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001 - Preface · Against Celsus Book 1

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  Speaker 1: Preface of Against Celsus Book one. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by David Ronald Against Celsus Book one by Origin, translated
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  Speaker 1: by Frederck Crombie. Preface. When false witnesses testified against our
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  Speaker 1: Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, he remained silent, and when
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  Speaker 1: unfounded charges were brought against him, he returned no answer,
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  Speaker 1: believing that his whole life and conduct among the Jews
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  Speaker 1: were a better refutation than any answer to the false testimony,
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  Speaker 1: or than any formal defense against the accusations. And I
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  Speaker 1: know not, my Pious Ambrosius, why you wished me to
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  Speaker 1: write a reply to the false charges brought by Celsus
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  Speaker 1: against the Christians and to his accusations directed against the
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  Speaker 1: faith of the Churches in his treatise, as if the
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  Speaker 1: facts themselves did not furnish a manifest refutation, and the
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  Speaker 1: doctrine a better answer than any writing, seeing it both
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  Speaker 1: disposes of the false statements and does not leave to
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  Speaker 1: the accusations any credibility or validity. Now, with respect to
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  Speaker 1: our lord's silence when false witness was born against him.
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  Speaker 1: It is sufficient at present to quote the words of Matthew,
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  Speaker 1: for the testimony of Mark is to the same effect.
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  Speaker 1: And the words of Matthew are as follows. And the
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  Speaker 1: High Priest and the council sought false witness against Jesus
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  Speaker 1: to put him to death, but found none, although many
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  Speaker 1: false witnesses came forward. At last two false witnesses came
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  Speaker 1: and said, this fellow said, I am able to destroy
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  Speaker 1: the temple of God, and after three days to build
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  Speaker 1: it up. And the High Priest arose and said to him,
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  Speaker 1: answerest thou nothing to what these witness against THEE. But
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  Speaker 1: Jesus held his peace, and that he returned no answer
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  Speaker 1: when falsely accused. The following is the statement. And Jesus
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  Speaker 1: stood before the governor, and he asked him, saying, art
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  Speaker 1: thou the king of the Jews. And Jesus said to him,
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  Speaker 1: thou sayest, And when he was accused of the chief
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  Speaker 1: priests and elders, he answered nothing. Then said Pilate, unto him,
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  Speaker 1: hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee.
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  Speaker 1: And he answered him too, never a word insomuch that
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  Speaker 1: the governor marveled greatly. It was indeed matter of surprise
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  Speaker 1: to men, even of ordinary intelligence, that one who was
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  Speaker 1: accused and assailed by false testimony, but who was able
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  Speaker 1: to defend himself and to show that he was guilty
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  Speaker 1: of none of the charges alleged, and who might have
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  Speaker 1: enumerated the praiseworthy deeds of his own life and his
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  Speaker 1: miracles wrought by divine power, so as to give the
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  Speaker 1: judge an opportunity of delivering a more honorable judgment regarding him,
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  Speaker 1: should not have done this, but should have disdained such
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  Speaker 1: a procedure, and, in the nobleness of his nature, have
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  Speaker 1: contemned his accuser. That the judge would, without any hesitation,
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  Speaker 1: have set him at liberty if he had offered a defense,
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  Speaker 1: is clear from what is related of him when he said,
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  Speaker 1: which of the two do ye wish that I should
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  Speaker 1: release unto you Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ?
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  Speaker 1: And from what the scripture adds, for he knew that
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  Speaker 1: for envy they had delivered him. Jesus, however, is at
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  Speaker 1: all times assailed by false witnesses, and while wickedness remains
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  Speaker 1: in the world, is ever exposed to accusation. And yet
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  Speaker 1: even now he continues silent before these things, and makes
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  Speaker 1: no audible answer, but places his defense in the lives
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  Speaker 1: of his genuine disciples, who are a pre eminent testimony,
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  Speaker 1: and one that rises superior to all false witnesses, and
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  Speaker 1: refutes and overthrows all unfounded accusations and charges. I venture, then,
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  Speaker 1: to say that this apology which you require me to
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  Speaker 1: compose will somewhat we in that defense of Christianity which
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  Speaker 1: rests on facts, and that power of Jesus, which is
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  Speaker 1: manifest to those who are not altogether devoid of perception.
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  Speaker 1: Notwithstanding that we may not have the appearance of being
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  Speaker 1: reluctant to undertake the task which you have enjoined, we
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  Speaker 1: have endeavored, to the best of our ability, to suggest,
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  Speaker 1: by way of answer to each of the statements advanced
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  Speaker 1: by Celsus, what seemed to us adapted to refute them.
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  Speaker 1: Although his arguments have no power to shake the faith
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  Speaker 1: of any true believer, and forbid indeed that anyone should
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  Speaker 1: be found who, after having been a partaker in such
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  Speaker 1: a love of God as was displayed in Christ, Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: could be shaken in his purpose by the arguments of
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  Speaker 1: celsus or of any such as he For Paul, when
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  Speaker 1: enumerting the innumerable causes which generally separate men from the
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  Speaker 1: love of Christ and from the love of God in
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  Speaker 1: Christ Jesus, to all of which the love that was
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  Speaker 1: in himself, Rosuperi did not set down argument among the
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  Speaker 1: grounds of separation. For observe that, he says, Firstly, who
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  Speaker 1: shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation
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  Speaker 1: or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or peril
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  Speaker 1: or sword, as it is written, for thy sake we
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  Speaker 1: are killed all the day long. We are accounted as
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  Speaker 1: sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we
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  Speaker 1: are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. And secondly,
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  Speaker 1: when laying down another series of causes which naturally tend
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  Speaker 1: to separate those who are not firmly grounded in their religion,
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  Speaker 1: he says, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,
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  Speaker 1: nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
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  Speaker 1: things to come, nor height, nor death nor any other
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  Speaker 1: creature shall be able to separate us from the Love
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  Speaker 1: of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now
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  Speaker 1: truly it is proper that we should feel elated because
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  Speaker 1: afflicktion or those other causes enumerated by Paul do not
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  Speaker 1: separate us from Christ. But not that Paul and the
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  Speaker 1: other apostles and any other resembling them should entertain that feeling,
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  Speaker 1: because they were far exalted above such things when they said,
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  Speaker 1: in all these things we are more than conquers through
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  Speaker 1: Him that loved us, which is a stronger statement than
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  Speaker 1: that they are simply conquerors. But if it be proper
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  Speaker 1: for apostles to entertain a feeling of elation in not
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  Speaker 1: being separated from the love of God that is in
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  Speaker 1: Christ Jesus our Lord, that feeling will be entertained by them,
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  Speaker 1: because neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
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  Speaker 1: any of the things that follow can separate them from
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  Speaker 1: the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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  Speaker 1: And therefore I do not congratulate that believer in Christ
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  Speaker 1: whose faith can be shaken by celsus who no longer
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  Speaker 1: shares the common life of man but has long since departed,
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  Speaker 1: or by any apparent plausibility of our argument, For I
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  Speaker 1: do not know in what rank to place him who
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  Speaker 1: has need of arguments written in books in answer to
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  Speaker 1: the charges of Celsus against the Christians, in order to
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  Speaker 1: prevent him from being shaken in his faith and confirm
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  Speaker 1: him in it. But nevertheless, since in the multitude of
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  Speaker 1: those who are considered believers, some such persons might be
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  Speaker 1: found as would have their faith shaken and overthrown by
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  Speaker 1: the writings of Celsus, but who might be preserved by
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  Speaker 1: a reply to them of such a nature as to
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  Speaker 1: refute his statements and to exhibit the truth. We have
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  Speaker 1: deemed it right to yield to your injunction and to
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  Speaker 1: furnish an answer to the treatise which you sent us,
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  Speaker 1: but which I do not think that any one, although
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  Speaker 1: only a short way advanced in philosophy, will allow to
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  Speaker 1: be a true discourse as Celsus has entitled it. Paul
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  Speaker 1: indeed observing that there are in Greek philosophy certain things
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  Speaker 1: not to be lightly esteemed, which are plausible in the
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  Speaker 1: eyes of the many, but which repri resent falsehood, as
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  Speaker 1: truth says with regards to such. But where lest any
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  Speaker 1: man spoil youth through philosophy and vain deceit after the
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  Speaker 1: tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and
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  Speaker 1: not after Christ, And seeing that there was a kind
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  Speaker 1: of greatness manifest in the words of the world's wisdom,
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  Speaker 1: he said that the words of the philosophers were according
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  Speaker 1: to the rudiments of the world. No man of sense, however,
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  Speaker 1: would say that those of Celsus were according to the
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  Speaker 1: rudiments of the world. Now, those words which contained some
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  Speaker 1: element of deceitfulness, the apostle named vain deceit, probably by
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  Speaker 1: way of distinction from a deceit that was not vain,
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  Speaker 1: And the prophet Jeremiah, observing this, ventured to say to God,
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  Speaker 1: O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived.
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  Speaker 1: Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed. But in
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  Speaker 1: the language of Celsus there seems to me to be
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  Speaker 1: no deceitfulness at all, not even that which is vain.
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  Speaker 1: Such deceitfulness, viz As, is found in the language of
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  Speaker 1: those who have founded philosophical sects, and who have been
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  Speaker 1: endowed with no ordinary talent for such pursuits. And as
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  Speaker 1: no one would say that any ordinary error in geometrical
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  Speaker 1: demonstrations was intended to deceive, or would describe it for
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  Speaker 1: the sake of exercise in such matters. So those opinions
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  Speaker 1: which are to be styled vain deceit and the tradition
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  Speaker 1: of men and according to the rudiments of the world,
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  Speaker 1: must have some resemblance to the views of those who
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  Speaker 1: have been the founders of philosophical sex, if such titles
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  Speaker 1: are to be appropriately applied to them. After proceeding with
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  Speaker 1: this work as far as the place where Celsus introduces
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  Speaker 1: the jew disputing with Jesus, I resolved to prefix this
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  Speaker 1: preface to the beginning of the treatise, in order that
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  Speaker 1: the reader of our reply to Celsus might fall in
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  Speaker 1: with it first, and see that this book has been
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  Speaker 1: composed not for those who are thorough believers, but for
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  Speaker 1: such as are either wholly unacquainted with the Christian faith,
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  Speaker 1: or for those who, as the Apostle terms them, are
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  Speaker 1: weak in faith. Regarding whom he says him that is
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  Speaker 1: weak in faith, receive ye, and this preface must be
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  Speaker 1: my apology for beginning my answer to Celsus on one
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  Speaker 1: plan and carrying it on on another. For my first
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  Speaker 1: intention was to indicate his principal objections, and then briefly
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  Speaker 1: the answers that were returned to them. And subsequently to
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  Speaker 1: make a systematic treatise of the whole discourse. But afterwards
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  Speaker 1: circumstances themselves suggested to me that I should be economical
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  Speaker 1: of my time, and that satisfied with what I had
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  Speaker 1: already stated at the commencement, I should, in the following
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  Speaker 1: part grapple closely, to the best of my ability, with
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  Speaker 1: the charges of Celsus. I have therefore to ask indulgence
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  Speaker 1: for those portions which follow the preface towards the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of the book. And if you are not impressed by
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  Speaker 1: the powerful arguments which succeed, then asking similar indulgence also
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  Speaker 1: with respect to them. I refer you, who still desire
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  Speaker 1: an argumentative solution of the objections of Celsus, to those
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  Speaker 1: men who are wiser than myself, and who are able
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  Speaker 1: by words and treatises to overthrow the charges which he
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  Speaker 1: brings against us. But better is the man who, although
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  Speaker 1: meeting with the work of Celsus, needs no answer to
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  Speaker 1: it at all, but who despises all its contents, since
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  Speaker 1: they are condemned and with good reason by every believer
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  Speaker 1: in Christ through the spirit that is in him, and
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  Speaker 1: of preface of against Celsus by origin