Against Celsus 6.73
Summary: Celsus asks why God's Spirit needed a virgin's womb, but Origen answers that the pure divine nature is not defiled by a body, as sunlight is not defiled by mud, and that a body formed without birth would not have looked any different.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:142–143
Εἶθʼ ἑξῆς ταυτολογῶν μετὰ τὸ πολλὰ ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω εἰπεῖν καὶ χλευάσαι τὴν ἐκ παρθένου γέννησιν τοῦ θεοῦ, πρὸς ἣν κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἡμῖν ἀπηντήσαμεν, φησίν· εἰ δʼ ἐβούλετο πνεῦμα ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ καταπέμψαι, τί ἐδεῖτο εἰς γυναικὸς γαστέρα ἐμπνεῖν; ἐδύνατο γὰρ ἤδη πλάσσειν ἀνθρώπους εἰδὼς καὶ τούτῳ περιπλάσαι σῶμα καὶ μὴ τὸ ἴδιον πνεῦμα εἰς τοσοῦτον μίασμα ἐμβαλεῖν· οὕτως μέν τʼ ἂν οὐδʼ ἠπιστεῖτο, εἰ ἄνωθεν εὐθὺς ἔσπαρτο. καὶ ταῦτʼ εἶπεν, ἐπεὶ μὴ εἶδε τὴν παρθενικὴν καὶ καθαρὰν γέννησιν καὶ ἀπὸ μηδεμιᾶς φθορᾶς τοῦ μέλλοντος ὑπηρετήσασθαι τῇ ἀνθρώπων σωτηρίᾳ σώματος. οἴεται δὲ ὁ τὸν Στωϊκὸν λόγον ἐκτιθέμενος καὶ μὴ προσποιούμενος τὰ περὶ ἀδιαφόρων μεμαθηκέναι εἰς μίασμα ἐμβεβλῆσθαι τὴν θείαν φύσιν καὶ μεμιάσθαι εἴτε γενομένην ἐν γυναικὸς σώματι, ἕως περιπλασθῇ αὐτῇ τὸ σῶμα, εἴτε σῶμα ἀνειληφυῖαν· παραπλήσιόν τι ποιῶν τοῖς οἰομένοις τὰς αὐγὰς τοῦ ἡλίου μιαίνεσθαι ἐν τοῖς βορβόροις καὶ τοῖς δυσώδεσι σώμασι καὶ μὴ μένειν κἀκεῖ καθαράς. καὶ εἰ κατὰ τὴν Κέλσου δὲ ὑπόθεσιν χωρὶς γεννήσεως περιεπλάσατο τὸ σῶμα τῷ Ἰησοῦ. (οὐκ) εὐθὺς ἂν οἱ βλέποντες τὸ σῶμα ἐπίστευον ὅτι οὐκ ἀπὸ γεννήσεως ἦν· οὐδὲ γὰρ τὸ βλεπόμενον ἀπαγγέλλει καὶ τὴν φύσιν, ὅθεν γεγένηται. οἷον εἰ καθʼ ὑπόθεσιν μέλι ἦν τι μὴ ἀπὸ μελισσῶν, οὐκ ἂν τοῦτό τις ἀπήγγελλεν ἀπὸ τῆς γεύσεως ἢ τῆς ὄψεως. ὅτι μὴ ἀπὸ μελισσῶν ἐστιν· ὡς οὐδὲ τὸ ἀπὸ μελισσῶν δείκνυσι τῇ αἰσθήσει τὴν ἀρχὴν, ἀλλʼ ἡ πεῖρα δείκνυσιν ὅτι τοῦτʼ μελισσῶν ἐστιν. οὕτω δὲ καὶ ἡ πεῖρα διδάσκει ὅτι ἀπὸ ἀμπέλου ὁ οἶνος· οὐ γὰρ ἀναφέρει ἡ γεῦσις τὸ ἀπὸ ἀμπέλου. τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον τοίνυν τὸ αἰσθητὸν σῶμα οὐκ ἀπαγγέλλει τὸν τρόπον τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ. προσαχθήσῃ δὲ τῷ λεγομένῳ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐν οὐρανοῖς, ὧν τῆς ὑποστάσεως καὶ τῆς λαμπρότητος αἰσθόμεθα βλέποντες ἀλλʼ οὐ δή που ἡ αἴσθησις ἡμῖν ὑποβάλλει, πότερον γενητὰ ἢ ἀγένητά ἐστιν. αἱρέσεις γοῦν καὶ περὶ τούτων συνέστησαν· ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ λέγοντες αὐτὰ γενητὰ οὐχ ὁμονοοῦσι περὶ τοῦ πῶς ἐστι γενητά· οὐδὲ γὰρ ὑποβάλλει ἡ αἴσθησις αὐτῶν. κἂν βιασάμενος ὁ λόγος εὕρῃ ὅτι γενητά ἐστι. περὶ τοῦ τίνα τρόπον γεγένηται.
English · Claude translation
Next, repeating himself after having said much above and mocked the birth of God from a virgin, to which we replied as well as we could, he says: If he wanted to send down a spirit from himself, why did he need to breathe it into a woman's womb? For since he already knew how to form men, he could have formed a body for this one too, and not have thrown his own spirit into so great a defilement. In that way he would not even have been disbelieved, if he had been produced directly from above. He said this because he did not see the virginal and pure birth, free from any corruption, of the body that was to serve for the salvation of men. And the man who sets out the Stoic doctrine, and does not pretend to have learned about things indifferent, thinks that the divine nature was thrown into defilement and was defiled, whether in coming to be in a woman's body until a body was formed around it, or in taking up a body. He does something like those who think that the rays of the sun are defiled in mud and foul-smelling bodies and do not remain pure even there. And even if, according to Celsus's supposition, a body had been formed for Jesus without birth, those who saw the body would not at once have believed that it did not come from birth; for what is seen does not also announce the nature from which it came. For example, if hypothetically there were some honey not from bees, no one would declare from taste or sight that it was not from bees; just as honey from bees does not show its origin to the senses, but experience shows that it comes from bees. So too experience teaches that wine comes from the vine; for taste does not trace it back to the vine. In the same way, then, a sensible body does not announce the manner of its coming into being. You will be led to accept this from the heavenly bodies, whose substance and brightness we perceive by seeing them, yet sense certainly does not tell us whether they are generated or ungenerated. There have in fact been rival schools of thought about these; and even those who say they are generated do not agree about how they are generated; for sense does not tell them, even if reason, by force of argument, finds that they are generated, how they came to be.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Things indifferent” (ἀδιάφορα) is a Stoic term for things neither good nor bad, such as the body. The last sentence of the section is elliptical in the Greek.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 6.73 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/6/73/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 6.73 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/6/73/).
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