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Texts
 
Henry Chadwick
Contra Celsum
(Translation) ----------
Rowan Greer (Editor)
Exhortation to Martyrdom, Prayer (Classics of Western Spirituality)
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General Works
John A. McGuckin,
The Westminister Handbook to Origen
----------
Joseph W. Trigg
Origen ----------
E. A. D. Lauro
The Soul and Spirit of Scripture within Origen's Exegesis
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R. P. C. Hanson
Allegory and Event: A Study of the Sources and Significance of Origen's
Interpretation of Scripture ----------
Hans Urs von Balthasar
Origen: Spirit and Fire - A Thematic Anthology of His Writings
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Are Christians monotheists?
8.12 “If,” says he, “these people worshipped one God alone, and no other, they
would perhaps have some valid argument against the worship of others. But they
pay excessive reverence to one who has but lately appeared among men, and they
think it no offence against God if they worship also His servant.”
8.14 “If you should tell them that Jesus is not the Son of God, but that God is
the Father of all, and that He alone ought to be truly worshipped, they would
not consent to discontinue their worship of him who is their leader in the
sedition. And they call him Son of God, not out of any extreme reverence for
God, but from an extreme desire to extol Jesus Christ.”
Objections to the idea of God Coming Down to Earth
4.2 “But that certain Christians and (all) Jews should maintain, the former that
there has already descended, the latter that there will descend, upon the earth
a certain God, or Son of a God, who will make the inhabitants of the earth
righteous, is a most shameless assertion, and one the refutation of which does
not need many words.”
4.3 “What is the meaning of such a descent upon the part of God?”...“Was it in
order to learn what goes on amongst men?”...“Does he not know all
things?”.....(If) “Then he does know, but does not make (men) better, nor is it
possible for him by means of his divine power to make (men) better.”....“Is it
then not possible for him, by means of his divine power, to make (men) better,
unless he send some one for that special purpose?”
Slanders Against the Virgin
1.28 For he represents him disputing with Jesus, and confuting Him, as he
thinks, on many points; and in the first place, he accuses Him of having
“invented his birth from a virgin,” and upbraids Him with being “born in a
certain Jewish village, of a poor woman of the country, who gained her
subsistence by spinning, and who was turned out of doors by her husband, a
carpenter by trade, because she was convicted of adultery; that after being
driven away by her husband, and wandering about for a time, she disgracefully
gave birth to Jesus, an illegitimate child.
1.32 But let us now return to where the Jew is introduced, speaking of the
mother of Jesus, and saying that “when she was pregnant she was turned out of
doors by the carpenter to whom she had been betrothed, as having been guilty of
adultery, and that she bore a child to a certain soldier named Panthera;”
On the Resurrection
2.55 “Come now, let us grant to you that the prediction was actually uttered.
Yet how many others are there who practise such juggling tricks, in order to
deceive their simple hearers, and who make gain by their deception?—as was the
case, they say, with Zamolxis in Scythia, the slave of Pythagoras; and with
Pythagoras himself in Italy; and with Rhampsinitus in Egypt (the latter of whom,
they say, played at dice with Demeter in Hades, and returned to the upper world
with a golden napkin which he had received from her as a gift); and also with
Orpheus among the Odrysians, and Protesilaus in Thessaly, and Hercules at Cape
Tænarus, and Theseus. But the question is, whether any one who was really dead
ever rose with a veritable body. Or do you imagine the statements of others not
only to be myths, but to have the appearance of such, while you have discovered
a becoming and credible termination to your drama in the voice from the cross,
when he breathed his last, and in the earthquake and the darkness? That while
alive he was of no assistance to himself, but that when dead he rose again, and
showed the marks of his punishment, and how his hands were pierced with nails:
who beheld this? A half-frantic woman, as you state, and some other one,
perhaps, of those who were engaged in the same system of delusion, who had
either dreamed so, owing to a peculiar state of mind, or under the influence of
a wandering imagination had formed to himself an appearance according to his own
wishes, which has been the case with numberless individuals; or, which is most
probable, one who desired to impress others with this portent, and by such a
falsehood to furnish an occasion to impostors like himself.”
Charlatanry and Credulity
1.9 He next proceeds to recommend, that in adopting opinions we should follow
reason and a rational guide, since he who assents to opinions without following
this course is very liable to be deceived. And he compares inconsiderate
believers to Metragyrtæ, and soothsayers, and Mithræ, and Sabbadians, and to
anything else that one may fall in with, and to the phantoms of Hecate, or any
other demon or demons. For as amongst such persons are frequently to be found
wicked men, who, taking advantage of the ignorance of those who are easily
deceived, lead them away whither they will, so also, he says, is the case among
Christians. And he asserts that certain persons who do not wish either to give
or receive a reason for their belief, keep repeating, “Do not examine, but
believe!” and, “Your faith will save you!” And he alleges that such also say,
“The wisdom of this life is bad, but that foolishness is a good thing!”
Miracle and Sorcery
1.28 Jesus, an illegitimate child, who having hired himself out as a servant in
Egypt on account of his poverty, and having there acquired some miraculous
powers, on which the Egyptians greatly pride themselves, returned to his own
country, highly elated on account of them, and by means of these proclaimed
himself a God.”
1.68 But after this, Celsus, having a suspicion that the great works performed
by Jesus, of which we have named a few out of a great number, would be brought
forward to view, affects to grant that those statements may be true which are
made regarding His cures, or His resurrection, or the feeding of a multitude
with a few loaves, from which many fragments remained over, or those other
stories which Celsus thinks the disciples have recorded as of a marvellous
nature; and he adds: “Well, let us believe that these were actually wrought by
you.” But then he immediately compares them to the tricks of jugglers, who
profess to do more wonderful things, and to the feats performed by those who
have been taught by Egyptians, who in the middle of the market-place, in return
for a few obols, will impart the knowledge of their most venerated arts, and
will expel demons from men, and dispel diseases, and invoke the souls of heroes,
and exhibit expensive banquets, and tables, and dishes, and dainties having no
real existence, and who will put in motion, as if alive, what are not really
living animals, but which have only the appearance of life. And he asks, “Since,
then, these persons can perform such feats, shall we of necessity conclude that
they are ‘sons of God,’ or must we admit that they are the proceedings of wicked
men under the influence of an evil spirit?”
Christian Propaganda
3.55 He asserts, “We see, indeed, in private houses workers in wool and leather,
and fullers, and persons of the most uninstructed and rustic character, not
venturing to utter a word in the presence of their elders and wiser masters; but
when they get hold of the children privately, and certain women as ignorant as
themselves, they pour forth wonderful statements, to the effect that they ought
not to give heed to their father and to their teachers, but should obey them;
that the former are foolish and stupid, and neither know nor can perform
anything that is really good, being preoccupied with empty trifles; that they
alone know how men ought to live, and that, if the children obey them, they will
both be happy themselves, and will make their home happy also. And while thus
speaking, if they see one of the instructors of youth approaching, or one of the
more intelligent class, or even the father himself, the more timid among them
become afraid, while the more forward incite the children to throw off the yoke,
whispering that in the presence of father and teachers they neither will nor can
explain to them any good thing, seeing they turn away with aversion from the
silliness and stupidity of such persons as being altogether corrupt, and far
advanced in wickedness, and such as would inflict punishment upon them; but that
if they wish (to avail themselves of their aid) they must leave their father and
their instructors, and go with the women and their playfellows to the women’s
apartments, or to the leather shop, or to the fuller’s shop, that they may
attain to perfection;—and by words like these they gain them over.”
Christians and The Empire
8.67-69 (Celsus says) “If you are commanded to swear by a human king, there is
nothing wrong in that. For to him has been given whatever there is upon earth;
and whatever you receive in this life, you receive from him.” .... Celsus goes
on to say: “We must not disobey the ancient writer, who said long ago, ‘Let one
be king, whom the son of crafty Saturn appointed;’” and adds: “If you set aside
this maxim, you will deservedly suffer for it at the hands of the king. For if
all were to do the same as you, there would be nothing to prevent his being left
in utter solitude and desertion, and the affairs of the earth would fall into
the hands of the wildest and most lawless barbarians; and then there would no
longer remain among men any of the glory of your religion or of the true
wisdom.” ....
“You surely do not say that if the Romans were, in compliance with your wish, to
neglect their customary duties to gods and men, and were to worship the Most
High, or whatever you please to call him, that he will come down and fight for
them, so that they shall need no other help than his. For this same God, as
yourselves say, promised of old this and much more to those who served him, and
see in what way he has helped them and you! They, in place of being masters of
the whole world, are left with not so much as a patch of ground or a home; and
as for you, if any of you transgresses even in secret, he is sought out and
punished with death.”
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