Against Celsus 4.90
Summary: Even granting that augury exists, birds that could foresee the future would avoid snares and arrows, so they cannot be wiser or more divine than humans.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:362–363
ἡμῖν δʼ ὀλίγα πρὸς τὰ προκείμενα ἀπὸ πολλῶν λεκτέον, διελέγχουσι τὴν ἀχάριστον ψευδοδοξίαν πρὸς τὸν πεποιηκότα αὐτόν· „ἄνθρωπος“ γὰρ καὶ Κέλσος ὢν „ἐν τιμῇ ὢν οὐ συνῆκε, “ διὸ οὐδὲ „παρασυνεβλήθη“ τοῖς ὄρνισι καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις (ἀλόγοις) ζῴοις, οἷς νομίζει εἶναι μαντικοῖς, ἀλλʼ ἐκείνοις παραχωρήσας τὰ πρωτεῖα ὑπὲρ Αἰγυπτίους, τοὺς τὰ ἄλογα ζῷα ὡς θεοὺς προσκυνοῦντας, ἑαυτὸν ὑπέταξε τὸ δʼ ὅσον ἐπʼ αὐτῷ καὶ πᾶν τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος ὡς χεῖρον καὶ ἔλαττον νοοῦν περὶ τοῦ θείου τοῖς ἀλόγοις ζῴοις. προηγουμένως μὲν οὖν ζητείσθω, πότερον ὑπάρχει ἡ διʼ ὀρνίθων καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ζῴων, πεπιστευμένων εἶναι μαντικῶν, μαντικὴ ἢ μὴ ὑπάρχει. καὶ γὰρ οὐκ εὐκαταφρόνητός ἐστιν εἰς ἑκάτερα ἐπιχειρούμενος ὁ λόγος· ὅπου μὲν δυσωπῶν μὴ παραδέξασθαι τὸ τοιοῦτον, ἵνα μὴ τὸ λογικὸν ἀντὶ τῶν δαιμονίων χρηστηρίων ὄρνισι χρήσηται, καταλιπὸν ἐκεῖνα, ὅπου δὲ διὰ μαρτυρουμένης ὑπὸ πολλῶν ἐναργείας παριστὰς ὅτι πολλοὶ ἀπὸ μεγίστων διεσώθησαν κινδύνων, πεισθέντες τῇ διʼ ὀρνίθων μαντικῇ. ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ παρόντος δεδόσθω ὑπαρκτὸν εἶναι τὴν οἰωνιστικὴν, ἵνα καὶ οὕτως δείξω τοῖς προκαταληφθεῖσιν ὅτι καὶ τούτου διδομένου πολλή ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου παρὰ τὰ ἄλογα ζῷα καὶ παρʼ αὐτὰ τὰ μαντικὰ ὑπεροχὴ καὶ οὐδαμῶς πρὸς ἐκεῖνα συγκριτή. λεκτέον οὖν ὅτι, εἴπερ τις θεία φύσις ἦν ἐν αὐτοῖς τῶν μελλόντων προγνωστικὴ καὶ ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον πλουσία, ὡς ἐκ περιουσίας καὶ τῷ βουλομένῳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων δηλοῦν τὰ ἐσόμενα, δηλονότι πολὺ πρότερον τὰ περὶ ἑαυτῶν ἐγίνωσκον· (γινώσκον)τα δὲ τὰ περὶ ἑαυτῶν ἐφυλάξατο (αν) ἀναπτῆναι κατὰ τοῦδε τοῦ τόπου, ἐφʼ οὗ παγίδας καὶ δίκτυα ἄνθρωποι ἔστησαν κατʼ αὐτῶν, ἢ τοξόται σκοπῷ χρώμενοι τοῖς ἱπταμένοις βέλη ἐπʼ αὐτὰ ἀπέλυον. πάντως δʼ ἂν καὶ προγινώσκοντες ἀετοὶ τὴν κατὰ τῶν νεοσσῶν ἐπιβουλὴν, εἴτε τῶν ἀναβαινόντων πρὸς αὐτοὺς ὄφεων καὶ διαφθειρόντων αὐτοὺς, εἴτε καί τινων ἀνθρώπων εἴτʼ εἰς παιδιὰν εἴτε καὶ εἰς ἄλλην τινὰ χρείαν καὶ θεραπείαν λαμβανόντων αὐτοὺς, οὐκ ἂν ἐνόσσευσαν ἔνθα ἔμελλον ἐπιβουλεύεσθαι· καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς οὐκ ἄν ποτε τῶν ζῴων τι τούτων ἁλωτὸν ἀνθρώποις ἦν ὡς ἀνθρώπων θειότερον καὶ σοφώτερον.
English · Claude translation
but we must say a few things out of many in reply to what has been put forward, refuting his ungrateful false opinion toward the one who made him. For Celsus too, being "a man, when he was in honour, did not understand"; therefore he was not even "compared" to the birds and the other irrational animals that he thinks prophetic, but, yielding them first place, more than the Egyptians who worship irrational animals as gods, he subjected himself, and as far as in him lies the whole human race, to the irrational animals, as worse and understanding less about the divine. Let it first be examined, then, whether divination through birds and the other animals believed to be prophetic exists or not. For the argument attempted on either side is not to be despised: on one side it urges us not to accept such a thing, so that the rational being may not abandon the oracles of demons only to use birds instead; on the other it shows, by evidence attested by many, that many have been saved from the greatest dangers by trusting divination through birds. For the present, let augury be granted to exist, so that even so I may show to those who are prejudiced that, even granting this, the superiority of man over the irrational animals, even over the prophetic ones themselves, is great, and in no way comparable to them. It must be said, then, that if there were some divine nature in them able to foreknow the future, and so rich that out of its abundance it could show the future even to any human being who wished, clearly they would have known their own affairs much earlier; and knowing their own affairs they would have taken care not to fly up over the place where human beings had set snares and nets against them, or where archers, taking the flying creatures as their target, loosed arrows at them. And eagles, if they foreknew the plot against their young, whether of snakes climbing up to them and destroying them, or of some human beings taking them for sport or for some other use or service, would surely not have nested where they would be plotted against. And in a word, none of these animals would ever have been caught by human beings, if it were more divine and wiser than human beings.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Ps 49:20 (48:21 LXX; the LXX reads "man, being in honour, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless beasts"). The parentheses (ἀλόγοις), (γινώσκον)τα, and (αν) are the editor's supplements.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (missing breathing and accent in the digital text): λεκτέον ουν → λεκτέον οὖν.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 4.90 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/4/90/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 4.90 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/4/90/).
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