Sophia Scriptura

Against Celsus 2.57

Origen · Against Celsus · ca. 248 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: Origen notes that a Jew could not deny bodily resurrection, since Scripture tells of boys raised by Elijah and Elisha, and suggests Jesus came to the Jews because they were prepared for such marvels.

Greek text · Koetschau 1:181

Πρόσχες δὲ εἰ μὴ πάνυ τυφλῶς ὁ παρὰ τῷ Κέλσῳ Ἰουδαῖος ὡς ἀδυνάτου ὄντος τοῦ ἀνίστασθαί τινα ἐκ νεκρῶν αὐτῷ σώματί φησιν· ἀλλʼ ἐκεῖνο σκεπτέον. εἴ τις ἀληθῶς ἀποθανὼν ἀνέστη ποτὲ αὐτῷ σώματι. οὐκ ἂν γὰρ εἶπεν ὁ Ἰουδαῖος ταῦτα. πιστεύων τοῖς ἐν τῇ τρίτῃ τῶν Βασιλειῶν ἀναγεγραμμένοις καὶ τῇ τετάρτῃ περὶ παιδαρίων, ὧν τὸ μὲν ἕτερον Ἠλίας ἀνέστησεν τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν ὁ Ἐλισσαῖος. διὰ τοῦτο δʼ οἶμαι καὶ τὸν Ἰησοῦν οὐκ ἄλλῳ ἔθνει ἢ Ἰουδαίοις ἐπιδεδημηκέναι, τοῖς ἐθάσι γενομένοις πρὸς τὰ παράδοξα. τῇ παραθέσει τῶν πεπιστευμένων πρὸς τὰ ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ γενόμενα καὶ περὶ αὐτοῦ ἱστορούμενα ὅπως παραδέξωνται ὅτι οὗτος, περὶ ὃν γέγονε μείζονα καὶ ὑφʼ οὗ ἐπετελέσθη παραδοξότερα, πάντων ἐκείνων μείζων ἦν.

English · Claude translation

Notice whether the Jew in Celsus does not speak very blindly, as if it were impossible for anyone to rise from the dead with the same body, when he says: “But this must be examined: whether anyone who truly died ever rose again with the same body.” For a Jew would not say this, believing what is recorded in the third and fourth books of Kingdoms about the boys, one of whom Elijah raised and the other Elisha. And for this reason, I think, Jesus came to no other nation than the Jews, who had become accustomed to marvels, so that by comparing what they already believed with what was done by him and recorded about him, they might accept that this one, about whom greater things happened and by whom more marvelous things were accomplished, was greater than all those.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 1:181 · Paul Koetschau, ed., Origenes Werke 1–2: Gegen Celsus, GCS 2–3 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1899) · Greek text: P. Koetschau, Origenes Werke 1–2 (GCS 2–3, 1899), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Koetschau, GCS 2–3. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Koetschau, GCS 2–3; made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)
Scripture
Topics
Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions are 1 Kgs 17:17–24 (3 Kgdms LXX) and 2 Kgs 4:18–37 (4 Kgdms LXX).

Cite this passage

Origen, Cels. 2.57 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/2/57/).

Plain text
Origen, Cels. 2.57 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/2/57/).

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