Against Celsus 5.61
Summary: Divisions among Christian sects no more discredit Christianity than rival schools discredit philosophy or medicine; Origen distinguishes the church from Valentinians, Gnostics, and the two kinds of Ebionites.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:64–65
Ἑξῆς δὲ τούτοις φησί· μή με οἰηθῇ τις ἀγνοεῖν, ὡς οἱ μὲν αὐτῶν συνθήσονται τὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι σφίσιν ὅνπερ Ἰουδαίοις θεὸν, οἱ δʼ ἄλλον, ᾧ τοῦτον ἐναντίον, παρʼ ἐκείνου τε ἐλθεῖν τὸν υἱόν. εἴπερ δὲ τὸ εἶναι αἱρέσεις πλείονας ἐν Χριστιανοῖς κατηγορίαν οἴεται χριστιανισμοῦ εἶναι, διὰ τί οὐχὶ καὶ φιλοσοφίας κατηγορία κατὰ τὸ ἀνάλογον νομισθείη ἂν ἡ ἐν ταῖς αἱρέσεσι τῶν φιλοσοφούντων διαφωνία οὐ περὶ μικρῶν καὶ τῶν τυχόντων ἀλλὰ περὶ τῶν ἀναγκαιοτάτων; ὥρα δὲ καὶ ἰατρικὴν κατηγορεῖσθαι διὰ τὰς ἐν αὐτῇ αἱρέσεις. ἔστωσαν οὖν ἐν ἡμῖν οἱ μὴ τὸν αὐτὸν λέγοντες τῷ Ἰουδαίων θεῷ θεόν· ἀλλʼ οὔ τι γε παρὰ τοῦτο κατηγορητέοι οἱ ἀπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν γραμμάτων ἀποδεικνύντες ὅτι εἷς καὶ ὁ αὐτὸς θεὸς Ἰουδαίων ἐστὶ καὶ ἐθνῶν· ὡς καὶ τὸν Παῦλον λέγειν σαφῶς, ἀπὸ Ἰουδαίων προσελθόντα χριστιανισμῷ· „χάριν ἔχω τῷ θεῷ μου, ᾧ λατρεύω ἀπὸ προγόνων ἐν καθαρᾷ συνειδήσει.“ ἔστω δέ τι καὶ τρίτον γένος τῶν ὀνομαζόντων ψυχικούς τινας καὶ πνευματικοὺς ἑτέρους· οἶμαι δʼ αὐτὸν λέγειν τοὺς ἀπὸ Οὐαλεντίνου. καὶ τί τοῦτο πρὸς ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας, κατηγοροῦντας τῶν εἰσαγόντων φύσεις ἐκ κατασκευῆς σῳζομένας ἢ ἐκ κατασκευῆς ἀπολλυμένας; ἔστωσαν δέ τινες καὶ ἐπαγγελλόμενοι εἶναι Γνωστικοὶ, ἀνάλογον τοῖς ἑαυτοὺς ἀναγορεύουσι φιλοσόφους Ἐπικουρείοις. ἀλλʼ οὔτε οἱ τὴν πρόνοιαν ἀναιροῦντες φιλόσοφοι εἶεν ἂν ἀληθῶς, οὔτε οἱ τὰ ἀλλόκοτα ἀναπλάσματα καὶ μὴ ἀρέσκοντα τοῖς τῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ διαδοχῆς ἐπεισαγαγόντες εἶεν ἂν Χριστιανοί. ἔστωσαν δέ τινες καὶ τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἀποδεχόμενοι ὡς παρὰ τοῦτο Χριστιανοὶ εἶναι αὐχοῦντες, ἔτι δὲ καὶ κατὰ τὸν Ἰουδαίων νόμον ὡς τὰ Ἰουδαίων πλήθη βιοῦν ἐθέλοντες· οὗτοι δʼ εἰσὶν οἱ διττοὶ Ἐβιωναῖοι, ἤτοι ἐκ παρθένου ὁμολογοῦντες ὁμοίως ἡμῖν τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἢ οὐχ οὕτω γεγεννῆσθαι ἀλλὰ ὡς τοὺς λοιποὺς ἀνθρώπους· τί τοῦτο φέρει ἔγκλημα τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας, οὓς ἀπὸ τοῦ πλήθους ὠνόμασεν ὁ Κέλσος; εἶπε δέ τινας εἶναι καὶ Σιβυλλιστὰς, τάχα παρακούσας τινῶν ἐγκαλούντων τοῖς οἰομένοις προφῆτιν γεγονέναι τὴν Σίβυλλαν καὶ Σιβυλλιστὰς τοὺς τοιούτους καλεσάντων.
English · Claude translation
Next he says: "Let no one think that I am unaware that some of them will agree that their God is the same as that of the Jews, while others say he is another, to whom this one is opposed, and that the Son came from that other." If he thinks that the existence of many sects among Christians is an accusation against Christianity, why should not, by analogy, the disagreement among the schools of philosophers, not about small and ordinary matters but about the most essential, be thought an accusation against philosophy? It is time for medicine too to be accused because of its schools. Let there be among us, then, those who say that God is not the same as the God of the Jews; but those who show from the same writings that the God of the Jews and of the nations is one and the same are not therefore to be accused, as Paul too plainly says, who came over to Christianity from the Jews: "I thank my God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience." Let there be also a third kind, those who call some people natural and others spiritual; I think he means the followers of Valentinus. And what has this to do with us of the church, who accuse those who introduce natures saved by their constitution or lost by their constitution? Let there be also some who profess to be Gnostics, like the Epicureans who proclaim themselves philosophers. But neither would those who do away with providence truly be philosophers, nor would those who have introduced strange fabrications, which do not please those in the succession from Jesus, be Christians. Let there be also some who accept Jesus and on that account boast of being Christians, yet still wish to live according to the Jewish law like the multitudes of the Jews; these are the two kinds of Ebionites, who either confess, as we do, that Jesus was born of a virgin, or that he was not born so but like other human beings: what charge does this bring against those of the church, whom Celsus named after their great number ("the great church")? He said that there are also some Sibyllists, perhaps having misheard some who accuse those who think the Sibyl was a prophetess and call such people Sibyllists.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is 2 Tim 1:3. Here αἱρέσεις is rendered "sects"/"schools" (neutral sense, applied to philosophy and medicine as well as Christian groups). The Valentinians divided humans into "natural" (psychic) and "spiritual" natures.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 5.61 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/5/61/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 5.61 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/5/61/).
Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)
Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text