Thanksgiving Address to Origen · §13 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Read every writer except those who deny God

Origen had them read every philosopher and poet except those who deny God, so that no single doctrine would hold them captive.

Beyond all his other diligence and zeal, how could I set out in words his teaching on theology and the reverent care he brought to it? How could I enter into the man's very disposition and show with what judgment and what preparation he wanted us to learn thoroughly all that has been said about the divine, taking care that we should never run into danger over the most necessary thing of all, the knowledge of the Cause of all things? For he thought it right that we should study philosophy by reading, with all our strength, every writing of the ancients, whether philosophers or poets, setting nothing aside and rejecting nothing, since we were not yet able even to judge, except the writings of the atheists, who have fallen away even from the common notions of humankind and say that there is no God and no providence. These are not worth reading, so that our soul, which is meant to be devout, should not be stained even slightly by hearing words opposed to the worship of God. After all, people do not think it fitting to piety for those who go up to the temples to touch anything profane at all. The books of such men, then, are not worth even counting among people who have chosen to live devoutly. But all the rest he wanted us to read and engage with, preferring no single school or philosophical doctrine and rejecting none, whether Greek or barbarian, but listening to them all. This was wise and very skillful. He did not want some one teaching of this party or that, heard and honored by itself alone, to slip into our soul as the only truth, even if it should happen not to be true, and so deceive us, shaping us to itself and making us its own, so that we could no longer break away from it or wash it out, like wool dyed with a dye that will not run. For human argument is a formidable and supple thing, intricate with its sophistries and quick to rush into the ears, to stamp the mind and fix itself there; and once it has persuaded those it has seized, it is loved as true and stays inside, even if it is false and deceitful, like a sorcerer in control, with the very man it has deceived as its champion. And the human soul in turn is easily deceived by argument and quick to give its assent. Before it has weighed and tested a thing in every way, it is often ready, through its own dullness and weakness, or because the subtlety of the argument has made it weary of testing it closely, to hand itself over too easily to false arguments and doctrines, which are themselves astray and lead astray those who hold them. And not only that: even if another argument should want to set it right, it no longer admits it or lets itself be persuaded, but clings to the one already within it, as though some tyrant deaf to every plea had mastered it.

Greek

Ἐπὶ τῇ ἄλλῃ πάσῃ φιλοπονίᾳ καὶ σπουδῇ, τὴν περὶ θεολογίας διδασκαλίαν καὶ εὐλάβειαν πῶς ἂν ἐξέλθοιμι τῷ λόγῳ, εἰς αὐτὴν τὴν διάθεσιν εἰσδὺς τοῦ ἀνδρός, σὺν οἵᾳ γνώμῃ καὶ παρασκευῇ τοὺς περὶ τοῦ θείου πάντας ἐκμανθάνειν ἡμᾶς ἤθελε λόγους, φυλαττόμενος μή πῃ κινδυνεύσαιμεν περὶ τὸ ἀναγκαιότατον ἁπάντων, τὴν τοῦ πάντων αἰτίου γνῶσιν; φιλοσοφεῖν μὲν γὰρ ἠξίου, ἀναλεγομένους τῶν ἀρχαίων πάντα ὅσα καὶ φιλοσόφων καὶ ὑμνῳδῶν ἐστι γράμματα πάσῃ δυνάμει, μηδὲν ἐκποιουμένους, μηδ' ἀποδοκιμάζοντας (οὐδέπω γὰρ οὐδὲ τὴν κρίσιν ἔχειν ἐδυνάμεθα), πλὴν ὅσα τῶν ἀθέων εἴη, ὅσοι ἐκκυλισθέντες ὁμοῦ καὶ τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ἐννοιῶν, οὐκ εἶναι Θεὸν ἢ πρόνοιαν λέγουσι· ταῦτα γὰρ οὔτ' ἀναγινώσκειν ἄξιον, ἵνα μηδ' ἐν τῷ τυχόντι μολύνοιθ' ἡμῖν ἡ ψυχή, εὐσεβεῖν μέλλουσα, λόγων δὲ ἀκούουσα ὑπεναντίων τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ θεραπείᾳ· οὐδὲ γὰρ τοὺς τοῖς ναοῖς προσιόντας, εὐσεβείας εἶναι οἴονται, ἐφάπτεσθαί τινος ὅλως τῶν βεβήλων. τὰ τούτων τοίνυν οὐδ' ὅλως οὐδὲ ἀριθμεῖσθαι ἄξιον παρ' ἀνδράσιν εὐσεβεῖν ἐπανελομένοις· τοῖς δὲ λοιποῖς πᾶσιν ἐντυγχάνειν καὶ προσομιλεῖν, γένος μὲν οὐδὲ ἕν, οὐδὲ λόγον φιλόσοφον προτιμήσαντας, οὔτε αὖ ἀποδοκιμάσαντας, οὔτε Ἑλληνικὸν οὔτε βάρβαρον, πάντων δὲ ἀκούοντας. σοφῶς τοῦτο καὶ μάλα ἐντέχνως· μή πῃ εἷς τις καὶ καθ' ἑαυτὸν τῶνδέ τινων ἢ τῶνδε λόγος, αὐτὸς μόνος ἀκουσθεὶς καὶ τιμηθείς, κἂν μὴ ἀληθινὸς ὢν τύχῃ, ὡς μόνος ἀληθὴς ὤν, εἰσδὺς εἰς τὴν ψυχὴν ἡμῶν ἐξαπατήσῃ, καὶ καθ' ἑαυτὸν διαθεὶς ἰδίους ἡμᾶς ποιήσηται, οὐκέτ' ἀποστῆναι δυναμένους, οὐδὲ ἀποπλύνασθαι, ὥσπερ τὰ δευσοποιόν τινα βαφὴν βαφέντα τῶν ἐρίων. δεινόν τε γὰρ χρῆμα καὶ εὔστροφον λόγος ὁ ἀνθρώπων, ποικίλος τε τοῖς σοφίσμασι, καὶ ὀξὺς εἰσδραμὼν εἰς τὰς ἀκοάς, τυπῶσαί τε τὸν νοῦν καὶ προθέσθαι, καὶ ἀναπείσας τοὺς ἅπαξ ἁρπασθέντας, ὡς ἀληθὴς ἀγαπᾶσθαι, καὶ μένειν ἔνδον, κἂν ψευδὴς καὶ ἀπατηλὸς ᾖ, ὥσπερ τις γόης κρατῶν, ὑπέρμαχον ἔχων αὐτὸν τὸν ἠπατημένον. εὐεξαπάτητόν τε πάλιν ὑπὸ λόγου καὶ εὔκολον πρὸς συγκατάθεσιν ψυχὴ ἀνθρώπου, ἑτοίμη τε, πρὶν διακρίνῃ καὶ ἐξετάσῃ πάντα τρόπον, ὑπὸ ἀμβλύτητος καὶ ἀσθενείας τῆς ἰδίας, ἢ ὑπὸ λεπτότητος τῆς τοῦ λόγου πρὸς τὴν ἀκρίβειαν τῆς ἐξετάσεως ἀποκαμοῦσαν, ἑαυτὴν ἀπραγμονέστερον παραδιδόναι πολλάκις ψευδέσι λόγοις καὶ δόγμασι, πεπλανημένοις μὲν αὐτοῖς, πλανῶσι δὲ καὶ τοὺς ἐσχηκότας· καὶ οὐ τοῦτο μόνον, ἀλλὰ κἂν ἐπανορθοῦν ἕτερος ἐθέλοι λόγος, οὐκέτι προσιεμένη οὐδὲ μεταπειθομένη, τοῦ δὲ ἐν αὐτῇ περιεχομένη, ὥσπερ τινὸς τυράννου ἀπαραιτήτου αὐτῆς κεκρατηκότος.

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About this text

Gregory's farewell speech to his teacher Origen: how a pagan boy bound for law school in Berytus was led to Caesarea, how Origen taught him logic, natural science, ethics and the reading of Scripture, and his grief at leaving. A fresh English translation of the whole address.

Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 213–c. 270) wrote this address to his teacher Origen. The speech is an expression of thanks and praise, though Gregory feels inadequate to the task of honoring his teacher.

The occasion is Gregory's farewell to Origen's school at Caesarea. He begins by explaining that he has neither spoken nor written for eight years, and has only listened to philosophers who value accurate investigation over polished speech. He then tells how a guardian angel led him, a pagan boy bound for law studies in Berytus, to Origen, and how Origen trained him in logic, natural science, ethics and the reading of Scripture. He ends by lamenting his departure and asking Origen to pray for him.

A reader will meet Gregory himself as the speaker, and Origen as the subject of the speech. Origen is described as a man who appears human, but to those who can perceive the greatness of his character and habits, seems endowed with greater and nearly divine ornaments.

The opening section (to the point where Gregory turns to his subject) was translated from the Latin column of the Opera omnia print (Paris, 1622). Everything after it, to the closing prayer, was translated from that print's Greek column, read from the page images; the facing Latin was used to settle damaged or abbreviated words. Where the print is hard to construe, a few readings follow Koetschau's edition (1894); each one is named in the translator notes. The older Ante-Nicene Fathers English was used only as a sense check for the opening section.

Printed text used

Translated from Opera omnia, Greek and Latin (Paris: Sonnius, Morel and Cramoisy, 1622), page images (Greek and Latin · Whole address: Latin column for section 1, Greek column for sections 2.1-19)
Translated from Latin of the opening section (Latin · Section 1)
Also checked DjVu text of the same print (Latin and Greek (machine-read text) · Opening)

Where the prints differ

Section 1 — Translated from the Latin column; the Greek of this opening was not used. Long-s and column joins expanded (ductu; nec aut scripsi; historiamve; arte nostra); the editor's argument and notes left out.
Sections 5.1, 5.3 and 6.2 — Abbreviated words read from the page images and the facing Latin: 'father' (πατρός), 'toward our sister' (πρὸς τὴν ἀδελφήν), 'through the whole of this life' (διὰ παντός), 'handing over his charge' (τὴν οἰκονομίαν παραδιδούς), 'with difficulty' (δυσχερῶς).
Section 6.3 — The print's doubtful participle (βλέψαν) is rendered with Koetschau's reading βλάψαν ('without doing it any harm').
Sections 7.2 and 8 — The print runs one sentence across the break; it is translated once, at the start of section 8, where Koetschau begins chapter 8.

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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