Against Celsus 1.47
Summary: Josephus confirms that John was a baptizer and links the fall of Jerusalem to the killing of James, the Lord's brother—more reasonably it was because of Jesus himself.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:96–97
Ἐβουλόμην δʼ ἂν Κέλσῳ, προσωποποιήσαντι τὸν Ἰουδαῖον παραδεξάμενόν πως Ἰωάννην ὡς βαπτιστὴν βαπτίζοντα τὸν Ἰησοῦν, εἰπεῖν ὅτι τὸ Ἰωάννην γεγονέναι βαπτιστὴν, εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτημάτων βαπτίζοντα, ἀνέγραψέ τις τῶν μετʼ οὐ πολὺ τοῦ Ἰωάννου καὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ γεγενημένων. ἐν γὰρ τῷ ὀκτωκαιδεκάτῳ τῆς Ἰουδαϊκῆς ἀρχαιολογίας ὁ Ἰώσηπος μαρτυρεῖ τῷ Ἰωάννῃ ὡς βαπτιστῇ γεγενημένῳ καὶ καθάρσιον τοῖς βαπτισαμένοις ἐπαγγελλομένῳ. ὁ δʼ αὐτὸς, καίτοι γε ἀπιστῶν τῷ Ἰησοῦ ὡς Χριστῷ. ζητῶν τὴν αἰτίαν τῆς τῶν Ἱεροσολύμων πτώσεως καὶ τῆς τοῦ ναοῦ καθαιρέσεως, δέον αὐτὸν εἰπεῖν ὅτι ἡ κατὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐπιβουλὴ τούτων αἰτία γέγονε τῷ λαῷ, ἐπεὶ ἀπέκτειναν τὸν προφητευόμενον Χριστόν· ὁ δὲ καὶ ὥσπερ ἄκων οὐ μακρὰν τῆς ἀληθείας γενόμενός φησι ταῦτα συμβεβηκέναι τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις κατʼ ἐκδίκησιν Ἰακώβου τοῦ δικαίου, ὃς ἦν ἀδελφὸς „Ἰησοῦ τοῦ λεγομένου Χριστοῦ, “ ἐπειδήπερ δικαιότατον αὐτὸν ὄντα ἀπέκτειναν. τὸν δὲ Ἰάκωβον τοῦτον ὁ Ἰησοῦ γνήσιος μαθητὴς Παῦλός φησιν ἑωρακέναι ὡς „ἀδελφὸν τοῦ κυρίου.“ οὐ τοσοῦτον διὰ τὸ πρὸς αἵματος συγγενὲς ἢ τὴν κοινὴν αὐτῶν ἀνατροφὴν ὅσον διὰ τὸ ἦθος καὶ τὸν λόγον. εἴπερ οὖν διὰ Ἰάκωβον λέγει συμβεβηκέναι τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις τὰ κατὰ τὴν ἐρήμωσιν τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ, πῶς οὐχὶ εὐλογώτερον διὰ Ἰησοῦν τὸν Χριστὸν τοῦτο φάσκειν γεγονέναι; οὗ τῆς θειότητος μάρτυρες αἱ τοσαῦται τῶν μεταβαλόντων ἀπὸ τῆς χύσεως τῶν κακῶν ἐκκλησίαι καὶ ἠρτημένων τοῦ δημιουργοῦ καὶ πάντʼ ἀναφερόντων ἐπὶ τὴν πρὸς ἐκεῖνον ἀρέσκειαν.
English · Claude translation
I would have liked to say to Celsus, who portrayed the Jew as in some way accepting John as a baptizer who baptized Jesus, that John's having been a baptizer, baptizing for the forgiveness of sins, was recorded by one who lived not long after John and Jesus. For in the eighteenth book of the Jewish Antiquities Josephus bears witness to John as having been a baptizer and as promising purification to those who were baptized. The same writer, although he did not believe in Jesus as the Christ, when seeking the cause of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple—though he ought to have said that the plot against Jesus was the cause of these things for the people, since they killed the prophesied Christ—nevertheless, as if against his will not far from the truth, says that these things befell the Jews to avenge James the Just, who was the brother of "Jesus who is called Christ," since they killed him though he was most righteous. This James Paul, the genuine disciple of Jesus, says he saw, as "the brother of the Lord," not so much because of blood relationship or their common upbringing as because of his character and his teaching. If, then, he says that the desolation of Jerusalem befell the Jews because of James, how is it not more reasonable to say that it happened because of Jesus the Christ? Witnesses to his divinity are the many churches of those who have turned from the flood of evils and depend on the Creator and refer everything to what pleases him.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- Josephus on John is Ant. 18.116–119; the phrase "Jesus who is called Christ" is in Ant. 20.200 (James's death). The statement that Josephus blamed the fall of Jerusalem on James's death is not found in extant Josephus; Origen repeats it in 2.13 and in his Commentary on Matthew 10.17. Paul's words are Gal 1:19.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (word wrongly split in the digital text): συμβε βηκέναι → συμβεβηκέναι.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 1.47 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/1/47/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 1.47 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/1/47/).
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