Against Celsus 6.55
Summary: Scripture sometimes calls hardships “evils” sent by God, but God does not make moral evil; at most, some evils follow incidentally from his good works, as shavings fall from a carpenter's work.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:125–126
Εὑρεθείη δʼ ἂν καταχρηστικώτερον καὶ τὰ σωματικὰ καὶ τὰ ἐκτὸς, τὰ μὲν συμβαλλόμενα εἰς τὸν κατὰ φύσιν βίον νομιζόμενα ἀγαθὰ τὰ δʼ ἐναντιούμενα τούτῳ κακά. οὕτω γὰρ ὁ Ἰὼβ λέγει πρὸς τὴν γυναῖκα τό· „εἰ γὰρ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ἐδεξάμεθα ἐκ χειρὸς κυρίου, τὰ κακὰ οὐχ ὑποίσομεν“; ἐπεὶ οὖν εὑρίσκεται ἐν ταῖς θείαις γραφαῖς ὅπου μὲν ἐκ προσώπου θεοῦ τὸ „ἐγὼ ὁ ποιῶν εἰρήνην καὶ κτίζων κακὰ, “ ὅπου δὲ πάλιν περὶ αὐτοῦ „ὅτι κατέβη κακὰ παρὰ κυρίου ἐπὶ πύλας Ἱερουσαλὴμ, ψόφος ἁρμάτων καὶ ἱππευόντων, “ ἅπερ ἐτάραξε πολλοὺς τῶν ἐντυγχανόντων τῇ γραφῇ, μὴ δυναμένους καθορᾶν τὰ κατʼ αὐτὴν περὶ ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν σημαινόμενα· εἰκὸς ἐντεῦθεν ἤτοι τὸν Κέλσον ἐπαποροῦντα εἰρηκέναι· πῶς μὲν κακὰ (ὁ) θεὸς ἐποίει; ἢ ἀκούσαντά τινος ἰδιωτικώτερον πρεσβεύοντος περὶ τῶν κατὰ τὸν τόπον τὴν ἐκκειμένην λέξιν τεθεικέναι. ἡμεῖς δέ φαμεν ὅτι κακὰ μὲν, τὴν κακίαν καὶ τὰς ἀπʼ αὐτῆς πράξεις, ὁ θεὸς οὐκ ἐποίησε. πῶς γὰρ οἷόν τʼ ἦν τὸ περὶ κρίσεως κήρυγμα παῤῥησίαν ἔχειν, διδάσκον κολάζεσθαι μὲν ἐπὶ ταῖς κατὰ κακίαν πράξεσι κατʼ ἀναλογίαν τῶν ἡμαρτημένων τοὺς φαύλους, μακαρίους δʼ εἶναι καὶ τεύξεσθαι τῶν ἀπὸ θεοῦ γερῶν τοὺς κατʼ ἀρετὴν βιώσαντας ἢ τὰς κατʼ ἀρετὴν πράξεις ποιήσαντας, εἰ τὰ ὄντως κακὰ πεποιήκει ὁ θεός; εὖ οἶδα ὅτι ῥητά τινα παραλήψονται τῆς γραφῆς οἱ καὶ ταῦτα βουλόμενοι τολμᾶν φάσκειν ἀπὸ θεοῦ γεγονέναι, μὴ δυνάμενοι ἓν ὕφος ἀποδεῖξαι τῆς γραφῆς, αἰτιωμένης μὲν τοὺς ἁμαρτάνοντας ἀποδεχομένης δὲ τοὺς εὖ πράττοντας καὶ οὐδὲν ἧττον κἀκεῖνα λεγούσης, ἅτινα περισπᾶν δοκεῖ (οὐκ) ὀλίγα ὄντα τοὺς ἀμαθῶς τὰ θεῖα γράμματα ἀναγινώσκοντας. ἐκτίθεσθαι δὲ νῦν τὰς περισπώσας λέξεις, πολλὰς τυγχανούσας, καὶ τὰς ἑρμηνείας αὐτῶν πολλῆς κατασκευῆς δεομένας οὐχ ἡγησάμην εἶναι ἁρμόζον τῇ προκειμένῃ συντάξει. κακὰ τοίνυν, εἰ μὲν τὰ κυρίως οὕτως ὀνομαζόμενα ἐξακούοι τις, ὁ θεὸς οὐ πεποίηκεν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς προηγουμένοις αὐτοῦ ἔργοις ὀλίγα ὡς πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὅλων διάταξιν τυγχάνοντα ἐπηκολούθησεν, ὥσπερ ἐπακολουθεῖ τοῖς προηγουμένοις τοῦ τέκτονος ἔργοις τὰ ἑλικοειδῆ ξέσματα καὶ πρίσματα καὶ τοῖς οἰκοδόμοις ποιεῖν δοκεῖν τὰ παρακείμενα ταῖς οἰκοδομαῖς ὡσπερεὶ κόπρια ἀποπίπτοντα τῶν λίθων καὶ τῆς κονίας.
English · Claude translation
But bodily and external things might be found, in a looser sense, to be called goods when they contribute to life according to nature, and evils when they oppose it. So Job says to his wife: “If we received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not bear evil things?” Since, then, it is found in the divine Scriptures, in one place, spoken in the person of God, “I am the one who makes peace and creates evils,” and in another place again about him, “that evils came down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem, the noise of chariots and horsemen,” sayings that have troubled many readers of Scripture who cannot discern what it means by good and evil, it is likely that from this Celsus raised the difficulty and said, How did God make evil things? or that he heard someone with a rather simple view of the passage and set down the words quoted. But we say that God did not make evils, meaning wickedness and the actions that come from it. For how could the preaching of judgment speak with confidence, teaching that the wicked are punished for their wicked actions in proportion to their sins, and that those who have lived virtuously or done virtuous actions are blessed and will receive rewards from God, if God had made what is truly evil? I know well that those who want to dare to say that these too come from God will adduce certain texts of Scripture, being unable to show the one consistent thread of Scripture, which blames sinners and approves those who do well, and nonetheless also says those things, not few in number, that seem to distract those who read the divine writings ignorantly. I did not think it suited to the present treatise to set out now the distracting texts, which are many, and their interpretations, which need much argument. Evils, then, if one understands those properly so called, God has not made; but some, few in comparison with the order of the universe, have followed as consequences of his principal works, just as the spiral shavings and sawdust follow as consequences of the carpenter's principal works, and as builders seem to make the rubbish of stones and mortar that falls off and lies beside the buildings.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The passages are Job 2:10, Isa 45:7, and Mic 1:12–13.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (misread letter in the digital text (Job)): ὁ Ἰὼρ λέγει → ὁ Ἰὼβ λέγει.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 6.55 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/6/55/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 6.55 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/6/55/).
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