Against Celsus 7.38
Summary: God, who is mind or beyond mind, is known only by what is made in his image, the mind; the Christian does not speak with the voice of the flesh but seeks to live in the Spirit.
Greek text · Koetschau 2:188–189
Νοῦν τοίνυν ἢ ἐπέκεινα νοῦ καὶ οὐσίας λέγοντες εἶναι ἁπλοῦν καὶ ἀόρατον καὶ ἀσώματον τὸν τῶν ὅλων θεὸν. οὐκ ἂν ἄλλῳ τινὶ ἢ τῷ κατὰ τὴν ἐκείνου τοῦ νοῦ εἰκόνα γενομένῳ φήσομεν καταλαμβάνεσθαι τὸν θεόν· νῦν μὲν, ἵνα τῇ λέξει χρήσωμαι τοῦ Παύλου, „διʼ ἐσόπτρου καὶ (ἐν) αἰνίγματι τότε δὲ πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον.“ „πρόσωπον“ δὲ ἐὰν λέγω. μὴ συκοφαντείτω τις διὰ τὴν λέξιν τὸν δηλούμενον νοῦν ὑπʼ αὐτῆς, ἀλλὰ μανθανέτω (ἐν τῷ) „ἀνακεκαλυμμένῳ προσώπῳ τὴν δόξαν κυρίου κατοπτριζόμενοι καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν εἰκόνα μεταμορφούμενοι ἀπὸ δόξης εἰς δόξαν“ οὐ πρόσωπον αἰσθητὸν ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις παραλαμβανόμενον ἀλλὰ κατὰ τροπολογίαν νοούμενον ὡς καὶ ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ ὦτα. καὶ ὅσα ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω ὁμώνυμα τοῖς τοῦ σώματος μέλεσι παρεστήσαμεν. καὶ ἄνθρωπος μὲν οὖν, τουτέστι ψυχὴ χρωμένη σώματι, λεγομένη „ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος“ ἀλλὰ καὶ „ψυχὴ, “ ἀποκρίνεται οὐχ ἅπερ Κέλσος ἀνέγραψεν, ἀλλʼ ἅπερ αὐτὸς διδάσκει ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ ἄνθρωπος. σαρκὸς δὲ φωνῇ οὐκ ἂν Χριστιανὸς χρήσαιτο, μαθὼν „πνεύματι τὰς πράξεις τοῦ σώματος“ θανατοῦν καὶ „πάντοτε τὴν νέκρωσιν τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματι“ περιφέρειν καὶ „νεκρώσατε τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, “ καὶ εἰδὼς τί δηλοῦται ἐκ τοῦ „οὐ μὴ καταμείνῃ τὸ πνεῦμά μου ἐν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τούτοις εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα διὰ τὸ εἶναι αὐτοὺς σάρκας, “ ἐπιστάμενος δὲ καὶ ὅτι „οἱ ἐν σαρκὶ ὄντες θεῷ ἀρέσαι οὐ δύνανται“ καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πάντα πράττων εἰς τὸ μηδαμῶς αὐτὸν ἔτι εἶναι „ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ ἀλλ᾿“ „ἐν“ μόνῳ „τῷ πνεύματι.“
English · Claude translation
So we say that the God of the universe is mind, or beyond mind and being, simple, invisible, and incorporeal, and we would say that God is apprehended by nothing other than that which is made in the image of that mind; now, to use the words of Paul, “through a mirror and in a riddle, but then face to face.” And if I say “face,” let no one misrepresent, because of the word, the sense it conveys, but let him learn, from “with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, and being transformed into the same image from glory to glory,” that in such passages it is not a sensible face that is meant but one understood figuratively, like eyes and ears and all the other terms which, as we showed above, share their names with the members of the body. And indeed the man, that is, the soul using a body, called “the inner man,” and also “soul,” answers not what Celsus wrote down, but what the man of God himself teaches. A Christian would not use the voice of the flesh, since he has learned to put to death “by the Spirit the deeds of the body,” and to carry about “always in the body the dying of Jesus,” and “Put to death your members which are on the earth”; and since he knows what is meant by “My Spirit shall not remain in these men for ever, because they are flesh,” and understands also that “those who are in the flesh cannot please God,” and therefore does everything so as to be no longer at all “in the flesh” but only “in the Spirit.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are 1 Cor 13:12, 2 Cor 3:18, Rom 7:22 (“the inner man”), Rom 8:13, 2 Cor 4:10, Col 3:5, Gen 6:3 (LXX), Rom 8:8, and Rom 8:9. “Beyond mind and being” echoes Plato, Republic 509b.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 7.38 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/7/38/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 7.38 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/7/38/).
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