Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Origen/Origen Against Celsus/Book III/Chapter XLIII

by Origen

Chapter XLIII.

He next says of us, that “we ridicule those who worship Jupiter, because his tomb is pointed out in the island of Crete; and yet we worship him who rose from the tomb,^[1] although ignorant of the grounds^[2] on which the Cretans observe such a custom.”  Observe now that he thus undertakes the defence of the Cretans, and of Jupiter, and of his tomb, alluding obscurely to the allegorical notions, in conformity with which the myth regarding Jupiter is said to have been invented; while he assails us who acknowledge that our Jesus has been buried, indeed, but who maintain that He has also been raised from the tomb,—a statement which the Cretans have not yet made regarding Jupiter.  But since he appears to admit that the tomb of Jupiter is in Crete, when he says that “we are ignorant of the grounds on which the Cretans observe such a custom,” we reply that Callimachus the Cyrenian, who had read innumerable poetic compositions, and nearly the whole of Greek history, was not acquainted with any allegorical meaning which was contained in the stories about Jupiter and his tomb; and accordingly he accuses the Cretans in his hymn addressed to Jupiter, in the words:^[3]—

“The Cretans are always liars:  for thy tomb, O king,

The Cretans have reared; and yet thou didst not die,

For thou ever livest.”

Now he who said, “Thou didst not die, for thou ever livest,” in denying that Jupiter’s tomb was in Crete, records nevertheless that in Jupiter there was the beginning of death.^[4]  But birth upon earth is the beginning of death.  And his words run:—

“And Rhea bore thee among the Parrhasians; ”—

whereas he ought to have seen, after denying that the birth of Jupiter took place in Crete because of his tomb, that it was quite congruous with his birth in Arcadia that he who was born should also die.  And the following is the manner in which Callimachus speaks of these things:  “O Jupiter, some say that thou wert born on the mountains of Ida, others in Arcadia.  Which of them, O father, have lied?  The Cretans are always liars,” etc.  Now it is Celsus who made us discuss these topics, by the unfair manner in which he deals with Jesus, in giving his assent to what is related about His death and burial, but regarding as an invention His resurrection from the dead, although this was not only foretold by innumerable prophets, but many proofs also were given of His having appeared after death.

1. τόν ἀπὸ τοῦ τάφου.
2. οὐκ εἰδότες πῶς καὶ καθό.
3. Cf. Callimach., Hymn, i.  Cf. also Tit. i. 12.
4. τὴν ἀρχὴν τοῦ θανάτου γεγονέναι περὶ τὸν Δία.