Against Celsus 1 part 16/42

how shall we not be rendering pious and healing those whom we have exhorted, persuading them to devote themselves to the God who is over all; and how shall we not be delivering those who are persuaded by us from grievous wounds inflicted by the doctrines of the so-called philosophers? But let it be granted further that we turn others away from Stoic physicians, who introduce a corruptible god and say that his substance is a body wholly changeable, alterable and mutable, and that at times he destroys all things and leaves only God remaining;

how shall we not, in this way too, deliver those persuaded by us from evils, and bring them to the pious doctrine concerning devoting oneself to the Creator and admiring the Father of the Christians' teaching—who in the most benevolent manner arranged that converting truths and lessons for souls should be sown throughout the whole human race? But suppose, again, that we heal those who have suffered the folly concerning transmigration of souls at the hands of physicians who bring the rational nature down sometimes to every kind of irrational creature, and sometimes even to that which is incapable of impression;

how shall we not render better in their souls those who are persuaded by a doctrine which does not teach that, by way of punishment, insensibility or irrationality is meted out to the base man, but rather sets forth that the labors and punishments brought by God upon the base are certain remedies that turn people to conversion? For those who are wisely Christian, thinking in this way, manage matters for the simpler folk, just as fathers do for their quite young children.

For we do not take refuge with little children and silly country folk and say to them:

'Flee from the physicians,' nor do we say:

'See to it that none of you lay hold of knowledge,' nor do we assert that knowledge is an evil, nor are we so mad as to say that knowledge turns men away from the soul's health.

But neither would we ever say that anyone has perished from wisdom; we who do not even say, 'Attend to me,' even when we teach, but rather:

'Attend to Jesus, the teacher of the lessons concerning himself.'

And none of us is so boastful as to say to his acquaintances what Celsus has put into the mouth of the teacher, namely, 'I alone will save you.'

See, then, how many things he falsely charges against us.

But neither do we say that true physicians destroy those whom they promise to heal.

And he brings forward a second example against us, saying that the teacher among us does the same as if some drunken man, going in among drunkards, were to slander the sober as drunkards.

Let him show from the writings, for example, of Paul, that the apostle of Jesus was drunk and that his words were not those of a sober man; or from what John wrote, that his thoughts do not breathe the spirit of one who is temperate and freed from the drunkenness that comes of vice.

No one, then, who is sober and teaches the doctrine of the Christians is drunk; but Celsus, reviling us in an unphilosophical manner, says these things.

And let Celsus say what sober people we, who advocate the doctrines of the Christians, slander.

For according to us, all who address inanimate things as God are drunk.

And why do I say they are drunk? Rather, they are raving mad, rushing into the temples and worshipping statues or animals as gods.

And no less mad than these are those who suppose that things fashioned by vulgar artisans—and sometimes by utterly base men—have been made for the honor of true gods.

After this he likens the teacher to one with diseased eyes and the learners to people with diseased eyes, and says that this man, in the case of those with diseased eyes, blames the keen-sighted as though they were maimed.

Who, then—we might say—are those among us who do not see? Are they not those who, from the great magnitude of things in the world and the beauty of created things, are unable to look up and behold that one ought to worship and admire and reverence only Him who made these things, and that no one would fittingly reverence anything made among men and adopted for the honor of gods, whether apart from the Creator-God or even together with Him? For to compare things that are in no way comparable with Him who infinitely surpasses, in His pre-eminence, every created nature, is the work of those who are blind in their understanding.

We do not, then, say that the keen-sighted are people with diseased eyes or maimed; but those who wallow in ignorance of God and turn to the temples and the statues and the so-called sacred festivals—these we assert have been blinded in their understanding;

and especially when, in addition to their impiety, they also live in licentiousness, not even seeking out anything that is a respectable deed, but doing everything worthy of shame.

After this, having brought so many charges against us, he wishes to make it appear that he has other things he could say but passes over them in silence.

His statement runs as follows:

'These things, and such as these, I bring as charges—so as not to enumerate them all—and I say that they err in committing outrage against God, that they may seduce wicked men with vain hopes and persuade them to despise their betters, on the ground that, if they hold aloof from these, it will be better for them.'

And to this it might be said, from the plain evidence concerning those who come to Christianity, that it is not really the wicked who are won over by the doctrine so much as the simpler folk and—as the many would call them—the unrefined.

For these people, through the fear concerning the punishments that are proclaimed—a fear which moves them and urges them on to abstain from those things for which the punishments come—try to give themselves over to the godliness that is according to Christianity;

being so mastered by the doctrine that, through fear of the eternal punishments named according to the doctrine, they despise every torment devised against them among men, and death with countless agonies;

and this is something which no one of sound mind would say to be the work of wicked dispositions.

And how could self-control and temperance, or generosity and a community-minded spirit, be practised from a wicked disposition? Nor again is the fear of the divine—to which, as something useful for the many, the doctrine summons those who are not yet able to look upon what is to be chosen for its own sake and to choose it as the greatest good and beyond every promise—nor is this fear of a nature to arise in one who chooses to live according to wickedness.

And should he imagine that there is superstition rather than wickedness among the many who believe the doctrine, and should he charge our doctrine with making them superstitious, we shall say to him that, just as one of the lawgivers said to the man who asked whether he had laid down for the citizens the very best laws, that he had laid down not the very best of all, but the best of those they were able to receive;

so it might also be said, on behalf of the Father of the Christians' doctrine, that 'I laid down the best laws and teaching of those which the many were able to receive for the betterment of their characters, threatening the sinners not with false labors and punishments, but with ones that are true and are necessarily brought upon those who resist for their correction—even though such people by no means understand the intention of Him who punishes and the purpose of the labors.'

For this too is said usefully, both according to truth and with concealment, for the sake of benefit.

But on the whole, those who espouse the cause of Christianity do not draw in wicked men; nor do we insult the Deity.

For we say concerning Him things that are both true and that seem plain to the many, yet are not plain to them as they are to the few who practice philosophizing about the doctrine.

But since Celsus says that those who become Christians are drawn in by empty hopes, we shall say to him, who accuses our teaching about the blessed life and about communion with the Deity: so far as it depends on you, my friend, those too are drawn in by empty hopes who have accepted the doctrine of Pythagoras and Plato concerning the soul—the soul whose nature it is to ascend to the vault of heaven and in the supra-celestial region to behold the spectacles of the blessed spectators.

And according to you, Celsus, those also who have accepted the soul's continued existence and who so live as to become heroes and to have their abode with the gods are drawn in by empty hopes.

And perhaps too those who have been persuaded concerning the intellect that comes from without, that it is immortal and alone will have continued existence, might be said by Celsus to be drawn in by empty hopes.

Let him then contend, no longer concealing his own sect but confessing that he is an Epicurean, against what is said—not contemptibly—among Greeks and barbarians concerning the immortality of the soul, or its continued existence, or the immortality of the intellect; and let him demonstrate that these are mere arguments deceiving with empty hopes those who assent to them, while the doctrines of his own philosophy are pure of empty hopes and either lead men to good hopes or—what is more consistent for him—instill no hope at all, because of the immediate and complete destruction of the soul.

Unless indeed Celsus and the Epicureans will deny that the hope concerning their goal of pleasure—which according to them is the good, namely the stable condition of the flesh and Epicurus' confident expectation concerning it—is an empty hope.

But do not suppose that I have inappropriately, for the Christians' doctrine, brought forward against Celsus those who philosophized about the immortality or the continued existence of the soul.

For having certain things in common with them, we shall more opportunely establish that the blessed life to come will belong only to those who have accepted the godliness that is according to Jesus and a piety toward the Creator of all things that is sincere, pure, and unmixed with anything whatever that is created.

But what better things we persuade men to despise, let whoever wishes demonstrate.

And let him set in opposition to the blessed goal which according to us is with God in Christ—that is, in the Word, in Wisdom, and in all virtue—the goal that will befall those who have lived blamelessly and purely and have taken up an undivided and unrent love toward the God of all, a goal that will be met by the gift of God—let him set against it the goal of every philosophical sect among Greeks or barbarians, or of any mystery-promise.

And let him show that the goal according to some of the others is better than ours, and is consistent as being true, while ours is unfitting for the gift of God and for those who have lived well, or that these things were not spoken by a divine Spirit that filled the souls of the pure prophets,

[that they were not] divine and proclaimed from divine inspiration.

And what better things do we teach those who abstain from them that they will fare better by departing from? For—if it be not too coarse to say—it is at once evident that nothing can even be conceived as better than to entrust oneself to the God who is over all, and to dedicate oneself to a teaching that draws one away from everything created and brings one, through the ensouled and living Word—who is also living Wisdom and the Son of God—to the God who is over all.

But since what has been dictated by us against Celsus' treatise has now taken on a sufficient compass even for the third book, we shall here bring the discourse to a close, intending in what follows to contend against what was written by Celsus after this.

ORIGEN'S FOURTH BOOK AGAINST THE TREATISE OF CELSUS ENTITLED 'THE TRUE DISCOURSE.' Having in the three books before this gone through what we conceived against Celsus' treatise, holy Ambrose, we now dictate a fourth, addressing what follows, having prayed to God through Christ.

And may there be given to us such words as are written of in Jeremiah, where the Lord says to the prophet:

Behold, I have made My words in your mouth fire.

Behold, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant. For we too now need words that root out from every soul the things set against the truth—a soul that has been harmed by Celsus' treatise or by notions similar to his.

We need also notions that pull down every edifice of false opinion, and the things in Celsus' treatise resembling the edifice of those who said:

Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach to heaven;

but we also need wisdom that throws down all the high things lifted up against the knowledge of God—and Celsus' high thing of arrogance lifted up against us.

Then, since we ought not to stop at rooting out and pulling down the aforesaid things, but in the place of what has been rooted out to plant a planting of God's husbandry, and in the place of what has been thrown down to build a building of God and a temple of God's glory, for this reason we too must pray to the Lord who gave the things written in Jeremiah, that He may give us words also for building up the things of Christ and for planting the spiritual law and the prophetic words corresponding to it.

And we have most need, with regard to what is now said by Celsus next after the aforesaid, to establish that the things concerning Christ were well prophesied.

For Celsus, taking his stand at once against both parties—Jews who deny that Christ's coming has taken place but hope it will be, and Christians who confess that Jesus is the prophesied Christ—says:

That certain Christians and Jews, the latter saying that some god or son of god will come down, the former that he has come down, to earth as a judge of things here below—this is most shameful, and the refutation does not even require a long discourse.

And he seems to speak accurately: concerning the Jews, that not some but all suppose that someone will come down to earth; but concerning the Christians, that some of them say he has come down.

For he indicates those who from the Jewish scriptures establish Christ's coming as already having taken place, and he seems to know that there are certain heresies denying that Jesus is the prophesied Christ.

Now already in the earlier books we have to the best of our ability dealt with the matter that Christ was prophesied; therefore we do not take up again most of the things that could be said on the subject, lest we be repetitious.

[...as faith in] Christ, he ought to have set forth the very prophecies which we Christians and Jews use in disputing with one another;

for thus he would at least have seemed to turn those who are distracted by what he supposes to be its plausibility away from assent to the prophetic words, and from the faith in Jesus as being Christ which rests on the prophecies;

but as it is, either being unable to meet the prophecies concerning Christ, or not even knowing in the first place what is prophesied concerning Him, he sets down not a single prophetic text—although there are countless ones concerning Christ—yet thinks to accuse the prophetic writings without setting forth even that plausibility of them which he might allege.

He does not, however, know that the Jews do not at all say that Christ, being God, will come down, or a son of God, as we have also said in the foregoing.

And having said that He is said by us to have come down, but by the Jews that a judge will come down, he thinks at once to accuse what is said as most shameful and not even requiring a long refutation, and says:

For what is the sense of such a descent for God? not seeing that according to us too there is a sense in the descent—primarily to turn back what the Gospel calls the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and secondarily, because of their disobedience, to take away from them what is named the kingdom of God and to give it to other husbandmen besides the Jews of old—namely to Christians, who will render to God the fruits of the kingdom of God at the seasons in which each action, being a fruit of the kingdom, is due.

We therefore have said a few things out of many in reply to Celsus' question, when he said:

For what is the sense of such a descent for God? But Celsus puts into his own mouth things that have been said neither by the Jews nor by us, saying:

Or is it in order that He may learn the things among men? For none of us says that, in order to learn the things among men, Christ sojourns in [our] life.

Then, as though some would have said the phrase 'in order that He may learn the things among men,' he objects to himself against this the words 'For does He not know all things?' Then, as though men would answer that He does know, he again raises a difficulty, saying: Does He then know, but not set right, nor is it possible for Him by divine power to set right? And all these things he says foolishly.

For always God, by His own Word—who passes from generation to generation into holy souls and makes them friends of God and prophets—sets right those who hear what is spoken;

and in the coming of Christ He sets right, by the word according to Christianity, not those who are unwilling but those who have chosen the better life, the one pleasing to God.

But I do not know what sort of correction Celsus wished to come about, when he raised the difficulty, saying:

Is it not possible for Him by divine power to set right, unless He send someone to this by nature? For did He wish the correction to come about while men were being made imaginary impressions upon by God—God suddenly removing wickedness and implanting virtue? Another, then, will inquire whether such a thing is consistent or possible to nature;

but we would say: let it be granted, and let it be possible;

where then is what depends on us, and where is the praiseworthy assent to the truth, or the commendable refusal of falsehood? But even if it were once granted that this is both possible and fittingly done, why should one not rather inquire at the very beginning, saying something analogous to Celsus: that it was not possible for God by divine power to make men needing no correction at all, but straightaway diligent and perfect, with wickedness having no existence at all in the first place? Now these things can carry away the unlearned and the unintelligent, but certainly not one who looks into the nature of things;

for if you take away from virtue the voluntary, you have taken away also its very essence.

But a whole treatise is needed for these matters;

concerning which not a little has been said even by Greeks in their writings on providence—men who would not have said the things which Celsus set forth, saying:

He knows, but does not set right, nor is it possible for Him by divine power to set right.

And we too in many places have spoken about these things as far as we were able, and the divine words have set them before those who are able to hear them.

It will therefore be said—the very thing which Celsus brings against us and against the Jews—to him as well:

But if indeed you posit that there is a God and a providence, as your treatise indicates, it is necessary that He know.

And if He knows, why does He not set right? Now, must we be the only ones obliged to defend why, though knowing, He does not set right?

But to you—who do not very much show forth the Epicurean through your treatise, but pretend to acknowledge providence—it will be said no less: why, though God knows all things among men, does He not set right, nor by divine power deliver all from wickedness? But we are not ashamed to say that He always sends those who will set things right;

for the words that summon to the best things, God having given them, are among men;

and there are already many differences among those who minister to God; and few are those who in every way and purely espouse the things of the truth and work the complete correction—such as were Moses and the prophets.

But beyond all these, great is the correction through Jesus, who willed not that those in one corner of the inhabited world alone should be cared for, but, so far as it depended on Him, those everywhere also;

for He came as Saviour of all men.

After these things the most noble Celsus, taking it I know not whence, raises a difficulty against us, as though we said that God Himself comes down to men;

and he thinks it follows from this that He leaves His own seat.

For he does not know the power of God, nor that the Spirit of the Lord has filled the inhabited world, and that which holds all things together has knowledge of [every] voice; nor is he able to understand the words: Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.

Nor does he see that, according to the Christians' doctrine, we all live and move and have our being in Him, as Paul also taught in his public address to the Athenians.

Even then if the God of all things by His own power comes down together with Jesus into the life of men, and even if the Word who in the beginning was with God, being Himself also God, comes to us, He does not become displaced nor does He leave His own seat—as though one place were left empty of Him and another filled which did not have Him before.

But the power and divinity of God sojourns through whom He wills and in whom He finds room, not changing place nor leaving room of His own empty and filling another.

For even if we should say that He leaves [one place] and fills some other, we shall not be declaring any such thing about place;

but we shall say that the soul of the worthless man, poured out in wickedness, is left behind by God, while the soul of him who wishes to live according to virtue, or is even making progress, or already lives according to it, is, we declare, filled with, or partakes of, the divine Spirit.

There is therefore no need, for the descent of Christ or for the turning of God toward men, that a greater seat be left behind and that things here be changed, as Celsus supposes, saying:

For if you should change even one of the least things here, all things will be overturned and vanish from you.

But if one must speak of change through the presence of God's power and the sojourn of the Word among men, we shall not hesitate to say that the man who receives the sojourn of the Word of God into his own soul is changed from worthless to noble, from licentious to temperate, and from superstitious to godly.

But if you wish us also to meet Celsus' most ridiculous statements, hear him saying:

But really, would God, being unknown among men and seeming on that account to be at a disadvantage, wish to become known and to put to the test both those who believe and those who disbelieve, like men newly enriched who make a display? They charge against God a very great and quite mortal vainglory.

We say therefore that God, being unknown by worthless men, would wish to be known not because He Himself seems to be at a disadvantage, but because the knowledge of Him delivers the one who knows from misery.

Nor yet does He, wishing to test those who believe or those who disbelieve, either Himself sojourn in some by an ineffable and divine power or send His Christ, but rather in order that those who believe and apprehend His deity may be delivered from all misery, while those who disbelieve may no longer have any room for excuse, as though they did not believe because they had not heard and been taught.

[Does it follow,] for us, that God is, according to us, like men newly enriched who make a display? For God does not make a display toward us, when He wishes us to understand and conceive His supereminence;

but wishing the blessedness that comes to us from knowing Him to be implanted in our souls, He works through Christ and through the ever-continuing sojourn of the Word, that we may take up our intimacy with Him.

The Christians' doctrine therefore charges against God no mortal vainglory whatever.

But I do not know how, after talking nonsense in vain about the things we have set forth, he later sometime sets down that God wishes to give us knowledge of Himself not because He needs to be known for His own sake, but for the sake of our salvation;

in order that those who receive it, having become good, may be saved, but those who do not receive it, being shown to be wicked, may be punished.

And having set down such a thing, he raises a difficulty, saying:

Now then, after so long an age, has God remembered to make righteous the life of men, but before that He neglected it? And to this we shall say that there is no time when God did not wish to make righteous the life of men, but He has also always taken care, giving starting-points of virtue for the setting right of the rational living being.

For in each generation the Wisdom of God, passing into the souls which it finds holy, makes them friends of God and prophets.

And there would be found in the sacred books those who in each generation are holy and receptive of the divine Spirit, and how they turned back their contemporaries so far as they were able.

And it is no wonder that in certain generations there have arisen prophets surpassing other prophets in their reception of the deity, on account of a more vigorous and robust life—some prophets being their contemporaries, others earlier or later in generation.

And thus it is no wonder that there has also come a certain season when some extraordinary thing sojourned among the race of men, surpassing those before it or after it.

But the discourse concerning these matters has something more mystical and deeper, not very able to reach the more vulgar hearing.

And it is necessary, in order that these things may be clarified and that an answer may be given to what is said about Christ's coming—namely, 'has God now, after so long an age, remembered to make righteous the race of men, but before that neglected it?'—to touch upon the discourse concerning the portions, and to clarify why: When the Most High divided the nations, as He scattered the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God;

and the Lord's portion became His people Jacob, the lot of His inheritance Israel;

and it will be necessary to state the cause of the coming-to-be of each into each bound, under him who has been allotted the bound, and how it was with good reason that the Lord's portion became His people Jacob, the lot of His inheritance Israel;

and why formerly the Lord's portion was His people Jacob, the lot of His inheritance Israel, but concerning those of later times it is said to the Saviour by the Father:

Ask of Me, and I will give You nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. For there are certain unspeakable and indescribable sequences and orders concerning the differing administration with respect to human souls.

He came therefore—even though Celsus may not wish it—after many prophets who set right the things of that Israel, as the corrector of the whole world, namely Christ, not needing, as in the former dispensation, the use of scourges and bonds and torments against men;

for the teaching sufficed, when the sower went forth to sow, that he might sow the word everywhere.

And whether some time will arrive that circumscribes the world by a necessary circumscription due to its having had a beginning, and whether some end will arrive for the world, and after the end a just judgment concerning all things—[these too must be discussed].

After these things, again, as is his custom, Celsus, having established and demonstrated nothing, as though we did not speak piously or reverently in our chatter about God, says:

That they chatter these things about God neither piously nor reverently is quite plain; and indeed he supposes that we do these things for the amazement of the unlearned, and not because we are speaking the truth about punishments necessary for those who have sinned;

wherefore he likens us to those who in the Bacchic rites bring in beforehand the phantoms and terrors.

Now concerning the Bacchic rites, whether there is any plausible account or no such account at all, let the Greeks tell, and let Celsus and his fellow-revelers listen;

but we make our defense concerning our own things, saying that what is set before us is to set right the race of men, whether through threats concerning punishments—which we are persuaded are necessary for the universe, and perhaps even not useless to those who will suffer them—or through the promises to those who have lived well, containing the things concerning the blessed way of life in the kingdom of God for those counted worthy by Him to be reigned over.

After these things, wishing to demonstrate that we say nothing strange or novel concerning a flood or a conflagration, but that, having misheard the things said about these among Greeks or barbarians, we have believed concerning them according to our own scriptures, he says this: