La notion de καιρός dans le Contre Celse d’Origène

Gianluca Piscini (1)

1 CESR - Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance UMR 7323

This paper studies how the notion of καιρός is used by Origen in his apology, the Against Celsus. First we will show that, although καιρός and the words of the same root are never used in the extant fragments of the True Discourse, some of Celsus’ arguments on Incarnation imply an ἄκαιρος God. Then we will study two aspects of Origen’s answer. On the one hand, the notion of καιρός is connected to divine action : God administers the universe from the beginning and every event (especially in Jesus’ life) happens in the right time, in order to lead humanity to Salvation. On the other hand, since καιρός is also a rhetoric criterion for the quality of a literary work, in Against Celsus Origen carefully justifies his digressions and criticizes Celsus’ lack of καιρός. In the end, the analysis will also shed new light on the connections between exegesis and polemic in Origen.

Keywords: Origen; Celsus; καιρός; Against Celsus; Commentary on Matthew; True Discourse

Domains: Classical studies; Philosophy; Religions

Gianluca Piscini. La notion de καιρός dans le Contre Celse d’Origène. H. Grelier-Deneux; Fr. Vinel. La Bible, les Pères et l’histoire de la langue grecque. Hommage à Marguerite Harl, Revue des Études Tardo-antiques, pp. 167-188, 2022, (Supplément 10). ⟨halshs-04094137⟩