Contra Celsum

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A piece from the oldest textual tradition by Contra Celsum in the Cairo Papyrus , Egyptian Museum , JE 88747 (late 6th or early 7th century), which contains excerpts from this work; here page 29

Against Kelsos ( Greek Κατὰ Κέλσου Katá Kélsou , Latin Contra Celsum ) is a pamphlet by the church writer , Christian scholar and theologian Origen against the anti-Christian theses of the philosopher Kelsos (Latin Celsus ). The eight books of the polemic were written between 244 and 249 as a reaction to the first differentiating polemic of a pagan philosopher against Christianity. The pamphlet of Kelsos against Christianity with the title 'Aληθής λόγος Alēthḗs lógos (True Teaching) was probably written around 178 in Alexandria . Your text has only survived in fragments through the quotations from Origen. Since Origen quotes one section after the other and tries to refute it, the structure of the Alethes logos can roughlybe deduced from his presentation. Origen claims to have responded to all of the opponent's arguments, but the researchers' opinions differ widely as to how large the text portion he has handed down is.

content

Preface

The beginning of Contra Celsum in the Paris manuscript, Bibliothèque nationale de France , Gr. 945, fol. 48r (late 14th or 15th century)

In the foreword Origen addresses his friend Ambrosius , who has asked him to write this work. He himself thinks that it is not necessary to write against the theses of Kelsus. The scriptures and Jesus would speak for themselves. And Jesus was silent when he was confronted with false accusations.

“Nevertheless, in order not to give the impression that I was hesitant to comply with your mandate, I tried, to the best of my ability, to reconcile each of the assertions made by Kelsos, which cannot shake a believer in his convictions, one in my opinion to counter a suitable refutation. "

Origen addresses his writing not only to believing Christians, but to everyone who is interested. He writes: “The future reader of our reply to the scriptures of Celsus should come across it immediately and see from it that the present book is not written for perfect believers, but for those who, with their faith in Christ, are either completely unknown or as the apostle puts it, are still weak in faith. "

accusations

According to Origen, the allegations that Kelsos brings against Christianity include the following:

  • The Christians would belong to illegal associations. Origen thinks that this is correct, but because of the political situation it cannot be done differently: "So it is not unreasonable to make connections contrary to the legal orders ... so the Roman Senate fought the emperors, the troops, the congregations, yes [even] the relatives of the believers themselves Christian teaching ... “The church can only survive in the underground.
  • The Christian teaching is barbaric from its origin. Origen thinks it is divine, not barbaric. Origen also replies that the Greek philosophers had also adopted the thoughts and ideas of the Jews and the Jewish religion. This is how he calls the Pythagorean Numenios - "Yes, he has no hesitation in using the sayings of the prophets in his writing and interpreting them graphically." Pythagoras is also said to have received his philosophy from the Jews. Many scriptures would also testify that the Jews are not "barbarians".
  • The teaching of Christians is a secret teaching. Origen replies that this is nonsense because the teaching is widespread. He writes: "... almost the whole world knows the preaching of Christians better than the views of the philosophers." And - the Greek philosophers would also spread esoteric and exoteric teachings.
  • Under pressure, Christians would slander their religion. Followers of a true religion would not do that. Origen replies that Kelsos is a hypocrite. In other writings he revealed himself to be an Epicurean , a man of pleasure. But with such a confession, as a religious philosopher, his readers would never have taken him seriously. "The follower of an excellent teaching is allowed, even if because of it, he would run the risk with people, not to fall away from it or pretend that he has fallen away from it, or to deny it too", and now does exactly the opposite of it himself. For he knew that he would find no faith in his accusation of people who accept some kind of providence and divine world government if he openly declared himself an Epicurean. "
  • Christians would live according to the principle: “Do not examine, but believe!” Origen says that this applies to everything and to every religion and philosophy. Very few have the time, energy and leisure to familiarize themselves with something. They would follow their teachers without testing. The followers of the Greek philosophers would do the same. And the Christian faith would have done a lot of good. “We ask, regarding the multitude of believers who have freed themselves from the great flood of vice in which they once wallowed, whether it is better for them to believe without questioning reason and their moral life put in order, and because of their belief that sins are punished but good works are rewarded, have received spiritual benefit, or that their moral improvement associated with simple faith is not recognized until they thoroughly examine the doctrines? " Furthermore, everyone would believe in something.
  • Many Christians put forward the sentence: “An evil is wisdom in life, but folly is a good.” Origen says that no one has said anything like that. Paul said: “If anyone among you thinks he is wise, he will only become a gate in this world to become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God ”.
  • Moses took over his teachings from other peoples. Origen thinks that is correct, but what is wrong with it? Other high cultures would have done that too.
  • It is a crude deception to claim that there is only one God. Origen thinks that Kelsos cannot prove that there are multiple gods either. "... But he will not be able to show these phantasies of the Greeks, which are apparently physical, after their actions as real gods."
  • Jesus was of low birth. Regardless, replied Origen, “he was able to set the whole human-inhabited earth in motion to a higher degree, not only than Themistocles of Athens , but also as Pythagoras and Plato and some other sages or kings or generals of any land on earth . "

expenditure

  • Origen: Contra Celsum ed. by Henry Chadwick . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1953 (and more often), ISBN 0521295769 (English translation with detailed introduction and notes)
  • Origène: Contre Celse , ed. by Marcel Borret, 5 volumes, Paris 1967–1976 (Greek text of Origen's script with French translation)
  • Origen: Contra Celsum libri VIII , ed. by Miroslav Marcovich, Brill, Leiden 2001, ISBN 90-04-11976-0
  • Origen: Contra Celsum - Against Celsus (= Fontes Christiani 50). Introduced and commented by Michael Fiedrowicz, translated by Claudia Barthold. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. Ua 2011/2012 (Greek-German, in three volumes)

literature

  • Franz Anton Winter: On the value of the direct and indirect transmission of Origenes' books "contra Celsum" Burghausen, 1903 ( digitized version )
  • A. Miura rod: Celsus and Origen. The common belief of their world based on the eight books of Origen against Celsus , 1926.
  • Carl Andresen : Logos and Nomos. The polemic of Kelsos against Christianity . De Gruyter, Berlin 1955.
  • Karl Pichler: Controversy about Christianity. The attack of Celsus and the answer of Origen . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-8204-6126-4 .
  • Christiana Reemts: Reasonable Belief. The foundation of Christianity in Origen's writing against Celsus . Borengässer, Bonn 1998. ISBN 3-923946-38-4 .
  • Horacio E. Lona: The "true teaching" of the Celsus . Freiburg 2005, ISBN 3-451-28599-1 [German translation with detailed commentary]

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Johannes Arnold : Der True Logos des Kelsos , Münster 2016, p. 1; Irmgard Männlein-Robert : Kelsus (from Alexandria?). In: Christoph Riedweg et al. (Ed.): Philosophy of the Imperial Era and Late Antiquity (= Outline of the history of philosophy . The philosophy of antiquity. Volume 5/1), Basel 2018, pp. 665–672, here: 665.
  2. ↑ On the dating and localization Horacio E. Lona: Die “Wahreehre” des Kelsos , Freiburg 2005, pp. 54–57. Jeffrey W. Hargis: Against the Christians advocates a late dating of around 200 . The Rise of Early Anti-Christian Polemic , New York 1999, pp. 20-24.
  3. ↑ Horacio E. Lona: The "True Teaching" of the Kelsos , Freiburg 2005, pp. 16-19 offers an overview of the different views.