Exhortation to Martyrdom 51 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Origen closes by hoping his words help his friends, and that they may be strengthened by even greater wisdom from God.

Greek text · Koetschau 1:47–48

Ταῦτά μοι κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν, ὡς οἷόν τε ἦν, πρὸς ὑμᾶς ὑπηγόρευται, ἅπερ εὔχομαι ὑμῖν γενέσθαι πρὸς τὸν παρόντα ἀγῶνα χρήσιμα. εἰ δʼ ὑμεῖς μάλιστα νῦν ὡς ἄξιοι πλείονα βλέπειν τῶν τοῦ θεοῦ μυστηρίων μείζονα καὶ πλουσιώτερα καταλαμβάνοντες καὶ πρὸς τὸ προκείμενον ἀνυσιμώτερα τούτων ὡς παιδικῶν καὶ εὐτελῶν καταφρονήσετε, κἀγὼ ἂν τὸ τοιοῦτον περὶ ὑμῶν εὐξαίμην. πρόκειται γὰρ ὑμῖν οὐ τὸ διʼ ἡμῶν ἀνυσθῆναι τὰ καθʼ ὑμᾶς ἀλλὰ τὸ ὅπως ποτὲ ἀνυσθῆναι. καὶ εἴθε γε ἀνυσθείη διὰ θειοτέρων καὶ συνετωτέρων καὶ ὑπερεχόντων πᾶσαν ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν λόγων καὶ σοφίας θεοῦ.

English · Claude translation

These things I have dictated to you as well as I could, so far as it was possible, and I pray that they may be useful to you for the present contest. But if you, now above all, as those worthy to see more of the mysteries of God, grasp greater and richer things, more effective for the task before you, and despise these as childish and slight, I too would pray for this for you. For what lies before you is not that your affairs be accomplished through us, but that they be accomplished somehow. And may they be accomplished through words more divine and more wise, surpassing all human nature, and through the wisdom of God.

About this passage

Source

Koetschau 1:47–48 · 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.

Topics

Martyrdom

Cite this passage

Origen, Mart. 51 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/51/).

Plain text

Origen, Mart. 51 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/51/).