Against Celsus 2.34
Summary: Origen answers Celsus's taunts drawn from Euripides' Bacchae, pointing to the miraculous freeing of Peter and Paul, the judgment on the Jewish nation, Pilate's wife's dream, and Jesus' patient endurance of mockery.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:160–161
Παίζων δʼ, ὡς οἴεται, τὸν Ἰησοῦν ὁ παρὰ τῷ Κέλσῳ Ἰουδαῖος εἰδέναι ἀναγέγραπται τὸν Εὐριπίδου Βάκχον λέγοντα· λύσει μʼ ὁ δαίμων αὐτὸς, ὅταν ἐγὼ θέλω. οὐ πάνυ μὲν οὖν Ἰουδαῖοι τὰ Ἑλλήνων φιλολογοῦσιν. ἀλλʼ ἔστω τινὰ τῶν Ἰουδαίων καὶ φιλόλογον οὕτω γεγονέναι· πῶς οὖν ὁ Ἰησοῦς, ἐπεὶ μὴ ἔλυσεν αὑτὸν δεδεμένον. οὐδὲ ἐδύνατο λῦσαι; ἦ γὰρ ἐκ τῶν ἐμῶν γραφῶν πιστευέτω ὅτι καὶ Πέτρος δεδεμένος ἐν φυλακῇ ἀγγέλου λύσαντος τοὺς δεσμοὺς ἐξῆλθε, καὶ Παῦλος μετὰ τοῦ Σίλα ἐν Φιλίπποις τῆς Μακεδονίας ὑπὸ „ξύλον“ δεδεμένος ἐλύθη θείᾳ δυνάμει, ὅτε καὶ „θύραι“ τῆς φυλακῆς „ἠνοίχθησαν“. ἀλλʼ εἰκὸς ὅτι ταῦτα γελᾷ ὁ Κέλσος ἢ καὶ οὐδαμῶς ἀνέγνω τὴν ἱστορίαν· ἔδοξε γὰρ ἂν λέγειν πρὸς αὐτὴν ὅτι καὶ γόητές τινες ἐπῳδαῖς δεσμοὺς λύουσι καὶ θύρας ἀνοίγουσιν, ἵνα κοινοποιήσῃ τὰ τῶν γοήτων πρὸς τὰ παρʼ ἡμῖν ἱστορούμενα. ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ὁ καταδικάσας. φησὶν. αὐτὸν ἔπαθέ τι. οἷον ὁ Πενθεὺς μανεὶς ἢ σπαραχθείς. οὐκ εἶδε δʼ ὅτι οὐχ οὕτω Πιλᾶτος ἦν καταδικάσας αὐτὸν, ὅς γε „ᾔδει ὅτι διὰ φθόνον παρέδωκαν αὐτὸν“ οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι, ὡς τὸ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνος· ὅπερ καταδεδίκασται ὑπὸ θεοῦ σπαραχθὲν καὶ εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ὑπὲρ τὸν Πενθέως σπαραγμὸν διασπαρέν. διὰ τί δὲ καὶ ἑκὼν παρεπέμψατο τὰ περὶ τῆς γυναικὸς Πιλάτου. ἑωρακυίας ὄναρ καὶ οὕτω κεκινημένης ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ, ὡς προσπέμψαι τῷ ἀνδρὶ καὶ λέγειν· „μηδέν σοι καὶ τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ τούτῳ τῷ δικαίῳ· σήμερον γὰρ κατʼ ὄναρ πολλὰ ἔπαθον διʼ αὐτόν“; πάλιν τε αὖ σιωπῶν τὰ ἐμφαίνοντα τὴν τοῦ Ἰησοῦ θειότητα ὁ Κέλσος ὀνειδίζει ἐκ τῶν γεγραμμένων ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ. παρατιθέμενος τοὺς ἐμπαίξαντας αὐτῷ καὶ φοινικίδα περιθέντας καὶ τὸν ἐξ ἀκανθῶν στέφανον καὶ τὸν ἐν τῇ χειρὶ κάλαμον. πόθεν οὖν. ὦ Κέλσε. ταῦτα μεμάθηκας ἢ ἀπὸ τῶν εὐαγγελίων; ἆρʼ οὖν σὺ μὲν ἑώρας ταῦτα ὀνειδισμοῦ ἄξια, οἱ δʼ ἀναγράφοντες αὐτὰ οὐ κατενόουν ὅτι σὺ μὲν καταγελάσῃ καὶ οἱ σοὶ παραπλήσιοι ἄλλοι δὲ παράδειγμα λήψονται τοῦ καταφρονεῖν γελώντων καὶ χλευαζόντων ἐπὶ εὐσεβείᾳ τὸν διʼ αὐτὴν ἑτοίμως ἀποθανόντα; μᾶλλον οὖν θαύμαζε αὐτῶν τὸ φιλάληθες καὶ τοῦ ταῦτα ἑκουσίως παθόντος ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπων καὶ μετὰ πάσης ἀνεξικακίας καὶ μακροθυμίας αὐτὰ ὑπομείναντος· οὐ γὰρ ἀνεγέγραπτο ὅτι ὠδύρατο ἤ τι ἀγεννὲς ἐκ τοῦ καταδεδικάσθαι ἐνομίσθη (ἢ) ἀνεφθέγξατο.
English · Claude translation
The Jew in Celsus, mocking Jesus, as he thinks, is represented as knowing the Bacchus of Euripides, who says: “The god himself will free me, whenever I wish.” Jews are not at all given to the study of Greek literature; but suppose some Jew had become so learned. How then does it follow that Jesus, because he did not free himself when bound, could not have freed himself? Let him believe from my Scriptures that Peter too, bound in prison, went out when an angel loosed his chains, and that Paul with Silas, bound in “the stocks” at Philippi in Macedonia, was freed by divine power, when also “the doors” of the prison “were opened.” But probably Celsus laughs at these things, or has not read the story at all; for he would have seemed to say in reply that some sorcerers too loose chains and open doors by incantations, so as to put what sorcerers do on the same level as what is recorded among us. “But,” he says, “not even the one who condemned him suffered anything, like Pentheus, who went mad or was torn apart.” He did not see that it was not so much Pilate who condemned him, since he “knew that out of envy” the Jews “had handed him over,” as the Jewish nation; which has been condemned by God, torn apart and scattered over the whole earth, beyond the tearing of Pentheus. And why did he deliberately pass over what concerns Pilate's wife, who had a dream and was so moved by it that she sent to her husband and said: “Have nothing to do with that righteous man; for I have suffered much today in a dream because of him”? Again, keeping silent about what displays Jesus' divinity, Celsus reproaches Jesus with what is written about him in the Gospel, citing those who mocked him and put a purple robe on him, and the crown of thorns, and the reed in his hand. Where then, Celsus, did you learn these things but from the Gospels? Did you then see that these things deserved reproach, while those who recorded them did not perceive that you and those like you would laugh at them, but that others would take an example from him who readily died for piety, so as to despise those who laugh at and mock them for piety? Marvel rather at their love of truth, and at him who suffered these things willingly for human beings and endured them with all forbearance and patience. For it is not recorded that he lamented, or that because he had been condemned he thought or uttered anything ignoble.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Euripides, Bacchae 498; Pentheus's madness and death are the subject of that play. The biblical passages are Acts 12:6–10, Acts 16:24–26, Matt 27:18, Matt 27:19, and Matt 27:28–29. Origen's statement that the Jewish nation was condemned and scattered reflects his own theology of history after AD 70; it is translated as written. The bracketed ἢ is an editorial supplement.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 2.34 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/2/34/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 2.34 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/2/34/).
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