Against Celsus 1 part 29/42

On it was the drawing of circles, ten in number, separated from one another yet bound together by one circle, which was said to be the soul of the universe and was named Leviathan. The Scriptures of the Jews, hinting at it in whatever way, said that it had been formed by God as a plaything.

"The earth was filled with thy creation."

"This is the sea, great and wide;"

"there go the ships; living creatures small with great; this dragon, which thou hast formed to sport in it." Instead of "dragon," the Hebrew had "Leviathan."

The impious diagram, then, said that this Leviathan—so plainly denounced in the prophet—was the soul which has permeated the universe.

We also found in it one named Behemoth, set as it were in a certain rank below the lowest circle.

The man who concocted that filthy diagram inscribed this Leviathan upon the circle and at its centre, setting out his name twice.

Further, Celsus says that the diagram was divided by a thick black line, and he asserted that this was said by them to be Gehenna, which is also Tartarus.

We, finding Gehenna written in the Gospel as a place of punishment, inquired whether it had been named anywhere in the ancient writings, especially since the Jews too use the name.

We found that in one place it is named in Scripture the Valley of the son of Hinnom, and we learned that in the Hebrew, instead of "valley," the same subject was referred to as the Valley of Hinnom and Gehenna alike.

As we examined the readings, we found Gehenna, or the Valley of Hinnom, also reckoned within the allotment of the tribe of Benjamin, where Jerusalem also was.

And inquiring into the consequence of there being a heavenly Jerusalem belonging to the allotment of Benjamin together with the Valley of Hinnom, we find something bearing on the doctrine of punishments, namely that souls of a certain kind are transferred to a purification accompanied by torment, according to the text: "Behold, the Lord cometh in like the fire of a smelting-furnace, and like the herb of fullers;"

"and he shall sit as one who smelts and purifies, like gold and like silver." And there are punishments taking place around Jerusalem for those being smelted—those who have taken up into the very substance of their soul the things that come from wickedness, figuratively somewhere called lead;

wherefore in Zechariah iniquity sat upon a talent of lead.

But all that might be said on this subject is neither for everyone nor appropriate to the present occasion to expound;

nor indeed is it safe to entrust the clear explanation of such matters to writing, since the many do not need more teaching than that concerning the punishment of sinners.

For it is not useful to ascend beyond this, for the sake of those who scarcely, even through fear of eternal punishment, restrain to any degree the outpouring of wickedness and of the sins that proceed from it.

Neither those who composed the diagram, then, nor Celsus knows the doctrine concerning Gehenna;

since neither would those men have made paintings and diagrams solemn, as though presenting the truth through them, nor would Celsus, in his treatise against the Christians, have inserted among the accusations against Christians things in no way said by Christians but perhaps by certain people who no longer even exist but have wholly died out—or have dwindled to a few easily counted persons.

Just as it is not incumbent on those who follow the philosophy of Plato to defend Epicurus and his impious doctrines, so neither is it incumbent on us to defend the things in the diagram and the things said against it by Celsus.

Therefore, as things superfluously and vainly set forth, we pass over what Celsus has said against these matters;

for we shall accuse the holders of such doctrines more than Celsus does, among those who have been mastered by such teachings.

Next after the matters concerning the diagram, having not even rightly heard the things concerning what is called among ecclesiastical people the "seal," he sets forth for himself certain strange and antiphonal utterances: as though the one who imposes the seal is called "father," and the one who is sealed is called "young one" and "son," and answers:

"I have been anointed with white ointment from the tree of life"—which we have not even heard to take place among those from the heresies.

Then he also fixes a number, said by the angels who deliver the seal to be seven, standing on either side of the soul of the one departing from the body—some of them being of the light, others called "archontic"—and he says that the ruler of those called "archontics" is said to be an accursed god.

Then, fastening on the expression, he reasonably accuses those who dare to say this;

and on this account we too share the indignation of those who blame such persons—if indeed there are any who call the God of the Jews accursed, the God who sends rain and thunders, the Maker of this world, and the God of Moses and of the cosmogony described by him.

But Celsus seems to have intended something through these words that was not candid, but, springing from his unphilosophical hatred of us, utterly malicious.

For he wished those inexperienced in our affairs who came upon his writing to be set at war with us, as though we said the good Maker of this world was an accursed god.

And he seems to me to have done something similar to the Jews, who at the beginning of the teaching of Christianity scattered slander about the doctrine, as though the Christians sacrificed a child and partook of its flesh, and again that those of the faith, wishing to do the works of darkness, put out the light, and each had intercourse with whatever woman chanced to be at hand;

which slander, irrationally, of old prevailed over very many people, persuading those outside the faith that Christians are such; and even now it still deceives some, turning them away, on account of such things, from coming even into the simplest fellowship of discourse with Christians.

It seems to me that Celsus contrived to set forth something of this kind, namely that Christians say the Creator is an accursed god, so that anyone who believes him saying these things against us might, if possible, be roused even to destroy the Christians as the most impious of all men.

Confusing the matters, he also sets forth the reason for the God of the Mosaic cosmogony being called accursed, saying that he is such and worthy of a curse, according to those who hold these opinions about him, since he cursed the serpent for introducing to the first men the knowledge of good and evil.

But he ought to have known that those who have chosen the part of the serpent—as though it had given good counsel to the first men—and who, surpassing the mythical Titans and Giants, are on this account called Ophites, are so far from being Christians that they accuse Jesus no less than Celsus does, and do not admit anyone to their council unless he first lays curses against Jesus.

See, then, how most irrational a thing Celsus has done, in his treatise against the Christians, in taking as Christians those who do not even wish to hear the name of Jesus, even if he were some wise or morally upright man.

What, then, could be sillier or more insane—not only of those who wished to be called after the serpent as the author of good things, but also of Celsus, who supposed that the accusations against the Ophites were accusations against Christians? Long ago, indeed, the philosopher of the Greeks who loved frugality and set forth a pattern of the happy life—as one not hindered from being happy by complete poverty—proclaimed himself a Cynic;

but these men, while the serpent is most hostile to men and most dreadful—for they are not men whose enemy the serpent is—yet pride themselves like serpents on being called Ophites, boasting of a certain Euphrates as the introducer of their unholy doctrines.

Then next, reviling as Christians and accusing those who called accursed the God of Moses and of the law given through him, and supposing that Christians are those who say these things, he says:

"What could be sillier or more insane than this senseless wisdom? For wherein did the lawgiver of the Jews err? And how is it that you, by means of some typical allegory, as you say, take to yourself his cosmogony, or the law of the Jews, while you praise—against your will, O most impious one—the Maker of the world, who promised them all things, who undertook to increase their race to the ends of the earth, and to raise them from the dead in this very flesh and blood, and who inspired the prophets—and yet you again revile him? But when you are pressed by these arguments, you confess that you worship the same God;

but when your teacher Jesus and the Jews' Moses lay down contrary laws, you seek another god instead of this one, and instead of the Father."

And in these passages indeed the most noble philosopher Celsus plainly slanders Christians, saying that the same persons, whenever the Jews press them, confess the same God as theirs;

but whenever Jesus lays down laws contrary to Moses, they seek another instead of this one.

For whether we are conversing with Jews or are by ourselves, we know one and the same God, whom the Jews of old worshipped and now profess to worship—in no way being impious toward him.

Nor do we say that God will raise from the dead in this very flesh and blood, as has been said above;

for we do not say that the natural body, which is sown in corruption and in dishonour and in weakness, rises again of the same kind as it was sown.

But indeed about these matters enough has been said by us with moderation in what precedes.

Then next he resumes the matters concerning the seven ruling demons, which are in no way named by Christians, but, I think, taken up by the Ophites.

And we found, in the diagram which we too acquired on their account, the order set forth similarly to the way Celsus expounded it.

Now Celsus said that the first was formed in the shape of a lion, not setting forth by what name those truly most impious people call him;

but we found that the angel of the Creator who is well spoken of in the holy Scriptures, this is the one whom that filthy diagram said to be Michael the lion-like.

Again, Celsus said that the next and second is a bull;

but the diagram we had said this is Suriel the bull-like.

Then Celsus said the third is a certain amphibious creature, hissing horribly;

but the diagram said the third is Raphael the serpent-like.

Again, Celsus said the fourth has the form of an eagle;

but the diagram said this is Gabriel the eagle-like.

Then Celsus said the fifth has the face of a bear;

but the diagram said this is Thauthabaoth the bear-like.

Then Celsus said the sixth is recorded among them as having the face of a dog;

but the diagram said that he is Erathaoth.

Then Celsus said the seventh has the face of an ass, and that he is named Thaphabaoth or Onoel;

but we found in the diagram that this one is called Onoel or Thartharaoth, being a certain ass-like creature.

It seemed good to us also to set forth such things accurately, lest we should seem to be ignorant of what Celsus professed to know;

but rather that we, the Christians, may show that we know them more accurately than he, as being not the doctrines of Christians but of those wholly alien to salvation, and in no way inscribing Jesus as either Saviour or God or Teacher or Son of God.

And if anyone wishes also to learn the fabrications of those sorcerers, by which they wished to draw men under their teaching, as though possessing certain secrets, but were not altogether able—let him hear what they are taught to say after passing through what they call the "fence of wickedness," the gates of the archons bound for an age:

"I greet the One that takes no thought, the first power, kept by the spirit of providence and by wisdom;

thence am I sent forth pure, being already a portion of the light of Son and Father;

let grace be with me, yes, Father, let it be with me." And they say that the principles of the Ogdoad are from here.

Then next they are taught to say, as they pass through him whom they call Ialdabaoth:

"And thou, first and seventh, born to rule with confidence, Ialdabaoth, being a ruling word of a pure mind, a perfect work to Son and Father, bearing the symbol of life in the stamp of a type, I open the gate which thou didst shut to thy age, and pass through thy authority free again;

let grace be with me, yes, Father, let it be with me." And they say that the star Phaenon (Saturn) sympathizes with the lion-like ruler.

Then they suppose that one who has passed through Ialdabaoth and reached Iao must say:

"Thou ruler of hidden mysteries of Son and Father, shining by night, second Iao and first lord of death, a portion of the innocent, now bearing my own subject mind as a symbol, I am ready to pass through thy dominion;

thou hast prevailed over him who was born from thee by a living word;

let grace be with me, Father, let it be with me." Then next Sabaoth, to whom they suppose they will say:

"Ruler of the fifth authority, mighty Sabaoth, defender of the law of thy creation, which is being released by grace through a more powerful pentad, let me pass, beholding the unassailable symbol of thy craft, preserved in the image of a type, a body released by the pentad;

let grace be with me, Father, let it be with me." And next to him Astaphaios, to whom they believe these things are to be said:

"Astaphaios, ruler of the third gate, overseer of the first principle of water, beholding one initiate, let me pass, one purified by the spirit of a virgin, beholding the substance of the world;

let grace be with me, Father, let it be with me." And after him Ailoaios, to whom they suppose such things are to be said:

"Ailoaios, ruler of the second gate, let me pass, bearing to thee a symbol of thy mother, a grace hidden by the powers of the authorities;

let grace be with me, Father, let it be with me." And last they name Horaios, and they suppose one is to say to him:

"Having passed beyond the fence of fire fearlessly, having obtained the rule of the first gate, Horaios, let me pass, beholding the symbol of thy power dissolved by the type of the tree of life, taken according to likeness in the image of the innocent;

let grace be with me, Father, let it be with me." To these matters Celsus's supposed wide learning—or rather his meddlesome curiosity and nonsense—has provoked us, wishing to make clear to whoever reads his writing and what we have written against it, that we are at no loss concerning Celsus's lessons, in which he falsely charges Christians, who neither hold nor know such things, even though we too wished both to know and to set forth these matters;

so that the sorcerers may not, by the pretence of knowing something more than us, deceive those who are carried away by the fantasy of the names.

And I could, by setting forth many other things, show that we know the doctrines of the deceivers, but reject them as alien and impious and not coexisting with the truly Christian doctrines confessed by us even unto death.

One must, however, know that those who composed these things, neither understanding the things of magic nor discerning the things of the divine Scriptures, jumbled everything together;

taking from magic Ialdabaoth and Astaphaios and Horaios, and from the Hebrew Scriptures the one named among the Hebrews Iao or Ia, and Sabaoth and Adonaios and Eloaios.

But the names taken from the Scriptures are surnames of the same and one God;

which those enemies of God, not understanding—as they themselves also confess—supposed that Iao was one, Sabaoth another, and a third besides this, Adonaios, whom the Scriptures call Adonai, and yet another, Eloaios, whom the prophets name in Hebrew Eloai.

Then next Celsus sets forth other myths, as of certain people returning into the archontic forms, so that some become lions, others bulls, and others serpents or eagles or bears or dogs.

And we found in the diagram we had also what Celsus named a square figure, and what is said by those wretched people concerning the gates of paradise;

the diameter of a certain fiery circle being the flaming sword, as it were guarded by both the tree of knowledge and the tree of life.

Now Celsus either was unwilling or unable to set forth the harangues which, according to the myths of the impious, those who pass through them are to recite at each gate;

but we have done even this, so that we may show Celsus and those who read his writing that we know the end of this uninitiated initiation, as alien to the Christian piety toward the Divine.

After setting forth the aforesaid things, and those analogous to them which we added, Celsus says such things as these:

"And they still add other things upon others: words of prophets, and circles upon circles, and effluxes of an earthly church and of circumcision, and a power flowing from a certain virgin Prunicus, and a living soul, and a heaven slain that it may live, and an earth slain with a sword, and many slain that they may live, and death ceasing in the world when the sin of the world dies, and a narrow descent again, and gates that open of themselves;

and everywhere there the tree of life, and a resurrection of flesh from a tree—because, I suppose, their teacher was nailed to a cross and was a carpenter by trade.

So that if he had happened to have been thrown from a cliff, or pushed into a pit, or strangled by a noose, or were a leather-worker or a stone-cutter or a smith, there would have been above the heavens a cliff of life, or a pit of resurrection, or a rope of immortality, or a blessed stone, or an iron of love, or a holy hide."

"Or what old woman, drunk, while singing a tale to lull a child to sleep, would not have been ashamed to whisper such things?" In these passages Celsus seems to me to be confusing the things he has misheard.

For it is likely that, if he heard some little phrase of whatever heresy, without clearly grasping it even according to that heresy's intention, but cobbling the little words together, he displayed among those who knew nothing—neither of our doctrines nor of those in the heresies—that he knew, forsooth, all the affairs of Christians.

This is made clear also by the passage before us.

For the use of the words of the prophets is ours—we who establish that Jesus is the Christ foretold by them, and who demonstrate from the prophetic writings the things fulfilled concerning Jesus in the Gospels.

But to speak of "circles upon circles" is perhaps both from the aforesaid heresy, which embraces within one circle—which they say is the soul of the universe and Leviathan—the seven circles of the archontics; and perhaps it is also a mishearing of Ecclesiastes, who says:

"The wind goes in circles of circles, and the wind returns upon its circuits." And the "effluxes of an earthly church and of circumcision" was perhaps taken from its being said by some that the church on earth is an efflux of a certain heavenly church and of a better age, and that the circumcision written in the law is a symbol of a certain circumcision performed there in a certain place of purification.

And the followers of Valentinus name a certain wisdom Prunicus, according to their own deluded wisdom, of which they want even the woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years to be a symbol;

which Celsus, having misheard, he who confuses all at once the things of Greeks and barbarians and those in the heresies, said:

"a power flowing from a certain virgin Prunicus."

As for a "living soul," perhaps it has been spoken of in secret among some of the followers of Valentinus, referring to what they call the psychic Creator; or perhaps too, in contrast with a dead soul, the living soul has not ignobly been spoken of by some as that of the one being saved.

But I do not know of a "heaven slain" being spoken of, or "an earth slain with a sword and many slain that they may live"; and it is not unlikely that Celsus brought these in from himself.

As for "death ceasing in the world when the sin of the world dies," we might say that we expound it from what is mystically said by the apostle thus:

"But when he has subjected all enemies under his feet, then the last enemy, death, is abolished";

"When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, then shall come to pass the word that is written:

death is swallowed up in victory."

those who introduce transmigration will say.

And that "gates open of themselves" has been spoken of is not implausible, by some who hint at and expound the text: "Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter into them and give thanks to the Lord;

this is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter into it."

And again in the ninth Psalm it is said:

"Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death, that I may declare all thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion." And the word means that the gates of death are the sins that lead to perdition, just as the gates of Zion are, on the contrary, good deeds;

and so too the gates of righteousness, which is equivalent to the gates of virtue;

and these open readily to the one who pursues the deeds done according to virtue.

Concerning the tree of life, someone will more fittingly expound it when interpreting the things about the paradise of God recorded in Genesis as being planted by him.

Many times, then, Celsus has mocked a resurrection which he did not understand;

but now, not content with what has been said, he says that a resurrection of the flesh from a tree is spoken of—having misheard, I suppose, what was said symbolically, that through a tree came death and through a tree life: death according to Adam, life according to Christ.

Then, jesting about the matters of the tree, he ridicules it from two points, saying that it is so adopted either because our teacher was nailed to a cross, or because he was a carpenter by trade—not seeing that the tree of life is recorded in the writings of Moses, and moreover not perceiving that nowhere in the Gospels current in the churches is Jesus himself recorded to be a carpenter.

He supposes too that we, allegorizing about the cross, have fabricated the tree of life, and consequently, in keeping with his own error about this, he says that, if that man had happened to be thrown down a cliff, or pushed into a pit, or strangled by a noose, there would have been fabricated above the heavens a cliff of life, or a pit of resurrection, or a rope of immortality.

And again he says that, if the tree of life was fabricated because of his having been a carpenter, it would have followed: if he had been a leather-worker, that something would be said about a holy hide; if a stone-cutter, about a blessed stone; if a smith, about an iron of love.

Who then does not see at once the cheapness of his accusation, as he reviles men whom he professed to convert as being deceived? And next after these he says things fitting indeed for those who fabricated the lion-like and ass-headed and serpent-like rulers, and for anyone who told myths similar to theirs, but not at all fitting for those of the church.

For truly even a drunken old woman, singing a tale to lull a child to sleep, would have been ashamed to chant and whisper to the child such a myth as those who fabricated the ass-headed beings and the harangues, as it were, at each gate.

But the things of those in the church Celsus does not understand—things which very few have practised understanding: those who have devoted their whole life, according to the commandment of Jesus, to searching the Scriptures, and have laboured at examining the meaning of the holy writings more than the philosophizing Greeks did over the acquisition of some supposed knowledge.

But the noble fellow, not content with the matters from the diagram, wished, in order to magnify his accusations against us, to say in between certain other things which have nothing in common with that diagram, taking up their doctrines as though they were ours.

"And not least a marvel of theirs is that:

for they expound certain things inscribed between the higher supercelestial circles, among them two in particular: a greater and a smaller, of Son and of Father."

"And on the second circle was inscribed—it being entwined with and encompassing two other circles and another rhombus-shaped figure—'Providence of Wisdom'; and within their common intersection was the 'Nature of Wisdom'; and above their common intersection was a circle on which was inscribed 'Knowledge', and below another on which was inscribed 'Understanding'."

And these things too we have taken up into the treatise against Celsus, in order to show our readers that we know more clearly than he, and not from mishearings, the things which are even charged against us.

And if those who pride themselves on such things even promise a certain magical sorcery, and this is to them the chief part of their wisdom, we for our part do not affirm it, for we have not investigated such a thing;

but Celsus might know—he who has already many times been convicted of false witness and irrational accusations—whether he is lying in these matters too, or whether he set forth in his treatise something of this kind that he received from certain strangers alien to the faith.

Then, against those who use, as he says, a certain magic and sorcery and call upon the barbarous names of certain demons of this sort, he says that these do something similar to those who play tricks upon the same underlying objects before people who do not know that their names are one thing among the Greeks and another among the Scythians.

Then he sets forth, taking from Herodotus, that the Scythians call Apollo Gongosyros, Poseidon Thagimasadas, Aphrodite Argimpasa, and Hestia Tabiti.

But anyone able will examine whether in these matters too Celsus, along with Herodotus, is lying, inasmuch as the Scythians did not hold the same underlying realities as the Greeks concerning the so-called gods.

For what plausibility is there that Apollo is called Gongosyros among the Scythians? For I do not think that, when translated into the Greek tongue, Gongosyros presents the etymology of Apollo, or that Apollo, in the Scythian dialect, signifies Gongosyros.

Nor will anyone say the same concerning the rest;

for the Greeks, starting from certain facts and etymologies, named in this way those they regarded as their gods, while the Scythians named them from others, and so too the Persians from others, and the Indians or Ethiopians or Libyans from others, or however it pleased each to name them—not having remained at the first and pure conception of the Maker of the universe.

But enough has been said by us also in the passages before these, when we wished to show that Sabaoth is not the same as Zeus, where we also adduced something concerning the dialects from the divine writings.

Willingly, then, we pass over these matters, in which Celsus calls us to tautology.

Then again, confusing the things from magical sorcery, and attaching them perhaps to no one—since those who deal in trickery do not exist under the pretext of this kind of piety—or perhaps to some who use such things upon the easily deceived so as to seem to do something by divine power, he sets forth certain things, saying:

"Why need I enumerate all those who taught purifications, or releasing chants, or apotropaic utterances, or noises, or demonic figures, and every kind of charm of garments or numbers or stones or plants or roots and, in general, of all sorts of substances?" Concerning these, reason does not require us to make a defence, since we are in no degree whatsoever implicated in such suspicions.

After these things he seems to me to do something similar to those who, out of great hatred toward Christians, assert to people who in no way know the affairs of Christians, that they have ascertained by experience that Christians eat the flesh of children and use without restraint the women among them in promiscuous intercourse.

For just as these statements, even now, are condemned by the many and by those wholly alien to our religion as being falsely charged against Christians, so too such things would be found to have been falsely stated by Celsus, where he said that he had seen among certain elders belonging to our doctrine books containing barbarous names of demons and portents;