Against Celsus 3.23
Summary: Origen contrasts the blameless life and real death of Jesus with the scandalous stories of the Greek demigods, and asks why Celsus trusts those myths but not the eyewitness disciples who died for their testimony.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:219–220
Ἡμεῖς δὲ τὰ περὶ τοῦ ἡμετέρου Ἰησοῦ ἀπὸ τῶν προφητικῶν δεικνύντες καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο παραβάλλοντες τὴν περὶ αὐτοῦ ἱστορίαν ταῖς περὶ ἐκείνων ἱστορίαις..... ὅτι οὐδεμία τούτου φέρεται ἀκολασία. οὐδὲ γὰρ αὐτοὶ οἱ ἐπιβουλεύοντες αὐτῷ καὶ ζητήσαντες κατʼ αὐτοῦ „ψευδομαρτυρίαν“ κἂν πιθανότητα εὗρον εἰς τὴν κατʼ αὐτοῦ „ψευδομαρτυρίαν, “ ἵνʼ ἀκολασίας ἕνεκεν αὐτοῦ κατηγορήσωσιν· ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ θάνατος αὐτοῦ ἐξ ἐπιβουλῆς ἀνθρώπων γέγονε καὶ οὐδὲν ὅμοιον ἔσχε τῷ πρὸς τὸν Ἀσκληπιὸν κεραυνῷ. τί δὲ σεμνὸν ἔχει ὁ μαινόλας Διόνυσος καὶ γυναικεῖα περιβεβλημένος. ἵνʼ ὡς θεὸς προσκυνηθῇ; ἐὰν δὲ καὶ οἱ περὶ τούτων ἀπολογούμενοι ἐπὶ ἀλληγορίας καταφεύγωσιν, ἰδίᾳ μὲν ἐξεταστέον τὰς ἀλληγορίας, εἰ τὸ ὑγιὲς ἔχουσιν, ἰδίᾳ δὲ, εἰ δύνανται ὑπόστασιν ἔχειν καὶ ἄξιοι εἶναι σεβασμῶν καὶ προσκυνήσεως σπαραττόμενοι ὑπὸ Τιτάνων καὶ καταβαλλόμενοι ἀπὸ τοῦ οὐρανίου θρόνου. ὁ δʼ ἡμέτερος Ἰησοῦς ὁ ὀφθεὶς τοῖς ἰδίοις θιασώταις (χρήσομαι γὰρ τῷ παρὰ τῷ Κέλσῳ ὀνόματι) ὤφθη μὲν κατʼ ἀλήθειαν, συκοφαντεῖ δὲ τὸν λόγον ὁ Κέλσος λέγων αὐτὸν ὦφθαι σκιάν. καὶ συνεξεταζέσθω γε τὰ τῶν περὶ ἐκείνων ἱστοριῶν τῇ περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ. ἢ ἐκεῖνα μὲν βούλεται ὁ Κέλσος εἶναι ἀληθῆ, ταῦτα δὲ ἀναγραφέντα ὑπὸ τῶν τεθεαμένων καὶ τῷ ἔργῳ δειξάντων τὴν ἐνάργειαν τῆς καταλήψεως περὶ τοῦ τεθεωρημένου καὶ παραστησάντων τὴν διάθεσιν ἐν οἷς προθύμως ὑπὲρ τοῦ λόγου αὐτοῦ πεπόνθασιν εἶναι πλάσματα; καὶ τίς ἂν κατὰ τὸ εὔλογον πάντα πράττειν θέλων ἀποκληρωτικῶς συγκαταθοῖτο μὲν (τοῖς) περὶ ἐκείνων εἰς δὲ τὰ περὶ τούτου ἀνεξετάστως ὁρμῶν ἀπιστήσαι τοῖς περὶ αὐτοῦ;
English · Claude translation
But we, showing from the prophetic writings what concerns our Jesus, and then comparing his story with the stories about them, … that no licentiousness of his is reported. For not even those who plotted against him and sought “false testimony” against him found anything plausible for their “false testimony” so as to accuse him of licentiousness. And his death came about from a human plot and had nothing like the thunderbolt against Asclepius. And what dignity has the raving Dionysus, dressed in women's clothes, that he should be worshiped as a god? If those who defend these beings take refuge in allegories, we must examine separately whether the allegories are sound, and separately whether beings torn apart by Titans and cast down from the heavenly throne can really exist and be worthy of reverence and worship. But our Jesus, who was seen by his own band of followers (for I shall use Celsus's term), was seen in truth; Celsus slanders the account when he says he was seen as a shadow. And let the stories about those beings be examined together with the story of Jesus. Or does Celsus want those to be true, but these, recorded by those who saw them and showed by their deeds the clarity of their grasp of what they had seen, and displayed their disposition in what they eagerly suffered for his word, to be fictions? And who that wishes to do everything reasonably would arbitrarily assent to the stories about those, and rushing without examination into what concerns this one, disbelieve the accounts of him?
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The digital text marks a gap (“.....”) after “with the stories about them”; the lost words probably said “we show”; it is marked “…” in the translation. The quotation is Matt 26:59. Dionysus torn apart by the Titans is the Orphic myth. The bracketed τοῖς is an editorial supplement.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 3.23 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/3/23/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 3.23 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/3/23/).
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