Against Celsus, Book VIII · §37 · Origen of Alexandria

God hears prayer in every language

Then, forgetting that he is talking to Christians, who pray to God alone through Jesus, and mixing up what belongs to others and attaching it to Christians without reason, he says: “If one names them in a barbarian tongue they will have power, but if in Greek or Latin, no longer.”

Let him show, then, whom we name in a barbarian tongue as though calling on him for help. And let anyone who observes the following be persuaded that Celsus said these things against us to no purpose: that Christians in general do not even use, in their prayers, the names that are set down in the divine Scriptures and applied to God. Rather, the Greeks use Greek names and the Romans Latin ones, and so each prays to God in his own language and sings his praise as best he can. And the Lord of every language hears those who pray in every language as though he heard, if I may put it so, a single voice, the voice of what they mean, made plain through the varied languages. For the God over all is not one of those who have been allotted some language, barbarian or Greek, and who know none of the others, or do not know how to attend to those who speak in other languages.

Greek

Εἶτ᾿ ἐπιλαθόμενος ὅτι Χριστιανοῖς λαλεῖ, τοῖς μόνοις τῷ θεῷ διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ εὐχομένοις, καὶ συμφύρων τὰ ἑτέρων καὶ ἀλόγως Χριστιανοῖς συνάπτων αὐτά φησιν· ἐὰν μὲν βαρβάρως αὐτοὺς ὀνομάζῃ τις, δύναμιν ἕξουσιν, ἐὰν δὲ Ἑλληνικῶς ἢ Ῥωμαϊκῶς, οὐκέτι. δεικνύτω γὰρ τίνα ἡμεῖς βαρβάρως ὀνομάζομεν ὡς καλοῦντες αὐτὸν ἐπὶ βοήθειαν, καὶ πειθέσθω μάτην καθ᾿ ἡμῶν ταῦτα εἰρηκέναι τὸν Κέλσον (ὁ) ἐφιστὰς ὅτι οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν Χριστιανῶν οὐδὲ τοῖς ἐν ταῖς θείαις γραφαῖς κειμένοις ὀνόμασι καὶ τεταγμένοις ἐπὶ τοῦ θεοῦ χρῶνται ἐν ταῖς εὐχαῖς· ἀλλ᾿ οἱ μὲν Ἕλληνες Ἑλληνικοῖς οἱ δὲ Ῥωμαῖοι Ῥωμαϊκοῖς, καὶ οὕτως ἕκαστος κατὰ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ διάλεκτον εὔχεται τῷ θεῷ καὶ ὑμνεῖ αὐτὸν ὡς δύναται· καὶ ὁ πάσης διαλέκτου κύριος τῶν ἀπὸ πάσης διαλέκτου εὐχομένων ἀκούει ὡς μιᾶς, ἵν᾿ οὕτως ὀνομάσω, φωνῆς τῆς κατὰ τὰ σημαινόμενα ἀκούων, δηλουμένης ἐκ τῶν ποικίλων διαλέκτων. οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ὁ ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεὸς εἷς τις τῶν κεκληρωμένων διάλεκτόν τινα βάρβαρον ἢ Ἕλληνα καὶ μηκέτι τὰς λοιπὰς ἐπισταμένων ἢ μηκέτι τῶν ἐν ἄλλαις διαλέκτοις λεγόντων φροντίζειν.

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About this text

Celsus urges Christians to honour the demons as servants of the one God, to share in the public feasts and sacrificial meals, and to support the emperor by oath, office and military service. Origen answers that no one can serve two masters, that Christians keep a feast to God at all times and honour Him in living temples, and that they help the emperor most by their prayers and serve their country by governing the churches.

Translated from the Greek of Koetschau, GCS 2–3 (1899), via the Perseus digital text, which serves as the base text. Each chapter was translated from the Greek and then checked clause by clause against it: chapters 1–75 in an independent review, the closing chapter 76 in the translator's own second pass. No earlier English translation was consulted.

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Translated from Koetschau GCS 2 – 3 (1899) — Greek (Greek · Book VIII, chapters 1 – 76)

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