Against Celsus, Book II · §17 · Origen of Alexandria

Meeting a foreknown death is no folly

Very foolish too is this: “What god or spirit or sensible man, foreseeing that such things would happen to him, would not avoid them if he could, but would run into what he foreknew?” Socrates, at any rate, knew that he would drink the hemlock and die; and he could, had he listened to Crito, have slipped out of prison and suffered none of this (Plato, Crito 44b). But he chose, as seemed reasonable to him, what was better for him: to die as a philosopher rather than to live unworthy of philosophy. Leonidas too, the Spartan general, knowing he was on the point of dying with the men at Thermopylae, did not scheme to live on in shame, but said to those with him, “Let us take our breakfast as men who will dine in Hades.” Those who care to collect such stories will find many.

What wonder, then, if Jesus, knowing what would happen, did not avoid it but met the very things he foreknew? Even Paul, his disciple, having heard what would happen to him once he went up to Jerusalem, went straight to meet the dangers, rebuking those who wept around him and tried to stop him from going up to Jerusalem (Acts 21:10–14). And many in our own time, knowing that if they confessed Christianity they would die, but if they denied it they would be released and recover their property, have despised life and of their own free will chosen death for the sake of piety.

Greek

Σφόδρα δὲ μωρὸν καὶ τό· τίς ἂν ἢ θεὸς ἢ δαίμων ἢ ἄνθρωπος φρόνιμος προειδὼς αὐτῷ τοιαῦτα συμβησόμενα οὐκ ἂν. εἴ γε ἐδύνατο, ἐξέκλινεν ἀλλὰ συνέπιπτεν οἷς προηπίστατο; καὶ Σωκράτης γοῦν ᾔδει τὸ κώνειον πιόμενος καὶ τεθνηξόμενος καὶ ἐδύνατο, εἴπερ ἐπείσθη τῷ Κρίτωνι, ὑπεξελθὼν τὴν φυλακὴν μηδὲν τούτων παθεῖν, ἀλλ᾿ εἵλετο κατὰ τὸ φαινόμενον αὐτῷ εὔλογον κρεῖττον αὐτῷ εἶναι φιλοσόφως ἀποθανεῖν ἢ ἀφιλοσόφως ζῆν. ἀλλὰ καὶ Λεωνίδας ὁ Λακεδαιμονίων στρατηγὸς εἰδὼς ὅσον οὐδέπω τεθνηξόμενος μετὰ τῶν ἐν Θερμοπύλαις οὐκ ἐπραγματεύσατο τὸ ζῆσαι αἰσχρῶς, ἀλλ᾿ εἶπε τοῖς σὺν αὐτῷ· „ἀριστήσωμεν ὡς ἐν ᾅδου δειπνοποιησόμενοι.“ οἷς δὲ μέλει ἱστορίας τοιαύτας συναγαγεῖν πολλὰ εὑρήσουσι. καὶ τί θαυμαστὸν, εἰ ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐπιστάμενος τὰ συμβησόμενα οὐκ ἐξέκλινεν ἀλλὰ περιέπιπτεν οἷς καὶ προηπίστατο; ὅπου καὶ Παῦλος ὁ μαθητὴς αὐτοῦ ἀκούσας τὰ συμβησόμενα αὐτῷ ἀναβάντι εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα ὁμόσε τοῖς κινδύνοις ἐχώρησεν, ἐπιπλήσσων καὶ τοῖς δεδακρυμένοις περὶ αὐτὸν καὶ κωλύουσιν ἀναβῆναι εἰς τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα. πολλοὶ δὲ καὶ τῶν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐπιστάμενοι, ὡς ὁμολογήσαντες μὲν χριστιανισμὸν ἀποθανοῦνται ἀρνησάμενοι δὲ ἀπολυθήσονται καὶ τὰ ὑπάρχοντα ἀπολήψονται, κατεφρόνησαν μὲν τοῦ βίου ἑκουσίως δὲ τὸν ὑπὲρ εὐσεβείας θάνατον εἵλοντο.

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About this text

Origen answers the Jew whom Celsus brings on stage to speak against the Jews who believe in Jesus, and shows that they have not left the law of their fathers. He goes on to defend Jesus’ foreknowledge of his betrayal, the reality of his suffering and death, and his resurrection, and argues that no mere man could have won so much of the world.

Base text: Koetschau, GCS 2–3 (1899), via the Perseus digital text. The English is a fresh translation from that Greek, chapter by chapter (2.1–79), with an independent clause-by-clause review against the Greek. Crombie and Chadwick were not used.

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Translated from Koetschau GCS 2 – 3 (1899) — Greek (Greek · Book II, chapters 1 – 79)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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