La notion de καιρός dans le Contre Celse d’Origène
Résumé
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.