Sophia Scriptura

Exhortation to Martyrdom 20

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

Summary: This life is a place of affliction for the soul; the psalm assures us that God knows whether we have been faithful to him.

Greek text · Koetschau 1:18–19

Μνημονεύωμεν ὅτι ἐν τῷ βίῳ τούτῳ τυγχάνοντες καὶ νοοῦντες τὰς ἔξω τοῦ βίου ὁδοὺς τῷ θεῷ φαμεν τό· „ἐξέκλινας τὰς τρίβους ἡμῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ὁδοῦ σου.“ νῦν καιρὸς ἀναμιμνήσκεσθαι τοῦ, ὅτι τόπος κακώσεώς ἐστι τῆς ψυχῆς τὸ χωρίον τοῦτο, ἐν ᾧ τεταπεινώμεθα· ἵνα εὐχόμενοι λέγωμεν τό· „ὅτι ἐταπείνωσας ἡμᾶς ἐν τόπῳ κακώσεως, καὶ ἐπεκάλυψεν ἡμᾶς σκιὰ θανάτου.“ θαῤῥοῦντες δὲ λέγωμεν καὶ τό· „εἰ ἐπελαθόμεθα τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν, καὶ εἰ διεπετάσαμεν χεῖρας ἡμῶν πρὸς θεὸν ἀλλότριον, οὐχὶ ὁ θεὸς ἐκζητήσει ταῦτα;“

English · Claude translation

Let us remember that while we are in this life and consider the paths that lead out of this life, we say to God: “You turned aside our paths from your way.” Now is the time to recall that this place in which we have been humbled is a place of the soul's affliction, so that we may say in prayer: “For you humbled us in a place of affliction, and the shadow of death covered us.” And let us say with confidence also this: “If we have forgotten the name of our God, and if we have spread out our hands to a foreign god, will not God search this out?”

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 1:18–19 · 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
  • Ps 44:18 (43:19 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
  • Ps 44:19 (43:20 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
  • Ps 44:20 (43:21 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
  • Ps 44:21 (43:22 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Martyrdom, Prayer

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Ps 44:18–21 (43:19–22 LXX).

Cite this passage

Origen, Mart. 20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/20/).

Plain text
Origen, Mart. 20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/20/).

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