Against Celsus, Book VI · §54 · Origen of Alexandria

What Scripture calls good and evil

Let us, then, for our part, look briefly at what the divine Scriptures say about goods and evils, and at what we should say in answer to “How did God make evils? How is he unable to persuade and admonish?” In the proper sense, according to the divine Scriptures, goods are the virtues and the actions that accord with them, just as evils in the proper sense are their opposites. For the present we shall be content with the words of the thirty-third Psalm (Psalm 34 in English Bibles), which establish this point as follows: “But those who seek the Lord will not lack any good thing. Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life, who loves to see good days? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good” (Psalm 34:10–14).

For “Turn away from evil and do good” (Psalm 34:14) is not said about bodily goods or evils, as some people call them, nor about external ones, but about the goods and evils of the soul. For whoever has turned away from evils in this sense and done good things of this kind, as one who desires the true life, would come into that life, “loving to see good days” (Psalm 34:12), days whose “sun of righteousness” is the Word (Malachi 4:2); and he would reach those days, as God rescues him “from the present evil age” (Galatians 1:4) and from the evil days of which Paul said: “redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16).

Greek

Ἴδωμεν οὖν ἡμεῖς διὰ βραχέων τὰ περὶ ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν, τῶν κατὰ τὰς θείας γραφὰς, καὶ τίνα ἡμῖν λεκτέον πρὸς τό· πῶς μὲν κακὰ (ὁ) θεὸς ἐποίει; πῶς δὲ πείθειν καὶ νουθετεῖν ἀδυνατεῖ; κυρίως δὴ κατὰ τὰς θείας γραφὰς ἀγαθά εἰσιν αἱ ἀρεταὶ καὶ αἱ κατὰ ταύτας πράξεις, ὥσπερ κυρίως κακὰ τὰ ἐναντία τούτοις. ἀρκεσθησόμεθα δὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος λέξεσι ταῖς ἀπὸ τοῦ τριακοστοῦ τρίτου ψαλμοῦ, τοῦτο παριστάσαις οὕτως· „οἱ δὲ ἐκζητοῦντες τὸν κύριον οὐκ ἐλαττωθήσονται παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ. δεῦτε τέκνα, ἀκούσατέ μου, φόβον κυρίου διδάξω ὑμᾶς. τίς ἐστιν ἄνθρωπος ὁ θέλων ζωὴν, ἀγαπῶν ἡμέρας ἰδεῖν ἀγαθάς; παῦσον τὴν γλῶσσάν σου ἀπὸ κακοῦ, καὶ χείλη σου τοῦ μὴ λαλῆσαι δόλον. ἔκκλινον ἀπὸ κακοῦ καὶ ποίησον ἀγαθόν.“ τὸ γὰρ „ἔκκλινον ἀπὸ κακοῦ καὶ ποίησον ἀγαθὸν“ οὔτε περὶ τῶν σωματικῶν λέγεται ἀγαθῶν ἢ κακῶν, οὕτως ὀνομαζομένων παρά τισιν, οὔτε περὶ τῶν ἐκτὸς, ἀλλὰ περὶ τῶν κατὰ ψυχὴν ἀγαθῶν ἢ κακῶν· ἐπείπερ ὁ ἐκκλίνας μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν οὕτως κακῶν ποιήσας δὲ τὰ τοιάδε ἀγαθὰ ὡς θέλων τὴν ἀληθινὴν ζωὴν γένοιτ᾿ ἂν ἐν αὐτῇ, „ἀγαπῶν ἡμέρας ἰδεῖν ἀγαθὰς,“ ὧν ὁ λόγος τῆς „δικαιοσύνης“ ἐστὶν „ἥλιος,“ (καὶ) φθάσαι ἂν ἐπ᾿ ἐκείνας. ἐξαιρουμένου αὐτὸν τοῦ θεοῦ „ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐνεστῶτος αἰῶνος πουηροῦ“ καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν πονηρῶν ἡμερῶν, περὶ ὧν εἶπεν ὁ Παῦλος τό· „ἐξαγοραζόμενοι τὸν καιρὸν, ὅτι αἱ ἡμέραι πονηραί εἰσιν.“

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About this text

Celsus claims that the best Christian teachings were taken from Plato and said better by the Greeks, and he charges Christians with the diagram of an obscure sect and with a crude reading of Genesis. Origen answers that the plain speech of Scripture serves everyone, that the prophets spoke before Plato, and that the God of the Christians is spirit, not body, and is made known through His Word.

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 an independent review. No earlier English translation was consulted.

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Translated from Koetschau GCS 2 – 3 (1899) — Greek (Greek · Book VI, chapters 1 – 81)

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