Against Celsus 7.49
Summary: Scripture contains all the best Greek teaching and more, and even simple believers in God and his Son often live more purely than philosophers who practise vice with boys.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:200
Ταῦτα δὴ λέλεκταί μοι οὐ προσφιλονεικοῦντι μὲν τοῖς καλῶς καὶ παρʼ Ἕλλησι νενοημένοις οὐδὲ κατηγοροῦντι τῶν ὑγιῶν δογμάτων βουλομένῳ δὲ παραστῆσαι ὅτι καὶ ταῦτα ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτων ἔτι μείζονα καὶ θειότερα λέλεκται μὲν παρὰ τοῖς θείοις ἀνδράσι, προφήταις τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἀποστόλοις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, ἐξετάζεται δὲ παρὰ τοῖς τελειότερον χριστιανίζειν ἐθέλουσι καὶ ἐπισταμένοις ὅτι „στόμα δικαίου μελετήσει σοφίαν, καὶ ἡ γλῶσσα αὐτοῦ λαλήσει κρίσιν· ὁ νόμος τοῦ θεοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐν καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ.“ ἀλλὰ καὶ παρʼ οἷς εἴτε διὰ πολλὴν ἰδιωτείαν εἴτε διʼ ἁπλότητα εἴτε καὶ διʼ ἀπορίαν τῶν προτρεψάντων [μὲν] ἐπὶ τὴν λογικὴν εὐσέβειαν ταῦτα μὲν οὐ τετράνωται θεὸς δὲ ὁ ἐπὶ πᾶσι πιστεύεται καὶ ὁ τούτου „μονογενὴς υἱὸς“ λόγος καὶ θεὸς, εὑρεθείη ἂν σεμνότητος καὶ καθαρότητος καὶ ἤθους ἀφέλεια καὶ ἁπλότης πολλάκις κρείττων, ἣν οἱ „φάσκοντες εἶναι σοφοὶ“ μὴ ἀνειληφότες ἐγκαλινδοῦνται μετὰ παίδων ἐν οἷς οὐ θέμις, „ἄῤῥενες ἐν ἄῤῥεσι τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην κατεργαζόμενοι.“
English · Claude translation
I have said these things not to quarrel with what has been well understood among the Greeks too, nor to accuse sound doctrines, but wishing to show that these things, and things even greater and more divine than these, have been said by the divine men, the prophets of God and the apostles of Jesus, and are examined by those who wish to be Christians more perfectly and who know that “the mouth of the righteous will meditate wisdom, and his tongue will speak judgment; the law of his God is in his heart.” But even among those to whom these things have not been made clear, whether from great simplicity, or plainness, or lack of anyone to urge them on to reasoned piety, yet who believe in God over all and in his “only-begotten Son,” Word and God, one may often find a seriousness, purity, and plainness and simplicity of character better than that of those “claiming to be wise,” who, not having taken it up, wallow with boys in what is unlawful, “men with men committing what is shameful.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Ps 37:30–31 (36:30–31 LXX), John 3:16 (or 1:18), Rom 1:22, and Rom 1:27. The editor deletes μέν.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 7.49 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/7/49/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 7.49 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/7/49/).
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