Sophia Scriptura

Against Celsus 5.46

Origen · Against Celsus · ca. 248 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: Moses forbids naming other gods; Christians would die rather than call Zeus or Amoun God, since these are names of demons, though one may call God by the common word for 'God' in any language.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:50–51

Ταῦτα δὴ καὶ τὰ τούτοις ἀνάλογον ἀπόῤῥητα ἐπιστάμενοι Μωϋσῆς καὶ οἱ προφῆται ἀπαγορεύουσιν „ὄνομα θεῶν ἑτέρων“ ὀνομάζειν ἐν στόματι, μελετήσαντι τῷ ἐπὶ πᾶσι μόνῳ εὔχεσθαι θεῷ, καὶ ἀναμνημονεύειν ἐν καρδίᾳ, διδασκομένῃ καθαρεύειν ἀπὸ πάσης ματαιότητος νοημάτων καὶ λέξεων. καὶ διὰ τὰ τοιαῦτα πᾶσαν αἰκίαν ὑπομένειν μᾶλλον αἱρούμεθα ἢ τὸν Δία ὁμολογῆσαι θεόν. οὐ γὰρ τὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι ὑπολαμβάνομεν Δία καὶ Σαβαὼθ, ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ὅλως θεῖόν τι τὸν Δία, δαίμονα δέ τινα χαίρειν οὕτως ὀνομαζόμενον, οὐ φίλον ἀνθρώποις οὐδὲ τῷ ἀληθινῷ θεῷ. κἂν Αἰγύπτιοι δὲ τὸν Ἀμοῦν ἡμῖν προτείνωσιν κόλασιν ἀπειλοῦντες, τεθνηξόμεθα μᾶλλον ἢ τὸν Ἀμοῦν ἀναγορεύσομεν θεὸν, παραλαμβανόμενον ὡς εἰκὸς ἔν τισιν Αἰγυπτίαις καλούσαις τὸν δαίμονα τοῦτον ἐπῳδαῖς. λεγέτωσαν δὲ καὶ Σκύθαι τὸν Παπαῖον θεὸν εἶναι τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσιν· ἀλλʼ ἡμεῖς οὐ πεισόμεθα. τιθέντες μὲν τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεὸν. ὡς δὲ φίλον τῷ λαχόντι τὴν Σκυθῶν ἐρημίαν καὶ τὸ ἔθνος αὐτῶν καὶ τὴν διάλεκτον οὐκ ὀνομάζοντες τὸν θεὸν ὡς κυρίῳ ὀνόματι τῷ Παπαῖον. Σκυθιστὶ γὰρ τὸ προσηγορικὸν τὸν θεὸν καὶ Αἰγυπτιστὶ καὶ πάσῃ διαλέκτῳ, ᾗ ἕκαστος ἐντέθραπται. ὀνομάζων οὐχ ἁμαρτήσεται.

English · Claude translation

Knowing these and similar secret matters, Moses and the prophets forbid us to name "the name of other gods" with a mouth trained to pray to the God over all alone, or to call them to mind in a heart taught to be pure of all vanity of thoughts and words. And for such reasons we choose to endure every outrage rather than acknowledge Zeus as God. For we do not suppose Zeus and Sabaoth to be the same; indeed we do not think Zeus divine at all, but a certain demon who delights in being so named, no friend to human beings or to the true God. And even if the Egyptians hold out Amoun to us, threatening punishment, we will die rather than proclaim Amoun a god, who is probably invoked in certain Egyptian incantations that call up this demon. And let the Scythians say that Papaeus is the God over all; but we will not be persuaded. We do acknowledge the God over all, but we do not name God by Papaeus as a proper name, as pleases the one to whom the Scythian wilderness and their nation and language fell. For one who names God by the common noun in Scythian, or Egyptian, or any language in which he has been brought up, will not sin.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:50–51 · 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)
Scripture
Topics
Martyrdom

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotation is Exod 23:13 (cf. Ps 16:4).

Cite this passage

Origen, Cels. 5.46 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/5/46/).

Plain text
Origen, Cels. 5.46 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/5/46/).

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