Opening the library…
Oration to Origen
Gregory Thaumaturgus
A grateful farewell speech praising Origen as a teacher who formed students through philosophy, moral discipline, biblical interpretation, and a patient search for truth in Christian learning.
Also known as the Address of Thanksgiving; attribution to Gregory is traditional and widely used.
Argument XIX.—Apostrophe to Origen, and
But, O dear soul, arise thou and offer prayer, and now dismiss us; and as by thy holy instructions thou hast been our rescuer when we enjoyed thy fellowship, so save us still by thy prayers in our separation. Commend us and set us constantly before thee in prayer. Or rather commend us continually to that God who brought us to thee, giving thanks for all that has been granted us in the past, and imploring Him still to lead us by the hand in the future, and to stand ever by us, filling our mind with the understanding of His precepts, inspiring us with the godly fear of Himself, and vouchsafing us henceforward His choicest guidance. For when we are gone from thee, we shall not have the same liberty for obeying Him as was ours when we were with thee. Pray, therefore, that some encouragement may be conveyed to us from Him when we lose thy presence, and that He may send us a good conductor, some angel to be our comrade on the way. And entreat Him also to turn our course, for that is the one thing which above all else will effectually comfort us, and bring us back to thee again.
παραδίδου καὶ παρατίθεσο.
ἐμβάλλοντα ἡμῖν τὸν θεῖον φόβον αὐτοῦ, παιδαγωγὸν ἄριστον ἐσόμενον. The Latin version makes the ἐσόμενον refer to the φόβον: divinumque nobis timorem suum, optimum pædagogum immittens, = and inspiring with the godly fear of Himself as our choicest guide.
οὐ γὰρ ἐν τῇ μετὰ σοῦ ἐλευθερίᾳ καὶ ἀπελθόντες ὑπακούσομεν αὐτῷ. Bengel paraphrases it thus: hac libertate quæ tecum est carebo digressus; quare vereor ut Deo posthac paream, ni timore saltem munitus fuero.[He may probably have been only a catechumen at this period. This peroration favours the suspicion.]