Against Celsus, Book VI · §71 · Origen of Alexandria

Not the spirit of the Stoics

Since, then, Celsus did not understand the things of the Spirit of God (“for the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned,” 1 Corinthians 2:14), he draws an inference of his own, thinking that when we say God is “spirit,” we differ in nothing on this point from the Stoics among the Greeks, who claim that God is a spirit that has passed through all things and holds all things within itself.

Now the oversight and providence of God do pass through all things, but not in the way the spirit of the Stoics does. And providence does hold within it all the things it provides for, and embraces them; but it does not hold them as a body holds, when what is held is also a body, but as a divine power that has embraced what it holds.

According to the men of the Stoa, who say that the first principles are bodily, and for this reason make all things perishable, and who come close to making perishable even the God who is over all, had this not seemed to them utterly absurd, even the Word of God, who comes down as far as men and the very least things, is nothing other than a bodily spirit. But according to us, who try to prove that even the rational soul is higher than every bodily nature, and is an invisible and incorporeal substance, God the Word, through whom all things came to be (John 1:3), would not be a body. He reaches not only as far as men but also to the things thought to be the least and governed by nature, so that all things may come to be through the Word.

Let the men of the Stoa, then, burn up all things in their world-conflagration; but we know of no incorporeal substance that is burned up, nor do we know that the soul of man, or the being of angels or thrones or dominions or principalities or powers (Colossians 1:16), is dissolved into fire.

Greek

Ὡς μὴ νοήσας δὴ τὰ περὶ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ Κέλσος („ψυχικὸς γὰρ ἄνθρωπος οὐ δέχεται τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ θεοῦ· μωρία γὰρ αὐτῷ ἐστι, καὶ οὐ δύναται γνῶναι, ὅτι πνευματικῶς ἀνακρίνεται“) ἑαυτῷ συνάπτει, οἰόμενος ἡμᾶς λέγοντας „πνεῦμα“ εἶναι τὸν θεὸν μηδὲν ἐν τούτῳ διαφέρειν τῶν παρ᾿ Ἕλλησι Στωϊκῶν, φασκόντων ὅτι ὁ θεὸς πνεῦμά ἐστι διὰ πάντων διεληλυθὸς καὶ πάντ᾿ ἐν ἑαυτῷ περιέχον. διήκει μὲν γὰρ ἡ ἐπισκοπὴ καὶ ἡ πρόνοια τοῦ θεοῦ διὰ πάντων ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ὡς τὸ τῶν Στωϊκῶν πνεῦμα· καὶ πάντα μὲν περιέχει τὰ προνοούμενα ἡ πρόνοια καὶ περιείληφεν αὐτὰ, οὐχ ὡς σῶμα δὲ περιέχον περιέχει, ὅτε καὶ σῶμά ἐστι τὸ περιεχόμενον, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς δύναμις θεία καὶ περιειληφυῖα τὰ περιεχόμενα. κατὰ μὲν οὖν τοὺς ἀπὸ τῆς Στοᾶς, σωματικὰς λέγοντας εἶναι τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πάντα φθείροντας κινδυνεύοντας δὲ καὶ αὐτὸν φθεῖραι τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεὸν, εἰ μὴ πάνυ ἀπεμφαῖνον τοῦτ᾿ αὐτοῖς ἐδόκει τυγχάνειν, καὶ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ μέχρι ἀνθρώπων καὶ τῶν ἐλαχίστων καταβαίνων οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἐστὶν ἢ πνεῦμα σωματικόν· κατὰ δὲ ἡμᾶς καὶ τὴν λογικὴν ψυχὴν πειρωμένους ἀποδεικνύναι κρείττονα πάσης σωματικῆς φύσεως καὶ οὐσίαν ἀόρατον καὶ ἀσώματον οὐκ ἂν σῶμα εἴη ὁ θεὸς λόγος, δι᾿ οὗ τὰ πάντ᾿ ἐγένετο, ὁ φθάνων, ἵνα πάντα διὰ λόγου γίνηται, οὐχ ἕως ἀνθρώπων μόνων ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἐλαχίστων εἶναι νομιζομένων καὶ ὑπὸ φύσεως διοικουμένων. πάντα μὲν οὖν οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς Στοᾶς ἐκπυρούτωσαν, ἡμεῖς δὲ ἀσώματον οὐσίαν οὐκ ἴσμεν ἐκπυρουμένην οὐδ᾿ εἰς πῦρ ἀναλυομένην τὴν ἀνθρώπου ψυχὴν ἢ τὴν ἀγγέλων ἢ θρόνων ἢ κυριοτήτων ἢ ἀρχῶν ἢ ἐξουσιῶν ὑπόστασιν.

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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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