Against Celsus 1.39 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Celsus's jokes about Mary's beauty and poverty are mere street abuse, not argument.

Greek text · Koetschau 1:90

Οὐ δοκεῖ μοι ἀγωνίσασθαι πρὸς λόγον, μὴ μετὰ σπουδῆς ἀλλὰ μετὰ χλεύης εἰρημένον· εἰ ἄρα καλὴ ἦν ἡ μήτηρ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, καὶ ὡς καλῇ αὐτῇ ἐμίγνυτο ὁ θεὸς, οὐ πεφυκὼς ἐρᾶν φθαρτοῦ σώματος; ἢ ὅτι οὐδʼ εἰκὸς ἦν ἐρασθήσεσθαι αὐτῆς τὸν θεὸν, οὔσης οὔτʼ εὐδαίμονος οὔτε βασιλικῆς, ἐπεὶ μηδεὶς αὐτὴν ᾔδει μηδὲ τῶν γειτόνων· παίζει δὲ λέγων καὶ ὅτι μισουμένην αὐτὴν ὑπὸ τοῦ τέκτονος καὶ ἐκβαλλομένην οὐκ ἔσωσε θεία δύναμις οὐδὲ λόγος πιστικός. οὐδὲν οὖν, φησὶ, ταῦτα πρὸς τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ βασιλείαν. τί οὖν ταῦτα διαφέροι ἂν τῶν ἐν ταῖς τριόδοις λοιδορουμένων τισὶ καὶ οὐδὲν σπουδῆς ἄξιον λεγόντων;

English · Claude translation

I do not think I need to contend with an argument spoken not seriously but in mockery: "Was the mother of Jesus beautiful, then, and did God have intercourse with her because she was beautiful, though he is not by nature one to love a corruptible body?" or that "it was not even likely that God would fall in love with her, since she was neither wealthy nor of royal birth, for no one knew her, not even her neighbors." He jests also in saying that "when she was hated by the carpenter and cast out, neither divine power nor persuasive speech saved her." "These things," he says, "have nothing to do with the kingdom of God." How, then, would these words differ from those of people who trade insults at the crossroads and say nothing worthy of serious attention?

About this passage

Source

Koetschau 1:90 · Paul Koetschau, ed., Origenes Werke 1–2: Gegen Celsus, GCS 2–3 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1899) · Greek text: P. Koetschau, Origenes Werke 1–2 (GCS 2–3, 1899), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Koetschau, GCS 2–3. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Koetschau, GCS 2–3; made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Topics

Christology

Cite this passage

Origen, Cels. 1.39 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/1/39/).

Plain text

Origen, Cels. 1.39 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/1/39/).