Exhortation to Martyrdom 14
Summary: 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.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:14–15
Καὶ ἐπέκεινα οὖν τις προμαρτύρων πλεῖόν τι παρὰ πολλοὺς μάρτυρας ἐχόντων τὸ ἐν Χριστῷ φιλομαθὲς τάχιον ἀναβήσεται. σοὶ δὲ, ἱερὲ Ἀμβρόσιε, ἐνιδόντι ἐξητασμένως εὐαγγελικῇ φωνῇ πάρεστιν ἰδεῖν, ὡς ἄρα τάχα ἢ οὐδεὶς τῶν πώποτε ἢ πάνυ ὀλίγοι χύσεως μακαρισμοῦ ἐπιτεύξονται ἐξαιρέτου τινὸς καὶ πλείονος· ἐν ὁποίῳ ἔσῃ καὶ σὺ, εἰ τὸν ἀγῶνα ἀδιστάκτως διανήξαιο. τὰ δὲ ῥήματα οὕτως ἔχει· ὁ Πέτρος εἶπέ ποτε τῷ σωτῆρι· „ἰδοὺ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν πάντα καὶ ἠκολουθήσαμέν σοι· τί ἄρα ἔσται ἡμῖν; ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς“ (δηλονότι τοῖς ἀποστόλοις)· „ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ὑμεῖς οἱ ἀκολουθήσαντές μοι ἐν τῇ παλιγγενεσίᾳ, ὅταν καθίσῃ ὁ θεὸς ἐπὶ θρόνου δόξης αὐτοῦ, καθήσεσθε καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐπὶ θρόνους δώδεκα κρίνοντες τὰς δώδεκα φυλὰς τοῦ Ἰσραήλ. καὶ πᾶς ὅστις ἀφῆκεν ἀδελφοὺς ἢ ἀδελφὰς ἢ γονεῖς ἢ τέκνα ἢ ἀγροὺς ἢ οἰκίας ἕνεκεν τοῦ ὀνόματός μου, πολλαπλασίονα λήψεται καὶ ζωὴν αἰώνιον κληρονομήσει“. τούτων δὲ ἕνεκεν τῶν ῥητῶν ηὐξάμην ἂν τοσαῦτα κτησάμενος ἐπὶ γῆς, ὁπόσα ἔχεις, ἢ καὶ τούτων πλείονα γενέσθαι μάρτυς ἐν Χριστῷ τῷ θεῷ, ἵνα „πολλαπλασίονα“ λάβω ἢ, ὡς ὁ Μάρκος φησὶν, „ἑκατονταπλασίονα·“ ἃ πολλῷ πλείονά ἐστιν ὀλίγων, ὁποῖα καταλείψομεν, ἐὰν ἐπὶ μαρτύριον κληθῶμεν, ἑκατονταπλασιαζομένων. τούτου δὲ ἕνεκεν εἰ μαρτυρῶ, ἐβουλόμην καὶ τέκνα καταλιπεῖν μετὰ ἀγρῶν καὶ οἰκιῶν, ἵνα καὶ παρὰ τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρὶ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, „ἐξ οὗ πᾶσα πατριὰ ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς ὀνομάζεται“, πολλαπλασιόνων καὶ ἁγιωτέρων τέκνων χρηματίσω πατὴρ ἢ, ἵνʼ ὡρισμένως εἴπω, ἑκατονταπλασιόνων. εἴπερ δέ εἰσι πατέρες, περὶ ὧν εἴρηται τῷ Ἀβραάμ· „σὺ δὲ ἀπελεύσῃ πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας σου μετʼ εἰρήνης τραφεὶς ἐν γήρᾳ καλῷ“, εἴποι ἄν τις (οὐκ οἶδα εἰ ἀληθεύων)· τάχα ἐκεῖνοι πατέρες εἰσὶ μαρτυρήσαντές ποτε καὶ ἀφέντες τέκνα, ἀνθʼ ὧν πατέρες γεγόνασι πατέρων τοῦ πατριάρχου Ἀβραὰμ καὶ ἄλλων τοιούτων πατριαρχῶν· εἰκὸς γὰρ τοὺς ἀφέντας τέκνα καὶ μαρτυρήσαντας οὐ νηπίων ἀλλὰ πατέρων γίνεσθαι πατέρας.
English · Claude translation
And so one of those who are martyrs-to-be, who has more love of learning in Christ than many martyrs, will more quickly ascend beyond these things. But you, holy Ambrose, if you look carefully at a saying of the gospel, can see that perhaps none, or very few, of all who have ever lived will attain an outpouring of blessedness so exceptional and so great; and in it you too will share, if you swim through the contest without wavering. The words are these. Peter once said to the Savior: “Behold, we have left everything and followed you; what then will there be for us? And Jesus said to them” (that is, to the apostles): “Truly I say to you that you who have followed me, in the regeneration, when God sits on the throne of his glory, you also will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left brothers or sisters or parents or children or fields or houses for the sake of my name will receive many times as much and will inherit eternal life.” Because of these sayings, had I acquired as much on earth as you have, or even more, I would have prayed to become a martyr in Christ to God, so as to receive “many times as much,” or as Mark says, “a hundredfold”; for the few things that we shall leave behind if we are called to martyrdom, multiplied a hundredfold, are far more than those few. For this reason, if I am a martyr, I should wish to leave children behind too, with fields and houses, so that with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, “from whom every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named,” I may be called father of children many times more numerous and more holy, or, to speak exactly, a hundred times more. And if there are fathers of whom it was said to Abraham, “But you shall go to your fathers in peace, nourished in a good old age,” someone might say (I do not know whether truly): perhaps those fathers are ones who were once martyred and left children behind, in return for which they became fathers of the fathers of the patriarch Abraham and of other such patriarchs. For it is likely that those who left children and were martyred become fathers not of infants but of fathers.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Matt 19:27–29 (Origen's text has “when God sits” where the Gospel has “the Son of Man”), Mark 10:30, Eph 3:15, and Gen 15:15. The meaning of the first sentence is uncertain: προμαρτύρων (“martyrs-to-be,” or “those who testify beforehand”) is a rare word, and the construction is obscure. The speculation about the “fathers” of Gen 15:15 is offered by Origen as tentative.
Cite this passage
Origen, Mart. 14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/14/).
Plain text
Origen, Mart. 14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/14/).
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