Origen, AGAINST CELSUS, Part V, Complete

Translated from the Greek original by Frederick Crombie.

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This Part: 128 Pages

Page 14

He finds fault, moreover, with his own handwork, [4548] and hates, and threatens, and destroys his own offspring? Whither can he transport them out of this world, which he himself has made?" Now it does not appear to me that by these remarks he makes clear what "evil" is; and although there have been among the Greeks many sects who differ as to the nature of good and evil, he hastily concludes, as if it were a consequence of our maintaining that this world also is a work of the universal God, that in our judgment God is the author of evil. Let it be, however, regarding evil as it may--whether created by God or not--it nevertheless follows only as a result when you compare the principal design. [4549] And I am greatly surprised if the inference regarding God's authorship of evil, which he thinks follows from our maintaining that this world also is the work of the universal God, does not follow too from his own statements. For one might say to Celsus: "If these are His works, how is it that God created evil? and how is it that He cannot persuade and admonish men?" It is indeed the greatest error in reasoning to accuse those who are of different opinions of holding unsound doctrines, when the accuser himself is much more liable to the same charge with regard to his own.


[4548] technen.

[4549] ek parakoloutheseos gegenetai tes pros ta proegoumena.

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