Sophia Scriptura

Exhortation to Martyrdom 32

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

Summary: 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.

Greek text · Koetschau 1:28

Καὶ τοῦτο δὲ γινώσκομεν, ὅτι πεισθέντας ἡμᾶς ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ καταλιπεῖν τὰ εἴδωλα καὶ τὴν πολύθεον ἀθεότητα πεῖσαι μὲν ὁ ἐχθρὸς οὐ δύναται πρὸς τὸ εἰδωλολατρεῖν βιάσασθαι δὲ βούλεται· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καθʼ ὧν λαμβάνει ἐξουσίαν ἐνεργεῖ τοιαῦτα καὶ ἤτοι μάρτυρας ἢ εἰδωλολάτρας ποιήσει τοὺς πειραζομένους. πολλάκις δὲ καὶ νῦν λέγει· „ταῦτά σοι πάντα δώσω, ἐὰν πεσὼν προσκυνήσῃς μοι.“ προσέχωμεν οὖν, μή ποτε εἰδωλολατρήσωμεν καὶ τοῖς δαιμονίοις ἑαυτοὺς ὑποτάξωμεν· τὰ γὰρ εἴδωλα τῶν ἐθνῶν δαιμόνια. οἷον δέ ἐστι τὸ καταλιπόντα τὸν χρηστὸν Χριστοῦ ζυγὸν καὶ τὸ „ἐλαφρὸν“ αὐτοῦ „φορτίον“ πάλιν ἑαυτὸν ὑποβαλεῖν ζυγῷ δαιμόνων καὶ φορτίον βαστάξαι βαρυτάτης ἁμαρτίας μετὰ τὸ ἐγνωκέναι ἡμᾶς ὅτι „σποδὸς ἡ καρδία“ τῶν εἰδώλοις λατρευόντων καὶ „πηλοῦ ἀτιμότερος ὁ βίος“ αὐτῶν καὶ μετὰ τὸ εἰρηκέναι ἡμᾶς· „ὡς ψευδῆ ἐκτήσαντο οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν εἴδωλα, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς ὑετίζων.“

English · Claude translation

And we know this too: that since we have been persuaded by Jesus to leave idols and polytheistic godlessness, the enemy cannot persuade us to worship idols, but he wishes to force us; and for this reason he works such things against those over whom he gets authority, and he will make those who are tested either martyrs or idolaters. And often even now he says: “All these things I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Let us take care, then, that we never worship idols and subject ourselves to demons; for the idols of the nations are demons. And what a thing it is, to leave the kind yoke of Christ and his “light burden” and to subject oneself again to the yoke of demons and bear the burden of most grievous sin, after we have come to know that the “heart” of those who serve idols “is ashes” and their “life more worthless than clay,” and after we have said, “How false are the idols our fathers acquired, and there is none among them that gives rain.”

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 1:28 · 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
Extrabiblical texts
  • Wis 15:10 (Wisdom of Solomon) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Martyrdom, Persecution

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Matt 4:9, Ps 96:5 (95:5 LXX, “the gods of the nations are demons”), Matt 11:30 (“kind yoke,” χρηστόν, plays on Χριστοῦ), Wis 15:10, and Jer 16:19 combined with Jer 14:22.

Cite this passage

Origen, Mart. 32 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/32/).

Plain text
Origen, Mart. 32 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/32/).

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