Against Celsus 2.6 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Koetschau 1:132

Ἔστω δὲ καὶ πάντα τὰ κατὰ Ἰουδαίους ἔθη μέχρι καὶ τῶν παρʼ αὐτοῖς θυσιῶν πεποιηκέναι τὸν Ἰησοῦν· τί τοῦτο συμβάλλεται πρὸς τὸ μὴ δεῖν πιστεύειν αὐτῷ ὡς υἱῷ τοῦ θεοῦ; ἔστιν οὖν υἱὸς τοῦ δόντος τὸν νόμον καὶ τοὺς προφήτας θεοῦ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· καὶ τοῦτον ἡμεῖς οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας οὐχ ὑπερβαίνομεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀπεδράσαμεν μὲν τὰς Ἰουδαίων μυθολογίας σωφρονιζόμεθα δὲ καὶ παιδευόμεθα τῇ τοῦ νόμου καὶ τῶν προφητῶν μυστικῇ θεωρίᾳ. καὶ γὰρ οἱ προφῆται, ὡς μὴ καταπαύοντες τὸν νοῦν τῶν λεγομένων ἐν τῇ προφανεῖ ἱστορίᾳ μηδʼ ἐν τῇ κατὰ τὰς λέξεις καὶ τὸ γράμμα νομοθεσίᾳ, ὅπου μέν φασιν ἱστορίας δῆθεν ἐκθησόμενοι τό· „ἀνοίξω ἐν παραβολαῖς τὸ στόμα μου, φθέγξομαι προβλήματα ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς.“ ὅπου δὲ εὐχόμενοι περὶ τοῦ νόμου ὡς ἀσαφοῦς καὶ δεομένου θεοῦ, ἵνα νοηθῇ, λέγουσιν ἐν εὐχῇ· „ἀποκάλυψον τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς μου, καὶ κατανοήσω τὰ θαυμάσιά σου ἐκ τοῦ νόμου σου.“

English · Claude translation

Suppose that Jesus kept all the Jewish customs, even including their sacrifices: how does this contribute to the view that one must not believe in him as Son of God? Jesus is, then, the Son of the God who gave the law and the prophets; and we of the church do not transgress it, but we have fled the mythologies of the Jews and are made wise and trained by the mystical contemplation of the law and the prophets. For the prophets, not letting the meaning of what is said rest in the obvious history or in the legislation according to the words and the letter, say in one place, when they are supposedly about to set out histories, "I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter problems from the beginning," and in another, praying about the law as obscure and needing God to be understood, they say in prayer: "Unveil my eyes, and I will perceive your wonders out of your law."

About this passage

Source

Koetschau 1:132 · 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)

Scripture

Ps 78:2 (77:2 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
Ps 119:18 (118:18 LXX) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Scripture and canon, Christology

Notes

Translation notes

The quotations are Ps 78:2 (77:2 LXX) and Ps 119:18 (118:18 LXX).

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (stray period inside the sentence): δεομένου θεοῦ. ἵνα → δεομένου θεοῦ, ἵνα.

Cite this passage

Origen, Cels. 2.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/2/6/).

Plain text

Origen, Cels. 2.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/2/6/).