Origen, Prayer 27.12
created: This entry is taken from Prayer 27.12 written by Origen in 232-235 C.E.. This wo
edition published: 2023-06-30-05:00
language: grc; grc
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https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/88

Καισαρείᾳ

, and

Caesarea

are directly attested at Origen, Prayer 27.12. This passage was written ca. 232-235 C.E. possibly in Caesarea Maritima. The great scholar Origen moved from Alexandria to Caeasarea in 231 C.E. There he was ordained, he opened a school, and he devoted himself to voluminous writing, including his monumental polyglot edition of the Old Testament. In the first years after establishing himself at Caesarea, Origen wrote his treatise on “prayer” (εὐχή), a popular work among modern readers. In his famous concluding analysis of the Lord’s Prayer, he cites Peter’s vision of animals to eat in Joppa, before his sojourn in Caesarea.

κοινωνεῖν γοῦν τῷ ἑκατοντάρχῳ Κορνηλίῳ καὶ τοῖς ἅμα συναχθεῖσιν ἐν τῇ Καισαρείᾳ ὁ Πέτρος μέλλων μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα καὶ τοῖς ἔθνεσι μεταδώσειν τῶν λόγων τοῦ θεοῦ, ὁρᾷ τὸ “τέτταρσιν ἀρχαῖς καθιέμενον” οὐρανόθεν “σκεῦος,” ἐν ᾧ “πάντα τὰ τετράποδα καὶ ἑρπετὰ καὶ θηρία τῆς γῆς”· ὅτε καὶ κελεύεται “ἀναστὰς” θῦσαι καὶ φαγεῖν, προστασόμενος μετὰ τὸ παραιτούμενον αὐτὸν εἰρηκέναι· “σὺ οἶδας ‘ὅτι οὐδέ ποτε κοινὸν ἢ ἀκάθαρτον εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὸ στόμα μου’”, “μηδένα κοινὸν ἢ ἀκάθαρτον λέγειν ἄνθρωπον,” τῷ τὰ καθαρθέντα ὑπὸ θεοῦ μὴ δεῖν ὑπὸ Πέτρου κοινοῦσθαι· φησὶ γὰρ ἡ λέξις· “ἃ ὁ θεὸς ἐκαθάρισε σὺ μὴ κοίνου.” οὐκοῦν τὸ καθαρὸν βρῶμα καὶ τὸ ἀκάθαρτον κατὰ τὸν Μωϋσέως νόμον ἐν ὀνομασίας διακρινόμενον πλειόνων ζῴων, τὴν ἀναφορὰν ἔχον ἐπὶ τὰ διάφορα ἤθη τῶν λογικῶν, διδάσκει τούσδε μὲν τροφίμους ἡμῖν τυγχάνειν τούσδε δὲ ἐναντίως ἔχειν, ἕως καθαρίσας πάντας ποιήσῃ τροφίμους ὁ θεὸς ἢ τοὺς ἀπὸ “παντὸς γένους.”

[Ed. Koetschau 1899]

So when Peter is about to commune with the centurion Cornelius and those who met together with him in Caesarea, and after that also to share the Words of God with the Gentiles, he sees “the container sent down by four corners” from heaven, in which (are) “all quadrupeds and reptiles and beasts of the earth.” Then the order was given “rise up” and kill and eat, and, after on this request he had said, “You know that nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth,” he was commanded “to call no man common or unclean,” because what God had made clean should not to be made common by Peter. For the passage says, “What things God has made clean do not you make common.” Accordingly, the clean and unclean food distinguished according to the Law of Moses in the naming of various animals, analogous to the different characters of rational beings, teach that some are nourishing for us but others are the opposite, until God has cleansed and made all, or those from “every race,” nourishing.

[Adapted from Curtis 2001]

Works Cited

[...] 297-403 27.12
[...] 53 17

[Acts 10:11-15]

[Joppa]

[Cornelius, early Christian at Caesarea

Moses

Peter the Apostle]

[Christian Bible

Christianity

Roman History

Society and Culture]