Against Celsus, Book IV · §46 · Origen of Alexandria

What Celsus leaves out about Joseph

Celsus tosses in besides “the hatred,” I suppose of Esau toward Jacob (Genesis 27:41), a man acknowledged in Scripture to be base. And without setting out clearly the story of Simeon and Levi, who avenged the outrage done to their sister when she was violated by the son of the king of Shechem (Genesis 34:1–31), he accuses them. He speaks of “brothers selling,” meaning the sons of Jacob, and “a brother being sold,” meaning Joseph, and “a father deceived,” meaning Jacob, since he suspected nothing of his sons when they showed him Joseph’s “many-coloured coat” (Genesis 37:32), but believed them and “mourned” for Joseph as lost while he was a slave in Egypt (Genesis 37:33–35).

But see how Celsus has gathered material from the history in hatred and not in love of truth. So, where the history seemed to him to contain grounds for accusation, he sets it out; but where it gives a notable display of chastity, when Joseph did not yield to the passion of the woman held to be his mistress, who now pleaded with him and now threatened him (Genesis 39:7–20), he did not so much as mention the history. For we would see that Joseph was far nobler than anything told of Bellerophon, since he chose to be shut up in prison rather than lose a chaste mind. Indeed, though he could have defended himself and argued his case against the woman who accused him, he kept a noble silence, entrusting his cause to God.

Greek

Παραῤῥίπτει δ᾿ ὁ Κέλσος τὴν ἀπέχθειαν, οἶμαι τοῦ Ἠσαῦ πρὸς τὸν Ἰακὼβ, ἀνδρὸς κατὰ τὴν γραφὴν ὁμολογουμένου φαύλου· καὶ μὴ σαφῶς ἐκτιθέμενος τὰ περὶ τὸν Συμέων καὶ τὸν Λευῒ, ἐπεξελθόντας τῇ ὕβρει τῆς ἀδελφῆς βιασθείσης ὑπὸ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ βασιλέως Σικίμων, σφᾶς αἰτιᾶται· ἀδελφοὺς δὲ πωλοῦντας τοὺς υἱοὺς λέγει τοῦ Ἰακὼβ, καὶ ἀδελφὸν πιπρασκόμενον τὸν Ἰωσὴφ, καὶ πατέρα ἐξαπατώμενον τὸν Ἰακὼβ, ἐπεὶ μηδὲν ὑπονοήσας περὶ τῶν υἱῶν ἐπιδεικνύντων „τὸν ποικίλον χιτῶνα“ τοῦ Ἰωσὴφ ἀλλὰ πιστεύσας αὐτοῖς „ἐπένθει ὡς ἀπολωλότα τὸν Ἰωσὴφ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ δουλεύοντα, ὅρα δὲ τινα τρόπον ἀπεχθῶς καὶ οὐ φιλαλήθως συνήγαγε τὰ ἀπὸ τῆς ἱστοριας ὁ Κέλσος· ὥστε ὅπου μὲν ἐδόκει αὐτῷ κατηγορίαν περιέχειν ἡ ἱστορια, ἐκτιθεται αὐτὴν, ὅπου δὲ σωφροσύνης ἀξιολόγου ἐπίδειξις γεγένηται, τοῦ Ἰωσὴφ οὖκ ἐνδόντος πρὸς τὸν ἔρωτα τῆς νομιζομένης δεσποίνης πῆ μὲν παρακαλούσης πῇ δ᾿ ἀπειλούσης, οὐδ᾿ ὑπεμνήσθη τῆς ἱστορίας. πολλῶ γὰρ κρείττονα τῶν κατὰ τὸν Βελλεροφόντην ἱστορουμένων ἴδοιμεν ἂν τὸν Ἰωσὴφ, ἑλόμενον κατακλεισθῆναι ἐν φυλακῇ ἤπερ ἀπολέσαι νοῦν σώφρονα· δυνάμενος γοῦν ἀπολογίσασθαι καὶ δικαιολογήσασθαι πρὸς τὴν κατηγορήσασαν μεγαλοψύχως ἀπεσιώπησε τῷ θεῷ ἐπιτρέψας τὰ καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν.

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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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