Against Celsus, Book VI · §18 · Origen of Alexandria

Something holier than Plato’s King of all

I thought it right to set out these few things, out of the very many that holy men have conceived about God, to show that the sacred writings of the prophets hold something more majestic than the Platonic sayings Celsus admired, for those whose eyes are able to see the majesty of the Scriptures.

The passage of Plato that Celsus set out runs as follows: “All things are about the King of all, and all things are for his sake, and that is the cause of all beautiful things. The second is about the second things, and the third about the third. The human soul, then, longs to learn about them, what sort of things they are, looking to what is akin to itself, none of which is adequate. But concerning the King and the things I have spoken of, there is nothing of that kind” (Plato, Second Letter 312e–313a).

I could have set out what is written in Isaiah about those the Hebrews call “seraphim,” who cover the “face” and the “feet” of God (Isaiah 6:2), and about those named “cherubim,” whom Ezekiel described (Ezekiel 10:1–22), and their forms, so to speak, and in what way God is said to ride upon the cherubim (Psalm 18:10). But since these things are said in a very hidden way, because of the unworthy and the irreverent, who cannot follow the grandeur and majesty of theology, I did not think it fitting to discuss them in this treatise.

Greek

Ταῦτα δ᾿ ἡγησάμην βραχέα ἀπὸ πλείστων ὅσων τῶν περὶ θεοῦ τοῖς ἱεροῖς ἀνδράσι νενοημένων παραθέσθαι, δεικνὺς ὅτι τῶν θαυμασθέντων ὑπὸ Κέλσου Πλατωνικῶν λόγων ἔχει τι σεμνότερον τοῖς ἔχουσιν ὀφθαλμοὺς, βλέπειν τὰ σεμνὰ τῶν γραφῶν δυναμένους, τὰ ἱερὰ τῶν προφητῶν γράμματα. ἔχει δ᾿ ἡ Πλάτωνος λέξις, ἣν ὁ Κέλσος ἐξέθετο, τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον· „περὶ τὸν πάντων βασιλέα πάντ᾿ ἐστὶ, καὶ ἐκείνου ἕνεκα πάντα, καὶ ἐκεῖνο αἴτιον ἁπάντων καλῶν. δεύτερον δὲ περὶ τὰ δεύτερα, καὶ τρίτον περὶ τὰ τρίτα. ἡ οὖν ἀνθρωπίνη ψυχὴ περὶ αὐτὰ ὀρέγεται μαθεῖν, ποῖα ἄττα ἐστὶ, βλέπουσα εἰς τὰ αὑτῆς συγγενῆ, ὧν οὐδὲν ἱκανῶς ἔχει. τοῦ δὴ βασιλέως πέρι καὶ ὧν εἶπον, οὐδέν ἐστι τοιοῦτον.“ ἐδυνάμην δὲ παραθέσθαι τὰ περὶ τῶν παρ᾿ Ἑβραίοις καλουμένων „σεραφὶμ,“ ἀναγεγραμμένων ἐν τῷ Ἡσαΐᾳ, καλυπτόντων „τὸ πρόσωπον“ καὶ „τοὺς πόδας“ τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ τὰ περὶ τῶν. ὀνομαζομένων „χερουβὶμ,“ ἃ διέγραψεν ὁ Ἰεζεκιὴλ, καὶ τῶν ὡσανεὶ σχημάτων αὐτῶν, καὶ τίνα τρόπον ὀχεῖσθαι λέγεται ἐπὶ τῶν χερουβὶμ ὁ θεός· ἀλλ᾿ ἐπεὶ πάνυ κεκρυμμένως εἴρηται διὰ τοὺς ἀναξίους καὶ ἀσέμνους, μὴ δυναμένους παρακολουθῆσαι μεγαλονοίᾳ καὶ σεμνότητι θεολογίας, οὐχ ἡγησάμην πρέπον εἶναι ἐν τῷ συγγράμματι τούτῳ περὶ αὐτῶν διαλεχθῆναι.

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About this text

Celsus claims that the best Christian teachings were taken from Plato and said better by the Greeks, and he charges Christians with the diagram of an obscure sect and with a crude reading of Genesis. Origen answers that the plain speech of Scripture serves everyone, that the prophets spoke before Plato, and that the God of the Christians is spirit, not body, and is made known through His Word.

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 an independent review. No earlier English translation was consulted.

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Translated from Koetschau GCS 2 – 3 (1899) — Greek (Greek · Book VI, chapters 1 – 81)

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