Exhortation to Martyrdom 3
Summary: Those who love God with their whole soul long to be freed from the body, like Paul's cry in Romans 7 and the psalmist's thirst for God in Psalm 42.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:4–5
Ὅλῃ δὲ ψυχῇ νομίζω ἀγαπᾶσθαι τὸν θεὸν ὑπὸ τῶν ἀποσπώντων καὶ διϊστάντων αὐτὴν διὰ πολλὴν τὴν πρὸς τὸ κοινωνῆσαι τῷ θεῷ προθυμίαν οὐ μόνον ἀπὸ τοῦ γηΐνου σώματος ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀπὸ παντὸς σώματος· οἷς οὐδὲ μετὰ περισπασμοῦ καὶ περιελκυσμοῦ τινος γίνεται τὸ ἀποθέσθαι „τὸ“ „τῆς ταπεινώσεως“ „σῶμα“, ὅταν καιρὸς διδῷ διὰ τοῦ νομιζομένου θανάτου ἐκδύσασθαι τὸ σῶμα „τοῦ θανάτου“ καὶ ἐπακουσθῆναι ἀποστολικῶς εὐξάμενον καὶ εἰπόντα· „ταλαίπωρος ἐγὼ ἄνθρωπος· τίς με ῥύσεται ἐκ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ θανάτου τούτου;“ τίς γὰρ τῶν „ἐν τῷ σκήνει“ στεναζόντων διὰ τὸ βαρεῖσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ φθαρτοῦ σώματος οὐχὶ καὶ εὐχαριστήσει πρότερον εἰπών· „τίς με ῥύσεται ἐκ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ θανάτου τούτου;“ βλέπων ὅτι διὰ τῆς ὁμιλίας ῥυσθεὶς ἀπὸ „τοῦ σώματος τοῦ θανάτου“ ἁγίως ἀναφθέγξεται τό· „χάρις τῷ θεῷ διὰ Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν“. εἰ δέ τινι τὸ τοιοῦτο χαλεπὸν φαίνεται, οὐκ „ἐδίψησε“ „πρὸς τὸν θεὸν“ τὸν ἰσχυρὸν „τὸν ζῶντα“ οὐδὲ ἐπεπόθησε πρὸς τὸν θεὸν „ὃν τρόπον ἐπιποθεῖ ἡ ἔλαφος ἐπὶ τὰς πηγὰς τῶν ὑδάτων“ οὐδὲ εἶπε· „πότε ἄρα ἥξω καὶ ὀφθήσομαι τῷ προσώπῳ τοῦ θεοῦ;“ οὐδὲ ἐν ἑαυτῷ ἐλογίσατο ἃ διαλογισάμενος ὁ προφήτης, λεγομένου τοῦ· „ποῦ ἐστιν ὁ θεός σου;“ αὐτῷ, „καθʼ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν“ ἐξέχεεν ἐφʼ ἑαυτὸν „τὴν ψυχὴν“ αὐτοῦ, ἐπιπλήσσων αὐτῇ ἔτι κατʼ ἀσθένειαν περιλύπῳ γινομένῃ καὶ συνταρασσομένῃ καὶ λέγων· „ὅτι διελεύσομαι ἐν τόπῳ σκηνῆς θαυμαστῆς ἕως τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ θεοῦ, ἐν φωνῇ ἀγαλλιάσεως καὶ ἐξομολογήσεως ἤχου ἑορτάζοντος.“
English · Claude translation
I think that God is loved with the whole soul by those who, through great eagerness for communion with God, draw it away and separate it not only from the earthly body but from every body. For them it is no struggle and no tearing away to lay aside “the body” “of humiliation,” when the occasion allows them, through what is called death, to put off the body “of death,” and to be heard when they pray as the apostle did and say, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” For which of those who groan “in the tent” because they are weighed down by the corruptible body will not also give thanks, having first said, “Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” when he sees that, delivered through this communion from “the body of death,” he will holily cry out, “Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord”? But if this seems hard to anyone, he has not “thirsted” “for God,” the mighty, “the living,” nor longed for God “as the deer longs for the springs of water,” nor said, “When shall I come and appear before the face of God?” Nor has he considered within himself what the prophet considered, when it was said to him, “Where is your God?” and “every day” he poured out “his soul” within himself, rebuking it when, through weakness, it was still very sorrowful and troubled, and saying, “For I shall pass through into the place of the wonderful tent, even to the house of God, with the voice of rejoicing and thanksgiving, the sound of one keeping festival.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Phil 3:21, Rom 7:24–25, 2 Cor 5:4, and Ps 42:1–4 (41:2–5 LXX). “Communion” renders ὁμιλία (“converse, intercourse”), probably the soul's communion with God named at the start of the chapter, into which death (here martyrdom) brings it; the reading is difficult and may be corrupt, but it is translated as printed.
Cite this passage
Origen, Mart. 3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/3/).
Plain text
Origen, Mart. 3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/3/).
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