpent came to her because by his own cunning he perceived her weakness. Nor did wickedness begin in Cain when he “killed” “his brother” (for even before, “the God who knows the heart” “had no regard for Cain and his sacrifices”); but his wickedness came into the open when he slew Abel. And if Noah had not drunk of the “wine” he had cultivated and become “drunk” and uncovered himself, neither Ham's rashness and impiety toward his father would have come to light, nor his brothers' reverence and modesty toward their father. And Esau's plot against Jacob seemed to have as its occasion the taking away “of the blessing,” but even before this his soul had the roots of being “sexually immoral” and “profane.” And we would not have known the splendor of Joseph's self-control, prepared as he was not to be taken by any desire, if his mistress had not fallen in love with him.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:392 · 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, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The references are Gen 3:1–6, Gen 4:5 and 4:8 (with Acts 15:8, “the God who knows the heart”), Gen 9:20–23, Gen 27:35–41 with Heb 12:16 (Esau “sexually immoral” and “profane”), and Gen 39:7–12.

Cite this passage

Origen, Or. 29.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/29/18/).

Plain text
Origen, Or. 29.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/29/18/).

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