Against Celsus 7.16
Summary: The prophets foretold the death of a man, not of God; what died was the man Jesus, not the divine Word, who is the Life and the Resurrection and cannot die.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:167–168
Ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ἅπερ ἐν ὑποθέσει παρειλήφαμεν παραπλήσιά ἐστι ταῖς περὶ Ἰησοῦ προφητείαις. οὐ γὰρ προεῖπον αἱ προφητεῖαι θεὸν σταυρωθήσεσθαι, αἵτινές φασι περὶ τοῦ ἀναδεξαμένου τὸν θάνατον· „καὶ εἴδομεν αὐτὸν, καὶ οὐκ εἶχεν εἶδος οὐδὲ κάλλος, ἀλλὰ τὸ εἶδος αὐτοῦ ἄτιμον, ἐκλεῖπον παρὰ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων· ἄνθρωπος ἐν πληγῇ ὢν καὶ πόνῳ καὶ εἰδὼς φέρειν μαλακίαν.“ ὅρα οὖν (ὡς) σαφῶς ἄνθρωπον εἰρήκασι τὸν πεπονθότα ἀνθρώπινα. καὶ αὐτὸς ἀκριβῶς εἰδὼς Ἰησοῦς ὅτι τὸ ἀποθνῇσκον ἄνθρωπος ἦν, φησὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἐπιβουλεύοντας αὐτῷ· „νῦν δὲ ζητεῖτέ με ἀποκτεῖναι, ἄνθρωπον, ὃς τὴν ἀλήθειαν ὑμῖν λελάληκα, ἣν ἤκουσα ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ.“ εἰ δέ τι θεῖον ἐν τῷ κατʼ αὐτὸν νοουμένῳ ἀνθρώπῳ ἐτύγχανεν, ὅπερ ἦν ὁ μονογενὴς τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ὁ „πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, “ ὁ λέγων· „ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἀλήθεια“ καὶ „ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ζωὴ“ καὶ „ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ θύρα“ καὶ „ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς“ καὶ „ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ἄρτος ὁ ζῶν ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβάς“· ἄλλος δή που ὁ περὶ τούτου καὶ τῆς οὐσίας αὐτοῦ λόγος ἐστὶ παρὰ τὸν περὶ τοῦ νοουμένου κατὰ τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἀνθρώπου. διόπερ οὐδʼ οἱ πάνυ ἁπλούστατοι καὶ λόγοις οὐκ ἐντεθραμμένοι ἐξεταστικοῖς Χριστιανοὶ εἴποιεν ἂν τεθνηκέναι τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἢ τὴν ζωὴν ἢ τὴν ὁδὸν ἢ τὸν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καταβάντα ζῶντα ἄρτον ἢ τὴν ἀνάστασιν· φησὶ γὰρ ἑαυτὸν ἀνάστασιν εἶναι ὁ ἐν τῷ φαινομένῳ ἀνθρώπῳ κατὰ τὸν Ἰησοῦν διδάξας τὸ „ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἀνάστασις.“ ἀλλὰ καὶ οὐδεὶς (οὕτως) ἐμβρόντητος ἡμῶν ἐστιν, ἵνʼ εἴπῃ· τέθνηκεν „ἡ ζωὴ“ ἤ· τέθνηκεν „ἡ ἀνάστασις.“ ἦν δʼ ἂν τὸ τῆς ὑποθέσεως τοῦ Κέλσου χώραν ἔχον, εἰ ἐφάσκομεν προειρηκέναι τοὺς προφήτας τεθνήξεσθαι τὸν θεὸν λόγον ἢ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἢ τὴν ζωὴν ἢ τὴν ἀνάστασιν ἤ τι τῶν ἄλλων, ἅ φησιν εἶναι ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ.
English · Claude translation
But neither are the things we supposed hypothetically like the prophecies about Jesus. For the prophecies did not foretell that God would be crucified; they say of him who underwent death: “And we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty; but his form was without honour, failing beyond the sons of men; a man in affliction and pain, and knowing how to bear weakness.” See, then, how clearly they have called the one who suffered human things a man. And Jesus himself, knowing precisely that what was dying was a man, says to those plotting against him: “But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God.” And if there was something divine in the man understood to be Jesus, namely the only-begotten of God and “the firstborn of all creation,” who says, “I am the truth,” and “I am the life,” and “I am the door,” and “I am the way,” and “I am the living bread that came down from heaven,” the account of him and of his being is surely different from that of the man understood to be Jesus. Therefore not even the very simplest Christians, who have not been brought up in rigorous arguments, would say that the truth has died, or the life, or the way, or the living bread that came down from heaven, or the resurrection; for the one who taught in the visible man Jesus says that he himself is the resurrection: “I am the resurrection.” None of us is so thunderstruck as to say, “The life has died,” or, “The resurrection has died.” Celsus's hypothesis would have had a place if we said that the prophets had foretold that God the Word, or the Truth, or the Life, or the Resurrection, or any of the other things the Son of God says he is, would die.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The passages are Isa 53:2–3 LXX, John 8:40, Col 1:15, John 14:6, John 10:9, John 6:51, and John 11:25. This distinction between the divine Word and the man Jesus is Origen's; later councils (Ephesus 431, Chalcedon 451) framed the union of natures differently.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 7.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/7/16/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 7.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/7/16/).
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