Thanksgiving Address to Origen · §5.1 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Pagan childhood, his father's death, and the Word at fourteen

Gregory recalls his pagan upbringing, his father's death, and his first turn to the Word at fourteen.

My earliest upbringing, from birth, was in my parents' hands, and in our ancestral customs, which had gone astray. No one, I think, expected that we would ever be freed from them, and I myself had no hope of it, a child still without reason and living under a superstitious father. Then I lost my father and was left an orphan; and that, perhaps, was for me the beginning of the knowledge of the truth. For it was then that I was first brought over to the saving and true Word, I do not know how, compelled rather than of my own will. What judgment, after all, could I have had at fourteen? Yet from that time this sacred Word somehow began at once to come and dwell with me, seeing that the reason common to all human beings was only then reaching its fullness in me; and yet it came then for the first time.

Now, as I reckon it up, if not long ago, then at least now, I take this coincidence, so measured out by the years, as no small sign of the sacred and wonderful providence that has watched over me. Everything before that age, all the works of error, was to be put down to infancy and want of reason; the sacred Word was not to be handed over in vain to a soul not yet able to reason; and once the soul was becoming rational, it was not to be left empty, if not of the divine and pure Word, then at least of the fear that accords with this Word. Rather, human reason and the divine Word were to begin in me together: the divine giving help, by a power I cannot express but which is its own, and the human receiving help. When I think of this, it fills me with joy and fear at once. I am lifted up by how far I have been brought forward, yet I fear that, though I have been counted worthy of such gifts, I may still fall short of the end.

But somehow my speech has lingered over this part, wanting as it does to tell the wonderful ordering of my road to this man. Even so, I am hurrying on first, and briefly, to what comes next. I do not offer it as the praise owed to the one who ordered it so, nor as thanksgiving and devotion (let us not be tiresome, giving it such names and saying nothing worthy of them), but as an account and a confession, or under some humbler name of this kind.

Greek

Ἀνατροφαὶ γὰρ αἱ πρῶται ἐκ γενέσεως, ἦσαν ὑπὸ γονεῦσι. καὶ πάτρια ἔθη τὰ πεπλανημένα· ὧν ἡμᾶς ἐλευθερωθήσεσθαι, οὔτε ἄλλος οἶμαι προσεδόκησεν, οὔτε καὶ ἐμοὶ ἐλπίς τις ἦν παιδίῳ μὲν ὄντι καὶ ἀλόγῳ, ὑπὸ πατρὶ δὲ δεισιδαίμονι. εἶτα πατρὸς ἀποβολὴ καὶ ὀρφανία, ἣ δή μοι τάχα καὶ ἀρχὴ τῆς τοῦ ἀληθοῦς ἐπιγνώσεως ἦν. τότε γὰρ πρῶτον ἐπὶ τὸν σωτήριον καὶ ἀληθῆ μετετέθην λόγον, οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅπως, κατηναγκασμένος μᾶλλον ἤπερ ἑκών. τίς γὰρ ἐμοὶ κρίσις ἦν, ὄντι τεσσαρεσκαιδεκέτει; πλὴν ἐξ ἐκείνου πως ἐπιδημεῖν μέν μοι ὁ ἱερὸς ὅδε λόγος ἤρξατο εὐθὺς, οἷα δὴ ἄρτι πληρουμένου τοῦ κοινοῦ πάντων ἀνθρώπων λόγου, ἐπεδήμει δ᾽ ὅμως τότε πρῶτον. ὃ δὴ καὶ οὐ μικρὸν, εἰ καὶ μὴ πάλαι, νῦν γοῦν ἀναλογιζόμενος ἐγὼ, σύμβολον τίθεμαι τῆς ἱερᾶς καὶ θαυμαστῆς περὶ ἐμὲ προνοίας, τὴν συνδρομὴν ταύτην, οὕτως τοῖς ἔτεσι διηριθμημένην, ἵνα τὰ μὲν φθάνοντα πάντα τοῦδε τῆς ἡλικίας, ὅσα πλάνης ἦν ἔργα, νηπιότητι καὶ ἀλογίᾳ παραδεδομένα ᾖ. μὴ μάτην δὲ ἱερὸς παραδεδόσθαι λόγῳ, ψυχῇ οὐδέπω λογικῇ. λογικῇ δὲ ἤδη γινομένῃ, εἰ καὶ μὴ λόγου θείου, καὶ καθαροῦ, φόβου γοῦν τοῦ κατὰ τὸν λόγον τόνδε, μὴ ἔρημος ᾖ· ἀλλ᾽ ὁμοῦ ὅτε ἀνθρώπινος καὶ ὁ θεῖος ἄρξηται ἐν ἐμοὶ λόγος· ὁ μὲν, βοηθῶν, τῇ ἀλέκτῳ μὲν ἐμοὶ, οἰκείᾳ δὲ αὐτοῦ δυνάμει. ὁ δὲ, βοηθούμενος. ὃ δὴ λογιζόμενος, εὐφροσύνης ὁμοῦ καὶ δέους ἀναπίπλησί με μεγαλυνόμενον μὲν, τῇ προαγωγῇ, φοβούμενον δὲ, μή πῃ καὶ τοιούτων ἀξιωθεὶς, τοῦ τέλους ὁμοίως σφαλῶ. ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅπως ἐνεβράδυνέ μοι τῷδε τῷ μέρει ὁ λόγος, τὴν θαυμαστὴν οἰκονομίαν πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα τόνδε ὁδοῦ διηγήσασθαι θέλων. σπεύδων δὲ ὅμως πρότερον καὶ βραχυλογούμενος ἐπὶ τάδε τὰ ἑξῆς, οὐχ ὡς εὐφημίαν ὀφειλομένην τῷ οὕτως οἰκονομήσαντι ἀποδιδοὺς, ἢ εὐχαριστίαν καὶ εὐσέβειαν. (μὴ φορτικοὶ μὲν οὕτως ὀνομάζοντες μὲν, ἄξιον δὲ λέγοντες οὐδέν·) ἀλλ᾽ ὡς διήγησιν καὶ ὁμολογίαν, ἤ τι τῶν ἐπιεικεστέρων τούτων ὀνομάτων ποιούμενος.

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