Against Celsus 1.33
Summary: If bodies suit the souls that inhabit them, the soul of Jesus would need an extraordinary body, not one born of adultery.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:84–85
Εἰ γὰρ ἥδε μὲν ἡ ψυχὴ, κατά τινας ἀποῤῥήτους λόγους ἀξία γενομένη μὴ πάντῃ μὲν ἐν ἀλόγου γενέσθαι σώματι οὐ μὴν καὶ καθαρῶς ἐν λογικοῦ, ἐνδύεται σῶμα τερατῶδες, ὡς μηδὲ τὸν λόγον συμπληρωθῆναι δύνασθαι τῷ οὑτωσὶ γεγενημένῳ καὶ ἀσύμμετρον ἔχοντι τὴν κεφαλὴν τῷ λοιπῷ σώματι καὶ πάνυ βραχυτέραν, ἑτέρα δὲ τοιόνδε σῶμα ἀναλαμβάνει, ὡς ὀλίγῳ ἐκείνου γενέσθαι λογικωτέρα, καὶ ἄλλη ἔτι μᾶλλον, τῆς φύσεως τοῦ σώματος ἐπὶ πλεῖον ἢ ἐπʼ ἔλαττον ἀντιπραττούσης τῇ τοῦ λόγου ἀντιλήψει· διὰ τί οὐχὶ καὶ ψυχή τις ἔσται πάντῃ παράδοξον ἀναλαμβάνουσα σῶμα, ἔχον μέν τι κοινὸν πρὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ἵνα καὶ συνδιατρῖψαι αὐτοῖς δυνηθῇ, ἔχον δέ τι καὶ ἐξαίρετον, ἵνα τῆς κακίας ἄγευστος ἡ ψυχὴ διαμεῖναι δυνηθῇ; ἐὰν δὲ καὶ τὰ τῶν φυσιογνωμονούντων κρατῇ. εἴτε Ζωπύρου εἴτε Λόξου εἴτε Πολέμωνος εἴτε οὕτινός ποτʼ οὖν τοιαῦτα γράψαντος καὶ ἐπαγγειλαμένου εἰδέναι τι θαυμαστὸν, οἰκεῖα τοῖς ἤθεσι τῶν ψυχῶν πάντʼ εἶναι τὰ σώματα, τῇ οὖν μελλούσῃ παραδόξως ἐπιδημεῖν τῷ βίῳ καὶ μεγαλοποιεῖν ἔδει γενέσθαι σῶμα (οὐχ) ὡς οἴεται Κέλσος, ἀπὸ Πανθήρα μοιχεύσαντος καὶ παρθένου μοιχευθείσης (ἐκ γὰρ τοιούτων ἀνάγνων μίξεων ἔδει μᾶλλον ἀνόητόν τινα καὶ ἐπιβλαβῆ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις διδάσκαλον ἀκολασίας καὶ ἀδικίας καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν κακῶν γενέσθαι οὐχὶ δὲ σωφροσύνης καὶ δικαιοσύνης καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ἀρετῶν).
English · Claude translation
For if one soul, having become worthy, according to certain secret reasons, of being born not wholly in the body of an irrational creature, yet not purely in that of a rational one either, puts on a monstrous body, so that reason cannot even be brought to completion in one so born, whose head is out of proportion to the rest of the body and much too small; and another takes on such a body as to be a little more rational than that one, and another still more, the nature of the body opposing the grasp of reason more or less—why should there not also be a soul that takes on a body wholly extraordinary, having something in common with human beings so that it could live among them, but having also something exceptional, so that the soul could remain untouched by wickedness? And if the teachings of the physiognomists prevail—whether of Zopyrus, or Loxus, or Polemon, or anyone else who wrote such things and professed to know something wonderful—that all bodies are suited to the characters of their souls, then the soul that was to come to dwell in life extraordinarily and to do great things had to have a body born not, as Celsus thinks, from Panthera committing adultery and a virgin who had committed adultery (for from such impure unions there should rather have come some fool, harmful to human beings, a teacher of licentiousness, injustice, and the other vices, not of self-control, justice, and the other virtues),
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- Origen continues his argument on the premises of those who hold that souls receive bodies according to merit. Zopyrus, Loxus, and Polemon were writers on physiognomy. The negative (οὐχ) is supplied by the editor. The sentence continues in 1.34.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (word wrongly split in the digital text): μοιχευ θείσης → μοιχευθείσης.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 1.33 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/1/33/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 1.33 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/1/33/).
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