Against Celsus, Book IV · §85 · Origen of Alexandria

The view from heaven

And he is not ashamed to add to this, so as to display, even to those who will come after him, how disgraceful his own doctrines are, saying: “Come then, if someone were to look down from heaven upon the earth, how would what we do seem to differ from what ants and bees do?”

Now does the one who, on his supposition, looks from heaven to earth at what men do and what ants do, look at the bodies of men and ants, yet fail to perceive the rational ruling faculty, moved by reasoning, and again the irrational ruling faculty, moved irrationally by impulse and impression together with a certain natural make-up beneath it? But it is absurd that one who looks from heaven at the things on earth should want to look at the bodies of men and ants from so great a distance, and should not much rather see the natures of their ruling faculties and the source of their impulses, whether rational or irrational. And if he once sees the source of all impulses, he would clearly also see the difference, and the superiority of man not only over ants but over elephants too.

For one who looks from heaven will see in irrational creatures, however large their bodies may be, no other principle than, if I may call it so, irrationality; but in rational beings he will see reason, which men share with divine and heavenly beings, and perhaps with the God over all himself. That is why man is said to have been made “in the image” of God (Genesis 1:27); for the “image” of the God over all is his Word (Colossians 1:15).

Greek

Καὶ οὐκ αἰδεῖταί γε ἐπιφέρων τούτοις, ἵνα καὶ τοῖς μετ᾿ αὐτὸν ἐσομένοις ἐπιδεικνύηται τὴν τῶν δογμάτων ἑαυτοῦ ἀσχημοσύνην, λέγων· φέρ᾿ οὖν, εἴ τις ἀπ᾿ οὐρανοῦ ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἐπιβλέποι, τί ἂν δόξαι διαφέρειν τὰ ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν ἢ τὰ ὑπὸ μυρμήκων καὶ μελισσῶν δρώμενα; ὁ ἀπ᾿ οὐρανοῦ δὴ ἐπὶ γῆν κατὰ τὴν ὑπόθεσιν αὐτοῦ βλέπων τὰ δρώμενα ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ τὰ ὑπὸ τῶν μυρμήκων γινόμενα πότερον ἐνορᾷ μὲν ἀνθρώπων καὶ μυρμήκων σώμασιν, οὐ κατανοεῖ δὲ τὸ λογικὸν ἡγεμονικὸν καὶ λογισμῷ κινούμενον πάλιν τε αὖ τὸ ἄλογον ἡγεμονικὸν καὶ ὑπὸ ὁρμῆς καὶ φαντασίας ἀλόγως κινούμενον μετά τινος φυσικῆς ὑποκατασκευῆς; ἀλλ᾿ ἄτοπον τὸν ἀπ᾿ οὐρανοῦ βλέποντα (τὰ) ἐπὶ γῆς ἐνορᾶν μὲν θέλειν σώμασιν ἀνθρώπων καὶ μυρμήκων ἀπὸ τοσούτου διαστήματος, μὴ πολὺ δὲ μᾶλλον βλέπειν ἡγεμονικῶν φύσεις καὶ πηγὴν ὁρμῶν λογικὴν ἢ ἄλογον. εἰ δ᾿ ἅπαξ βλέπει τὴν πασῶν ὁρμῶν πηγὴν, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ τὴν διαφορὰν ἴδοι ἂν καὶ τὴν ὑπεροχὴν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐ μόνον παρὰ τοὺς μύρμηκας ἀλλὰ καὶ παρὰ τοὺς ἐλέφαντας. ὁ γὰρ βλέπων ἀπ᾿ οὐρανοῦ ἐν μὲν τοῖς ἀλόγοις, κἂν μεγάλα ᾖ αὐτῶν τὰ σώματα. οὐκ ἄλλην ὄψεται ἀρχὴν ἢ τὴν, ἵν᾿ οὕτως ὀνομάσω, ἀλογίαν· ἐν δὲ τοῖς λογικοῖς λόγον τὸν κοινὸν ἀνθρώπων πρὸς τὰ θεῖα καὶ ἐπουράνια τάχα δὲ καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεὸν, διὸ καὶ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ γεγονέναι ὠνόμασται τοῦ θεοῦ· „εἰκὼν“ γὰρ τοῦ ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεοῦ ὁ λόγος ἐστὶν αὐτοῦ.

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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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