Against Celsus 6.71
Summary: When Christians call God “spirit” they do not mean, like the Stoics, a bodily breath pervading the world; God, the Word, and even the rational soul are incorporeal and imperishable.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:141
Ὡς μὴ νοήσας δὴ τὰ περὶ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ Κέλσος („ψυχικὸς γὰρ ἄνθρωπος οὐ δέχεται τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ θεοῦ· μωρία γὰρ αὐτῷ ἐστι, καὶ οὐ δύναται γνῶναι, ὅτι πνευματικῶς ἀνακρίνεται“) ἑαυτῷ συνάπτει, οἰόμενος ἡμᾶς λέγοντας „πνεῦμα“ εἶναι τὸν θεὸν μηδὲν ἐν τούτῳ διαφέρειν τῶν παρʼ Ἕλλησι Στωϊκῶν, φασκόντων ὅτι ὁ θεὸς πνεῦμά ἐστι διὰ πάντων διεληλυθὸς καὶ πάντʼ ἐν ἑαυτῷ περιέχον. διήκει μὲν γὰρ ἡ ἐπισκοπὴ καὶ ἡ πρόνοια τοῦ θεοῦ διὰ πάντων ἀλλʼ οὐχ ὡς τὸ τῶν Στωϊκῶν πνεῦμα· καὶ πάντα μὲν περιέχει τὰ προνοούμενα ἡ πρόνοια καὶ περιείληφεν αὐτὰ, οὐχ ὡς σῶμα δὲ περιέχον περιέχει, ὅτε καὶ σῶμά ἐστι τὸ περιεχόμενον, ἀλλʼ ὡς δύναμις θεία καὶ περιειληφυῖα τὰ περιεχόμενα. κατὰ μὲν οὖν τοὺς ἀπὸ τῆς Στοᾶς, σωματικὰς λέγοντας εἶναι τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πάντα φθείροντας κινδυνεύοντας δὲ καὶ αὐτὸν φθεῖραι τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεὸν, εἰ μὴ πάνυ ἀπεμφαῖνον τοῦτʼ αὐτοῖς ἐδόκει τυγχάνειν, καὶ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ μέχρι ἀνθρώπων καὶ τῶν ἐλαχίστων καταβαίνων οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἐστὶν ἢ πνεῦμα σωματικόν· κατὰ δὲ ἡμᾶς καὶ τὴν λογικὴν ψυχὴν πειρωμένους ἀποδεικνύναι κρείττονα πάσης σωματικῆς φύσεως καὶ οὐσίαν ἀόρατον καὶ ἀσώματον οὐκ ἂν σῶμα εἴη ὁ θεὸς λόγος, διʼ οὗ τὰ πάντʼ ἐγένετο, ὁ φθάνων, ἵνα πάντα διὰ λόγου γίνηται, οὐχ ἕως ἀνθρώπων μόνων ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἐλαχίστων εἶναι νομιζομένων καὶ ὑπὸ φύσεως διοικουμένων. πάντα μὲν οὖν οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς Στοᾶς ἐκπυρούτωσαν, ἡμεῖς δὲ ἀσώματον οὐσίαν οὐκ ἴσμεν ἐκπυρουμένην οὐδʼ εἰς πῦρ ἀναλυομένην τὴν ἀνθρώπου ψυχὴν ἢ τὴν ἀγγέλων ἢ θρόνων ἢ κυριοτήτων ἢ ἀρχῶν ἢ ἐξουσιῶν ὑπόστασιν.
English · Claude translation
Since Celsus has not understood what concerns the Spirit of God (“for the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned”), he goes on to join things together for himself, supposing that when we say God is “spirit” we differ in no way from the Stoics among the Greeks, who say that God is a spirit that has passed through all things and contains all things in itself. The oversight and providence of God do indeed pervade all things, but not as the spirit of the Stoics does; and providence does contain and encompass all the things it provides for, yet not as a containing body contains, when what is contained is also a body, but as a divine power that encompasses what it contains. According to the Stoics, who say that the first principles are bodily and for that reason make all things perishable, and who run the risk of making even the God over all perishable, had this not seemed to them too glaringly absurd, even the Word of God, who comes down to men and to the least of things, is nothing other than a bodily spirit. But according to us, who try to show that even the rational soul is superior to all bodily nature and is an invisible and incorporeal being, God the Word, through whom all things came to be, would not be a body; he reaches, so that all things may come to be through the Word, not only as far as men but also to things thought to be the least and governed by nature. Let the Stoics, then, consume everything in their conflagration; but we do not know of any incorporeal being that is consumed by fire, nor that the soul of man, or the substance of angels or thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, is dissolved into fire.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The passages are 1 Cor 2:14, John 1:3, and Col 1:16. The Stoics taught that the world is periodically consumed in a universal conflagration (ἐκπύρωσις).
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 6.71 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/6/71/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 6.71 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/6/71/).
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