Against Celsus 8.71 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Celsus imagines Christians converting one set of rulers after another until some government wipes them out; Origen says no Christian claims this and Celsus has invented it.

Greek text · Koetschau 2:287–288

Εἶτα πάλιν, ὡς ἔθος τῷ Κέλσῳ. φύρει ἐν τοῖς ἑξῆς λέγων ἃ οὐδεὶς ἡμῶν ἀνέγραψε· φησὶ γὰρ τοιαῦτα· οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ ἐκεῖνο ἀνεκτόν σου λέγοντος, ὡς, ἂν οἱ νῦν βασιλεύοντες ἡμῶν σοι πεισθέντες ἁλῶσι. τοὺς αὖθις βασιλεύοντας πείσεις εἶτʼ ἄλλους, ἂν κἀκεῖνοι ἁλῶσι, καὶ ἄλλους ἐπʼ ἄλλοις, μέχρι πάντων τῶν σοι πειθομένων ἁλισκομένων μία τις ἀρχὴ σωφρονήσασα καὶ προειδομένη τὸ συμβαῖνον πάντας ὑμᾶς, πρὶν αὐτὴν προαπολέσθαι, παγγενεὶ διολέσει. εἰπεῖν δὲ περὶ τούτων οὐχ αἱρεῖ λόγος, οὐ γὰρ λέγει τις ἡμῶν περὶ τῶν νῦν βασιλευόντων ὅτι, ἐὰν πεισθέντες ἁλῶσι, τοὺς μετʼ αὐτοὺς πάλιν πείσομεν, κἀκείνων ἁλόντων πάλιν τοὺς ἑξῆς πείσομεν. πόθεν δὲ καὶ ἀπέῤῥιψεν ὅτι κατὰ διαδοχὴν ἀεὶ τῶν ὑστέρων πειθομένων ἡμῖν καὶ ἁλισκομένων διὰ τὸ μὴ ἀμύνεσθαι τοὺς πολεμίους μία τις ἀρχὴ σωφρονήσασα καὶ προειδομένη τὸ συμβαῖνον παγγενεὶ ἡμᾶς διολέσει; ἀλλʼ ἔοικε φλυαρίας ἐν τούτοις ἑξῆς συνάπτων καὶ τοῦτʼ ἀφʼ ἑαυτοῦ ἀπεῤῥοιβδηκέναι.

English · Claude translation

Then again, as is Celsus's custom, he makes a muddle in what follows, saying what none of us has written. For he says something like this: “Nor is that tolerable when you say that, if those who now reign over us are persuaded by you and are captured, you will persuade those who reign after them, and then others, if they too are captured, and others after others, until, when all who are persuaded by you have been captured, some one government, having come to its senses and foreseeing what is happening, will destroy you all root and branch before it perishes first.” Reason does not require us to speak about this; for none of us says of those who now reign that, if they are persuaded and captured, we shall persuade those after them again, and when they are captured we shall again persuade the next. And from where did he fling out the idea that, as those who come later are successively persuaded by us and captured through not defending themselves against their enemies, some one government, having come to its senses and foreseeing what is happening, will destroy us root and branch? But it seems that in this, stringing nonsense together, he has blurted out this too of his own accord.

About this passage

Source

Koetschau 2:287–288 · 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)

Topics

Persecution

Cite this passage

Origen, Cels. 8.71 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/8/71/).

Plain text

Origen, Cels. 8.71 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/8/71/).