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008 - Chapters 61-71 · Against Celsus Book 1

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Speaker 1: Chapter sixty one through seventy one of against Celsus. By
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Speaker 1: origin this LibriVox recording is in the public domain that
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Speaker 1: Herod conspired against the child, although the jew of Celsus
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Speaker 1: does not believe that this really happened, is not to
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Speaker 1: be wondered at, for wickedness is in a certain sense blind,
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Speaker 1: and would desire to defeat fate as if it were
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Speaker 1: stronger than it, And this being Herod's condition, he both
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Speaker 1: believed that a king of the Jews had been born
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Speaker 1: and yet cherished a purpose contradictory of such a belief.
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Speaker 1: Not seeing that the child is assuredly either a king
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Speaker 1: and will come to the throne, or that he is
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Speaker 1: not to be a king, and that his death therefore
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Speaker 1: will be to no purpose, he desired accordingly to kill him,
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Speaker 1: his mind being agitated by contending passions on account of
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Speaker 1: his wickedness, and being instigated by the blind and wicked devil,
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Speaker 1: who from the very beginning plotted against the Savior, imagining
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Speaker 1: that he was and would become some mighty one an angel. However,
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Speaker 1: perceiving the course of events intimated to Joseph. Although Celsus
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Speaker 1: may not believe it that he was to withdraw with
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Speaker 1: the child and his mother into Egypt, while Herod slew
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Speaker 1: all the infants that were in Bethlehem and the surrounding borders,
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Speaker 1: in the hope that he would thus destroy him also
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Speaker 1: who had been born king of the Jews? For he
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Speaker 1: saw not the sleepless guardian power that is around those
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Speaker 1: who deserve to be protected and preserved for the salvation
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Speaker 1: of men, of whom Jesus is the first superior to
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Speaker 1: all others in honor and excellence. Who was to be
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Speaker 1: a king indeed, but not in the sense that Herod supposed,
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Speaker 1: but in that in which it became God to bestow
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Speaker 1: a kingdom for the benefit viz. Of those who were
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Speaker 1: to be under his sway. Who was to confer no
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Speaker 1: ordinary and unimportant blessing, so to speak, upon his subjects,
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Speaker 1: But who was to train them and to subject them
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Speaker 1: to the laws that were truly from God. And Jesus,
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Speaker 1: knowing this well, and denying that he was a king
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Speaker 1: in the sense that the multitude expected, but declaring the
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Speaker 1: superiority of his kingdom, says quote, if my kingdom were
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Speaker 1: of this world, then would my servants fight that I
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Speaker 1: should not be delivered to the Jews? But now is
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Speaker 1: my kingdom not of this world? End quote. Now Celsus
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Speaker 1: had seen this, he would not have said. Quote, but
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Speaker 1: if then this was done in order that you might
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Speaker 1: not reign in his stead when you had grown to
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Speaker 1: man's estate, why after you did reach that estate, do
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Speaker 1: you not become a king instead of you, the son
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Speaker 1: of God, wandering about in so mean a condition, hiding
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Speaker 1: yourself through fear, and leading a miserable life up and down.
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Speaker 1: End quote. Now it is not dishonorable to avoid exposing
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Speaker 1: oneself to dangers, but to guard carefully against them, when
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Speaker 1: this is done not through fear of death, but from
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Speaker 1: a desire to benefit others by remaining in life un
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Speaker 1: till the proper time come for one who has assumed
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Speaker 1: human nature to die a death that will be useful
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Speaker 1: to mankind. And this is plain to him who reflects
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Speaker 1: that Jesus died for the sake of men, a point
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Speaker 1: of which we have spoken to the best of our
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Speaker 1: ability in the preceding pages. And after such statements, showing
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Speaker 1: his ignorance even of the number of the apostles, he
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Speaker 1: proceeds thus quote Jesus having gathered around him ten or
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Speaker 1: eleven persons, of notorious character, the very wickedness of tax
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Speaker 1: gatherers and sailors, fled in company with them from place
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Speaker 1: to place, and obtained his living in a shameful and
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Speaker 1: important manner. End quote. Let us, to the best of
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Speaker 1: our power, see what truth there is in such a statement.
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Speaker 1: It is manifest to us all who possess the gospel
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Speaker 1: narratives which Celsus does not appear even to have read,
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Speaker 1: that Jesus selected twelve apostles, and that of these Matthew
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Speaker 1: alone was a tax gatherer. That when he calls them
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Speaker 1: indiscriminately sailors, he probably means James and John, because they
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Speaker 1: left their ship and their father Zebedee and followed Jesus.
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Speaker 1: For Peter and his brother Andrew, who employed a net
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Speaker 1: to gain their necessary subsidence, must be classed not as sailors,
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Speaker 1: but as the scripture describes them as fishermen. And Levis also,
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Speaker 1: who is a follower of Jesus, may have been a
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Speaker 1: tax gatherer, but he was not of the number of apostles,
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Speaker 1: except according to his statement in one of the copies
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Speaker 1: of Marx Gospel. And we have not ascertained the employments
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Speaker 1: of the remaining disciples by which they earned their livelihood
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Speaker 1: before becoming disciples of Jesus. I assert, therefore, in answer
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Speaker 1: to such statements as the above, that it is clear
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Speaker 1: to all who are able to institute an intelligent and
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Speaker 1: candidate examination into the history of the apostles of Jesus,
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Speaker 1: that it was by help of a divine power that
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Speaker 1: these men taught Christianity and succeeded in leading others to
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Speaker 1: embrace the Word of God. For it was not any
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Speaker 1: power of speaking, or any orderly arrangement of their message
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Speaker 1: according to the art arts of the Gretchen dialects or rhetoric,
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Speaker 1: which was in them the effective cause of converting their hearers. Nay,
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Speaker 1: I am of the opinion that if Jesus had selected
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Speaker 1: some individuals who are wise according to the apprehension of
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Speaker 1: the multitude, and who were fitted both to think and
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Speaker 1: speak so as to please them, and had used such
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Speaker 1: as the ministers of his doctrine, he would must justly
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Speaker 1: have been suspected of employing artifices like those philosophers who
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Speaker 1: are the leaders of certain sects, And consequently, the promise
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Speaker 1: respecting the divinity of his doctrine would not have manifested itself,
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Speaker 1: For had the doctrine and the preaching consisted in the
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Speaker 1: persuasive utterance and arrangement of words, then faith, also like
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Speaker 1: that of the philosophers of the world in their opinions,
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Speaker 1: would have been through the wisdom of men, and not
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Speaker 1: through the power of God. Now, who is there on
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Speaker 1: seeing fishermen and tax gatherers who had not acquired even
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Speaker 1: the merest elements of learning, as the Gospel relates of them,
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Speaker 1: and in respect to which Celsus believes that they speak
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Speaker 1: the truth, inasmuch as it is their own ignorance which
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Speaker 1: they record, discoursing boldly not only among the Jews of
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Speaker 1: faith in Jesus, but also preaching him with success among
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Speaker 1: other nations. Would not inquire whence they derived this power
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Speaker 1: of persuasion as theirs was certainly not the common method
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Speaker 1: followed by the multitude, And who would not say that
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Speaker 1: the promise quote follow me, and I will make you
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Speaker 1: fishers of men end quote, had been accomplished by Jesus
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Speaker 1: in the history of his apostles by a sort of
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Speaker 1: divine power. And to this also Paul, referring in terms
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Speaker 1: of commendation, as we have stated a little above, says
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Speaker 1: quote and my speech, and my preaching was not with
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Speaker 1: enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the
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Speaker 1: spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand
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Speaker 1: in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
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Speaker 1: End quote. For according to the predictions in the prophets
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Speaker 1: for telling the preaching of the Gospel, quote, the Lord
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Speaker 1: gave the word in great power to them who preached it,
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Speaker 1: even the King of the powers of the Beloved end quote,
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Speaker 1: in order that the prophecy might be fulfilled, which said
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Speaker 1: quote his words shall run very swiftly end quote. And
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Speaker 1: we see that quote the voice of the apostles of
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Speaker 1: Jesus has gone forth into all the earth, and their
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Speaker 1: words to the end of the world. End quote. On
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Speaker 1: this account are they who hear the Word powerfully proclaimed,
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Speaker 1: filled with power, which they manifest both by their dispositions
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Speaker 1: and their lives, and by struggling even to death on
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Speaker 1: behalf of the truth. While some are altogether empty, although
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Speaker 1: they profess to believe in God through Jesus, inasmuch as
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Speaker 1: not possessing any divine power, they have the appearance only
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Speaker 1: of being converted to the Word of God. And although
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Speaker 1: I have previously mentioned a Gospel declaration uttered by the Savior.
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Speaker 1: I shall nevertheless quote it again as appropriate to the
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Speaker 1: present occasion, as it confirms both the divine manifestation of
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Speaker 1: our saviours foreknowledge regarding the preaching of his Gospel, and
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Speaker 1: the power of his word, which, without the aid of teachers,
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Speaker 1: gains the mastery over those who yield their assent to
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Speaker 1: persuasion accompanied with divine power. And the words of Jesus
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Speaker 1: referred to are quote the harvest is plenteous, but the
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Speaker 1: laborers are few. Pray ye, therefore the Lord of the harvest,
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Speaker 1: that he will send forth labors into his harvest. End quote.
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Speaker 1: And since Celsus has termed the apostles of Jesus men
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Speaker 1: of infamous notoriety, saying that they were tax gatherers and
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Speaker 1: sailors and the vilest characters, we have to remark with
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Speaker 1: respect to this charge, that he seems, in order to
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Speaker 1: bring an accusation against Christianity, to believe the Gospel accounts
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Speaker 1: only where he pleases, and to express his disbelief of
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Speaker 1: them in order that he may not be forced to
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Speaker 1: admit the manifestations of divinity related in these same books.
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Speaker 1: Whereas one who sees the spirit of truth by which
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Speaker 1: the writers are influenced, ought from their narration of things
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Speaker 1: of inferior importance to believe also the account of divine things.
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Speaker 1: Now in the General Epistle of Barnabas, from which perhaps
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Speaker 1: Celsus took the statement that the apostles were notoriously wicked men,
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Speaker 1: it is recorded that quote Jesus selected his own apostles
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Speaker 1: as persons who are more guilty of sin than all
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Speaker 1: other evildoers end quote. And in the Gospel, according to Luke,
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Speaker 1: Peter says to Jesus, quote depart from me, o Lord,
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Speaker 1: for I am a sinful man. End quote. Moreover, Paul,
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Speaker 1: who himself also at a later time became an apostle
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Speaker 1: of Jesus, says in his epistle to Timothy, quote this
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Speaker 1: is a faithful saying that Jesus Christ came into the
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Speaker 1: world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief
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Speaker 1: end quote. And I do not know how Celsus should
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Speaker 1: have forgotten or not have thought of saying something about Paul,
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Speaker 1: the founder after Jesus of the churches that are in Christ.
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Speaker 1: He saw probably that anything he might say about that
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Speaker 1: apostle would require to be explained in consistency with the
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Speaker 1: fact that, after being a persecutor of the Church of
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Speaker 1: God and a bitter opponent of believers, who went so
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Speaker 1: far even as to deliver over the disciples of Jesus
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Speaker 1: to death, so great a change afterwards passed over him
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Speaker 1: that he preached the Gospel of Jesus from Jerusalem round
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Speaker 1: about Ellycrium, and was ambitious to carry the glad tidings
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Speaker 1: where he needed not to build upon another man's foundation,
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Speaker 1: but to places where the Gospel of God in Christ
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Speaker 1: had not been proclaimed at all. What absurdity, therefore is
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Speaker 1: there if Jesus, desiring to manifest to the human race
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Speaker 1: the power which he possessed to heal souls, should have
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Speaker 1: selected notorious and wicked men, and should have raised them
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Speaker 1: to such a degree of moral excellence that they became
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Speaker 1: a pattern of the purest virtue to all who were
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Speaker 1: converted by their instrumentality to the Gospel of Christ. But
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Speaker 1: if we were to reproach those who have been convert
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Speaker 1: with their former lives, than we would have occasion to
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Speaker 1: accuse Fato also even after he became a philosopher, since,
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Speaker 1: as the history relates, he was drawn away by Socrates
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Speaker 1: from a house of bad fame to the pursuits of philosophy. Nay,
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Speaker 1: even the licentious life of Pallemmo, the successor of Xenocrates,
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Speaker 1: will be a subject of reproach to philosophy, whereas even
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Speaker 1: in these instances we ought to regard it as a
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Speaker 1: ground of praise that reasoning was enabled by the persuasive
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Speaker 1: power of these men to convert from the practice of
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Speaker 1: such vices those who had been formally entangled by them. Now,
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Speaker 1: among the Greeks there was only one Fato, I know
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Speaker 1: not if there were a second and one Pallemmo, who
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Speaker 1: betook themselves to philosophy after a licentious and most wicked life.
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Speaker 1: While Jesus there were not only at the time we
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Speaker 1: speak of the twelve Disciples, but many more at all times, who,
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Speaker 1: becoming a band of temperate men, speak in the following
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Speaker 1: terms of their former lives. Quote. For we ourselves also
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Speaker 1: were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures,
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Speaker 1: living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
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Speaker 1: But after that, the kindness and love of God, our Savior,
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Speaker 1: towards man appeared by the washing of regeneration and renewing
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Speaker 1: of the Holy ghost, which he shed upon us richly
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Speaker 1: end quote, we became such as we are. For quote,
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Speaker 1: God send forth his word and healed them and delivered
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Speaker 1: them from their destructions end quote, as the prophet taught
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Speaker 1: in the Book of Psalms. And in addition to what
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Speaker 1: has been already said, I would add the following that Chrysippus,
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Speaker 1: in his Treatise on the Cure of the Passions and
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Speaker 1: his endeavors to restrain the passions of the human soul,
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Speaker 1: not pretending to determine what opinions are true ones, says that,
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Speaker 1: according to the principles of the different sects, are those
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Speaker 1: to be cured who have been brought under the dominion
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Speaker 1: of the passions and continues quote. And if pleasure be
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Speaker 1: an end, then by it must the passions be healed.
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Speaker 1: And if there be three kinds of chief blessings, still,
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Speaker 1: according to this doctrine, it is in the same way
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Speaker 1: that those are to be freed from their passions who
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Speaker 1: are under their dominion end quote. Whereas the assailants of
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Speaker 1: Christianity do not see in how many persons the passions
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Speaker 1: have been brought under restraint, and the flood of wickedness checked,
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Speaker 1: and savage manners softened by the means of the Gospel,
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Speaker 1: so that it well became those who are ever boasting
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Speaker 1: of their zeal for the public good, to make a
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Speaker 1: public acknowledgment of their thanks to that doctrine, which, by
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Speaker 1: a new method led men to abandon many vices, and
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Speaker 1: to bear their testimony at least to it that, even
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Speaker 1: though not the truth, it has at all events been
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Speaker 1: productive of benefit to the human race. And since Jesus,
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Speaker 1: in teaching his disciples not to be guilty of rashness,
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Speaker 1: gave them the precept quote, if they persecute you in
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Speaker 1: this city, flee ye into another, and if they persecute
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Speaker 1: you in the other, flee again into a third end quote,
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Speaker 1: to which teaching he added the example of a consistent life,
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Speaker 1: acting so as not to expose himself to danger rashly
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Speaker 1: or unseasonably, or without good grounds. From this, Celsus takes
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Speaker 1: occasion to bring a malicious and slanderous accusation the Jew,
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Speaker 1: whom he brings forward, saying to Jesus, quote, in company
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Speaker 1: with your disciples, you go and hide yourselves in different
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Speaker 1: places end quote. Now similar to what has thus been
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Speaker 1: made the ground of a slander's charge against Jesus and
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Speaker 1: his disciples. Do we say was the conduct recorded of Aristotle?
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Speaker 1: This philosopher, seeing that a court was about to be
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Speaker 1: summoned to try him on the ground of his being
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Speaker 1: guilty of impiety on account of certain of his philosophical tenets,
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Speaker 1: which the Athenians regarded as impious, withdrew from Athens and
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Speaker 1: fixed his school in Chalcis, defending his course of procedure
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Speaker 1: to his friends by saying, quote, let us depart from Athens,
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Speaker 1: that we may not give the Athenians a handle for
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Speaker 1: incuring guilt a second time, as formally in the case
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Speaker 1: of Socrates, and so prevent them from committing a second
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Speaker 1: act of impiety against philosophy end quote. He further says,
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Speaker 1: quote that Jesus went about with his disciples and obtained
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Speaker 1: his livelihood in a disgraceful and importunent manner end quote.
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Speaker 1: Let him show wherein lay the disgraceful and importunent element
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Speaker 1: in their manner of subsidence. For it is related in
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Speaker 1: the Gospels that there were certain women who had been
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Speaker 1: healed of their diseases, among whom also was Susannah, who
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Speaker 1: from their own possessions afforded disciples the means of support.
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Speaker 1: And who is there among philosophers that, when devoting himself
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Speaker 1: to the service of his acquaintances, is not in the
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Speaker 1: habit of receiving from them what is needful for his wants?
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Speaker 1: Or is it only in them that such acts are
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Speaker 1: proper and becoming. But when the disciples of Jesus do
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Speaker 1: the same, they are accused by Celsus of obtaining their
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Speaker 1: livelihood by disgraceful importunity. And in addition to the above,
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Speaker 1: this jew of Celsus afterwards addresses Jesus, quote what need Moreover,
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Speaker 1: was there that you, while still an infant, should be
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Speaker 1: conveyed into Egypt? Was it to escape being murdered? But
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Speaker 1: then it was not likely that a god should be
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Speaker 1: afraid of death? And yet an angel came down from heaven,
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Speaker 1: commanding you and your friends to flee lest ye should
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Speaker 1: be captured and put to death. And was not the
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Speaker 1: great God, who had already sent two angels on your
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Speaker 1: account able to keep you his only son there in safety? End? Quote.
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Speaker 1: From these words, Celsus seems to think that there was
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Speaker 1: no element of divinity in the human body and soul
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Speaker 1: of Jesus, but that his body was not even such
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Speaker 1: as is described in the fables of Homer, and with
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Speaker 1: a taunt also at the blood of Jesus which was
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Speaker 1: shed upon the cross, he adds that it was not
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Speaker 1: quote icker such as flows in the veins of the
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Speaker 1: blessed God's end quote. We now believing Jesus himself when
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Speaker 1: he says, respecting his divinity, quote I'm the Way and
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Speaker 1: the Truth and the life end quote, and employs other
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Speaker 1: terms of similar import And when he says, respecting his
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Speaker 1: being clothed with a human body quote and now ye
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Speaker 1: seek to kill me a man that hath told you
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Speaker 1: the truth end quote, conclude that he was a kind
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Speaker 1: of compound being. And so it became him who was
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Speaker 1: making provision for sojourning in the world as a human being,
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Speaker 1: not to expose himself unseasonably to the danger of death.
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Speaker 1: And in like manner, it was necessary that he should
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Speaker 1: be taken away by his parents, acting under the instructions
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Speaker 1: of an angel from heaven who communicated to them the
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Speaker 1: Divine Will, saying on the first occasion quote Joseph of David,
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Speaker 1: fear not to take unto thee marry thy wife, for
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Speaker 1: that which is conceived in her is of the Holy
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Speaker 1: ghost end quote. And on the second quote, arise and
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Speaker 1: take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt,
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Speaker 1: and be thou there until I bring thee word, for
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Speaker 1: Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. End quote.
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Speaker 1: Now what is recorded in these words appears to me
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Speaker 1: to be not at all marvelous, For in either passage
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Speaker 1: of scripture it is stated that it was in a
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Speaker 1: dream that the angel spoke these words, and that in
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Speaker 1: a dream certain persons may have certain things pointed out
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Speaker 1: to them to do. Is an event of frequent occurrence
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Speaker 1: to many individuals, the impression on the mind being produced
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Speaker 1: either by an angel or by some other thing. Where then,
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Speaker 1: is the absurdity in believing that he who had once
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Speaker 1: become incarnate should be led also by human guidance to
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Speaker 1: keep out of the way of dangers, not indeed from
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Speaker 1: any impossibility that it should be otherwise, but from the
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Speaker 1: moral fitness that ways and means should be made used
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Speaker 1: to ensure the safety of Jesus. And it was certainly
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Speaker 1: better that the child Jesus should escape the snare of
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Speaker 1: Herod and should reside with his parents in Egypt until
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Speaker 1: the death of the conspirator. Then the divine providence should
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Speaker 1: hinder the free will of Herod in his wish to
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Speaker 1: put the child to death, or that the fable poetic
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Speaker 1: helmet of Hades should have been employed, or anything of
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Speaker 1: a similar kind done with respect to Jesus, Or that
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Speaker 1: they who came to destroy him should have been smitten
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Speaker 1: with blindness like the people of Sodom, for the sending
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Speaker 1: of help to him in a very miraculous and unnecessarily
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Speaker 1: public manner would not have been of any service to
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Speaker 1: him who wished to show that, as a man to
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Speaker 1: whom witness was borne by God, he possessed within that
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Speaker 1: form which was seen by the eyes of men, some
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Speaker 1: higher element of divinity, that which was properly the son
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Speaker 1: of God, God, the Word, the power of God, and
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Speaker 1: the wisdom of God, he who is called Christ. But
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Speaker 1: this is not a suitable occasion for discussing the composite
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Speaker 1: nature of the incarnate Jesus, the investigation into such a
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Speaker 1: subject being for believers, so to speak, a sort of
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Speaker 1: private question. After the above, this jew of Celsus, as
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Speaker 1: if he were a Greek who loved learning and were
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Speaker 1: well instructed in Greek literature, continues quote the Old mythological
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Speaker 1: fables which attributed a divine origin to Prisaeus and Amphion,
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Speaker 1: and Aacus and Minos were not believed by us. Nevertheless,
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Speaker 1: that they might not appear unworthy of credit, they represented
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Speaker 1: the deeds of those personages as great and wonderful, and
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Speaker 1: truly beyond the power of man. But what hast thou
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Speaker 1: done that is noble or wonderful, either indeed or in word.
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Speaker 1: Thou hast made no manifestation to us, although they challenged
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Speaker 1: you in the temple to exhibit some unmistakable sign that
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Speaker 1: you were the son of God. And in reply to
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Speaker 1: which we have to say, let the Greeks show to us,
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Speaker 1: among those who have been enumerated, any one whose deeds
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Speaker 1: have been marked by a utility and splendor extending to
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Speaker 1: after generations, and which have been so great as to
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Speaker 1: produce a belief in the fables which represented them as
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Speaker 1: of divine descent. But these Greeks can show us nothing
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Speaker 1: regarding those men of whom they speak, which is even
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Speaker 1: inferior by a great degree to what Jesus did, unless
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Speaker 1: they take us back to their fables and histories, wishing
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Speaker 1: us to believe them without any reasonable grounds, and to
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Speaker 1: discredit the Gospel accounts even after the clearest evidence. For
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Speaker 1: we assert that the whole habitable world contains evidence of
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Speaker 1: the works of Jesus in the existence of those churches
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Speaker 1: of God which have been founded through Him by those
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Speaker 1: who have been converted from the practice of innumerable sins.
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Speaker 1: And the name of Jesus can still remove distracts from
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Speaker 1: the minds of men, and expel demons, and also take
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Speaker 1: away diseases, and produce a marvelous meekness of spirit and
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Speaker 1: complete change of character, and a humanity and goodness and
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Speaker 1: gentleness in those individuals who do not feign themselves to
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Speaker 1: be Christians for the sake of subsistence or the supply
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Speaker 1: of any mortal wants, but who have honestly accepted the
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Speaker 1: doctrine concerning God in Christ and the judgment to come.
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Speaker 1: But after this Celsus having a suspicion that the great
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Speaker 1: works performed by Jesus, of which we have named a
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Speaker 1: few out of a great number, would be brought forward
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Speaker 1: to view effects to grant that those statements may be
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Speaker 1: true which are made regarding His cures, or his resurrection,
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Speaker 1: or the feeding of a multitude with a few loaves
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Speaker 1: from which many fragments remained over, or those other stories
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Speaker 1: which Celsus thinks the disciples have recorded as of a
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Speaker 1: marvelous nature. And he adds, quote, well, let us believe
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Speaker 1: that these were actually wrought by you end quote. But
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Speaker 1: then he immediately compares them to the tricks of jugglers
23:05
Speaker 1: who profess to do more wonderful things, and to the
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Speaker 1: feats performed by those who have been taught by Egyptians, who,
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Speaker 1: in the middle of the market place, in return for
23:14
Speaker 1: a few oboles, will impart the knowledge of their most
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Speaker 1: venerated arts, and will expel demons from men, and dispel diseases,
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Speaker 1: and invoke the souls of heroes, and exhibit expensive banquets
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Speaker 1: and tables and dishes and dainties, having no real existence,
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Speaker 1: and who will put in motion as if alive. We
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Speaker 1: are not really living animals, but which have only the
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Speaker 1: appearance of life. And he asks, quote, since then these
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Speaker 1: persons can perform such feats, shall we, of necessity conclude
23:46
Speaker 1: that they are sons of God? Or must we admit
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Speaker 1: that they are the proceedings of wicked men under the
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Speaker 1: influence of an evil spirit? End quote. You see that
23:56
Speaker 1: by these expressions he allows as it were the existence
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Speaker 1: of magic, I do not know, however, if he is
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Speaker 1: the same who wrote several books against it, but as
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Speaker 1: it helped his purpose. He compares the miracles related of
24:11
Speaker 1: Jesus to the results produced by magic, There would indeed
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Speaker 1: be a resemblance between them, if Jesus, like the dealers
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Speaker 1: in magical arts, had performed his works only for show.
24:23
Speaker 1: But now there is not a single juggler who, by
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Speaker 1: means of his proceedings, invites his spectators to reform their manners,
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Speaker 1: or trains those to the fear of God who are
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Speaker 1: amazed at what they see, nor who tries to persuade
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Speaker 1: them so to live as men who are to be
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Speaker 1: justified by God. And jugglers do none of these things,
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Speaker 1: because they have neither the power, nor the will, nor
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Speaker 1: any desire to busy themselves about the reformation of men,
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Speaker 1: inasmuch as their own lives are full of the grossest
24:57
Speaker 1: and most notorious sins. But how should not he who,
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Speaker 1: by the miracles which he did, induced those who beheld
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Speaker 1: the excellent results to undertake the reformation of their characters,
25:10
Speaker 1: manifest himself not only to his genuine disciples, but also
25:14
Speaker 1: to others as a pattern of most virtuous life, in
25:18
Speaker 1: order that his disciples might devote themselves to the work
25:21
Speaker 1: of instructing men in the will of God, and that
25:23
Speaker 1: the others, after being more fully instructed by His word
25:27
Speaker 1: and character than by His miracles, as to how they
25:30
Speaker 1: were to direct their lives, might in all their conduct
25:34
Speaker 1: have a constant reference to the good pleasure of the
25:36
Speaker 1: Universal God. And if such were the life of Jesus,
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Speaker 1: how could any one with reason compare him with the
25:44
Speaker 1: sect of impostors, and not, on the contrary, believe according
25:49
Speaker 1: to the promise that he was God who appeared in
25:52
Speaker 1: human form to do good to our race. After this, Celsus,
25:57
Speaker 1: confusing together the Christian doctrine and the opinions of some
26:01
Speaker 1: heretical sect and bringing them forward as charges that were
26:05
Speaker 1: applicable to all who believe in the Divine Word, says, quote,
26:09
Speaker 1: such a body as yours could not have belonged to
26:12
Speaker 1: God end quote. Now in answer to this, we have
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Speaker 1: to say that Jesus, on entering into the world, assumed
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Speaker 1: as one born of a woman, a human body, and
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Speaker 1: one which was capable of suffering a natural death, for
26:26
Speaker 1: which reason, in addition to others, we say that he
26:29
Speaker 1: was also a great wrestler, having, on account of his
26:32
Speaker 1: human body, been tempted in all respects like other men,
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Speaker 1: but no longer as men with sin as a consequence,
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Speaker 1: but being altogether without sin. For it is distinctly clear
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Speaker 1: to us that quote he did no sin, neither was
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Speaker 1: guile found in his mouth, and as one who knew
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Speaker 1: no sin end quote, God delivered him up as pure
26:54
Speaker 1: for all who had sin. Then, Celsus says, quote, the
26:59
Speaker 1: body of God would not have been so generated as you, oh,
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Speaker 1: Jesus were, end quote. He saw besides that, if, as
27:07
Speaker 1: it is written, had been born, his body somehow might
27:11
Speaker 1: be even more divine than that of the multitude, and
27:14
Speaker 1: in a certain sense a body of God. But he
27:17
Speaker 1: disbelieves the accounts of his conception by the Holy Ghost,
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Speaker 1: and believes that he was begotten by one panthera who
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Speaker 1: corrupted the virgin quote because a god's body would not
27:28
Speaker 1: have been so generated as you were end quote. But
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Speaker 1: we have spoken on these matters at greater length in
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Speaker 1: the preceding pages. He asserts moreover that quote, the body
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Speaker 1: of a God is not nourished with such food as
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Speaker 1: was that of Jesus end quote. Since he is able
27:46
Speaker 1: to prove from the gospel narratives both that he was
27:48
Speaker 1: partook of food and food of a particular kind. Well
27:53
Speaker 1: be it so let him assert that he ate the
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Speaker 1: Passover with his disciples, when he not only used the
27:58
Speaker 1: words quote with desire, I have desired to eat this
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Speaker 1: passover with you, end quote, but also actually partook of
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Speaker 1: the same. And let him say also that he experienced
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Speaker 1: the sensation of thirst beside the well of Jacob, and
28:13
Speaker 1: drank of the water of the well. In what respect
28:16
Speaker 1: did these facts militate against what we have said respecting
28:20
Speaker 1: the nature of his body? Moreover, it appears indubitable that
28:25
Speaker 1: after his resurrection he ate a piece of fish, for
28:29
Speaker 1: according to our view, he assumed a true body, as
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Speaker 1: one born of a woman. But objects Celsus quote the
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Speaker 1: body of a god does not make use of such
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Speaker 1: a voice as that of Jesus, nor employ such a
28:44
Speaker 1: method of persuasion as he end quote. These are indeed
28:48
Speaker 1: trifling and altogether contemptible objections. For our reply to him
28:53
Speaker 1: will be that he who is believed among the Greeks
28:56
Speaker 1: to be a god viz. The Pythian and did it
29:00
Speaker 1: mean Apollo makes use of such a voice for his
29:03
Speaker 1: Pithian priestess at Delphi and for his prophetess at Melitas.
29:09
Speaker 1: And yet neither the Pithian nor Didamine is charged by
29:12
Speaker 1: the Greeks with not being a god nor any other
29:16
Speaker 1: Gretchen deity whose worship is established in one place. And
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Speaker 1: it was far better, surely, that a God should employ
29:23
Speaker 1: a voice which, on account of its being uttered with power,
29:27
Speaker 1: should produce an indescribable sort of persuasion in the minds
29:30
Speaker 1: of the hearers. Continuing to pour abuse upon Jesus as
29:35
Speaker 1: one who, on account of his impiety and wicked opinions,
29:39
Speaker 1: was so to speak, hated by God, he asserts that
29:43
Speaker 1: quote these tenets of his were those of a wicked
29:47
Speaker 1: and god hated sorcerer end quote. And yet if the
29:51
Speaker 1: name and the thing be properly examined, it will be
29:54
Speaker 1: found in impossibility that man should be hated by God,
29:57
Speaker 1: seeing that God loves all existing things, and quote hateth
30:01
Speaker 1: nothing of what he has made end quote, For he
30:04
Speaker 1: created nothing in a spirit of hatred. And if certain
30:07
Speaker 1: expressions and the prophets convey such an impression, they are
30:11
Speaker 1: to be interpreted in accordance with the general principle by
30:14
Speaker 1: which scripture employs such language with regard to God, as
30:18
Speaker 1: if he were subject to human affections. But what reply
30:22
Speaker 1: needs to be made to him, who, while professing to
30:25
Speaker 1: bring forward credible statements, thinks himself bound to make use
30:28
Speaker 1: of calumnies and slanders against Jesus, as if he were
30:32
Speaker 1: a wicked sorcerer. Such is not the procedure of one
30:36
Speaker 1: who seeks to make good his case, but of one
30:39
Speaker 1: who is in an ignorant and unphilosophic state of mind.
30:43
Speaker 1: Inasmuch as the proper course is to state the case
30:46
Speaker 1: and candidly to investigate it, and, according to the best
30:50
Speaker 1: of his ability, to bring forward what occurs to him
30:54
Speaker 1: with regard to it. But as the Jew of Celsus has,
30:58
Speaker 1: with the above remarks, brought to a close his charges
31:01
Speaker 1: against Jesus, so we also shall here bring to a
31:05
Speaker 1: termination the contents of our first book in reply to him.
31:10
Speaker 1: And if God bestow the gift of that truth which
31:13
Speaker 1: destroys all falsehood, agreeably to the words of the prayer
31:18
Speaker 1: quote cut them off in thy truth end quote, we
31:21
Speaker 1: shall begin in what follows the consideration of a second
31:25
Speaker 1: appearance of the Jew, in which he is represented by
31:29
Speaker 1: Celsus as addressing those who have become converts to Jesus.
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Speaker 1: End of Against Celsus, Book One by Origin, translated by
31:41
Speaker 1: Frederick Crombie, read by David Ronald