Thanksgiving Address to Origen · §6.1 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Origen urges them toward philosophy

From the first day Origen works to hold the young men and urges them toward philosophy.

He received us from the first day, truly the first day for me, the most precious of all my days, if I may say so, when the true sun first began to rise on me. At first we were like wild beasts, or fish, or birds that have fallen into snares or nets and try to slip out and run away: we wanted to leave him for Berytus or for our homeland. But he contrived in every way to bind us, turning every argument, moving every rope, as the proverb has it, and bringing all his powers to bear. He praised philosophy and the lovers of philosophy with long and many and fitting praises. He said that they alone truly live the life fit for rational beings who take care to live rightly, knowing first of all themselves, what they are, and then the things that are truly good, which a human being must pursue, and the things that are truly evil, which one must flee.

He censured ignorance and all the ignorant. And there are many of them: people blind in mind like cattle, who do not know even what they themselves are, who wander like creatures without reason, neither knowing at all what good or evil is, nor willing to learn. As if toward the good, they rush and flutter after money, fame, honors from the crowd, and bodily health. They prize these highly, indeed as everything, and with them the arts that can provide them and the ways of life that will supply them: soldiering, pleading in the courts, and the study of law. He spoke most of all, and with great skill, about these very things that had stirred us, saying that we had neglected what is most sovereign in us, reason.

I cannot now tell how many such appeals he made, urging us to study philosophy, not on one day only but on many, as many as we came to him in those first days. We were struck by his word as by an arrow from the very first, for it was blended with a certain sweet grace and persuasion, and with a kind of compulsion. Yet we still wavered and kept reasoning it over. We kept at philosophy, though we were not yet wholly persuaded; but somehow we could not draw back again, and we were always being drawn to him by his words, as if by some greater compulsion.

Greek

Ὃς δ᾽ ὑποδεξάμενος ἐξ ἡμέρας τῆς πρώτης, τῆς ὄντως ἐμοὶ πρώτης, τῆς τιμιωτάτης πασῶν, εἰ δεῖ λέγειν, ἡμερῶν, ὅτε μοι πρῶτον ὁ ἀληθινὸς ἀνατέλλειν ἥλιος ἤρξατο· πρῶτον μὲν ὥσπερ θῆράς τινας ἀγρίους ἢ ἰχθύας, ἢ τινὰς ὄρνεις, ἐμπεσόντας μὲν εἰς τὰς ἄρκυς ἢ εἰς τὰς σαγήνας, ἐξολισθαίνειν δὲ καὶ ἀποδιδράσκειν πειρωμένους, ἀναχωρεῖν τε ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ βουλομένους ἐπὶ τὴν Βηρυτὸν, ἢ ἐπὶ τὴν πατρίδα, συνδῆσαι πάντα τρόπον ἐμηχανήσατο· πάντας λόγους στρέφων, καὶ πάντα κάλων, τὸ δὴ τοῦ λόγου, κινῶν, καὶ πάσας τὰς δυνάμεις προσχειριζόμενος. ἐπαινῶν μὲν φιλοσοφίαν, καὶ τοὺς φιλοσοφίας ἐραστὰς, μακροῖς τοῖς ἐπαίνοις καὶ πολλοῖς τισί τε προσήκουσι, τούτους μόνους ζῆν ὄντως τὸν λογικοῖς προσήκοντα βίον, λέγων, τοὺς ὀρθῶς βιοῦν ἐπιτηδεύοντας, ἑαυτούς τε γινώσκοντας πρῶτον οἵτινές εἰσι· κἄπειτα τὰ ὄντως ἀγαθὰ ἃ μεταδιώκειν ἄνθρωπον χρὴ, καὶ τὰ ἀληθῶς κακὰ ὧν ἀποφεύγειν δεῖ. ψέγων δὲ τὴν ἀμαθίαν, καὶ πάντας τοὺς ἀμαθεῖς· πολλοὶ δὲ οὗτοι ὅσοι θρεμμάτων δίκην τυφλώττοντες τὸν νοῦν, οὐδ᾽ αὐτὸ τοῦτο ὅπερ εἰσὶν, ἐγνωκότες, ὥσπερ ἄλογοι πεπλανημένοι, ἀγαθὸν ἢ κακὸν ὅ, τι ποτέ ἐστιν, ὅλως οὔτε εἰδότες αὐτοὶ, οὔτε μαθεῖν θέλοντες, ὡς ἐπὶ ἀγαθὸν ἄττουσι καὶ ἐπτόηνται, χρήματα καὶ δόξας καὶ τιμὰς τὰς ἀπὸ τῶν πολλῶν καὶ τὴν τοῦ σώματος εὐεξίαν· αὐτά τε περὶ πολλοῦ καὶ τοῦ παντὸς τεθέμενοι, καὶ τῶν τεχνῶν ὅσαι ταῦτα ἐκπορίζεσθαι δύνανται, καὶ τῶν βίων ὅσοι ταῦτα παρέξονται, στρατείας καὶ τὴν δικανικὴν καὶ τὴν ἐκμάθησιν τῶν νόμων. ταῦθ᾽ ἅπερ ἡμᾶς ἀνέσειε, μάλιστα λέγων καὶ μάλα τεχνικῶς, τοῦ κυριωτάτου φησὶ τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν λόγου ἀμελήσαντας· οὐκ ἔχω νῦν ἐγὼ λέγειν, ὅσας τοιαύτας ἐξήνεγκε φωνὰς προτρέπων φιλοσοφεῖν· οὐ μιᾶς ἡμέρας μόνης, ἀλλὰ καὶ πλειόνων ὅσων αὐτῷ προσῄειμεν τῶν πρώτων, βεβλημένοι μὲν ὥσπερ τινὶ βέλει τῷ παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ λόγῳ καὶ ἐκ πρώτης ἡλικίας. ἦν γάρ πως καὶ ἡδείᾳ τινὶ χάριτι καὶ πειθοῖ καί τινι ἀνάγκῃ μεμιγμένος. στρεφόμενοι δέ πως ἔτι καὶ λογιζόμενοι, καὶ φιλοσοφεῖν μὲν προσκαρτερήσαντες, οὐδέπω πάντῃ πεπεισμένοι· ἀφίστασθαι δὲ πάλιν οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅπως οὐ δυνάμενοι· ἀεὶ δὲ ὥσπερ ὑπό τισιν ἀνάγκαις μείζοσι τοῖς λόγοις αὐτοῦ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἑλκόμενοι.

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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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