Against Celsus 2.54
Summary: Origen replies that Celsus's Jew mocks Jesus' foretelling of his resurrection, yet Moses too wrote of his own mysterious, unknown burial.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:177–178
Μετὰ ταῦτά. φησι πρὸς ἡμᾶς δῆθεν (ἵνα τηρήσω τὸ ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς τῷ Ἰουδαίῳ προτεθὲν) ὁ τοῦ Κέλσου Ἰουδαῖος ἐν τῷ πρὸς τοὺς πολίτας ἑαυτοῦ λόγῳ πιστεύσαντας· τίνι οὖν προσήχθητε ἢ διότι προεῖπεν, ὡς ἀποθανὼν ἀναστήσεται; καὶ τοῦτο δʼ εἰς τὸ περὶ Μωϋσέως ὁμοίως τοῖς προτέροις κοινοποιηθήσεται. φήσομεν γὰρ πρὸς αὐτόν· τίνι οὖν προσήχθητε ἢ διότι ἀνέγραψε περὶ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ τελευτῆς τοιαῦτα· „καὶ ἐτελεύτησεν ἐκεῖ Μωϋσῆς οἰκέτης κυρίου ἐν γῇ Μωὰβ διὰ ῥήματος κυρίου· καὶ ἔθαψαν αὐτὸν ἐν γῇ Μωάβ, ἐγγὺς οἴκου Φογώρ. Καὶ οὐδεὶς οἶδε τὴν ταφὴν αὐτοῦ ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης" Ὡς γὰρ διαβάλλει ὁ Ἰουδαῖος ὅτι προεῖπεν, ὡς ἀποθανὼν ἀναστήσεται, πρὸς τὸν λέγοντα ταῦτα ὁ περὶ Μωϋσέως τὸ ὅμοιον φάσκων ἐρεῖ ὅτι καὶ Μωϋσῆς ἀνέγραψεν (αὐτοῦ γάρ ἐστι καὶ τὸ Δευτερονόμιον) ὅτι „Οὐδεὶς οἶδε τὴν ταφὴν αὐτοῦ ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης, " σεμνύνων καὶ ἐπαίρων καὶ τὴν ταφὴν αὐτοῦ ὡς οὐκ ἐγνωσμένην ἀνθρώπων γένει.
English · Claude translation
After this, the Jew of Celsus, in his speech to his fellow citizens who have believed (to keep the character originally assigned to the Jew), says to us, forsooth: “What then led you on, except that he foretold that he would rise after he died?” This too will be applied equally to Moses, like what went before. For we shall say to him: “What then led you on, except that he wrote such things about his own death: ‘And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab by the word of the Lord; and they buried him in the land of Moab, near the house of Phogor. And no one knows his burial place to this day’?” For just as the Jew disparages Jesus because he foretold that he would rise after he died, so one who says something similar about Moses will say in reply that Moses too wrote (for Deuteronomy too is his) that “no one knows his burial place to this day,” glorifying and exalting even his burial as unknown to the human race.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Deut 34:5–6 (LXX, “Phogor” = Beth-peor). The digital text is garbled here (“ἀνέγραψενμδαση;” and “ὅτι θυοτ;”); the stray letters are removed as digitization noise. The words it sets in square brackets (“Moses too wrote, for Deuteronomy too is his”) cannot be an editorial deletion, since the sentence needs them and ANF also has them; the brackets evidently stand for Origen's own parenthesis, so they are corrected to parentheses and the words are translated. The phrase “to keep the character originally assigned to the Jew” is Origen's parenthesis.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray letters and misplaced square bracket in the digital text; the words that follow are Origen's parenthesis (see note); stray letters in the digital text; parenthesis closed and opening quotation mark restored): [καὶ Μωϋσῆς ἀνέγραψενμδαση; αὐτοῦ → καὶ Μωϋσῆς ἀνέγραψεν (αὐτοῦ; Δευτερονόμιον] ὅτι θυοτ; Οὐδεὶς → Δευτερονόμιον) ὅτι „Οὐδεὶς.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 2.54 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/2/54/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 2.54 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/2/54/).
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