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Contra Celsum, Book 4

Against Celsus

About this book
Chapter 28

And since he has made the Christians, whom he regards as worms, say that “God, abandoning the heavenly motion and disregarding the vast earth, governs for us alone, and makes proclamations to us, and does not cease sending and seeking how we may be with him forever,” it must be said that he attributes to us what we do not say, we who read and know that God loves all things that exist and abhors nothing that he has made; for he would not have fashioned anything if he hated it. We have read too: “You spare all things, for they are yours, lover of souls; for your imperishable Spirit is in all things. Therefore you correct little by little those who fall, and warn them by reminding them of the things in which they sin.” How can we say that God, abandoning the heavenly motion and the whole world and disregarding the vast earth, governs for us alone, we who have found that in our prayers we must say, with understanding, that “the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord,” and that “the mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh,”⁠ and that God, being good, “makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust,” urging us to similar things so that we may become his sons, and teaching us to extend our good deeds to all men as far as we can? For he himself is called “Savior of all men, especially of believers,” and his Christ is said to be “the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” Perhaps some of the Jews might say, not the things Celsus recorded, but some other ignorant things; but not the Christians, who have been taught that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” And yet “one will scarcely die for a righteous man; though perhaps for a good man someone might even dare to die.” But now Jesus, who by a custom traditional in these Scriptures is also called the Christ of God, is proclaimed to have come for sinners everywhere, so that they may leave sin and entrust themselves to God.

Book 5

Texts in conversation

Compare Sirach 18:13 and Origen, Contra Celsum 4.28

Deuterocanon · Early Christian

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Summary

The Christian theologian Origen uses Sirach as an authoritative source for theology and teaching, describing divine compassion as wider than human mercy and showing how it influenced early Christian tradition.

Passages

Sirach 18:13

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
11 For this cause the Lord was patient over them, and poured out his mercy upon them. 12 He saw and perceived their end, that it is evil. Therefore he multiplied his forgiveness. 13 The mercy of a man is on his neighbor; but the mercy of the Lord is on all flesh: reproving, chastening, teaching, and bringing back, as a shepherd does his flock. 14 He has mercy on those who accept chastening, and that diligently seek after his judgments. 15 My son, don’t add reproach to your good deeds, and no harsh words in any of your giving.
195–180 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sirach

Origen, Contra Celsum 4.28

Early Christian · Against Celsus
for your imperishable Spirit is in all things. Therefore you correct little by little those who fall, and warn them by reminding them of the things in which they sin.” How can we say that God, abandoning the heavenly motion and the whole world and disregarding the vast earth, governs for us alone, we who have found that in our prayers we must say, with understanding, that “the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord,” and that “the mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh,” and that God, being good, “makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust,” urging us to similar things so that we may become his sons, and teaching us to extend our good deeds to all men as far as we can? For he himself is called “Savior of all men, especially of believers,” and his Christ is said to be “the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”
248 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Origen, Contra Celsum 4

References

"... The Hebrew of Ben Sira was not included in the Jewish biblical canon. Testimony to its survival, however, is found in the numerous quotations of the book in rabbinic literature. Of course, the medieval manuscripts discovered in the Cairo Genizah constitute prima facie evidence for its continued existence in Hebrew. The Greek translation seems to have been influential in early Christianity, and it eventually was included in the Christian Old Testament (only to be excised by Protestants in the sixteenth century). Sirach is not cited explicitly in the New Testament, and scholars differ as to how much influence it had on the New Testament writings. Those who see broad influence have argued for it primarily in Matthew, Luke, some of Paul’s letters and the Epistle of James (compare Harrington, Invitation, p. 90; Schürer, History, vol. III.1, pp. 205–208). In other early Christian literature, Didache 4:5 and Barnabas 19:9 bear a very close resemblance to, and perhaps are taken from, Sirach 4:31. If these texts do depend on Sirach, they would be the earliest examples of direct Christian use of the book. A healthy number of Greek and Latin church fathers, including Clement of Alexandria, Origen, John Chrysostom, Tertullian, Jerome and Augustine, use Sirach in their writings, and as early as Clement of Alexandria Sirach is cited as scripture, demonstrating the high regard the book came to have in Christian tradition ..."
Daniel Ryan, “Sirach (Ecclesiasticus),” in The T&T Clark Companion to the Septuagint, ed. James K. Aitken, Bloomsbury Companions (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015), 410–424.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Sirach 18:13 and Origen, Contra Celsum 4.28

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