Sophia Scriptura

Exhortation to Martyrdom 9

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

Summary: God calls himself jealous as a wise bridegroom shows jealousy to keep his bride, the soul, from unfaithfulness to false gods.

Greek text · Koetschau 1:9–10

Χρήσιμον δὲ ἡμᾶς ἐννοεῖν ἐν τοῖς καιροῖς τῶν ἐπὶ τὰ ἐναντία προκαλουμένων, τί διδάξαι βουλόμενος ὁ θεός φησι τό· „ἐγώ εἰμι κύριος ὁ θεός σου ζηλωτής.“ καὶ οἶμαί γε ὅτι ὃν τρόπον νυμφίος ἐπιστρέφων τὴν νύμφην πρὸς τὸ σεμνῶς βιοῦν συνάγουσαν μὲν πᾶσαν ἑαυτὴν πρὸς τὸν νυμφίον παντὶ δὲ τρόπῳ φυλαττομένην ἐκχεῖσθαι πρὸς ἕτερόν τινα παρὰ τὸν νυμφίον, κἂν σοφὸς ᾖ, ἐμφαίνοι ἂν ζῆλον ὡς φαρμάκῳ τῇ τοιαύτῃ ἐμφάσει πρὸς τὴν νύμφην χρώμενος· οὕτως ὁ χρηματίζων, καὶ μάλιστα ἐὰν φαίνηται „ὁ πρωτότοκος εἶναι πάσης κτίσεως“, φησὶ πρὸς τὴν νύμφην ψυχὴν θεὸς εἶναι ζηλωτὴς, πάσης τῆς πρὸς τὰ δαιμόνια πορνείας καὶ τοὺς νομιζομένους εἶναι θεοὺς ἀφιστὰς τοὺς ἀκροωμένους· καὶ ὡς θεός γε οὕτω ζηλωτής φησι περὶ τῶν ὅπως ποτὲ ὀπίσω θεῶν ἑτέρων ἐκπεπορνευκότων· „αὐτοὶ παρεζήλωσάν με ἐπʼ οὐ θεῷ, παρώργισάν με ἐν τοῖς εἰδώλοις αὐτῶν· κἀγὼ παραζηλώσω αὐτοὺς ἐπʼ οὐκ ἔθνει, ἐπὶ ἔθνει ἀσυνέτῳ παροργιῶ αὐτούς· ὅτι πῦρ ἐκκέκαυται ἐκ τοῦ θυμοῦ μου, καυθήσεται ἕως ᾅδου κατωτάτου.“

English · Claude translation

It is useful for us, in times when people call us to the contrary course, to consider what God wishes to teach when he says, “I am the Lord your God, a jealous God.” And I think that, just as a bridegroom who turns his bride toward living chastely, so that she gathers her whole self to her bridegroom and guards in every way against pouring herself out to anyone other than the bridegroom, would, if he were wise, show jealousy, using such a display toward the bride as a medicine; so he who speaks the oracle, especially if he appears to be “the firstborn of all creation,” says to the bride, the soul, that he is a jealous God, drawing his hearers away from all fornication with demons and with those who are thought to be gods. And as a God who is jealous in this way, he says of those who have in any way gone whoring after other gods: “They provoked me to jealousy with what is no god, they angered me with their idols; and I will provoke them to jealousy with what is no nation, with a foolish nation I will anger them; for a fire has been kindled from my wrath, it will burn to the lowest Hades.”

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 1:9–10 · 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
Topics
Martyrdom, Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Exod 20:5 and Deut 32:21–22; “the firstborn of all creation” is Col 1:15. Origen suggests that the speaker of the commandment may be the Son. “Fornication” (πορνεία) is here the prophetic image of idolatry as unfaithfulness.

Cite this passage

Origen, Mart. 9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/9/).

Plain text
Origen, Mart. 9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/9/).

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