Sophia Scriptura

Exhortation to Martyrdom 8

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

Summary: 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.

Greek text · Koetschau 1:9

Ἔστι προσδοκῆσαι καὶ τῆς ἀσεβείας τινὰ προφήτην τάχα οὐχ ἕνα ἀλλὰ πλείονας λαλήσοντας ἡμῖν ὡς κυρίου „ῥῆμα, ὃ οὐ προσέταξε“ κύριος, ἢ ὡς σοφίας λόγον τὸν ἀλλότριον τῆς σοφίας, ἵνʼ ἡμᾶς ἀποκτείνῃ τῷ λόγῳ τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ. ἀλλʼ ἡμεῖς καὶ τότε ἐν τῷ συστῆναι τὸν ἁμαρτωλὸν ἐναντίον ἡμῶν εἴπωμεν· „ἐγὼ δὲ ὡσεὶ κωφὸς οὐκ ἤκουον καὶ ὡσεὶ ἄλαλος οὐκ ἀνοίγων τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἐγενόμην ὡσεὶ ἄνθρωπος οὐκ ἀκούων“. καλὴ γὰρ ἡ πρὸς τοὺς ἀσεβεῖς λόγους κώφωσις, ἐπὰν ἀπογινώσκωμεν τὴν τῶν τὰ χείρονα λεγόντων ἐπανόρθωσιν.

English · Claude translation

We may expect also some prophet of impiety, perhaps not one but several, who will speak to us as the Lord's “word, which” the Lord “did not command,” or as a word of wisdom what is foreign to wisdom, in order to kill us by the word of his mouth. But then too, when the sinner stands against us, let us say: “But I, like a deaf man, did not hear, and like a dumb man who does not open his mouth; and I became like a man who does not hear.” For deafness to impious words is good, when we despair of correcting those who speak the worse things.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 1:9 · 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
  • Deut 18:20 · quotation, high confidence
  • Isa 11:4 · echo, low confidence
  • Ps 39:1 (38:2 LXX) · allusion, medium confidence
  • Ps 38:13 (37:14 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
  • Ps 38:14 (37:15 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Martyrdom, Persecution

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Deut 18:20, Ps 39:1 (38:2 LXX), and Ps 38:13–14 (37:14–15 LXX). “To kill us by the word of his mouth” echoes Isa 11:4 and Hos 6:5.

Cite this passage

Origen, Mart. 8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/8/).

Plain text
Origen, Mart. 8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-exhortatio/8/).

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