Against Celsus 1.46
Summary: The Spirit who came on Jesus at his baptism still works among Christians in exorcisms, healings, prophecies, and sudden conversions; Isaiah foretold that the Father would send both Christ and the Spirit.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:95–96
Πεπλήρωται δὲ ὁ νόμος καὶ οἱ προφῆται τῶν παραπλησίων παραδόξων τῷ ἀναγραφέντι περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ παρὰ τῷ βαπτίσματι περὶ τῆς περιστερᾶς καὶ τῆς ἐξ οὐρανοῦ φωνῆς. σημεῖον δὲ οἶμαι τοῦ τότε ὀφθέντος ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς τὰ ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ παράδοξα γεγενημένα, ἅτινα διαβάλλων Κέλσος φησὶν αὐτὸν παρʼ Αἰγυπτίοις μεμαθηκότα πεποιηκέναι. καὶ οὐκ ἐκείνοις γε μόνοις χρήσομαι ἀλλὰ γὰρ κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς καὶ οἷς οἱ ἀπόστολοι τοῦ Ἰησοῦ πεποιήκασιν. οὐκ ἂν γὰρ χωρὶς δυνάμεων καὶ παραδόξων ἐκίνουν τοὺς καινῶν λόγων καὶ καινῶν μαθημάτων ἀκούοντας πρὸς τὸ καταλιπεῖν μὲν τὰ πάτρια παραδέξασθαι δὲ μετὰ κινδύνων τῶν μέχρι θανάτου τὰ τούτων μαθήματα. καὶ ἔτι ἴχνη τοῦ ἁγίου ἐκείνου πνεύματος, ὀφθέντος ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς, παρὰ Χριστιανοῖς σῴζεται. ἐξεπᾴδουσι δαίμονας καὶ πολλὰς ἰάσεις ἐπιτελοῦσι καὶ ὁρῶσί τινα κατὰ τὸ βούλημα τοῦ λόγου περὶ μελλόντων. κἂν χλευάσῃ δὲ Κέλσος τὸ λεχθησόμενον ἢ ὃν εἰσήγαγεν Ἰουδαῖον, ὅμως λελέξεται ὅτι πολλοὶ ὡσπερεὶ ἄκοντες προσεληλύθασι χριστιανισμῷ, πνεύματός τινος τρέψαντος αὐτῶν τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν αἰφνίδιον ἀπὸ τοῦ μισεῖν τὸν λόγον ἐπὶ τὸ ὑπεραποθανεῖν αὐτοῦ καὶ φαντασιώσαντος αὐτοὺς ὕπαρ ἢ ὄναρ. πολλὰ γὰρ καὶ τοιαῦτα ἱστορήσαμεν· ἅτινα ἐὰν γράφωμεν αὐτοὶ αὐτοῖς παρατυχόντες καὶ ἰδόντες. γέλωτα πλατὺν ὀφλήσομεν τοῖς ἀπίστοις, οἰομένοις ἡμᾶς ὁμοίως οἷς ὑπολαμβάνουσι ταῦτʼ ἀναπεπλακέναι καὶ αὐτοὺς πλάσσειν. ἀλλὰ γὰρ θεὸς μάρτυς τοῦ ἡμετέρου συνειδότος, βουλομένου οὐ διὰ ψευδῶν ἀπαγγελιῶν ἀλλὰ διά τινος ἐναργείας ποικίλης συνιστάνειν τὴν Ἰησοῦ θείαν διδασκαλίαν. ἐπεὶ δὲ Ἰουδαῖός ἐστιν ὁ περὶ τοῦ ἀναγεγραμμένου ἁγίου πνεύματος κατεληλυθέναι ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς πρὸς τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἀπορῶν, λεκτέον ἂν εἴη πρὸς αὐτόν· ὦ οὗτος, τίς ἐστιν ὁ ἐν τῷ Ἡσαΐᾳ λέγων· „καὶ νῦν κύριος ἀπέστειλέ με καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτοῦ;“ ἐν ᾧ ἀμφιβόλου ὄντος τοῦ ῥητοῦ, πότερον ὁ πατὴρ καὶ τὸ ἄγιον πνεῦμα ἀπέστειλαν τὸν Ἰησοῦν, ἢ ὁ πατὴρ ἀπέστειλε τόν τε Χριστὸν καὶ τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα, τὸ δεύτερόν ἐστιν ἀληθές. καὶ ἐπεὶ ἀπεστάλη ὁ σωτὴρ, εἶτα τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, ἵνα πληρωθῇ τὸ εἰρημένον ὑπὸ τοῦ προφήτου, ἐχρῆν δὲ τὴν τῆς προφητείας πλήρωσιν ἐγνῶσθαι καὶ τοῖς ἑξῆς· διὰ τοῦτο ἀνέγραψαν οἱ Ἰησοῦ μαθηταὶ τὸ γεγενημένον.
English · Claude translation
The law and the prophets are full of wonders similar to the one recorded of Jesus at his baptism concerning the dove and the voice from heaven. And I think a sign of the Holy Spirit who was then seen in the form of a dove are the wonders done by Jesus, which Celsus slanders, saying that he did them having learned them among the Egyptians. And I will use not only those but also, as is fitting, those that the apostles of Jesus did. For without mighty works and wonders they would not have moved those who heard new teachings and new lessons to abandon their ancestral ways and accept their teachings at the risk of death. And traces of that Holy Spirit who was seen in the form of a dove are still preserved among Christians. They drive out demons, perform many healings, and see certain things about the future according to the will of the Word. And even if Celsus, or the Jew he introduced, mocks what I am going to say, it will be said nonetheless: many have come to Christianity as if against their will, some spirit having suddenly turned their ruling faculty from hating the teaching to dying for it, and having shown them visions awake or asleep. We have known many such cases; if we write of those at which we ourselves were present and which we saw, we will incur loud laughter from unbelievers, who think that we, like those they suppose to have invented such things, are inventing them too. But God is witness to our conscience, which wishes to commend the divine teaching of Jesus not by false reports but by manifold evidence. And since it is a Jew who is at a loss about the recorded descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus in the form of a dove, one might say to him: Sir, who is it that says in Isaiah, "And now the Lord has sent me, and his Spirit"? Here, since the text is ambiguous—whether the Father and the Holy Spirit sent Jesus, or the Father sent both the Christ and the Holy Spirit—the second is true. And since the Savior was sent, and then the Holy Spirit, so that what was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled, and the fulfillment of the prophecy had to be made known to those who came after, the disciples of Jesus recorded what happened.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Isa 48:16. Origen's claim to have witnessed conversions through visions is his own testimony.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (missing breathing, accent, and iota subscript): ἐν ῳ ἀμφιβόλου → ἐν ᾧ ἀμφιβόλου.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 1.46 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/1/46/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 1.46 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/1/46/).
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