Against Celsus 6.19
Summary: Christians did not borrow the idea of a realm above the heavens from Plato; David, Paul, and the prophets spoke of it first, and Plato may even have learned it from the Hebrews.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:89–90
Ἑξῆς δὲ τούτοις φησὶν ὁ Κέλσος παρακούσαντάς τινας Χριστιανοὺς Πλατωνικῶν λέξεων αὐχεῖν τὸν ὑπερουράνιον θεὸν, ὑπεραναβαίνοντας τὸν Ἰουδαίων οὐρανόν. ἐν τούτοις δὲ οὐ διασαφεῖ, πότερον καὶ τὸν Ἰουδαίων θεὸν ὑπεραναβαίνουσιν ἢ μόνον ὃν ὀμνύουσιν οὐρανόν. περὶ μὲν οὖν τῶν ἕτερον ἐπαγγελλομένων θεὸν παρὰ τὸν καὶ ὑπὸ Ἰουδαίων προσκυνούμενον οὐ πρόκειται νῦν ἡμῖν λέγειν, περὶ δὲ ἑαυτῶν ἀπολογεῖσθαι καὶ δεικνύναι ὅτι οὐ δύνανται οἱ παρʼ ἡμῖν Ἰουδαίων προφῆται ἀπὸ Πλάτωνός τι εἰληφέναι· πρεσβύτεροι γὰρ ἦσαν αὐτοῦ. οὔτʼ οὖν τὴν φάσκουσαν λέξιν· „περὶ τὸν πάντων βασιλέα πάντʼ ἐστὶ. καὶ ἐκείνου ἕνεκα πάντα“ ἀπὸ Πλάτωνος εἰλήφαμεν, ἀλλὰ τούτων κρειττόνως εἰρημένα ἀπὸ τῶν προφητῶν μεμαθήκαμεν, σαφηνίσαντος τοῦ Ἰησοῦ καὶ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ τὸ βούλημα τοῦ ἐν τοῖς προφήταις πνεύματος (ὅπερ οὐκ ἄλλο ἦν τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ), οὔτε τὰ περὶ τοῦ ὑπερουρανίου τόπου πρῶτος ὁ φιλόσοφος παρίστησιν, ἀλλὰ Δαυῒδ τὴν βαθύτητα τοῦ πλήθους τῶν ἐν τοῖς ὑπεραναβεβηκόσι τὰ αἰσθητὰ τῶν περὶ θεοῦ θεωρημάτων πάλαι παρέστησεν εἰπὼν ἐν τῇ βίβλῳ τῶν ψαλμῶν· „αἰνεῖτε τὸν θεὸν οἱ οὐρανοὶ τῶν οὐρανῶν, καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ ὑπεράνω τῶν οὐρανῶν· αἰνεσάτωσαν τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου.“ ἐγὼ δὲ οὐκ ἀπογινώσκω τὰς ἀπὸ τοῦ Φαίδρου λέξεις ἀπό τινων Ἑβραίων μεμαθηκότα τὸν Πλάτωνα, ὡς δέ τινες ἀνέγραψαν, ἔτι καὶ τοῖς προφητικοῖς ἐντυχόντα λόγοις ἐκτεθεῖσθαι, ἐν οἷς ἔλεγεν· „τὸν ὑπερουράνιον τόπον οὔτε τις ὕμνησε τῶν τῇδε ποιητὴς οὔτε ὑμνήσει κατʼ ἀξίαν“ καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς, ἐν οἷς ἐστι καὶ τὸ„ἡ γὰρ ἀχρώματός τε καὶ ἀσχημάτιστος καὶ ἀναφὴς οὐσία ὄντως οὖσα ψυχῆς κυβερνήτῃ νῷ μόνῳ θεατὴ, περὶ ὅν τὸ τῆς ἀληθοῦς ἐπιστήμης γένος τοῦτον ἔχει τὸν τόπον.“ καὶ ἀπʼ ἐκείνων γε τῶν λόγων παιδευθεὶς ὁ Παῦλος ἡμῶν καὶ ποθῶν τὰ ὑπερκόσμια καὶ ὑπερου ράνια καὶ διʼ ἐκεῖνα πάντα πράττων, ἵνʼ αὐτῶν τύχῃ, φησὶν ἐν τῇ δευτέρᾳ πρὸς Κορινθίους ἐπιστολῇ· „τὸ γὰρ παραυτίκα ἐλαφρὸν τῆς θλίψεως ἡμῶν καθʼ ὑπερβολὴν εἰς ὑπερβολὴν αἰώνιον βάρος δόξης κατεργάζεται ἡμῖν. μὴ σκοπούντων ἡμῶν τὰ βλεπόμενα ἀλλὰ τὰ μὴ βλεπόμενα· τὰ γὰρ βλεπόμενα πρόσκαιρα, τὰ δὲ μὴ βλεπόμενα αἰώνια.“
English · Claude translation
Next Celsus says that certain Christians, having misunderstood some Platonic sayings, boast of the God above the heavens, going up beyond the heaven of the Jews. Here he does not make clear whether they go beyond the God of the Jews too, or only beyond the heaven by which they swear. It is not our present business to speak about those who proclaim another God besides the one worshipped by the Jews too, but to defend ourselves and to show that the prophets of the Jews whom we accept could not have taken anything from Plato, for they were older than he. So we did not take from Plato the saying that “all things are about the King of all, and all things are for his sake”; rather we have learned from the prophets things said better than this, since Jesus and his disciples made clear the intention of the Spirit in the prophets, which was none other than the Spirit of Christ. Nor was the philosopher the first to set forth what concerns the place above the heavens; David long ago set forth the depth and the multitude of the contemplations about God among those who have risen above sensible things, when he said in the book of Psalms: “Praise God, you heavens of heavens, and the water that is above the heavens; let them praise the name of the Lord.” And I do not rule out that Plato learned the words in the Phaedrus from certain Hebrews, or, as some have recorded, that he set them out after reading the prophetic writings, where he said: “No poet here below has ever sung, or ever will sing, worthily of the place above the heavens,” and what follows, among which is this: “For the being that truly is, without colour, without shape, intangible, visible only to mind, the soul's pilot, is the object of the true kind of knowledge, and occupies this place.” And our Paul, educated by those words and longing for what is beyond the world and above the heavens, and doing everything for their sake in order to attain them, says in the second letter to the Corinthians: “For our momentary light affliction is working for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, while we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Plato, Letter 2, 312e, Ps 148:4–5, Plato, Phaedrus 247c, and 2 Cor 4:17–18. “Those who proclaim another God” are Marcion and similar groups. “Those words” in the last sentence are the prophetic writings.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 6.19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/6/19/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 6.19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/6/19/).
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