Against Celsus 4.34
Summary: The power of the patriarchs' names in exorcism can only be explained from Genesis, and their Hebrew names prove that the Jewish nation truly descends from them.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:304–305
Πυνθανόμεθα γὰρ ἁπάντων τῶν χρωμένων ταῖς τοιαύταις τοῦ θεοῦ κατακλήσεσιν· εἴπατε ἡμῖν, ὦ οὗτοι, τίς ὁ Ἀβραὰμ καὶ πηλίκος ὁ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ ποίας δυνάμεως γέγονεν ὁ Ἰακὼβ, ὡς τὴν θεὸς προσηγορίαν ἁρμοζομένην αὐτῶν τῷ ὀνόματι τηλικάσδε ποιεῖν δυνάμεις; καὶ παρὰ τίνων μεμαθήκατε ἢ δύνασθε μαθεῖν τὰ περὶ τῶν ἀνδρῶν τούτων; τίς δὲ καὶ ἐπραγματεύσατο ἀναγράψαι τὴν περὶ αὐτοὺς ἱστορίαν, εἴτε καὶ αὐτόθεν σεμνύνουσαν ἐν ἀποῤῥήτοις τοὺς ἄνδρας εἴτε καὶ διʼ ὑπονοιῶν αἰνισσομένην τινὰ μεγάλα καὶ θαυμάσια τοῖς θεωρῆσαι αὐτὰ δυναμένοις; εἶτʼ ἐπὰν πυθομένων ἡμῶν μηδεὶς ἔχῃ παραστῆσαι ἀφʼ οἵας δή ποτε ἱστορίας, εἴτε Ἑλληνικῆς εἴτε καὶ βαρβαρικῆς ἢ οὐχ ἱστορίας ἀλλά τινος μυστικῆς ἀναγραφῆς τὰ περὶ τῶν ἀνδρῶν τούτων· ἡμεῖς προσοίσομεν τὴν ἐπιγεγραμμένην Γένεσιν, περιέχουσαν τὰς πράξεις τῶν ἀνδρῶν τούτων καὶ τοὺς τοῦ θεοῦ χρησμοὺς πρὸς αὐτοὺς, ἐροῦμέν τε ὅτι μή ποτε τὸ καὶ ὑφʼ ὑμῶν παραλαμβάνεσθαι τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν τριῶν τούτων γεναρχῶν τοῦ ἔθνους, τῇ ἐναργείᾳ καταλαμβανόντων οὐκ εὐκαταφρόνητα ἀνύεσθαι ἐκ τῆς κατεπικλήσεως αὐτῶν, παρίστησι τὸ θεῖον τῶν ἀνδρῶν; οὓς οὐδαμόθεν ἢ ἀπὸ τῶν ἱερῶν παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις βιβλίων παραλαμβάνομεν. ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ ὁ θεὸς τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ καὶ ὁ θεὸς τῶν Ἑβραίων καὶ ὁ θεὸς ὁ καταποντώσας ἐν τῇ ἐρυθρᾷ θαλάσσῃ τὸν Αἰγυπτίων βασιλέα καὶ τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους πολλάκις ὀνομάζεται παραλαμβανόμενος κατὰ δαιμόνων ἤ τινων πονηρῶν δυνάμεων. μανθάνομεν δὲ τὴν περὶ τὰ ὀνομαζόμενα ἱστορίαν καὶ τὴν τῶν ὀνομάτων ἑρμηνείαν ἀπὸ Ἑβραίων, τῶν τοῖς πατρίοις γράμμασι καὶ τῇ πατρίῳ διαλέκτῳ ταῦτα σεμνυνόντων καὶ διηγουμένων· πῶς οὖν Ἰουδαῖοι ταῦτʼ ἐπιχειρήσαντες ἑαυτοὺς γενεαλογεῖν ἀπὸ πρώτης σπορᾶς τούτων, οὓς γόητας καὶ πλανήτας ἀνθρώπους ὑπείληφεν εἶναι ὁ Κέλσος, ἀναισχύντως ἐπιχειροῦσιν ἑαυτοὺς καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν αὑτῶν ἐπὶ τούτους ἀνάγειν, ὧν τὰ ὀνόματα Ἑβραϊκὰ τυγχάνοντα μαρτυρεῖ Ἑβραίοις, τὰ ἱερὰ αὐτῶν βιβλία ἐν Ἑβραίων ἔχουσι διαλέκτῳ καὶ γράμμασιν. ὅτι οἰκεῖόν ἐστι τὸ ἔθνος αὐτῶν τοῖς ἀνδράσι τούτοις; καὶ γὰρ μέχρι τοῦ δεῦρο τὰ Ἰουδαϊκὰ ὀνόματα, τῆς Ἑβραίων ἐχόμενα διαλέκτου. ἤτοι ἀπὸ τῶν γραμμάτων αὐτῶν ἐλήφθη ἢ καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς ἀπὸ τῶν σημαινομένων ὑπὸ τῆς Ἑβραίων φωνῆς.
English · Claude translation
For we ask all who use such invocations of God: Tell us, sirs, who was Abraham, how great was Isaac, and of what power was Jacob, that the title “God,” joined to their name, can work such wonders? And from whom have you learned, or can you learn, about these men? Who troubled to record their history, whether one that openly exalts the men in secret writings, or one that hints through hidden meanings at great and marvelous things for those able to contemplate them? Then, when we ask and no one can show from what history, Greek or barbarian, or, if not history, some mystical record, the facts about these men come, we shall bring forward the book entitled Genesis, which contains the deeds of these men and God's oracles to them, and we shall say: Does not the fact that you too use the names of these three founders of the nation, since you perceive by experience that no small effects are produced by invoking them, show the divine character of these men? And we know them from nowhere else than from the sacred books of the Jews. Moreover, “the God of Israel,” “the God of the Hebrews,” and “the God who drowned the king of the Egyptians and the Egyptians in the Red Sea” are often named and used against daemons or certain evil powers. And we learn the history of those named and the interpretation of the names from the Hebrews, who glorify and relate these things in their ancestral writings and their ancestral language. How then do the Jews, trying to trace their genealogy from the first seed of these men whom Celsus supposed to be sorcerers and deceivers, shamelessly try to trace themselves and their origin back to men whose names, being Hebrew, bear witness to the Hebrews, who have their sacred books in the Hebrew language and letters, that their nation is related to these men? For even to this day Jewish names, belonging to the Hebrew language, were taken either from their writings or simply from what the Hebrew language signifies.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “The God of the Hebrews” is Exod 5:3; the drowning in the Red Sea is Exod 14:27–28.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 4.34 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/4/34/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 4.34 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/4/34/).
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