Against Celsus 7.61 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Koetschau 2:211

Οὐκοῦν κατεσκεύασται ὅτι. ὥς φησι Κέλσος. ἀγροικότερον εἰπὼν ὁ Ἰησοῦς· „τῷ τύπτοντί σε εἰς τὴν σιαγόνα πάρεχε καὶ τὴν ἄλλην“ „καὶ τῷ θέλοντί σοι κριθῆναι καὶ τὸν χιτῶνά σου λαβεῖν ἄφες καὶ τὸ ἱμάτιον“ βιωφελέστερον κεκίνηκε τὸν λόγον καὶ παρέστησεν οὕτως εἰπὼν ἢ ὡς ἐν τῷ Κρίτωνι Πλάτων, οὗ μηδʼ ἀκούειν ἰδιῶται δύνανται ἀλλὰ μόγις οἱ τὰ ἐγκύκλια πρὸ τῆς σεμνῆς Ἑλλήνων φιλοσοφίας μεμαθηκότες. κατανοητέον δὲ καὶ ὅτι οὐ παραφθείρεται ὁ περὶ ἀνεξικακίας νοῦς ὑπὸ τῆς τῶν λέξεων εὐτελείας. ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τούτῳ συκοφαντεῖ τὸν λόγον ὁ Κέλσος λέγων· ἀλλὰ τῶνδε μὲν πέρι καὶ ἄλλων, ὅσα παραφθείρουσιν, ἀρκείτω τὰ εἰρημένα· καὶ ὅτῳ φίλον ἐπὶ πλέον τι αὐτῶν ζητεῖν, εἴσεται.

English · Claude translation

So it has been established that, though, as Celsus says, Jesus spoke more rustically in saying, “To him who strikes you on the cheek offer the other also,” and, “To him who wishes to go to law with you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well,” yet by speaking in this way he moved and presented the teaching more usefully for life than Plato in the Crito, whom simple people cannot even understand, and hardly even those who have studied the general curriculum before the lofty philosophy of the Greeks. We must also observe that the meaning of patient endurance is not corrupted by the plainness of the words. But here too Celsus slanders the teaching, saying: “But about these things and the others that they corrupt, let what has been said suffice; and whoever wishes to seek further into them will come to know.”

About this passage

Source

Koetschau 2:211 · 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

Luke 6:29 · quotation, high confidence
Matt 5:39 · allusion, high confidence
Matt 5:40 · quotation, high confidence

Extrabiblical texts

Plato, Crit. 49b–d (Plato (works)) · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

The quotations are Luke 6:29 and Matt 5:40 (compare Matt 5:39).

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (misread letter in the digital text; stray punctuation for the opening quotation mark in the digital text): ἀγροικότεφον → ἀγροικότερον; Ἰησοῦς·., τῷ → Ἰησοῦς· „τῷ.

Cite this passage

Origen, Cels. 7.61 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/7/61/).

Plain text

Origen, Cels. 7.61 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/7/61/).