Thanksgiving Address to Origen · §6.2 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

No true piety without philosophy; the sting of friendship

Origen teaches that there is no true piety without philosophy, and his words strike like a goad.

For he said, and rightly, that no one who has not practiced philosophy can be pious at all toward the Master of all. Piety is something that human beings alone, of all living creatures on earth, have been honored and judged worthy to possess; and with good reason every person, wise or ignorant, holds fast to it, unless he has lost his notions entirely through some derangement of mind. So he went on, pouring out one such argument after another, until at last, as if we were spellbound by his arts, he carried us and set us down beside him, simply unable to move, by his words and, I do not know how, with some divine power.

For he also drove into us the sting of friendship, not easy to fight off, but sharp and most effective: the sting of his kindness and good disposition, the goodwill toward us that showed in the very words he used as he spoke and talked with us. He was not trying merely to get the better of us with arguments. With a kindly, humane, and most generous purpose, he sought to save us and to make us sharers in the goods that come from philosophy, and most of all in those others which God had given to him alone above the many, perhaps even above everyone now living: the teacher of piety, the saving Word. That Word comes to many and overcomes all whom it meets, for nothing will stand against the One who is, and will be, King of all. Yet the Word is hidden, and most people do not come to know it, whether easily or with difficulty, well enough to say anything clear about it when asked.

Greek

Ὅλως γὰρ οὐδ᾽ εὐσεβεῖν εἰς τῶν ὅλων δεσπότην, τοῦτο ὃ δὴ μόνος τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς πάντων ζώων ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἔχειν ἐτιμήθη τε καὶ ἠξιώθη, καὶ εἰκότως πᾶς ὁστισοῦν καὶ σοφὸς καὶ ἀμαθὴς, περιέχεται τούτου, ὅστις μὴ παντελῶς τὰς ἐννοίας ἀπολώλεκεν ὑπό τινος φρενοβλαβείας. οὐ τοίνυν οὐδὲ εὐσεβεῖν ὅλως δυνατὸν εἶναι ἔφασκεν, ὀρθῶς λέγων, μὴ φιλοσοφήσαντι. ἕως πολλοὺς τοιούτους ἄλλους ἐπ᾽ ἄλλοις ἐπαντλῶν λόγους, ὥσπερ τινὰς καταγεγοητευμένους ἐπὶ τέλει ταῖς αὐτοῦ τέχναις ἀκινήτους ἀτεχνῶς, φέρων ἡμᾶς παρεδρύσατο, λόγοις τοῖς αὐτοῦ, οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅπως σύν τινι θείᾳ δυνάμει. καὶ γὰρ καὶ φιλίας ἡμῖν κέντρον ἐνέσκηψεν, οὐκ εὐκαταγώνιστόν τι, δριμὺ δὲ καὶ ἀνυτικώτατον, δεξιότητος καὶ διαθέσεως τῆς ἀγαθῆς, ὅση εὐνοητική τις ἡμῖν αὐταῖς φωναῖς αὐτοῦ προσφθεγγομένου καὶ ὁμιλοῦντος, ἐνεφαίνετο. οὐκ ἐκπεριεῖναι ἡμᾶς ἄλλως λόγοις πειρωμένου, δεξιᾷ δὲ καὶ φιλανθρώπῳ καὶ χρηστοτάτῃ γνώμῃ σώζειν τε καὶ κοινωνοὺς τῶν τε ἐκ φιλοσοφίας ἀγαθῶν καταστήσασθαι, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων μάλιστα ὅσα τὸ θεῖον παρὰ τοὺς πολλοὺς εἰ καὶ παρὰ πάντας ἴσως τοὺς νῦν ἀνθρώπους, αὐτῷ μόνῳ ἐδωρήσατο· τὸν διδάσκαλον εὐσεβείας, τὸν σωτήριον λόγον, πολλοῖς μὲν ἐπιφοιτῶντα, καὶ πάντας κατεργαζόμενον ὅσοις ἂν προστύχῃ· οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ὅτι αὐτῷ ἐνστήσεται, πάντων καὶ ὄντι καὶ ἐσομένῳ βασιλεῖ. κρυπτόμενον δὲ, καὶ οὐ γνωριζόμενον οὔτε ῥᾳδίως οὔτε δυσχερῶς τοῖς πολλοῖς, ὡς ἐρωτηθέντας ἔχειν περὶ αὐτοῦ σαφὲς εἰπεῖν.

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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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