Against Celsus 6.4
Summary: The philosophers who wrote nobly about the highest good still worshipped idols, so God chose the simple, while Moses and the prophets taught that God is seen by the pure in heart.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:73–74
Ἀλλʼ οἱ τοιαῦτα περὶ τοῦ πρώτου ἀγαθοῦ γράψαντες καταβαίνουσιν „εἰς Πειραιέα, “ προσευξόμενοι ὡς θεῷ τῇ Ἀρτέμιδι καὶ ὀψόμενοι τὴν ὑπὸ ἰδιωτῶν ἐπιτελουμένην πανήγυριν· καὶ τηλικαῦτά γε φιλοσοφήσαντες περὶ τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ τὴν διαγωγὴν τῆς καλῶς βεβιωκυΐας διεξελθόντες, καταλιπόντες τὸ μέγεθος ὧν „αὐτοῖς“ „ὁ θεὸς“ „ἐφανέρωσεν“ εὐτελῆ φρονοῦσι καὶ μικρὰ, „ἀλεκτρυόνα“ „τῷ Ἀσκληπιῷ“ ἀποδιδόντες· καὶ „τὰ“ „ἀόρατα“ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὰς ἰδέας φαντασθέντες „ἀπὸ τῆς κτίσεως τοῦ κόσμου“ καὶ τῶν αἰσθητῶν, ἀφʼ ὧν ἀναβαίνουσιν ἐπὶ τὰ νοούμενα, τήν τε ἀΐδιον αὐτοῦ δύναμιν καὶ θειότητα οὐκ ἀγεννῶς ἰδόντες οὐδὲν ἧττον „ἐματαιώθησαν ἐν τοῖς διαλογισμοῖς αὐτῶν, “ καὶ ὡς „ἀσύνετος αὐτῶν (ἡ) καρδία“ ἐν σκότῳ καὶ ἀγνοίᾳ καλινδεῖται τῇ περὶ τοῦ θεραπεύειν τὸ θεῖον. καὶ ἔστιν ἰδεῖν τοὺς ἐπὶ σοφίᾳ μέγα φρονοῦντας καὶ θεολογίᾳ „ὁμοιώματι εἰκόνος φθαρτοῦ ἀνθρώπου“ προσκυνοῦντας, εἰς τιμήν φησιν ἐκείνου, ἔσθʼ ὅτε δὲ καὶ καταβαίνοντας μετʼ Αἰγυπτίων ἐπὶ τὰ πετεινὰ ἢ τετράποδα ἢ ἑρπετά. ἵνα δὲ καὶ δοκῶσί τινες ταῦτα ὑπεραναβεβηκέναι, ἀλλʼ εὑρεθήσονται ἀλλάξαντες „τὴν ἀλήθειαν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν τῷ ψεύδει“ καὶ σέβοντες καὶ λατρεύοντες „τῇ κτίσει παρὰ τὸν κτίσαντα.“ διόπερ τῶν ἐν Ἕλλησι σοφῶν καὶ πολυμαθῶν τοῖς ἔργοις περὶ τὸ θεῖον πλανωμένων „ἐξελέξατο ὁ θεὸς“ „τὰ μωρὰ τοῦ κόσμου, “ „ἵνα καταισχύνῃ τοὺς σοφοὺς, “ „καὶ τὰ ἀγενῆ“ „καὶ τὰ ἀσθενῆ“ „καὶ τὰ ἐξουθενημένα“ καὶ „τὰ μὴ ὄντα, ἵνα τὰ ὄντα καταργήσῃ“· καὶ ἀληθῶς, ἵνα „μὴ καυχήσηται πᾶσα σὰρξ ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ.“ πρῶτον δὲ ἡμῶν σοφοὶ, Μωϋσῆς ὁ ἀρχαιότατος καὶ οἱ ἑξῆς αὐτῷ προφῆται, „οὐδαμῶς“ „ῥητὸν“ ἐπιστάμενοι τὸ πρῶτον ἀγαθὸν ἔγραψαν μὲν, ὡς θεοῦ (ἑαυτὸν) ἐμφανίζοντος τοῖς ἀξίοις καὶ ἐπιτηδείοις, ὅτι „ὤφθη“ ὁ θεὸς (φέρʼ εἰπεῖν) τῷ Ἀβραὰμ ἢ τῷ Ἰσαὰκ ἢ τῷ Ἰακώβ. τίς δὲ ὢν ὤφθη καὶ ποταπὸς καὶ τίνα τρόπον καὶ τίνι τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν, καταλελοίπασιν ἐξετάζειν τοῖς δυναμένοις ἑαυτοὺς ἐμπαρέχειν παραπλησίους ἐκείνοις, οἷς ὤφθη ὁ θεός· ὀφθεὶς αὐτῶν οὐ τοῖς τοῦ σώματος ὀφθαλμοῖς ἀλλὰ τῇ καθαρᾷ καρδίᾳ. καὶ γὰρ κατὰ τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἡμῶν „μακάριοι οἱ καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ, ὅτι αὐτοὶ τὸν θεὸν ὄψονται.“
English · Claude translation
But those who wrote such things about the first good go down “to the Piraeus” to pray to Artemis as to a god and to watch the festival held by ordinary people. And after philosophizing so loftily about the soul and describing the way of life of the soul that has lived well, they abandon the greatness of what “God revealed to them” and think mean and small thoughts, paying “a cock to Asclepius.” And though they imagined God's “invisible things” and the Ideas “from the creation of the world” and from sensible things, from which they ascend to the things known by the mind, and saw not ignobly his eternal power and divinity, they nonetheless “became futile in their reasonings,” and their “senseless heart,” so to speak, wallows in darkness and ignorance about the worship of the divine. And one can see men who pride themselves greatly on wisdom and theology worshipping “the likeness of an image of corruptible man,” in his honour, they say, and at times even going down with the Egyptians to birds or four-footed beasts or creeping things. And even if some seem to have risen above these things, they will nonetheless be found to have “exchanged the truth of God for a lie” and to “worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator.” Therefore, since the wise and learned among the Greeks go astray in their practice concerning the divine, “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise,” and “the low-born” and “the weak” and “the despised” and “the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,” and truly “that no flesh might boast before God.” But our first wise men, Moses, the most ancient, and the prophets after him, knowing that the first good is “in no way expressible,” wrote, as though God showed himself to those who are worthy and fitted for it, that God “appeared,” for example, to Abraham or to Isaac or to Jacob. But who he was that appeared, and of what kind, and in what manner, and to which of the faculties within us, they left to be examined by those able to make themselves like those to whom God appeared; for he was seen by them not with the eyes of the body but with the pure heart. For according to our Jesus, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusions are to Plato, Republic 327a (Socrates goes down to the Piraeus to pray to the goddess) and Phaedo 118a (the cock owed to Asclepius). The biblical passages are Rom 1:20–25, 1 Cor 1:27–29, Gen 12:7; 26:2; 35:9, and Matt 5:8.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 6.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/6/4/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 6.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/6/4/).
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