Against Celsus 5.33
Summary: Celsus asks where Christians come from and who founded their laws; Origen answers with Isaiah's prophecy of the nations streaming to the Lord's mountain: Christians are a people of peace founded by Jesus, who came from the Jews.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:34–36
Ταῦτα δὲ οὐ μόνον πρὸς τὰ ἐκκείμενα περὶ τῶν ἐποπτῶν ἡμῖν λέλεκται, ἀλλὰ καὶ μετρίως προλαμβάνουσι τὰ ὑπὸ τοῦ Κέλσου πρὸς ἡμᾶς λεγόμενα. ἐν οἷς φησιν· ἴτω δὲ ὁ δεύτερος· ἐρήσομαι δὲ αὐτοὺς, πόθεν ἥκουσιν ἢ τίνα ἔχουσιν ἀρχηγέτην πατρίων νόμων. οὐδένα φήσουσιν, οἵ γε ἐκεῖθεν μὲν ὥρμηνται καὶ αὐτοὶ καὶ τὸν διδάσκαλόν τε καὶ χοροστάτην οὐκ ἄλλοθέν ποθεν φέρουσιν· ὅμως δʼ ἀφεστήκασιν Ἰουδαίων. ἥκομεν οὖν ἡμεῖς ἕκαστος „ἐν ταῖς ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις, “ ὅτε ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἡμῶν ἐπιδεδήμηκεν, εἰς „τὸ ἐμφανὲς ὄρος κυρίου, “ τὸν „ὑπεράνω“ παντὸς λόγου λόγον, καὶ εἰς τὸν οἶκον „τοῦ θεοῦ.“ ὅς „ἐστιν ἐκκλησία θεοῦ ζῶντος, στῦλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀληθείας.“ καὶ ὁρῶμεν τίνα τρόπον οὗτος οἰκοδομεῖται „ἐπὶ ἄκρων τῶν ὀρέων, “ πάντων τῶν προφητικῶν λόγων, οἵτινες αὐτοῦ θεμέλιός εἰσιν. ὑψοῦται δʼ οὗτος „ὁ οἶκος“ „ὑπεράνω τῶν βουνῶν, “ τῶν δοκούντων τι ἐξαίρετον παρὰ ἀνθρώποις ἐν σοφίᾳ καὶ ἀληθείᾳ ἐπαγγέλλεσθαι. καὶ ἐρχόμεθα „πάντα τὰ ἔθνη“ ἐπʼ αὐτὸ, καὶ πορευόμεθα τὰ πολλὰ ἔθνη, καὶ λέγομεν ἀλλήλοις, προτρέποντες ἐπὶ τὴν „ἐν ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις“ ἀναλάμψασαν διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ θεοσέβειαν· „δεῦτε καὶ ἀναβῶμεν εἰς τὸ ὄρος τοῦ κυρίου καὶ εἰς τὸν οἶκον τοῦ θεοῦ Ἰακὼβ. καὶ ἀναγγελεῖ ἡμῖν τὴν ὁδὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ πορευσόμεθα ἐν αὐτῇ.“ ἐξῆλθε γὰρ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐν „Σιὼν“ „νόμος“ καὶ μετέστη ἐφʼ ἡμᾶς πνευματικός. ἀλλὰ καὶ „ὁ λόγος κυρίου“ ἐξῆλθεν ἀπʼ ἐκείνης τῆς „Ἱερουσαλὴμ, “ ἵνα πανταχοῦ νεμηθῇ καὶ κρίνῃ „ἀνὰ μέσον τῶν ἐθνῶν, “ ἐκλεγόμενος μὲν οὓς ὁρᾷ εὐπειθεῖς ἐλέγχῃ δὲ „λαὸν πολὺν“ τὸν ἀπειθῆ. καί φαμεν γε πρὸς τοὺς ἐρομένους ἡμᾶς, πόθεν ἥκομεν ἢ τίνα ἔχομεν ἀρχηγέτην, ὅτι ἤλθομεν κατὰ τὰς Ἰησοῦ ὑποθήκας συγκόψαι „τὰς“ πολεμικὰς ἡμῶν λογικὰς „μαχαίρας“ καὶ ὑβριστικὰς „εἰς ἄροτρα, “ καὶ „τὰς“ κατὰ τὸ πρότερον ἡμῶν μάχιμον „ζιβύνας εἰς δρέπανα“ μετασκευάζομεν. οὐκέτι γὰρ λαμβάνομεν „ἐπʼ ἔθνος μάχαιραν“ οὐδὲ μανθάνομεν „ἔτι πολεμεῖν, “ γενόμενοι διὰ τὸν Ἰησοῦν υἱοὶ τῆς εἰρήνης, ὅς ἐστιν ἡμῶν ἀρχηγὸς, ἀντὶ τῶν πατρίων, ἐν οἷς „ξένοι τῶν διαθηκῶν“ ἐτυγχάνομεν, λαμβάνοντες νόμον, ἐφʼ ᾧ χάριτας ὁμολογοῦντες τῷ ἡμᾶς ῥυσαμένῳ ἀπὸ τῆς πλάνης λέγομεν· „ὡς ψευδῆ ἐκτήσαντο οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν εἴδωλα, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς ὑετίζων.“ ὁ χοροστάτης οὖν ἡμῶν καὶ διδάσκαλος ἀπὸ Ἰουδαίων ἐξελθὼν ὅλην νέμεται τῷ λόγῳ τῆς διδασκαλίας, ἑαυτοῦ τὴν οἰκουμένην. καὶ ταῦτα μὲν προλαβόντες πολλοῖς ἐπιφερομένην τοῦ Κέλσου λέξιν ὅση δύναμις ἀνετρέψαμεν, συνάπτοντες τοῖς ἐκκειμένοις αὐτοῦ ῥητοῖς.
English · Claude translation
These things have been said by us not only in reply to what was set out about the overseers, but they also go some way toward anticipating what Celsus says against us, where he says: "Let the second group come forward; I will ask them where they have come from, or what founder of ancestral laws they have. They will say none, since they themselves started from there, and they bring their teacher and chorus-leader from nowhere else; yet they have broken away from the Jews." We have come, then, each of us, "in the last days," when our Jesus came to live among us, to "the manifest mountain of the Lord," the Word that is "above" every word, and to the house "of God," which "is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth." And we see in what way this house is built "on the tops of the mountains," all the prophetic words, which are its foundation. And this "house" is lifted up "above the hills," those who seem among human beings to profess something exceptional in wisdom and truth. And we, "all the nations," come to it, and we, the many nations, go and say to one another, urging each other on to the worship of God that shone forth "in the last days" through Jesus Christ: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will tell us his way, and we will walk in it." For the "law" went out from those in "Zion" and passed over to us, spiritual. And "the word of the Lord" also went out from that "Jerusalem," so that it might spread everywhere and judge "between the nations," choosing those it sees are obedient and rebuking "many people," the disobedient. And to those who ask us where we have come from or what founder we have, we say that we have come, according to the counsels of Jesus, to beat our rational "swords," warlike and insolent, "into ploughshares," and we refashion the "spears" of our former fighting "into pruning hooks." For we no longer take up "sword against nation," nor do we learn "war any more," having become sons of peace through Jesus, who is our founder, instead of the ancestral customs in which we were "strangers to the covenants"; receiving a law for which, giving thanks to the one who rescued us from error, we say: "How false are the idols our fathers acquired, and there is none among them who gives rain." Our chorus-leader and teacher, then, having come out from the Jews, holds the whole world as his own by the word of his teaching. And having anticipated these things, we have overturned as best we could a passage of Celsus that comes many pages later, joining it to the passages of his set out here.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Isa 2:2–4 (cf. Mic 4:1–3), 1 Tim 3:15, Eph 2:12, and Jer 16:19 combined with Jer 14:22. "Sons of peace" echoes Luke 10:6.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (wrong accent in the digital text): καί φαμεν γὲ → καί φαμεν γε.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 5.33 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/5/33/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 5.33 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/5/33/).
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