Against Celsus 6.8
Summary: Celsus praises Plato for not telling marvels or demanding faith in a Son of God, but Origen points to the marvellous legends told of Plato, Pythagoras, and Socrates, and to Plato's own mention of a Father of the world's ruler.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:77–79
Εἶτά φησι μετὰ ἄλλας λέξεις Πλατωνικὰς, δηλούσας ὅτι „ὀλίγοις“ ἐστὶ γνωστὸν τὸ ἀγαθὸν, ἐπεὶ οἱ πολλοὶ μετὰ „καταφρονήσεως οὐκ ὀρθῆς“ „ὑψηλῆς καὶ χαύνης ἐλπίδος“ πληρωθέντες „ὡς σεμνὰ ἄττα“ μεμαθηκότες λέγουσί τινα ὡς ἀληθῆ, ὅτι ταῦτα προειρηκὼς ὁ Πλάτων ὅμως οὐ τερατεύεται οὐδʼ ἀποφράττει τοῦ προαιρεῖσθαι βουλομένου, τί ποτε ἐστὶν ὃ ἐπαγγέλλεται, τὴν γλῶτταν, οὐδʼ αὐτόθεν κελεύει φθάσαντας πιστεύειν ὅτι τοιόσδε ἐστὶν ὁ θεὸς καὶ υἱὸν ἔχει τοιόνδε, καὶ οὗτος κατελθὼν ἐμοὶ διελέξατο. καὶ πρὸς ταῦτά φημι ὅτι περὶ μὲν Πλάτωνος Ἀρίστανδρος οἶμαι ἀνέγραψεν ὡς οὐκ Ἀρίστωνος υἱοῦ ἀλλὰ φάσματος, ἐν Ἀπόλλωνος εἴδει προσελθόντος τῇ Ἀμφικτιόνῃ· καὶ ἄλλοι δὲ πλείονες τῶν Πλατωνικῶν ἐν τῷ Πλάτωνος βίῳ τοιαῦτʼ εἰρήκασι· περὶ δὲ Πυθαγόρου, πλεῖστα ὅσα τερατευσαμένου καὶ δείξαντος μὲν ἐν πανηγύρει Ἑλλήνων ἐλεφάντινον τὸν μηρὸν ἀνεγνωρικέναι δὲ φήσαντος τὴν ἀσπίδα, ᾗ ἐχρῆτο, ὅτʼ Εὔφορβος ἦν, καὶ ἐν μιᾷ λεγομένου ἡμέρᾳ ἐν δύο πεφηνέναι πόλεσι, τί χρὴ καὶ λέγειν; ὁ δὲ βουλόμενος κατηγορεῖν ὡς τερατείας ἱστορουμένης περὶ Πλάτωνος καὶ Σωκράτους ἐκθήσεται καὶ τὸν συνιστάμενον Σωκράτει καθʼ ὕπνον κύκνον καὶ τὸν διδάσκαλον εἰπόντα ἐπὶ τῇ συστάσει τοῦ νεανίσκου· „οὗτος ἄρα ὁ κύκνος ἦν.“ ἀλλὰ καὶ ὃν τρίτον εἶδεν ὀφθαλμὸν ἑαυτὸν ἔχοντα ὁ Πλάτων εἰς τερατείαν ἀναλήψεται. οὐ λείψει δὲ τοὺς κακοήθεις καὶ κακηγορεῖν βουλομένους τὰ τοῖς κρείττοσι παρὰ τοὺς πολλοὺς ἐπιφανέντα, διαβολὴ καὶ κακηγορία· οἵτινες καὶ τὸ Σωκράτους δαιμόνιον ὡς πλάσμα χλευάσουσιν. οὐ τερατευόμεθα οὖν τὰ περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ διηγούμενοι, οὐδʼ οἱ γνήσιοι αὐτοῦ μαθηταὶ τοιούτους ἀνέγραψαν λόγους περὶ αὐτοῦ. ὁ δὲ πάντʼ ἐπαγγελλόμενος εἰδέναι Κέλσος καὶ πολλὰ τῶν Πλάτωνος παρατιθέμενος ἑκὼν οἶμαι σιωπᾷ τὸν περὶ υἱοῦ θεοῦ λόγον, τὸν παρὰ Πλάτωνι λελεγμένον ἐν τῇ πρὸς Ἑρμείαν καὶ Κορίσκον ἐπιστολῇ. οὕτω δὲ ἔχει ἡ τοῦ Πλάτωνος λέξις· „καὶ τὸν τῶν πάντων θεὸν ἡγεμόνα τῶν τε ὄντων καὶ τῶν μελλόντων, τοῦ τε ἡγεμονικοῦ καὶ αἰτίου πατέρα καὶ κύριον ἐπομνύντας· ὃν, ἂν ὄντως φιλοσοφῶμεν, εἰσόμεθα πάντες (σαφῶς) εἰς δύναμιν ἀνθρώπων εὐδαιμόνων.“
English · Claude translation
Then, after other Platonic passages which show that the good is known “to few,” since the many, filled “with an improper contempt” and “a lofty and empty hope,” say certain things as true “as though they had learned something sacred,” Celsus says: Although Plato said this beforehand, he nevertheless does not tell marvels, nor does he stop the tongue of the one who wishes to inquire what it is that he professes; nor does he command people to believe at the outset that God is of such a kind and has such a Son, and that this Son came down and conversed with me. To this I say that about Plato, Aristander, I believe, wrote that he was not the son of Ariston but of a phantom that approached Amphictione in the form of Apollo; and a good many other Platonists have said such things in their Life of Plato. And about Pythagoras, who told a great many marvels, who showed his ivory thigh at a festival of the Greeks and said he had recognized the shield he had used when he was Euphorbus, and who is said to have appeared in two cities on one day, what need is there even to speak? And anyone who wishes to accuse the stories about Plato and Socrates of marvel-mongering will set out the swan that was introduced to Socrates in his sleep, and the teacher saying, when the youth was introduced to him, “So this was the swan.” And he will count as a marvel the third eye that Plato saw himself as having. Nor will slander and abuse be lacking to the malicious who wish to disparage the things that have appeared to superior men beyond the many; such people will also mock Socrates' divine sign as a fiction. We, then, are not telling marvels when we relate the things about Jesus, nor did his genuine disciples write such stories about him. But Celsus, who professes to know everything and quotes much of Plato, deliberately, I think, passes over in silence the saying about a son of God found in Plato in his letter to Hermias and Coriscus. The words of Plato run as follows: “and swearing by the God of all things, the ruler of what is and of what is to be, and the Father and Lord of the ruler and cause, whom, if we truly philosophize, we shall all know clearly, so far as is possible for fortunate men.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The Platonic phrases are Plato, Letter 7, 341e; the closing quotation is Letter 6, 323d. The legends of Plato's birth (his mother was Perictione; the text has “Amphictione”), of Pythagoras's ivory (usually golden) thigh and his former life as Euphorbus, and of Socrates' dream of the swan are known from later biographers such as Diogenes Laertius; the “Aristander” named here is uncertain, and the story of Plato's third eye is unidentified. “Divine sign” renders τὸ δαιμόνιον.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 6.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/6/8/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 6.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/6/8/).
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