Against Celsus 2.26

Summary: Origen replies that the disciples could easily have hidden Jesus' distress by not recording it, and that they cannot have been both sincere believers and conscious liars.

Greek text · Koetschau 1:155–156

Ἔτι δὲ λέγει ὁ παρὰ τῷ Κέλσῳ Ἰουδαῖος πρὸς τοὺς Ἰησοῦ μαθητὰς ὡς πλασαμένους ταῦτα. ὅτι οὐδὲ ψευδόμενοι τὰ πλάσματα ὑμῶν πιθανῶς ἐπικαλύψαι ἠδυνήθητε. καὶ πρὸς τόδε λελέξεται ὅτι εὐχερὴς μὲν ἦν ὁδὸς πρὸς τὸ ἐπικαλύψαι τὰ τοιαῦτα τὸ μηδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν αὐτὰ ἀναγράψαι. τίς γὰρ ἂν τῶν εὐαγγελίων ταῦτα μὴ περιεχόντων ὀνειδίσαι ἐδύνατο ἡμῖν ἐπὶ τῷ τὸν Ἰησοῦν τοιαῦτα παρὰ τῇ οἰκονομίᾳ λελαληκέναι; οὐ συνεῖδε δʼ ὁ Κέλσος ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι κατὰ τοὺς αὐτοὺς καὶ ἠπατῆσθαι περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ὡς θεοῦ καὶ προφητευθέντος καὶ πλάσασθαι περὶ αὐτοῦ δηλονότι ἐγνωκότας ὅτι οὐκ ἀληθῆ τὰ πλάσματα. ἤτοι οὖν οὐκ ἔπλασαν ἀλλʼ οὕτως ἐφρόνουν καὶ οὐ ψευδόμενοι ἀνέγραψαν. ἢ ψευσάμενοι ἀνέγραψαν καὶ ταῦτα οὐκ ἐφρόνουν οὐδὲ ἀπατηθέντες θεὸν αὐτὸν ἐνόμιζον.

English · Claude translation

The Jew in Celsus further says to Jesus' disciples, as if they had invented these things: “Even with your lies you could not cover up your fictions plausibly.” To this it will be said that an easy way of covering up such things was not to record them at all. For if the Gospels had not contained them, who could have reproached us with Jesus having said such things during his dispensation? Celsus did not see that it is not possible for the same people both to have been deceived about Jesus as God and as the one foretold by prophecy, and to have invented things about him, obviously knowing that the inventions were untrue. Either, then, they did not invent them, but thought so and wrote without lying; or they wrote lying, and did not think so, and were not deceived into believing him to be God.

About this passage

Source

Koetschau 1:155–156 · 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, Scripture and canon

Cite this passage

Origen, Cels. 2.26 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/2/26/).

Plain text

Origen, Cels. 2.26 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/2/26/).

Greek text · Koetschau 1:155–156

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Translation notes

Cite this passage