Against Celsus 4.36
Summary: Celsus ridicules Genesis's creation of man and woman as tasteless compared with Hesiod, but Moses is far older than Hesiod, and even Plato banished such poets from his ideal state.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:306–307
Μετὰ ταῦτα ὁ Κέλσος ἐκτιθέμενος τὰ ἀπὸ τῆς ἔξω τοῦ θείου λόγου ἱστορίας, τὰ περὶ τῶν ἐπιδικασαμένων ἀνθρώπων τῆς ἀρχαιότητος, οἷον Ἀθηναίων καὶ Αἰγυπτίων καὶ Ἀρκάδων καὶ Φρυγῶν, καὶ γηγενεῖς τινας παρὰ σφίσιν γεγονέναι λεγόντων καὶ τεκμήρια τούτων παρεχομένων ἑκάστων, φησὶν ὡς ἄρα Ἰουδαῖοι ἐν γωνίᾳ που τῆς Παλαιστίνης συγκύψαντες, παντελῶς ἀπαίδευτοι καὶ οὐ προακηκοότες πάλαι ταῦτα Ἡσιόδῳ καὶ ἄλλοις μυρίοις ἀνδράσιν ἐνθέοις ὑμνημένα, συνέθεσαν ἀπιθανώτατα καὶ ἀμουσότατα, ἄνθρωπόν τινα ὑπὸ χειρῶν θεοῦ πλασσόμενόν τε καὶ ἐμφυσώμενον καὶ γύναιον ἐκ τῆς πλευρᾶς καὶ παραγγέλματα τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ὄφιν τούτοις ἀντιπράσσοντα καὶ περιγινόμενον τῶν θεοῦ προσταγμάτων τὸν ὄφιν, μῦθόν τινα ὡς γραυσὶ διηγούμενοι καὶ ποιοῦντες ἀνοσιώτατα τὸν θεὸν, εὐθὺς ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς ἀσθενοῦντα καὶ μηδʼ ἕνʼ ἄνθρωπον, ὃν αὐτὸς ἔπλασε, πεῖσαι δυνάμενον. διὰ τούτων δὴ ὁ πολυΐστωρ καὶ πολυμαθὴς καὶ Ἰουδαίοις καὶ Χριστιανοῖς ἀμαθίαν ἐγκαλῶν καὶ ἀπαιδευσίαν Κέλσος σαφῶς παρίστησι, τίνα τρόπον ἀκριβῶς ᾔδει τοὺς ἑκάστου συγγραφέως χρόνους, Ἕλληνος καὶ βαρβάρου· ὅς γε οἴεται Ἡσίοδον καὶ ἄλλους μυρίους. οὓς ὀνομάζει ἄνδρας ἐνθέους. πρεσβυτέρους εἶναι Μωϋσέως καὶ τῶν τούτου γραμμάτων. Μωϋσέως, τοῦ ἀποδεικνυμένου πολλῷ τῶν Ἰλιακῶν πρεσβυτέρου. οὐκ Ἰουδαῖοι οὖν συνέθεσαν ἀπιθανώτατα καὶ ἀμουσότατα τὰ περὶ τὸν γηγενῆ ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλʼ οἱ κατὰ Κέλσον ἄνδρες ἔνθεοι, Ἡσίοδος καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι αὐτοῦ μυρίοι, τοὺς πολλῷ πρεσβυτέρους καὶ σεμνοτάτους ἐν τῇ Παλαιστίνῃ λόγους μήτε μαθόντες μήτʼ ἀκηκοότες. τοιαύτας ἔγραψαν ἱστορίας περὶ τῶν ἀρχαίων. ὁποίας καὶ θεογονίας. γένεσιν τὸ ὅσον ἐφʼ ἑαυτοῖς περιτιθέντες θεοῖς. καὶ ἄλλα μυρία. εὐλόγως (οὖν) ἐκβάλλει τῆς ἑαυτοῦ πολιτείας Πλάτων ὡς ἐπιτρίβοντας τοὺς νέους τὸν Ὅμηρον καὶ τοὺς τοιαῦτα γράφοντας ποιήματα. ἀλλὰ Πλάτων μὲν δῆλός ἐστι μὴ φρονήσας ἐνθέους γεγονέναι ἄνδρας τοὺς τοιαῦτα ποιήματα καταλελοιπότας· ὁ δὲ κρίνειν μᾶλλον Πλάτωνος δυνάμενος, ὁ Ἐπικούρειος Κέλσος. εἴ γε οὗτός ἐστι καὶ ὁ κατὰ Χριστιανῶν ἄλλα δύο βιβλία συντάξας, τάχα ἡμῖν φιλονεικῶν οὓς μὴ ἐφρόνει ἐνθέους ἐνθέους ὠνόμασεν.
English · Claude translation
After this Celsus, setting out from history outside the divine word the claims of men who laid claim to antiquity, such as the Athenians, Egyptians, Arcadians, and Phrygians, who say that some among them were born from the earth and each offer proofs of this, says that “the Jews, huddled together in some corner of Palestine, utterly uneducated and not having heard long before what had been sung by Hesiod and countless other inspired men, composed a most implausible and tasteless story: that a man was formed by the hands of God and breathed into, and a woman from his side, and commands of God, and a serpent opposing them and prevailing over God's commands; telling a myth as if to old women, and most impiously making God weak from the very beginning and unable to persuade even one man whom he himself had formed.” By these words the widely read and learned Celsus, who accuses both Jews and Christians of ignorance and lack of education, clearly shows how accurately he knew the dates of each writer, Greek and barbarian, since he thinks that Hesiod and countless others, whom he calls inspired men, are older than Moses and his writings, Moses, who is shown to be much older than the Trojan War! It was not the Jews, then, who composed a most implausible and tasteless story about the earth-born man, but the men whom Celsus calls inspired, Hesiod and his countless others, who, neither learning nor hearing the much older and most dignified words in Palestine, wrote such stories about the ancients as their theogonies, attributing birth, as far as they could, to gods, and countless other things. Reasonably, then, Plato expels from his republic Homer and those who write such poems, as corrupting the young. But Plato clearly did not think the men who left such poems were inspired; whereas Celsus the Epicurean, who can judge better than Plato, if indeed he is also the one who composed two other books against the Christians, perhaps from contentiousness against us called inspired those whom he did not think inspired.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusions are Gen 2:7, 2:21–22, and 3:1–6; Plato expels the poets in Republic 398a (and 377c–379a). Origen suspects that his opponent may be a different Celsus, an Epicurean who wrote other works against Christians.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 4.36 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/4/36/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 4.36 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/4/36/).
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