Against Celsus 5.37
Summary: When a city's law contradicts God's natural law, God's law must be obeyed even at the cost of death; so Christians reject the local gods, and Christ, unlike the newly invented Sarapis, is older than all creation.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:40–41
Δύο τοίνυν νόμων προκειμένων γενικῶς, καὶ τοῦ μὲν ὄντος τῆς φύσεως νόμου, ὃν θεὸς ἂν νομοθετήσαι, ἑτέρου δὲ τοῦ ἐν ταῖς πόλεσι γραπτοῦ, καλὸν ὅπου μὲν μὴ ἐναντιοῦται ὁ γραπτὸς νόμος τῷ τοῦ θεοῦ μὴ λυπεῖν τοὺς πολίτας προφάσει ξένων νόμων· ἔνθα δὲ τὰ ἐναντία τῷ γραπτῷ νόμῳ προστάσσει ὁ τῆς φύσεως τουτέστι τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅρα εἰ μὴ ὁ λόγος αἱρεῖ μακρὰν μὲν χαίρειν εἰπεῖν τοῖς γεγραμμένοις καὶ τῷ βουλήματι τῶν νομοθετῶν, ἐπιδιδόναι δὲ ἑαυτὸν τῷ θεῷ νομοθέτῃ καὶ κατὰ τὸν τούτου λόγον αἱρεῖσθαι βιοῦν, κἂν μετὰ κινδύνων καὶ μυρίων πόνων καὶ θανάτων καὶ ἀδοξίας τοῦτο δέῃ ποιεῖν. καὶ γὰρ ἄτοπον, τῶν ἀρεσκόντων τῷ θεῷ ἑτέρων ὄντων παρὰ τὰ ἀρέσκοντά τισι τῶν ἐν ταῖς πόλεσι νόμων, καὶ ἀμηχάνου τυγχάνοντος ἀρέσκειν θεῷ καὶ τοῖς πρεσβεύουσι τοὺς τοιούσδε νόμους, καταφρονεῖν μὲν πράξεων, διʼ ὧν ἀρέσει τις τῷ τῶν ὅλων δημιουργῷ, αἱρεῖσθαι δὲ ἐκείνας, ἐξ ὧν ἀπάρεστος μέν τις ἔσται τῷ θεῷ, ἀρεστὸς δὲ τοῖς οὐ νόμοις νόμοις καὶ τοῖς τούτων φίλοις. εἴπερ δὲ εὔλογον ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων τὸν τῆς φύσεως προτιμᾶν νόμον, ὄντα νόμον τοῦ θεοῦ, παρὰ τὸν γεγραμμένον καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐναντίως τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ νενομοθετημένον. πῶς οὐχὶ τοῦτο μᾶλλον ἐν τοῖς περὶ θεοῦ νόμοις ποιητέον; καὶ οὔτε ὡς Αἰθίοπες, [ὡς] οἱ τὰ περὶ τὴν Μερόην οἰκοῦντες, Δία καὶ Διόνυσον, ὡς ἐκείνοις ἀρέσκει, μόνους προσκυνήσομεν, ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ὅλως Αἰθιοπικοὺς θεοὺς Αἰθιοπικῶς τιμήσομεν· οὔθʼ ὡς οἱ Ἀράβιοι τὴν Οὐρανίαν καὶ τὸν Διόνυσον μόνους ἡγησόμεθα θεοὺς, ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ὅλως θεοὺς. ἐν οἷς τὸ θῆλυ καὶ τὸ ἄῤῥεν δεδόξασται (ὡς θήλειαν γὰρ Ἀράβιοι τὴν Οὐρανίαν προσκυνοῦσι καὶ ὡς ἄῤῥενα τὸν Διόνυσον)· ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ὡς πάντες Αἰγύπτιοι θεοὺς νομίσομεν Ὄσιριν καὶ Ἶσιν. οὐδὲ τούτοις συγκατατάξομεν κατὰ τὰ τοῖς Σαΐταις (δοκοῦντα) τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν. εἰ δὲ καὶ Ναυκρατίταις ἄλλα μὲν ἔδοξε σέβειν τοῖς πρεσβυτέροις. τὸν Σάραπιν δὲ τοῖς χθὲς καὶ πρώην ἀρξαμένοις. τὸν οὐ πώποτε γενόμενον θεὸν, προσκυνεῖν· οὐ παρὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἡμεῖς νέον τὸν οὐ πρότερον ὄντα θεὸν οὐδὲ γνωσθέντα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις φήσομεν εἶναι. ὁ γὰρ τοῦ θεοῦ υἱὸς, ὁ „πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, “ εἰ καὶ νεωστὶ ἐνηνθρωπηκέναι ἔδοξεν. ἀλλʼ οὔτι γε διὰ τοῦτο νέος ἐστί. πρεσβύτατον γὰρ αὐτὸν πάντων τῶν δημιουργημάτων ἴσασιν οἱ θεῖοι λόγοι, καὶ αὐτῷ τὸν θεὸν περὶ τῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου δημιουργίας εἰρηκέναι· „ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατʼ εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν ἡμετέραν.“
English · Claude translation
Since, then, there are in general two laws before us, one being the law of nature, which God would lay down, and the other the written law in cities, it is good, where the written law does not oppose the law of God, not to trouble the citizens on the pretext of foreign laws; but where the law of nature, that is, of God, commands things contrary to the written law, see whether reason does not choose to bid a long farewell to what is written and to the intent of the lawgivers, and to give oneself to God the lawgiver and choose to live according to his word, even if one must do this with dangers and countless toils and deaths and disgrace. For it is absurd, when what pleases God is different from what pleases some of the laws in cities, and it is impossible to please both God and those who uphold such laws, to despise the actions by which one will please the Creator of the universe and choose those by which one will be displeasing to God, but pleasing to laws that are no laws and to their friends. And if in other matters it is reasonable to prefer the law of nature, which is the law of God, to the law written and enacted by human beings contrary to God's law, how much more must this be done in the laws about God? And we will not, like the Ethiopians who live around Meroe, worship Zeus and Dionysus alone, as pleases them; nor will we honour Ethiopian gods at all in the Ethiopian way. Nor, like the Arabians, will we consider Urania and Dionysus alone gods, nor gods at all, in whom female and male have been glorified (for the Arabians worship Urania as female and Dionysus as male). Nor, like all the Egyptians, will we consider Osiris and Isis gods; nor will we rank Athena with them according to the opinion of the people of Sais. And if the older people of Naucratis chose to worship other gods, and those who began only yesterday or the day before to worship Sarapis, a god who never existed, we will not for that reason say that there is a new god who did not exist before and was not known to human beings. For the Son of God, "the firstborn of all creation," even if he appeared to have become man recently, is not for that reason new. For the divine words know him to be the oldest of all created things, and that it was to him that God said concerning the creation of man: "Let us make man in our image and likeness."
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Col 1:15 and Gen 1:26. The bracketed [ὡς] is deleted and (δοκοῦντα) supplied by the editor. On the placement of the Son among "created things," Origen's wording (δημιουργήματα) reflects pre-Nicene usage following Col 1:15.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 5.37 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/5/37/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 5.37 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/5/37/).
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