Exhortation to Martyrdom 28
Summary: Martyrdom is the only fitting return for God's gifts; it is the “cup of salvation” of the Psalm and the cup Jesus asked his disciples if they could drink.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:24–25
Ὁποῖον δʼ ἐστὶ τὸ μαρτύριον καὶ πόσην παῤῥησίαν ἐμποιοῦν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν, καὶ ἐντεῦθεν ἔστι καταμαθεῖν. φιλότιμός τις ὁ ἅγιος ὢν καὶ ἀμείψασθαι θέλων τὰς φθασάσας εἰς αὐτὸν εὐεργεσίας ἀπὸ θεοῦ ζητεῖ, τί ἂν ποιήσαι τῷ κυρίῳ περὶ πάντων ὧν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ εἴληφε· καὶ οὐδὲν ἄλλο εὑρίσκει οἱονεὶ ἰσόῤῥοπον ταῖς εὐεργεσίαις δυνάμενον ἀπὸ ἀνθρώπου εὐπροαιρέτου ἀποδοθῆναι θεῷ, ὡς τὴν ἐν μαρτυρίῳ τελευτήν. γέγραπται γὰρ ἐν τῷ ἑκατοστῷ καὶ πέμπτῳ καὶ δεκάτῳ ψαλμῷ τὰ μὲν τῆς ἐπαπορήσεως οὕτως· „τί ἀνταποδώσω τῷ κυρίῳ περὶ πάντων ὧν ἀνταπέδωκέ μοι;“ τὰ δὲ τῆς πρὸς αὐτὴν ἀπαντήσεως εἰπόντος· τί ἀνταποδώσει τῷ κυρίῳ περὶ πάντων ὧν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ εἴληφεν ὁ λέγων, οὕτως εἰρημένα· „ποτήριον σωτηρίου λήψομαι καὶ τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου ἐπικαλέσομαι“. „ποτήριον δὲ σωτηρίου“ ἔθος ὀνομάζεσθαι τὸ μαρτύριον, ὡς ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ εὕρομεν. ἡνίκα γὰρ μείζονος ὀρέγονται τιμῆς οἱ θέλοντες „ἐκ δεξιῶν“ καὶ „ἐξ εὐωνύμων“ καθεσθῆναι τῷ Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ αὐτοῦ, φησὶ πρὸς αὐτοὺς ὁ κύριος· „δύνασθε πιεῖν τὸ ποτήριον ὃ ἐγὼ πίνω;“ ποτήριον λέγων τὸ μαρτύριον. ὅπερ ἐστὶ σαφὲς καὶ ἐκ τοῦ· „πάτερ εἰ δυνατὸν παρένεγκε τὸ ποτήριον τοῦτο ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ· πλὴν οὐ τί ἐγὼ θέλω ἀλλὰ τί σύ“. πλὴν μανθάνομεν ὅτι συγκαθίσει καὶ συμβασιλεύσει καὶ συνδικάσει τῷ βασιλεῖ τῶν βασιλευόντων ὁ πιὼν τὸ ποτήριον ἐκεῖνο, ὅπερ ἔπιεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς. τοῦτʼ οὖν ἐστι τὸ τοῦ „σωτηρίου“ „ποτήριον“, ὅπερ ὁ λαβὼν ἐπικαλέσεται „τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου“ „πᾶς δὲ ὃς ἂν ἐπικαλέσηται τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου σωθήσεται.“
English · Claude translation
What martyrdom is, and how much boldness toward God it produces, can also be learned from this. The saint, being generous and wishing to repay the benefits that have come to him from God, seeks what he could do for the Lord in return for all that he has received from him; and he finds nothing else that a man of good will could render to God that is, as it were, of equal weight with his benefits, except death in martyrdom. For in the hundred and fifteenth psalm the perplexity is written thus: “What shall I render to the Lord for all that he has rendered to me?” And the answer to it, as if one had said, “What will the one who speaks render to the Lord for all that he has received from him?”, is given thus: “I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.” Now it is customary to call martyrdom “the cup of salvation,” as we have found in the gospel. For when those who wished to sit at Jesus' “right” and “left” in his kingdom reached out for greater honor, the Lord said to them: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?”, calling martyrdom a cup. This is clear also from the words, “Father, if it is possible, take this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what you will.” And we learn that the one who has drunk that cup which Jesus drank will sit with, reign with, and judge with the King of those who reign. This, then, is the “cup” of “salvation,” and whoever takes it will call upon “the name of the Lord”; “and everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Ps 116:12–13 (115:3–4 LXX; Origen cites the Greek numbering, Psalm 115), Matt 20:21–22, Matt 26:39 (in a form close to Luke 22:42), and Joel 2:32 (3:5 LXX; Rom 10:13). Reigning and judging with Christ alludes to 2 Tim 2:12, Rev 3:21, and Matt 19:28.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (a dropped letter in the digital text): ἰσόῤῥπον → ἰσόῤῥοπον.
Cite this passage
Origen, Mart. 28 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/28/).
Plain text
Origen, Mart. 28 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/28/).
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