Sophia Scriptura

Against Celsus 7.1

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

Summary: Origen opens his seventh book with a prayer that God's truth may destroy the arguments opposed to it, so that all may offer God a spiritual sacrifice.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:153

Ἐν ἓξ τοῖς πρὸ τούτων. ἱερὲ ἀδελφὲ Ἀμβρόσιε, ἀγωνισάμενοι κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἡμῖν βιβλίοις πρὸς τὰς Κέλσου (κατὰ) Χριστιανῶν κατηγορίας καὶ μηδὲν ὅση δύναμις ἀβασάνιστον καὶ ἀνεξέταστον ἐάσαντες μηδὲ παρελθόντες, πρὸς ὃ ὡς οἷόν τε ἡμῖν ἀπηντήσαμεν. θεὸν ἐπικαλεσάμενοι διʼ αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, τοῦ κατηγορουμένου ὑπὸ Κέλσου, ἵνʼ ἡμῶν ἐλλάμψῃ ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ ἀλήθεια τυγχάνων τὰ ἀνατρεπτικὰ τοῦ ψεύδους, ἀρχόμεθα καὶ ἑβδόμου συγγράμματος, τὸ προφητικὸν ἐκεῖνο ἐν τῇ πρὸς θεὸν λέγοντες εὐχῇ τό· „ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ σου ἐξολόθρευσον αὐτοὺς, “ δῆλον δʼ ὅτι τοὺς ἐναντίους „τῇ ἀληθείᾳ“ λόγους· οὗτοι γὰρ ἀληθείᾳ θεοῦ ἐξολοθρεύονται, ἵνʼ ἐξολοθρευθέντων αὐτῶν οἱ πάντες περισπασμοῦ ἀπολυθέντες εἴπωσι τὸ ἑξῆς ἐκείνῳ τό· „ἑκουσίως θύσω σοι, “ λογικὴν καὶ ἄκαπνον θυσίαν προσφέροντες τῷ θεῷ τῶν ὅλων.

English · Claude translation

In the six preceding books, holy brother Ambrose, we have contended as well as we could against Celsus's accusations against Christians, leaving nothing, so far as possible, untested and unexamined, and not passing over anything without answering it as well as we could. Now, calling on God through Jesus Christ himself, whom Celsus accuses, that he who is the truth may shine in our hearts with what overthrows falsehood, we begin a seventh treatise too, saying in our prayer to God that prophetic word: “In your truth destroy them,” meaning, plainly, the arguments opposed “to the truth.” For these are destroyed by the truth of God, so that, when they have been destroyed, all who have been set free from distraction may say what follows: “I will sacrifice to you willingly,” offering to the God of the universe a rational and smokeless sacrifice.

About this passage

Source
Koetschau 2:153 · 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
Prayer

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Ps 54:5–6 (53:7–8 LXX), with an allusion to Rom 12:1 (“rational” worship).

Cite this passage

Origen, Cels. 7.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/7/1/).

Plain text
Origen, Cels. 7.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/7/1/).

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