Against Celsus, Book VI · §25 · Origen of Alexandria

Leviathan, Behemoth and Gehenna

In it was a drawing of circles, ten of them separate from one another but bound together by one circle, which was said to be the soul of the universe and was named Leviathan. Of him the Jewish Scriptures, whatever their riddle may mean, said that he was formed by God as a plaything. For in the Psalms we found: “In wisdom you have made all things; the earth is filled with your creation. Here is the great and wide sea; there ships pass through, small living things with great; this dragon, which you formed to make sport of” (Psalm 104:24–26). In place of “dragon” the Hebrew has Leviathan. So the impious diagram said that the Leviathan so plainly condemned in the prophet is the soul that pervades the universe.

We found in it also the one named Behemoth, placed, as it were, after the lowest circle. The one who devised that foul diagram wrote this Leviathan on the circle and at its centre, setting down his name twice. Further, Celsus says that the diagram was divided by a thick black line, and he said that the diagram called this line Gehenna, which is also Tartarus.

Now since we found Gehenna written in the Gospel as a place of punishment (Matthew 5:22; 10:28), we searched whether it was named anywhere in the old writings, especially since the Jews too use the name. We found that in some places Scripture calls it the “Valley of the son of Ennom” (Jeremiah 7:31–32); but in the Hebrew, as we have learned, where “Valley” stands, “the Valley of Ennom” and “Gehenna” were used of one and the same place. Keeping close watch on the readings, we find also that Gehenna, or the Valley of Ennom, is listed in the lot of the tribe of Benjamin, in which Jerusalem also lay (Joshua 18:16, 28).

And as we examine what follows from there being a heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22), starting from the lot of Benjamin and the Valley of Ennom, we find something that bears on the teaching about punishments: souls of this kind are brought to a purification that comes through torment, according to the words, “Behold, the Lord comes in like the fire of a smelting furnace and like the washers’ lye; and he will sit smelting and purifying as gold and as silver” (Malachi 3:2–3)…

Greek

Ἐν ᾧ ἦν διαγραφὴ κύκλων, ἀπολελυμένων μὲν ἀπ᾿ ἀλλήλων δέκα συνδουμένων δὲ ὑφ᾿ ἑνὸς κύκλου, ὃς ἐλέγετο εἶναι ἡ τῶν ὅλων ψυχὴ καὶ ὠνομάζετο Λευϊαθὰν, ὅντινα αἱ Ἰουδαίων γραφαὶ ὅ τι ποτ᾿ οὖν αἰνισσόμεναι ἔλεγον πεπλάσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ παίγνιον. ἐν γὰρ ψαλμοῖς εὕρομεν· „πάντα ἐν σοφίᾳ ἐποίησας· ἐπληρώθη ἡ γῆ τῆς κτίσεώς σου. αὕτη ἡ θάλασσα ἡ μεγάλη καὶ εὐρύχωρος· ἐκεῖ πλοῖα διαπορεύονται, ζῷα μικρὰ μετὰ μεγάλων, δράκων οὗτος, ὃν ἔπλασας ἐμπαίζειν αὐτῷ.“ ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ „δράκων“ Λευϊαθὰν ἦν ἐν τῷ Ἑβραϊκῷ. τὸ τοίνυν ἀσεβὲς διάγραμμα τὸν σαφῶς οὕτως κατηγορηθέντα ἐν τῷ προφήτῃ Λευϊαθὰν ἔλεγεν εἶναι τὴν διὰ τῶν ὅλων πεφοιτηκυῖαν ψυχήν. εὕρομεν δ᾿ ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ τὸν Βεημὼν ὀνομαζόμενον ὡσπερεὶ τεταγμένον τινὰ μετὰ τὸν κατωτάτω κύκλον. τοῦτον δὲ τὸν Λευϊαθὰν ὁ τὸ μιαρὸν ἐκεῖνο διάγραμμα ἀναπλάσας ἐπὶ τοῦ κύκλου καὶ τοῦ κέντρου αὐτοῦ κατέγραψε, δὶς ἐκθέμενος αὐτοῦ τὸ ὄνομα. ἔτι δὲ ὁ Κέλσος μελαίνῃ γραμμῇ παχείᾳ φησὶ διειλημμένον εἶναι τὸ διάγραμμα, καὶ ταύτην ἔφασκεν εἰρῆσθαι αὐτῷ τὴν Γέενναν, οὖσαν καὶ Τάρταρον. τὴν δὲ Γέενναν ἡμεῖς ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ γεγραμμένην ὡς κολαστήριον εὑρόντες, ἐζητήσαμεν, εἴ που τῶν παλαιῶν γραμμάτων ὠνομάσθη, καὶ μάλιστα ἐπείπερ καὶ Ἰουδαῖοι χρῶνται τῷ ὀνόματι. εὕρομεν δὲ ὅπου μὲν Φάραγξ „υἱοῦ Ἐννὸμ“ ὀνομαζομένην ἐν τῇ γραφῇ, ἐν δὲ τῷ Ἑβραϊκῷ ἀντὶ τοῦ Φάραγξ μεμαθήκαμεν ὅτι κατὰ τοῦ αὐτοῦ ὑποκειμένου ἐλέγετο ἡ Φάραγξ Ἐννὸμ καὶ ἡ Γέεννα. ἐπιτηροῦντες δὲ τὰ ἀναγνώσματα εὑρίσκομεν καὶ ἐν τῷ κλήρῳ τῆς φυλῆς Βενιαμὶν τὴν Γέενναν ἢ Φάραγγα Ἐννὸμ κατειλεγμένην, οὗ ἦν καὶ Ἱερουσαλήμ. καὶ ἐξετάζοντες τὴν ἀκολουθίαν τοῦ εἶναι ἐπουράνιον Ἰερουσαλὴμ ἀπὸ τοῦ κλήρου Βενιαμὶν καὶ τῆς Φάραγγος Ἐννὸμ εὑρίσκομέν τι εἰς τὸν περὶ κολάσεων τόπον, μεταλαμβα νομένων εἰς τὴν μετὰ βασάνου κάθαρσιν τῶν τοιωνδὶ ψυχῶν κατὰ τὸ „ἰδοὺ κύριος εἰσπορεύεται ὡς πῦρ χωνευτηρίου καὶ ὡς ποία πλυνόντων· καὶ καθιεῖται χωνεύων καὶ καθαρίζων (ὡς) τὸ χρυσίον καὶ ὡς τὸ ἀργύριον“

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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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