Against Celsus 3.76 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Christian teachers are not drunkards accusing the sober; rather, those who pray to lifeless images and worship statues or animals are drunk, and even mad.

Greek text · Koetschau 1:268

Καὶ δεύτερον δὲ φέρει καθʼ ἡμῶν παράδειγμα φάσκων ὅμοιον ποιεῖν τὸν ἐν ἡμῖν διδάσκαλον, (ὡς) εἴ τις μεθύων εἰς μεθύοντας παριὼν κακηγορεῖ τοὺς νήφοντας ὡς μεθύοντας. παραστησάτω γὰρ ἐκ τῶν γραμμάτων, φέρʼ εἰπεῖν. Παύλου ὅτι ἐμέθυεν ὁ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἀπόστολος καὶ οὐκ ἦσαν οἱ λόγοι αὐτοῦ νήφοντες, ἢ ἐξ ὧν ἔγραψεν Ἰωάννης ὅτι οὐχὶ σωφρονοῦντος καὶ ἀπηλλαγμένου τῆς ἀπὸ κακίας μέθης πνεῖ αὐτοῦ τὰ νοήματα. οὐδεὶς οὖν σωφρονῶν καὶ διδάσκων τὸν Χριστιανῶν λόγον μεθύει. ἀλλʼ ἀφιλοσόφως ἡμῖν λοιδορούμενος ταῦτά φησιν ὁ Κέλσος. τίνας δὲ καὶ νήφοντας κακηγοροῦμεν οἱ πρεσβεύοντες τὰ Χριστιανῶν δόγματα. λεγέτω ὁ Κέλσος. πάντες γὰρ καθʼ ἡμᾶς μεθύουσιν οἱ τοῖς ἀψύχοις ὡς θεῷ προσλαλοῦντες. καὶ τί λέγω μεθύουσι; μᾶλλον γὰρ μεμήνασιν. εἰς τοὺς νεὼς σπεύδοντες καὶ ὡς θεοῖς τοῖς ἀγάλμασιν ἢ τοῖς ζῴοις προσκυνοῦντες. οὐχ ἧττον δὲ τούτων μαίνονται καὶ οἱ νομίζοντες εἰς τιμὴν θεῶν ἀληθινῶν κατεσκευάσθαι τὰ ὑπὸ βαναύσων καὶ φαυλοτάτων ἔσθʼ ὅτε ἀνδρῶν κατασκευαζόμενα.

English · Claude translation

He also brings a second comparison against us, saying that the teacher among us does something like a drunkard who, going among drunkards, accuses the sober of being drunk. Let him show, then, from the writings of Paul, say, that the apostle of Jesus was drunk and his words were not sober; or from what John wrote, that his thoughts do not breathe of one who was self-controlled and free from the drunkenness of vice. No one, then, who is self-controlled and teaches the Christians' teaching is drunk; but Celsus says these things reviling us unphilosophically. And whom among the sober do we who proclaim the doctrines of Christians accuse? Let Celsus say. For in our view all are drunk who speak to lifeless things as to God. And why do I say drunk? Rather, they are mad, who hasten to temples and worship statues or animals as gods. And no less mad than these are those who think that things made by artisans, sometimes the most worthless of men, have been made in honor of true gods.

About this passage

Source

Koetschau 1:268 · Paul Koetschau, ed., Origenes Werke 1–2: Gegen Celsus, GCS 2–3 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1899) · Greek text: P. Koetschau, Origenes Werke 1–2 (GCS 2–3, 1899), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Koetschau, GCS 2–3. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Koetschau, GCS 2–3; made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Topics

Ethics

Cite this passage

Origen, Cels. 3.76 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/3/76/).

Plain text

Origen, Cels. 3.76 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/3/76/).