Linguistics of Martyrdom

In warning his readers against bowing to idols in his Exhortation to Martyrdom ( Origen: An Exhortation to Martyrdom, Prayer, and Selected Works , p. 75 ), Origen finds that he has to address an issue in the philosophy of language. If “names are merely conventional and have no relations to the things for which the names stand,” then a Christian might be tempted to say “I worship Dios/Zeus,” thinking that they haven’t actually abandoned Christ.

Such people have to be taught some decidedly non-nominalist linguistics (non-modern too!): “They must be told that the subject of names is something very deep and recondite and that if someone understands it, he will see that if names are merely conventional, then the demons or any other invisible powers when summoned would not obey those who know their names and name the names that have been given. But as it is, certain sounds and syllables and expressions, aspirated or unaspirated and with a long or a short vowel, when they are spoken aloud, by some unseen nature immediately bring to us those who are summoned. If this is so and names are not merely conventional, then the first God must not be called by any other name than the ones by which the worshiper, the prophets, and our Savior and Lord Himself named Him.” In a Jensonian vein, he offers examples: “Sabaoth, Adonai, Saddai, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”