Thanksgiving Address to Origen · §9 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Ethics: the soul sees itself and the virtues take root

Origen turns to ethics, teaching the soul to know itself and urging the virtues more by his deeds than by his words.

Then came the highest things of all, the chief reason why the whole tribe of philosophers labors, gathering good fruit, as it were, from a varied planting of every other study and of a long course of philosophy: the divine virtues of character. From them the impulses of the soul come into a calm and steady state, and they were going to make us free from grief and untouched by any evil, well ordered, steady, godlike and truly blessed. These too he worked at with discourses of his own, calming and wise and, not least, most needful, about our characters and our ways of life. And not with words alone: already, in a way, he steered our impulses by deeds as well, through the very study and observation of the impulses and passions of the soul. For once this is thoroughly grasped, our soul is by nature set right out of discord and brought from confusion to discernment and order. The aim was that the soul should look at itself as in a mirror: at the very beginnings and roots of evil, the whole irrational part of itself, from which unnatural passions rise up in us; and again at its best part, the rational, under whose rule it suffers no harm from itself and stays free of passion. Then, having observed these things in itself with care, it was to cast out and clear away everything that springs from the worse part, which either pours us out in license or cramps and chokes us in abjectness: pleasures and desires, griefs and fears, and the whole train of evils that follows these kinds. It was to rise against them while they are still beginning and just sprouting, and not let them grow even a little, but destroy them and wipe them out. Whatever good things rise in us from the better part, it was to nurture and preserve, nursing them from their beginning and guarding them until they reach maturity. For in this way, he said, the divine virtues may at last come to the soul: prudence, which can first judge these very movements of the soul, once knowledge has come from them of the goods and evils outside us as well, if there are any; self-control, the power that rightly chooses these things at their beginnings; justice, which gives each what is due; and courage, the safeguard of them all.

So he did not train us with recited words, as though prudence were ‘knowledge of goods and evils, or of what should be done and what should not’. That is an empty and useless lesson if the word stands apart from deeds, and prudence does not do what should be done and turn away from what should not, but only lets those who have it know these things, as we see so many do. So too with self-control, as though it were ‘a knowledge of what is to be chosen and what is not’: the other philosophers hardly teach it at all, especially the more recent ones. Vigorous and forceful in argument they are (I have often marveled at them when they prove that God and men have the same virtue, and that on earth the wise man is equal to God in the highest things), but they cannot hand on prudence so that a person actually does what prudence requires, nor self-control so that a person actually chooses what he has learned. The same holds for justice, and for courage too. This man did not go through the virtues with us like that, in words; he urged us rather toward the deeds, and he urged us more by what he did than by what he said.

Greek

Ἃ δὲ ἁπάντων ἐστὶ κορυφαιότατα, καὶ ὧν μάλιστα ἕνεκα πᾶν τὸ φιλόσοφον διαπονεῖται γένος, ὥσπερ ἐκ φυτείας ποικίλης τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων μαθημάτων καὶ φιλοσοφίας μακρᾶς καρποὺς ἀγαθοὺς ἐκδεχόμενον, τὰς θείας ἀρετὰς τὰς περὶ ἦθος, ἐξ ὧν ἡ ἀτάραχος καὶ εὐσταθὴς τῶν ὁρμῶν τῆς ψυχῆς κατάστασις γίνεται· καὶ ἀλύπους μὲν καὶ ἀπαθεῖς ἁπάντων κακῶν, εὐτάκτους δὲ καὶ εὐσταθεῖς καὶ θεοειδεῖς ἤμελλεν ἡμᾶς ὄντως καὶ μακαρίους καταστήσεσθαι. καὶ ταῦτα δὲ ἐξεπονεῖτο λόγοις τε ἰδίοις πραΰνουσι καὶ σοφοῖς, οὐχ ἥκιστα καὶ ἀναγκαιοτάτοις, περὶ τῶν ἠθῶν καὶ τῶν τρόπων ἡμῶν. καὶ οὐ λόγοις μόνον, ἀλλ' ἤδη καὶ ἔργοις τρόπον τινὰ διεκυβερνᾶτο παρ' ἡμῶν τὰς ὁρμάς, αὐτῇ τῇ τῶν ὁρμῶν καὶ παθῶν τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς θεωρίᾳ καὶ κατανοήσει· ἐξ ἧς μάλιστα κατεγνωσμένης κατορθοῦσθαι ἐξ ἀναρμοστίας πέφυκεν ἡμῶν ἡ ψυχή, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ κεκριμένον καὶ εὔτακτον ἐκ συγκεχυμένης μετατίθεσθαι· ἵν' ὥσπερ ἐν κατόπτρῳ ἑαυτὴν θεωρήσασα, αὐτὰς τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ ῥίζας τῶν κακῶν, τὸ ἄλογον αὐτῆς πᾶν, ἐξ οὗ τὰ ἄτοπα ἡμῖν ἐπανίσταται πάθη· καὶ πάλιν ὅσον ἄριστον αὐτῆς μέρος λογικόν, ὑφ' οὗ κρατοῦντος μένει γε ὑφ' ἑαυτῆς ἀβλαβὴς καὶ ἀπαθής· εἶτα ταῦτα ἐν αὐτῇ κατανοήσασα ἀκριβῶς, πάντα μὲν τὰ ἐκ τοῦ χείρονος ἐκφυόμενα, ἐκχέοντα ἡμᾶς ὑπὸ ἀκολασίας, ἢ συστέλλοντα καὶ συμπνίγοντα ὑπὸ ταπεινότητος, οἷον ἡδονὰς καὶ ἐπιθυμίας, ἢ λύπας καὶ φόβους, καὶ ὅσος τοῖς γένεσι τοῖσδε ἕπεται στοῖχος κακῶν, ταῦτα μὲν ἐκβάλλοι καὶ ἐκποδὼν ποιοῖτο, ἔτι ἀρχομένοις καὶ ἄρτι φυομένοις ἐπανισταμένη, καὶ οὐκ ἐῶσα οὐδὲ μικρὸν αὔξειν, ἀλλ' ἀπολλύουσα καὶ ἐξαφανίζουσα· ὅσα δὲ ἐκ τοῦ κρείττονος ἀνατέλλει ἡμῖν ἀγαθὰ ὄντα, ταῦτα ἐκτρέφοι τε καὶ διασώζοι, καὶ ἀρχόμενα τιθηνοῦσα καὶ συμφυλάττουσα ἄχρι τελειότητος. οὕτω γὰρ ἄν ποτε παραγενέσθαι ψυχῇ τὰς θείας ἀρετάς· φρόνησίν τε τὴν αὐτὰ ταῦτα τῆς ψυχῆς τὰ κινήματα κρίνειν πρῶτον δυναμένην, ἐξ αὐτῶν καὶ τῆς περὶ τὰ ἔξω ἡμῶν, εἴ τινά ἐστιν, ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν ἐπιστήμης γενομένης· καὶ σωφροσύνην, τὴν ταῦτα ἐν ἀρχαῖς ὀρθῶς αἱρουμένην δύναμιν· καὶ δικαιοσύνην, ἣ τὰ ἄξια ἑκάστοις ἀπονέμει· καὶ τὴν πάντων τούτων σωτηρίαν, ἀνδρείαν. Οὐ λόγοις τοίνυν ἀπαγγελλομένοις συνείθιζεν, ὡς δὴ εἴη ἐπιστήμη ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν, ἢ ποιητέων καὶ οὐ ποιητέων, ἡ φρόνησις· τοῦτο δὴ τὸ κενὸν καὶ ἀνωφελὲς μάθημα, εἰ ὁ λόγος εἴη τῶν ἔργων δίχα, καὶ φρόνησις οὐχὶ ποιοῦσα τὰ ποιητά, καὶ ἀποτρέπουσα τῶν οὐ ποιητῶν, γινώσκειν δὲ ταῦτα παρεχομένη τοῖς ἔχουσιν αὐτήν, οἵους πολλοὺς ὁρῶμεν. ἡ δὲ σωφροσύνη πάλιν, ὅτι δὴ εἴη τις ἐπιστήμη αἱρετῶν καὶ οὐχ αἱρετῶν, οὐ πάνυ τι διδασκόντων αὐτὴν τῶν ἄλλων φιλοσόφων, καὶ μάλιστά γε τῶν νεωτέρων, ὄντων μὲν εὐτόνων καὶ ἐρρωμένων τοῖς λόγοις (οἵους ἐγὼ πολλάκις ἐθαύμασα, ὅταν τὴν αὐτὴν ἀρετὴν Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων, καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς τὰ πρῶτα Θεῷ ἴσον εἶναι τὸν σοφὸν ἄνθρωπον ἀποδείξωσιν), οὔτε δὲ τὴν φρόνησιν, ὡς καὶ ποιεῖ τις τὰ φρονήσεως, οὔτε τὴν σωφροσύνην, ὡς καὶ αἱρεῖτό τις ταῦθ' ἅπερ ἔμαθε, παραδοῦναι δυναμένων. ὁμοίως δὲ κἀπὶ τῆς δικαιοσύνης, καὶ ἔτι τῆς ἀνδρείας. οὐχ οὕτως οὗτος τὰ περὶ ἀρετῶν ἡμῖν διεξῄει λόγοις, ἐπὶ δὲ τὰ ἔργα μᾶλλον παρεκάλει· καὶ παρεκάλει πλέον τοῖς ἔργοις, ἢ οἷς ἔλεγεν.

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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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