Martyrdom

Dying for the faith, and its meaning.

Passages that substantially address this topic, in date order.

1 Clement 5.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Turning to recent examples.
1 Clement 5.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The greatest pillars of the church were persecuted to death.
1 Clement 5.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The example of the apostles.
1 Clement 5.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Peter endured many trials and died a martyr.
1 Clement 5.5Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Paul showed the way to the prize of endurance.
1 Clement 5.6Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Paul's sufferings and preaching in East and West.
1 Clement 5.7Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Paul preached to the ends of the West and died a martyr.
1 Clement 6.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A great multitude of Roman Christians also suffered.
1 Clement 6.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Christian women were tortured in cruel spectacles but finished the race of faith.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.2.1 (68.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Those with fruit-bearing sticks are crowned and sent into the tower.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.3.6 (69.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The crowned are those who suffered for the law: the martyrs.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.28.2 (105.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Fruit trees are the martyrs.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.28.3 (105.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · All martyrs have their sins taken away.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.28.4 (105.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Martyrs who did not hesitate have the greater glory.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.28.5 (105.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Sufferers should glorify God, who counts them worthy.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.28.6 (105.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Suffering for the name is God's gift of life, not the believer's great deed.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.1.9 (9.9)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The right side is for those who suffered for the name.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.2.1 (10.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The martyrs sit on the right, but all receive the same gifts.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.5.2 (13.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The stones from the deep are the martyrs.
To the Ephesians 1.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · The Ephesians hurried to meet Ignatius on his way to martyrdom in Rome.
To the Ephesians 11.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius wears his chains as spiritual pearls and hopes to share the Ephesians' lot.
To the Ephesians 12.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius contrasts his danger with the Ephesians' security.
To the Ephesians 12.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Martyrs pass through Ephesus on their way to death, as Paul did.
To the Ephesians 21.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius writes from Smyrna and asks to be remembered.
To the Ephesians 21.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks prayer for the church in Syria and says farewell.
To the Ephesians 3.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius writes humbly, as one only beginning to be a disciple.
To the Ephesians 8.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · The Ephesians live as God's people, free of strife; Ignatius gives himself for them.
To the Magnesians 5.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Like coins, people bear the stamp of either the world or God; Christ's life is in those willing to share his death.
To Polycarp 2.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Like a pilot or athlete, Polycarp must strive to reach God; Ignatius offers himself on his behalf.
To Polycarp 7.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · News that the church at Antioch is at peace has cheered Ignatius as he goes to martyrdom.
To the Romans 1.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius hopes to reach Rome and the end of his course.
To the Romans 1.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius fears the Romans' love might lead them to prevent his martyrdom.
To the Romans 2.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · If the Romans do nothing to save him, Ignatius's death will speak God's word.
To the Romans 2.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks only to be offered to God, setting like the sun in the west to rise in God.
To the Romans 3.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks for strength to be a Christian in deed, not only in name.
To the Romans 4.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius begs the Romans not to save him: he is God's wheat, to be ground into Christ's bread.
To the Romans 4.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks prayer that the beasts may make him a sacrifice to God.
To the Romans 4.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Unlike the apostles Peter and Paul, Ignatius is a condemned man who will be made free by martyrdom.
To the Romans 5.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · On the journey Ignatius is already “fighting beasts”: his cruel guards.
To the Romans 5.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius hopes the beasts will be quick to devour him.
To the Romans 5.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius welcomes every torture, if only he may reach Christ.
To the Romans 6.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius would rather die for Christ than rule the world; his death will be a birth.
To the Romans 6.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · For Ignatius, martyrdom is true life, and being saved from it would be death.
To the Romans 6.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius wants to imitate the suffering of Christ, his God.
To the Romans 7.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · The devil wants to turn Ignatius from God; the Romans must not help him.
To the Romans 7.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius's earthly desire is crucified; living water within him calls him to the Father.
To the Romans 7.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius longs for the bread of God, Christ's flesh, and the drink of his blood.
To the Romans 8.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks the Romans to will his martyrdom.
To the Romans 8.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks prayer that he may reach his goal.
To the Smyrnaeans 10.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · The Smyrnaeans were not ashamed of Ignatius's chains, nor will Christ be ashamed of them.
To the Smyrnaeans 11.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius, least of the Antiochene Christians, asks prayer to reach God.
To the Smyrnaeans 4.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · If Christ only seemed to suffer, Ignatius's chains would be meaningless.
To the Trallians 10.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · If Christ only seemed to suffer, Ignatius's martyrdom would be pointless.
To the Trallians 12.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks for prayer that he may be found worthy of martyrdom.
To the Trallians 13.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius offers himself for the Trallians and trusts the faithful Father.
To the Trallians 4.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius guards himself against pride and flattery.
To the Trallians 4.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius longs to suffer but needs gentleness against the devil's hidden attack.
To the Philippians 8.2Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Believers should imitate Christ's endurance and glorify him when they suffer for his name.
To the Philippians 9.1Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Polycarp urges endurance like that the Philippians saw in Ignatius, Zosimus, Rufus, Paul, and the apostles.
To the Philippians 9.2Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · The martyrs did not run in vain; they are now with the Lord, because they loved Christ rather than this world.
To Diognetus 10.7Anonymous · ca. 150–200 (disputed) · Then you will admire the martyrs and fear the real death.
To Diognetus 10.8Anonymous · ca. 150–200 (disputed) · You will call blessed those who endure the fire of martyrdom.
To Diognetus 5.12Anonymous · ca. 150–200 (disputed) · Condemned and killed, yet made alive.
To Diognetus 7.7Anonymous · ca. 150–200 (disputed) · Martyrs thrown to the beasts do not deny the Lord.
First Apology 39Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Isaiah's prophecy of swords into plowshares is fulfilled: the twelve apostles went out, and Christians now die rather than lie or fight.
Second Apology 11Justin Martyr · ca. 150–160 · Death is a debt all must pay; like Heracles choosing Virtue in Xenophon's story, Christians choose the hard road to true happiness.
Second Apology 12Justin Martyr · ca. 150–160 · Justin tells how, as a Platonist, the Christians' fearlessness before death convinced him the slanders against them were false.
Second Apology 2Justin Martyr · ca. 150–160 · A Christian wife who divorced her dissolute husband is denounced by him; her teacher Ptolemaeus and two others are executed under Urbicus simply for confessing the name of Christ.
Second Apology 3Justin Martyr · ca. 150–160 · Christians do not kill themselves, since that would defy God's purpose for the human race; but when questioned they will not lie.
Second Apology 8Justin Martyr · ca. 150–160 · Justin expects to be killed, perhaps through the Cynic Crescens, whom he has shown in debate to know nothing of Christian teaching.
Dialogue with Trypho 11.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The conversion and steadfastness of the Gentiles show that Christ is the new covenant.
Dialogue with Trypho 110.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Persecution only multiplies Christians, as pruning makes a vine more fruitful.
Dialogue with Trypho 114.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians' hearts, circumcised by the apostles' words, rejoice to die for Christ, the Rock that gives living water.
Dialogue with Trypho 119.6Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians, like Abraham, believed God's voice; they are his nation of like faith.
Dialogue with Trypho 121.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · No one dies for the sun, but many die for Christ's name, which shines brighter than the sun.
Dialogue with Trypho 131.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians, called through the despised cross, endure death rather than deny Christ,
Dialogue with Trypho 18.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians who endure death for Christ would readily keep harmless rites if they were required.
Dialogue with Trypho 30.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians find God's words sweeter than honey, and pray to be kept from evil spirits.
Dialogue with Trypho 34.8Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Solomon fell into idolatry; Gentile Christians die rather than eat idol offerings.
Dialogue with Trypho 39.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians honor God in deed and heart, even to death.
Dialogue with Trypho 46.7Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians die rather than sacrifice to idols, hoping in the resurrection.
Dialogue with Trypho 49.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Herod had John beheaded.
Dialogue with Trypho 96.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians are cursed in synagogues and killed by Gentiles; they call their persecutors brothers and die rather than deny Christ.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 1.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · The church writes about the martyrs and especially Polycarp, whose death ended the persecution and showed what a gospel martyrdom looks like.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 1.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Like Jesus, Polycarp waited to be handed over, setting an example of love that seeks others' salvation, not only one's own.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 10.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp openly declared himself a Christian and offered to explain the faith.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 11.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Threatened with the beasts, Polycarp said that Christians cannot change from better to worse.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 11.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Threatened with fire, Polycarp contrasted it with the eternal fire of the coming judgment.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 12.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp remained joyful and calm, and the herald announced his confession to the crowd.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 12.3Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · The crowd demanded that Polycarp be burned, fulfilling his earlier vision.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 13.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp undressed for the pyre himself; the faithful had always honored him for his holy life.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 13.3Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp asked not to be nailed, trusting God to keep him steady in the fire.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 14.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Bound to the stake like a sacrificial ram, Polycarp began his final prayer to God the Father.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 14.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp thanked God for the honor of sharing Christ's suffering and prayed to be received as a sacrifice.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 15.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · The fire was lit, and the writers saw a marvel they were spared to report.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 15.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · The flames formed an arch around Polycarp without consuming him, and a sweet fragrance filled the air.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 16.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · An executioner stabbed Polycarp, and so much blood flowed that it put out the fire.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 17.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · The devil, envious of Polycarp's victory, tried to keep the Christians from recovering his body.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 17.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Opponents claimed Christians would worship Polycarp instead of Christ, but Christians worship Christ alone.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 17.3Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Christians worship Christ as Son of God and love the martyrs as his disciples.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 18.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · The centurion had Polycarp's body burned.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 18.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · The Christians gathered Polycarp's bones and laid them to rest.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 18.3Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · The church planned to gather yearly on the anniversary of Polycarp's martyrdom.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 19.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp, though one of twelve martyrs, is remembered everywhere as a teacher and model martyr.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 2.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · True martyrdoms happen according to God's will, since God rules over all.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 2.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · The martyrs endured horrible torture without complaint, because the Lord was present with them.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 2.3Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Looking to eternal life and the good things God has prepared, the martyrs counted their tortures as nothing.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 2.4Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Those sentenced to the beasts were tortured further to make them deny the faith, for the devil was at work against them.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 3.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Germanicus encouraged the others by his courage and chose death rather than accept the proconsul's pity.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 4.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Quintus, who had volunteered for martyrdom, gave way; so the church does not approve of handing oneself over.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 5.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp was persuaded to leave the city and spent his time in prayer for all the churches.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 5.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · In a vision Polycarp saw his pillow on fire and knew he would be burned alive.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 6.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Betrayed by his own household, Polycarp was sought by an official named Herod, in a story that echoes Christ's Passion.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 7.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Police came for Polycarp at night; he could have fled but accepted God's will.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 9.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · As Polycarp entered the stadium, a voice from heaven told him to be strong.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 9.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Told to say “Away with the atheists,” Polycarp said it, but of the pagan crowd.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 9.3Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp refused to curse Christ, whom he had served for eighty-six years.
To Autolycus 3.30Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · The Greeks ignore the true history because they learned writing late and forgot God; they honor poets who mock God and persecute those who worship him.
A Plea for the Christians 3Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · The three charges against Christians are atheism, cannibalism, and incest; if true, destroy us; if false, examine our lives and treat us as others are treated.
The Instructor 1.5.22Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The saved rejoice like Isaac; the church, the bride, is called patience, and Christ the King looks down on her joy.
The Instructor 2.10.108Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Dyed clothing is useless and suggestive; white suits those pure within, as Daniel's vision of the Ancient of Days and the martyrs' white robes in Revelation show.
The Instructor 2.8.73Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Garlands are for the dead and for idols; the Christian awaits the unfading crown of heaven; the Lord's crown of thorns is a type of the church, of faith, and of the cost of discipleship.
Prophetic Extracts 63.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The psalm is read as: unless persecuted like the Lord, one cannot be proved blameless; no one becomes a martyr without persecution.
Miscellanies 1.17.86Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God's providence steers even the apostates' evil to a good end; divine wisdom is shown above all in bringing good out of evil, as in martyrdom that arises from persecution.
Miscellanies 2.18.81Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God is without need or passion; we, subject to passion, need self-control to become like him and need little; the law forbidding men to wear women's clothing teaches manliness in endurance, even to martyrdom.
Miscellanies 2.20.103Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Endurance leads to likeness to God, as Daniel and his companions show; the king of Babylon threw Daniel to the lions, but the Lord, King of all, brought him out unharmed.
Miscellanies 2.20.104Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The one who knows has the patience of Job, Jonah, Daniel, and the three young men, bearing witness by word and life, crucified to the world, carrying the cross and following the Lord.
Miscellanies 2.20.108Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Pleasure, grief, fear, and desire require hard training; pleasure nails the soul to the body; losing one's life for Christ, whether in martyrdom or by separating the soul from pleasure, is the meaning of the cross.
Miscellanies 2.20.110Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The passions are impressions stamped on the soul by the spiritual powers we wrestle against; some are thrown, but athletes of faith win the crown and the powers give up; things move by impulse or by being moved.
Miscellanies 2.20.125Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Zeno would learn more from one Indian enduring fire than from arguments; Christians see martyrs burned and beheaded daily, trained by the law's fear; the “gods” of Psalm 82 are those who rise above pleasure and the flesh.
Miscellanies 4.1.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement outlines Book 4 and beyond: martyrdom, the perfect Christian, the equal calling of slave and free, men and women, to philosophy, faith, the symbolic method, and a summary of Scripture against Greeks and Jews.
Miscellanies 4.10.76Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ's command to flee persecution is not because persecution or death is evil, but so that we may not be the cause of the persecutor's sin; the one who disobeys is reckless.
Miscellanies 4.10.77Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · One who hands himself over to the court shares the guilt of his killer and helps the persecutor sin; we should not provoke persecution by conflict or litigation, but yield even our goods, lest we provoke blasphemy of Christ's name.
Miscellanies 4.11.78Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Pagans ask why God lets Christians be persecuted; God did not will persecution but foretold it, to train us for endurance, to which he promised the inheritance.
Miscellanies 4.11.80Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Death is no harm to Christians but a release to the Lord, for which we may even thank our persecutors; as Socrates said, the worse cannot harm the better; the Lord is our helper, and the souls of the righteous are in God's hand.
Miscellanies 4.12.81Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Basilides taught that martyrs suffer for hidden sins, mercifully under the name of Christians; even the apparently sinless suffer, as infants do, not by a hostile power.
Miscellanies 4.12.82Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Basilides argues that even infants and the seemingly perfect suffer because they have the capacity to sin, as one who wills adultery is an adulterer; he would say anything rather than call providence evil.
Miscellanies 4.12.83Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Basilides, pressed about the Lord's sufferings, would call even him a sinful man; his theory that martyrs are punished for sins in a former life fails, since confessing or denying rests with our choice.
Miscellanies 4.12.84Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · If martyrdom were punishment decreed by providence, denial would thwart providence, martyrs would deserve no reward, and providence would be unjust both to the righteous sufferer and to the sinner spared.
Miscellanies 4.12.85Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Basilides virtually deifies the devil and makes the Lord a sinner; the devil is permitted to tempt only to test our free choice, shame himself, and strengthen the church; if martyrdom were punishment, faith, love, and virtue would lose their meaning.
Miscellanies 4.12.86Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · If suffering were God's will, persecution would be good or persecutors innocent; rather, God does not will persecution but does not prevent it, which preserves both his providence and his goodness.
Miscellanies 4.12.87Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God does not cause afflictions but permits them and turns them to good as training, for others because of their sins, for the Lord and the apostles because of ours; God's will is our sanctification, for which the Lord was not prevented from suffering.
Miscellanies 4.12.88Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · If martyrs suffer for sins in a former life by providence, then either the persecutors act justly or persecution is God's will; the Basilidian theory destroys itself.
Miscellanies 4.13.92Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement defers proof that the Creator is Christ's Father; Paul tells the Philippians suffering for Christ is a gift, and calls them “united in soul,” refuting the Valentinian contempt for the “psychic.”
Miscellanies 4.14.96Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement interprets Romans 8:38–39 phrase by phrase: no persecutor's death, life, fallen angel, satanic power, or worldly hope can separate us from God's love in Christ; this sums up the knowing martyr.
Miscellanies 4.16.101Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul's contentment in plenty and want is the knower's rule; Hebrews recalls believers who, after enlightenment, joyfully endured suffering and loss of goods, and urges endurance and faith.
Miscellanies 4.16.102Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Hebrews lists the faithful who endured mocking, scourging, stoning, and death, of whom the world was not worthy, who did not receive the promise without us.
Miscellanies 4.16.103Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The saints of old are perfected with us, a cloud of witnesses encouraging us to run looking to Jesus; there is one salvation in Christ for them and us; Moses chose Christ's reproach; Wisdom says the martyrs, though they seem to die, are at peace.
Miscellanies 4.16.104Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Wisdom teaches that martyrdom is a glorious purification: God tests the martyrs like gold and accepts them as a burnt offering; they will shine and judge the nations.
Miscellanies 4.16.99Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul describes perfect righteousness as believing in the heart and confessing with the mouth; we must bless persecutors, and our boast is a conscience that has lived in holiness by God's grace.
Miscellanies 4.18.111Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Following Clement of Rome: love of God and neighbor lifts us to God, covers sins, and perfects the elect; Paul says that even martyrdom without love, done from fear, is nothing.
Miscellanies 4.18.112Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Confessing Christ for reward, giving to be repaid, or great faith without love count for nothing compared with the knowing martyr; those perfected in love will be revealed at the coming of Christ's kingdom.
Miscellanies 4.19.118Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Perfection belongs equally to men and women: Moses offered to be blotted out for his people, and Judith, perfected among women, risked her life for her city and slew Holofernes.
Miscellanies 4.19.119Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Esther, by fasting and prayer, saved Israel from Haman; Miriam shared leadership with Moses; Susanna, condemned by the lustful elders, remained an unwavering witness to chastity even to death.
Miscellanies 4.19.120Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Pagan women too showed virtue: Lysidice and Philotera in modesty, Leaena who endured torture without betraying the tyrannicides, and the Argive women led by Telesilla who repelled the Spartans.
Miscellanies 4.20.127Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · A wife troubled by her husband will first try reason and persuasion; if he will not listen, she will live sinlessly, even to death, with God as her helper and guide, aiming at his friendship.
Miscellanies 4.20.129Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Hebrews crowns the discussion of marriage: it is honorable and the bed undefiled; for man and woman alike, Peter says, faith tested in trials brings joy and salvation; Paul boasts of his sufferings for Christ.
Miscellanies 4.21.130Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · One may be perfect in particular virtues, but no one save Christ in all; the law's perfection leads to the gospel; even the knowing martyr is called “perfect” only at the completion of life, when his blood, offered through love, sends his spirit on.
Miscellanies 4.21.131Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The perfect Christian relies on God's power, enduring affliction and persecution without despair, commending himself to God by patience, purity, knowledge, and love, cleansing himself and perfecting holiness; godly grief leads to repentance and salvation.
Miscellanies 4.21.133Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Prophets, the righteous, martyrs, and preachers are each perfect in their own gift while sharing the common virtues; each has his own gift from God, but the apostles were filled with all.
Miscellanies 4.3.12Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Death is the soul's union with sin, life its separation; sinners are slaves and beasts; the philosopher who practices separation from bodily passions all his life can bear natural death easily, crucified to the world and living as a citizen of heaven.
Miscellanies 4.4.13Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · When called, the true Christian gives up his body readily, bearing witness to his own faithfulness, against the tempter, and for the Lord's teaching, confirming the gospel by his death and shaming unbelievers.
Miscellanies 4.4.14Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The true martyr dies not from fear of punishment or hope of reward, but out of love for the Lord, even grateful to his persecutors; martyrdom is called “perfection” because it is the perfect work of love.
Miscellanies 4.4.15Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Every soul that lives purely with knowledge of God and obeys the commandments is a martyr in life and word, however it dies; Christ's call to leave family for his name means detachment from worldly ties.
Miscellanies 4.4.16Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Heraclitus and Plato honor those who fall in battle; some heretics, misreading the Lord, say true martyrdom is only knowledge of God and that dying for the faith is suicide, a cowardly sophism.
Miscellanies 4.4.17Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement condemns those who rush to death out of hatred for the Creator; such heretics die without true martyrdom, like the Indian ascetics who burn themselves; the body's health aids the mind.
Miscellanies 4.5.19Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Against the Stoic indifference to the body, Job's endurance in poverty and sickness is our example; Paul's chains encouraged others to preach boldly; martyrdoms are sanctified examples written for our instruction.
Miscellanies 4.5.23Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The martyr chooses the hoped-for pleasure through present pain; pain and pleasure are not evils in themselves; the poets disagree whether wealth is a good or a blinding evil.
Miscellanies 4.6.25Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ's beatitudes apply to spiritual and material states; the one who is persecuted, poor, or hungry for righteousness' sake is a witness, a martyr, to righteousness.
Miscellanies 4.6.26Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The beatitudes bless those who mourn, hunger, and are poor for righteousness' sake, choosing poverty to gain the good; true nobility is adoption as God's children, with authority over snakes and demons.
Miscellanies 4.6.27Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Lord's discipline separates the soul from the body; “whoever loses his soul will find it” means losing the sinful self in repentance and finding it alive by faith; to find the soul is to know oneself.
Miscellanies 4.6.28Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Conversion is described by Stoics and Plato; the persecuting judge reveals who truly loves God; abstaining from evil deeds extinguishes vices; “sell your possessions … follow me” means following the Lord's words.
Miscellanies 4.6.41Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The sum of virtue is to despise death for love of God; Christ blesses the persecuted, in the Gospels and in variant forms; we must endure persecutors without hating them, knowing every trial is an occasion for witness.
Miscellanies 4.7.42Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The one who denies Christ in persecution goes over to the devil and deceives his own hope; denying the Savior is denying one's own life; such people are faithless hypocrites; true self-love is loving the Lord and confessing salvation.
Miscellanies 4.7.43Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Dying for Christ, our nearest neighbor, is dying for our own salvation; those who keep Christ's commandments bear witness in every act, having crucified the flesh and living by the Spirit.
Miscellanies 4.7.44Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Unbelievers think martyrdom the most violent death, not knowing it is the gate of true life; even their own writers, Theano and Plato, teach rewards and punishments after death.
Miscellanies 4.7.45Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Many sins lead to Hades; poets mock mortal frailty, but Christ says the spirit is willing though the flesh is weak; Paul shows the body is dead through sin yet the Spirit gives life, and present sufferings are nothing beside the coming glory.
Miscellanies 4.7.46Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · All things work for good to those who love God; martyrdom is taught for love, and even hope of reward is hope for the unseen; Peter blesses those who suffer for righteousness and bids them be ready to give an account of their hope.
Miscellanies 4.7.47Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Weak flesh can resist the spiritual powers by trust in the Almighty, who is at hand; Peter bids Christians rejoice in the fiery trial as sharing Christ's sufferings; in all things we conquer through him who loved us.
Miscellanies 4.7.48Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · A tragic heroine defies torture, Antigone defies Creon; Christians obey God's proclamation, believing in the heart and confessing with the mouth; virtue, as Simonides says, is reached only by strenuous climbing.
Miscellanies 4.7.49Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Poets praise glory won by toil; the one unafraid of death is no slave; God gave us a spirit of power and love, so we should not be ashamed of the Lord's testimony; love fulfills the law, and we confess our hope.
Miscellanies 4.7.50Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Indian sages defied Alexander, despising fire; Heraclitus chose one glory over all things, leaving the many to their bodily toils.
Miscellanies 4.7.51Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christians have crucified the old man; Paul describes the apostles as a spectacle to the world, hungry, beaten, persecuted, and treated as refuse.
Miscellanies 4.7.52Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Plato says the just man is happy even under torture; the one who knows has happiness in himself, not in fortune, and no dishonor, exile, or death can tear him from his love of God.
Miscellanies 4.7.55Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Armed with spiritual weapons, the one who knows asks the Lord for occasion to prove his love; virtue is its own reward; Christians should put on compassion, humility, and love, the bond of perfection.
Miscellanies 4.8.56Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Pagans too endured torture bravely: Spartans, Zeno of Elea, who spat his bitten-off tongue at the tyrant, Pythagoreans, the Roman Postumus, and Anaxarchus, who mocked his torturer.
Miscellanies 4.8.57Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Love for God remains free under beasts, fire, or torture, yielding only the body; even the barbarian Getae sent an envoy each year to their hero Zamolxis.
Miscellanies 4.8.58Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Getae's chosen envoy is sacrificed, and the rest grieve at being passed over; the church is full of men and women who practice the life-giving death for Christ; anyone, without letters, of any race, age, or sex, may philosophize.
Miscellanies 4.8.67Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Wives and slaves may pursue true philosophy even against husbands' or masters' threats, and free men even under tyrants; to die for virtue is noble for women as for men, for it belongs to the good, not to one sex.
Miscellanies 4.8.68Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Old and young, slaves, children, and wives often become excellent despite opposition; opposition should increase their zeal, since serving God and serving demons admit no comparison; we act for our own salvation whether others approve or not.
Miscellanies 4.9.70Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement gathers Christ's sayings on martyrdom: whoever confesses him before men he will confess before the angels and the Father; whoever denies or is ashamed of him he will deny; the Spirit will give words before rulers.
Miscellanies 4.9.71Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Heracleon distinguishes confession in faith and life, which is universal, from confession by voice before authorities, which is partial; not all the saved, such as Matthew, Philip, and Thomas, confessed by voice and died.
Miscellanies 4.9.72Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Heracleon notes that Christ says “confess in me” but “deny me”: those who are in him confess by their lives and can never deny him; those who deny are not in him.
Miscellanies 4.9.73Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Against Heracleon, Clement holds that confession by voice unto death proves genuine faith, and such martyrdom cuts off all passions at once, a sudden repentance; the Spirit bears witness in martyrs, whose defense strengthens the church and wins outsiders.
Miscellanies 4.9.74Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Confession is always required, a defense only when given; those who confess God but deny him by works are condemned, while those who confess at the end have done one good work; martyrdom purifies sins with glory.
Miscellanies 4.9.75Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ first drank the cup for sinners, and the apostles suffered for their churches; those who follow them should be ready to drink it for the church; those who witness in life and in court surpass mere lip-confessors, and the one moved by love is the true martyr.
Miscellanies 7.11.63Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Looking to the patriarchs, prophets, angels, and the Lord, the one who knows endures suffering out of firm hope in what is to come; so Peter, seeing his wife led to martyrdom, encouraged her to remember the Lord.
Miscellanies 7.11.64Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Peter and his wife show what Christian marriage should be: free of possessive passion and undistracted from love for the Lord; the soul of the one who knows is strong in every trial, an image of God's power and a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Miscellanies 7.11.66Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · True courage comes from knowledge, not temperament; the one who knows fights vice with the Lord's armor, and in persecution he does not rush rashly into danger, as some so-called martyrs do, but gives himself gladly when God truly calls.
Miscellanies 7.11.67Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Some endure martyrdom for glory, from fear, or for rewards, like children in faith; the one who knows endures out of love for God, which is chosen for its own sake, and his self-restraint likewise springs from knowledge, not from ambition, greed, or fear.
On Idolatry 14Tertullian · ca. 196–211 · The fear that refusing pagan customs will bring blasphemy on Christ's name is no excuse; Christians may live among pagans but not share their festivals, since they have their own Lord's day and Pentecost.
Octavius 12.4Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Why does God not rescue Christians from torture and execution?
Octavius 28.3Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · As advocates they defended criminals but tortured Christians to make them deny their faith.
Octavius 37.1Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · A Christian facing torture and death bravely is a beautiful sight to God.
Octavius 37.2Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · A soldier fights bravely under his general's eye, though the general cannot give life.
Octavius 37.3Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · God's soldier is never abandoned; pagans praise heroes like Mucius Scaevola for enduring pain.
Octavius 37.4Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Many Christians have been burned alive without complaint, though they could have gone free.
Octavius 37.5Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Even Christian children and women endure torture with God-given courage.
Octavius 37.6Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Such endurance is impossible without God.
Octavius 8.5Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Christians scorn present tortures out of fear of future punishment and hope of resurrection.
To the Martyrs 1Tertullian · ca. 197 · Tertullian encourages Christians imprisoned and awaiting martyrdom to feed their spirits, not to grieve the Holy Spirit, and to keep peace among themselves so that the devil finds no foothold.
To the Martyrs 2Tertullian · ca. 197 · The world is the real prison; for the Christian the prison is a retreat that frees the spirit from idolatry and temptation, as the desert did for the prophets.
To the Martyrs 3Tertullian · ca. 197 · Like soldiers and athletes in training, the imprisoned martyrs are being prepared by hardship for a contest whose prize is an eternal crown.
To the Martyrs 4Tertullian · ca. 197 · Since the weak flesh must serve the willing spirit, the martyrs should remember that pagans, men and women alike, endured death and torture for mere earthly glory.
To the Martyrs 5Tertullian · ca. 197 · Even people with no higher motive than a craving for display endure the sword, beasts, fire, and whips, which should shame Christians who shrink from suffering for the truth.
To the Martyrs 6Tertullian · ca. 197 · Ordinary life exposes people to fire, beasts, and violence, and many have recently died for the sake of a mere man; Christians should not hesitate to suffer for God.
To the Nations 1.18Tertullian · 197 · Christians are called obstinate for despising death, yet pagans praise the same courage in their heroes and still hire themselves out daily to the sword, the beasts, and the fire.
On Baptism 16Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Martyrdom is a second baptism, of blood, which takes the place of baptism in water for those who have not received it and restores it for those who have lost it.
On Patience 13Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Patience is also exercised in the body: in fasting and penance, as Nebuchadnezzar showed, in continence and celibacy, and above all in enduring persecution and martyrdom.
On Patience 14Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Isaiah, Stephen, and above all Job are models of patience; Job, stripped of everything, only thanked God and was restored double.
Prescription against Heretics 24Tertullian · ca. 203 · Paul himself adapted his conduct to circumstances, as Peter did; and what Paul heard in paradise could not be told, so no heresy can claim it as a secret doctrine.
Prescription against Heretics 29Tertullian · ca. 203 · If the church had erred until the heretics came, all its baptisms, gifts, ministries, and martyrdoms would have been in vain; but truth comes before its copies, and the true doctrine foretold the heresies.
Prescription against Heretics 36Tertullian · ca. 203 · Anyone may visit the apostolic churches, such as Corinth, Philippi, Ephesus, and Rome, where the apostles taught and died; Rome's faith, shared with Africa, is the one from which the heresies broke away.
Against Marcion 4.21Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The sending of the Twelve, the feeding of the five thousand, Peter's confession, and Christ's sayings on losing one's life and being ashamed of him all belong to the Creator's Christ, who truly took flesh and suffered.
Against Marcion 4.28Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's warnings against hypocrisy, his call to fear the one who can cast into Gehenna and to confess him before men, and his refusal to divide an inheritance all fit the Creator, who judges and who inspired Balaam and Moses.
Against Marcion 4.39Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The false Christs, the signs of the end, the persecutions of the disciples, and the coming of the Son of Man in Luke 21 all follow the prophets, so that both the troubles before his coming and the blessings after it belong to the Creator's Christ.
Against Praxeas 13Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Scripture calls both Father and Son “God” and “Lord,” yet Christians do not speak of two gods: the one name was used in the Old Testament so that Christ might be recognized as God, and it is now kept as one, as sun and ray are one substance.
Against Praxeas 29Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Christ died in his human, not his divine, substance; the Monarchians blaspheme by making the Father suffer and be accursed, and even their claim that the Father “suffered with” the Son makes him passible.
To Scapula 5Tertullian · 212 · Christians gladly offer themselves to death; persecution cannot destroy them but only spreads the faith, so Scapula should spare Carthage and himself.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.11.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus will tell the life of Callistus, who became a “martyr” under the prefect Fuscianus.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.10Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcia, Commodus's Christian-leaning concubine, asked Bishop Victor for the names of the confessors in Sardinia; he left out Callistus.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.11Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcia obtained a release, and the presbyter Hyacinthus freed the confessors in Sardinia except Callistus.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.26.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Later members are less strict; many Essenes live past a hundred, face death gladly, and endure torture rather than blaspheme the law or eat idol-food.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 1Origen · 235 · Origen opens by applying Isaiah's “affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope” to his friends Ambrose and Protoctetus, mature believers now facing trial.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 10Origen · 235 · Confession unites the martyr with Christ and denial cuts the denier off from him; each receives back the measure he gave.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 11Origen · 235 · The measure of confession is full only if one resists every inner temptation, every word of compromise, all mockery, and attachment to family and possessions.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 12Origen · 235 · At baptism we agreed to the gospel's terms: to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and lose our life for Christ; only Christ's blood could ransom a lost soul.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 13Origen · 235 · Martyrs will pass through the heavens behind Christ and know face to face things greater than Paul heard in paradise and greater than the angels have seen.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 14Origen · 235 · Addressing the wealthy Ambrose, Origen says those who leave the most for Christ in martyrdom receive a hundredfold, even becoming fathers of holier children in heaven.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 15Origen · 235 · Martyrs who give up wealth, family, and reputation, like those who endure the worst tortures, deserve first place among martyrs.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 16Origen · 235 · Christ's promise of a hundredfold reward does not include a wife, because in the resurrection there is no marriage.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 17Origen · 235 · At their instruction and baptism believers chose to serve the Lord and renounced Satan; to deny now is to break a covenant with God himself.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 18Origen · 235 · The whole world and the angels watch the martyrs' contest; those who deny will hear the taunts of Isaiah 14 from the powers of Hades.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 19Origen · 235 · When neighbors mock us, we can pray the words of Psalm 44 and say that we have not forgotten God or turned back.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 2Origen · 235 · The sufferings of the present are light compared with the eternal glory God generously gives those who compete lawfully and love him with their whole soul.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 20Origen · 235 · This life is a place of affliction for the soul; the psalm assures us that God knows whether we have been faithful to him.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 21Origen · 235 · Martyrdom must be inward as well as outward; the martyr can say with the psalm, “For your sake we are put to death all day long,” and fear God alone.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 22Origen · 235 · The dead who chose death for piety are rightly praised, like the aged Eleazar in 2 Maccabees, whose words Origen urges his friends to make their own.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 23Origen · 235 · The seven Maccabean brothers, tortured one after another before their mother, encouraged each other with the thought that God was watching.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 24Origen · 235 · The second brother was flayed and, refusing to eat idol sacrifices, told the tyrant that God would raise them to eternal life.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 25Origen · 235 · The third to sixth brothers endured their tortures in hope of the resurrection and warned Antiochus that he was fighting against God.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 26Origen · 235 · Antiochus tried bribery on the youngest brother, but his mother urged him to endure, and he went to death pronouncing God's judgment on the tyrant.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 27Origen · 235 · 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.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 28Origen · 235 · 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.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 29Origen · 235 · Jesus' prayer “let this cup pass” was not cowardice; Origen suggests he declined only a particular form of death, while the martyr's death is “precious in the sight of the Lord.”
Exhortation to Martyrdom 3Origen · 235 · 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.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 30Origen · 235 · Since baptism cannot be repeated, martyrdom is a second baptism; the souls of martyrs at the heavenly altar minister forgiveness to those who pray, as priests offering themselves.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 31Origen · 235 · The martyrs' blessedness begins with a wintry trial; only those who endure it will hear the words of the Song of Songs, “the winter is past.”
Exhortation to Martyrdom 32Origen · 235 · The devil cannot persuade Christians to worship idols, so he tries force; they must not trade Christ's light yoke for the yoke of demons.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 33Origen · 235 · The three youths, Mordecai, Daniel, and Job are models for refusing to worship idols or men, even at the threat of fire or lions.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 34Origen · 235 · Jesus' warnings of persecution and his command not to fear those who kill the body were given to the apostles and apply to martyrs, whom Christ will confess before the Father.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 35Origen · 235 · Being confessed by Christ before the Father and the angels far outweighs any suffering; Origen suggests Christ as divine Son confesses before the Father and as Son of Man before the angels.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 36Origen · 235 · Ambrose and Protoctetus, carrying Christ's cross before rulers, will pass the cherubim and flaming sword into paradise, which hold back only those who have built with denial.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 37Origen · 235 · Christ's sword and fire divide the heavenly from the earthly in us; Ambrose must “hate” wife, children, and his own life, in the Gospel's sense, so as to gain them for eternity.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 38Origen · 235 · Ambrose's children will be cared for by God, and he will help them more as a martyr than by staying alive, if they prove to be his true children in deeds.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 39Origen · 235 · Christians hated by the world should endure to the end, not love the passing world, and see that they may have been spared for a martyr's baptism in their own blood.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 4Origen · 235 · Origen urges his friends to rejoice in persecution, to calm a troubled soul with the Psalms, and not to fear mortal men when God is present everywhere.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 40Origen · 235 · Denial sets a table for demons and cuts one off from the Lord's table and cup; whoever denies the Son loses the Father, but whoever confesses has him.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 41Origen · 235 · Those who have passed from death to life should expect the world's hatred, lay down their lives as Jesus did, and boast in their afflictions.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 42Origen · 235 · Those who share Christ's sufferings share his comfort and triumph; the martyr's departure is the true day of salvation, and ministers must commend themselves by endurance.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 43Origen · 235 · Christians must show their knowledge by pure and patient lives, bearing dishonor and slander as Paul did, disciplined but not killed, rejoicing though seeming sorrowful.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 44Origen · 235 · Like the Hebrews Paul praised, Christians should accept the loss of their goods with joy, since they have a better and eternal possession.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 45Origen · 235 · Sacrificing is not indifferent: demons feed on the smoke of sacrifices, so those who sacrifice share the guilt for the evils demons do.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 46Origen · 235 · Names are not mere conventions: calling God “Zeus” or the sun “Apollo” invokes demons, so God must be called only by the names Scripture gives him.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 47Origen · 235 · The soul, akin to God, naturally longs for him; so we should not hesitate to lay aside the body in martyrdom and rest with Christ, contemplating the Word.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 48Origen · 235 · The persecution is the storm that will show whether each has built on the rock, Christ; the spiritual powers that beat on such a house will themselves be defeated.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 49Origen · 235 · Persecution tests whether the word fell on rocky ground or good soil; those who endure bear fruit a hundredfold and should despise the cares and riches of this world.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 5Origen · 235 · Piety toward the one God is a contest only God's people undertake; faith in the heart is not enough without confessing him with the mouth.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 50Origen · 235 · Martyrs' blood cries out to God like Abel's, may even ransom others, and exalts the martyr, who glorifies God by his death as Peter did.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 51Origen · 235 · Origen closes by hoping his words help his friends, and that they may be strengthened by even greater wisdom from God.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 6Origen · 235 · Origen distinguishes outwardly bowing to idols from inwardly serving them, and warns that denying Christ in court, even without belief, is still bowing to idols.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 7Origen · 235 · Denial and an oath by the emperor's Fortune are grave sins; not even the sun, a creature itself, would wish to be worshiped instead of God.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 8Origen · 235 · When false prophets of impiety speak against us, we should be deaf to them, as the psalmist was, when there is no hope of correcting them.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 9Origen · 235 · God calls himself jealous as a wise bridegroom shows jealousy to keep his bride, the soul, from unfaithfulness to false gods.
Against Celsus 1.25Origen · ca. 248 · Divine names carry meanings and power—the angels' names, and above all the name of Jesus—so Christians rightly die rather than call God "Zeus."
Against Celsus 1.26Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus falsely says the Jews worship angels and practice sorcery; and the swift spread of Christ's teaching, which has transformed many lives, shows that it is from God.
Against Celsus 1.8Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus praises constancy under persecution, yet hides his own Epicurean views to seem more credible, and so contradicts himself.
Against Celsus 2.10Origen · ca. 248 · Jesus was not caught as a fugitive but gave himself up willingly, as John and Matthew record; the disciples' readiness to die shows they believed what they wrote.
Against Celsus 2.13Origen · ca. 248 · Jesus foretold that his followers would be brought before rulers for his name alone—as Christians uniquely are—that the gospel would reach the whole world, and that Jerusalem would be besieged, all of which came true.
Against Celsus 2.15Origen · ca. 248 · The evangelists honestly recorded Peter's denial and the disciples' failure, which they would have hidden if they were inventing stories.
Against Celsus 2.17Origen · ca. 248 · Like Socrates, Leonidas, Paul, and many Christian martyrs, Jesus knowingly went to meet the death he foresaw rather than avoiding it.
Against Celsus 2.34Origen · ca. 248 · Origen answers Celsus's taunts drawn from Euripides' Bacchae, pointing to the miraculous freeing of Peter and Paul, the judgment on the Jewish nation, Pilate's wife's dream, and Jesus' patient endurance of mockery.
Against Celsus 2.40Origen · ca. 248 · Origen says Celsus wrongly thinks greatness means escaping death, whereas Jesus' death became an example for those who die for true piety.
Against Celsus 2.44Origen · ca. 248 · Origen rejects Celsus's comparison of Jesus with condemned sorcerers and robbers: Jesus was indeed crucified among robbers, as foretold, and his martyrs share his unjust condemnation.
Against Celsus 2.45Origen · ca. 248 · Origen answers that the disciples' early failure is balanced by their later bold preaching, suffering, and martyrdom, which Celsus ignores.
Against Celsus 2.56Origen · ca. 248 · Origen argues that Jesus' public crucifixion rules out comparison with heroes who merely disappeared and reappeared, and that the disciples' willingness to die shows they did not invent the resurrection.
Against Celsus 3.27Origen · ca. 248 · Origen asks why Celsus believes the story of Aristeas on the word of Herodotus and Pindar, but dismisses the Gospel accounts written by disciples who died for them, when the moral fruit points to Jesus.
Against Celsus 3.68Origen · ca. 248 · The apostles' simple preaching, powered by the Spirit, changed whole multitudes from vice to virtue and even to contempt of death, far beyond what philosophy achieved.
Against Celsus 3.78Origen · ca. 248 · Christianity attracts mainly simple people, not the wicked; moved by fear of punishment, they practice self-control, generosity, and even endure torture and death, which no wicked will could produce.
Against Celsus 3.8Origen · ca. 248 · Origen argues from Hebrew names that the Israelites were not Egyptians, and says that Christians, forbidden to fight, have been protected by God, who has allowed only a few martyrs as examples while preserving the church.
Against Celsus 5.37Origen · ca. 248 · When a city's law contradicts God's natural law, God's law must be obeyed even at the cost of death; so Christians reject the local gods, and Christ, unlike the newly invented Sarapis, is older than all creation.
Against Celsus 5.46Origen · ca. 248 · Moses forbids naming other gods; Christians would die rather than call Zeus or Amoun God, since these are names of demons, though one may call God by the common word for 'God' in any language.
Against Celsus 5.57Origen · ca. 248 · Greek philosophers like Chrysippus, Plutarch, and Numenius report supernatural appearances and are believed; Christians who would rather die than lie about God deserve at least equal credence when they report angels.
Against Celsus 7.17Origen · ca. 248 · What the prophets foretold was worthy of God: the divine Word came with the human soul of Jesus, and his human death gave an example of dying for piety and began the defeat of the devil.
Against Celsus 7.39Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus insults martyrs as cowards and body-lovers, and thinks the idea of the soul's eye is Greek; Origen shows it already in Genesis and in Jesus' words about the blind seeing and the seeing becoming blind.
Against Celsus 7.40Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus confuses Christians with the Ophite sect, whose magical names for the doorkeepers of the heavens Christians reject; those sectarians do not die for their faith, as Christians do.
Against Celsus 7.64Origen · ca. 248 · Jews and Christians reject temples and images for different reasons from the barbarians: because of God's commandments against other gods and idols, for which they will even die.
Against Celsus 7.7Origen · ca. 248 · The Hebrew prophets were chosen for their courageous, self-denying lives, suffering for the truth, and their prophecies of Christ come from God's Spirit, unlike the demonic oracles.
Against Celsus 8.26Origen · ca. 248 · Christians must die rather than obey or sacrifice to demons; city laws that command it are not true laws, and prayer belongs to God alone, offered through the Son as high priest.
Against Celsus 8.44Origen · ca. 248 · The martyrs' deaths break the demons' power, which is why persecution pauses and resumes; the demons and the judges rejoice when a Christian denies under torture, and a Christian who flees does so in obedience to Christ, not from cowardice.
Against Celsus 8.48Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says the mystery priests threaten eternal punishment just as Christians do; Origen replies that the true teaching is the one that actually leads people to live righteously, and that the prophets' foreknowledge proves God's Spirit was in them.
Against Celsus 8.54Origen · ca. 248 · Christians need not obey Celsus's prison overseers, since Jesus came to free those bound by Satan, like the woman he healed; Christians expose the demons' deceptions and die for piety not at random but as a death precious to God.
Against Celsus 8.55Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says Christians must either leave life altogether or honour the demons who govern it; Origen answers that the only reasonable death is martyrdom, that Christians may marry and must raise their children, and that they resist the demons with God's armour.
Against Celsus 8.65Origen · ca. 248 · Christians will not win rulers' favour by sin or servility, but neither do they provoke them, obeying Paul's command to be subject to the authorities; yet they will die rather than swear by the emperor's Fortune, which is either nothing or a demon.
Against Celsus 8.66Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus rightly says one must die rather than blaspheme God, but then urges hymning the Sun and Athena; Origen answers that Christians praise the sun as God's creature, which itself praises God, but reject Athena and her myths.
On the Lord's Prayer 15Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · God's will is the life Christ lived and taught: humility, faith, justice, mercy, peace, love, and steadfastness to death.
On the Lord's Prayer 24Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · God looked at Abel's heart, not his gift; Abel became the first martyr, while one who hates his brother is not saved even by martyrdom.
On the Lord's Prayer 26Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Temptation is permitted either as punishment or as testing; praying against it keeps us humble.
On the Lapsed 13Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Those who gave way only after long torture have a pitiable excuse and can quickly be pardoned, like Castus and Aemilius, who later died as martyrs.
On the Lapsed 17Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Only Christ can forgive sins against God; the martyrs' merits will count with the Judge, but only at the last judgment, not as a present substitute for penance.
On the Lapsed 18Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Rash forgiveness harms the lapsed; even the martyrs beneath the altar must wait for God's judgment, so their requests for the lapsed can be honored only if they agree with the Lord's law.
On the Lapsed 2Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian welcomes the confessors who resisted sacrifice, and praises equally those who stood firm by refusing to sacrifice even if they were not arrested.
On the Lapsed 20Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Christ's promise to deny those who deny him must stand, or his promise to confess the faithful falls too; the martyrs, faithful to the gospel, cannot ask bishops to act against it.
On the Lapsed 3Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Those who withdrew rather than sacrifice by the appointed day are also confessors, in a private rather than public way.
On the Lapsed 36Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · God can forgive the truly penitent and even restore them to fight again and win the martyr's crown.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 14Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · A schismatic who dies for the name is not a martyr, since without charity and unity even martyrdom profits nothing.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 19Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Schism is worse than lapsing under persecution, since the lapsed repent and harm only themselves, while schismatics mislead many.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 20Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Confessors are not immune to sin; like Solomon, they can lose God's grace if they depart from his way.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 21Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Confession under persecution is only a beginning; confessors must persevere in humility and unity, or their guilt will be greater.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 22Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · As Judas's betrayal did not discredit the apostles, so the fall of some confessors does not discredit the faithful majority.