Against Celsus 1 part 14/42

What such great thing did Asclepius or Dionysus or Heracles accomplish? And whom will they be able to point out as having been bettered in their characters and become superior through the teachings and the life of those gods, so as to become gods themselves? For when we have read the many stories about them, let us see whether they were pure from licentiousness or injustice or folly or cowardice.

And if nothing of the kind should be found in them, the argument of Celsus would be strong, equating with Jesus those previously mentioned;

but if it is clear—even if certain things rather more creditable are reported about them—that they are recorded as having done countless deeds contrary to right reason, how can you any longer reasonably say that they, rather than Jesus, became gods by laying aside the mortal body? After this he says of us that we laugh at those who worship Zeus, since his tomb is shown in Crete, and yet none the less we revere the one from the tomb, not knowing how and on what ground the Cretans do such a thing.

Observe, then, that in these words he makes a defence on behalf of the Cretans and of Zeus and of his tomb, hinting at figurative interpretations according to which the myth concerning Zeus is said to have been fabricated;

but he accuses us, who confess that our Jesus was buried, but who also assert that he was raised from the tomb—something which the Cretans no longer relate concerning Zeus.

And since he seems to plead in support of the tomb of Zeus in Crete, saying:

"not knowing how and on what ground the Cretans do this," we shall say that Callimachus the Cyrenian also, who read very many poems and went through almost all Greek history, knows of no allegorical interpretation in the matters concerning Zeus and his tomb.

Wherefore he also accuses the Cretans in the hymn written by him to Zeus, saying:

"For indeed, O lord, the Cretans fashioned a tomb for you;"

"but you did not die, for you are forever."

And the one who said, "But you did not die, for you are forever," while denying the burial of Zeus in Crete, nonetheless records that the beginning of death did happen in the case of Zeus.

And the beginning of death is birth upon the earth;

"And Rhea bore you in Parrhasia, when she had lain with [Cronus]."

But he ought, just as he denied the birth of Zeus in Crete on account of his tomb, to have seen that there followed upon his birth in Arcadia the consequence that the one who had been born would also die.

And Callimachus says such things also concerning these matters:

"Zeus, some say you were born on the Idaean mountains; Zeus, others say in Arcadia;"

"which of them, O father, have lied? The Cretans are always liars."

To these things Celsus has led us, behaving senselessly concerning Jesus, assenting indeed to the things written—that he died and was buried—but considering it a fiction that he also rose from the dead, and that too when countless prophets foretold this very thing, and there being many signs of his appearing after death.

The things spoken by a very few who are reckoned Christians, contrary to the teaching of Jesus—not more sensible, as he supposes, but most ignorant—he adduces, saying that such things as these are enjoined by them:

"Let no one educated draw near, no one wise, no one prudent;"

"for these things are reckoned evils among us."

"But if anyone is uneducated, if anyone is foolish, if anyone is unlearned, if anyone is a child, let him come boldly."

For by acknowledging straightaway that such people are worthy of their own god, they make it plain that they wish—and are able—to persuade only the silly, the base-born, the senseless, and slaves, women, and little children.

In answer to this we say that, just as if someone—while Jesus was teaching about self-control and saying:

"Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart"—were to observe that a few out of so many of those reckoned to be Christians were living licentiously, he would most reasonably reproach those who live contrary to Jesus' teaching, but would act most unreasonably if he attached the charge against those persons to the doctrine itself;

so likewise, if the doctrine of the Christians be found to be in no way inferior in summoning men to wisdom, then those are to be blamed who plead in favour of their own ignorance, saying not indeed these very things which Celsus recorded—for not even so shamelessly do they speak, even if some be plain folk and unlearned—but other things far milder, yet still such as deter from the pursuit of wisdom.

That the doctrine wishes us to be wise must be shown both from the ancient and Jewish writings, which we too use,

and no less also from the writings composed after Jesus' time and believed in the churches to be divine.

Indeed, it is recorded in the fiftieth psalm that David, in his prayer to God, says:

"The hidden and secret things of thy wisdom thou hast made known unto me." And if anyone should examine the Psalms, he would find the book full of many wise teachings.

And Solomon, too, since he asked for wisdom, was accepted;

and the traces of his wisdom may be discerned in his writings, which contain great profundity of thought in few words;

in which you would find many praises of wisdom and exhortations concerning the need to take up wisdom.

And Solomon was so wise that the queen of Sheba, having heard his fame and the name of the Lord, came to test him with riddles.

And she spoke to him all that was in her heart.

And Solomon told her all her words;

there was nothing overlooked by the king that he did not declare to her.

And the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the things concerning him;

and she said to the king:

"True was the report which I heard in my own land concerning thee and concerning thy wisdom;

and I believed not those who told me, until I came and mine own eyes saw it;

and behold, the half was not told me;

thou hast added wisdom and good things to these, beyond all the report which I heard." And it is written concerning the same that "the Lord gave Solomon understanding and exceeding much wisdom and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is by the sea shore."

"And Solomon's wisdom abounded exceedingly above the understanding of all the ancients, and above all the wise men of Egypt.

And he was wiser than all men, and wiser than Gethan the Ezrahite, and Emad, and Chalcadi, and Aradat, sons of Mad;

and he was renowned among all the surrounding nations.

And Solomon spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were five thousand.

And he discoursed concerning the trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall.

And he discoursed concerning the fishes and the beasts;

and all the peoples came to hear the wisdom of Solomon;

and from all the kings of the earth, who heard of his wisdom." Now the doctrine so wishes those who believe to be wise that, in order to exercise the understanding of its hearers, it has uttered some things in riddles, some in what are called dark sayings, others through parables, and yet others through difficult problems.

"Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? or prudent, and he shall know them?" And Daniel and those carried captive with him advanced so far even in those branches of learning which the wise men about the king practised in Babylon, that they were shown to surpass all of them tenfold.

And it is said also in Ezekiel, to the prince of Tyre, who prided himself greatly on his wisdom:

"Art thou wiser than Daniel? Is there any secret that hath not been shown unto thee?" And if you should turn also to the books written after Jesus' time, you would find that the multitudes of believers hear the parables as being those who are outside and worthy only of the exoteric teachings, whereas the disciples learn the explanations of the parables in private;

for privately to His own disciples Jesus expounded all things, preferring those who laid claim to His wisdom above the multitudes.

And He promises to send to those who believe in Him wise men and scribes, saying:

"Behold, I send unto you wise men and scribes, and some of them they shall kill and crucify." And Paul, too, in the list of the gifts of grace given by God, ranked first the word of wisdom, and second—as inferior to it—the word of knowledge, and somewhere third and lower, faith.

And since he valued the word above the miraculous works, on that account he places the workings of powers and gifts of healings in a position lower than the gifts pertaining to reason.

And Stephen, in the Acts of the Apostles, bears witness to the great learning of Moses, deriving it assuredly from ancient writings not widely circulated, saying:

"And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." And for this reason, with regard to his miracles, it was suspected that perhaps he did not perform them according to the promise of one coming from God, but according to the learning of the Egyptians, being wise in their lore.

For, suspecting such things concerning him, the king summoned the enchanters of the Egyptians and the sophists and the sorcerers, who were proved to be nothing as against the wisdom in Moses, which surpassed all the wisdom of the Egyptians.

But probably the things written by Paul in the first Epistle to the Corinthians—addressed as they were to Greeks who were greatly puffed up over Greek wisdom—have stirred up certain people to think that the doctrine does not want men to be wise.

But let him who holds such views hear that, just as when the doctrine censures worthless men it says they are wise not concerning the intelligible and invisible and eternal realities, but concern themselves only with the things of sense and place everything therein, being wise men of the world—

so likewise, among the many doctrines that exist, it calls those which side with matter and bodies, and which assert that all primarily-existing things are bodies and that there is nothing else besides these—whether called invisible or named incorporeal—the wisdom of the world which is being brought to nought and made foolish, and the wisdom of this age;

but those doctrines which transfer the soul from the things here to the blessedness that is with God and to what is called His kingdom, and which teach men to despise all things sensible and visible as transient, but to hasten toward the things invisible and to look at the things not seen—these it calls the wisdom of God.

And Paul, being a lover of truth, says concerning certain wise men among the Greeks—in the matters wherein they speak truly—that, knowing God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful.

And he testifies that they had come to know God;

and he says that this too came about for them not without God, when he writes: "For God showed it unto them"—hinting, I think, at those who ascend from the visible things to the intelligible—when he writes that "the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and divinity, so that they are without excuse; because, knowing God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful."

And perhaps also from the words "For ye see your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble,

God hath chosen the despised things, and the things that are not, that He might bring to nought the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence"—certain people have been moved to suppose that no one educated or wise or prudent comes to the doctrine.

And to such a one we shall say that it was not said "no one wise after the flesh," but "not many wise after the flesh."

And it is clear that, in describing the character of those called bishops—what manner of man the bishop ought to be—Paul also ranked among his qualities that of the teacher, saying that he must be able to convince the gainsayers, in order that through the wisdom in him he might stop the mouths of vain talkers and deceivers.

And just as he chooses for the episcopate the man married once rather than the twice-married, and the blameless rather than the censurable, and the sober rather than the not-so, and the temperate rather than the intemperate, and the orderly rather than one even slightly disorderly, so too he wills that the one who is to be appointed primarily to the episcopate be apt to teach and able to convince the gainsayers.

How then does Celsus reasonably accuse us, as though we say:

"Let no one educated approach, no one wise, no one prudent"? Rather, let the educated and the wise and the prudent approach, whoever so wishes;

and no less let there approach also anyone uneducated and foolish and unlearned and a child.

For the doctrine promises to heal even such as these when they approach, rendering all worthy of God.

It is also false that those who teach the divine word are willing to persuade only the silly and the base-born and the senseless and slaves and women and little children.

For the doctrine calls these too, that it may make them better;

but it calls also those who far surpass them;

since Christ is the Saviour of all men, and especially of those who believe, whether intelligent or simpler folk, and is the propitiation toward the Father for our sins, and not for ours only but also for those of the whole world.

It is therefore superfluous to wish, after this, to make our defence against the words of Celsus, which run as follows:

For what evil is it, after all, to have been educated, to have given attention to the noblest doctrines, and both to be and to seem intelligent? What hindrance does this pose to knowing God? Why is it not rather an advantage, and a means by which one might the more readily attain to the truth? Now to have been truly educated is no evil;

for education is a road to virtue;

yet not even the wise men among the Greeks will say that those who hold erroneous doctrines are to be reckoned among the educated.

And again, who would not agree that to have given attention to the noblest doctrines is good? But what shall we call the noblest doctrines, except those that are true and that summon to virtue? Moreover, to be intelligent is also a fine thing—but no longer is it so merely to seem intelligent, which is what Celsus said.

And indeed, to have been educated, to have given attention to the noblest doctrines, and to be intelligent does not hinder, but actually cooperates toward, the knowledge of God.

And it befits us to say this more than Celsus, especially if he is shown to be an Epicurean.

But let us look at what follows in his text, which runs thus:

But surely we see those who in the marketplaces perform the most disreputable displays and gather crowds: they would never enter into an assembly of intelligent men, nor would they dare to display their fine wares among such people; but wherever they see young lads, a throng of household slaves, and a crowd of foolish men, there they push themselves forward and show off.

Observe, then, in these words also, in what manner he slanders us, likening us to those who in the marketplaces perform the most disreputable displays and gather crowds.

What sort of most disreputable displays do we perform? Or what do we do that resembles those people—we who, both through readings and through expositions of the readings, exhort men toward piety to the God of the universe and the virtues that share its throne, and turn them away from despising the divine and from all that is done contrary to right reason? Indeed, even the philosophers would pray to gather so many hearers of discourses that summon to the good;

which is precisely what some of the Cynics in particular have done, conversing publicly with whoever happened to be present.

Will they say that these men—who do not gather together those reputed to be educated, but call hearers in from the crossroads and assemble them—are similar to those who in the marketplaces perform the most disreputable displays and gather crowds? Yet neither Celsus nor anyone who thinks as he does blames those who, out of what appears to them as love of humanity, set forth discourses even to the common, uneducated multitudes.

But if those men are not to be blamed for doing this, let us see whether the Christians do not even more, and better than they, call multitudes toward nobility of character.

For the philosophers who discourse in public do not sift their hearers, but whoever wishes stands and listens;

the Christians, however, as far as they are able, first test the souls of those who wish to hear them, and instruct them privately beforehand; and when the hearers seem, before entering the common assembly, to have made sufficient progress toward the desire to live well, then at that point they admit them—having formed one separate order of those who are but lately beginning and are being introduced, and who have not yet received the token of having been purified, and another order of those who have, as far as they could, demonstrated their resolve to will nothing other than what the Christians approve;

among whom there are some appointed to inquire into the lives and conduct of those who come, in order that they may prevent those who practise disreputable things from coming to their common assembly, while those who are not of that sort they receive with the whole soul and make better day by day.

And such is their treatment of those who sin, and especially of the licentious, whom they expel from the community—these men whom, according to Celsus, are similar to those who in the marketplaces perform the most disreputable displays.

And the venerable school of the Pythagoreans used to erect cenotaphs for those who had apostatized from their philosophy, reckoning them to have become dead;

but these men mourn, as for the dead, those who have been overcome by licentiousness or by some other monstrous thing, regarding them as lost and dead to God; and if such persons should display a noteworthy change, they admit them back later, after a longer time than those who are at first being introduced, as if they had risen from the dead—

yet not enrolling into any office or position of leadership in what is called the church of God those who, after coming to the faith, have stumbled.

Observe, then, what Celsus says after this:

We surely see those who in the marketplaces perform the most disreputable displays and gather crowds—[let us consider] whether this has not been said outright falsely, and a dissimilar comparison drawn.

These men, then, to whom Celsus likens us—those who in the marketplaces perform the most disreputable displays and gather crowds—he says would never enter into an assembly of intelligent men, nor dare among such to display their fine wares; but wherever they see young lads, a throng of household slaves, and a crowd of foolish men, there they push themselves forward and show off; and in this he does nothing other than revile us, much like the women at the crossroads who have as their aim to speak ill of one another.

For we, as far as we are able, do everything to make our assembly one of intelligent men; and the things among us that are most noble and divine we dare to bring forward into the midst in our discourses addressed to the public precisely when we are well supplied with understanding hearers;

but we conceal and pass over in silence the deeper matters, whenever we observe that those who come together are simpler folk and in need of discourses figuratively called milk.

For it is written by our Paul, when writing to the Corinthians—Greeks indeed, but not yet purified in their ways:

I have given you milk to drink, not solid food;

for until now you were not yet able;

for where there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not carnal and walking according to man? And this same Paul, knowing that some things are nourishment for a more perfect soul, while the things of the beginners are to be compared to the milk of infants, says:

And you have become such as have need of milk, not of solid food;

for everyone who partakes of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is an infant;

but solid food is for those who have their faculties trained by practice for the discernment of good and evil. Will those, then, who believe these words to have been well spoken suppose that the noble things of the word would never be uttered in an assembly of intelligent men, but that wherever they see young lads, a throng of household slaves, and a crowd of foolish men, there one brings forth the divine and venerable things into the midst and shows off about them among such people? But to anyone who examines the whole intent of our writings it is clear that Celsus, being hostile, like the common uneducated mobs, toward the race of Christians, says such things without examination and falsely.

We confess that we wish to educate all by the word of God—even though Celsus may not wish it—so as to impart even to young lads the exhortation suited to them, and to show household slaves how, taking up a free spirit, they might be ennobled by the word.

And those among us who are ambassadors of Christianity declare adequately that they are debtors to Greeks and barbarians, to wise and foolish;

for they do not deny that it is necessary to heal the souls even of the foolish, that, as far as is possible, putting away their ignorance, they may press on toward greater understanding—hearing also Solomon saying:

And you fools, set your heart aright; and:

Whoever among you is most foolish, let him turn in to me; and to those lacking in understanding wisdom exhorts, saying:

Come, eat my bread and drink the wine which I have mingled for you;

forsake foolishness, that you may live, and direct your understanding aright in knowledge.

And I would say these things too, on account of what has been set forth in reply to the argument of Celsus:

Do not those who pursue philosophy summon young lads to their lectures? And do they not urge youths who have come from a most wicked life toward better things? And why do they not wish household slaves to philosophize? Or shall we too be about to accuse the philosophers who have exhorted household slaves toward virtue—Pythagoras exhorting Zamolxis, Zeno exhorting Persaeus, and those who but lately, the other day, exhorted Epictetus to pursue philosophy? Or is it permitted to you, O Greeks, to call young lads, household slaves, and foolish men to philosophy;

but when we do this, we do it without love of humanity—we who wish, by the medicine that comes from the word, to heal every rational nature and to bring it into familiarity with the God who created all things? These things, then, would have sufficed in reply to Celsus' revilings—or rather, his abuse—more than his accusations.

But since, taking delight in the discourse of his revilings against us, he added yet other things, come, let us set these forth too and see whether it is the Christians who behave shamefully, or Celsus, in what is said—for he says:

We surely see also, in their private houses, wool-workers, cobblers, fullers, and the most uneducated and rustic persons, who in the presence of older and wiser masters dare to utter nothing; but whenever they get hold of the children of these masters privately, along with certain foolish little women, they pour out marvellous things—that one ought not to give heed to the father and the teachers, but to obey them;

[saying] that the former talk nonsense and are addle-witted, and in truth neither know nor are able to do anything noble, being preoccupied with empty drivel, while they alone know how one must live, and that if the children obey them, they will be blessed and will render the household happy;

and while they are saying these things, if they see one of the teachers of education, or one of the wiser sort, or even the father himself, coming up, the more cautious of them take fright, but the more brazen incite the children to throw off the reins, whispering such things as that, while the father and the teachers are present, they themselves neither will nor are able to explain any good thing to the children, for they shun the stupidity and crookedness of those men, who are utterly corrupt and far gone in wickedness and who punish them;

but if they are willing, they ought to leave the father and the teachers behind and go, along with the little women and the playmate boys, to the women's quarters or the cobbler's shop or the fuller's shop, in order to attain perfection;

and by saying such things they win them over.

[Whereas we strive] in every way to draw the soul up to the Creator of all things, and to set forth that one must despise all sensible, temporal, and visible things, but do everything for the sake of attaining communion with God and the contemplation of intelligible and invisible things, and a blessed manner of life with God and with those who belong to God—[yet] he compares us to the wool-workers in the houses, the cobblers, the fullers, and the most rustic of men, [alleging] that we summon to base things children who are utterly infantile and little women, in order that they may forsake father and teachers and follow us.

From what sound-minded father, or from what teachers teaching more venerable things, do we draw away the children and the little women—let Celsus set this forth, and let him compare, in the case of the children and the little women who come to our word, whether any of the things they used to hear were better than ours, and in what manner, by drawing children and little women away from noble and venerable lessons, we summon them to worse things.

But he will not be able to establish any such thing against us;

for, on the contrary, we draw the little women away from licentiousness and from the perversion that comes from their associates, and from all theatre-mania, dance-mania, and superstition; and the boys who are just coming to maturity and teeming with the desires concerning sexual pleasures we bring to chastity, setting before them not only the shamefulness involved in the sins, but also the state in which the soul of the wicked will be on account of such things, and what penalties it will pay, and how it will be punished.

And which teachers do we say talk nonsense and are addle-witted—those on whose behalf Celsus takes his stand as if they taught the better things? Unless, indeed, he thinks them good teachers of little women and not talkers of nonsense, those who summon them to superstition and to licentious spectacles; and further, that those who lead and carry off the young toward everything that we know is done by them in disorderly fashion in many places are not addle-witted.

We, then, also summon even those who come from the doctrines of the philosophers, as far as we are able, toward the worship of God as we hold it, setting forth its surpassing excellence and its sincerity.

But since, by what he said, Celsus represented us as not doing this, but as calling only the foolish, we would say to him:

If you were accusing us of drawing away from philosophy those who are already preoccupied in it, you would not, indeed, be speaking the truth, yet your argument would have some plausibility;

but as it is, in saying that we draw away those who come to us from good teachers, show forth those teachers as other than the teachers of philosophy or those who have labored in some one of the useful pursuits.

But he will have nothing of the kind to point to.

And we promise, with boldness and not in secret, that those who live according to the word of God, and who look to him in all things, and who perform whatever they do as in the sight of God who beholds, will be blessed.

Are these, then, the teachings of wool-workers, cobblers, fullers, and the most uneducated of rustics? But this he will not be able to demonstrate.

But the people in Celsus' account, resembling the wool-workers in the houses, and likewise the cobblers, fullers, and most uneducated rustics, say that, while the father and the teachers are present, they will be willing to say nothing, nor will they be able to expound any good thing to the children.

And to this we shall reply:

Of what father, sir, do you speak, and of what teacher? If of one who welcomes virtue and turns away from vice and embraces the better things, then hear that, full of confidence as men in good standing before such a judge, we shall declare our teachings to the children.

But if we keep silent in the presence of a father notorious as hostile to virtue and nobility, and of those who teach things contrary to sound reason, do not blame even us for this, for you do not blame us reasonably.

You yourself, at any rate, when you hand over the mysteries of philosophy to the young men and sons, whose fathers consider philosophy an idle and useless pursuit, will not speak of it before the base fathers;