Contra Celsum (Complete)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Some scanning errors (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand) · 4 illegible passages, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~300,000 words · 1,436 passages
Cite this work
- APAOrigen of Alexandria. (n.d.). Contra Celsum (Complete). Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/origen/contra-celsum-complete
- MLAOrigen of Alexandria. Contra Celsum (Complete). Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/origen/contra-celsum-complete.
- ChicagoOrigen of Alexandria. Contra Celsum (Complete). Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/origen/contra-celsum-complete.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
A point-by-point refutation of the True Discourse that the Platonist philosopher Celsus had written against the Christians around 178.
Context and history
Origen wrote it around 248, seventy years later, and quoted his opponent so fully in order to answer him that Celsus's book survives almost only here: the most serious pagan attack on early Christianity reaches us through the mouth of the man who set out to demolish it. That is worth holding in mind while reading, since Celsus's words always arrive selected and framed by Origen.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
which we have to answer, that on account of their unbelief, and the other insults which they heaped upon Jesus, the Jews will not only suffer more than others in that judgment which is believed to impend over the world, but have even already endured such sufferings. For what nation is an exile from their own metropolis, and from the place sacred to the worship of their fathers, save the Jews alone? And these calamities they have suffered, because they were a most wicked nation, which, although guilty of many other sins, yet has been punished so severely for none, as for those that were committed against our Jesus. CHAPTER IX. The Jew continues his discourse thus: ‘ How should we deem him to be a God, who not only in other respects, as was currently reported, performed none of his promises, but who also, after we had convicted him, and condemned him as deserving of punishment, was found attempting to conceal himself, and 1 Taga. vi. 9. Boox 1] ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. ^H endeavouring to escape in a most disgraceful manner, and who was betrayed by those whom he called disciples? And yet,” he continues, * he who was a God could neither flee nor be led away a prisoner; and least of all could he be deserted and delivered up by those who had been his associates, and had shared all things in common, and had had him for their teacher, who was deemed to be a Saviour, and a Son of the greatest God, and an angel.” To which we reply, that even we do not suppose the body of Jesus, which was then an object of sight and perception, to have been God. And why do I say His body? Nay, not even His soul, of which it is related, “ My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” But as, according to the Jewish manner of speaking, “Iam the Lord, the God of all flesh,” and, “ Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me,” God is believed to be He who employs the soul and body of the prophet as an instrument; and as, according to the Greeks, he who says,