Against Celsus, Book V · §50 · Origen of Alexandria

God’s favour passes from the Jews to the Gentiles

Pronouncing further on the Jews, Celsus says: “Nor is it likely that they stand in good repute with God, or are loved by Him in any way differently from others, or that angels are sent from there to them alone, as though they had been allotted some land of the blessed; for we see what they and their land have been thought worthy of.”

We shall refute this too. We say that this nation's good standing with God is shown also by the fact that the God over all is called the God of the Hebrews even by those who are strangers to our faith. And because they stood in good repute, so long as they were not forsaken, they continued to be guarded by divine power, though they were few in number. So it was that not even under Alexander of Macedon did they suffer anything at his hands, although, because of certain agreements and oaths, they had refused to take up arms against Darius. At that time, they say, when the high priest of the Jews had put on his priestly robe, Alexander even bowed down before him, saying that he had seen someone in this very dress who promised him “in his sleep” that he would make the whole of Asia subject to him (see Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 11.8.5).

We Christians, then, say that standing in good repute with God, and being loved in a way different from others, did indeed belong to them in full. But we say that this dispensation and the grace have passed over to us, since Jesus moved the power that was among the Jews to those from the Gentiles who believed in Him. That is why the Romans, though they wished to do much against the Christians to stop them existing any longer, have not been able to do so; for a divine hand was fighting for them, wishing to sow the word of God from one corner, the land of Judea, through the whole race of mankind.

Greek

Ἔτι δὲ περὶ Ἰουδαίων ἀποφαινόμενος ὁ Κέλσος φησίν· οὐδ᾿ εὐδοκιμεῖν παρὰ τῷ θεῷ καὶ στέργεσθαι διαφόρως τι τῶν ἄλλων τούτους εἰκὸς, καὶ πέμπεσθαι μόνοις αὐτοῖς ἐκεῖθεν ἀγγέλους, οἷον δή τινα μακάρων χώραν λαχοῦσιν· ὁρῶμεν γὰρ αὐτοὺς καὶ τὴν χώραν τίνων ἠξίωνται. ἐλέγξομεν οὖν καὶ τοῦτο, λέγοντες ὅτι τὸ εὐδοκιμηκέναι τὸ ἔθνος τοῦτο παρὰ θεῷ δηλοῦται καὶ ἐκ τοῦ τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεὸν καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων τῆς ἡμετέρας πίστεως Ἑβραίων καλεῖσθαι θεόν. καὶ ὡς εὐδοκιμοῦντές γε ὅσον οὐκ ἐγκατελείποντο, καίτοι γε ὀλίγοι τυγχάνοντες τὸν ἀριθμὸν, διετέλουν φρουρούμενοι ὑπὸ θείας δυνάμενως, ὡς μηδ᾿ ἐπὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τοῦ Μακεδόνος παθεῖν τι αὐτοὺς ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ, καίτοι γε μὴ βουληθέντας διά τινας συνθήκας καὶ ὅρκους ἀναλαμβάνειν ὅπλα κατὰ τοῦ Δαρείου. τότε φασὶ καὶ τὸν Ἰουδαίων ἀρχιερέα ἐνδύντα τὴν ἱερατικὴν στολὴν προσκεκυνῆσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀλεξάνδρου, φάσκοντος ὦφθαι αὐτῷ τούτῳ τῷ σχήματι † ἑωρακέναι τινὰ, ἐπαγγελλόμενον αὐτῷ „κατὰ τοὺς ὕπνους“ ὑποτάξειν τὴν Ἀσίαν ὅλην. ἡμεῖς οὖν οἱ Χριστιανοί φαμεν τὸ μὲν εὐδοκιμεῖν παρὰ τῷ θεῷ καὶ στέργεσθαι διαφόρως τι τῶν ἄλλων πάνυ ἐκείνοις συμβεβηκέναι, ταύτην δὲ τὴν οἰκονομίαν μεταβεβηκέναι καὶ τὴν χάριν ἐφ᾿ ἡμᾶς, μεταστήσαντος τὴν ἐν Ἰουδαίοις δύναμιν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν πιστεύσαντας (αὐ) τῷ Ἰησοῦ. διὸ πολλὰ βουληθέντες Ῥωμαῖοι κατὰ Χριστιανῶν ἐπὶ τῷ κωλῦσαι αὐτοὺς ἔτι εἶναι οὐ δεδύνηνται· ἦν γὰρ ὑπερμαχοῦσα αὐτῶν θεία χεὶρ καὶ βουλομένη τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ λόγον ἀπὸ μιᾶς τῆς κατὰ τὴν Ἰουδαίαν γῆν γωνίας ἐπισπεῖραι ὅλῳ τῷ γένει τῶν ἀνθρώπων.

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About this text

Origen answers Celsus’s claim that no God or Son of God has come down to men, shows why Christians worship God alone and not angels or the stars, and defends the hope of the resurrection against the charge that it is “the hope of worms.” He then rejects Celsus’s case that each nation should keep its own ancestral laws, and answers his mockery of the angels at Jesus’ tomb and of the many Christian sects.

Base text: Paul Koetschau's Greek, GCS 2–3 (1899), via the Perseus digital text. All 65 chapters of Book V were translated from the Greek in two passes (a literal gloss with key Greek words, then reading English), and every clause was then checked against the Greek in a separate review. Doubtful readings in the Greek are recorded in the translator's notes.

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Translated from Koetschau GCS 2 – 3 (1899) — Greek (Greek · Book V, chapters 1 – 65)

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