On Prayer 29.2
Summary: Scripture teaches that all life on earth is a trial; God does not spare us temptation but keeps it within our strength, whether we wrestle against the flesh or, as the mature do, against spiritual powers.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:382
ὅτι δὲ „πειρατήριον“ πᾶς „ὁ“ „ἐπὶ γῆς“ ἀνθρώπινος „βίος, “ ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἰὼβ μεμαθήκαμεν διὰ τούτων· „πότερον οὐχὶ πειρατήριόν ἐστιν ὁ βίος τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐπὶ γῆς;“ καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑπτακαιδεκάτου ψαλμοῦ τὸ αὐτὸ δηλοῦται ἐν τῷ· „ἐν σοὶ ῥυσθήσομαι ἀπὸ πειρατηρίου.“ ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ Παῦλος Κορινθίοις γράφων οὐχὶ τὸ μὴ πειράζεσθαι ἀλλὰ τὸ μὴ παρὰ δύναμιν πειράζεσθαί φησι χαρίζεσθαι τὸν θεὸν, λέγων· „πειρασμὸς ὑμᾶς οὐκ εἴληφεν εἰ μὴ ἀνθρώπινος· πιστὸς δὲ ὁ θεὸς, (ὃς) οὐκ ἐάσει ὑμᾶς πειρασθῆναι ὑπὲρ ὃ δύνασθε, ἀλλὰ ποιήσει σὺν τῷ πειρασμῷ καὶ τὴν ἔκβασιν τοῦ δύνασθαι ὑπενεγκεῖν.“ εἴτε γὰρ „ἡ πάλη“ „ἐστὶ“ „πρὸς“ τὴν ἐπιθυμοῦσαν ἢ στρατευομένην „κατὰ τοῦ πνεύματος“ „σάρκα“ ἢ πρὸς τὴν ψυχὴν „πάσης σαρκὸς“ (ἥτις ἐστὶν ὁμωνύμως ᾧ ἐγκατοικεῖ σώματι τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν, ὃ καλεῖται καρδία), ὁποία ἐστὶν „ἡ πάλη“ τοῖς τοὺς ἀνθρωπίνους πειραζομένοις πειρασμοὺς, εἴτε ὡς διαβεβηκόσι καὶ τελεωτέροις ἀθληταῖς, οὐκέτι „πρὸς αἷμα καὶ σάρκα“ παλαίουσιν οὐδὲ ἐν τοῖς ἀνθρωπίνοις πειρασμοῖς ἐξεταζομένοις, οὓς καταπεπατήκασιν ἤδη, „πρὸς τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰς ἐξουσίας καὶ τοὺς κοσμοκράτορας τοῦ σκότους τούτου καὶ τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας“ ἐστὶν ἡμῖν τὰ ἀγωνίσματα, τοῦ πειράζεσθαι οὐκ ἀπηλλάγμεθα.
English · Claude translation
That the whole of human “life” “on earth” is “a trial” we have learned from Job in these words: “Is not the life of men on earth a trial?” And the same is shown in the seventeenth psalm by the words, “In you I shall be delivered from trial.” And Paul too, writing to the Corinthians, says that God grants not that we are not tempted, but that we are not tempted beyond our strength: “No temptation has seized you except what is human; and God is faithful, who will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way out, so that you may be able to endure it.” For whether “the wrestling” “is” “against” the “flesh” that desires or wars “against the Spirit,” or against the soul “of all flesh” (which is the ruling faculty, called the heart, named after the body in which it dwells), such as is “the wrestling” for those tempted with human temptations; or whether, as for athletes who have advanced and are more perfect, who no longer wrestle “against blood and flesh” nor are tested in human temptations, which they have already trampled underfoot, our contests are “against the principalities and the powers and the world-rulers of this darkness and the spiritual forces of wickedness”—we have not been freed from being tempted.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Job 7:1 (LXX), Ps 18:29 (17:30 LXX; Origen gives the Greek number), 1 Cor 10:13, Gal 5:17, and Eph 6:12. The parenthesis on the soul called “heart” is compressed and its exact sense uncertain.
Cite this passage
Origen, Or. 29.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/29/2/).
Plain text
Origen, Or. 29.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-oratione/29/2/).
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