Against Celsus, Book I · §56 · Origen of Alexandria

Two comings of Christ and the God who is anointed

Celsus and his Jew, and all who have not believed in Jesus, have failed to notice that the prophecies speak of two comings of Christ. The first is more subject to human sufferings and more lowly, so that Christ, being with human beings, might teach the way that leads to God, and might leave no one in this human life any room to plead that he had not known of the judgment to come. The other is glorious and wholly divine, with nothing of human suffering woven into its divinity.

To set out the prophecies would take a long time. For the present it is enough to take the passage from the forty-fourth Psalm (Psalm 45 in English Bibles), which, among other things, bears the title “A song for the beloved” (Psalm 45, title). There he is also plainly proclaimed God, in these words: “Grace has been poured out on your lips; therefore God has blessed you for ever. Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your loveliness and your beauty; and bend your bow, and prosper, and reign, for the sake of truth and meekness and righteousness, and your right hand will guide you wonderfully. Your arrows are sharpened, O mighty one; peoples will fall beneath you; in the heart of the king’s enemies” (Psalm 45:2–5).

Pay careful attention to what comes next, where he is called God. “Your throne,” it says, “O God, is for ever and ever; a rod of uprightness is the rod of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions” (Psalm 45:6–7). Notice that the prophet, addressing God, whose “throne” is “for ever and ever,” and the rod of whose kingdom is “a rod of uprightness,” says that this God has been anointed by God, who was his God; and that he was anointed because he, above his “companions,” loved “righteousness” and hated “lawlessness” (Psalm 45:7).

And I remember pressing the Jew who was thought wise very hard with this passage. At a loss before it, he said what fitted his own Judaism: he said that “Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a rod of uprightness is the rod of your kingdom” (Psalm 45:6) was spoken to the God of the universe, and that “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you” (Psalm 45:7), and what follows, was spoken to the Christ.

Greek

Ἔλαθε δὲ τὸν Κέλσον καὶ τὸν παρ᾿ αὐτῷ Ἰουδαῖον καὶ πάντας, ὅσοι τῷ Ἰησοῦ μὴ πεπιστεύκασιν, ὅτι αἱ προφητεῖαι δύο λέγουσιν εἶναι τὰς Χριστοῦ ἐπιδημίας, τὴν μὲν προτέραν ἀνθρωποπαθεστέραν καὶ ταπεινοτέραν, ἵνα σὺν ἀνθρώποις ὢν ὁ Χριστὸς διδάξῃ τὴν φέρουσαν πρὸς θεὸν ὁδὸν καὶ μηδενὶ τῶν ἐν τῷ βίῳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀπολογίας καταλίπῃ τόπον ὡς οὐκ ἐγνωκότι περὶ τῆς ἐσομένης κρίσεως, τὴν δ᾿ ἑτέραν ἔνδοξον καὶ μόνον θειοτέραν, οὐδὲν ἐπιπεπλεγμένον τῇ θειότητι ἔχουσαν ἀνθρωποπαθές. παραθέσθαι δὲ καὶ τὰς προφητείας πολὺ ἂν εἴη· ἀρκεῖ δ᾿ ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος τὸ ἀπὸ (τοῦ) τεσσαρακοστοῦ καὶ τετάρτου ψαλμοῦ, ὃς καὶ ἐπιγέγραπται πρὸς ἄλλοις εἶναι καὶ „ᾠδὴ ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἀγαπητοῦ,“ ἔνθα καὶ θεὸς ἀνηγόρευται σαφῶς διὰ τούτων· „ἐξεχύθη ἡ χάρις ἐν χείλεσί σου· διὰ τοῦτο εὐλόγησέ σε ὁ θεὸς εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. περίζωσαι τὴν ῥομφαίαν σου ἐπὶ τὸν μηρόν σου, δυνατὲ τῇ ὡραιότητί σου καὶ τῷ κάλλει σου, καὶ ἔντεινον καὶ κατευοδοῦ καὶ βασίλευε ἕνεκεν ἀληθείας καὶ πρᾳότητος καὶ δικαιοσύνης, καὶ ὁδηγήσει σε θαυμαστῶς ἡ δεξιά σου. τὰ βέλη σου ἠκονημένα, δυνατὲ, λαοὶ ὑποκάτω σου πεσοῦνται ἐν καρδίᾳ τῶν ἐχθρῶν τοῦ βασιλέως.“ πρόσχες δ᾿ ἐπιμελῶς τοῖς ἑξῆς, ἔνθα θεὸς εἴρηται· „ὁ θρόνος σου,“ γάρ φησιν, „ὁ θεὸς, εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος, ῥάβδος εὐθύτητος ἡ ῥάβδος τῆς βασιλείας σου. ἠγάπησας δικαιοσύνην καὶ ἐμίσησας ἀνομίαν· διὰ τοῦτο ἔχρισέ σε ὁ θεὸς ὁ θεός σου ἔλαιον ἀγαλλιάσεως παρὰ τοὺς μετόχους σου.“ καὶ κατανόει ὅτι θεῷ ὁμιλῶν ὁ προφήτης, οὗ „ὁ θρόνος“ ἐστὶν „εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος,“ καὶ „ῥάβδος εὐθύτητος ἡ ῥάβδος τῆς βασιλείας“ αὐτοῦ, τοῦτον τὸν θεόν φησι κεχρῖσθαι ὑπὸ θεοῦ, ὃς ἦν αὐτοῦ θεός· κεχρῖσθαι δὲ, ἐπεὶ „παρὰ τοὺς μετόχους“ αὐτοῦ οὗτος ἠγάπησε „δικαιοσύνην“ καὶ ἐμίσησεν „ἀνομίαν.“ καὶ μέμνημαί γε πάνυ θλίψας τὸν Ἰουδαῖον νομιζόμενον σοφὸν ἐκ τῆς λέξεως ταύτης· ὃς πρὸς αὐτὴν ἀπο ρῶν εἶπε τὰ τῷ ἑαυτοῦ ἰουδαϊσμῷ ἀκόλουθα, εἶπε πρὸς μὲν τὸν τῶν ὅλων θεὸν εἰρῆσθαι τὸ „ὁ θρόνος σου, ὁ θεὸς, εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος, ῥάβδος εὐθύτητος ἡ ῥάβδος τῆς βασιλείας σου.“ πρὸς δὲ τὸν Χριστὸν τὸ „ἠγάπησας δικαιοσύνην καὶ ἐμίσησας ἀνομίαν· διὰ τοῦτο ἔχρισέ σε ὁ θεὸς ὁ θεός σου“ καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς.

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About this text

Origen answers Celsus’s opening charges: that Christians meet in secret against the law, that their teaching is barbarian and borrowed, and that they ask for faith without reasons. He then answers the Jew whom Celsus sets against Jesus, meeting the slander about Jesus’ birth and the charge of magic with the prophecies of the virgin, of Bethlehem and of the suffering Servant, and with the lives Jesus changed.

Base text: Paul Koetschau's edition, GCS 2–3 (Leipzig, 1899), read in the Perseus Digital Library digital text. The English is translated from that Greek, chapter by chapter, and each chapter was then checked clause by clause against the Greek. Koetschau's supplements are followed.

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Translated from Koetschau GCS 2 – 3 (1899) — Greek, Perseus digital text (Greek · Book I, chapters 1 – 71)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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