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005 - Chapters 31-40 · Against Celsus Book 1

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Speaker 1: Chapters thirty one through forty of Against Celsus book Ie
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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. And besides this,
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Speaker 1: one may well wonder how it happened that the disciples, if,
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Speaker 1: as the calumniators of Jesus say, they did not see
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Speaker 1: him after his resurrection from the dead and were not
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Speaker 1: persuaded of his divinity, were not afraid to endure the
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Speaker 1: same sufferings with their master, and to expose themselves to danger,
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Speaker 1: and to leave their native country to teach, according to
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Speaker 1: the desire of Jesus, the doctrine delivered to them by him.
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Speaker 1: For I think that no one who candidly examines the
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Speaker 1: facts would say that these men devoted themselves to a
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Speaker 1: life of danger for the sake of the doctrine of
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Speaker 1: Jesus without a profound belief which he had wrought in
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Speaker 1: their minds of its truth, not only teaching them to
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Speaker 1: conform to his precepts, but others also, and to conform Moreover,
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Speaker 1: when manifest destruction to life impended over him who ventured
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Speaker 1: to introduce these new opinions into all places, and before
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Speaker 1: all audiences, and who could retain as his friend no
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Speaker 1: human being who adhered to the former opinions and usages.
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Speaker 1: For did not the disciples of Jesus see when they
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Speaker 1: ventured to prove not only to the Jews from their
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Speaker 1: prophetic scriptures, that this is he who is spoken of
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Speaker 1: by the prophets, but also to the other Heathen nations,
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Speaker 1: that he who was crucified yesterday or the day before,
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Speaker 1: underwent this death voluntarily on behalf of the human race.
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Speaker 1: That this was analogous to the case of those who
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Speaker 1: have died for their country in order to remove pestilence,
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Speaker 1: or barrenness or tempests. For it is probable that there is,
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Speaker 1: in the nature of things, for certain mysterious reasons which
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Speaker 1: are difficult to be understood by the multitude, such a
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Speaker 1: virtue that one just man dying a voluntary death for
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Speaker 1: the common good might be the means of removing wicked
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Speaker 1: spirits which are the cause of plagues or barrenness, or
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Speaker 1: tempests or similar calamities. Let those therefore, who would disbelieve
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Speaker 1: the statement that Jesus died on the cross on behalf
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Speaker 1: of men say whether they also refuse to accept the
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Speaker 1: many accounts current, both among Greeks and Barbarians, of persons
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Speaker 1: who have laid down their lives for the public advantage,
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Speaker 1: in order to remove those evils which had fallen upon
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Speaker 1: cities and countries. Or will they say that such events
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Speaker 1: actually happened, but that no credit is to be attached
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Speaker 1: to that account which makes this so called man to
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Speaker 1: have died to ensure the destruction of a mighty evil spirit,
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Speaker 1: the ruler of evil spirits, who had held in subjection
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Speaker 1: the souls of all men upon earth. And the disciples
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Speaker 1: of Jesus, seeing this and much more which it is,
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Speaker 1: they learned from Jesus in private, and being filled moreover
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Speaker 1: with a divine power, since it was no mere poetical
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Speaker 1: virgin that endowed them with strength and courage, but the
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Speaker 1: true wisdom and understanding of God, exerted all their efforts
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Speaker 1: to become distinguished among all men, not only among the Argives,
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Speaker 1: but among all the Greeks and barbarians alike, and so
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Speaker 1: bear away for themselves a glorious renown. But let us
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Speaker 1: now return to where the jew Is introduced, speaking of
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Speaker 1: the mother of Jesus and saying that quote when she
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Speaker 1: was pregnant, she was turned out of doors by the
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Speaker 1: carpenter to whom she had been betrothed, as having been
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Speaker 1: guilty of adultery, and that she bore a child to
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Speaker 1: a certain soldier named Panthera. End quote. And let us
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Speaker 1: see whether those who have blindly concocted these fables about
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Speaker 1: the adultery of the virgin with Panthera and her rejection
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Speaker 1: by the carpenter, did not invent these stories to overturn
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Speaker 1: his miraculous conception by the holy ghosts, For they could
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Speaker 1: have falsified the history in a different manner on account
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Speaker 1: of its extremely miraculous character, and not have admitted, as
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Speaker 1: it were, against their will, that Jesus was born of
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Speaker 1: no ordinary human marriage. It was to be expected, indeed,
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Speaker 1: that those who would not believed the miraculous birth of
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Speaker 1: Jesus would invent some falsehood. And their not doing this
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Speaker 1: in a credible manner, but their preserving the fact that
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Speaker 1: it was not by Joseph that the Virgin conceived Jesus,
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Speaker 1: rendered the falsehood very palpable to those who can understand
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Speaker 1: and detect such inventions. It is at all agreeable to
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Speaker 1: reason that he who dared to do so much for
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Speaker 1: the human race, in order that as far as in
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Speaker 1: him lay all the Greeks and Barbarians who were looking
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Speaker 1: for a divine condemnation, might depart from evil and regulate
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Speaker 1: their entire conduct in a manner pleasing to the creator
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Speaker 1: of the world. Should not have had a miraculous birth,
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Speaker 1: but one the vilest and most disgraceful of all. And
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Speaker 1: I will ask of them, as Greeks, and particularly of Celsus,
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Speaker 1: who either holds or not the sentiments of Plato, and
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Speaker 1: at any rate quotes them, whether he who sends souls
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Speaker 1: down into the bodies of men degraded him who was
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Speaker 1: to dare such mighty acts and to teach so many men,
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Speaker 1: and to reform so many from the massive wickedness in
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Speaker 1: the world, to a birth more disgraceful than any other,
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Speaker 1: And did not rather introduce him into the world through
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Speaker 1: a lawful marriage. Or is it not more in conformity
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Speaker 1: with reason that every soul, for certain mysterious reason I
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Speaker 1: speak now according to the opinion of Pythagoras and Plato
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Speaker 1: and Epidocles, whom Celsus frequently names, is introduced into a body,
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Speaker 1: and introduced according to its deserts and former actions. It
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Speaker 1: is probable therefore that this soul also which conferred more
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Speaker 1: benefit by its residence in the flesh than that of
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Speaker 1: many men. To avoid prejudice, I do not say all
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Speaker 1: stood in need of a body not only superior to others,
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Speaker 1: but invested with all excellent qualities. Now, if a particular soul,
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Speaker 1: for certain mysterious reasons, is not deserving of being placed
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Speaker 1: in the body of a wholly irrational being, nor yet
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Speaker 1: in that of one purely rational, but is clothed with
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Speaker 1: a monstrous body, so that reason cannot discharge its functions
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Speaker 1: in one so fashioned, which has the head disproportioned to
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Speaker 1: the other parts, and altogether too short. And another receives
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Speaker 1: such a body that the soul is a little more
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Speaker 1: rational than the other, And another still more so, the
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Speaker 1: nature of the body, counteracting to a greater or less
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Speaker 1: degree the reception of the reasoning principle. I should there
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Speaker 1: not be also some soul which receives an altogether miraculous body,
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Speaker 1: possessing some qualities common to those of other men, so
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Speaker 1: that it may be able to pass through life with them,
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Speaker 1: but possessing also some quality of superiority, so that the
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Speaker 1: soul may be able to remain untainted by sin. And
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Speaker 1: if there be any truth in the doctrine of the physiognomists,
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Speaker 1: whether Zopyrus or a Luxis, or Polomon, or any other
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Speaker 1: who wrote on such a subject, and who profess to
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Speaker 1: know in some wonderful way that all bodies are adapted
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Speaker 1: to the habits of the souls, must there have been
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Speaker 1: for that soul which was to dwell with miraculous power
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Speaker 1: among men and work mighty deeds, a body produced, as
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Speaker 1: Celsus thinks, by an act of adultery between Panthera and
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Speaker 1: the Virgin. Why from such unhallowed intercourse there must rather
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Speaker 1: have been brought forth some fool to do injury to mankind,
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Speaker 1: a teacher of licentiousness and wickedness and other evils, and
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Speaker 1: not of temperance and righteousness and other virtues. But it was,
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Speaker 1: as the prophets also predicted from a virgin, that there
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Speaker 1: was to be born, according to the promised sign, one
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Speaker 1: who was to give his name to the fact, showing
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Speaker 1: that at his birth God was to be with man.
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Speaker 1: Now it seems to me appropriate to the character of
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Speaker 1: the Jews to have quoted the prophecy of Isaiah, which
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Speaker 1: says that Emmanuel was to be born of virgin. This, however, Celsus,
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Speaker 1: who professes to know everything, has not done, either from
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Speaker 1: ignorance or from an unwillingness, if he had read it
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Speaker 1: and voluntarily passed it by in silence to furnish an
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Speaker 1: argument which might defeat his purpose. And the prediction runs
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Speaker 1: thus quote, and the Lord spake again unto AHAs, saying,
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Speaker 1: ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God. Ask
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Speaker 1: it either in the death or in the high above.
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Speaker 1: But a has said, I will not ask, neither will
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Speaker 1: I tempt the Lord. And he said, hear ye, now,
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Speaker 1: o house of David, is it a small thing for
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Speaker 1: you to weary men? But will ye weary my God?
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Speaker 1: Also therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold,
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Speaker 1: a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall
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Speaker 1: call his name Emmanuel, which is being interpreted God with us.
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Speaker 1: End quote, and that it was from intentional malice that
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Speaker 1: Celsus did not quote this prophecy. Is clear to me
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Speaker 1: from this that, although he makes numerous quotations from the Gospel,
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Speaker 1: according to Matthew As of the star that appeared at
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Speaker 1: the birth of Christ and other miraculous occurrences, he has
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Speaker 1: made no mention at all of this. Now, if a
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Speaker 1: Jew should split words and say that the words are
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Speaker 1: not quote lo a virgin end quote, but quote lo
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Speaker 1: a young woman end quote, we reply that the word olmah,
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Speaker 1: which the septuagen have rendered by a virgin and others
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Speaker 1: by a young woman, occurs as they say in Deuteronomy,
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Speaker 1: as applied to a virgin in the following connection. Quote,
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Speaker 1: if a damsel, that is a virgin, be betrothed unto
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Speaker 1: a husband, and a man find her in the city
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Speaker 1: and lie with her, then ye shall bring them both
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Speaker 1: out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall
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Speaker 1: stone them with stones, that they die, the damsel because
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Speaker 1: she cried not being in the city, and the man
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Speaker 1: because he humbled his neighbour's wife end quote. And again
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Speaker 1: quote but if a man find a betrothed damsel in
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Speaker 1: a field, and a man force her and lie with her,
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Speaker 1: then the man only that lay with her shall die.
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Speaker 1: But unto the damsel, ye shall do nothing there is
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Speaker 1: in her noson worthy of death. End quote. But that
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Speaker 1: we may not seem because of a Hebrew word to
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Speaker 1: endeavor to persuade those who are unable to determine whether
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Speaker 1: they ought to believe it or not, that the prophet
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Speaker 1: spoke of this man being born a virgin, because that
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Speaker 1: is birth. These words quote God with us end quote
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Speaker 1: were uttered. Let us make good our point from the
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Speaker 1: words themselves. The Lord is related to have spoken to
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Speaker 1: a has. Thus, quote, ask a sign for thyself from
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Speaker 1: the Lord thy God, either in the depth or height
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Speaker 1: above end quote. And afterwards the sign is given. Behold,
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Speaker 1: a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. What kind
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Speaker 1: of sign, then, would that have been? A young woman
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Speaker 1: who is not a virgin giving birth to a child.
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Speaker 1: And which of the two is the more appropriate as
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Speaker 1: the mother of Emmanuel I e. God with us, Whether
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Speaker 1: a woman who has had intercourse with a man and
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Speaker 1: who is conceived after the manner of women, or one
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Speaker 1: who is still a pure and holy virgin. Surely it
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Speaker 1: is appropriate only to the latter to produce a being
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Speaker 1: at whose birth, it is said, quote God with us
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Speaker 1: end quote. And should he be so captious as to
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Speaker 1: say that it is to a has that the command
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Speaker 1: is addressed. Quote, ask thyself a sign from the Lord
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Speaker 1: thy God. End quote. We shall ask in return, who,
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Speaker 1: in the times of a has bore a son at
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Speaker 1: whose birth the expressions made use of Emmanuel I e.
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Speaker 1: God with us. And if no one can be found,
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Speaker 1: then manifestly what is said to Ahs was said to
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Speaker 1: the house of David, because it is written that the
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Speaker 1: Savior was born of the house of David, according to
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Speaker 1: the flesh. And this sign is said to be quote
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Speaker 1: in the death or in the height end quote, since
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Speaker 1: quote he that descended is the same also that ascended
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Speaker 1: up far above all heavens, that he might fill all
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Speaker 1: things end quote. And these arguments I employ as against
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Speaker 1: a Jew who believes in prophecy let celsus. Now tell
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Speaker 1: me or any of those who think with him, with
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Speaker 1: what meaning the prophet utters, either these statements about the
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Speaker 1: future or the others which are contained in the prophecies.
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Speaker 1: Is it with any foresight of the future or not.
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Speaker 1: If with the foresight of the future, then the prophets
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Speaker 1: were divinely inspired. If with no foresight of the future,
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Speaker 1: let him explain the meaning of one who speaks thus
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Speaker 1: boldly regarding the future, and who is an object of
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Speaker 1: admiration among the Jews because of his prophetic powers. And now,
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Speaker 1: since we have touched upon the subject of the prophets,
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Speaker 1: what we are about to advance will be useful not
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Speaker 1: only to the Jews, who believe that they spake by
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Speaker 1: divine inspiration, but also to the more candid among the Greeks.
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Speaker 1: To these we say that we must necessarily admit that
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Speaker 1: the Jews had prophets if they were to be kept
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Speaker 1: together under that system of law which had been given them,
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Speaker 1: and were to believe in the creator of the world
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Speaker 1: as they had learned, and to be without pretexts so
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Speaker 1: far as the law was concerned for apostesizing to the
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Speaker 1: polytheism of the Heathen. And we establish this necessity in
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Speaker 1: the following manner. Quote for the nations end quote, as
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Speaker 1: it is written in the Book of the Law of
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Speaker 1: the Jews itself. Quote shall hearken unto observers of times
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Speaker 1: and diviners end quote. But to that people, it is said, quote.
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Speaker 1: But as for Thee, the Lord Thy God hath not
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Speaker 1: suffered THEE to do so. End quote. And to this
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Speaker 1: is subjoined the promise quote a prophet, shall the Lord
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Speaker 1: thy God raise up unto THEE from among thy brethren
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Speaker 1: end quote. Since therefore they Heathen employ modes of divination,
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Speaker 1: either by oracles or by omens, or by birds, or
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Speaker 1: by ventriloquists, or by those who profess the art of sacrifice,
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Speaker 1: or by Chaldean genealogists, all which practices were forbidden to
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Speaker 1: the Jews. This people, if they had no means of
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Speaker 1: attaining a knowledge of futurity, being led by the passion
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Speaker 1: common to humanity of ascertaining the future, would have despised
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Speaker 1: their own prophets as not having in them any particle
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Speaker 1: of divinity, and would not have accepted any prophet after Moses,
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Speaker 1: nor committed their words to writing, but would have spontaneously
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Speaker 1: betaken themselves to the divining usages of the Heathen, or
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Speaker 1: attempted to establish some such practice amongst themselves. There is
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Speaker 1: therefore no absurdity in their prophets having uttered predictions, even
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Speaker 1: about events of no importance to suit those who desire
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Speaker 1: such things, as when Samuel prophesies regarding three si asses
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Speaker 1: which were lost or in mention is made in the
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Speaker 1: Third Book of Kings respecting the sickness of a king's son.
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Speaker 1: And why should not those who desire to obtain auguries
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Speaker 1: from idols be severely rebuked by the administrators of the
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Speaker 1: law among the Jews, As Elijah is found rebuking Aziah
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Speaker 1: and saying, quote, is it because there is not a
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Speaker 1: god in Israel that ye go to inquire of Beelzebub,
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Speaker 1: God of ekron end. I think then that it has
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Speaker 1: been pretty well established not only that our Savior was
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Speaker 1: to be born of a virgin, but also that there
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Speaker 1: were prophets among the Jews who uttered not merely general
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Speaker 1: predictions about the future, as regarding Christ and the kingdoms
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Speaker 1: of the world, and the events that were to happen
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Speaker 1: to Israel and those nations which were to believe on
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Speaker 1: the Savior, and many other things concerning him, but also
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Speaker 1: prophesies respecting particular events, as, for instance, how the asses
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Speaker 1: of kish which were lost were to be discovered, and
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Speaker 1: regarding the sickness which had fallen upon the son of
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Speaker 1: the King of Israel, and any other recorded circumstance of
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Speaker 1: a similar kind. But as a further answer to the
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Speaker 1: Greeks who do not believe in the birth of Jesus
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Speaker 1: from a virgin, we have to say that the Creator
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Speaker 1: has shown, by the generation of several kinds of animals,
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Speaker 1: that what he has done in the instance of one animal,
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Speaker 1: he could do if it pleased him in that of others,
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Speaker 1: and also a man himself. For it is ascertained that
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Speaker 1: there is a certain female animal which has no intercourse
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Speaker 1: with the male, as writers on animals say is the
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Speaker 1: case with vultures, and that this animal, without sexual intercourse,
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Speaker 1: preserves the succession of race. What incredibility, therefore, is there
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Speaker 1: in sce posing that if God wished to send a
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Speaker 1: divine teacher to the human race, he caused him to
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Speaker 1: be born in some manner different from the common. Nay,
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Speaker 1: according to the Greeks themselves, all men were not born
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Speaker 1: of a man and woman. For if the world has
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Speaker 1: been created, as many, even of the Greeks are pleased
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Speaker 1: to admit, then the first men must have been produced
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Speaker 1: not from sexual intercourse, but from the earth in which
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Speaker 1: thematic elements existed, which, however, I consider more incredible than
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Speaker 1: that Jesus was born like other men, so far as
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Speaker 1: regards the half of his birth. And there is no
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Speaker 1: absurdity in employing Gressian histories to answer Greeks with the
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Speaker 1: view of showing that we are not the only persons
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Speaker 1: who have recourse to miraculous narratives of this kind. For
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Speaker 1: some have thought fit not in regard to ancient and
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Speaker 1: heroic narratives, but in regard to events a very recent
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Speaker 1: occurrence to relate as a possible thing that Plato was
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Speaker 1: the son of amphictione Ariston being prevented from having martial
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Speaker 1: intercourse with his wife until she had given birth to him,
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Speaker 1: with whom she was pregnant by Apollo. And yet these
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Speaker 1: are veritable fables which have led to the invention of
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Speaker 1: such stories concerning a man whom they regarded as possessing
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Speaker 1: greater wisdom and power than the multitude, and as having
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Speaker 1: received the beginning of his corporal substance from better and
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Speaker 1: diviner elements than others, because they thought that this was
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Speaker 1: appropriate to persons who are too great to be human beings.
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Speaker 1: And since Celsus has introduced the Jew disputing with Jesus
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Speaker 1: and tearing in pieces as he imagines the fiction of
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Speaker 1: his birth from a virgin. Comparing the Greek fables about
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Speaker 1: Denae and Melanippe and Augae and Antiope, our answer is
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Speaker 1: that such language becomes a buffoon, and not one who
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Speaker 1: is writing in a serious tone. But moreover, taking the
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Speaker 1: history contained in the Gospel. According to Matthew, of our
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Speaker 1: Lord's descent into Egypt, he refuses to believe the miraculous
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Speaker 1: circumstances attending it viz. Either That the angel gave the
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Speaker 1: divine intimation or that our lords quitting Judaea and residing
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Speaker 1: in Egypt was an event of any significance. But he
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Speaker 1: invents something altogether different, admitting somehow the miraculous works done
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Speaker 1: by Jesus, by means of which he induced the multitude
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Speaker 1: to follow him as the Christ. And yet he desires
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Speaker 1: to throw discredit on them as being done by the
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Speaker 1: help of magic and not by divine power. For he
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Speaker 1: asserts quote that he Jesus, having been brought up as
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Speaker 1: an illegitimate child, and having served for hire in Egypt,
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Speaker 1: and then, coming to the knowledge of certain miraculous powers,
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Speaker 1: returned from thence to his own country, and by means
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Speaker 1: of those powers, proclaimed himself a god end quote. Now,
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Speaker 1: I do not understand how a magician should exert himself
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Speaker 1: to teach a doctrine which persuades us always to act
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Speaker 1: as if God were to judge every man for his deeds,
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Speaker 1: and and should have trained his disciples, whom he was
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Speaker 1: to employ as the ministers of his doctrine in the
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Speaker 1: same belief. For did the latter make an impression upon
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Speaker 1: their hearers after they had been so taught to work miracles,
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Speaker 1: or was it without the aid of these? The assertion
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Speaker 1: therefore that they did no miracles at all, but that,
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Speaker 1: after yielding their belief to arguments which were not at
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Speaker 1: all convincing, like the wisdom of the aggression dialects, they
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Speaker 1: gave themselves up to the task of teaching the new
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Speaker 1: doctrine to those persons among whom they happened to take
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Speaker 1: up their abode is altogether absurd, For in what did
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Speaker 1: they place their confidence when they taught the doctrine and
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Speaker 1: disseminated the new opinions. But if they indeed wrought miracles,
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Speaker 1: then how can it be believed that magicians exposed themselves
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Speaker 1: to such hazards to introduce a doctrine which forbade the
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Speaker 1: practice of magic. I do not think it necessary to
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Speaker 1: grapple with an argument advanced not in a serious but
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Speaker 1: in a scoffing spirit, such as the fault following quote.
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Speaker 1: If the Mother of Jesus was beautiful, then the God,
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Speaker 1: whose nature is not to love a corruptible body, had
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Speaker 1: intercourse with her because she was beautiful, end quote or quote,
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Speaker 1: it was improbable that the God would entertain a passion
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Speaker 1: for her because she was neither rich nor of royal rank,
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Speaker 1: seeing no one even of her neighbors knew her end quote,
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Speaker 1: and is the same scoffing spirit that he adds quote
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Speaker 1: when hated by her husband and turned out of doors,
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Speaker 1: she was not saved by divine power, nor was her
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Speaker 1: story believed. Such things, he says, have no connection with
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Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Heaven end quote. In what respect does
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Speaker 1: such language differ from that of those who pour abuse
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Speaker 1: on others on the public streets, and whose words are
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Speaker 1: unworthy of any serious attention. After these assertions, he takes
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Speaker 1: from the Gospel of Matthew, and perhaps also from the
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Speaker 1: other Gospels, the account of the dove alighting upon our
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Speaker 1: Savior at his baptism by on, and desires to throw
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Speaker 1: discredit upon the statement, alleging that the narrative is a fiction.
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Speaker 1: Having completely disposed as he imagined of the story of
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Speaker 1: Our Lord's birth from a virgin, he does not proceed
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Speaker 1: to deal in an orderly manner with the accounts that
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Speaker 1: follow it, since passion and hatred observe no order, but
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Speaker 1: angry and vindictive men slandered those whom they hate as
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Speaker 1: the feeling comes upon them, being prevented by their passion
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Speaker 1: from arranging their accusations on a careful and orderly plan.
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Speaker 1: For if he had observed a proper arrangement, he would
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Speaker 1: have taken up the gospel, and with the view of
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Speaker 1: assailing it, would have objected to the first narrative, then
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Speaker 1: passed on to the second, and so on to the others.
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Speaker 1: But now after the birth from a virgin, this Celsus,
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Speaker 1: who professes to be acquainted with all of our history,
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Speaker 1: attacks the account of the appearance of the Holy Spirit
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Speaker 1: in the form of a dove at his baptism, and
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Speaker 1: then after that tries to throw discred reddit upon the
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Speaker 1: prediction that our Lord was to come into the world.
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Speaker 1: In the next place, he runs away to what immediately
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Speaker 1: follows the narrative of the birth of Jesus, the account
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Speaker 1: of the Star and of the wise men who came
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Speaker 1: from the east to worship the child. And you yourself
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Speaker 1: may find, if you take the trouble, many confused statements
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Speaker 1: made by Celsus throughout his whole book, so that even
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Speaker 1: in this account he may, by those who know how
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Speaker 1: to observe and require an orderly method of arrangement, be
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Speaker 1: convicted of great rashness and boasting, and having inscribed upon
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Speaker 1: his work the title of a true discourse, a thing
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Speaker 1: which is never done by a learned philosopher. For Plato
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Speaker 1: says that it is not an indication of an intelligent
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Speaker 1: man to make strong assertions respecting those matters which are
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Speaker 1: somewhat uncertain. And the celebrated Crisippus, even who frequently states
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Speaker 1: the reasons by which he is decided, refers us to
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Speaker 1: those whom we shall find to be abler speakers. That
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Speaker 1: am this man, however, who is wiser than those already named.
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Speaker 1: And then all the other Greeks agreeably to his assertion
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Speaker 1: of being acquainted with everything inscribed upon his book the
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Speaker 1: words a True Discourse and of against Celsus by Origin,
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Speaker 1: Chapters thirty one through forty, read by David Ronald