Against Celsus, Book IV · §17 · Origen of Alexandria

A worthier story than the myth of Dionysus

Will not these things, especially when they are understood in the right way, appear far more dignified than Dionysus being deceived by the Titans, falling from the throne of Zeus, being torn to pieces by them, and afterwards being put together again and, as it were, coming back to life and going up to heaven? Or are the Greeks allowed to refer such tales to the doctrine of the soul and to interpret them figuratively, while the door is shut on us to a coherent explanation, one that everywhere agrees and harmonises with the Scriptures that come from the divine Spirit, who has dwelt in pure souls?

Celsus, then, has by no means seen the purpose of our writings, and so it is his own interpretation, not that of the Scriptures, that he attacks. Had he considered what follows for a soul that is to live in eternal life, and what one ought to think about its essence and its origins, he would not have mocked in this way the immortal one coming into a mortal body, not according to Plato’s transmigration of souls but according to some other, loftier view.

He would also have seen one exceptional descent, made out of great love for mankind, to bring back what the divine Scripture has called, in a hidden sense, “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24), which had come down from the mountains; and to these the shepherd in certain parables is said to have come down, leaving on the mountains those that had not gone astray (Matthew 18:12; Luke 15:4).

Greek

Ἆρα δὲ οὐ πολλῷ ταῦτα, καὶ μάλιστα ὅτε ὃν δεῖ τρόπον νοεῖται, σεμνότερα φανεῖται Διονύσου ὑπὸ τῶν Τιτάνων ἀπατωμένου καὶ ἐκπίπτοντος ἀπὸ τοῦ Διὸς θρόνου καὶ σπαρασσομένου ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα πάλιν συντιθεμένου καὶ οἱονεὶ ἀναβιώσκοντος καὶ ἀναβαίνοντος εἰς οὐρανόν; ἢ Ἕλλησι μὲν ἔξεστι τὰ τοιαῦτα εἰς τὸν περὶ ψυχῆς ἀνάγειν λόγον καὶ τροπολογεῖν, ἡμῖν δ᾿ ἀποκέκλεισται θύρα ἀκολούθου διηγήσεως, καὶ πανταχοῦ συνᾳδούσης καὶ συμφωνούσης ἐν ταῖς ἀπὸ τοῦ θείου πνεύματος γραφαῖς, γενομένου ἐν καθαραῖς ψυχαῖς; οὐδαμῶς οὖν ὁ Κέλσος εἶδε τὸ βούλημα τῶν ἡμετέρων γραμμάτων· διόπερ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἐκδοχὴν καὶ οὐχὶ τὴν τῶν γραφῶν διαβάλλει. εἰ δὲ ἦν ἐννοήσας, τί ἀκολουθεῖ ψυχῇ ἐν αἰωνίῳ ἐσομένῃ ζωῇ καὶ τί χρὴ φρονεῖν περὶ τῆς οὐσίας αὐτῆς καὶ περὶ τῶν ἀρχῶν αὐτῆς, οὐκ ἂν οὕτως διέσυρε τὸν ἀθάνατον εἰς θνητὸν ἐρχόμενον σῶμα, οὐ κατὰ τὴν Πλάτωνος μετενσωμάτωσιν ἀλλὰ κατ᾿ ἄλλην τινὰ ὑψηλοτέραν θεωρίαν, εἶδε δ᾿ ἂν καὶ μίαν ἐξαίρετον ἀπὸ πολλῆς φιλανθρωπίας κατάβασιν ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἐπιστρέψαι τὰ, ὡς ἡ θεία ὠνόμασε μυστικῶς γραφὴ, „ἀπολωλότα πρόβατα οἴκου Ἰσραὴλ,“ καὶ καταβάντα ἀπὸ τῶν ὀρῶν πρὸς ἃ ὁ ποιμὴν ἔν τισι παραβολαῖς καταβεβηκέναι λέγεται, καταλιπὼν ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσι τὰ μὴ ἐσφαλμένα.

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About this text

Origen answers Celsus’s scorn for the belief that God or his Son comes down to the world, showing that the Word comes down without change and that God’s threats and punishments are a cure, not a fit of temper. He then defends the stories of Genesis and the patriarchs, read in their deeper sense, against the charge that they are silly tales, and rejects Celsus’s claim that the world was made no more for man than for the animals, which Celsus thought nearer to God than men.

Translated from the Greek of Koetschau, GCS 2–3 (1899), via the Perseus digital text, which serves as the base text. Each chapter was translated from the Greek and then checked clause by clause against it in a separate review. No earlier English translation was consulted.

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Translated from Koetschau GCS 2 – 3 (1899) — Greek (Greek · Book IV, chapters 1 – 99)

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