Against Celsus, Book IV · §28 · Origen of Alexandria

God loves all that he has made

Celsus has represented those he considers worms, the Christians, as saying that “God has left the motion of the heavens and disregarded the vast earth, and makes his home among us alone, sends his envoys to us, and never ceases sending and seeking how we may be with him forever.” To this we must reply that he attributes to us things that we do not say. For we read and know that God loves all things that exist and loathes none of the things he has made, for he would not have fashioned anything if he hated it (Wisdom of Solomon 11:24). We have also read: “You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lover of souls. For your imperishable Spirit is in all things. Therefore you correct little by little those who fall away, and you admonish them by reminding them of the things in which they sin” (Wisdom of Solomon 11:26–12:2).

How could we say that God has left the motion of the heavens and the whole world, and disregarded the vast earth, to make his home among us alone? We have found that in our prayers we must speak as people convinced that “the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord” (Psalm 33:5), and that “the mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh” (Sirach 18:13); and that God, being good, “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). He urges us to do the like, so that we may become his sons (Matthew 5:44–45), and teaches us to extend our good deeds to all people as far as we can. For he himself is called “the Saviour of all people, especially of believers” (1 Timothy 4:10), and his Christ is called “the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

Perhaps some of the Jews might say, not the things Celsus has recorded, but certain other naive things; but certainly not Christians, who have been taught that “God shows his own love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And yet “one will scarcely die for a righteous man; though for a good man someone might perhaps even dare to die” (Romans 5:7). But as it is, Jesus is proclaimed to have come for sinners everywhere, so that they may leave sin behind and entrust themselves to God; and by a usage long established in these writings he is also called the Christ of God.

Greek

Ἐπεὶ δὲ πεποίηκεν οὓς ἡγεῖται σκώληκας Χριστιανοὺς λέγοντας ὅτι τὴν οὐράνιον φορὰν ἀπολιπὼν ὁ θεὸς καὶ τὴν τοσαύτην γῆν παριδὼν ἡμῖν μόνοις πολιτεύεται καὶ πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἐπικηρυκεύεται καὶ πέμπων οὐ διαλείπει καὶ ζητῶν. ὅπως ἀεὶ συνῶμεν αὐτῷ, λεκτέον ὅτι τὰ μὴ λεγόμενα πρὸς ἡμῶν περιτίθησιν ἡμῖν, τοῖς καὶ ἀναγινώσκουσι καὶ γινώσκουσιν ὅτι ἀγαπᾷ πάντα τὰ ὄντα ὁ θεὸς καὶ οὐδὲν βδελύσσεται ὧν ἐποίησεν· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἂν μισῶν τι κατεσκεύασεν. ἀνέγνωμεν δὲ καὶ τό· „φείδῃ δὲ πάντων, ὅτι σά ἐστι πάντα. φιλόψυχε. τὸ γὰρ ἄφθαρτόν (σου) πνεῦμά ἐστιν ἐν πᾶσι· διὸ καὶ τοὺς παραπίπτοντας κατ᾿ ὀλίγον ἐλέγχεις. καὶ ἐν οἷς ἁμαρτάνουσιν ὑπομιμνήσκων νουθετεῖς.“ πῶς δὲ δυνάμεθα λέγειν τὴν οὐράνιον φορὰν καὶ τὸν πάντα κόσμον ἀπολιπόντα τὸν θεὸν καὶ τὴν τοσαύτην γῆν παριδόντα ἡμῖν μόνοις ἐμπολιτεύεσθαι; οἵτινες ἐν ταῖς εὐχαῖς εὕρομεν δεῖν τι λέγειν φρονοῦντας ὅτι „τοῦ ἐλέους κυρίου πλήρης ἡ γῆ,“ καὶ „ἔλεος κυρίου ἐπὶ πᾶσαν σάρκα,“ καὶ ὅτι ἀγαθὸς ὢν ὁ θεὸς „ἀνατέλλει“ „τὸν ἥλιον αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ πονηροὺς καὶ ἀγαθοὺς καὶ βρέχει ἐπὶ δικαίους καὶ ἀδίκους,“ καὶ ἡμᾶς, ἵνα γενώμεθα αὐτοῦ υἱοὶ, ἐπὶ τὰ παραπλήσια προτρέπων καὶ διδάσκων εἰς πάντας ἡμᾶς ἀνθρώπους κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἐκτείνειν τὰς εὐποιΐας, καὶ γὰρ αὐτὸς εἴρηται „σωτὴρ πάντων ἀνθρώπων, μάλιστα πιστῶν,“ καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς αὐτοῦ „ἱλασμὸς“ εἶναι „περὶ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν, οὐ περὶ τῶν ἡμετέρων δὲ μόνων ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ ὅλου τοῦ κόσμου,“ καὶ τάχα μὲν οὐ ταῦτα. ὅσα ἀνέγραψεν ὁ Κέλσος, ἄλλα δέ τινα ἰδιωτικὰ εἴποιεν ἂν Ἰουδαίων τινὲς, ἀλλ᾿ οὔτι γε καὶ Χριστιανοὶ, οἱ διδαχθέντες ὅτι „συνίστησι τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἀγάπην εἰς ἡμᾶς ὁ θεὸς, ὅτι ἔτι ἁμαρτωλῶν ὄντων ἡμῶν Χριστὸς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἀπέθανε.“ καίτοι γε „μόγις τις ὑπὲρ τοῦ δικαίου ἀποθανεῖται· ὑπὲρ γὰρ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ τάχα τις καὶ τολμᾷ ἀποθανεῖν.“ νυνὶ δὲ ὑπὲρ τῶν πανταχοῦ ἁμαρτωλῶν. ἵνα καταλίπωσι τὴν ἁμαρτίαν καὶ πιστεύσωσι τῷ θεῷ ἑαυτοὺς, ἐπιδεδημηκέναι κεκήρυκται ὁ Ἰησοῦς, πατρίῳ τινὶ τοῖς λόγοις τούτοις συνηθείᾳ καὶ Χριστὸς εἶναι λεγόμενος τοῦ θεοῦ.

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About this text

Origen answers Celsus’s scorn for the belief that God or his Son comes down to the world, showing that the Word comes down without change and that God’s threats and punishments are a cure, not a fit of temper. He then defends the stories of Genesis and the patriarchs, read in their deeper sense, against the charge that they are silly tales, and rejects Celsus’s claim that the world was made no more for man than for the animals, which Celsus thought nearer to God than men.

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 a separate review. No earlier English translation was consulted.

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Translated from Koetschau GCS 2 – 3 (1899) — Greek (Greek · Book IV, chapters 1 – 99)

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