“And do not be content with knocking and seeking, for what is most necessary for…”
And do not be content with knocking and seeking, for what is most necessary for understanding divine things is prayer
Origen · Letter to Gregory · ANF IX, Letter to Gregory §3
The close of the same letter, and the reason Origen is read as a spiritual writer and not only as a scholar. He has just told Gregory to knock at what is closed in the Scriptures and to seek their hidden sense; he then says that neither will do on its own, because understanding is asked for rather than extracted.
How this is known
These words were matched, word for word, against this project’s own copy of the volume cited.
Section 3 of the Letter to Gregory, headed Personal Appeal, in the region of ANF vol. 9 that carries the letter. The stored words stop before the three sayings of Christ the sentence goes on to quote, which the region’s quoted mask holds out.
Read in Menzies, ANF vol. 9 (1897) · Allan Menzies
Also by
- Origen every saying recorded of this person, and their page