Against Celsus, Book IV · §52 · Origen of Alexandria

The dialogue of Jason and Papiscus

Next after this, Celsus picks out, from all the writings that contain allegories and narratives in a style that is not to be despised, the humblest one, a work that can contribute something toward faith for the many and simpler people but is certainly not able to move the more intelligent. He says: “Such, for example, is a disputation between a certain Papiscus and Jason that I have come across, which deserves not laughter but rather pity and hatred. It is not my purpose, then, to refute these things; for they are plain to everyone, I suppose, especially if anyone will be patient and bear to listen to the writings themselves. I would rather teach the nature of things: that God made nothing mortal, but the works of God are all the things that are immortal, and mortal things are the works of those immortal beings. The soul is the work of God, but the body is of another nature. And in this respect the body of a bat, or of a maggot, or of a frog, will not differ at all from that of a human being; for the matter is the same, and what is perishable in them is alike.”

Nevertheless, I should like anyone whatever who has heard Celsus speaking so vehemently, and declaring that the writing entitled Disputation of Jason and Papiscus concerning Christ deserves not laughter but hatred, to take this little treatise in his hands and be patient and bear to listen to what is in it, so that he may condemn Celsus at once, since he will find nothing in the book that deserves hatred. If anyone reads it without prejudice, he will find that the book does not even move one to laughter. In it a Christian is recorded arguing with a Jew from the Jewish Scriptures and showing that the prophecies about the Christ fit Jesus; though the other, in the role of the Jew, holds his ground against the argument in a way that is neither ignoble nor unfitting.

Greek

Ἑξῆς δὲ τούτοις ἐπιλεξάμενος ἀπὸ πάντων συγγραμμάτων. τῶν περιεχόντων ἀλληγορίας καὶ διηγήσεις μετὰ οὐκ εὐκαταφρονήτου λέξεως, τὸ εὐτελέστερον καὶ δυνάμενον μέν τι πρὸς τοὺς πολλοὺς καὶ ἁπλουστέρους πίστεως χάριν συμβαλέσθαι οὐ μὴν οἷόν τε καὶ τοὺς συνετωτέρους κινῆσαι, φησίν· οἵαν δὴ καὶ Παπίσκου τινὸς καὶ Ἰάσονος ἀντιλογίαν ἔγνων, οὐ γέλωτος ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἐλέους καὶ μίσους ἀξίαν. ἔμοιγ᾿ οὖν οὐ ταῦτ᾿ ἐλέγχειν πρόκειται· ἔστι γὰρ παντί που δῆλα, καὶ μάλιστα εἴ τις ὑπομείναι καὶ ἀνάσχοιτο αὐτῶν ἐπακοῦσαι τῶν συγγραμμάτων. ἀλλ᾿ ἐκεῖνο μᾶλλον ἐθέλω διδάξαι τὴν φύσιν, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς οὐδὲν θνητὸν ἐποίησεν· ἀλλὰ θεοῦ μὲν ἔργα ὅσα ἀθάνατα. θνητὰ δ᾿ ἐκείνων. καὶ ψυχὴ μὲν θεοῦ ἔργον, σώματος δὲ ἄλλη φύσις. καὶ ταύτῃ γε οὐδὲν διοίσει νυκτερίδος ἢ εὐλῆς ἢ βατράχου ἢ ἀνθρώπου σῶμα· ὕλη γὰρ ἡ αὐτὴ. καὶ τὸ φθαρτὸν αὐτῶν ὅμοιον. οὐδὲν δ᾿ ἧττον ἐβουλόμην πάνθ᾿ ὁντινοῦν. ἀκούσαντα δεινολογοῦντος Κέλσου καὶ φάσκοντος τὸ ἐπιγεγραμμένον σύγγραμμα Ἰάσονος καὶ Παπίσκου ἀντιλογίαν περὶ Χριστοῦ οὐ γέλωτος ἀλλὰ μίσους ἄξιον εἶναι, λαβεῖν εἰς χεῖρας τὸ συγγραμμάτιον καὶ ὑπομεῖναι καὶ ἀνασχέσθαι ἀκοῦσαι τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ, ἵν᾿ αὐτόθεν καταγνῶ τοῦ Κέλσου, μηδὲν εὑρίσκων μίσους ἄξιον ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ. ἐὰν δ᾿ ἀδεκάστως τις ἐντυγχάνῃ. εὑρήσει ὅτι οὐδ᾿ ἐπὶ γέλωτα κινεῖ τὸ βιβλίον. ἐν ᾧ ἀναγέγραπται Χριστιανὸς Ἰουδαίῳ διαλεγόμενος ἀπὸ τῶν Ἰουδαϊκῶν γραφῶν καὶ δεικνὺς τὰς περὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ προφητείας ἐφαρμόζειν τῷ Ἰησοῦ, καίτοι γε οὐκ ἀγεννῶς οὐδ᾿ ἀπρεπῶς τῷ Ἰουδαϊκῷ προσώπῳ τοῦ ἑτέρου ἱσταμένου πρὸς τὸν λόγον.

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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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