Thanksgiving Address to Origen · §3.2 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

No one can thank God as he deserves

Silence helps no one; Gregory will give what thanks he can, knowing that no one can thank God worthily.

For total silence is truly useless, hiding behind the plausible excuse of being unable to say anything worthy, while the attempt to make some return is always the mark of a grateful mind, even if the power of the one returning the favor falls short of what is deserved. For I will not keep silent because I cannot speak as the subject deserves. Rather, if I fulfill all that is in my power, I shall even take pride in it.

Let this speech of mine, then, be a thank-offering. I would not presume to say that it is offered to the God of the universe, although it is from him that all the beginnings of good things come to us, and it is with him too that we ought to begin our thanksgivings, hymns and praises. But even if I offered my whole self, not as I am now, profane and impure, mixed and soiled with a foul and unclean evil, but my very self laid bare, as pure, bright and clean as could be, unmixed with anything worse; even if, I say, I brought and gave my whole self bare, as though I were newly born, I could still bring no gift of my own worthy to honor and repay the Ruler and Cause of all. No one could ever praise him worthily, neither each person on his own, nor all together, not even if all things became, as it were, one and the same, all pure, going out of themselves and turning instead to him, gathered in one spirit and with one impulse, in harmony.

For even if any of his creatures could think of him in the best and fullest way, and could, if it may be said, speak of him as he deserves, still, for that very power, which he has been granted, receiving it not from anyone else but from him, there is no way he could find anything greater anywhere to offer in thanks.

Greek

Ἄχρηστον γὰρ ἀληθῶς ἡ παντελὴς σιωπὴ, ὑπὸ πιθανῷ τῷ τοῦ μὴ δύνασθαι ἄξιόν τι λέγειν προκαλύμματι, εὐγνώμων δὲ ἡ πεῖρα ἡ πρὸς τὰς ἀμοιβὰς ἀεὶ, κἂν ἥττων τῆς ἀξίας δύναμις τοῦ τὴν χάριν ἀναφέροντος ᾖ. οὐ γὰρ εἰ μὴ κατ᾽ ἀξίαν οἷός τέ εἰμι λέγειν σιωπήσομαι· ἀλλ᾽ εἰ ἀποπλήσω πάνθ᾽ ἅ μοι δυνατόν ἐστι, καὶ σεμνυνοῦμαι. ἔστω δή μοι ὁ λόγος ὅδε χαριστήριος, Θεῷ μὲν τῷ τῶν ὅλων, οὐκ ἂν ἐθελήσαιμι λέγειν. καίτοι γε ἐκεῖθεν ἡμῖν πᾶσαι μὲν αἱ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀρχαὶ, ἐκεῖθεν δὲ καὶ ἡμᾶς τῶν εὐχαριστιῶν ἢ ὕμνων καὶ αἴνων, ἄρχεσθαι χρή. ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐδ᾽ εἰ ὅλον ἐμαυτὸν, μὴ οἷος μὲν νῦν εἰμι βέβηλος καὶ ἀκάθαρτος, ἀναμεμιγμένος καὶ πεφυρμένος παναγεῖ, καὶ ἀκαθάρτῳ κακῷ· γυμνὸν δὲ αὐτὸν ὅτι καθαρώτατον λαμπρότατόν τε καὶ εἰλικρινέστατον, καὶ ἀμιγῆ παντὸς χείρονος· οὐδ᾽ εἰ ὅλον φημὶ γυμνὸν, ὥσπερ τινὰ γινόμενον φέρων ἐπιδοίην, φέροιμι ἄν τι παρ᾽ ἐμαυτοῦ δῶρον ἄξιον εἰς τιμὴν καὶ ἀμοιβὴν τῷ πάντων ἡγεμόνι καὶ αἰτίῳ· ὃν οὔτε ἰδίᾳ ἕκαστος πώποτε, οὔτε καὶ ἅμα πάντες, ὡσεὶ ἓν καὶ ταὐτὸ γένοιντο πάντα καθαρά· αὑτῶν μὲν ἐκστάντα, πρὸς αὐτὸν δὲ ἐπιστρέψαντα μᾶλλον, ἀθρόα ἑνὶ πνεύματι, καὶ μιᾷ ὁρμῇ τῇ συμφωνίᾳ ἀξίως ἂν εὐφημῆσαι δύναιντο. ὅτι γὰρ τῶν αὐτοῦ δημιουργημάτων καὶ διανοηθῆναί τις ἄριστα καὶ ὁλοκλήρως, καὶ εἰ οἷόν τε εἰπεῖν, κατ᾽ ἀξίαν περὶ αὐτοῦ δυνηθείη· αὐτῆς δὲ τῆς δυνάμεως ἕνεκεν ἧς ἠξίωται οὐ παρ᾽ ἄλλου του, παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ δὲ λαβὼν, οὐκ ἔσθ᾽ ὅπως ἂν ἄλλο τι μεῖζον ποθὲν εὐπορήσας εἰς εὐχαριστίαν ἀναθείη.

Report a mistake in this passage

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.

Report a mistake