Against Celsus, Book III · §72 · Origen of Alexandria

True wisdom does not lead astray

Then, as though speaking in the person of the one who teaches our doctrine, he says: “For the wise turn away from what we say, led astray and hampered by their wisdom.” To this too we shall reply: if wisdom is knowledge of things “divine and human” and of their causes, or, as the divine word defines it, “a breath of the power of God and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty” (Wisdom of Solomon 7:25), and “a radiance of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness” (Wisdom of Solomon 7:26), then no one who is wise would turn away from what is said by a Christian who has knowledge of Christianity, nor would he be led astray or hampered by wisdom. For it is not true wisdom that leads astray, but ignorance; and of all that exists only knowledge is firm, and truth; and these come from wisdom.

But if, departing from the definition of wisdom, you call wise the man who lays down any doctrine whatever with the help of certain sophisms, we shall say that the man who is wise by what you call wisdom does indeed turn away from the words of God, led astray by plausible arguments and sophisms and hampered by them. And since, as our teaching says, “wisdom is not knowledge of wickedness” (Sirach 19:22), and “knowledge of wickedness,” if I may call it so, is found in those who hold false opinions and are deceived by petty sophisms, I would therefore call it ignorance rather than wisdom in such people.

Greek

Εἶτα ὡς ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ διδάσκοντος τὸν ἡμέτερον λόγον τοιαῦτά φησιν· οἱ σοφοὶ γὰρ ἀποτρέπονται τὰ ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν λεγόμενα. ὑπὸ τῆς σοφίας πλανώμενοι καὶ παραποδιζόμενοι. φήσομεν οὖν καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο ὅτι, εἴπερ ἡ σοφία ἐπιστήμη „θείων“ ἐστὶ „καὶ ἀνθρωπίνων“ πραγμάτων καὶ τῶν τούτων αἰτίων ἢ. ὡς ὁ θεῖος λόγος ὁρίζεται, „ἀτμὶς“ „τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ δυνάμεως καὶ ἀπόῤῥοια τῆς τοῦ παντοκράτορος δόξης εἰλικρινὴς“ καὶ „ἀπαύγασμα“ „φωτὸς ἀϊδίου καὶ ἔσοπτρον ἀκηλίδωτον τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ ἐνεργείας καὶ εἰκὼν τῆς ἀγαθότητος αὐτοῦ,“ οὐκ ἄν τις ὢν σοφὸς ἀποτρέποιτο τὰ ὑπὸ Χριστιανοῦ ἐπιστήμονος τοῦ χριστιανισμοῦ λεγόμενα οὐδὲ πλανηθείη ἂν ἢ παραποδίζοιτο ὑπ᾿ αὐτῆς. ἡ γὰρ ἀληθὴς σοφία οὐ πλανᾷ ἀλλ᾿ ἡ ἀμαθία, καὶ μόνον τῶν ὄντων βέβαιον ἐπιστήμη, καὶ ἀλήθεια ἅπερ ἐκ σοφίας παραγίνεται. ἐὰν δὲ παρὰ τὸν τῆς σοφίας ὅρον τὸν ὅ τι ποτ᾿ οὖν δογματίζοντα μετά τινων σοφισμάτων λέγῃς σοφὸν, φήσομεν ὅτι ἀληθῶς ὁ κατὰ τὴν ὑπὸ σοῦ λεγομένην σοφίαν ποιὸς ἀποτρέπεται τοὺς λόγους τοῦ θεοῦ, πλανώμενος ὑπὸ τῶν πιθανοτήτων καὶ σοφισμάτων καὶ παραποδιζόμενος ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν. καὶ ἐπεὶ κατὰ τὸν ἡμέτερον λόγον „οὐκ ἔστι σοφία πονηρίας ἐπιστήμη,“ „πονηρίας“ δὲ. ἵν᾿ οὕτως ὀνομάσω, „ἐπιστήμη“ ἐστὶν ἐν τοῖς ψευδοδοξοῦσι καὶ ὑπὸ σοφισματίων ἠπατημένοις, διὰ τοῦτο ἀμαθίαν εἴποιμι μᾶλλον ἢ σοφίαν ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις.

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About this text

Origen answers the charges Celsus makes in his own voice: that Jews and Christians quarrel over an ass’s shadow, that the Church began in revolt and splits into sects, and that Jesus is no greater than the heroes and wonder-workers of the Greeks. He then defends the Gospel’s call to sinners and the unlearned, showing that Christians welcome the wise as well and lead each hearer from healing to the deeper teaching.

Translated from the Greek of Koetschau, GCS 2–3 (1899), via the Perseus digital text, which serves as the base text. Each chapter was translated from the Greek and then checked clause by clause against it in an independent review. No earlier English translation was consulted.

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Translated from Koetschau GCS 2 – 3 (1899) — Greek (Greek · Book III, chapters 1 – 81)

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