Against Celsus, Book IV · §42 · Origen of Alexandria

The dove, the raven and the charge of forgery

Celsus has tossed in the matter of the dove so as to seem to have read the book of Genesis, though he could say nothing to prove that the story of the dove is a fiction (Genesis 8:8–12). Then, since it is his habit to reword what is written so as to make it more laughable, he has changed “the raven” into a crow (Genesis 8:7), and he thinks that Moses recorded these things while tampering with the story of Deucalion told among the Greeks, unless perhaps he does not even think the writing is by Moses, but by a number of people. For that is what these words show: “counterfeiting and tampering with the story of Deucalion,” and these as well: “For I do not suppose they expected that these things would come to light.”

But how could those who gave writings to a whole nation not expect them to come to light, when they even prophesied that this worship of God would be preached to all the nations? And when Jesus said to the Jews, “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruits” (Matthew 21:43), what else was he arranging but that he himself, by divine power, should bring into the light the whole of the Jewish Scripture, which contains mysteries of the kingdom of God? Then, if they read the theogonies of the Greeks and the stories about the twelve gods, they lend them dignity by allegories; but when they wish to mock ours, they say these were simply told as myths to little children.

Greek

Ἔῤῥιψε δ᾿ ὁ Κέλσος τὰ περὶ τῆς περιστερᾶς, ἵνα δόξῃ ἀνεγνωκέναι τὸ βιβλίον τὴν Γένεσιν, οὐδὲν δυνηθεὶς εἰπεῖν πρὸς τὸ ἐλέγξαι πλασματῶδες τὸ κατὰ τὴν περιστεράν. εἶθ᾿ ὡς ἔθος αὐτῷ ἐστιν ἐπὶ τὸ γελοιότερον μεταφράζειν τὰ γεγραμμένα, „τὸν κόρακα“ εἰς κορώνην μετείληφε καὶ οἴεται ταῦτα Μωϋσέα ἀναγεγραφέναι, ῥᾳδιουργοῦντα τὰ κατὰ τὸν παρ᾿ Ἕλλησι Δευκαλίωνα· εἰ μὴ ἄρα οὐδὲ Μωϋσέως οἴεται εἶναι τὴν γραφὴν ἀλλά τινων πλειόνων· τοιοῦτον γὰρ δηλοῖ τὸ παραχαράττοντες καὶ ῥᾳδιουργοῦντες τὸν Δευκαλίωνα, καὶ τοῦτο· οὐ γὰρ οἶμαι προσεδόκησαν ὅτι ταῦτ᾿ εἰς φῶς πρόεισι. πῶς δ᾿ οἱ ὅλῳ ἔθνει διδόντες γράμματα οὐ προσεδόκησαν αὐτὰ εἰς φῶς προελθεῖν, οἳ καὶ ἐπροφήτευσαν πᾶσι τοῖς ἔθνεσι τὴν θεοσέβειαν ταύτην κηρυχθήσεσθαι; ὁ δ᾿ Ἰησοῦς τὸ „ἀρθήσεται ἀφ᾿ ὑμῶν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ δοθήσεται ἔθνει ποιοῦντι τοὺς καρποὺς αὐτῆς“ Ἰουδαίοις λέγων τί ἄλλο ᾠκονόμει ἢ εἰς φῶς αὐτὸς θείᾳ δυνάμει προαγαγεῖν πᾶσαν τὴν Ἰουδαϊκὴν γραφὴν, περιέχουσαν μυστήρια τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ βασιλείας; εἶτα ἐὰν μὲν τὰς Ἑλλήνων θεογονίας καὶ τὰς περὶ θεῶν δώδεκα ἱστορίας ἀναγινώσκωσι, σεμνοποιοῦσιν αὐτὰς ταῖς ἀλληγορίαις, ἐὰν δὲ τὰ ἡμέτερα διασύρειν βούλωνται, ἀτεχνῶς φασι παισὶ νηπίοις αὐτὰ μεμυθολογῆσθαι.

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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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