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003 - Chapters 11-20 · Against Celsus Book 1

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Speaker 1: Chapters eleven through twenty of Against Celsus Book one by Origin,
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Speaker 1: translated by Frederick Crombie. This LibriVox recording is in the
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Speaker 1: public domain, read by David Ronald. Since then, as Reason teaches,
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Speaker 1: we must repose faith in some one of those who
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Speaker 1: have been the introducers of sex among the Greeks or Barbarians.
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Speaker 1: Why should we not rather believe in God, who is
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Speaker 1: over all things, and in him who teaches that worship
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Speaker 1: is due to God alone, and that other things are
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Speaker 1: to be passed by either as non existent or as
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Speaker 1: existing indeed and worthy of honor, but not of worship
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Speaker 1: and reverence and respecting these things. He who not only believes,
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Speaker 1: but who contemplates things with the eye of reason, will
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Speaker 1: state the demonstrations that occur to him, and which are
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Speaker 1: the result of careful investigation. And why should it not
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Speaker 1: be more reasonable, seeing all human things are dependent upon faith,
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Speaker 1: to believe God rather than them. For who enters on
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Speaker 1: a voyage, or contracts a marriage, or becomes the father
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Speaker 1: of children, or cast side into the ground without believing
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Speaker 1: that better things will result from so doing? Although the
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Speaker 1: contrary might and sometimes does happen. And yet the belief
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Speaker 1: that better things, even agreeably to their wishes, will follow.
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Speaker 1: Makes all men venture upon uncertain enterprises, which may turn
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Speaker 1: out differently from what they expect. And if the hope
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Speaker 1: and belief of a better future be the support of
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Speaker 1: life in every uncertain enterprise, why shall not this faith
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Speaker 1: rather be rationally accepted by him who believes on better
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Speaker 1: grounds than he who sails the sea, or kills the ground,
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Speaker 1: or marries a wife, or engages in any other human pursuit.
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Speaker 1: In the existence of a God, who was the creator
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Speaker 1: of all these things, and in him who was surpassing
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Speaker 1: wisdom and divine greatness of mind, dared to make known
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Speaker 1: this doctrine to men in every part of the world,
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Speaker 1: at the cost of great danger and of a death
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Speaker 1: considered infamous, which he underwent for the sake of the
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Speaker 1: human race, having also taught those who were persuaded to
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Speaker 1: embrace his doctrine at the first, to proceed, under the
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Speaker 1: peril of every danger and of ever impending death, to
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Speaker 1: all quarters of the world, to ensure the salvation of men.
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Speaker 1: In the next place, when Celsus says, in express words, quote,
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Speaker 1: if they would answer me, not as if I were
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Speaker 1: asking for information, For I am acquainted with all their opinions.
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Speaker 1: But because I take an equal interest in them all,
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Speaker 1: it would be well. And if they will not, but
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Speaker 1: will keep reiterating as they generally do, do not investigate,
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Speaker 1: et cetera. They must, he continues, explain to me at
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Speaker 1: least of what nature these things are of which they speak,
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Speaker 1: and whence they are derived end quote, et cetera. Now,
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Speaker 1: with regard to his statement that he quote is acquainted
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Speaker 1: with all our doctrines end quote, we have to say
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Speaker 1: that this is a boastful and daring assertion. For if
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Speaker 1: he had read the prophets, in particular, which are full
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Speaker 1: of acknowledged difficulties and of declarations that are obscure to
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Speaker 1: the multitude, and if he had perused the parables of
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Speaker 1: the Gospels, and the other writings of the law, and
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Speaker 1: of the Jewish history, and the utterances of the Apostles,
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Speaker 1: and had read them candidly with a desire to enter
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Speaker 1: into their meaning, he would not have expressed himself with
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Speaker 1: such boldness, nor said that he quote was acquainted with
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Speaker 1: all their doctrines end quote. Even we ourselves, who have
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Speaker 1: devoted much study to these writings, would not say that
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Speaker 1: quote we were acquainted with everything end quote. For we
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Speaker 1: have a regard for truth. Not one of us will assert,
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Speaker 1: quote I know all the doctrines of Epicurius end quote,
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Speaker 1: or will be confident that he knows all those of
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Speaker 1: Plato in the knowledge of the fact that so many
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Speaker 1: differents of opinion exist among the expositors of these systems.
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Speaker 1: For who is so daring as to say that he
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Speaker 1: knows all the opinions of the Stoics or of the parapatetics,
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Speaker 1: unless indeed it should be the case that he has
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Speaker 1: heard this boast quote I know them all end quote
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Speaker 1: from some ignorant and senseless individuals, who do not perceive
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Speaker 1: their own ignorance, and should thus imagine, from having had
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Speaker 1: such persons as his teachers, that he was acquainted with
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Speaker 1: them all. Such an one appears to me to act
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Speaker 1: very much as a person would do who had visited Egypt,
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Speaker 1: where the Egyptian Savians learned in their country's literature are
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Speaker 1: greatly given to philosophizing about those things which are regarded
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Speaker 1: among them as divine, but where the vulgar hearing certain myths,
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Speaker 1: the reasons of which they do not understand, are greatly elated.
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Speaker 1: Because of their fancied knowledge. And who should imagine that
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Speaker 1: he is acquainted with the whole circle of Egyptian knowledge,
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Speaker 1: after having been a disciple of the ignorant alone, and
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Speaker 1: without having associated with any of the priests, or having
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Speaker 1: learned the mysteries of the Egyptians from any other source.
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Speaker 1: And what I have said regarding the learned and ignorant
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Speaker 1: among the Egyptians, I might have said also of the Persians,
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Speaker 1: among whom there are mysteries conducted on rational principles by
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Speaker 1: the learned among them, but understood in a symbolical sense
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Speaker 1: by the more superficial of the multitude. And the same
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Speaker 1: remark applies to the Syrians and Indians, and to all
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Speaker 1: those who have a literature and a mythology. But since
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Speaker 1: Celsus has declared it to be a saying of many
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Speaker 1: Christians that quote the wisdom of this life is a
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Speaker 1: bad thing, but the foolishness is good end quote, we
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Speaker 1: have to answer that he slanders the gospel, not giving
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Speaker 1: the words as they actually occur in the writings of Paul,
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Speaker 1: where they run as follows, If any one among you
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Speaker 1: seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become
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Speaker 1: a f fool, that he may become wise. For the
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Speaker 1: wisdom of the world is foolishness with God. The Apostle
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Speaker 1: therefore does not say simply that quote wisdom is foolishness
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Speaker 1: with God end quote, but the wisdom of this world,
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Speaker 1: and again not quote if anyone among you seemeth to
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Speaker 1: be wise, let him become a fool universally end quote.
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Speaker 1: But let him become a fool in this world, that
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Speaker 1: he may become wise. We term then the wisdom of
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Speaker 1: this world every false system of philosophy, which, according to
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Speaker 1: the scriptures is brought to nott. And we call foolishness good,
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Speaker 1: not without restriction. But when a man becomes foolish as
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Speaker 1: to this world, as if we were to say that
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Speaker 1: the Platonists, who believes in the immortality of the soul
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Speaker 1: and in the doctrine of its metempsychosis, incurs the charge
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Speaker 1: of folly, with the Stoics, who discard this opinion, and
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Speaker 1: with the Peripatetics, who babble about the subtleties of Plato,
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Speaker 1: and with the Epicureans who call it superstition to introduce
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Speaker 1: a providence and to place a god over all things. Moreover,
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Speaker 1: that it is in agreement with the spirit of Christianity,
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Speaker 1: of much more importance to give our assent to doctrines
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Speaker 1: upon grounds of reason and wisdom than on that of
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Speaker 1: faith merely, And that it was only in certain circumstances
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Speaker 1: that the latter course was desired by Christianity in order
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Speaker 1: not to leave men altogether without help, is shown by
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Speaker 1: that genuine disciple of Jesus, Paul, when he says, for
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Speaker 1: after that in the wisdom of God, the world by
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Speaker 1: wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
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Speaker 1: of preaching to save them that believe. Now by these words,
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Speaker 1: it is clearly shown that it is by the wisdom
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Speaker 1: of God that God ought to be known. But as
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Speaker 1: this result did not follow, it pleased God a second
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Speaker 1: time to save them that believe, not by folly universally,
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Speaker 1: but by such foolishness as depended on preaching. For the
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Speaker 1: preaching of Jesus Christ as crucified is foolishness of preaching,
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Speaker 1: as Paul also perceived when he said, but we preach
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Speaker 1: Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to
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Speaker 1: the Greek's foolishness. But to them who are called both
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Speaker 1: Jews and Greeks. Christ the power of God and wisdom
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Speaker 1: of God, Celsus being of opinion that there is to
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Speaker 1: be found among many nations a general relationship of doctrine
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Speaker 1: enumerates all the nations which gave rise to such and
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Speaker 1: such opinions. But for some reason unknown to me, he
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Speaker 1: cast a slight upon the Jews, not including them amongst
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Speaker 1: the others, as having either labored along with them and
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Speaker 1: arrived at the same conclusions, or as having entertained similar
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Speaker 1: opinions on many subjects. It is proper therefore, to ask
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Speaker 1: him why he gives credits to the histories of the
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Speaker 1: Barbarians and Greeks, respecting the antiquity of those nations of
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Speaker 1: whom he speaks, but stamps the histories of this nation
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Speaker 1: alone as false. For if the respective writers related the
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Speaker 1: events which are found in these works in the spirit
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Speaker 1: of truth, why should we distrust the prophets of the
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Speaker 1: Jews alone? And if Moses and the prophets have recorded
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Speaker 1: many things in their history from a desire to favor
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Speaker 1: their own system, why should we not say the same
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Speaker 1: of the historians of other countries. Or when the Egyptians
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Speaker 1: of their histories speak evil of the Jews. Are they
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Speaker 1: to be believed on that point. But the Jews, when
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Speaker 1: saying the same thing of the Egyptians, and in declaring
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Speaker 1: that they had suffered great injustice at their hands, and
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Speaker 1: that on this account they had been persecuted by God,
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Speaker 1: are to be charged with falsehood. And this applies not
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Speaker 1: to the Egyptians alone, but to others. For we shall
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Speaker 1: find that there was a connection between the Assyrians and
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Speaker 1: the Jews, and that this is recorded in the ancient
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Speaker 1: histories of the Assyrians, and so also the Jewish historians.
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Speaker 1: I avoid using the word prophets, that I may not
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Speaker 1: appear to prejudge the case have related that the Assyrians
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Speaker 1: were enemies of the Jews. Observe at once, then the
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Speaker 1: arbitrary procedure of this individual who believes the histories of
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Speaker 1: these nations on the ground of their being learned, and
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Speaker 1: condemns others as being wholly ignorant. For listen to the
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Speaker 1: statement of Celsus quote there is he says an authoritative
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Speaker 1: account from the very beginning, respecting which there is a
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Speaker 1: constant agreement among all the most learned nations and cities
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Speaker 1: and men end quote. And yet will not call the
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Speaker 1: Jews a learned nation, in the same way in which
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Speaker 1: he does the Egyptians and Assyrians, and Indians, and Persians,
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Speaker 1: and Odrysians, and Samothracians and Eleucinians. How much more impartial
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Speaker 1: than Celsus is Numenius the Pythegorean, who has given many
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Speaker 1: proofs of being a very eloquent man, and who has
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Speaker 1: carefully tested many opinions and collected together from many sources
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Speaker 1: what had the appearance of truth? For in the first
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Speaker 1: book of his Treatise on the Good, speaking of those
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Speaker 1: nations who have adopted the opinion that God is incorporal,
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Speaker 1: he enumerates the Jews also among those who hold this view,
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Speaker 1: not showing any reluctance to use even the language of
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Speaker 1: their prophets in his treatise, and to give it a
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Speaker 1: metaphorical signification. It is said moreover that Hermippus has recorded
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Speaker 1: in his first book on Lawgivers, that it was from
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Speaker 1: the Jewish people that Pythagoras derived the philosophy which he
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Speaker 1: introduced among the Greeks. And there is extant a work
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Speaker 1: by the historian Hecataeus treating of the Jews, in which
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Speaker 1: so high a character is bestowed upon that nation for
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Speaker 1: its learning. That Heronius Philo and his Treatise on the
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Speaker 1: Jews has doubts in the first place, whether it is
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Speaker 1: really the composition of the historian, and says in the
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Speaker 1: second place that if really his, it is probable that
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Speaker 1: he was carried away by the plausible nature of the
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Speaker 1: Jewish history, and so yielded his assent to their system.
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Speaker 1: I must express my surprise that Celsus should class the
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Speaker 1: Odrysians and Samulthracians, and Eleucinians and Hyperboreans among the most
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Speaker 1: ancient and learned nations, and should not deem the Jews
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Speaker 1: worthy of a place among such, either for their learning
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Speaker 1: or their antiquity. Although there are many treatises in circulation
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Speaker 1: among the Egyptians and Phoenicians and Greeks which testify to
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Speaker 1: their existence as an ancient people, but which I have
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Speaker 1: considered it unnecessary to quote, for any one who chooses
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Speaker 1: may read what Flavius Josephus has recorded in his two books,
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Speaker 1: where he brings together a great collection of writers who
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Speaker 1: bear witness to the antiquity of the Jewish people. And
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Speaker 1: there exists the discourse to the Greeks of Tatian the younger,
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Speaker 1: in which with very great learning he enumerates those historians
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Speaker 1: who have treated of the antiquity of the Jewish nation
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Speaker 1: and of Moses. It seems then to be not from
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Speaker 1: a love of truth, but from a spirit of hatred,
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Speaker 1: that Celsus makes these statements, his object being to experse
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Speaker 1: the origin of Christianity, which is connected with Judaism. Nay,
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Speaker 1: he styles the glactophagi of Homer, and the druids of
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Speaker 1: the Gauls and the Gatae, most learned in ancient tribes,
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Speaker 1: on account of the resemblance between their traditions and those
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Speaker 1: of the Jews, although I know not whether any of
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Speaker 1: their history survive. But the Hebrews alone, as far as
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Speaker 1: in him lies, he deprives of the honor both of
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Speaker 1: antiquity and learning. And again, when making a list of
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Speaker 1: ancient and learned men who have conferred benefits upon their
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Speaker 1: contemporaries by their deeds and upon posterity of their writings,
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Speaker 1: he excluded Moses from the number, while of Linus, to
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Speaker 1: whom Celsus assigns a foremost place in his list. There
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Speaker 1: exists neither laws nor discourses which produced a change for
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Speaker 1: the better among any tribes, whereas a whole nation dispersed
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Speaker 1: throughout the entire world, obey the laws of Moses. Consider, then,
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Speaker 1: whether it is not from open malevolence that he has
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Speaker 1: expelled Moses from his catalog of learned men, while asserting
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Speaker 1: that Linus and Meusaus, and Orpheus and pharisdes and the
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Speaker 1: Persian Zoraster and Pythagoras discussed these topics, and that their
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Speaker 1: opinions were deposited in books and have thus been preserved
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Speaker 1: down to the present time. And it is intentionally also
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Speaker 1: that he has omitted to take notice of the myth Embellish,
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Speaker 1: chiefly by Orphaeus, in which the gods are described as
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Speaker 1: affected by human weaknesses and passions. In what follows, Celsus,
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Speaker 1: assailing the Mosaic history, finds fault with those who give
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Speaker 1: it a tropical and allegorical signification. And here one might say,
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Speaker 1: to this great man, who inscribed upon his own work
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Speaker 1: the title of a true discourse, quote, why good, sir,
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Speaker 1: do you make it a boast to have it recorded
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Speaker 1: that the gods should engage in such adventures as are
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Speaker 1: described by your learned poets and philosophers, and be guilty
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Speaker 1: of abominable intrigues, and of engaging in wars against their
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Speaker 1: own fathers, and of cutting off their secret parts, and
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Speaker 1: should dare to commit and to suffer such enormities. While Moses,
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Speaker 1: who gives no such accounts respecting God, nor even regarding
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Speaker 1: the Holy Angels, and who relates deeds of far less
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Speaker 1: atrocity regarding man, For in his writings, no one ever
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Speaker 1: ventured to commit such crimes as Chronos did against Uranus,
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Speaker 1: or Zeus against his father, or that of the father
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Speaker 1: of men and gods, who had intercourse with his own daughter,
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Speaker 1: should be considered as having deceived those who were placed
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Speaker 1: under his laws, and to have led them into error.
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Speaker 1: End quote. And here Celsus seems to me to act
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Speaker 1: somewhat as Thriasimachus, the Platonic philosopher did, when he would
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Speaker 1: not allow Socrates to answer regarding justice as he wished,
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Speaker 1: but said, quote, take care not to say that utility
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Speaker 1: is justice, or duty, or anything of that kind. End quote.
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Speaker 1: For in like manner, Celsus's sails as he thinks the
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Speaker 1: Mosaic histories and finds fault with those who understand them,
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Speaker 1: allegorically at the same time bestowing also some praise upon
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Speaker 1: those who do so, to the effect that they are
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Speaker 1: more impartial than those who do not. And thus, as
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Speaker 1: it were, he prevents by cavils those who are able
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Speaker 1: to show the true state of the case from offering
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Speaker 1: such a defense as they would wish to offer. And
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Speaker 1: challenging a comparison of book with book, I would say,
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Speaker 1: come now, good sir, take down the poems of Linus,
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Speaker 1: and of Mousaus, and of Orpheus, and the writings of Pharisees,
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Speaker 1: and carefully compare these with the laws of Moses, histories
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Speaker 1: with histories, and ethical discourses with laws and commandments, and
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Speaker 1: see which of the two are the better fitted to
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Speaker 1: change the character of the hearer on the very spot,
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Speaker 1: and which to harden him in his wickedness. And observe
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Speaker 1: that your series of writers display little concern for those
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Speaker 1: readers who are to peruse them at once unaided, but
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Speaker 1: have composed their philosophy as you term it, for those
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Speaker 1: who are able to comprehend its metaphorical and allegorical signification.
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Speaker 1: Whereas Moses, like a distinguished orator who meditates some figure
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Speaker 1: of rhetoric, and who carefully introduces in every part language
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Speaker 1: of twofold meaning, has done this in his five books,
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Speaker 1: neither offering in the portion which relates to morals, any
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Speaker 1: handle to his Jewish subjects for committing evil, nor yet
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Speaker 1: giving to the few individuals who were endowed with greater
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Speaker 1: wisdom and who were capable of investigating his meaning a
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Speaker 1: treatise devoid a material for speculation. But of your learned poets,
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Speaker 1: the very writings would seem no longer to be preserved,
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Speaker 1: although they would have been carefully treasured up if the
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Speaker 1: readers had perceived any benefit likely to be derived from them.
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Speaker 1: Whereas the works of Moses have stirred up many who
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Speaker 1: were even aliens to the manners of the Jews, to
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Speaker 1: the belief that, as these writings testify, the first who
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Speaker 1: enacted these laws and delivered them to Moses was the
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Speaker 1: God who was the creator of the world. For it
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Speaker 1: became the creator of the universe after laying down laws
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Speaker 1: its government, to confer upon his words a power which
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Speaker 1: might subdue all men in every part of the earth.
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Speaker 1: And this I maintain, having as yet entered into no
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Speaker 1: investigation regarding Jesus, but still demonstrating that Moses, who is
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Speaker 1: far inferior to the Lord, is as a discourse will
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Speaker 1: show greatly superior to your wise poets and philosophers. After
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Speaker 1: these statements celsus from a secret desire to cast discredit
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Speaker 1: upon the mosaic account of the creation, which teaches that
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Speaker 1: the world is not yet ten thousand years old, but
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Speaker 1: very much under that, while concealing his wish, intimates his
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Speaker 1: agreement with those who hold that the world is uncreated.
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Speaker 1: For maintaining that there have been from all eternity many
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Speaker 1: conflagrations and many deluges, and that the flood which lately
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Speaker 1: took place in the time of Deocallian is comparatively modern,
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Speaker 1: he clearly demonstr to those who are able to understand
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Speaker 1: him that to his opinion, the world was uncreated. But
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Speaker 1: let this assailant of the Christian faith tell us by
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Speaker 1: what arguments he was compelled to accept this statement that
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Speaker 1: there have been many conflagrations and many cataclysms, and that
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Speaker 1: the flood which occurred in the time of Diocalian and
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Speaker 1: the conflagration in that of faith on were more recent
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Speaker 1: than any others. And if he should put forward the
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Speaker 1: dialogues of Plato as evidence on these subjects, we shall
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Speaker 1: say to him that it is allowable for us also
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Speaker 1: to believe that there resided in the pure and pious
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Speaker 1: soul of Moses, who has scented above all created things,
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Speaker 1: and united himself to the creator of the universe, and
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Speaker 1: who made known divine things with far greater clearness than
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Speaker 1: Plato or those other wise men who lived among the
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Speaker 1: Greeks and the Romans, as spirit which was divine. And
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Speaker 1: if he demand of us our reasons for such a belief,
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Speaker 1: let him first give grounds for his own unsupported assertions,
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Speaker 1: and then we shall show that this view of ours
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Speaker 1: is the correct one. And yet, against his will, Celsus
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Speaker 1: is entangled into testifying that the world is comparatively modern
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Speaker 1: and not yet ten thousand years old, when he says
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Speaker 1: that the Greeks consider those things is ancient, because owing
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Speaker 1: to the delusies and conflagrations, they have not beheld or
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Speaker 1: received any memorials of older events. But less Celsus have
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Speaker 1: as his authorities for the myths regarding the conflagrations and
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Speaker 1: inundations those persons, who, in his opinion, are the most
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Speaker 1: learned of the Egyptians, traces of whose wisdom are to
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Speaker 1: be found in the worship of irrational animals, and in
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Speaker 1: arguments which prove that such a worship of God is
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Speaker 1: in conformity with reason, and of a secret and mysterious character.
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Speaker 1: The Egyptians, then, when they boastfully give their own account
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Speaker 1: of the divinity of animals, are to be considered wise.
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Speaker 1: But if any Jew, who has signified his adherence to
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Speaker 1: the law and the Lawgiver, refer everything to the creator
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Speaker 1: of the universe and the only God, he is, in
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Speaker 1: the opinion of Celsus and those like him, deemed inferior
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Speaker 1: to him who degrades the divinity not only to the
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Speaker 1: level of rational and mortal animals, but even to that
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Speaker 1: of irrational also of you, which goes far beyond the
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Speaker 1: mythical doctrine of transmigration, according to which the soul falls
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Speaker 1: down from the summit of heaven and enters into the
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Speaker 1: body of brute beasts, both tame and savage. And if
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Speaker 1: the Egyptians related fables of this kind, they are believed
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Speaker 1: to convey of philosophical meaning by their enigmas and mysteries.
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Speaker 1: But if Moses compose and leave behind him histories and
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Speaker 1: laws for an entire nation, they are to be considered
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Speaker 1: as empty fables, the language of which admits of no
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Speaker 1: allegorical meaning end of chapters eleven through twenty of Against
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Speaker 1: Celsius by Origin, read by David Ronald