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Origen
Against Celsus.
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Book I.
Preface.
1. When false
witnesses testified against our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, He
remained silent; and when unfounded charges were brought against Him,
He returned no answer, believing that His whole life and conduct among
the Jews were a better refutation than any answer to the false
testimony, or than any formal defence against the accusations.
And I know not, my pious Ambrosius,3070
| 3070 This individual
is mentioned by Eusebius (Eccles. Hist., vi. c. 18) as having
been converted from the heresy of Valentinus to the faith of the Church
by the efforts of Origen. [Lardner (Credib., vii.
210–212) is inclined to “place” Celsus in the year
176. Here and elsewhere this learned authority is diffuse on the
subject, and merits careful attention.] | why you wished
me to write a reply to the false charges brought by Celsus against the
Christians, and to his accusations directed against the faith of the
Churches in his treatise; as if the facts themselves did not furnish a
manifest refutation, and the doctrine a better answer than any writing,
seeing it both disposes of the false statements, and does not leave to
the accusations any credibility or validity. Now, with respect to
our Lord’s silence when false witness was borne against Him, it
is sufficient at present to quote the words of Matthew, for the
testimony of Mark is to the same effect. And the words of Matthew
are as follow: “And the high priest and the council sought
false witness against Jesus to put Him to death, but found none,
although many false witnesses came forward. At last two false
witnesses came and said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the
temple of God, and after three days to build it up. And the high
priest arose, and said to Him, Answerest thou nothing to what these
witness against thee? But Jesus held His peace.”3071
And that He returned no answer when
falsely accused, the following is the statement: “And Jesus
stood before the governor; and he asked Him, saying, Art Thou the King
of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, Thou sayest. And when
He was accused of the chief priests and elders, He answered
nothing. Then said Pilate unto Him, Hearest thou not how many
things they witness against Thee? And He answered him to never a
word, insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly.”3072
2. It was, indeed, matter of surprise to men
even of ordinary intelligence, that one who was accused and assailed by
false testimony, but who was able to defend Himself, and to show that
He was guilty of none of the charges (alleged), and who might have
enumerated the praiseworthy deeds of His own life, and His miracles
wrought by divine power, so as to give the judge an opportunity of
delivering a more honourable judgment regarding Him, should not have
done this, but should have disdained such a procedure, and in the
nobleness of His nature have contemned His accusers.3073
| 3073 Μεγαλοφυῶς
ὑπερεωρακέναι
τοὺς
κατηγόρους. | That the judge would, without any
hesitation, have set Him at liberty if He had offered a defence, is
clear from what is related of him when he said, “Which of the two
do ye wish that I should release unto you, Barabbas or Jesus, who is
called Christ?”3074
and from what the
Scripture adds, “For he knew that for envy they had delivered
Him.”3075
Jesus,
however, is at all times assailed by false witnesses, and, while
wickedness remains in the world, is ever exposed to accusation.
And yet even now He continues silent before these things, and makes no
audible answer, but places His defence in the lives of His genuine
disciples, which are a pre-eminent testimony, and one that rises
superior to all false witness, and refutes and overthrows all unfounded
accusations and charges.
3. I venture, then, to say that this
“apology” which you require me to compose will somewhat
weaken that defence (of Christianity) which rests on facts, and that
power of Jesus which is manifest to those who are not altogether devoid
of perception. Notwithstanding, that we may not have the appearance of being
reluctant to undertake the task which you have enjoined, we have
endeavoured, to the best of our ability, to suggest, by way of answer
to each of the statements advanced by Celsus, what seemed to us adapted
to refute them, although his arguments have no power to shake the faith
of any (true) believer. And forbid, indeed, that any one should
be found who, after having been a partaker in such a love of God as was
(displayed) in Christ Jesus, could be shaken in his purpose by the
arguments of Celsus, or of any such as he. For Paul, when
enumerating the innumerable causes which generally separate men from
the love of Christ and from the love of God in Christ Jesus (to all of
which, the love that was in himself rose superior), did not set down
argument among the grounds of separation. For observe that he
says, firstly: “Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (as it is written, For Thy
sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the
slaughter.) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us.”3076
And
secondly, when laying down another series of causes which naturally
tend to separate those who are not firmly grounded in their religion,
he says: “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be
able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord.”3077
4. Now, truly, it is proper that we
should feel elated because afflictions, or those other causes
enumerated by Paul, do not separate us (from Christ); but not that Paul
and the other apostles, and any other resembling them, (should
entertain that feeling), because they were far exalted above such
things when they said, “In all these things we are more
than conquerors through Him that loved us,”3078
which is a stronger statement than that they
are simply “conquerors.” But if it be proper for
apostles to entertain a feeling of elation in not being separated from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord, that feeling will be
entertained by them, because neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor any of the things that follow, can separate them
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And
therefore I do not congratulate that believer in Christ whose faith can
be shaken by Celsus—who no longer shares the common life of men,
but has long since departed—or by any apparent plausibility of
argument.3079
| 3079 ἤ τινος
πιθανότητος
λόγου. | For I do not
know in what rank to place him who has need of arguments written in
books in answer to the charges of Celsus against the Christians, in
order to prevent him from being shaken in his faith, and confirm him in
it. But nevertheless, since in the multitude of those who are
considered believers some such persons might be found as would have
their faith shaken and overthrown by the writings of Celsus, but who
might be preserved by a reply to them of such a nature as to refute his
statements and to exhibit the truth, we have deemed it right to yield
to your injunction, and to furnish an answer to the treatise which you
sent us, but which I do not think that any one, although only a short
way advanced in philosophy, will allow to be a “True
Discourse,” as Celsus has entitled it.
5. Paul, indeed, observing that there are in
Greek philosophy certain things not to be lightly esteemed, which are
plausible in the eyes of the many, but which represent falsehood as
truth, says with regard to such: “Beware lest any man spoil
you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men,
after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”3080
And seeing that there was a kind of
greatness manifest in the words of the world’s wisdom, he said
that the words of the philosophers were “according to the
rudiments of the world.” No man of sense, however, would
say that those of Celsus were “according to the rudiments of the
world.” Now those words, which contained some element of
deceitfulness, the apostle named “vain deceit,” probably by
way of distinction from a deceit that was not “vain;” and
the prophet Jeremiah observing this, ventured to say to God, “O
Lord, Thou hast deceived me, and I was
deceived; Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed.”3081
But in the language of Celsus there
seems to me to be no deceitfulness at all, not even that which is
“vain;” such deceitfulness, viz., as is found in the
language of those who have founded philosophical sects, and who have
been endowed with no ordinary talent for such pursuits. And as no
one would say that any ordinary error in geometrical demonstrations was
intended to deceive, or would describe it for the sake of exercise in
such matters;3082
| 3082 Καὶ ὥσπερ οὐ
τὸ τυχὸν τῶν
ψευδομένων
ἐν
γεωμετρικοῖς
θεωρήμασι
ψευδογραφούμενόν
τις ἂν λέγοι,
ἢ καὶ
ἀναγράφοι
γυμνασίου
ἕνεκεν τοῦ
ἀπὸ
τοιούτων. Cf. note of Ruæus in loc. | so those opinions
which are to be styled “vain deceit,” and the
“tradition of men,” and “according to the rudiments
of the world,” must have some resemblance to the views of those
who have been the founders of philosophical sects, (if such titles are
to be appropriately applied to them).
6. After
proceeding with this work as far as the place where Celsus introduces
the Jew disputing with Jesus, I resolved to prefix this preface to the
beginning (of the treatise), in order that the reader of our reply to
Celsus might fall in with it first, and see that this book has been
composed not for those who are thorough believers, but for such as are
either wholly unacquainted with the Christian faith, or for those who,
as the apostle terms them, are “weak in the faith;”
regarding whom he says, “Him that is weak in the faith receive
ye.”3083
And this
preface must be my apology for beginning my answer to Celsus on one
plan, and carrying it on on another. For my first intention was
to indicate his principal objections, and then briefly the answers that
were returned to them, and subsequently to make a systematic treatise
of the whole discourse.3084
But
afterwards, circumstances themselves suggested to me that I should be
economical of my time, and that, satisfied with what I had already
stated at the commencement, I should in the following part grapple
closely, to the best of my ability, with the charges of Celsus. I
have therefore to ask indulgence for those portions which follow the
preface towards the beginning of the book. And if you are not
impressed by the powerful arguments which succeed, then, asking similar
indulgence also with respect to them, I refer you, if you still desire
an argumentative solution of the objections of Celsus, to those men who
are wiser than myself, and who are able by words and treatises to
overthrow the charges which he brings against us. But better is
the man who, although meeting with the work of Celsus, needs no answer
to it at all, but who despises all its contents, since they are
contemned, and with good reason, by every believer in Christ, through
the Spirit that is in him.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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