Against Celsus 8.1

Origen · Against Celsus · ca. 248 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: Origen begins Book 8 with a prayer that God and his Word will help him refute Celsus's “True Word” and act as an ambassador for Christ.

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Greek text · Koetschau 2:221

Ἤδη ἔφθασα ἐπὶ τὸ συντελέσαι ἑπτὰ βιβλία, θέλω δὲ ἄρξασθαι καὶ ὀγδόου. θεὸς δὲ καὶ ὁ „μονογενὴς“ αὐτοῦ λόγος παρέσται ἡμῖν, ἵνα γενναίως μὲν τὰ Κέλσου ψεύδη διελεγχθῇ, μάτην ἐπιγεγραμμένα ἀληθὴς λόγος, δυνατῶς δὲ καὶ τὸ ὅσον ἐπὶ τοῖς ὑπαγορευομένοις τὰ χριστιανισμοῦ ἀποδειχθῇ. εὐχομένοις τὸ „ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ πρεσβεύομεν, ὡς τοῦ θεοῦ παρακαλοῦντος“ ἡμᾶς „διʼ ἡμῶν“ εἰπεῖν τῇ τοῦ Παύλου διαθέσει καὶ πρεσβεῦσαι „ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ“ πρὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ὡς ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγος ἐπὶ τὴν πρὸς ἑαυτὸν φιλίαν παρακαλεῖ, βουλόμενος οἰκειῶσαι δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ ἀληθείᾳ καὶ ταῖς λοιπαῖς ἀρεταῖς τοὺς πρὸ τῆς παραδοχῆς τῶν Ἰησοῦ τοῦ Χριστοῦ δογμάτων ἐν σκότῳ τῷ περὶ θεοῦ καὶ ἀγνοίᾳ τῇ περὶ τοῦ κτίσαντος ἐνδιατρίψαντας. καὶ πάλιν δὲ ἐρῶ ὅτι ὁ θεὸς δῴη ἡμῖν τὸν γενναῖον καὶ ἀληθῆ λόγον. τὸν κύριον τὸν κραταιὸν καὶ δυνατὸν „ἐν πολέμῳ“ τῷ κατὰ τῆς κακίας. ἤδη δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν ἑξῆς λέξιν Κέλσου καὶ τὰ πρὸς αὐτὴν ὁδευτέον ἐστὶν ἡμῖν.

English · Claude translation

I have now come to the completion of seven books, and I wish to begin an eighth. May God and his “only-begotten” Word be with us, so that the lies of Celsus, falsely entitled The True Word, may be nobly refuted, and the case for Christianity may be powerfully demonstrated, as far as the matters he dictates allow. We pray to be able to say, in the spirit of Paul, “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were appealing through us,” and to be ambassadors “for Christ” to men, as the Word of God calls them to friendship with himself, wishing to bring into kinship with righteousness, truth, and the other virtues those who, before receiving the doctrines of Jesus Christ, lived in darkness about God and in ignorance about the Creator. And again I will say: may God give us the noble and true Word, the Lord strong and mighty “in battle” against wickedness. And now we must proceed to Celsus's next statement and our reply to it.

About this passage

Source

Koetschau 2:221 · 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

John 1:18 · allusion, medium confidence
2 Cor 5:20 · quotation, high confidence
Ps 24:8 (23:8 LXX) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Prayer

Notes

Translation notes

The quotations are John 1:14, 18 (“only-begotten”), 2 Cor 5:20, and Ps 24:8 (23:8 LXX). Celsus's work was titled The True Word (Ἀληθὴς λόγος); Origen plays on it with “the noble and true Word.”

Cite this passage

Origen, Cels. 8.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/8/1/).

Plain text

Origen, Cels. 8.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/8/1/).

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