Edition Masquer
Contra Celsum

57.

Ὅρα οὖν εἰ δεῖ τῷ μετὰ τοιούτων δογμάτων κατηγοροῦντι Χριστιανῶν προσθέσθαι καταλείποντα λόγον, διαφορὰν διδόντα διὰ τὰς ἐπικειμένας ποιότητας τοῖς σώμασι καὶ περὶ τὰ σώματα. Ἴσμεν γὰρ καὶ ἡμεῖς ὅτι ἐστὶ «καὶ σώματα ἐπουράνια καὶ σώματα ἐπίγεια», καὶ ἄλλη μὲν «ἐπουρανίων» σωμάτων «δόξα» ἄλλη δὲ «ἐπιγείων», καὶ οὐδὲ τῶν «ἐπουρανίων» ἡ αὐτή· «ἄλλη» γὰρ «δόξα ἡλίου» «καὶ ἄλλη δόξα ἀστέρων», καὶ ἐν αὐτοῖς δὲ τοῖς ἄστροις «ἀστὴρ ἀστέρος διαφέρει ἐν δόξῃ». Διὸ καὶ τὴν ἀνάστασιν «τῶν νεκρῶν» ἀποδεχόμενοι μεταβολάς φαμεν γίνεσθαι ποιοτήτων τῶν ἐν σώμασιν· ἐπεὶ σπειρόμενά τινα αὐτῶν «ἐν φθορᾷ ἐγείρεται ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ», καὶ σπειρόμενα «ἐν ἀτιμίᾳ ἐγείρεται ἐν δόξῃ», καὶ σπειρόμενα «ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ ἐγείρεται ἐν δυνάμει», καὶ σπειρόμενα σώματα ψυχικὰ ἐγείρεται πνευματικά. Περὶ δὲ τοῦ τὴν ὑποκειμένην ὕλην δεκτικὴν εἶναι ποιοτήτων, ὧν ὁ δημιουργὸς βούλεται, πάντες οἱ πρόνοιαν παραδεξάμενοι κατασκευάζομεν· καὶ βουλομένου μὲν θεοῦ ποιότης τοιαδὶ νῦν ἐστι περὶ τήνδε τὴν ὕλην ἑξῆς δὲ τοιαδί, φέρ' εἰπεῖν, βελτίων καὶ διαφέρουσα.

Ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ ὁδοί εἰσι τεταγμέναι τῶν ἐν σώμασι μεταβολῶν, ἐξ οὗ κόσμος ἐστὶ καὶ ἐς ὅσον ἐστίν, οὐκ οἶδα εἰ καινῆς διαδεξομένης ὁδοῦ καὶ ἀλλοίας μετὰ τὴν τοῦ κόσμου φθοράν, ἣν οἱ ἡμέτεροι λόγοι ὀνομάζουσι συντέλειαν, οὐ θαυμαστὸν εἰ ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος ἐξ ἀνθρώπου νεκροῦ μεταπλασσόμενος ὄφις, ὡς οἱ πολλοί φασι, γίνεται ἀπὸ τοῦ νωτιαίου μυελοῦ καὶ ἐκ βοὸς μέλισσα καὶ ἐξ ἵππου σφὴξ καὶ ἐξ ὄνου κάνθαρος καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς ἐκ τῶν πλείστων σκώληκες. Οἴεται δὲ τοῦτο ὁ Κέλσος κατασκευαστικὸν εἶναι τοῦ μηδὲν τούτων ἔργον εἶναι θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ τὰς ποιότητας, οὐκ οἶδ' ὁπόθεν οὕτω τεταγμένας ἐκ τῶνδε τάσδε γίνεσθαι, οὐχὶ θείου τινὸς λόγου ἔργον εἶναι, τὰς ἐν τῇ ὕλῃ ποιότητας ἀμείβοντος.

Traduction Masquer
Origen Against Celsus

Chapter LVII.

See, then, whether we ought to yield to one who, holding such opinions, calumniates the Christians, and thus abandon a doctrine which explains the difference existing among bodies as due to the different qualities, internal and external, which are implanted in them. For we, too, know that there are "bodies celestial, and bodies terrestrial;" and that "the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial another;" and that even the glory of the celestial bodies is not alike: for "one is the glory of the sun, and another the glory of the stars;" and among the stars themselves, "one star differeth from another star in glory." ¹ And therefore, as those who expect the resurrection of the dead, we assert that the qualities which are in bodies undergo change: since some bodies, which are sown in corruption, are raised in incorruption; and others, sown in dishonour, are raised in glory; and others, again, sown in weakness, are raised in power; and those which are sown natural bodies, are raised as spiritual. ² That the matter which underlies bodies is capable of receiving those qualities which the Creator pleases to bestow, is a point which all of us who accept the doctrine of providence firmly hold; so that, if God so willed, one quality is at the present time implanted in this portion of matter, and afterwards another of a different and better kind. But since there are, from the beginning of the world, laws ³ established for the purpose of regulating the changes of bodies, and which will continue while the world lasts, I do not know whether, when a new and different order of things has succeeded ⁴ after the destruction of the world, and what our Scriptures call the end ⁵ (of the ages), it is not wonderful that at the present time a snake should be formed out of a dead man, growing, as the multitude affirm, out of the marrow of the back, ⁶ and that a bee should spring from an ox, and a wasp from a horse, and a beetle from an ass, and, generally, worms from the most of bodies. Celsus, indeed, thinks that this can be shown to be the consequence of none of these bodies being the work of God, and that qualities (I know not whence it was so arranged that one should spring out of another) are not the work of a divine intelligence, producing the changes which occur in the qualities of matter.