On Prayer

Origen, tr. Oulton, 1954

It has seemed to me not unreasonable to distinguish first between the two meanings of the…

It has seemed to me not unreasonable to distinguish¹ first between the two meanings of the word euche in the Scriptures, and likewise also of the word proseuche. For indeed this word, in addition to its common and customary, frequently found, usage, also occurs in the unusual sense to us of euche,² in what is said concerning Hannah in the First Book of the Kingdoms: “And Eli the priest sat upon a seat by the door posts of the temple of the Lord. And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed [proseuxato] unto the Lord, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow [euche], and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, and wilt give unto thine handmaid the seed of a man, then I will give him unto the Lord as a gift all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.”³

Here it would not be unconvincing to note the phrases “prayed unto the Lord” and “vowed a vow” and say that, if she did the two things, that is to say, “prayed unto the Lord, and vowed a vow,” perhaps the word “prayed,” on the one hand, occurs in the sense we usually give to the noun euche while, on the other hand, “she vowed a vow” has the meaning of the word as it occurs in Leviticus and Numbers.⁴ For “I will give him unto the Lord as a gift all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head” is not a proseuche in the proper sense of the term, but rather that “vow” (euche) such as Jephtha vowed in these words: “And Jephtha vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver the children of Ammon into mine hand, then it shall be that whosoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, even he shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer him up for a burnt offering.”⁵

Notes

IV, 1. to distinguish, etc.] Trench (Synonyms of the New Testament, 188) justly points out that this long discussion of Origen on euche and proseuche has no great value. It amounts to no more than this. The customary meaning of both words is “prayer”: III, 2 (euche); IV, 2 (proseuche). But in both cases the meaning “vow” is sometimes found, although of euche many more instances of this sense are given than there are of proseuche: indeed only one passage, I Sam. 1:9–11, is cited for proseuche =vow, and in it the verb (proseuxato), not the noun, is used.
The text of Koetschau is followed here.
I Sam. 1:9–11.
Cf. Lev. 27:2; Num. 6:2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 18, 19, 21 (LXX); 30:3–15.
Judg. 11:31.