Against Celsus, Book III · §74 · Origen of Alexandria

Seeking the foolish and the clever

He also charges the teacher with seeking out the foolish. To him we would say: Whom do you call foolish? For strictly speaking every base man is foolish. If, then, you call the base foolish: when you bring men to philosophy, do you seek to bring the base or the worthy? It cannot be the worthy, for they have already become philosophers. The base, then; and if the base, the foolish. And you seek to bring many such men to philosophy; so you too seek the foolish. As for me, even if I seek those who are called foolish in this sense, I do the same as a humane physician would if he sought out the sick in order to bring them remedies and make them strong.

But if you call foolish those who are not quick-witted but the more grotesque among men, I will answer you that I try to improve these too as far as I can, but it is not from these that I wish to form the assembly of Christians. For I rather seek the more quick-witted and sharper, since they can follow the explanation of the riddles and of the things said in a hidden way in the Law and the Prophets and the Gospels. These you have despised as containing nothing worth mention, without having examined the meaning in them or tried to enter into the intention of those who wrote them.

Greek

Ἐγκαλεῖ δὲ τῷ διδάσκοντι καὶ ὡς ἀνοήτους ζητοῦντι. πρὸς ὃν εἴποιμεν ἄν· τίνας λέγεις τοὺς ἀνοήτους; κατὰ γὰρ τὸ ἀκριβὲς πᾶς φαῦλος ἀνόητός ἐστιν. εἰ τοίνυν λέγεις ἀνοήτους τοὺς φαύλους. ἆρα σὺ προσάγων ἀνθρώπους φιλοσοφίᾳ φαύλους ζητεῖς προσάγειν ἢ ἀστείους; ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ οἷόν τε ἀστείους, ἤδη γὰρ πεφιλοσοφήκασι· φαύλους ἄρα· εἰ δὲ φαύλους, ἀνοήτους. καὶ ζητεῖς πολλοὺς προσάγειν τοιούτους φιλοσοφίᾳ· καὶ σὺ ἄρα τοὺς ἀνοήτους ζητεῖς. ἐγὼ δὲ. κἂν τοὺς οὕτω λεγομένους ἀνοήτους ζητῶ. ὅμοιον ποιῶ. ὡς εἰ καὶ φιλάνθρωπος ἰατρὸς ἐζήτει τοὺς κάμνοντας, ἵν᾿ αὐτοῖς προσαγάγοι τὰ βοηθήματα καὶ ῥώσῃ αὐτούς. εἰ δ᾿ ἀνοήτους λέγεις τοὺς μὴ ἐντρεχεῖς ἀλλὰ τερατωδεστέρους τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἀποκρινοῦμαί σοι ὅτι καὶ τούτους μὲν κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν βελτιοῦν πειρῶμαι. οὐ μὴν ἐκ τούτων βούλομαι συστῆσαι τὸ Χριστιανῶν αθροισμα. ζητῶ γὰρ μᾶλλον τοὺς ἐντρεχεστέρους καὶ ὀξυτέρους ὡς δυναμένους παρακολουθῆσαι τῇ σαφηνείᾳ τῶν αἰνιγμάτων καὶ τῶν μετ᾿ ἐπικρύψεως εἰρημένων ἐν νόμῳ καὶ προφήταις καὶ εὐαγγελίοις, ὧς οὐδὲν ἀξιόλογον περιεχόντων καταπεφρόνηκας, οὐ βασανίσας τὸν ἐν αὐτοῖς νοῦν μηδ᾿ εἰσελθεῖν πειραθεὶς εἰς τὸ βούλημα τῶν γραψάντων.

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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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