Against Celsus, Book IV · §7 · Origen of Alexandria

God has always cared for human life

I do not know how, after talking idle nonsense about the points we have set out, he later sets out the view that it is not because he needs to be known for his own sake, but for the sake of our salvation, that God wishes to give us knowledge of himself, so that those who accept it may become good and be saved, while those who do not accept it may be shown to be wicked and be punished. And having set this out, he raises a further difficulty, saying: “So it is only now, after so long an age, that God has remembered to set human life right, while before he did not care?”

To this too we shall say that there was never a time when God did not wish to set human life right. He has always cared for it, giving starting points for virtue so that the rational creature might be set right. For in every generation the wisdom of God, passing into souls that it finds holy, makes them friends of God and prophets (Wisdom of Solomon 7:27). And in the sacred books one could find those who in each generation were holy and able to receive the divine Spirit, and how they converted the people of their own day, as far as their power allowed.

Greek

Οὐκ οἶδα δ᾿ ὅπως φλυαρήσας μάτην ἐφ᾿ οἷς ἐξεθέμεθα, ὕστερόν ποτε ἐκτίθεται ὅτι οὐ δι᾿ αὑτὸν δεόμενος γνωσθῆναι ἀλλὰ διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν γνῶσιν ἡμῖν παρασχεῖν ἑαυτοῦ βούλεται· ἵν᾿ οἱ μὲν παραδεξάμενοι αὐτὴν χρηστοὶ γενόμενοι σωθῶσιν, οἱ δὲ μὴ παραδεξάμενοι ἀποδειχθέντες πονηροὶ κολασθῶσιν. καὶ ἐκθέμενός γε τὸ τοιοῦτον ἐπαπορεῖ λέγων· νῦν ἆρα μετὰ τοσοῦτον αἰῶνα ὁ θεὸς ἀνεμνήσθη δικαιῶσαι τὸν ἀνθρώπων βίον, πρότερον δὲ ἠμέλει; καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο δὲ φήσομεν ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ὅτ᾿ οὐκ ἐβουλήθη δικαιῶσαι τὸν ἀνθρώπων βίον ὁ θεὸς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀεὶ ἐπεμελήθη διδοὺς ἀρετῆς ἀφορμὰς τοῦ ἐπανορθοῦσθαι τὸ λογικὸν ζῷον. κατὰ γὰρ ἑκάστην γενεὰν ἡ σοφία τοῦ θεοῦ εἰς ψυχὰς. ἃς εὑρίσκει ὁσίας. μεταβαίνουσα φίλους θεοῦ καὶ προφήτας κατασκευάζει. καὶ εὑρεθεῖεν γ᾿ ἂν ἐν ταῖς ἱεραῖς βίβλοις οἱ καθ᾿ ἑκάστην γενεὰν ὅσιοι καὶ δεκτικοὶ τοῦ θείου πνεύματος, καὶ ὡς ἐπέστρεφον τοὺς καθ᾿ αὑτοὺς ὅση δύναμις.

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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)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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