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Exhortation to Martyrdom

Origen, tr. O’Meara, 1954

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This treatise was composed about 235 A. D. in order to provide solace for Origen’s great friend and patron, Ambrose, and the presbyter, Protoctetus,¹ both of whom had been thrown into prison during the persecution of Maximin Thrax. It is, therefore, a most sincere and moving document—all the more so since Origen had neither time nor inclination to do more than put together quickly the considerations that might help his friends in their hour of trial.

The title itself, it will be well to note here, contains two words of unusual interest. As attested by the one manuscript (Parisinus) that bears a title, and by the thirteenth-century church historian Nicephorus Callistus, the Greek superscription reads: Εἰς μαρτύριον προτρεπτικός. Regarding the last word of the title, προτρεπτικός (supply λόγος): the “protreptic” was a tract, with a long tradition, embodying an “exhortation”—usually to philosophy—addressed nominally to some friend or acquaintance of the author, but often meant for a wider public.² The word μαρτύριον (μαρτυρέω, μαρτυρία, μάρτυς, etc.), adopted into Latin as martyrium, is originally and properly a legal term: it is “testimony,” a “witnessing” to facts coming within the pale of law. In a more general sense it is testimony offered in support of any fact or truth or supposition. In earliest Christianity St. Paul calls the teaching of the Gospels “the testimony (μαρτύριον) of Christ.”³ The concept of μαρτύριον as bearing public “witness” to Christ and Christianity through trial and suffering, and the further concept of μαρτύριον as “witness” or “testimony” perfected and consummated by the act of dying a violent death for one’s Christian convictions—in our sense of “martyrdom”—were readily suggested by the Old Testament examples of the heroic Eleazar and the Machabean brothers and adopted early in that technical meaning: see, for instance, The Martyrdom of Polycarp, a report of St. Polycarp’s martyrdom sent by the church of Smyrna in 155 or 156 A. D. to that of Philomelium in Asia Minor.⁴ In the present treatise Origen employs the word in this special Christian signification, of bearing witness to, and dying for, Christ. Returning to the title, we observe that the ancient literary testimony leaves out the genre description “protreptic” entirely and refers to the work only as Περὶ μαρτυρίου—On Martyrdom: thus Eusebius, Pamphilus, Jerome, and later authors.⁵ For the present translation I have regarded the older manuscript tradition more reliable, and so continue also the practice of modern editors and translators of using the longer title—Exhortation to Martyrdom.

Apart from the fact that this treatise is of great historical value as a first-class source for the persecution of Maximin, it remains an important document of Origen’s own conviction and courage, his faith and his religious loyalty. It reveals the hopes and fears of the Egyptian Christians in the first half of the third century. It is more than a private communication to his two friends, as is evident especially from sections 45 and 46 which refute certain liberal opinions regarding idolatry. Such opinions probably existed in some Christian circles. Thus the tract is intended to clarify the situation, combat confusion, and encourage depressed and wavering minds.

The work consists of seven parts. The first comprises sections 1–5 and exhorts to martyrdom; the second, sections 6–10, contains a severe warning against idolatry and apostasy; the third, sections 11–21, admonishes the Christian to bear his cross with Christ in unflinching perseverance; the fourth, sections 22–27, refers to the brilliant examples of martyrdom in the Second Book of the Machabees; the fifth, sections 28–44, deals with the necessity, essence, and different kinds of martyrdom; the sixth, sections 45–46, demonstrates by way of digression the criminal character of idolatry; and the seventh, sections 47–50, contains renewed exhortations to steadfastness in times of tribulation.

The ideas in this treatise have much in common with Tertullian’s Ad martyres and De fuga in persecutione, with Cyprian’s De lapsis and Pseudo-Cyprian’s De laude martyrii. Many passages, too, remind one strongly of the Acts of the Martyrs, as, for instance, when Origen mentions expressly (section 36) the granting of exceptional graces to Christians who submit to suffering and torture in witness of their Faith.

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The critical text followed for both works, except in the few places where I indicate disagreement, is that of Paul Koetschau, Origenes Werke, in Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller (Leipzig 1899): 1.1–47 (Exhort.) and 2.295–403 (De or.), to which I refer the reader for all questions dealing with manuscripts. I have, of course, taken account of Koetschau’s later readings as indicated by him in his German translation, Des Origenes ausgewählte Schriften I, in Bibliothek der Kirchenväter 48 (Munich 1926).⁶ Apart from Koetschau’s translation, I have consulted also the translations of one or both works of G. Bardy, Origène: De la prière; Exhortation au martyre (Paris 1932); H. U. Meyboom, Origenes VI, in Oud-Christelijke Geschriften 38 (Leyden 1926) 1–176; and at a stage too late to be of any help, that of E. J. Jay, Origen’s Treatise on Prayer (London 1954). In rendering the texts of Scripture as given by Origen, I have always given the Douay version, where it is a possible version; frequently, however, I have translated directly, especially as Origen was using the Septuagint.

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