Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus 25

The danger may well be no smaller for someone who drags the name of God, or the name of the Good, down onto things where it does not belong, than for someone who swaps the unspeakable names — shifting some from lesser realities up to greater ones, and others from greater realities down to lesser ones. I am not claiming that the moment the name Zeus is spoken, one immediately hears along with it the son of Cronus and Rhea, the husband of Hera, the brother of Poseidon, the father of Athena and Artemis, and the one who lay with his own daughter Persephone; nor that the name Apollo summons the son of Leto and Zeus, the brother of Artemis, the half-brother of Hermes, and whatever other titles the wise men of Celsus — fathers of doctrines and ancient theologians of the Greeks — attach to them. For what is the definition, if we speak literally of Zeus, that does not also include his father being Cronus and his mother Rhea? The same must be done for every other named god. Yet this charge does not touch at all those who assign the name Sabaoth to God, or Adonai, or any of the other names. When someone can philosophize about names as they exist in the unspeakable realm, they will discover many things also about the invocation of God's angels — one called Michael, another Gabriel, another Raphael — named in relation to the tasks they perform by the will of the God of all things throughout the universe. Our Jesus shares this same philosophy of names: his name has already been seen clearly to cast out myriads of demons from souls and bodies, and to work powerfully upon those from whom the demons were driven. Further, on the subject of names, it must be said that those skilled in the use of incantations report that the same incantation, when spoken in its own dialect, can accomplish what it promises; but when translated into any other language, it is seen to be feeble and unable to do anything. Thus it is not the meanings attached to things, but the qualities and properties of the sounds themselves, that possess some power for certain effects. So we will defend ourselves by such reasoning also concerning Christians who struggle to the death rather than proclaim Zeus as God or name him in any other tongue. For they either confess the common name God without qualification, or with the addition: "the creator of all things, the maker of heaven and earth, the one who sent to the race of men these certain wise men" — as if the name God, when invoked, accomplishes some power among human beings. Many other things could be said on the subject of names to those who think they should be indifferent to their use. And if Plato is admired for saying in the Philebus, "My fear, Protarchus, concerning the names of the gods is not small" — since Philebus had declared pleasure to be god, the one conversing with Socrates — how much more will we accept the reverence of Christians, who attach none of the names taken from myths to the creator of the universe? But enough of these things for now.