Sophia Scriptura

Exhortation to Martyrdom 27

Origen · Exhortation to Martyrdom · 235 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: The mother of the seven bore her sons' deaths with courage, showing that love for God is stronger than every other love and than any torture.

Greek text · Koetschau 1:23–24

Ἦν δὲ τότε τὴν μητέρα τῶν τοσούτων ἰδεῖν „εὐψύχως“ φέρουσαν „διὰ τὰς ἐπὶ τὸν θεὸν ἐλπίδας“ τοὺς πόνους καὶ τοὺς θανάτους τῶν υἱῶν· δρόσοι γὰρ εὐσεβείας καὶ πνεῦμα ὁσιότητος οὐκ εἴων ἀνάπτεσθαι ἐν τοῖς σπλάγχνοις αὐτῆς τὸ μητρικὸν καὶ ἐν πολλαῖς ἀναφλεγόμενον ὡς ἐπὶ βαρυτάτοις κακοῖς πῦρ. νομίζω δὲ καὶ ταῦτα χρησιμώτατα πρὸς τὸ προκείμενον ἐπιτεμόμενος ἀπὸ τῆς γραφῆς παρατεθεῖσθαι· ἵνʼ ἴδωμεν, ὅσον δύναται κατὰ τῶν τραχυτάτων πόνων καὶ τῶν βαρυτάτων βασάνων εὐσέβεια καὶ τὸ πρὸς θεὸν φίλτρον παντὸς φίλτρου καθʼ ὑπερβολὴν πλεῖον δυνάμενον. τούτῳ δὲ τῷ πρὸς θεὸν φίλτρῳ ἀνθρωπίνη ἀσθένεια οὐ συμπολιτεύεται ὑπερόριος ἀφʼ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς ἐλαυνομένη καὶ οὐδὲ κατὰ ποσὸν ἐνεργεῖν δυναμένη, ὅπου ἐστὶν ὁ οἷός τε εἰπεῖν· „ἰσχύς μου καὶ ὕμνησίς μου ὁ κύριος“ καὶ „πάντα ἰσχύω ἐν τῷ ἐνδυναμοῦντί με Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν“.

English · Claude translation

Then one could see the mother of so many sons bearing “with good courage, because of her hopes in God,” the pains and deaths of her sons; for the dews of piety and the breath of holiness did not allow the fire of a mother's love to be kindled in her inward parts, the fire that blazes up in many at the heaviest calamities. And I think it most useful for our present subject to have set out these things, abridged from Scripture, so that we may see how much piety, and love for God, which is exceedingly stronger than every other love, can do against the harshest pains and the heaviest tortures. With this love for God human weakness does not share citizenship; it is driven out of the whole soul, into exile, and cannot act even in the least degree, where there is someone able to say, “The Lord is my strength and my song,” and, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me, Christ Jesus our Lord.”

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 1:23–24 · Paul Koetschau, ed., Origenes Werke 1: Die Schrift vom Martyrium, Buch I–IV gegen Celsus, GCS 2 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1899), 1–47 · Greek text: P. Koetschau, Origenes Werke 1 (GCS 2, 1899), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Koetschau, GCS 2. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Koetschau, GCS 2; made independently of existing English translations. No public-domain English translation exists; reviewed against the Greek.
Scripture
Extrabiblical texts
  • 2 Macc 7:20 (2 Maccabees) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Martyrdom

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are 2 Macc 7:20, Ps 118:14 (117:14 LXX; Exod 15:2), and Phil 4:13 (with “Jesus our Lord” added).

Cite this passage

Origen, Mart. 27 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/27/).

Plain text
Origen, Mart. 27 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/27/).

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