Against Celsus, Book IV · §53 · Origen of Alexandria

Pity and hatred cannot go together

I do not know how Celsus could bring together things that do not mix and that by nature cannot occur at the same time in human nature, and say that the book deserves pity and hatred. For everyone will agree that someone who is pitied is not hated while he is pitied, and someone who is hated is not pitied while he is hated. Celsus says that it is not his purpose to refute these things, because he thinks they are plain to everyone even before any reasoned refutation is brought against them, as worthless and deserving of pity and hatred. But we urge the reader of this defence, written against Celsus’s accusation, to bear with our writings and listen to them, and, as far as he can, to infer from what is written the purpose of those who wrote it, their conscience, and their disposition. For he will find men who contend ardently for what they have come to believe, and some who make it clear that they are recording a story they had seen and understood, as something marvellous and worth writing down for the benefit of those who were to hear it.

Or let someone dare to say that it is not the source and beginning of every benefit to believe in the God of the universe, to do everything with a view to pleasing him in every matter whatever, and not even to think of anything that displeases him, since not only our words and deeds but even our thoughts will be judged. And what other teaching could more forcefully lead human nature to live well than faith, or the conviction, that the God over all watches over everything we say and do, and even what we think? Let anyone who wishes compare with it another way that both converts and improves, not just one or two people, but as many as possible, so that by comparing the two ways one may understand exactly which teaching disposes people toward the good.

Greek

Οὐκ οἶδα δ᾿ ὅπως τὰ ἄμικτα καὶ οὐ πεφυκότα ἅμα συμβαίνειν ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει συναγαγὼν εἶπε τὸ βιβλίον ἐκεῖνο ἐλέους καὶ μίσους ἄξιον εἶναι. πᾶς γὰρ ὁμολογήσει τὸν ἐλεούμενον μὴ μισεῖσθαι, ὅτ᾿ ἐλεεῖται, καὶ τὸν μισούμενον μὴ ἐλεεῖσθαι, ὅτε μισεῖται. διὰ τοῦτο δὲ μὴ προκεῖσθαι ἐλέγχειν φησὶ ταῦτα ὁ Κέλσος, ἐπεὶ οἴεται αὐτὰ παντί που δῆλα εἶναι καὶ πρὸ τοῦ ἐπαγομένου λογικῶς ἐλέγχου ὡς φαῦλα καὶ ἐλέους καὶ μίσους ἄξια. παρακαλοῦμεν δὲ τὸν ἐντυγχάνοντα τῇ ἀπολογίᾳ ταύτῃ πρὸς τὴν Κέλσου κατηγορίαν γεγραμμένῃ ἀνασχέσθαι καὶ ἐπακοῦσαι τῶν συγγραμμάτων ἡμῶν καὶ ὅση δύναμις ἐκ τῶν γεγραμμένων στοχάσασθαι τῆς προαιρέσεως τῶν γραψάντων καὶ τῆς συνειδήσεως καὶ τῆς διαθέσεως· εὑρήσει γὰρ ἄνδρας, διαπύρως περὶ ὧν ὑπειλήφασι διατεινομένους, τινὰς δὲ ἐμφαίνοντας καὶ τὸ ἱστορίαν ἑωραμένην καὶ καταληφθεῖσαν ἀναγράφειν ὡς παράδοξον καὶ γραφῆς ἀξίαν ἐπὶ ὠφελείᾳ τῶν ἀκουσομένων. ἢ τολμάτω τις λέγειν μὴ πάσης ὠφελείας εἶναι πηγὴν καὶ ἀρχὴν τὸ πιστεῦσαι τῷ τῶν ὅλων θεῷ καὶ πάντα πράττειν κατ᾿ ἀναφορὰν τοῦ ἐκείνῳ ἀρέσκειν περὶ οὑτινοσοῦν καὶ μηδὲν ἀπάρεστον αὐτῷ μηδ᾿ ἐνθυμεῖσθαι, ὡς οὐ μόνον λόγων καὶ ἔργων ἀλλὰ καὶ διαλογισμῶν κριθησομένων. καὶ τίς ἂν ἄλλος λόγος ἐπιστρεφέστερον προσάγοι τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν τῷ εὖ ζῆν ὡς ἡ πίστις ἢ ἡ διάληψις περὶ τοῦ πάντ᾿ ἐφορᾶν τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεὸν τὰ ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν λεγόμενα καὶ πραττόμενα ἀλλὰ καὶ λογιζόμενα; παραβαλέτω γὰρ ὁ βουλόμενος ἄλλην ὁδὸν, ἐπιστρέφουσαν ἅμα καὶ βελτιοῦσαν οὐ μόνον ἕνα που καὶ δεύτερον ἀλλ᾿ ὅση δύναμις καὶ πλείστους ὅσους, ἵνα τις τῇ παραθέσει ἀμφοτέρων τῶν ὁδῶν ἀκριβῶς κατανοήσῃ τὸν διατιθέντα πρὸς τὸ καλὸν λόγον.

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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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