Against Celsus 1.28
Summary: Celsus's imaginary Jew claims Jesus invented the virgin birth, that Mary was a poor adulteress, and that Jesus learned magic in Egypt; Origen begins his reply.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:79–80
Ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ προσωποποιεῖ, τρόπον τινὰ μιμησάμενος ἓν ῥήτορος εἰσαγόμενον παιδίον, καὶ εἰσάγει Ἰουδαῖον πρὸς τὸν Ἰησοῦν λέγοντά τινα μειρακιωδῶς καὶ οὐδὲν φιλοσόφου πολιᾶς ἄξιον· φέρε κατὰ δύναμιν καὶ ταῦτα ἐξετάσαντες ἐξελέγξωμεν ὅτι οὐδὲ τὸ ἁρμόζον πάντῃ τῷ Ἰουδαίῳ πρόσωπον ἐν τοῖς λεγομένοις τετήρηκε. μετὰ ταῦτα προσωποποιεῖ Ἰουδαῖον αὐτῷ διαλεγόμενον τῷ Ἰησοῦ καὶ ἐλέγχοντα αὐτὸν περὶ πολλῶν μὲν, ὡς οἴεται, πρῶτον δὲ ὡς πλασαμένου αὐτοῦ τὴν ἐκ παρθένου γένεσιν· ὀνειδίζει δʼ αὐτῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ ἐκ κώμης αὐτὸν γεγονέναι Ἰουδαϊκῆς καὶ ἀπὸ γυναικὸς ἐγχωρίου καὶ πενιχρᾶς καὶ χερνήτιδος. φησὶ δʼ αὐτὴν καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ γήμαντος, τέκτονος τὴν τέχνην ὄντος, ἐξεῶσθαι ἐλεγχθεῖσαν ὡς μεμοιχευμένην. εἶτα λέγει ὡς ἐκβληθεῖσα ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς καὶ πλανωμένη ἀτίμως σκότιον ἐγέννησε τὸν Ἰησοῦν· καὶ ὅτι οὗτος διὰ πενίαν εἰς Αἴγυπτον μισθαρνήσας κἀκεῖ δυνάμεών τινων πειραθεὶς, ἐφʼ αἷς Αἰγύπτιοι σεμνύνονται. ἐπανῆλθεν ἐν ταῖς δυνάμεσι μέγα φρονῶν, καὶ διʼ αὐτὰς θεὸν αὑτὸν ἀνηγόρευσε. ταῦτα δὲ πάντα τῷ μηδὲν δυναμένῳ ἀβασάνιστον ἐᾶν τῶν λεγομένων ὑπὸ τῶν ἀπιστούντων ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν τῶν πραγμάτων ἐξετάζοντι δοκεῖ μοι συμπνεῖν τῷ ἄξιον γεγονέναι τῆς προῤῥήσεως περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ υἱὸν εἶναι τὸν Ἰησοῦν.
English · Claude translation
Since he also uses an imaginary speaker—imitating, in a way, a boy brought on by a rhetorician—and introduces a Jew saying to Jesus some childish things, not worthy of a philosopher's grey hairs, come, let us examine these too as best we can and show that he has not even kept, in what is said, the character wholly appropriate to the Jew. After this he introduces a Jew conversing with Jesus himself and refuting him, as he thinks, on many points: first, that he invented his birth from a virgin. He also reproaches him with having come from a Jewish village and from a local woman, poor and working for her living with her hands. He says that she was even driven out by her husband, a carpenter by trade, having been convicted of adultery. Then he says that, cast out by her husband and wandering in disgrace, she secretly gave birth to Jesus; and that he, hiring himself out in Egypt because of poverty, and there trying his hand at certain powers on which the Egyptians pride themselves, returned proud of these powers, and because of them proclaimed himself God. But all this, to one who can leave nothing said by unbelievers unexamined but inquires into the origin of things, seems to me to agree with Jesus having been worthy of the prophecy that he is the Son of God.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The sense of μιμησάμενος ἓν ῥήτορος εἰσαγόμενον παιδίον is uncertain; it may mean a pupil's exercise in a school of rhetoric. The Jew's charge of adultery (μοιχεία) against Mary is reported as Celsus's; compare the later Jewish Toledot Yeshu tradition. σκότιον ("secretly") can also mean "illegitimate" (born in secret), and the Jew may intend both.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 1.28 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/1/28/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 1.28 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/1/28/).
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