Against Celsus, preface 6
Summary: Origen explains that the preface was written later, that the book is for unbelievers and the weak in faith, and that its opening chapters are only brief notes.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:54–55
Τοῦτο δὲ τὸ προοίμιον μετὰ τὸ ὑπαγορεῦσαι πάντα τὰ μέχρι τῆς παρὰ Κέλσῳ τοῦ Ἰουδαίου πρὸς τὸν Ἰησοῦν προσωποποιΐας ἔδοξεν ἡμῖν προτάξαι τῆς ἀρχῆς· ἵνʼ αὐτῷ προεντυγχάνῃ ὁ ἀναγνωσόμενος τὰ πρὸς Κέλσον ἡμῖν ὑπαγορευθέντα καὶ ἴδῃ ὅτι οὐ πάνυ πιστοῖς γέγραπται τὸ βιβλίον τοῦτο ἀλλʼ ἢ τέλεον ἀγεύστοις τῆς εἰς Χριστὸν πίστεως ἢ τοῖς, ὡς ὁ ἀπόστολος ὠνόμασεν, ἀσθενοῦσιν ἐν „τῇ πίστει.“ εἶπε δʼ οὕτως· „τὸν δʼ ἀσθενοῦντα τῇ πίστει προσλαμβάνεσθε.“ ἀπολογησάσθω δὲ τὸ προοίμιον, ὅτι ἄλλῃ μὲν προθέσει τὴν ἀρχὴν τῶν πρὸς Κέλσον ὑπηγορεύσαμεν ἄλλῃ δὲ τὰ μετὰ τὴν ἀρχήν. πρότερον μὲν γὰρ ἐσκοποῦμεν ὑποσημειώσασθαι τὰ κεφάλαια καὶ διὰ βραχέων τὰ πρὸς αὐτὰ λεγόμενα, εἶτα μετὰ τοῦτο σωματοποιῆσαι τὸν λόγον· ὕστερον δʼ αὐτὰ τὰ πράγματα ὑπέβαλεν ἡμῖν φειδομένοις χρόνου ἀρκεσθῆναι μὲν τοῖς κατὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν οὕτως ὑπαγορευθεῖσιν, ἐν δὲ τοῖς ἑξῆς κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἡμῖν συγγραφικῶς ἀγωνίσασθαι πρὸς τὰ Κέλσου καθʼ ἡμῶν ἐγκλήματα. διόπερ αἰτοῦμεν συγγνώμην ἐπὶ τῇ ἀρχῇ τῶν μετὰ τὸ προοίμιον. ἐὰν δὲ μὴ κινηθῇς καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἑξῆς ὑπαγορευθέντων ἀνυσίμως, καὶ ἐπʼ αὐτοῖς τὴν ὁμοίαν συγγνώμην αἰτῶν ἀναπέμπω σε, ἐάνπερ ἔτι θέλῃς διʼ ὑπαγορεύσεων τὰς λύσεις σοι τῶν Κέλσου γενέσθαι λόγων, ἐπὶ τοὺς ἡμῶν συνετωτέρους καὶ δυνατοὺς, διὰ λέξεων καὶ βιβλίων ἀνατρέπειν δυναμένους τὰ καθʼ ἡμῶν τοῦ Κέλσου ἐγκλήματα. πλὴν βελτίων ὁ μηδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν δεηθεὶς, κἂν ἐντυχὼν τῷ Κέλσου συγγράμματι, τῆς πρὸς αὐτὸ ἀπολογίας, ἀλλʼ ὑπερφρονήσας πάντα τὰ ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ αὐτοῦ ὡς καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ τυχόντος ἐν Χριστῷ πιστοῦ διὰ τὸ ἐν αὐτῷ πνεῦμα εὐλόγως καταφρονούμενα.
English · Claude translation
I decided to place this preface at the beginning after I had dictated everything up to the speech Celsus puts in the mouth of the Jew against Jesus, so that whoever reads what I have dictated against Celsus may meet it first and see that this book has not been written at all for those firm in faith, but either for those wholly without taste of faith in Christ, or for those whom the apostle called weak "in the faith." He said: "Welcome the one who is weak in faith." Let the preface also offer this excuse: that I dictated the beginning of my answer to Celsus with one plan and what follows the beginning with another. At first I intended to note down the headings and briefly what could be said against them, and after that to give the argument a full body; but later the subject itself suggested to me, to save time, that I should be content with what had been dictated in that way at the beginning, and in what followed contend, as far as I could, in the manner of a treatise against Celsus's charges against us. So I ask pardon for the beginning of what follows the preface. And if you are not effectively moved by what was dictated afterward either, I ask the same pardon for it too, and refer you—if you still want the answers to Celsus's arguments to come to you by dictation—to those wiser than I and able to overturn Celsus's charges against us in words and books. Better, however, is the one who, even on reading Celsus's treatise, does not need any defense against it at all, but despises everything in his book as something that even an ordinary believer in Christ rightly despises because of the Spirit that is in him.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Rom 14:1. Origen dictated the work; the preface was composed after the part corresponding to Book 1.1–27, before Celsus's imagined Jew is introduced (1.28).
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 0.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/0/6/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 0.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/0/6/).
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