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004 - Chapters 21-30 · Against Celsus Book 1

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Speaker 1: Chapters twenty one through thirty of Against Celsus, Book one
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Speaker 1: by Origin, translated by Frederick Crombie. This LibriVox recording is
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Speaker 1: in the public domain. Read by David Ronald. The following
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Speaker 1: is the view of Celsus and the Epicureans. Quote. Moses,
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Speaker 1: having he says, learned the doctrine which is to be
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Speaker 1: found existing among wise nations and eloquent men, obtained the
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Speaker 1: reputation of divinity end quote. Now, in answering to this,
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Speaker 1: we have to say that it may be allowed him
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Speaker 1: that Moses did, indeed hear a somewhat ancient doctrine and
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Speaker 1: transmitted the same to the Hebrews. That if the doctrine
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Speaker 1: which he heard was false and neither pious nor venerable,
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Speaker 1: and if notwithstanding, he received it and handed it down
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Speaker 1: to those under his authority, he is liable to censure.
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Speaker 1: But if, as you assert, he gave his adherents to
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Speaker 1: opinions that were wise and true, and educated his people
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Speaker 1: by means of them, what pray has he done deserving
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Speaker 1: of condemnation? Would indeed that not only Epicurius but Aristotle,
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Speaker 1: whose sentiments for guarding providence are not so impious as
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Speaker 1: those of the former and the Stoics who assert that
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Speaker 1: God is a body had heard such a doctrine, then
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Speaker 1: the world would not have been filled with opinions which
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Speaker 1: either disallow or enfeeble the action of providence, or introduce
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Speaker 1: a corrupt corporal principle, according to which the God of
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Speaker 1: the Stoics is a body, with respect to whom they
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Speaker 1: are not afraid to say that he is capable of change,
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Speaker 1: and may be altered and transformed in all his parts,
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Speaker 1: and generally that he is capable of corruption if there
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Speaker 1: be any one to corrupt him, but that he has
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Speaker 1: the good fortune to escape corruption because there is none
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Speaker 1: to corrupt. Whereas the doctrine of the Jews and Christians,
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Speaker 1: which preserves the immunability and unalterableness of the divine nature,
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Speaker 1: is stigmatized as impious because it does not partake of
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Speaker 1: the profanity of those whose notions of God are marked
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Speaker 1: with impiety, but because it says in the supplication addressed
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Speaker 1: to the Divinity, quote thou art the same end quote
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Speaker 1: it being moreover an article of faith, that God has
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Speaker 1: said quote I change not end quote after this celsus
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Speaker 1: without condemning circumcision as practiced by the Jews, asserts that
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Speaker 1: this usage was derived from the Egyptians, thus believing the
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Speaker 1: Egyptians rather than Moses, who says that Abraham was the
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Speaker 1: first among men who practice the right. And it is
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Speaker 1: not Moses alone who mentions the name of Abraham, assigning
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Speaker 1: to him great intimacy with God, but many also of
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Speaker 1: those who give themselves to the practice of conjuration of
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Speaker 1: evil spirits employed in their spells the expression quote God
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Speaker 1: of Abraham, pointing out by the very name the friendship
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Speaker 1: that existed between that just man and God. And yet
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Speaker 1: while making use of the phrase God of Abraham, they
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Speaker 1: do not know who Abraham is. And the same remark
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Speaker 1: applies to Isaac and Jacob and Israel, which names, although
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Speaker 1: confessedly Hebrew, are frequently introduced by those Egyptians who profess
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Speaker 1: to produce some wonderful result by means of their knowledge.
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Speaker 1: The right of circumcision, however, which began with Abraham and
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Speaker 1: was discontinued by Jesus, who desired that his disciples should
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Speaker 1: not practice, it is not before us for explanation, for
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Speaker 1: the present occasion does not lead us to speak of
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Speaker 1: such things, but to make an effort to refute the
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Speaker 1: charges brought against the doctrines of the Jews by Celsus,
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Speaker 1: who thinks that he will be able the more easily
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Speaker 1: to establish the falsity of Christianity if by selling its
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Speaker 1: origins in Judaism, he can show that the latter also
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Speaker 1: is untrue. After this, Celsus next asserts that, quote, those
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Speaker 1: herdsmen and shepherds who followed Moses as their leader had
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Speaker 1: their minds deluded by vulgar deceits, and so supposed that
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Speaker 1: there was one god end quote. Let him show then,
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Speaker 1: how after this irrational departure, as he regards it, of
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Speaker 1: the herdsmen and shepherds from the worship of many gods,
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Speaker 1: he himself is able to establish the multiplicity of deities
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Speaker 1: that are found amongst the Greeks, or among those other
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Speaker 1: nations that are called barbarian. Let him establish therefore the
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Speaker 1: existence of Nemosine, the mother of the Musus by Zeus,
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Speaker 1: or of themis the parent of the hours. Or let
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Speaker 1: him prove that the ever naked graces can have a real,
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Speaker 1: substantial existence. But he will not be able to show
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Speaker 1: from any actions of Theirs that these fictitious representations of
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Speaker 1: the Greek Greeks, which have the appearance of being invested
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Speaker 1: with bodies, are really gods. And why should the fables
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Speaker 1: of the Greeks regarding the gods be true any more
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Speaker 1: than those of the Egyptians, for example, who in their
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Speaker 1: language know nothing of Nemosyne, mother of the nine Mooses,
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Speaker 1: nor of a Themis parent of the hours, nor of
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Speaker 1: a Euphrosyne, one of the graces, nor of any other
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Speaker 1: of these names. How much more manifest and how much
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Speaker 1: better than all these inventions is it, that, convinced by
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Speaker 1: what we see in the admirable order of the world,
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Speaker 1: we should worship the maker of it as the one
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Speaker 1: author of one effect, and which, as being holy in
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Speaker 1: harmony with itself, cannot, on that account, have been the
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Speaker 1: work of many makers. And that we should believe that
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Speaker 1: the whole Heaven is not held together by the movements
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Speaker 1: of many souls. For one is enough which bears the
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Speaker 1: whole of the non wandering sphere from east to west,
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Speaker 1: and embrace within it all things which the world requires
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Speaker 1: and which are not self existing for all our parts
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Speaker 1: of the world. While God is no part of the world.
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Speaker 1: But God cannot be imperfect as a part is imperfect
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Speaker 1: and perhaps profounder consideration will show that as God is
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Speaker 1: not a part, so neither is he properly the whole,
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Speaker 1: since the whole is composed of parts, and reason will
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Speaker 1: not allow us to believe that the God who is
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Speaker 1: over all is composed of parts, each one of which
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Speaker 1: cannot do what all the other parts can. After this,
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Speaker 1: he continues quote, these herdsmen and shepherds concluded that there
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Speaker 1: was but one God named either the Highest or Adenai,
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Speaker 1: or the Heavenly or Siboeth, or called by some other
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Speaker 1: of those names which they delight to give this world.
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Speaker 1: And they knew nothing beyond that end quote, And in
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Speaker 1: a subsequent part of his work he says that quote
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Speaker 1: it makes there's no difference whether the God who is
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Speaker 1: over all things be called by the name of Zeus,
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Speaker 1: which is current among the Greeks, or by that which
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Speaker 1: is in use among the Indians or Egyptians. Now in
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Speaker 1: answer to this, we have to remark that this involves
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Speaker 1: a deep and mysterious subject, that respecting the nature of names,
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Speaker 1: it being a question whether, as Aristotle thinks, names were
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Speaker 1: bestowed by arrangement, or as the Stoics hold, by nature.
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Speaker 1: The first words being imitations of things agreeably to which
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Speaker 1: the names were formed, and in conformity with which they
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Speaker 1: introduce certain principles of etymology, or whether, as Epicurus teaches,
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Speaker 1: differing in this form from the Stoics, names were given
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Speaker 1: by nature, the first men having uttered certain words, varying
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Speaker 1: from the circumstances in which they found themselves. If then
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Speaker 1: we shall be able to establish, in reference to the
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Speaker 1: preceding statement, the nature of powerful names, some of which
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Speaker 1: are used by the learned amongst the Egyptians, or by
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Speaker 1: the Meiji among the Persians, and by the Indian philosophers
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Speaker 1: called Brahmins, or by the Samaneans and others in different countries,
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Speaker 1: and shall be able to make out that the so
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Speaker 1: called magic is not, as the followers that Epicurus and
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Speaker 1: Aristotle suppose, and altogether uncertain thing, but is as though
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Speaker 1: skilled in it, to prove a consistent system, having words
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Speaker 1: which are known to exceedingly few. Then we say that
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Speaker 1: the names of Boath and Adenai, and the other names
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Speaker 1: treated with so much reverence among the Hebrews, are not
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Speaker 1: applicable to any ordinary created things, but belongs to a
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Speaker 1: secret theology which refers to the framer of all things.
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Speaker 1: These names, accordingly, when pronounced with that attendant train of
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Speaker 1: circumstances which is appropriate to their nature, are possessed of
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Speaker 1: great power. And other names, again current in the Egyptian tongue,
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Speaker 1: are efficacious against certain demons who can only do so things.
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Speaker 1: And other names in the Persian language have corresponding power
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Speaker 1: over other spirits, and so on in every individual nation
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Speaker 1: for different purposes. And thus it will be found that
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Speaker 1: of the various demons upon the earth, to whom different
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Speaker 1: localities have been assigned, each one bears a name appropriate
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Speaker 1: to the several dialects of place and country. He, therefore,
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Speaker 1: who has a nobler idea, however small of these matters,
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Speaker 1: will be careful not to apply differing names to different things,
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Speaker 1: lest he should resemble those who mistakenly apply the name
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Speaker 1: of God to lifeless matter, or who drag down the
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Speaker 1: title of the good from the first cause, or from
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Speaker 1: virtue and excellence, and apply it to blind plutus, and
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Speaker 1: to a healthy and well proportioned mixture of flesh and
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Speaker 1: blood and bones, or to what is considered to be
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Speaker 1: noble birth. And perhaps there is a danger as great
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Speaker 1: as that which degrades the name of God or of
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Speaker 1: the good to improper objects, in changing the name of
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Speaker 1: God according to his secret system, and applying these which
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Speaker 1: belong to inferior beings to greater, and vice versa. And
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Speaker 1: I do not dwell on this, that when the name
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Speaker 1: of Zeus is uttered, there is heard at the same
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Speaker 1: time that the son of Cronos and Rhea, and the
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Speaker 1: husband of Hira, and the brother of Poseidon, the father
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Speaker 1: of Athene and Artemis, who is guilty of incest with
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Speaker 1: his own daughter Persephone. Or that Apollo immediately suggests the
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Speaker 1: son of Lato and Zeus, and the brother of Artemis
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Speaker 1: and half brother of Hermes, And so with all the
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Speaker 1: other names invented by these wise men of Celsus, who
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Speaker 1: are the parents of these opinions, and the ancient theologians
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Speaker 1: of the Greeks. For what are the grounds for deciding
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Speaker 1: that he should, on the one hand, be properly called Zeus,
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Speaker 1: and yet on the others, should not have Chronos for
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Speaker 1: his father and Rhea for his mother. And the same
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Speaker 1: argument applies to all the others that are called gods.
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Speaker 1: But this charge does not at all apply to those who,
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Speaker 1: for some mysterious reason refer the words to Boeth or Adenai,
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Speaker 1: or any of the other names to the True God.
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Speaker 1: And when one is able to philosophize about the mystery
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Speaker 1: of names, he will find much to say respecting the
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Speaker 1: titles of the angels of God, of whom one is
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Speaker 1: called Michael, and another Gabriel, and another Raphael, appropriately to
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Speaker 1: the duties which they discharge in the world, according to
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Speaker 1: the will of the God of all things. And a
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Speaker 1: similar philosophy of names applies also to our Jesus, whose
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Speaker 1: name has already been seen in an unmistakable manner to
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Speaker 1: have expelled myriads of evil spirits from the souls and
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Speaker 1: bodies of men, So great was the power which it
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Speaker 1: exerted upon those from whom the spirits were driven out.
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Speaker 1: While still upon the subject of names, we have to
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Speaker 1: mention that those who are skilled in the use of
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Speaker 1: incantations relate that the utterance of the same incantation in
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Speaker 1: its proper language can accomplish what the spell professes to do.
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Speaker 1: But when translated into any other tongue, it is observed
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Speaker 1: to become in efficacious and feeble. And thus it is
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Speaker 1: not the thing signified, but the qualities and peculiarities of
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Speaker 1: words which possess a certain power for this or that purpose.
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Speaker 1: And so on such grounds as these, we defend the
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Speaker 1: conduct of Christians when they struggle even to death to
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Speaker 1: avoid calling God by the name of Zeus, or to
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Speaker 1: give him a name from any other language. For they
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Speaker 1: either use the common name God indefinitely, or with some
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Speaker 1: such addition as that of maker of all things, the
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Speaker 1: creator of heaven and earth, he who sent down to
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Speaker 1: the human race those good men to whose names that
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Speaker 1: of God being added, certain mighty works are wrought among men.
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Speaker 1: And much more besides might be said on the subject
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Speaker 1: of names, against those who think that we ought to
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Speaker 1: be indifferent as to our use of them. And if
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Speaker 1: the remark of Plato in the Phelibus should surprise us
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Speaker 1: when he says, quote my fear o Protagoras about the
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Speaker 1: names of the gods is no small one end quote.
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Speaker 1: Seeing Philibus, in his discussion with Socrates, had called pleasure
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Speaker 1: a god. How shall we not rather approve the piety
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Speaker 1: of the Christians who apply none of the names used
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Speaker 1: in the mythologies to the creator of the world. And
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Speaker 1: now enough on the subject for the present. But let
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Speaker 1: us see the manner in which the Celsus, who professes
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Speaker 1: to know everything, brings a false accusation against the Jews
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Speaker 1: when he alleges that quote they worship angels and are
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Speaker 1: addicted to sorcery, in which Moses was their instructor. End quote.
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Speaker 1: Now in what part of the writings of Moses he
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Speaker 1: felt the lawgiver laying down the worship of angels. Let
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Speaker 1: him tell who professes to know all about Christianity and Judaism,
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Speaker 1: And let him show also how sorcery can exist among
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Speaker 1: those who have accepted the Mosaic law and read the
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Speaker 1: injunction quote neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them.
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Speaker 1: End quote. Moreover, he promises to show afterwards, quote how
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Speaker 1: it was through ignorance that the Jews were deceived and
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Speaker 1: led into error. Enote Now, if he had discovered that
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Speaker 1: the ignorance of the Jews regarding Christ was the effect
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Speaker 1: of their not having heard the prophecies about him, he
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Speaker 1: would show with truth how the Jews fell into error.
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Speaker 1: But without any wish whatever that this should appear, he
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Speaker 1: views as Jewish errors. What are no errors at all?
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Speaker 1: And Celsus, having promised to make us acquainted. In a
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Speaker 1: subsequent part of his work, with the doctrines of Judaism.
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Speaker 1: Proceeds in the first place to speak of our Savior
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Speaker 1: as having been the leader of our generation in so
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Speaker 1: far as we are Christians, and say that quote a
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Speaker 1: few years ago he began to teach this doctrine, being
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Speaker 1: regarded by Christians as the son of God. End quote. Now,
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Speaker 1: with respect to this point his prior existence a few
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Speaker 1: years ago, we have to remark as follows. Could it
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Speaker 1: have come to pass without divine assistance that Jesus, desiring
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Speaker 1: during these years to spread abroad his words and teaching,
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Speaker 1: should have been so successful that everywhere throughout the world
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Speaker 1: not a few persons, Greeks as well as barbarians learned
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Speaker 1: as well as ignorant, adopted his doctrine, so that they
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Speaker 1: struggled even to death in its defense, rather than deny it,
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Speaker 1: which no one is ever related to have done for
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Speaker 1: any other system. I indeed, from no wish to flatter Christianity,
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Speaker 1: but from a desire thoroughly to examine the facts, would
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Speaker 1: say that even those who are engaged in the healing
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Speaker 1: of numbers of sick persons do not attain their object
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Speaker 1: the cure of the body without divine help and if
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Speaker 1: one were to succeed in delivering souls from a flood
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Speaker 1: of wickedness and excesses and acts of injustice, and from
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Speaker 1: a contempt of God, and were to show as evidence
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Speaker 1: of such a result, one hundred persons improved in their natures.
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Speaker 1: Let us suppose the number to be so large, no
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Speaker 1: one would reasonably say that it was without divine assistance
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Speaker 1: that he had implanted in those hundred individuals a doctrine
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Speaker 1: capable of removing so many evils. And if anyone, on
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Speaker 1: a candid consideration of these things, shall admit that no
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Speaker 1: improvement ever takes place among men without divine help, how
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Speaker 1: much more confidently shall he make the same assertion regarding Jesus,
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Speaker 1: when he compares the former lives of many converts to
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Speaker 1: his doctrine with their after conduct, and reflects in what
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Speaker 1: acts of licentiousness and injustice and covetousness they formally indulged, until,
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Speaker 1: as Celsus and they who think with him alleged quote,
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Speaker 1: they were deceived end quote, and accepted a doctrine which,
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Speaker 1: as these individuals assert, is destructive of the life of men.
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Speaker 1: But who, from the time that they adopted it, have
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Speaker 1: become in some way meeker and more religious, and more consistent,
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Speaker 1: so that certain among them, from a desire of exceeding
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Speaker 1: chastity and a wish to worship God with greater purity,
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Speaker 1: abstain even from the permitted indulgences of lawful love. Any
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Speaker 1: One who examines the subject will see that Jesus attempted
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Speaker 1: and successfully accomplished works beyond the reach of human power.
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Speaker 1: For although from the very beginning all things oppose the
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Speaker 1: spread of his doctrine in the world, both the princes
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Speaker 1: of the time and their chief captains and generals, and
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Speaker 1: all to speak generally, who were possessed of the smallest influence,
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Speaker 1: and in addition to these, the rulers of the different cities,
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Speaker 1: and the soldiers and the people. Yet it proved the
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Speaker 1: Thorious as being the Word of God, the nature of
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Speaker 1: which is such that it cannot be hindered. And becoming
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Speaker 1: more powerful than all such adversaries, it made itself master
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Speaker 1: of the whole of Greece and a considerable portion of
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Speaker 1: Barbarian lands, and converted countless numbers of souls to his religion.
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Speaker 1: And although among the multitude of converts to Christianity, the
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Speaker 1: simple and ignorant necessarily outnumbered the more intelligent, as the
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Speaker 1: former class always does the latter. Yet Celsus, unwilling to
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Speaker 1: take note of this, thinks that this philanthropic doctrine, which
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Speaker 1: reaches to every soul under the sun, is vulgar, and
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Speaker 1: on account of its vulgarity and its want of reasoning power,
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Speaker 1: obtained a hold only over the ignorant. And yet he
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Speaker 1: himself admits that it was not the simple alone who
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Speaker 1: were led by the doctrine of Jesus to adopt his religion,
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Speaker 1: for he acknowledges that there were amongst them some persons
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Speaker 1: of moderate intelligence and gentle disposition, who possessed of understanding
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Speaker 1: and cap of comprehending allegories. And since, in imitation of
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Speaker 1: a rhetorician training a pupil, he introduces a Jew who
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Speaker 1: enters into a personal discussion with Jesus and speaks in
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Speaker 1: a very childish manner, altogether unworthy of the gray hairs
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Speaker 1: of a philosopher. Let me endeavor, to the best of
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Speaker 1: my ability to examine his statements and show that he
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Speaker 1: does not maintain throughout the discussion the consistency due to
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Speaker 1: the character of a Jew, for he represents him disputing
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Speaker 1: with Jesus and confuting him as he thinks on many points.
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Speaker 1: And in the first place, he accuses him of having
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Speaker 1: quote invented his birth from a virgin end quote and
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Speaker 1: upbraids him with being quote born of a certain Jewish village,
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Speaker 1: of a poor woman of the country, who gained her
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Speaker 1: subsidence by spinning, and who was turned out of doors
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Speaker 1: by her husband, a carpenter by trade, because she was
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Speaker 1: convicted of adultery. That, after being driven away by her
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Speaker 1: husband and wandering about for a time, she disgracefully he
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Speaker 1: gave birth to Jesus, an illegitimate child, who, having hired
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Speaker 1: himself out as a servant in Egypt on account of
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Speaker 1: his poverty, and having there acquired some miraculous powers on
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Speaker 1: which the Egyptians greatly pride themselves, returned to his own
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Speaker 1: country highly elated on account of them, and by means
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Speaker 1: of these, proclaimed himself with God. Now, as I cannot
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Speaker 1: allow anything said by unbelievers to remain unexamined, but must
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Speaker 1: investigate everything from the beginning, I give it as my
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Speaker 1: opinion that all these things worthily harmonize with the predictions
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Speaker 1: that Jesus is the son of God. For birth is
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Speaker 1: an aid towards an individual's becoming famous and distinguished, and
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Speaker 1: talked about when a man's parents happened to be in
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Speaker 1: a position of rank and influence, and are possessed of
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Speaker 1: wealth and are able to spend it upon the education
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Speaker 1: of their son, and when the country of one's birth
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Speaker 1: is great and illustrious. But when a man, having all
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Speaker 1: these things against him, is able, notwithstanding these hindrances, to
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Speaker 1: make himself known and to produce an impression on those
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Speaker 1: who hear of him, and to become distinguished and visible
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Speaker 1: to the whole world, which speaks of him as it
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Speaker 1: did not do before. How can we help admiring such
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Speaker 1: a nature as being both noble in itself and devoting
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Speaker 1: itself to great deeds, and possessing a courage which is
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Speaker 1: not by any means to be despised. And if one
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Speaker 1: were too examined more fully the history of such an individual,
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Speaker 1: why should he not seek to know in what manner,
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Speaker 1: after being reared up in frugality and poverty, and without
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Speaker 1: receiving any complete education, and without having studied systems and
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Speaker 1: opinions by means of which he might have acquired confidence
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Speaker 1: to associate with multitudes and play the demagogue, and attracted
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Speaker 1: himself many hearers. He nevertheless devoted himself to the teaching
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Speaker 1: of new opinions, introducing among men a doctrine which not
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Speaker 1: only subverted the custom of the Jews, while preserving due
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Speaker 1: respect for their profits, but which especially overturned the established
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Speaker 1: observances of the Greeks regarding the divinity. And how could
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Speaker 1: such a person, one who had been so brought up,
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Speaker 1: and who, as his calumniators admit, had learned nothing great
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Speaker 1: from men, have been able to teach in a manner
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Speaker 1: not at all to be despised such doctrines as he
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Speaker 1: did regarding the divine judgment and the punishments that are
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Speaker 1: to overtake wickedness, and the rewards that are to be
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Speaker 1: conferred upon virtue, So that not only rustic and ignorant
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Speaker 1: individuals were won by his words, but also not a
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Speaker 1: few of those who were distinguished by their wisdom, and
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Speaker 1: who were able to discern the hidden meaning in those
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Speaker 1: more common doctrines as they were considered, which were in circulation,
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Speaker 1: and which secret meaning and rapped, so to speak, some
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Speaker 1: more recondite signification. Still the Saraphian in Plato, who approaches Themistocales,
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Speaker 1: after he had become celebrated for his military skill, saying
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Speaker 1: that his reputation was due not to his own merits,
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Speaker 1: but to his good fortune in having been born in
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Speaker 1: the most illustrious country in Greece, received from the good
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Speaker 1: natured Athenian, who saw that his native country did contribute
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Speaker 1: to his renown the following reply quote, Neither would I,
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Speaker 1: had I been a Seraphian, have been so distinguished as
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Speaker 1: I am, Nor would you have been at Themistocles, even
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Speaker 1: if you had had the good fortune to be an
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Speaker 1: Athenian end quote. And now our Jesus, who is reproached
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Speaker 1: with being born in a village, and that not a
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Speaker 1: Greek one, nor belonging to any nation widely esteemed, and
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Speaker 1: being despised as the son of a poor laboring woman,
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Speaker 1: and as having, on account of his poverty, left his
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Speaker 1: native country and hired himself out in Egypt, and being,
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Speaker 1: to use the instants already quoted, not only a Serphian,
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Speaker 1: as it were, a native of a very small and
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Speaker 1: undistinguished island. But even so to speak, the meanest of
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Speaker 1: the Seraphians has yet been able to shake the whole
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Speaker 1: inhabited world, not only to a degree far above what
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Speaker 1: Themistoicles the Athenian ever did, but beyond what even Pythagoras
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Speaker 1: or Plato, or any other wise man in any part
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Speaker 1: of the world, whatever, or any prince or general ever
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Speaker 1: succeeded in doing. Now would not any one who investigated
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Speaker 1: with ordinary care the nature of these facts be struck
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Speaker 1: with amazement at this man's victory, with his complete success
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Speaker 1: in surmounting by his reputation all causes that tended to
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Speaker 1: bring him into disrepute, and with his superiority over all
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Speaker 1: other illustrious individuals of the world. And yet it is
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Speaker 1: a rare thing for distinguished men to succeed in acquiring
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Speaker 1: a reputation for several things at once. For one man
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Speaker 1: is admired on account of his wisdom, another for his
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Speaker 1: military skill, and some of the barbarians for the marvelous
24:52
Speaker 1: powers of incantation, and some for one quality, and others
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Speaker 1: for another. But not many have been admired and fired
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Speaker 1: a reputation for many things at the same time. Whereas
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Speaker 1: this man, in addition to his other merits, is an
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Speaker 1: object of admiration both for his wisdom and for his miracles,
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Speaker 1: and for his power of government. For he persuaded some
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Speaker 1: to withdraw themselves from their laws and to secede to him,
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Speaker 1: not as a tyrant would do, nor as a robber
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Speaker 1: who arms his followers against men, nor as a rich
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Speaker 1: man who bestows help upon those who come to him,
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Speaker 1: nor as one of those who confessedly are deserving of censure,
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Speaker 1: but as a teacher of the doctrine regarding the God
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Speaker 1: of all things, and of the worship which belongs to him,
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Speaker 1: and of all moral precepts which are able to secure
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Speaker 1: the favor of the Supreme God to him who orders
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Speaker 1: his life in conformity therewith now to Themistocles, or to
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Speaker 1: any other man of distinction, nothing happened to prove a
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Speaker 1: hindrance to their reputation. Whereas to this man, besides what
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Speaker 1: we have already enumerated, and which are enough to cover
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Speaker 1: with dishonor the soul of a man, even of the
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Speaker 1: most noble nature, there was that apparently infamous death of Crucifixion,
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Speaker 1: which was enough to efface his previously acquired glory, and
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Speaker 1: to lead those who, as they who disavow his doctrine assert,
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Speaker 1: were formerly deluded by him, to abandon their delusion, and
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Speaker 1: to pass condemnation upon their deceiver. End of chapters twenty
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Speaker 1: one through thirty of Against Celsus by Origin, read by
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Speaker 1: David Ronald