V. (printed 'Υ 1.' with §1)
If then we must next, as you ordered, set forth first the plausible arguments of those who think nothing is accomplished by prayers, and therefore say praying is superfluous, we shall not hesitate to do this too as we can — since the name of prayer is now used by us more commonly and simply [here T has illegible letters]. This doctrine, then, is inglorious and without distinguished patrons, so that you can hardly find anyone who accepts providence and sets God over all things yet rejects prayer. For the doctrine belongs either to outright atheists who deny God's very substance, or to those who honor God as far as the name goes but rob him of providence. Already the opposing activity — wanting to drape the most godless doctrines with Christ's name and the Son of God's teaching — has managed to persuade some of its view; its leaders abolish all sensibles entirely, using neither baptism nor eucharist, slandering the Scriptures as though even 'to pray' were not their will but they taught something else than this.
The arguments of the prayer-rejecters would run thus — those, that is, who set God over all and say there is providence (for we need not now examine what is said by those who wholly abolish God or providence): God knows all things before their birth, and nothing ever comes to be known by him for the first time, as previously unknown. [Here T is illegible; the editors conjecture mockery of prayers and total rejection.] What need is there, then, to send up prayer to one who knows our needs before we pray? For your heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask him. And it is reasonable that he, being father and maker of all, loving all beings and loathing nothing he made, should arrange each one's affairs savingly even without prayer — like a father presiding over infants who cannot ask at all, or who in ignorance often want the opposite of what helps and profits. But men fall shorter of God than mere babes fall short of their parents' minds.
It is likely that God not only foreknew what will be but also predetermined it, and nothing happens beyond what was predetermined. Just as if someone prayed for the sun to rise he would be thought a fool — asking by prayer for what will be even without his prayer — so a man would be senseless who thinks that by his prayer come things that would wholly be even if he had not prayed. And again: as he surpasses all madness who, troubled by the sun in the summer solstice and burning, thinks to move the sun by prayer to the spring signs to enjoy temperate air — so whoever thinks he will escape the necessary accidents of the human race by praying would surpass all melancholy.
And if sinners were estranged from the womb, and the righteous one set apart from his mother's belly — and when they were not yet born nor had done anything good or bad, that God's elective purpose might stand, not of works but of him who calls, it is said: the elder shall serve the younger — we ask forgiveness of sins in vain, or to receive a spirit of power with Christ empowering us. For if we are sinners, we were estranged from the womb; but if we were set apart from our mother's belly, the best will meet even those who do not pray. For what prayer did Jacob offer, before being born, to be prophesied superior to Esau, and his brother to serve him? What impiety did Esau commit to be hated before birth? Why does Moses pray — as found in the eighty-ninth Psalm — if God is his refuge before the mountains were settled and the earth and world were formed?
But also concerning all who shall be saved, it is written in Ephesians that the Father chose them in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that they be holy and blameless before him, in love predestining them to adoption through Christ to himself. Either one is among those elect before the foundation, and cannot fall from election — so no need of prayer for him — or one is not elect nor predestined, and prays in vain: though he pray myriad times, he shall not be heard. For whom God foreknew, these he also predestined conformed to the image of the glory of his Son; and whom he predestined, these he also called; and whom he called, these he also justified; and whom he justified, these he also glorified. Why does Josiah toil, or why does he in prayer care whether he shall be heard or not — prophesied by name generations before, and foretold not only foreknown but proclaimed to many ears what he would do? Why does Judas pray — so that his prayer become sin — proclaimed since David's times as one who would lose his overseership, with another taking it instead? [Here T has a gap of about 100 letters.] It of itself shows: with God unchangeable, comprehending all beforehand, abiding in what was predetermined — to pray thinking to turn his purpose by prayer, or approaching as one who did not predetermine but waits for each one's prayer, so that through prayer he may ordain what befits the pray-er — making him deem reasonable only then what is under scrutiny, having not observed it before. [Closing obscure; see note.]
Let there lie before us in their own words what you set out in your letter, thus: First, if God foreknows the future and they must happen, prayer is vain. Second, if all things happen by God's will, and his counsels are unmoved, and nothing he wills can be turned, prayer is vain. These, I think, are useful to assume beforehand toward dissolving the arguments that hold men back from praying.
Greek (GCS)
§1. Εἰ χρὴ τοίνυν μετὰ ταῦτα, ὥσπερ ἐκελεύσατε, ἐκθέσθαι τὰ πιθανὰ πρῶτον τῶν οἰομένων μηδὲν ἀπὸ τῶν εὐχῶν ἀνύεσθαι καὶ διὰ τοῦτο φασκόντων περισσὸν εἶναι τὸ εὔχεσθαι, οὐκ ὀκνήσομεν κατὰ δύναμιν καὶ τοῦτο ποιῆσαι, κοινότερον νῦν καὶ ἁπλούστερον τοῦ τῆς εὐχῆς ὀνόματος ἡμῖν λεγομένου [illegible letters in T]. οὕτω δὴ ὁ λόγος ἐστὶν ἄδοξος καὶ μὴ τυχὼν ἐπισήμων τῶν προϊσταμένων αὐτοῦ, ὥστε μηδὲ πάνυ εὑρίσκεσθαι ὅστις ποτὲ τῶν πρόνοιαν παραδεξαμένων καὶ θεὸν ἐπιστησάντων τοῖς ὅλοις εὐχὴν μὴ προσίεται. ἔστι γὰρ τὸ δόγμα ἤτοι τῶν πάντῃ ἀθέων καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν τοῦ θεοῦ ἀρνουμένων ἢ τῶν μέχρις ὀνόματος τιθέντων θεὸν τὴν πρόνοιαν δὲ αὐτοῦ ἀποστερούντων. ἤδη μέντοι γε ἡ ἀντικειμένη ἐνέργεια, τὰ ἀσεβέστατα τῶν δογμάτων περιτιθέναι θέλουσα τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ περὶ τοῦ μὴ δεῖν εὔχεσθαι δεδύνηται πεῖσαί τινας· ἧς γνώμης προΐστανται οἱ τὰ αἰσθητὰ πάντῃ ἀναιροῦντες καὶ μήτε βαπτίσματι μήτε εὐχαριστίᾳ χρώμενοι, συκοφαντοῦντες τὰς γραφάς, ὡς καὶ τὸ εὔχεσθαι τοῦτο οὐ βουλομένας ἀλλ᾽ ἕτερόν τι σημαινόμενον παρὰ τοῦτο διδασχούσας. §2. εἶεν δ᾽ ἂν οἱ λόγοι τῶν ἀθετούντων τὰς εὐχὰς οὗτοι (δηλονότι θεὸν ἐφιστάντων τοῖς ὅλοις καὶ πρόνοιαν εἶναι λεγόντων· οὐ γὰρ πρόκειται νῦν ἐξετάζειν τὰ λεγόμενα ὑπὸ τῶν πάντῃ ἀναιρούντων θεὸν ἢ πρόνοιαν)· ὁ θεὸς οἶδε τὰ πάντα πρὸ γενέσεως αὐτῶν, καὶ οὐδὲν ἐκ τοῦ γενέσθαι(?) ὁτὲ ἐνέστηκε πρῶτον αὐτῷ γινώσκεται ὡς πρὸ τούτου μὴ γνωσθέν [text rough; sense: nothing becomes known to him freshly]. [T-ILLEGIBLE: probably mockery of prayers + rejection of all prayer (per apparatus); not rendered.] τίς οὖν χρεία ἀναπέμπεσθαι εὐχὴν τῷ καὶ πρὶν εὔξασθαι ἐπισταμένῳ ὧν χρήζομεν; οἶδε γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ ὁ οὐράνιος ὧν χρείαν ἔχομεν πρὸ τοῦ ἡμᾶς αἰτῆσαι αὐτόν. εὔλογον δὲ πατέρα καὶ δημιουργὸν αὐτὸν ὄντα τοῦ παντός, ἀγαπῶντα τὰ ὄντα πάντα καὶ μηδὲν βδελυσσόμενον ὧν πεποίηχε, σωτηρίως τὰ περὶ ἕκαστον καὶ χωρὶς τοῦ εὔξασθαι οἰκονομεῖν δίκην πατέρος, νηπίων προϊσταμένου καὶ μὴ περιμένοντος ἐκείνων τὴν ἀξίωσιν, ἤτοι μηδ᾽ ὅλως δυναμένων αἰτεῖν ἢ διὰ ἄγνοιαν πολλάκις τὰ ἐναντία τοῖς συμφέρουσι καὶ λυσιτελοῦσι θελόντων λαβεῖν. ἀπολειπόμεθα δὲ οἱ ἄνθρωποι πλεῖον τοῦ θεοῦ ἤπερ τὰ κομιδῇ παιδία τοῦ νοῦ τῶν γεγεννηκότων. §3. εἰκὸς δὲ τῷ θεῷ οὐ μόνον προεγνῶσθαι τὰ ἐσόμενα ἀλλὰ καὶ προδιατετάχθαι, καὶ μηδὲν αὐτῷ παρὰ τὰ προδιατεταγμένα γίγνεσθαι. ὥσπερ οὖν εἴ τις εὔχοιτο ἀνατέλλειν τὸν ἥλιον, ἠλίθιος ἂν νομίζοιτο, τὸ καὶ χωρὶς τῆς εὐχῆς αὐτοῦ ἐσόμενον διὰ τῆς εὐχῆς γενέσθαι ἀξιῶν· οὕτως ἀνόητος ἂν εἴη ἄνθρωπος, ὅστις οἴεται διὰ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ εὐχὴν γίνεσθαι τὰ καὶ μὴ εὐξαμένου αὐτοῦ πάντως ἐσόμενα. πάλιν τε αὖ ὥσπερ πᾶσαν μανίαν ὑπερβάλλει ὁ διὰ τὸ ἐνοχλεῖσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου γενομένου ἐν θεριναῖς τροπαῖς καὶ καυσοῦσθαι οἰόμενος διὰ τῆς εὐχῆς μεταστήσεσθαι τὸν ἥλιον ἐπὶ τὰ ἐαρινὰ σημεῖα, ἵνα εὐκράτου ἀπολαύῃ τοῦ ἀέρος· οὕτως τὰ ἀναγκαίως συμβαίνοντα περιστατικὰ τῷ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένει εἴ τις οἴοιτο διὰ τὸ εὔχεσθαι μὴ πείσεσθαι, πᾶσαν ὑπερβάλοι μελαγχολίαν. §4. εἰ δὲ καί, ἠλλοτριώθησαν ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἀπὸ μήτρας, καὶ ἀφώρισταί ὁ δίκαιος ἐκ κοιλίας μητρός, καὶ οὔπω μήτε γεννηθέντων μήτε πραξάντων τι ἀγαθὸν ἢ φαῦλον, ἵνα ἡ κατ᾽ ἐκλογὴν πρόθεσις τοῦ θεοῦ μένῃ, οὐχ ἐξ ἔργων ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ τοῦ καλοῦντος, λέγεται· ὁ μείζων δουλεύσει τῷ ἐλάττονι, μάτην περὶ ἀφέσεως ἁμαρτημάτων ἀξιοῦμεν ἢ περὶ τοῦ πνεῦμα ἰσχύος λαβεῖν, ἵνα — πάντα(?) ἐνδυναμοῦντος ἡμᾶς Χριστοῦ [text rough]. εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἁμαρτωλοί ἐσμεν, ἀπὸ μήτρας ἠλλοτριώμεθα· εἰ δὲ ἀφωρίσθημεν ἐκ κοιλίας μητρὸς ἡμῶν, τὰ κάλλιστα καὶ μὴ εὐχομένοις ἀπαντήσεται. ποίαν γὰρ εὐχὴν προσαγαγὼν Ἰακὼβ, πρὶν γεννηθῆναι, προφητεύεται ὅτι ὑπερέξει τοῦ Ἠσαῦ, καὶ δουλεύσει αὐτῷ ὁ ἀδελφός; τί δὲ ἀσεβήσας ὁ Ἠσαῦ μισεῖται πρὶν γεννηθῆναι; ἵνα τί δὲ εὔχεται Μωυσῆς, ὡς ἐν ὀγδοηκοστῷ ἐνάτῳ εὕρηται ψαλμῷ, εἰ καταφυγὴ αὐτοῦ ἐστιν ὁ θεὸς πρὸ τοῦ ὄρη ἑδρασθῆναι καὶ πλασθῆναι τὴν γῆν καὶ τὴν οἰκουμένην; §5 (head inline/lost). ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ πάντων τῶν σωθησομένων ἐν τῇ πρὸς Ἐφεσίους ἀναγέγραπται ὅτι ἐξελέξατο αὐτοὺς ἐν αὐτῷ, ἐν Χριστῷ ὁ πατὴρ πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτοὺς ἁγίους καὶ ἀμώμους κατ᾽ ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, ἐν ἀγάπῃ προορίσας αὐτοὺς εἰς υἱοθεσίαν διὰ Χριστοῦ εἰς αὐτόν. ἤτοι οὖν τις ἐκ τῶν πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου ἐστὶν ἐξειλεγμένος, καὶ ἀμήχανον αὐτὸν τῆς ἐκλογῆς ἐκπεσεῖν, διόπερ οὐ χρεία τούτῳ εὐχῆς· ἢ οὐχ ἐξείλεκται οὐδὲ προώρισται, καὶ μάτην εὔχεται, κἂν μυριάκις εὔξηται, οὐκ ἐπακουσθησόμενος. οὓς γὰρ προέγνω ὁ θεός, τούτους καὶ προώρισε συμμόρφους τῆς εἰκόνος τῆς δόξης(?) τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ· οὓς δὲ προώρισε, τούτους καὶ ἐκάλεσε· καὶ οὓς ἐκάλεσε, τούτους καὶ ἐδικαίωσε· οὓς δὲ ἐδικαίωσε, τούτους καὶ ἐδόξασε. τί γὰρ κάμνει Ἰωσίας ἢ διὰ τί εὐχόμενος πεφρόντιχε περὶ τοῦ πότερόν ποτε εἰσακουσθήσεται ἢ μή, πρὸ πολλῶν γενεῶν ὀνομαστὶ προφητευθεὶς καὶ περὶ τοῦ ὅ τι ποτὲ πράξει οὐ μόνον προγνωσθεὶς ἀλλὰ καὶ εἰς ἐπήκοον πολλῶν προῤῥηθείς; ἵνα τί δὲ καὶ Ἰούδας προσεύχεται, ὥστε καὶ τὴν προσευχὴν αὐτοῦ γενηθῆναι εἰς ἁμαρτίαν, ἀπὸ τῶν Δαυὶδ χρόνων προκηρυχθεὶς ὡς ἀπολέσων τὴν ἐπισκοπήν, ἑτέρου λαμβανομένου(?) ἀντ᾽ αὐτοῦ αὐτήν; [T-LACUNA ~100 letters.] αὐτόθεν δὲ ἀπεμφαίνει, ἀτρέπτου ὄντος τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὰ ὅλα προκατειληφότος μένοντός τε ἐν τοῖς προδιατεταγμένοις — εὔχεσθαι, οἰόμενον μετατρέψειν διὰ τῆς εὐχῆς αὐτοῦ τὴν πρόθεσιν ἢ ὡς μὴ προδιαταξαμένῳ ἀλλὰ περιμένοντι τὴν ἑκάστου εὐχὴν ἐντυγχάνειν, ἵνα διὰ τὴν εὐχὴν διαταξήται τὸ πρέπον τῷ εὐχομένῳ — τότε(?) τάσσων τὸ δοκιμαζόμενον εἶναι εὔλογον οὐ πρότερον αὐτῷ τεθεωρημένον [closing obscure; see note]. §6. χείσθω δὲ ἐν τοῖς παροῦσιν αὐταῖς λέξεσιν ἅπερ διὰ τῶν πρός με(?) γραμμάτων ἔταξας, οὕτως ἔχοντα. πρῶτον· εἰ προγνώστης ἐστὶν ὁ θεὸς τῶν μελλόντων, καὶ δεῖ αὐτὰ γίνεσθαι, ματαία ἡ προσευχή. δεύτερον· εἰ πάντα κατὰ βούλησιν θεοῦ γίνεται, καὶ ἀῤῥαγῆ(?) αὐτοῦ ἐστι τὰ βουλεύματα, καὶ οὐδὲν τραπῆναι ὧν βούλεται δύναται, ματαία ἡ προσευχή. χρήσιμα δέ, ὡς οἶμαι, ταῦτα πρὸς λύσιν τῶν ἀποναρχᾶν(?) πρὸς τὸ εὔχεσθαι προδιαληπτέον.