1 χοῦ καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς δαίμονος, λαχόντος γέρας λοιβῆς τε κνίσσης Tf.
3 ὡς ob κοινωνήσαντος τῇ οἰνθρωπίνη Φύσει, οὐδ ἀναλωβόντος τὴν ἐν ἀνθρώξοις σάρκα ἐπιθυμοῦσαν κατὰ τοῦ πνεύματος.
110 ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. [Boox mr.
its divine elements, to the salvation of believers! when they see that from Him there began the union of the divine with the human nature, in order that the human, by communion with the divine, might rise to be divine, not in Jesus alone, but in all those who not only believe, but? enter upon the life which Jesus taught, and which elevates to friendship with God and communion with Him every one who lives according to the precepts of Jesus.
CHAPTER XXIX.
CHAPTER XXIX.
According to Celsus, then, Apollo wished the Metaponfines to treat Aristeas as a god. But as the Metapontines con- sidered the evidence in favour of Aristeas being a man—and probably not a virtuous one—to be stronger than the declara- tion of the oracle to the effect that he was a god or worthy of divine honours, they for that reason would not obey Apollo, and consequently no one regarded Aristeas as a god. But with respect to Jesus we would say that, as it was of advantage to the human race to accept him as the Son of God—God come in a human soul and body—and as this did not seem to be advantageous to the gluttonous appetites ® of the demons which love bodies, and to those who deem them to be gods on that account, the demons that are on earth (which are supposed to be gods by those who are not instructed in the nature of demons), and also their worshippers, were desirous to prevent the spread of the doctrine of Jesus; for they saw that the libations and odours in which they greedily delighted were being swept away by the prevalence of the instructions of Jesus. But the God who sent Jesus dissipated all the con- spiracies of the demons, and made the gospel of Jesus to prevail throughout the whole world for the conversion and reformation of men, and caused churches to be everywhere established in opposition to those of superstitious and licentious and wicked men; for such is the character of the multitudes l'AAAd ydp κἀὶ τὴν καταβᾶσαν εἰς ἀνθρωπίνην Quei» xal slg ἀνθρωπίνας περιστάσεις δύνοιροιν, καὶ ἀναλαβοῦσαν ψυχὴν καὶ σῶμα οἰνθρώπινον, ἑώρων ix τοῦ πιστεύεσθαι peta τῶν θειοτέρων συμιβαλλομένην slg σωτηρίαν roig πιστεύουσιν.
3. wera τοῦ πιστεύειν. Others read, μετὼ τὸ σιστεύειν.
8 λιχνείᾳ, Boox m1. ] ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. 111 who constitute the citizens! in the assemblies of the various . cities. Whereas the churches of God which are instructed by Christ, when carefully contrasted with the assemblies of the districts in which they are situated, are as beacons’ in the world; for who would not admit that even the inferior mem- bers of the church, and those who in comparison with the better are less worthy, are nevertheless more excellent than many of those who belong to the assemblies in the different districts?
CHAPTER XXX.
CHAPTER XXX.
For the church? of God, e.g. which is at Athens, is a meek and stable body, as being one which desires to please God, who is over all things; whereas the assembly of the Athenians is given to sedition, and is not at all to be compared to the church of God in that city. And you may say the same thing of the church of God at Corinth, and of the assembly of the Corin- thian people; and also of the church of God at Alexandria, and of the assembly of the people of Alexandria. And if he who hears this be a candid man, and one who investigates things with a desire to ascertain the truth, he will be filled with admiration of Him who not only conceived the design, but also was able to secure in all places the establishment of churches of God alongside? of the assemblies of the people in each city. In like manner, also, in comparing the council’ of the church of God with the council in any city, you would find that certain councillors’ of the church are worthy to rule in the city of God, if there be any such city in the whole world;° whereas the councillors in all other places exhibit in their characters no quality worthy of the conventional’ superiority which they appear to enjoy over their fellow-citizens. And so, too, you must compare the ruler of the church in each city with the 1 τριαῦτα yep τὸ πανταχοῦ πολιτευόμενα ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις τῶν πόλεων «λήθη.
2 φωστῆρες. 8 ἐκχλησία. 4 ἐκχλησία.
δ χαροικούσας. 6 Δουλὴν. 7 βουλευταί.
8 εὕροις ἂν τίνες μὲν τῆς ἐκκλησίας βουλευταὶ ἄξιοί εἰσιν, εἴ τίς ἐστιν ἐν τῷ «ἀντι πόλις τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐν ἐκεινὴ πολιτεύεσθαι. Boherellus conjectures εὕροις ἂν ὅτι τινὲς μὲν, κιτ.λ.
9 τῆς ἐκ κατατάξεως ὑπεροχῆς.
112 ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. [Booz mt.
ruler of the people of the city, in order to observe that even amongst those councillors and rulers of the church of God who come very far short of their duty, and who lead more indolent lives than others who are more energetic, it is nevertheless possible to discover a general superiority in what relates to the progress of virtue over the characters of the councillors and rulers in the various cities.’
CHAPTER XXXI.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Now if these things be so, why should it not be consistent with reason to hold with regard to Jesus, who was able to effect results so great, that there dwelt in Him no ordinary divinity? while this was not the case either with the Procon- | nesian Áristeas (although Apollo would have him regarded as a god), or with the other individuals enumerated by Celsus when he says, * No one regards Abaris the Hyperborean as a god, who was possessed of such power as to be borne along like an arrow from a bow."? For with what object did the deity who bestowed upon this Hyperborean Abaris the power of being carried along like an arrow, confer upon him such a gift? Was it that the human race might be benefited thereby, or did he himself obtain any advantage from the possession of such a power?—always supposing it to be conceded that these statements are not wholly inventions, but that the thing actually happened through the co-operation of some demon. But if it be recorded that my Jesus was received up into glory,* I perceive the divine arrangement’ in such an act, viz. because God, who brought this to pass, commends in this way the Teacher to those who witnessed it, in order that as men who are contending not for human doctrine, but for divine teaching, l ὅτι καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν σφόδρα d mworwyyavopisu» βουλευτῶν καὶ ἀρχόντων ἐκκλησία; Θεοῦ, καὶ ῥαθυμότερον Kapa τοὺς εὐτονωτέρως βιοῦντας, οὐδὲν ἧττόν ἐστιν εὑρεῖν ὡς ἐπίπαν ὑπεροχὴν, τὴν ἐν τῇ ἐπὶ τὰς ὠἐρετὸς προχοκὴ, Taps τὰ ἤθη τῶν ἐν ταῖς πόλεσι βουλευτῶν καὶ ἀρχόντων. Boherellus conjectures padupcorepay.
3 ὥστε ὀϊστῷ βέλει συμφέρεσθαι. Spencer and Bohereau would delete βέλει as ἃ gloss.
5 Guietus would insert 4 before ive τὶ ὠφεληθῇ. This emendation is adopted in the translation.
4 Cf. 1 Tim. iii. 16. 5 χὴν οἰκονομείαιν.
Book m1. ] ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. 113 they may devote themselves as far as possible to the God who is over all, and may do all things in order to please Him, as those who are to receive in the divine judgment the reward of the good or evil which they have wrought in this life.
CHAPTER XXXII.
But as Celsus next mentions the case of the Clazomenian, subjoining to the story about him this remark, “ Do they not report that his soul frequently quitted his body, and flitted about in an incorporeal form? and yet men did not regard him as a god,” we have to answer that probably certain wicked demons contrived that such statements should be committed to writing (for I do not believe that they contrived that such a thing should actually take place), in order that the predictions regarding Jesus, and the discourses uttered by Him, might either be evil spoken of, as inventions like these, or might excite no surprise, as not being more remarkable than other occurrences. But my Jesus said regarding His own soul (which was separated from the body, not by virtue of any human necessity, but by the miraculous power which was given Him also for this purpose): * No one taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”* For as He had power to lay it down, He laid it down when He said, * Father, why hast Thou forsaken me? And when He had cried with a loud voice, He gave up the ghost,"* anticipating the public executioners of the crucified, who break the legs of the victims, and who do so in order that their punishment may not be further prolonged. And He “took His life," when He manifested Himself to His disciples, having in their presence foretold to the unbelieving Jews, * Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again,"? and * He spake this of the temple of His body;" the prophets, moreover, having predicted such a result in many other passages of their writings, and in this, “ My flesh also shall rest in hope: for Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer thine holy One to see corruption."* 1 Cf. John x. 18.? Of. Matt. xxvii. 46-50. — ORIG.—YOL. II. H 114 ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. [Book 111.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Celsus, however, shows that he has read a good many Grecian histories, when he quotes further what is told of Cleo- medes of Astypalea, * who,” he relates, “entered into an ark, and although shut up within it, was not found therein, but through some arrangement of the divinity, flew out, when certain persons had cut open the ark in order to apprehend him." Now this story, if an invention, as it appears to be, cannot be compared with what is related of Jesus, since in the lives of such men there is found no indication of their possessing the divinity which is ascribed to them; whereas the divinity of Jesus is established both by the existence of the churches of the saved,’ and by the prophecies uttered con- cerning Him, and by the cures wrought in His name, and by the wisdom and knowledge which are in Him, and the deeper truths which are discovered by those who know how to ascend from a simple faith, and to investigate the meaning which lies in the divine Scriptures, agreeably to the injunctions of Jesus, who said, “Search the Scriptures,"? and to the wish of Paul, who taught that “we ought to know how to answer every man;"? nay, also of him who said, * Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh of you a reason of the faith * that is in you." If he wishes to have it conceded, how- ever, that it is not a fiction, let him show with what object this supernatural power made him, through some arrangement of the divinity, flee from the ark. For if he will adduce any reason worthy of consideration, and point out any purpose worthy of God in conferring such a power on Cleomedes, we will decide on the answer which we ought to give; but if he fail to say anything convincing on the point, clearly because no reason can be discovered, then we shall either speak slightingly of the story to those who have not accepted it, and charge it with being false, or we shall say that some demoniac power, casting a glamour over the eyes, produced, in the case of the Astypalean, a result like that which is produced by the per- 5 Of. Col. iv. 6. * χίστεως.
Boox m1. ] ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. 115 formers of juggling tricks,’ while Celsus thinks that with respect to him he has spoken like an oracle, when he said that “by some divine arrangement he flew away from the ark.”
CHAPTER XXXIV.
I am, however, of opinion that these individuals are the only instances with which Celsus was acquainted. And yet, that he might appear voluntarily to pass by other similar cases, he says, € And one might name many others of the same kind.” Let it be granted, then, that many such persons have existed who conferred no benefit upon the human race: what would each one of their acts be found to amount to in comparison with the work of Jesus, and the miracles related of Him, of which we have already spoken at considerable length? He next imagines that, “in worshipping him who,” as he says, “was taken prisoner and put to death, we are acting like the Gets who worship Zamolxis, and the Cilicians who worship Mopsus, and the Acarnanians who pay divine honours to Amphilochus, and like the Thebans who do the same to Amphiaraus, and the Lebadians to Trophonius.” Now in these instances we shall prove that he has compared us to the foregoing without good grounds. For these different tribes erected temples and statues to those individuals above enumerated, whereas we have re- frained from offering to the divinity honour by any such means (seeing they are adapted rather to demons, which are somehow fixed in & certain place which they prefer to any other, or which take up their dwelling, as it were, after being removed [from one place to another] by certain rites and incantations), and are lost in reverential wonder at Jesus, who has recalled our minds from all sensible things, as being not only cor- ruptible, but destined to corruption, and elevated them to honour the God who is over all with prayers and a righteous life, which we offer to Him as being intermediate between the 1 ἧτοι διαβαλοῦμεν τοῖς αὑτὴν μὴ παραδεξαμένοις, καὶ ἐγκαιλέσομεν τῇ ἱστορίᾳ ὡς obx ἐἰληθεῖ" § δαιμόνιόν τι φήσομεν παραπλήσιον τοῖς ἐπιδεικνυμένοις γόησιν ἐπατῇ ὀφθαλμῶν πεποιηχέναι καὶ περὶ τὸν ᾿Αστυπαλαιέα. Spencer in his edition includes μὴ in brackets, and renders, ** Aut eos incusabimus, qui istam virtutem admiserint.”
116 ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. [Book mi.
nature of the uncreated and that of all created things,’ and who bestows upon us the benefits which come from the Father, and who as High Priest conveys our prayers to the supreme God.
CHAPTER XXXV.
But I should like, in answer to him who for some unknown reason advances such statements as the above, to make in a conversational way? some such remarks as the following, which seem not inappropriate to him. Are then those persons whom you have mentioned nonentities, and is there no power in Lebadea connected with Trophonius, nor in Thebes with the temple of Amphiaraus, nor in Acarnania with Amphilochus, nor in Cilicia with Mopsus? Or is there in such persons some being, either a demon, or a hero, or even a god, working works which are beyond the reach of man? For if he answer that there is nothing either demoniacal or divine about these indi- viduals more than others, then let him at once make known his own opinion, as being that of an Epicurean, and of one who does not hold the same views with the Greeks, and who neither recognises demons nor worships gods as do the Greeks; and let it be shown that it was to no purpose that he adduced the Instances previously enumerated (as if he believed them to be true), together with those which he adds in the following pages. But if he will assert that the persons spoken of are either demons, or heroes, or even gods, let him notice that he will establish by what he has admitted a result which he does not desire, viz. that Jesus also was some such being; for which reason, too, he was able to demonstrate to not a few that He had come down from God to visit the human race. And if he once admit this, see whether he will not be forced to confess that He is mightier than those individuals with whom he classed Him, seeing none of the latter forbids the offering of honour 1 οἷς προσάγομεν αὐτῷ, ὡς διὼ μεταξὺ ὄντος τῆς τοῦ ἀγενήτου καὶ τῆς τῶν γενητῶν πάντων Φύσεως. “ Hoeschel (itemque Spencerus ad marg.) sus- picabatur legendum: ὡς δὴ μεταξὺ ὄντος. Male. Nihil mutari necesse est. Agitur quippe de precibus, quas offerimus Deo ‘ per eum, qui veluti medius est inter increatam naturam et creatam.! "—RU£us, 3 ἀδολεσχῆσαι.
Book 111. } ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. 117 to the others; while He, having confidence in Himself, because He is more powerful than all those others, forbids them to be received as divine! because they are wicked demons, who have taken possession of places on earth, through inability to rise to the purer and diviner region, whither the grossnesses of earth and its countless evils cannot reach.
CHAPTEB XXXVI.
But as he next introduces the case of the favourite of Adrian (I refer to the accounts regarding the youth Antinous, and the honours paid him by the inhabitants of the city of Antinous in Egypt), and imagines that the honour paid to him falls little short of that which we render to Jesus, let us show in what a spirit of hostility this statement is made. For what is there in common between a life lived among the favourites of Adrian, by one who did not abstain even from unnatural lusts, and that of the venerable Jesus, against whom even they who brought countless other charges, and who told so many falsehoods, were not able to allege that He manifested, even in the slightest degree, any tendency to what was licentious?? Nay, further, if one were to investigate, in a spirit of truth and impartiality, the stories relating to Antinous, he would find that it was due to the magical arts and rites of the Egyptians that there was even the appearance of his performing anything [marvellous] in the city which bears his name, and that too only after his decease,—an effect which is said to have been produced in other temples by the Egyptians, and those who are skilled in the arts which they practise. For they set up in certain places demons claiming prophetic or healing power, and which frequently torture those who seem to have committed any mistake about órdinary kinds of food, or about touching the dead body of a man, that they may have the appearance of alarming the uneducated multitude. Of this nature is the being that is con- sidered to be a god in Antinoopolis in Egypt, whose [reputed] virtues are the lying inventions of some who live by the gain derived therefrom;? while others, deceived by the demon placed rdg rovray ἐποδοχὲς.
3 ὡς κἂν τὸ τυχὸν ἀκολασίας κῶν ἐπ᾽ ὀλιγὸν γευσαμένου; 3 οὗ οἱρετοὺς οἱ μέν τινες κυβευτικώτερον ζῶντες καταψεύδονται.
18 ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. [Boox m.
there, and others again convicted by a weak conscience, actually think that they are paying a divine penalty inflicted by An- tinous. Of such a nature also are the mysteries which they perform, and the seeming predictions which they utter. Far different from such are those of Jesus.. For it was no company of sorcerers, paying court to a king or ruler at his bidding, who seemed to have made him a god;. but the Architect of the universe Himself, in keeping with the marvellously persuasive power of His words,’ commended Him as worthy of honour, not only to those men who were well disposed, but to demons also, and other unseen powers, which even at the present time show that they either fear the name of Jesus as that of a being of superior power, or reverentially accept Him as their legal ruler.’ For if the commendation had not been given Him by God, the demons would not have withdrawn from those whom they had assailed, in obedience to the mere mention of His name.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
The Egyptians, then, having been taught to worship An- tinous, will,-if you compare him with Apollo or Zeus, endure such a comparison, Antinous being magnified in their estima- tion through being classed with these deities; for Celsus is clearly convicted of falsehood when he says, “that they will not endure'his being compared with Apollo or Zeus.” Whereas Christians (who have learned that their eternal life consists in knowing the only true God, who is over all, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent; and who have learned also that all the gods of the heathen are greedy demons, which flit around sacrifices and blood, and other sacrificial accompaniments,’ in order to deceive those who have not taken refuge with the God who is over all, but that the divine and holy angels of God are of a different nature and will‘ from all the demons on earth, and that they are known to those exceedingly few persons who have carefully and intelligently investigated these matters) will not endure a comparison to be made between them and Apollo or Zeus, or any being worshipped with odours and blood and 1 ἀκολούθως τῇ ἐν τῷ λέγειν τεραστίως πιστικῇ δυνάμει. 3 ὡς xarà νόμους αὐτῶν ἄρχοντος. 8 ἐποφορὰ;. 4 «ροκιρέσεως.
Boox 11. ] ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. 119 sacrifices; some of them, so acting from their extreme simpli- city, not being able to give a reason for their conduct, but sincerely observing the precepts which they have received; others, again, for reasons not to be lightly regarded, nay, even of a profound description, and (as a Greek would say) drawn from the inner nature of things; and amongst the latter of these God is a frequent subject of conversation, and those who are honoured by God, through His only-begotten Word, with participation in His divinity, and therefore also in His name. They speak much, too, both regarding the angels of God and those who are opposed to the truth, but have been deceived; and who, in consequence of being deceived, call them gods or angels of God, or good demons, or heroes who have become such by the transference into them of a good human soul.? And such Christians will also show, that as in philosophy there are many who appear to be in possession of the truth, who have yet either deceived themselves by plausible arguments, or by rashly - assenting to what was brought forward and discovered by others; so also, among those souls which exist apart from bodies, both angels and demons, there are some which have been induced by plausible reasons to declare themselves gods. And because it was impossible that the reasons of such things could be discovered by men with perfect exactness, it was deemed safe that no mortal should entrust himself to any being as to God, with the exception of Jesus Christ, who is, as it were, the Ruler over all things, and who both beheld these weighty secrets, and made them known to a few.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
The belief, then, in Antinous, or any other such person, whether among the Egyptians or the Greeks, is, so to speak, unfortunate; while the belief in Jesus would seem to be either a fortunate one, or the result of thorough investigation, having the appearance of the former to the multitude, and of the latter to exceedingly few. And when I speak of a certain belief being, as the multitude would call it, unfortunate, I in 1 ἰσωτερικῶὼν καὶ ἑποπτικῶν.
3 ἢ ἥρωας ἐκ μεταβολῆς συστάντας ἀγαθὴ; ἐνθρωπίνης Ψυχῆς. δ χερὶ δὲ τοῦ ᾿[ησοῦ ἤτοι δόξασοι &y εἶναι εὐτυχὴς, ἢ καὶ βιβασανισμένως 120 ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. [Book rr.
such a case refer the cause to God, who knows the reasons of the various fates allotted to each one who enters human life. The Greeks, moreover, will admit that even amongst those who are considered to be most largely endowed with wisdom, good fortune has had much to do, as in the choice of teachers of one kind rather than another, and in meeting with a better class of instructors (there being teachers who taught the most opposite doctrines), and in being brought up in better circum- stances; for the bringing up of many has been amid surround- ings of such a kind, that they were prevented from ever receiving any idea of better things, but constantly passed their life, from their earliest youth, either as the favourites of licen- tious men or of tyrants, or in some other wretched condition which forbade the soul to look upwards. And the causes of these varied fortunes, according to all probability, are to be found in the reasons of providence, though it is not easy for men to ascertain these; but I have said what I have done by way of digression from the main body of my subject, on account of the proverb, that “such is the power of faith, because it seizes that which first presents itself."!' For it was necessary, owing to the different methods of education, to speak of the differences of belief among men, some of whom are more, others less fortunate in their belief; and from this to proceed to show that what is termed good or bad fortune would appear to contribute, even in the case of the most talented, to their appearing to be more fully endowed with reason, and to give their assent on grounds of reason to the majority of human opinions, But enough on these points.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
We must notice the. remarks which Celsus next makes, when he says to us,.that “faith, having taken possession of our minds, makes us yield the assent which we give to the doctrine of Jesus;" for of a truth it is faith which does produce such an assent. Observe, however, whether that faith does not of itself exhibit what is worthy of praise, seeing we entrust ourselves to ἐξητασμένη, δοκοῦσα pty εὐτυχὲς παρὸ Toi; πολλοῖς, βεβασανισμένως δὲ ἐξητασ- μένη Tape wavy ὀλιγωτάτοις.
1 τοσοῦτον ποιεῖ πίστις, ὁποία δὴ προκατασχοῦσα.
Book 111. | ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. 121 the God who is over all, acknowledging our gratitude to Him who has led us to such a faith, and declaring that He could not have attempted or accomplished such a result without the divine assistance. And we have confidence also in the inten- tions of the writers of the Gospels, observing their piety and conscientiousness, manifested in their writings, which contain nothing that is spurious, or deceptive,’ or false, or cunning; for it is evident to us that souls unacquainted with those artifices which are taught by the cunning sophistry of the Greeks (which is characterized by great plausibility and acute- ness), and by the kind of rhetoric in vogue in the courts of justice, would not have been able thus to invent occurrences which are fitted of themselves to conduct to faith, and to a life in keeping with faith. And I am of opinion that it was on this account that Jesus wished to employ such persons as teachers of His doctrines, viz. that there might be no ground for any suspicion of plausible sophistry, but that it might clearly appear to all who were capable of understanding, that the guileless purpose of the writers being, so to speak, marked with great simplicity, was deemed worthy of being accompanied by a diviner power, which accomplished far more than it seemed possible could be accomplished by a periphrasis of words, and a weaving of sentences, accompanied by all the distinctions of Grecian art.
CHAPTER XL.