Against Celsus 1.58
Summary: Celsus confuses the magi with Chaldean astrologers and omits the star; Origen takes the star of Bethlehem to have been a new, comet-like star.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:109–110
Μετὰ ταῦτα ὁ παρὰ τῷ Κέλσῳ Ἰουδαῖος ἀντὶ τῶν ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ μάγων Χαλδαίους φησὶν ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ λελέχθαι κινηθέντας ἐπὶ τῇ γενέσει αὐτοῦ ἐληλυθέναι, προσκυνήσοντας αὐτὸν ἔτι νήπιον ὡς θεόν· καὶ Ἡρώδῃ τῷ τετράρχῃ τοῦτο δεδηλωκέναι· τὸν δὲ πέμψαντα ἀποκτεῖναι τοὺς ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ χρόνῳ γεγεννημένους, οἰόμενον καὶ τοῦτον ἀνελεῖν σὺν αὐτοῖς, μή πως τὸν αὐτάρκη ἐπιβιώσας χρόνον βασιλεύσῃ. ὅρα οὖν ἐν τούτῳ τὸ παράκουσμα τοῦ μὴ διακρίνοντος μάγους Χαλδαίων μηδὲ τὰς ἐπαγγελίας διαφόρους οὔσας αὐτῶν θεωρήσαντος καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καταψευσαμένου τῆς εὐαγγελικῆς γραφῆς. οὐκ οἶδα δʼ ὅπως καὶ τὸ κινῆσαν τοὺς μάγους σεσιώπηκε καὶ οὐκ εἶπεν αὐτὸ εἶναι „ἀστέρα“ ὀφθέντα ὑπʼ αὐτῶν „ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ“ κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον. ἴδωμεν οὖν καὶ πρὸς ταῦτα τί λεκτέον. τὸν ὀφθέντα „ἀστέρα ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ“ καινὸν εἶναι νομίζομεν καὶ μηδενὶ τῶν συνήθων παραπλήσιον, οὔτε τῶν ἐν τῇ ἀπλανεῖ οὔτε τῶν ἐν ταῖς κατωτέρω σφαίραις, ἀλλὰ τῷ γένει τοιοῦτον γεγονέναι, ὁποῖοι κατὰ καιρὸν γινόμενοι κομῆται ἢ δοκίδες ἢ πωγωνίαι ἢ πίθοι ἢ ὅπως ποτὲ φίλον Ἕλλησιν ὀνομάζειν τὰς διαφορὰς αὐτῶν. κατασκευάζομεν δὲ τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον τὸ τοιοῦτον.
English · Claude translation
After this Celsus's Jew, instead of the magi of the Gospel, says that Jesus said that Chaldeans, moved at his birth, came to worship him as God while he was still an infant, and made this known to Herod the tetrarch; and that Herod sent to kill those born at the same time, thinking to destroy him too along with them, lest, having lived long enough, he should become king. See in this the misunderstanding of one who does not distinguish magi from Chaldeans, and who has not observed that their professions differ, and so has falsified the Gospel writing. I do not know why he also kept silent about what moved the magi, and did not say that it was a "star" seen by them "in the east," as is written. Let us see what must be said to this too. We think that the "star" seen "in the east" was a new one, not like any of the familiar ones, neither those in the sphere of fixed stars nor those in the lower spheres, but of the same kind as those that appear from time to time—comets, or meteors, or bearded stars, or jar-shaped stars, or however the Greeks like to name their different kinds. We establish this in the following way.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The Gospel passages are Matt 2:1–2, 16. Herod the Great was king, not tetrarch; the error is Celsus's (or his Jew's). The names of kinds of comets follow Greek usage (cf. Aristotle, Meteorology 1.7).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray period inside the sentence): ἐληλυθέναι. προσκυνήσοντας → ἐληλυθέναι, προσκυνήσοντας.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 1.58 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/1/58/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 1.58 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/1/58/).
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