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

Why Christians will not call God Zeus

It is because they knew these secret things, and others like them, that Moses and the prophets forbid anyone to speak “the name of other gods” (Exodus 23:13) with a mouth that has learned to pray only to the God over all, or to call them to mind in a heart taught to keep itself pure from all vanity of thoughts and words. And for such reasons we choose to endure every kind of torture rather than confess that Zeus is a god. For we do not suppose that Zeus and Sabaoth are the same; indeed, we do not suppose Zeus to be anything divine at all, but some demon who delights in being called by that name, and who is no friend either to men or to the true God.

And if the Egyptians hold Amoun out to us and threaten us with punishment, we shall die rather than proclaim Amoun a god, a name that is probably used in certain Egyptian incantations that call upon this demon. Let the Scythians, too, say that Papaeus is the God over all; but we shall not be persuaded. We do hold that there is a God over all; but we do not name God by Papaeus as a proper name, as pleases the one who was allotted the Scythian wilderness, together with their nation and their language. For whoever names God by the common word for God, in Scythian or in Egyptian or in any language in which he was brought up, will not sin.

Greek

Ταῦτα δὴ καὶ τὰ τούτοις ἀνάλογον ἀπόῤῥητα ἐπιστάμενοι Μωϋσῆς καὶ οἱ προφῆται ἀπαγορεύουσιν „ὄνομα θεῶν ἑτέρων“ ὀνομάζειν ἐν στόματι, μελετήσαντι τῷ ἐπὶ πᾶσι μόνῳ εὔχεσθαι θεῷ, καὶ ἀναμνημονεύειν ἐν καρδίᾳ, διδασκομένῃ καθαρεύειν ἀπὸ πάσης ματαιότητος νοημάτων καὶ λέξεων. καὶ διὰ τὰ τοιαῦτα πᾶσαν αἰκίαν ὑπομένειν μᾶλλον αἱρούμεθα ἢ τὸν Δία ὁμολογῆσαι θεόν. οὐ γὰρ τὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι ὑπολαμβάνομεν Δία καὶ Σαβαὼθ, ἀλλ᾿ οὐδ᾿ ὅλως θεῖόν τι τὸν Δία, δαίμονα δέ τινα χαίρειν οὕτως ὀνομαζόμενον, οὐ φίλον ἀνθρώποις οὐδὲ τῷ ἀληθινῷ θεῷ. κἂν Αἰγύπτιοι δὲ τὸν Ἀμοῦν ἡμῖν προτείνωσιν κόλασιν ἀπειλοῦντες, τεθνηξόμεθα μᾶλλον ἢ τὸν Ἀμοῦν ἀναγορεύσομεν θεὸν, παραλαμβανόμενον ὡς εἰκὸς ἔν τισιν Αἰγυπτίαις καλούσαις τὸν δαίμονα τοῦτον ἐπῳδαῖς. λεγέτωσαν δὲ καὶ Σκύθαι τὸν Παπαῖον θεὸν εἶναι τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσιν· ἀλλ᾿ ἡμεῖς οὐ πεισόμεθα. τιθέντες μὲν τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεὸν. ὡς δὲ φίλον τῷ λαχόντι τὴν Σκυθῶν ἐρημίαν καὶ τὸ ἔθνος αὐτῶν καὶ τὴν διάλεκτον οὐκ ὀνομάζοντες τὸν θεὸν ὡς κυρίῳ ὀνόματι τῷ Παπαῖον. Σκυθιστὶ γὰρ τὸ προσηγορικὸν τὸν θεὸν καὶ Αἰγυπτιστὶ καὶ πάσῃ διαλέκτῳ, ᾗ ἕκαστος ἐντέθραπται. ὀνομάζων οὐχ ἁμαρτήσεται.

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About this text

Origen answers Celsus’s claim that no God or Son of God has come down to men, shows why Christians worship God alone and not angels or the stars, and defends the hope of the resurrection against the charge that it is “the hope of worms.” He then rejects Celsus’s case that each nation should keep its own ancestral laws, and answers his mockery of the angels at Jesus’ tomb and of the many Christian sects.

Base text: Paul Koetschau's Greek, GCS 2–3 (1899), via the Perseus digital text. All 65 chapters of Book V were translated from the Greek in two passes (a literal gloss with key Greek words, then reading English), and every clause was then checked against the Greek in a separate review. Doubtful readings in the Greek are recorded in the translator's notes.

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Translated from Koetschau GCS 2 – 3 (1899) — Greek (Greek · Book V, chapters 1 – 65)

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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