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Origen Against Celsus
Chapter XXIII.
But the majority of those who are accounted believers are not of this advanced class; but from being either unable or unwilling to keep every day in this manner, they require some sensible memorials to prevent spiritual things from passing altogether away from their minds. It is to this practice of setting apart some days distinct from others, that Paul seems to me to refer in the expression, "part of the feast;" 1 and by these words he indicates that a life in accordance with the divine word consists not "in a part of the feast," but in one entire and never ceasing festival. 2 Again, compare the festivals, observed among us as these have been described above, with the public feasts of Celsus and the heathen, and say if the former are not much more sacred observances than those feasts in which the lust of the flesh runs riot, and leads to drunkenness and debauchery. It would be too long for us at present to show why we are required by the law of God to keep its festivals by eating "the bread of affliction," 3 or "unleavened with bitter herbs," 4 or why it says, "Humble your souls," 5 and such like. For it is impossible for man, who is a compound being, in which "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh," 6 to keep the feast with his whole nature; for either he keeps the feast with his spirit and afflicts the body, which through the lust of the flesh is unfit to keep it along with the spirit, or else he keeps it with the body, and the spirit is unable to share in it. But we have for the present said enough on the subject of feasts.
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Col. ii. 16. The whole passage in the English version is, "Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday" (en merei heortes). Origen's interpretation is not followed by any modern expositors. It is adopted by Chrysostom and Theodoret. ↩
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[Dr. Hessey notes this as "a curious comment" of Origen's on St. Paul's language: Bampton Lectures, On Sunday: its Origin, History, and Present Obligation, pp. 48, 286-289, 4th ed. S.] ↩
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Deut. xvi. 3. ↩
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Ex. xii. 8. ↩
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Lev. xvi. 29. ↩
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Gal. v. 17. ↩
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Contra Celsum
23.
Ὁ δὲ πολὺς τῶν πιστεύειν δοκούντων καὶ μὴ τηλικοῦτος δεῖται ὑπομνήσεως χάριν, μὴ βουλόμενος ἢ μὴ δυνάμενος πάσας τοιαύτας ἄγειν ἡμέρας, αἰσθητῶν παραδειγμάτων, ἵνα μὴ τέλεον παραῤῥυῇ. Τοιαῦτα δ' οἶμαι τὸν Παῦλον νενοηκότα μέρος μὲν «ἑορτῆς» ὠνομακέναι τὴν ἐν ἡμέραις τεταγμέναις παρ' ἑτέρας ἑορτήν, ᾐνίχθαι δὲ ἐκ τοῦ οὕτως λελεγμένου ὅτι οὐκ «ἐν μέρει ἑορτῆς» ἀλλ' ἐν ὁλοκλήρῳ καὶ ἀδιαλείπτῳ ἐστὶν ἑορτῇ ὁ ἀεὶ βίος κατὰ τὸν θεῖον λόγον. Ὅρα οὖν πάλιν κἀκ τῶν εἰρημένων περὶ ἑορτῶν τῶν παρ' ἡμῖν, συνεξεταζομένων ταῖς δημοτελέσι τοῦ Κέλσου καὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἑορταῖς, εἰ μὴ μακρῷ σεμνότεραί εἰσιν αὗται αἱ ἑορταὶ τῶν δημοτελῶν, ἐν αἷς «τὸ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκὸς» ἑορτάζον ἐξυβρίζει ἐπὶ μέθας καὶ ἀκολασίας ἐκτρεπόμενον.
Πολὺ δ' ἂν εἴη νῦν λέγειν, διὰ τί αἱ κατὰ τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ νόμον ἑορταὶ «ἄρτον κακώσεως» διδάσκουσιν ἐσθίειν ἢ «ἄζυμα μετὰ πικρίδων», ἢ διότι φασί· «Ταπεινώσατε τὰς ψυχὰς ὑμῶν» ἤ τι τούτοις παραπλήσιον. Οὐδὲ γὰρ δυνατόν ἐστι τὸν σύνθετον ἄνθρωπον, ὅσον ἔτι «Ἡ σὰρξ ἐπιθυμεῖ κατὰ τοῦ πνεύματος, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα κατὰ τῆς σαρκός», ἐξ ὅλων ἑορτάζειν· ἢ γὰρ ἑορτάζων τις τῷ πνεύματι κακοῖ τὸ σῶμα, μὴ πεφυκὸς διὰ «τὸ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκὸς» ἑορτάζειν μετὰ τοῦ πνεύματος, ἢ ἑορτάζων κατὰ σάρκα οὐ χωρεῖ καὶ τὴν κατὰ πνεῦμα ἑορτήν. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἀρκεῖ ταῦτα εἰς τὸν περὶ ἑορτῶν λόγον ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος.