Sophia Scriptura

Against Celsus 2.29

Origen · Against Celsus · ca. 248 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: Since Christ's two comings have been explained, Origen answers only the insult that Jesus was a “pest”: no pest turns so many people from vice to virtue.

Greek text · Koetschau 1:157

Φθάσαντες δʼ ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω εἰρήκαμεν περὶ τοῦ τὸν Χριστὸν προφητεύεσθαι δύο ἐπιδημίαις χρησόμενον εἰς τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος· διόπερ οὐκέτι χρεία ἡμᾶς ἀπολογήσασθαι πρὸς τὸ λεγόμενον ὡς ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἰουδαίου, ὅτι μέγαν καὶ δυνάστην καὶ πάσης τῆς γῆς καὶ πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν καὶ στρατοπέδων κύριόν φασιν οἱ προφῆται εἶναι τὸν ἐπιδημήσοντα. Ἰουδαϊκῶς δʼ οἶμαι εἶπε καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἐκείνων χολὴν μετὰ τοῦ χωρὶς ἀποδείξεως κἂν πιθανῶς λοιδορεῖν τὸν Ἰησοῦν. ὅτι οὐχὶ (δὲ) τοιοῦτον ὄλεθρον κατήγγειλαν. καίτοι οὔτε Ἰουδαῖοι οὔτε Κέλσος οὔτε ἄλλος τις μετὰ ἀποδείξεως ἔχει παραστῆσαι ὅτι ὄλεθρος τοσούτους ἀνθρώπους ἐπιστρέφει ἀπὸ τῆς χύσεως τῶν κακῶν ἐπὶ τὸν κατὰ φύσιν μετὰ σωφροσύνης καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ἀρετῶν βίον.

English · Claude translation

We have already spoken above about the prophecy that the Christ would make two comings to the human race. So we no longer need to defend ourselves against what is said as if by the Jew, that the prophets say the one who will come will be great, a ruler, and lord of the whole earth and of all nations and armies. But I think he spoke in a Jewish manner and in keeping with their bitterness, in reviling Jesus without proof, not even plausibly, when he says that they did not proclaim “such a pest.” And yet neither the Jews nor Celsus nor anyone else can show with proof that a pest turns so many people from the flood of evils to a life according to nature, with self-control and the other virtues.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 1:157 · 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, Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The word ὄλεθρος (literally “destruction”) is used as an insult for a person, “a pest” or “a scourge.” The bracketed δὲ is an editorial supplement.

Cite this passage

Origen, Cels. 2.29 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/2/29/).

Plain text
Origen, Cels. 2.29 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/2/29/).

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