Against Celsus 6.48
Summary: Celsus accepts the Stoic claim that a wise man equals God in happiness yet mocks the Christian teaching that Jesus is one with the Word, which Origen illustrates by the Church as Christ's body animated by the Word.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:119–120
Εἶτα ἐὰν μὲν τὴν αὐτὴν ἀρετὴν λέγοντες ἀνθρώπου καὶ θεοῦ οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς Στοᾶς φιλόσοφοι μὴ εὐδαιμονέστερον λέγωσιν εἶναι τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεὸν τοῦ ἐν ἀνθρώποις κατʼ αὐτοὺς σοφοῦ, ἀλλʼ ἴσην εἶναι τὴν ἀμφοτέρων εὐδαιμονίαν, Κέλσος οὐ καταγελᾷ οὐδὲ χλευάζει τὸ δόγμα· ἐὰν δʼ ὁ θεῖος λόγος φάσκῃ κολλᾶσθαι ὑπὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς καὶ ἑνοῦσθαι τῷ αὐτολόγῳ τὸν τέλειον, ὡς κατὰ τοῦτο ἀναβεβηκότας μὴ χωρίζειν ἡμᾶς τὴν Ἰησοῦ ψυχὴν τοῦ πρωτοτόκου „πάσης κτίσεως.“ γελᾷ τὸ λέγεσθαι υἱὸν θεοῦ Ἰησοῦν, οὐχ ὁρῶν, τίνα ἐστὶ τὰ περὶ αὐτοῦ ἐν ἀποῤῥήτῳ μυστικῶς ἐν ταῖς θείαις γραφαῖς λεγόμενα. ἵνα δὲ προσαγάγωμεν τῇ παραδοχῇ τοῦ λεγομένου τὸν βουλόμενον ἀκολουθίαις δογμάτων ἕπεσθαι καὶ ὠφελεῖσθαι, λέγομεν ὅτι σῶμα Χριστοῦ φασιν εἶναι οἱ θεῖοι λόγοι ὑπὸ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ ψυχούμενον τὴν πᾶσαν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐκκλησίαν, μέλη δὲ τούτου τοῦ σώματος εἶναι ὡς ὅλου τούσδε τινὰς τοὺς πιστεύοντας· ἐπείπερ ὥσπερ ψυχὴ ζῳοποιεῖ καὶ κινεῖ τὸ σῶμα οὐ πεφυκὸς ἀφʼ ἑαυτοῦ κινεῖσθαι ζωτικῶς. οὕτως ὁ λόγος κινῶν ἐπὶ τὰ δέοντα καὶ ἐνεργῶν τὸ ὅλον σῶμα τὴν ἐκκλησίαν κινεῖ καὶ ἕκαστον μέλος τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας, οὐδὲν χωρὶς λόγου πράττοντα. εἴπερ οὖν τοῦτο οὐκ εὐκαταφρόνητον ὡς οἶμαι ἔχει ἀκολουθίαν, τί χαλεπὸν τῇ ἄκρᾳ καὶ ἀνυπερβλήτῳ κοινωνίᾳ πρὸς τὸν αὐτολόγον τὴν Ἰησοῦ ψυχὴν καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς τὸν Ἰησοῦν μὴ κεχωρίσθαι τοῦ μονογενοῦς καὶ πρωτοτόκου „πάσης κτίσεως“ μηδʼ ἕτερον ἔτι τυγχάνειν αὐτοῦ; ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ταύτῃ.
English · Claude translation
Next: if the Stoic philosophers, who say that the virtue of man and of God is the same, say that the God over all is not happier than their wise man among men, but that the happiness of both is equal, Celsus does not laugh at or mock the doctrine. But if the divine word says that the perfect man is joined through virtue to the Word himself and made one with him, so that on this basis we do not separate the soul of Jesus from the firstborn “of all creation,” he laughs at Jesus being called Son of God, not seeing what is said about him mystically and secretly in the divine Scriptures. And to bring to acceptance of what is said anyone who wishes to follow the consistency of doctrines and be helped, we say that the divine words declare that the whole Church of God is the body of Christ, animated by the Son of God, and that those who believe are members of this body as of a whole. For just as the soul gives life to and moves the body, which by nature cannot move itself with life, so the Word, moving the whole body, the Church, toward what is needful and acting on it, moves both the Church and each member of those belonging to the Church, who do nothing apart from the Word. If this, as I think, is a consistent argument not to be despised, what difficulty is there in the soul of Jesus, and Jesus as a whole, not being separated from the only-begotten and firstborn “of all creation,” because of its highest and unsurpassable communion with the Word himself, nor being any longer other than he? But so much for this.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusions are to Col 1:15, 1 Cor 12:12–27, and Eph 1:23.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (misspelling in the digital text): κινεῖθαι → κινεῖσθαι.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 6.48 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/6/48/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 6.48 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/6/48/).
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