Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Origen/Origen Against Celsus/Book VI/Chapter LIV

Chapter LIV.

Let us see, then, briefly what holy Scripture has to say regarding good and evil, and what answer we are to return to the questions, &#8220;How is it that God created evil?&#8221; and, &#8220;How is He incapable of persuading and admonishing men?&#8221;&#160; Now, according to holy Scripture, properly speaking, virtues and virtuous actions are good, as, properly speaking, the reverse of these are evil.&#160; We shall be satisfied with quoting on the present occasion some verses from the thirty-fourth Psalm, to the following effect:&#160; &#8220;They that seek the shall not want any good thing.&#160; Come, ye children, hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the .&#160; What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?&#160; Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.&#160; Depart from evil, and do good.&#8221; &#160; Now, the injunctions to &#8220;depart from evil, and to do good,&#8221; do not refer either to corporeal evils or corporeal blessings, as they are termed by some, nor to external things at all, but to blessings and evils of a spiritual kind; since he who departs from such evils, and performs such virtuous actions, will, as one who desires the true life, come to the enjoyment of it; and as one loving to see &#8220;good days,&#8221; in which the word of righteousness will be the Sun, he will see them, God taking him away from this &#8220;present evil world,&#8221; and from those evil days concerning which Paul said:&#160; &#8220;Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.&#8221;