Letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne · §3 · Origen of Alexandria

Grace sets firm pillars to take the attack

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

The churches are explaining how the grace of God answered after the devil trained the pagans to shut Christians out of public life.

But God's grace took the field against him like an opposing general. It rescued the weak and set firm pillars in his path, men able through endurance to draw the whole attack of the evil one onto themselves. They too closed with him in hand-to-hand combat, bearing every kind of insult and torture. They counted their many pains as small and hastened toward Christ, truly showing that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be set against the glory to come that shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18).

Greek

Ἀντεστρατήγει δὲ ἡ χάρις τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ τοὺς μὲν ἀσθενεῖς ἐρρύετο, ἀντιπαρέτασσε δὲ στύλους ἑδραίους δυναμένους διὰ τῆς ὑπομονῆς πᾶσαν τὴν ὁρμὴν τοῦ πονηροῦ εἰς ἑαυτοὺς ἑλκύσαι, οἳ καὶ ὁμόσε ἐχώρουν, πᾶν εἶδος ὀνειδισμοῦ καὶ κολάσεως ἀνεχόμενοι, οἳ καὶ τὰ πολλὰ ὀλίγα ἡγούμενοι ἔσπευδον πρὸς Χριστόν, ὄντως ἐπιδεικνύμενοι ὅτι οὐκ ἄξια τὰ παθήματα τοῦ νῦν καιροῦ πρὸς τὴν μέλλουσαν δόξαν ἀποκαλυφθῆναι εἰς ἡμᾶς.

About this text

Christians at Vienne and Lyons have suffered exclusion, arrest, torture and death in a civic persecution.

The letter was written by the churches of Lyons and Vienne to the brothers and sisters in faith in Asia and Phrygia who hold the same faith and hope. It was written in Greek after Christians at Vienne and Lyons suffered exclusion, arrest, torture and death in a civic persecution under Marcus Aurelius. The writers report the scale of the affliction and the endurance of the martyrs.

The letter presents the assault as the work of the devil, who trains his own people against the servants of Christ, while grace makes firm pillars who draw the attack onto themselves and count suffering small beside the coming glory. The reader meets Vettius Epagathus who volunteers to defend the accused, Sanctus the deacon from Vienne, Maturus, Attalus the man from Pergamum, the enslaved Blandina, Biblis, the bishop Pothinus and Zacharias. Sanctus answers every interrogation only with I am a Christian, Blandina declares I am a Christian and nothing base happens among us, Biblis answers the slander about eating children, Pothinus answers the governor about who is the God of the Christians, and a saying is given as spoken by our Lord that killers will think they offer worship to God.

In this rendering martyrs means Christians who confess under torture and death, profession of faith means the public declaration I am a Christian, those who denied the faith means Christians who denied Christ at first arrest, the pagans means the local populace and soldiers acting against them, governor means the Roman officer who interrogates, servants of Christ means Christians bound to Christ, advocate means a defender and the Spirit within, the devil means Satan, and torture means judicial punishment to force denial or slander. Thyestean feasts and Oedipodean unions are old phrases for the false slanders that Christians ate children and practiced forbidden unions. Sayings from scripture are woven in without book names or citation except the one introduced as spoken by our Lord, and this rendering adds modern chapter and verse in parentheses.

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.