Against Celsus, Book I · §69 · Origen of Alexandria

Whether a body like his could be God’s

After this, muddling his argument and bringing what is said by a certain sect against all who follow the divine word, as though these were charges common to Christians, he says: “A body such as yours could not belong to a god.” But to this we reply that, coming into this life from a woman, he took on a human body, one capable of human death. That is why, among other things, we say that he also became a great contender: because his human body was “tempted in all things” like all human beings, yet not, as human beings are, with sin, but wholly “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). For it is plain to us “that he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22; Isaiah 53:9). And him who “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21) God delivered up, as one pure, for all who have sinned (Romans 8:32).

Then Celsus says: “A body begotten as you were begotten, Jesus, would not be the body of a god.” Yet he suspected that, if Jesus had been born as it is written, his body could in some way be more divine, even in the eyes of most people, and in a certain sense a body of God. But in fact he does not believe what is recorded about his conception from the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35), and he believes that he was begotten by a certain Panthera who seduced the virgin. That is why he said: “A body begotten as you were begotten would not be the body of a god.” But we have spoken about these things at greater length above.

Greek

Μετὰ ταῦτα φύρων τὸν λόγον καὶ τὰ ὑπὸ αἱρέσεώς τινος λεγόμενα ὡς κοινὰ Χριστιανῶν ἐγκλήματα πᾶσι τοῖς ἀπὸ τοῦ θείου προσάγων λόγου φησὶν ὅτι θεοῦ οὐκ ἂν εἴη τοιοῦτον σῶμα, οἷον τὸ σόν. ἀλλ᾿ ἡμεῖς πρὸς ταῦτα σῶμα αὐτὸν λέγομεν ἀνειληφέναι ὡς ἀπὸ θηλείας τῷ βίῳ ἐπιδημήσαντα ἀνθρώπινον καὶ θανάτου ἀνθρωπίνου δεκτικόν. διὸ πρὸς τοῖς ἄλλοις αὐτόν φαμεν καὶ μέγαν ἀγωνιστὴν γεγονέναι, διὰ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον σῶμα „πεπειρασμένον“ μὲν ὁμοίως πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις „κατὰ πάντα“ οὐκέτι δ᾿ ὡς ἄνθρωποι μεθ᾿ ἁμαρτίας ἀλλὰ πάντῃ „χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας.“ τρανῶς γὰρ ἡμῖν φαίνεται „ὅτι ἁμαρτίαν οὐκ ἐποίησεν, οὐδὲ εὑρέθη δόλος ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτοῦ“· καὶ „μὴ γνόντα“ αὐτὸν „ἁμαρτίαν“ ὡς καθαρὸν παρέδωκεν ὑπὲρ πάντων τῶν ἡμαρτηκότων ὁ θεός. εἶτα ὁ Κέλσος φησὶν ὅτι οὐκ ἂν εἴη θεοῦ σῶμα τὸ οὕτω σπαρὲν, ὡς σὺ, ὦ Ἰησοῦ, ἐσπάρης. πλὴν ὑπείδετο ὅτι εἰ, ὡς γέγραπται, γεγέννητο, δύναταί πως εἶναι τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ καὶ θειότερον παρὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς καὶ κατά τι σημαινόμενον θεοῦ σῶμα. ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἀπιστεῖ τοῖς ἀναγραφεῖσι περὶ τῆς ἐξ ἁγίου πνεύματος συλλήψεως αὐτοῦ καὶ πιστεύει αὐτὸν ὑπό τινος Πανθήρα φθείραντος τὴν παρθένον ἐσπάρθαι· διόπερ εἶπεν ὅτι οὐκ ἂν εἴη θεοῦ σῶμα οὕτω σπαρὲν, ὡς σὺ ἐσπάρης. ἀλλὰ γὰρ περὶ τούτων ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω πλείονα εἰρήκαμεν.

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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.

Printed text used

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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