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Pieter Van Der Horst - Silent Prayer in Antiquity
Pieter Van Der Horst - Silent Prayer in Antiquity
Pieter Van Der Horst - Silent Prayer in Antiquity
Brill, Leiden
S I L E N T PRAYER I N A N T I Q U I T Y
PlETER W . VAN DER HORST
Summary
In antiquity prayers were said out loud and silent prayer was regarded as an
anomalous practice that was looked upon with great suspicion. It was brought into
connection with a variety of base motives which it was feared would be strongly
objected to by others, foremost among which are wishes to practice magic, to have
illicit sex, or to conceal crimes or criminal plans. It was also feared that one's
prayer might be counteracted or undone by more powerful prayers of the
opponents. It is only in circles of later (esp. Neo-)Platonism, in the framework of
the increasing transcendentalisation in its concept of deity and the corresponding
downgrading of anything material or corporeal, that complete silence as the purest
form of worship was gradually accepted. This new trend had its influence on the
Jewish philosopher Philo and especially on Churchfathers from Clement of Alex
andria onwards (and also on some Hermetic and Gnostic circles). But in Jewish
and Christian documents there was also another motive that facilitated a gradual
acceptance of silent prayer as a respectable form of worship, namely, the biblical
story (in 1 Samuel 1) about Hanna's inaudible prayer that was heard by God. It
is the combination of these Platonic and biblical influences that brings about a
change of attitude towards speechless prayer in both Judaism and Christianity,
but the evidence clearly demonstrates that this was a very slow process, because
the old suspicions surrounding this phenomenon did not easily disappear.
' D o not let the Trojans hear your words, lest they endeavour to
counteract your petitions by prayers of their own'; this he
immediately revokes by the in 196, virtually = nay".1 T h e
motif that a prayer might be counteracted or undone by more
powerful prayers of the opponents is indeed to be found more fre
quently. So we find in Euripides, Electra 803-810, where a
messenger speaks to Electra: " T h e n your mother's lover
(Aegisthus) took barley and threw it on the altar with these words,
'Nymphs of these rocks, I pray that many times both I and my dear
wife at home may offer sacrifice with the same fortune we enjoy
today; and may Evil oppress my enemies'. T h e n my master
(Orestes) prayed to the contrary, without speaking aloud the words
( ), that he might possess his father's house
a g a i n " . Here it is obvious that Aegisthus was not supposed to hear
Orestes' prayer which was meant to undo his. In Ovid's Tristia I
1, 27-30, the author says that someone will read his poem in tears,
and will pray silently, so that it will not be heard by a malevolent
person (et tacitus secum, ne quis malus audiat, optet [v.29]) that
the emperor will become more favourably disposed towards him
(i.e., Ovid in exile). We may compare here a Jewish text, J u d i t h
13:4: after having inebriated her arch-enemy, Holophernes, with
liquor so that he has fallen asleep, " J u d i t h , standing beside his bed,
prayed in her heart: O h Lord, e t c . " (
* .; cf. 1 Sam. 1:13). The
silence of her prayer is here motivated by the fact that the drunken
Holophernes should not be awakened by her prayer before she
would kill h i m . 8 Xenophon of Ephesus, Ephesiaca IV 5, states that
only when the heroine, Anthia, was out of earshot of one of her kid
nappers who wanted to make love to her, she dared to exclaim: " I
9
pray that I may remain the wife of Habrocomes, e t c . "
A second motive to be discerned is the malevolence of some
supernatural powers, especially the Erinyes/Eumenides, who are
not prayed to out loud, because mentioning their names (which was
indispensible in ancient prayers) might evoke their noxious
activities. Hence prayers to these goddesses were often soundless.
In Aeschylus, Eumenides 1035 and 1039, in the final song of the
chorus, the women sing: "Bless them [sc. the daughters of the night
= Eumenides/Erinyes] with silence ( ) " . Cf. idem,
Choephoroi 95-6: (87 " W h a t shall I say as I pour out these outpour
ings of sorrow?
) O r shall I, without word or rite, in such fashion
as my father was put away, pour out this offering for the ground
to drink? ( ' , , '
. ) " , the libation being here, of course, an offering
to the chthonic Eumenides. Also Sophocles, Oedipus Coloneus 124133: when the chorus sees Oedipus withdrawing into the sacred
grove of the Eumenides, they say: " T h e old man must be a vaga
bond, not of our land, for he would never otherwise dare to go in
there, in the inviolate thicket of those whom it is futile to fight,
those whom we tremble to name, whom we pass averting our eyes,
in silence, without conversation, shaping our prayers with our lips
( , ' , ,
)". Also OC 489, where the chorus
teaches Oedipus how to pray to these goddesses, namely so " t h a t
the Eumenides, as we call themwhich means the gentle of
h e a r t m a y accept with gentleness the suppliant and his wish. So
you, or he who prays for you, address them, but do not speak aloud
or raise a cry ( )". In this connec
tion it should be mentioned that in Athens the priestesses of the
chthonic Semnai Theai = Erinyes were called the Hesychides, the
'Silent O n e s ' (e.g. Callimachus, fr. 123). 1 0
A third important motive to pray in silence was that the pray-er
felt embarrassment about what he or she was going to pray for.
When in Catullus 64, 103-4, Ariadne sees Theseus arriving at
Crete, she feels her desire for him fired and for that reason she
prays that he may be saved from the Minotaur: "Yet not without
return or in vain were the gifts she promised to the gods when on
her lips she kindled the silent breath of vows" (non ingrata tarnen
frustra munuscula divis/ promittens tacito succepit vota labello). 1 1
In Tibullus III 11 = IV 5, 17-20 we read: " T h e boy wants the
same as me [namely, love or sex], but does not openly pour his
heart out. H e is too shy to say such things in public. But you, his
birth-god, a god from whom nothing is hidden, hear our prayer.
What does it matter whether he says it to himself or openly?" (optat
idem iuvenis quod nos, sed tectius optat; nam pudet haec ilium
dicere verba palam. at tu, natalis, qoniam deus omnia sentis,
adnue; quid refert, clamne palamne roget?). Cf. also Tibullus II 1,
84-6 " C a l l him [i.e., Cupid] aloud to the flock, but in silence to
yourselvesor even aloud to yourselves, for the din of the merry
crowd and the skirl of the Phrygian pipe will drown the w o r d s "
(voce palam pecori, clam sibi quisque vocet, aut etiam sibi quisque
palam; nam turba iocosa obstrepit et Phrygia tibia curva sono); and
III 12 = IV 6, 15-16 (about a mother who teaches her daughter on
her birthday a fitting prayer to Iuno Natalis, but the girl has fallen
into passion): " H e r fond mother dictates the prayer she wants to
pray, but the girl knows her own mind, and in the stillness of her
heart utters quite a different p r a y e r " (praecipit et natae mater
studiosa quod optet: ilia aliud tacita, iam sua, mente rogat). As a
final example we mention Juvenal, Satura X 289-291: " W h e n the
loving mother passes the temple of Venus, she prays in whispered
breath (modico ... murmure) for her boys that they may have
beauty, but more loudly, and entering into the most trifling details,
the same for her d a u g h t e r s " . 1 2
In all the instances quoted we see that the reason for embarrass
ment is to be found in the fact that what is prayed for lies in the
erotic or sexual sphere. 1 3 Hence it is or pudor, a feeling of
shame, that requires the prayer to be said in silence. " I t is above
all where love is concerned that man, even ancient man, confided
his secrets to a god not to his n e i g h b o u r " . 1 4 In this connection it
is interesting to notice that this almost certainly accounts for the
existence of an "Aphrodite Psithuros, 'the whisperer', since it was
customary to whisper prayers in her e a r " . 1 5 Seneca seems to refer
to such a practice when he says at the end of Epist. X 5: " B u t I
must, as is my custom, send a little gift along with this letter. It is
a true saying which I found in Athenodorus: 'Know that thou art
freed from all desires when thou hast reached such a point that thou
prayest to God for nothing except what thou canst pray for openly'.
But how foolish men are now! They whisper the basest of prayers
to heaven, but if anyone listens, they are silent at once. That which
they are unwilling for men to know, they communicate to God. Do
you not think, then, that some such wholesome advice as this could
be given you: 'Live among men as if God beheld you; speak with
God as if men were listening'? Farewell!" (Sed ut more meo cum
aliquo munsculo epistulam mittam, verum est quod apud
Athenodorum inveni: " T u n c scito esse te omnibus cupiditatibus
way that one could say a prayer to the effect that one's misdemeanours would not be discovered. 21 In De Bene/. VI 38, 1-5,
Seneca complains that so many people pray in secret for the same
thing (2: omnes enim idem volunt, id est, intra se optant), namely
money or gain acquired in a dishonest way. In 5 he continues:
4
'Yet the prayers of all these men, while well known, are
unpunished. Lastly, let every man examine himself, let him retire
into the secrecy of his heart and discover what it is that he has
silently prayed for. How many prayers there are which he blushes
to acknowledge, even to himself! How few that we could make in
the hearing of a witness!" (omnium tarnen istorum tarn nota sunt
vota quam impunita; denique se quisque consulat et in secretum
pectoris sui redeat et inspiciat quid tacitus optaverit. quam multa
sunt vota quae etiam sibi fateri pudet! quam pauca quae facer
coram teste possimus!). A final instance is Pliny, Panegyricus 67,5:
" A t your instigation, Caesar, the state has struck a bargain with
the gods that they shall preserve your health and safety as long as
you do the same for everyone else; otherwise they are to turn their
attention from protecting your life, and to abandon you to such
vows as are taken in secret" (teque relinquerent votis quae non
palam susciperentur). Pliny implies that prayers for the health and
safety of the emperor will be turned into their opposite when he
does not keep to the agreement between himself and the Roman
state. However, such prayers will then be uttered non palam.
But here we are already touching upon another motive for silent
or murmured prayer, namely the practice of magic, black magic in
most cases, which is most frequently mentioned in ancient sources
as a reason for inaudible praying. There can be little doubt that it
was the notorious character of magic in the view of most ancients
that made practitioners hide the contents of their prayers, or rather
curses and spells; hence these were often said either silently or in
a low voice or murmur. It should be said here in advance that in
the sources one finds an indiscriminate use of terms like tacita prex
or susurrus (the sound made by one speaking in a low voice or a
whisper) or murmur. It should be borne in mind here that tacite,
'silently', could not infrequently have the sense of 'in a quiet or low
murmur'. 2 2 For instance, Ovid, Metamorphoses VI 203 and a
scholion on Juvenal VI 587 speak about taciturn murmur, a very soft
for the strange miracle that should happen'' (propheta sic propitiatus herbulam quampiam ob os corporis et aliam pectori eius
imponit. tunc orientem obversus incrementa solis augusti tacitus
imprecatus venerabilis scaenae facie studia praesentium ad
miraculum tantum certatim adrexit). 27 In his Apologia 54,7
Apuleius, who has been accused of magical practices, makes fun of
unfounded accusations of magic: "Did you say silent prayers to the
gods in the temple? Then you are a magician!" (Tacitas preces in
templo deis allegasti: igitur magus es!). 28 Lucan, Menippus 7: a
Chaldaean brings Menippus down to visit the underworld; during
the trip plenty of use is made of incantations: "He spoke rapidly
and indistinctly. It is likely, however, that he was invoking certain
spirits ... murmuring his incantations" (
. ...
). Achilles Tatius II 7: "She moved closer and put her
mouth near mine in order to mumble her charm over the wound;
she whispered the formula ()... ' '. And in the great magical
papyrus from Paris (PGM IV) we read in lines 744-6 that the magi
cian has to say the spell over someone's head "with a weak voice
( ) so that he may not hear it". 2 9 As late as the sixth
century CE the anonymous Christian author of the so-called Opus
imperfectum in Matthaeum remarks on the magoi in Mt. 2: "Dicebantur Magi lingua eorum, quia in silentio et voce tacita Deum
glorificabant. (...) laudabant in silentio Deum tribus diebus"! (MG
56, 637). 3 0
Finally, a completely new motive to say prayers without words
evolved hand in hand with a change in the conception of the nature
of deity. It was of course in philosophical circles that this change
took its point of departure. Now it should be said beforehand that
there had always been Greeks and Romans who believed that gods
could hear prayers without words. In Sophocles, Electra 655-8,
Clytemnaestra says: "These are my prayers, Lycaean Apollo, hear
them graciously. Grant to ill of us what we ask. For all the rest,
although I am silent, I know you are a God and know it all" (',
' ", / .
/ ' / ' '
). And Cicero, De Divinatione I 129, says that "the minds
of the gods, without eyes, ears or tongue are mutually aware of
10
what any of them feels or thinks, so that men, even when they wish
or vow something silently, have no doubt of being h e a r d " (deorum
animi sine oculis, sine auribus, sine lingua sentiunt inter se quid
quisque sentiat, ex quo fit ut homines, etiam cum taciti optent quid
aut voveant, non dubitent quin di illud exaudiant). And some more
passages in this vein could be quoted. 3 1 But it should be added that
this was probably not a widespread belief.
It was mainly the later Platonists, with their ever more elevated
conception of the purely immaterial, noetic divine world and
especially their theo logia negativa,32 which gave a decisive impulse to
the new concept of silent prayer as the only fitting means of wor
shipping God. T o a lesser extent also the Stoics, with their concept
of the deity as permeating not only the whole cosmos but also all
h u m a n beings, contributed to this process. As to the Stoic view,
there is the hackneyed quotation from Seneca, Epistula X L I 1: " W e
do not need to uplift our hands towards heaven, or to beg the
keeper of a temple to let us approach his idol's ear, as if in this way
our prayers are more likely to be heard. God is near you, he is with
you, he is within y o u " (non sunt ad caelum elevandae manus nee
exorandus aedituus, ut nos ad aurem simulacri, quasi magis
exaudiri possimus, admittat; prope est a te deus, tecum est, intus
est). C o m m u n i n g with a god who is within you can be accom
plished without words, say the Stoics.
But it is the Platonic view that turned out to be of a much more
lasting influence. The clearest expression can be found in the
writings of the Neoplatonists, 3 3 to begin with Plotinus, Ennead V
1,6: " W e first invoke God himself, not in loud word, but in that
way of prayer which is always within our power, leaning in soul
towards H i m by aspiration, alone towards the a l o n e " (
,
,
). Plotinus' pupil Porphyry says in his De abstinentia II 34,2:
4
'Let us sacrifice in such a manner as is fit, offering different
sacrifices to different powers; to the God who is above all things,
as a certain wise m a n said, neither sacrificing nor consecrating
anything that belongs to the world of the senses. For there is
nothing material which is not immediately impure to an immaterial
nature. Hence neither is vocal language nor internal speech
11
12
Jewish evidence
Although in these two monotheistic religions audible prayer was
also the predominant custom, certainly initially, there were right
from the start some elements that made for a significant difference.
For J u d a i s m the most important factor simply was that in the Bible
there was a story about someone praying in silence who, although
being frowned upon by Eli the priest, was heard favourably by
God. This story is of course the narrative about H a n n a in 1 Sam.
1. There H a n n a , one of the two wives of Elkana, prays in the tem
ple at Silo in a mood of despair because she had remained childless
so far, in contrast to the other wife of Elkana. As she continued
praying, so the biblical text says, " E l i observed her mouth: H a n n a
was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not
heard; therefore Eli thought she was d r u n k " (1 Sam. 1:12-13 L X X
. (13)
.
). But her prayer that God would bless her with a
child was heard, which implied that her words not only were under
stood by God but also found favour in God's eyes. It is not surpris-
13
ing that, even though this is the only story in the Bible that speaks
about silent prayer, this was bound to exert its influence in Jewish
prayer practice.
The first post-biblical Jewish author to mention silent prayer was
the philosopher-exegete Philo of Alexandria. Although he does not
reflect on this biblical text, he does speak in a very positive sense
about silent prayer, but this is most probably due to his being so
deeply steeped in Platonic ideas about God. In De plantatione Noe
126 Philo says: "[Gratitude to God] must be expressed by means
of hymns of praise, and these not such as the audible voice will sing
( ), but strains raised and re-echoed by
the mind too pure for the eye to discern", a phraseology more
reminiscent of the just quoted Hermetic and Neoplatonic passages
than of 1 Sam. 1. But in De specialibus legibus I 272: "[The worship
pers] honour with hymns and thanksgivings their benefactor and
saviour, God, sometimes with the organs of speech, sometimes
without tongue or mouth ( ), when within
the soul alone their minds recite the tale or utter the cry of praise",
the words "without tongue or lips" are more reminiscent of the
words in 1 Sam. 1, which makes one wonder whether perhaps here
Plato does meet Samuel, so to speak. But when in De gigantibus 52
Philo writes that we have to contemplate to the Existent ( 8v)
without speech and within the soul adone ( ), the
terminology is so much like what we find in the later Platonists that
one suspects that 'Plato' was a stronger influence on Philo than
'Samuel', here as well as elsewhere. Although Philo should have
been rather dealt with in the paragraph on Platonism, we treat him
as a Jewish writer because that may help us understand why and
how in early Christianity, on which Philo had such a great influ
ence, 4 2 it was also this combination of biblical and Platonic
elements that facilitated the acceptance and propagation of silent
prayer.
Pseudo-Philo, however, does reflect on our biblical passage in his
Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 50:5, where he rewrites the story of
Hanna and Elkana: "And Hanna did not want to pray out loud as
all people do; for she thought saying: 'Perhaps I am not worthy to
be heard, and Peninnah will then be even more eager to taunt me,
...' " (et noluit Anna orare clara voce sicut omnes homines, tunc
14
enim cogitavit dicens: ne forte non sim digna exaudiri et erit ut plus
me zelans improperet mihi Fehenna). Although the author is aware
of the deviation from common practice (as all people do), he tries to
give us a glimpse into H a n n a ' s mind so as to enable us to under
stand her complete departure from common prayer practice. It was
fear to be even more taunted by her rival than before, if her prayer
would have no effect, that makes her pray in silence. Respectable
motives will recur in other Jewish reflections on our passage.
It is harder to discover what was the motive behind the passage
in the Greek Vita Adae et Evae 29:7, where at least a number of
manuscripts state that Adam after his expulsion from Paradise says
to Eve: " C r y in silence to God: O h God, have mercy on m e ! "
( * , ), which is clarified in the
Latin version as follows (6:2): " L e t no speech come out of your
mouth, because we are unworthy to entreat the Lord since our lips
are unclean from the illegal and forbidden t r e e " . Here at least the
second quotation makes clear that uncleanness of lips because of the
eating of the forbidden fruit is a reason either to pray not at all or
to pray in silence; but it has to be added that both versions taken
on their own are much less clear than taken together.
Josephus tells in Bellum III 353-4 that shortly before his surrender
to the R o m a n s he is hiding from the Romans with 40 revolutionary
notables from Jotapata. "Recalling the dreadful images of recent
dreams, he offered up a silent prayer to God (
). 'Since it pleases thee', so it ran, 'who didst create
the Jewish nation, to break thy work, since fortune has wholly
passed to the Romans, and since thou hast made choice of my spirit
to announce the things that are to come, I willingly surrender to the
Romans and consent to live; but I take thee to witness that I go,
not as a traitor, but as thy m i n i s t e r ' . " M u c h has been said about
this embarrassing passage, but for our purposes the relevant aspect
is that here we have simply another instance of fear of being heard
by others who certainly would have viewed him as a traitor.
When we now turn to rabbinic literature, we see that there is a
relative scarcity of evidence when we compare it to the enormous
bulk of early rabbinic literature as a whole and to the numerous
pages devoted therein to prayers said out loud. We find some brief
remarks on silent prayer in the Mishna and Talmud treatise
15
Berakhot, as was to be expected, and a couple of references elsewhere. 43 Nonetheless they are revealing. Let us begin with the
earliest testimony, Mishna Berakhot III 4-5, where we read: ' O n e
who has had a seminal discharge recites (the Shema) silently" (lit.:
he ponders over it in his heart); he should altogether refrain from
the blessings before and after the Shema; and should he have already
started to recite the Tefillah ( = the Eighteen Benedictions) but
remembered that he had had a seminal emission, he should not stop
the prayer but shorten it. The point here is that reciting the Shema
is not praying in the proper sense, because it actually is 'reading'
of Scripture, 44 so the man who is unclean (because of his seminal
emission) may recite the Shema, albeit silently, but because he is
unfit for immediate contact with the deity, he may not recite
berakhot, the prayers of blessing; and although he may go on with
the Tefillah when he remembers too late that he is impure because
of a seminal emission, he should absolutely shorten the prayer;
breaking it off would be an offence to the deity, but he should
beware of staying too long in direct contact with the divine sphere
and therefore abbreviate his prayer (by taking recourse to a
shortened version of the prayer, tefillah qetsirah). However, the
Mishna also explicitly states that not all rabbis were of the same
opinion: Rabbi J u d a h said that such a man was allowed to say all
prayers! 45
We now take a short glance at the Gemara, that is the discussion
of this Mishna passage by the Babylonian rabbis of the third
through sixth centuries in the Babylonian Talmud (Bavli). In Bavli
Berakhot 20b-21a one sees that the mishnaic passage elicits a debate:
Rabina says that it demonstrates that silent recitation is equivalent
to reciting aloud; otherwise why should he say Shema in silence? But
Rav Hisda combats this view: The two are not equivalent, otherwise why not let him utter the words, with his lips? And so it goes
on about the Shema. But then the rabbis switch to the Eighteen
Benedictions, Tefillah. "Tefillah is different because it does not
mention the kingdom of heaven" (21a). What does this mean? In
the Eighteen Benedictions the address melekh hacolam, 'King of the
Universe', does not occur, and that is the reason why, in contradistinction to the other berakhot, this one can be said to the end
when a man suddenly remembers his seminal emission, although
16
17
who sees in secret will reward y o u " . The context makes clear
beyond any doubt that this is a warning against ostentatious
prayer, but is it an encouragement of silent prayer? Does praying
not in the street but in the privacy of one's own room imply praying
in silence? The point would rather seem to be this: "Prayer is for
God alone; it requires no human audience. The soul in prayer must
be turned only towards G o d " . 4 9 The fact that one should withdraw
to a place where one is alone would rather seem to suggest that one
should look for a place where one's prayers, spoken out loud, cannot be heard by others. So although I am not inclined to follow A.S.
Pease in his interpretation of Matth. 6:6, what Jesus says a couple
of lines further, " y o u r Father knows what you need before you ask
h i m " (6:8), may indeed suggest that God has no need of human
words in order to know what is in their hearts, which is a wellknown motif from biblical and post-biblical Jewish sources. 50 Even
though this still is definitely not identical to a command to say
prayers silently, it is conceivable that such elements in the gospel
tradition have facilitated the acceptance of silent prayer as a respectable way of communicating with God. In addition to that, another
New Testament injunction, namely Paul's exhortation to pray constantly (1 Thess. 5:17) cannot have been meant and understood
otherwise than that the believers should be with their hearts in continuous contact with God, not that they should say prayers out loud
all day. It should be conceded, however, to Pease (although he is
not aware of it), that in the exegesis of some of the Church Fathers
it is indeed Matt. 6:6 that is used to encourage praying in silence.
The impact of Platonism on Christian views of prayer is discernible in the earliest Christian writer to discuss silent prayer, Clement
of Alexandria. In his Stromateis he devotes a whole chapter (VII 7)
to the questions of what sort of prayer the real believer should
employ and how it is heard by God. Some quotations may suffice:
VII 7, 37, 1 " G o d does not possess human form in order to hear,
nor does he need senses, as the Stoics think, 'especially hearing and
sight, for otherwise he could never perceive something' " . VII 7,
37, 3 " A n d should anyone say that the voice does not reach God,
but is rolled downwards in the air, yet the thoughts of the saints
cleave not only the air but the whole world". VII 7, 37, 5 " A n d
what voice should he wait for, he who, according to his purpose,
18
knows the elect already before his birth, and knows what is still to
be as already existent?" VII 7, 39, 6 " P r a y e r is then, to speak more
boldly, converse with God. Though whispering, consequently, and
not opening the lips we speak in silence, yet we cry inwardly. For
God hears continually all the inward converse". VII 7, 43, 4 " G o d
does not wait for loquacious tongues, as interpreters among men,
but knows absolutely the thoughts of all; and what the voice
intimates to us, that is what our thought, which even before the
creation H e knew would come into our mind, speaks to God.
Prayer, then, may be uttered without the v o i c e " . 5 1 It is clear that
it is not only philosophical motives but also the biblical and JewishChristian idea that God knows the thoughts of all men that plays
a role here.
From about the same period is the passage in the apocryphal Acta
Petri 39 ( = Martyrium Petri 10), where Peter has been crucified and
from the cross he utters a prayer that contains the following
passage: " N o w whereas thou hast made known and revealed these
things unto me, O word of life, called now by me wood [or: word
called now by me tree of life], I give thee thanks, not with these lips
that are nailed unto the cross, nor with this tongue by which truth
and falsehood issue forth, nor with this word which cometh forth
by means of art whose nature is material, but with that voice do I
give thee thanks, O King, which is perceived in silence (
), which is not heard openly, which proceedeth not forth by
organs of the body, which goes not into ears of flesh, which is not
heard of corruptible substance, which existeth not in the world,
neither is sent forth upon earth, nor written in books, which is
owned by one but not by another; but with this, O Jesus Christ,
do I give thee thanks, with the silence of a voice ( ),
wherewith the spirit that is in me loveth thee, speaketh unto thee,
seeth thee, and beseecheth t h e e " . 5 2 And also in the same period
Tertullian {De oratione 17,3-4) and some decades later Cyprian {De
dominica oratione 4-5) stress that God does not so much listen to the
voice as to the heart of men: Deus autem non vocis sed cordis
auditor est. But it is interesting to see that Tertullian, in order to
prove that God can not only see into the hearts of men but also hear
their thoughts, refers first to a pagan oracle of Apollo which says
that the god understands the mute and hears the one who does not
19
20
21
Universiteit Utrecht
P . O . B . 80.105
NL-3508 Utrecht
1
See e g F van Straten, Gifts for the Gods, in H S Versnel (ed ), Faith,
Hope and Worship Aspects of Religious Mentality in the Ancient World, Leiden 1981, 83
with figs 11 and 12
2
See H S Versnel, Religious Mentality in Ancient Prayer, ibid 36
3
Here the great essay by O Weinreich, , Athenische Mitteilungen 37
(1912) 19ff , is still fundamental See also A D Nock, Essays on Religion and the
Ancient World, Oxford 1972, I 421f
4
Schmidt, Veteres philosophi quomodo ludicaverunt de precibus ( R G W 4,1),
Gieen 1907, 55-71 (De precationibus aut tacitis aut clara voce prolatis), S
Sudhaus, Lautes und leises Beten, ARW 9 (1906), 185-200, esp 188-190, O
Kern, Die Religion der Griechen I, Berlin 1926, 151 A S Pease (ed ), M Tulli
Ciceronis de divinatione libri duo, Darmstadt 1963, adi 129, E von Severus, Gebet,
RAC 8 (1972) 1134-1258, W Fauth, Gebet, KP 2 (1975) 708-710, H Wagenvoort, Orare, precari, in his Pietas Selected Studies in Roman Religion, Leiden 1980,
197-209 The old but classic study by F Heiler, Das Gebet, Mnchen 1921 3 , is still
valuable for its observations on Greek and Roman prayers
5
See H Braune, . Veterum de precibus sententiae, diss Marburg 1935,
18-19, for a different subdivision
6
W Stanford, The Odyssey oj Homer I, London 1959 2 , 306 A schohon ad locum
says , .
7
W Leaf, The Iliad, I, Amsterdam 1960 ( = London 1900), 312 A schohon ad
locum says ' " .
8
Sudhaus, Lautes und leises Beten 194, also points to the addition to prayers
m the Tabulae Iguvinae containing the words tases persnimu sevom, which is U m b n a n
for tacitus precamino totum " D e n n es besteht die Gefahr, da Feinde und Widersacher das Gebet erfahren, das der Stadt Segen und Wohlfahrt gewhrleistet Sie
konnten seine Wirkung durch einen strkeren Zauber brechen"
9
Note that m the eighties of the 4th cent CE the pagan rhetorician Libanius
rather wryly remarks at the address of the Christian emperor Theodosius I "You
could have issued an edict, Sire Let none of my subjects revere or honour the
gods, or invoke them for any blessing either for himself or for his children, save
22
23
24
25
^ s
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