Against Celsus, Book IV · §60 · Origen of Alexandria

One nature shared by all bodies

Next he says that “the nature of all the bodies named above is common, and one, passing into a change that turns back and returning again.” To this too it is plain from what has already been said that the nature is common not only to the bodies listed before but also to the “heavenly” ones (1 Corinthians 15:40). And if this is so, it is plain that on his view (though I do not know whether in truth as well) the nature of all bodies is one, passing into a change that turns back and returning again.

It is plain, too, that this is so on the view of those who make the world perishable. But those who do not make it perishable, and who at the same time do not admit a “fifth body”, will also try to show that on their view too the nature of all bodies is one, passing into a change that turns back and returning again. In this way even what perishes persists, passing into change. For the substrate, matter, persists when the quality perishes, according to those who hold that matter is uncreated.

If, however, some argument can show that matter is not uncreated but has come into being for some purpose, it is plain that it will not have the same nature as regards permanence as it would have if it were supposed uncreated. But it is not our present business, as we meet Celsus’s charges, to treat these questions of natural philosophy.

Greek

Εἶθ᾿ ἑξῆς φησιν ὅτι κοινὴ ἡ πάντων τῶν προειρημένων σωμάτων φύσις καὶ μία ἐς ἀμοιβὴν παλίντροπον ἰοῦσα καὶ ἐπανιοῦσα. καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο δὲ δῆλον ἐκ τῶν προειρημένων ὅτι οὐ μόνον τῶν προκατειλεγμένων σωμάτων κοινή ἐστιν ἡ φύσις ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν „ἐπουρανίων.“ καὶ εἴπερ τοῦθ᾿ οὕτως ἔχει, δῆλον ὅτι κατ᾿ αὐτὸν, οὐκ οἶδα δὲ εἰ καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἀλήθειαν, μία ἐς ἀμοιβὴν παλίντροπον ἰοῦσά ἐστιν ἡ πάντων σωμάτων φύσις καὶ ἐπανιοῦσα. καὶ δῆλον μὲν ὅτι κατὰ τοὺς φθείροντας τὸν κόσμον τοῦθ᾿ οὕτως ἔχει· πειράσονται δὲ δεικνύναι καὶ οἱ μὴ φθείροντες αὐτὸν μετὰ τοῦ μὴ προσίεσθαι „πέμπτον σῶμα“ ὅτι καὶ κατ᾿ αὐτοὺς μία ἐς ἀμοιβὴν παλίντροπον ἰοῦσα καὶ ἐπανιοῦσά ἐστιν ἡ πάντων σωμάτων φύσις. οὕτω δὲ καὶ τὸ ἀπολλύμενον εἰς μεταβολὴν διαμένει· τὸ γὰρ ὑπο (κεί) μενον ἡ ὕλη ἀπολλυμένης τῆς ποιότητος διαμένει κατὰ τοὺς ἀγένητον αὐτὴν εἰσάγοντας. ἐὰν μέντοι γε δυνηθῇ τις παραδεῖξαι λόγος οὐκ ἀγένητον αὐτὴν ἀλλὰ πρός τινα χρείαν γεγονέναι, δῆλον ὅτι οὐχ ἕξει φύσιν περὶ διαμονῆς τὴν αὐτὴν τῷ ἀγένητος ὑποτεθεῖσθαι. ἀλλ᾿ οὐ ταῦτα νῦν πρόκειται ἀπαντῶσιν ἡμῖν πρὸς τὰς Κέλσου κατηγορίας φυσιολογεῖν.

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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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