continued, by reason of their not having migrated from the east, in possession of the east, and of their eastern language. And let him notice, that these alone became the portion of the Lord, and His people who were called Jacob, and Israel the cord of His inheritance; and these alone were governed by a ruler who did not receive those who were placed under him for the purpose of punishment, as was the case with the others. Let him also, who has the capacity to perceive as far as mortals may, observe that in the body politic’ of those who were assigned to the Lord as His pre-eminent portion, sins were committed, first of all, such as might be forgiven, and of such a nature as not to make the sinner worthy of entire desertion, while subsequently they became more numerous, though still of a nature to be pardoned. And while remarking that this state of matters continued for a considerable time, and that a remedy was always applied, and that after certain intervals these persons returned to their duty, let him notice that they were given over, in proportion to their transgressions, to those to whom had been assigned the other quarters of the earth; and that, after being at first slightly punished, and having made atonement,’ they returned, as if they had under- gone discipline,® to their proper habitations. Let him notice also that afterwards they were delivered over to rulers of a severer character—to Assyrians and Babylonians, as the Scriptures would call them. In the next place, notwithstanding that means of healing were being applied, let him observe that they were still multiplying their transgressions, and that they were on that account dispersed into other regions by the rulers of the nations that oppressed them. And their own ruler inten- tionally overlooked their oppression at the hands of the rulers of the other nations, in order that he also with good reason, as avenging himself, having obtained power to tear away from the other nations as many as he can, may do so, and enact for them laws, and point out a manner of life agreeably to which they ought to live, that so he may conduct them to the end to which those of the former people were conducted who did not commit sin.
1 σολιτεία. 3 xa] τίσαντας δίκην. 5 ὡσπερεὶ παιδευθέντας.
Book v.] ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. 801 CHAPTER XXXII.
And by this means let those who have the capacity of com- prehending truths so profound, learn that he to whom were allotted those who had not formerly sinned is far more power- ful than the others, since he has been able to make a selection of individuals from the portion of the whole,’ and to separate them from those who received them for the purpose of punish- ment, and to bring them under the influence of laws, and of a mode of life which helps to produce an oblivion of their former transgressions. But, as we have previously observed, these remarks are to be understood as being made by us with a con- cealed meaning, by way of pointing out the mistakes of those who asserted that “the various quarters of the earth were from the beginning distributed among different superintending spirits, and being allotted among certain governing powers, were ad- ministered in this way;” from which statement Celsus took occasion to make the remarks referred to. But since those who wandered away from the east were delivered over, on account of their sins, to “a reprobate mind," and to “vile affections,” and to “uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts,”? in order that, being sated with sin, they might hate it, we shall refuse our assent to the assertion of Celsus, that * because of the superintending spirits distributed among the different parts of the earth, what is done among each nation is rightly done;” for our desire is to do what is not agreeable to these spirits.’
For we see that it is a religious act to do away with the cus- toms originally established in the various places by means of laws of a better and more divine character, which were enacted by Jesus, as one possessed of the greatest power, who has res- cued us “from the present evil world," and “ from the princes of the world that come to nought;" and that it is a mark of . irreligion not to throw ourselves at the feet of Him who has manifested Himself to.be holier and more powerful than all other rulers, and to whom God said, as the prophets many generations before predicted: ** Ask of me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of ἀπὸ τῆς πάντων μερίδος. 2 Cf. Rom. i. 24, 26, 28. 3 dAAd καὶ βουλόμεθα, οὐχ ὅπη ἡ ἐκείνοις Φίλον, ποιεῖν το ἐκείνων.
802 ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. [ Booz v.
the earth for Thy possession."! For He, too, has become the * expectation" of us who from among the heathen have believed upon Him, and upon His Father, who is God over all things.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
The remarks which we have made not only answer the statements of Celsus regarding the superintending spirits, but anticipate in some measure what he afterwards brings forward, when he says: * Let the second party come forward; and I shall ask them whence they come, and whom they regard as the originator of their ancestral customs. "They will reply, No one, because they spring from the same source as the Jews them- ‘selves, and derive their instruction and superintendence’ from no other quarter, and notwithstanding they have revolted from the Jews.” Each one of us, then, is come “in the last days,” when one Jesus has visited us, to the “visible mountain of the Lord," the Word that is above every word, and to the “house of God,” which is “the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."? And we notice how it is built upon ^ the tops of the mountains,” £e. the predictions of all the prophets, which are its foundations. And this hous is exalted above the hills, £e. those individuals among men who make a profession of superior attainments in wisdom and truth; and all the nations come to it, and the “many nations" g0 forth, and say to one another, turning to the religion which in the last days has shone forth through Jesus Christ: * Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in them."* For the law came forth from the dwellers in Sion, and settled among us as ἃ spiritual law. Moreover, the word of the Lord came forth from that very Jerusalem, that! might be disseminated through all places, and might judge ἰδ the midst of the heathen, selecting those whom it sees to be submissive, and rejecting" the disobedient, who are many ΙΒ number. And to those who inquire of us whence we come or who is our founder, we reply that we are come, agreeably to the counsels of Jesus, to “cut down our hostile and ins 1 Ps. ii. 8. 2 xopoorarny. 8 Cf. 1 Tim. iii. 15. 4 Cf. Isa. ii. 8. 5 ἐλέγχῃ. 6 ἐρχηγέτην.
Boer v.] ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. 808 lent ‘wordy’? swords into ploughshares, and to convert into pruning-hooks the spears formerly employed in war? For we no longer take up “sword against nation," nor do we “learn war any more," having become children of peace, for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader, instead of those whom our fathers followed, among whom we were * strangers to the covenant,” and having received a law, for which we give thanks to Him that rescued us from the error [of our ways], saying, * Our fathers honoured lying idols, and there is not among them one that causeth it to rain."* Our Superintendent, then, and Teacher, having come forth from the Jews, regulates the whole world by the word of His teaching. And having made these remarks by way of anticipation, we have refuted as well as we could the untrue statements of Celsus, by subjoining the appropriate answer. | CHAPTER XXXIV.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
But, that we may not pass without notice what Celsus has said between these and the preceding paragraphs, let us quote his words: “ We might adduce Herodotus as a witness on this point, for he expresses himself as follows: * For the people of the cities Marea and Apis, who inhabit those parts of Egypt that are adjacent to Libya, and who look upon themselves as Libyans, and not as Egyptians, finding their sacrificial worship oppressive, and wishing not to be excluded from the use of cows’ flesh, sent to the oracle of Jupiter Ammon, saying that there was no relationship between them and the Egyptians, that they dwelt outside the‘Delta, that there was no community of sentiment between them and the Egyptians, and that they wished to be allowed to partake of all kinds of food. But the god would not allow them to do as they desired, saying that that country was a part of Egypt, which was watered by the inun- dation of the Nile, and that those were Egyptians who dwell 1 συγχόψα; τὼς πολιμικὼς ἡμῶν λογικὼς μαχαίρας xei ὑβριστικὰς si; ἄροτρα, καὶ τὰς xard τὸ πρότερον ἡμῶν μάχιροον ζιβύνας εἰς δρέπανα μετα- σκευνάζομεν. ᾿ 2 Cf. Isa. ii. 4.
3 Cf. Jer. xvi. 19 and xiv. 22: ὡς ψευδῆ ἐκτήσαντο οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν εἴδωλα, xal οὐκ ἔστιν i» αὐτοῖς ὑετίζων.
304 ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. [Boox v.
to the south of the city of Elephantine, and drink of the river Nile! Such is the narrative of Herodotus. But," continues Celsus, “ Ammon in divine things would not make a worse am- bassador than the angels of the Jews,” so that there is nothing wrong in each nation observing its established method of wor- ship. Of a truth, we shall find very great differences prevailing among the nations, and yet each seems to deem its own by far the best. Those inhabitants of Ethiopia who dwell in Meroe worship Jupiter and Bacchus alone; the Arabians, Urania and Bacchus only; all the Egyptians, Opus and Isis; the Saites, Minerva; while the Naucratites have recently classed Serapis among their deities, and the rest according to their respective laws. And some abstain from the flesh of sheep, and others from that of crocodiles; others, again, from that of cows, while they regard swine's flesh with loathing. The Scythians, indeed, regard it as a noble act to banquet upon human beings. Among the Indians, too, there are some who deem themselves discharg- ing a holy duty in eating their fathers, and this is mentioned in a certain passage by Herodotus. For the sake of credibility, I shall again quote his very words, for he writes as follows: ‘For if any one were to make this proposal to all men, viz. to bid him select out of all existing laws the best, each would choose, after examination, those of his own country. Men each consider their own laws much the best, and therefore it is not likely that any other than a madman would make these things a subject of ridicule. But that such are the conclusions of all men regarding the laws, may be determined by many other evidences, and especially by: the following illustration. Darius, during his reign, having summoned before him those Greeks who happened to be present at the time, inquired of them for how much they would be willing to eat their deceased fathers; their answer was, that for no consideration would they do such a thing. After this, Darius summoned those Indians who are called Callatians, who are in the habit of eating their parents, and asked of them in the presence of these Greeks, who learned what passed through an interpreter, for what 1 Cf. Herodot. ii. 18. * ὁ δὲ "Αμμων οὐδέν Ti κακίων διαπρεσβεῦσαι Ta δαιμόνια, ἢ οἱ — Ioyüsis? ἄγγελοι.
Book v.] ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. 305 amount of money they would undertake to burn their deceased fathers with fire; on which they raised a loud shout, and bade the king say no more.’* Such is the way, then, in which these matters are regarded. And Pindar appears to me to be right in saying that ‘law’ is the king of all things.” ἢ CHAPTER XXXV.
The argument of Celsus appears to point by these illustra- tions to this conclusion: that it is * an obligation incumbent on all men to live according to their country's customs, in which case they will escape censure; whereas the Christians, who have abandoned their native usages, and who are not one nation like the Jews, are to be blamed for giving their adherence to the teaching of Jesus.” Let him then tell us whether it is a becoming thing for philosophers, and those who have been taught not to yield to superstition, to abandon their country's customs, so as to eat of those articles of food which are pro- hibited in their respective cities? or whether this proceeding of theirs is opposed to what is becoming? For if, on account of their philosophy, and the instructions which they have re- ceived against superstition, they should eat, in disregard of their native laws, what was interdicted by their fathers, why should the Christians (since the gospel requires them not to busy themselves about statues and images, or even about any of the created works of God, but to ascend on high, and present the soul to the Creator), when acting in a similar manner to the philosophers, be censured for so doing? But if, for the sake of defending the theses which he has proposed to himself, Celsus, or those who think with him, should say, that even one who had studied philosophy would keep his country’s laws, then philosophers in Egypt, for example, would act most ridiculously in avoiding the eating of onions, in order to observe their country’s laws, or certain parts of the body, as the head and shoulders, in order not to transgress the traditions of their fathers. And I do not speak of those Egyptians who shudder with fear at the discharge of wind from the body, because if any one of these were to become a philosopher, and still observe the laws of his country, he would be a ridiculous philosopher, 1 εὐφημεῖν μὲν ixiAsvor. 3 Cf. Herodot. iii. 88.
ORIG.—VOL. II. U 806 ὃ ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. [Booz v.
acting very unphilosophically! In the same way, then, he who has been led by the gospel to worship the God of all things, and, from regard to his country's laws, lingers here below among images and statues of men, and does not desire to ascend to the Creator, wil resemble those who have indeed learned philo- sophy, but who are afraid of things which ought to inspire no terrors, and who regard it as an act of impiety to eat of those things which have been enumerated.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
But what sort of being is this Ammon of Herodotus, whose words Celsus has quoted, as if by way of demonstrating how each one ought to keep his country’s laws? For this Ammon would not allow the people of the cities of Marea and Apis, who inhabit the districts adjacent to Libya, to treat as a matter of indifference the use of cows’ flesh, which is a thing not only indifferent in its own nature, but which does not prevent a man from being noble and virtuous. If Ammon, then, forbade the use of cows’ flesh, because of the advantage which results from the use of the animal in the cultivation of the ground, and in addition to this, because it 1s by the female that the breed is increased, the account would possess more plausibility. But now he simply requires that those who drink of the Nile should observe the laws of the Egyptians regarding kine. And hereupon Celsus, taking occasion to pass a jest upon the employment of the angels among the Jews as the ambassadors of God, says that “ Ammon did not make a worse ambassador of divine things than did the angels of the Jews,” into the meaning of whose words and manifestations he instituted no investigation; otherwise he would have seen, that it is not for oxen that God is concerned, even where He may appear to legislate for them, or for irrational animals, but that what is written for the sake of men, under the appearance of relating to irrational animals, contains certain truths of nature.) Celsus, moreover, says that no wrong is committed by any one who wishes to observe the religious worship sanctioned by the laws of his country; and it follows, according to his view, that the Scythians commit no wrong, when, in conformity with their 1 γέλοιος ἂν εἴη Φιλόσοφος φιλόσοφοι πράττων. 3 φυσιολογία».
Boox v. | ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. 907 country's laws, they eat human beings. And those Indians who eat their own fathers are considered, according to Celsus, to do a religious, or at least not a wicked act. He adduces, indeed, a statement of Herodotus which favours the principle that each one ought, from a sense of what is becoming, to obey his country’s laws; and he appears to approve of the custom of those Indians called Callatians, who in the time of Darius devoured their parents, since, on Darius inquiring for how great a sum of money they would be willing to lay aside this usage, they raised a loud shout, and bade the king say no more.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
As there are, then, generally two laws presented to us, the one being the law of nature, of which God would be the legislator, and the other being the written law of cities, it is a proper thing, when the written law is not opposed to that of God, for the citizens not to abandon it under pretext of foreign customs; but when the law of nature, that is, the law of God, commands what is opposed to the written law, observe whether reason will not tell us to bid a long farewell to the written code, and to the desire of its legislators, and to give ourselves up to the legislator God, and to choose a life agreeable to His word, although in doing so it may be necessary to encounter dangers, and countless labours, and even death and dishonour. For when there are some laws in harmony with the will of God, which are opposed to others which are in force in cities, and when it is impracticable to please God (and those who admi- nister laws of the kind referred to), it would be absurd to contemn those acts by means of which we may please the Creator of all things, and to select those by which we shall become displeasing to God, though we may satisfy unholy laws, and those who love them. [ut since it is reasonable in other matters to prefer the Jaw of nature, which is the law of God, before the written law, which has been enacted by men in a spirit of opposition to the law of God, why should we not do this still more in the case of those laws which relate to God?
Neither shall we, like the Ethiopians who inhabit the parts about Meroe, worship, as is their pleasure, Jupiter and Bacchus only; nor shall we at all reverence Ethiopian gods in the 808 ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. [Boox v.
Ethiopian manner; nor, like the Arabians, shall we regard Urania and Bacchus alone as divinities; nor in any degree at all deities in which the difference of sex has been a ground of distinction (as among the Arabians, who worship Urania as a female, and Bacchus as a male deity); nor shall we, like all the Egyptians, regard Osiris and Isis as gods; nor shall we enu- merate Athena among these, as the Saites are pleased to do. And if to the ancient inhabitants of Naucratis it seemed good to worship other divinities, while their modern descendants have begun quite recently to pay reverence to Serapis, who never was a god at all, we shall not on that account assert that a new being who was not formerly a god, nor at all known to men, is a deity. For the Son of God, “the First-born of all creation,” although He seemed recently to have become incarnate, is not by any means on that account recent. For the Holy Scriptures know Him to be the most ancient of all the works of creation;* for it was to Him that God said regarding the creation of man, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."?
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
I wish, however, to show how Celsus asserts without any good reason, that each one reveres his domestic and native institu- tions. For he declares that “those Ethiopians who inhabit Meroe know only of two gods, Jupiter and Bacchus, and worship these alone; and that the Arabians also know only of two, viz. Bacchus, who is also an Ethiopian deity, and Urania, whose worship is confined to them.” According to his account, neither do the Ethiopians worship Urania, nor the Arabians Jupiter. If, then, an Ethiopian were from any accident f? fall into the hands of the Arabians, and were to be judge! guilty of impiety because he did not worship Urania, and for this reason should incur the danger of death, would it be proper for the Ethiopian to die, or to act contrary ἴθ his country’s laws, and do obeisance to Urania? Now, if it wou! be proper for him to act contrary to the laws of his country; he will do what is not right, so far as the language of Celsus '5 any standard; while, if he should be led away to death, let ji show the reasonableness of selecting such a fate. I know 2?
πρεσβύτατον πάντων τῶν δημιουργημάτων.
Book v. ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. 309 whether, if the Ethiopian doctrine taught men to philosophize on the immortality of the soul, and the honour which is paid to religion, they would reverence those as deities who are deemed to be such by the laws of the country.’ A similar illustration may be employed in the case of the Arabians, if from any accident they happened to visit the Ethiopians about Meroe. For, having been taught to worship Urania and Bacchus alone, they will not worship Jupiter along with the Ethiopians; and if, adjudged guilty of impiety, they should be led away to death, let Celsus tell us what it would be reasonable on their part to do. And with regard to the fables which relate to Osiris and Isis, it is superfluous and out of place at present to enumerate them. For although an allegorical meaning may be given to the fables, they will nevertheless teach us to offer divine worship to cold water, and to the earth, which is subject to men, and all the animal creation. For in this way, I presume, they refer Osiris to water, and Isis to earth; while with regard to Serapis the accounts are numerous and conflicting, to the effect that very recently he appeared in public, agreeably to certain jug- gling tricks performed at the desire of Ptolemy, who wished to show to the people of Alexandria as it were a visible god. And we have read in the writings of Numenius the Pytha- gorean regarding his formation, that he partakes of the essence of all the animals and plants that are under the control of nature, that he may appear to have been fashioned into a god, not by the makers of images alone, with the aid of profane mysteries, and juggling tricks employed to invoke demons, but also by magicians and sorcerers, and those demons who are bewitched by their incantations.’
CHAPTER XXXIX.
We must therefore inquire what may be fittingly eaten or not by the rational and gentle? animal, which acts always in 1 This sentence is regarded by Guietus as an interpolation, which should be struck out of the text.
Piva δόξη μετὼ τῶν οτελέστων τελετῶν, καὶ τῶν καλουσῶν δαίμονας μαγγανειῶν, οὐχ ὑπὸ ὠἀγαλματοποιῶν μόνων κατασκενάζεσθαι θεὺ;, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑπὸ μάγων, καὶ Qoppuaxay, καὶ τῶν ἑπῳδαὶς αὐτῶν κηλουμένων δαιῤεόνων.
? ἡμέρῳ.
810 ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. [Boox v.
conformity with reason; and not worship at random, sheep, or goats, or kine; to abstain from which is an act of moderation," for much advantage is derived by men from these animals. Whereas, is it not the most foolish of all things to spare croco- diles, and to treat them as sacred to some fabulous divinity or other? For it is a mark of exceeding stupidity to spare those animals which do not spare us, and to bestow care on those which make a prey of human beings. But Celsus approves of those who, in keeping with the laws of their country, worship and tend crocodiles, and not a word does he say against them, while the Christians appear deserving of censure, who have been taught to loath evil, and to turn away from wicked works, and to reverence and honour virtue as being generated by God, and as being His Son. For we must not, on account of their feminine name and nature, regard wisdom and righteousness as females;? for these things are in our view the Son of God, as His genuine disciple has shown, when he said of Him, * Who of God is made to us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifi- cation, and redemption."? And although we may call Him a “second” God, let men know that by the term “second God ” we mean nothing else than a virtue capable of including all other virtues, and a reason capable of containing all reason what- soever which exists in all things, which have arisen naturally, directly, and for the general advantage, and which “reason,” we say, dwelt in the soul of Jesus, and was united to Him in a degree far above all other souls, seeing He alone was enabled completely to receive the highest share in the absolute reason, and the absolute wisdom, and the absolute righteousness.
CHAPTER XL.
But since, after Celsus had spoken to the above effect of the different kinds of laws, he adds the following remark, “ Pindar appears to me to be correct in saying that law is king of all things,” let us proceed to discuss this assertion. What law do you mean to say, good sir, is “ king of all things?” If you 1 μέτριον.
2 οὐ γὰρ wapad τὸ θηλυκὸν ὄνομα, xal τῇ οὐσίᾳ θήλειαν vopesorios εἶναι τὴν σοφίαν, καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην.
. Booz v.] ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. 311 mean those which exist in the various cities, then such an asser- tion is not true. For all men are not governed by the same law. You ought to have said that “laws are kings of all men,” for in every nation some law is king of all. But if you mean that which is law in the proper sense, then it is this which is by nature “king of all things;".although there are some individuals who, having like robbers abandoned the law, deny its validity, and live lives of violence and injustice. We Christians, then, who have come to the knowledge of the law which is by nature “king of all things,” and which is the same with the law of God, endeavour to regulate our lives by its prescriptions, having bidden a long farewell to those of an un- holy kind.
CHAPTER XLI.
CHAPTER XLI.
Let us notice the charges which are next advanced by Celsus, in which there is exceedingly little that has reference to the Christians, as most of them refer to the Jews. His words are: * If, then, in these respects the Jews were carefully to pre- serve their own law, they are not to be blamed for so doing, but those persons rather who have forsaken their own usages, and adopted those of the Jews. And if they pride themselves on it, as being possessed of superior wisdom, and keep aloof from intercourse with others, as not being equally pure with themselves, they have already heard that their doctrine con- cerning heaven is not peculiar to them, but, to pass by all others, is one which has long ago been received by the Persians, as Herodotus somewhere mentions. ‘For they have a custom,’ he says, ‘of going up to the tops of the mountains, and of offering sacrifices to Jupiter, giving the name of Jupiter to the whole circle of the heavens,’ And I think," continues Celsus, “that it makes no difference whether you call the highest being Zeus, or Zen, or Adonai, or Sabaoth, or Am- moun like the Egyptians, or Pappsus like the Scythians. Nor would they be deemed at all holier than others in this respect, that they observe the rite of circumcision, for this was done by the Egyptians and Colchians before them; nor because they abstain from swine’s flesh, for the Egyptians practised 312 ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. [Book v.