Against Celsus 1.64
Summary: Philosophy too reformed a few wicked men like Phaedo and Polemon, but Christ has transformed multitudes, as Paul's words to Titus describe.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:116–118
Εἰ δʼ ἐπὶ τῷ προτέρῳ βίῳ ὀνειδίζειν μέλλοιμεν τοῖς μεταβαλοῦσιν, ὥρα καὶ Φαίδωνος ἡμᾶς κατηγορεῖν καὶ φιλοσοφήσαντος, ἐπεὶ, ὡς ἡ ἱστορία φησὶν, ἀπὸ [οἰκήματος] στέγους αὐτὸν μετήγαγεν εἰς φιλόσοφον διατριβὴν ὁ Σωκράτης. ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν Πολέμωνος ἀσωτίαν, τοῦ διαδεξαμένου Ξενοκράτην, ὀνειδίσομεν φιλοσοφίᾳ· δέον κἀκεῖ τοῦτʼ αὐτῆς ἀποδέξασθαι, ὅτι δεδύνηται ὁ ἐν τοῖς πείσασι λόγος ἀπὸ τηλικούτων μεταστῆσαι κακῶν τοὺς προκατειλημμένους ἐν αὐτοῖς. καὶ παρὰ μὲν τοῖς Ἕλλησιν εἷς τις Φαίδων καὶ οὐκ οἶδα εἰ δεύτερος καὶ εἷς Πολέμων μεταβαλόντες ἀπὸ ἀσώτου καὶ μοχθηροτάτου βίου ἐφιλοσόφησαν, παρὰ δὲ τῷ Ἰησοῦ οὐ μόνοι τότε οἱ δώδεκα ἀλλʼ ἀεὶ καὶ πολλαπλασίους, οἵτινες γενόμενοι σωφρόνων χορὸς λέγουσι περὶ τῶν προτέρων· „ἦμεν γάρ ποτε καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀνόητοι, ἀπειθεῖς, πλανώμενοι, δουλεύοντες ἐπιθυμίαις καὶ ἡδοναῖς ποικίλαις, ἐν κακίᾳ καὶ φθόνῳ διάγοντες, στυγητοὶ, μισοῦντες ἀλλήλους· ὅτε δʼ ἡ χρηστότης καὶ ἡ φιλανθρωπία ἐπεφάνη τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν θεοῦ, “ „διὰ λουτροῦ παλιγγενεσίας καὶ ἀνακαινώσεως τοῦ πνεύματος, οὗ ἐξέχεεν ἐφʼ ἡμᾶς πλουσίως, “ τοιοίδε γεγόναμεν. „ἐξαπέστειλε“ γὰρ ὁ θεὸς „τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ καὶ ἰάσατο αὐτοὺς καὶ ἐῤῥύσατο αὐτοὺς ἐκ τῶν διαφθορῶν αὐτῶν, “ ὡς ὁ ἐν ψαλμοῖς προφητεύσας ἐδίδαξε. καὶ ταῦτα δʼ ἂν προσθείην τοῖς λεγομένοις, ὅτι Χρύσιππος ἐν τῷ περὶ παθῶν θεραπευτικῷ πειρᾶται ὑπὲρ τοῦ καταστεῖλαι τὰ ἐν ἀνθρώποις πάθη τῶν ψυχῶν, μὴ προσποιησάμενος ποῖόν τι τῆς ἀληθείας ἐστὶ δόγμα, θεραπεύειν κατὰ τὰς διαφόρους αἱρέσεις τοὺς ἐν τοῖς πάθεσι προκατειλημμένους καί φησιν ὅτι, κἂν ἡδονὴ τέλος ᾖ, οὑτωσὶ θεραπευτέον τὰ πάθη· κἂν τρία γένη τῶν ἀγαθῶν, οὐδὲν ἧττον κατὰ τὸν λόγον τοῦτον τῶν παθῶν οὕτως ἀπαλλακτέον τοὺς ἐνεχομένους αὐτοῖς. οἱ δὲ κατήγοροι τοῦ χριστιανισμοῦ οὐχ ὁρῶσιν, ὅσων πάθη καὶ ὅσων χύσις κακίας καταστέλλεται καὶ ὅσων ἄγρια ἤθη ἡμεροῦται προφάσει τοῦ λόγου. ᾧ ἔδει αὐχοῦντας αὐτοὺς τὸ κοινωνικὸν χάριτας ὁμολογεῖν, καινῇ μεθόδῳ πολλῶν κακῶν μεταστήσαντι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, καὶ μαρτυρεῖν γε αὐτῷ εἰ καὶ μὴ ἀλήθειαν ἀλλὰ τὸ λυσιτελὲς τῷ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένει.
English · Claude translation
If we were going to reproach those who have changed for their former life, it would be time for us to accuse Phaedo too, even after he became a philosopher, since, as the story says, Socrates brought him from a brothel to the philosophical school. And we will reproach philosophy with the profligacy of Polemon, the successor of Xenocrates—when we ought, there too, to credit philosophy with this: that the reasoning in those who persuaded them was able to bring those previously held by such great evils away from them. Among the Greeks there was one Phaedo, and I do not know of a second, and one Polemon, who turned from a profligate and most wicked life to philosophy; but with Jesus there were not only the twelve at that time, but always, and many times as many, who, having become a company of the self-controlled, say of their former state: "For we too were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another; but when the kindness and love of humanity of God our Savior appeared," "through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Spirit, which he poured out on us richly," we became such as we are. For God "sent his word and healed them and rescued them from their corruptions," as the prophet in the Psalms taught. I might add this to what has been said: Chrysippus, in his Therapeutics of the Passions, wishing to restrain the passions of human souls, tries, without making it an issue which doctrine is true, to treat those held by the passions according to the different schools; and he says that even if pleasure is the goal, the passions should be treated in this way, and even if there are three kinds of goods, no less according to that view those caught in the passions should be freed from them in this way. But the accusers of Christianity do not see how many people's passions, and how great a flood of wickedness, are restrained, and how many people's savage characters are tamed, by means of the teaching. They ought, boasting as they do of their public spirit, to acknowledge their gratitude to it for turning human beings from many evils by a new method, and to bear witness to it, if not as truth, at least as beneficial to the human race.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- Phaedo's rescue from slavery in a brothel is told in Diogenes Laertius 2.105; Polemon's conversion in 4.16. The quotations are Titus 3:3–6 and Ps 107:20 (106:20 LXX). Chrysippus's Therapeutics (book 4 of On the Passions) is lost. The bracketed [οἰκήματος] is deleted by the editor.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray period inside the quotation of Titus 3:3; stray period inside the quotation of Titus 3:5–6; stray period inside the sentence): ἀποδέξασθαι. ὅτι → ἀποδέξασθαι, ὅτι; ἀνόητοι. ἀπειθεῖς → ἀνόητοι, ἀπειθεῖς; πνεύματος. οὗ → πνεύματος, οὗ.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 1.64 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/1/64/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 1.64 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/1/64/).
Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)
Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text