Against Celsus 1 part 4/42

but as it is, the most wise Celsus did not even see this—that he attached such an argument to a Jew, who believes more things, and more paradoxical ones, from the prophetic Scriptures than the account about the form of the dove.

For someone might say to the Jew, who disbelieves the apparition and thinks to accuse it as a fabrication:

"And you, sir, from where would you be able to prove that the Lord God said to Adam, or to Eve, or to Cain, or to Noah, or to Abraham, or to Isaac, or to Jacob the things recorded as having been spoken by him to these men?" And, to set one history alongside this history, I would say to the Jew:

Your own Ezekiel wrote, saying:

"The heavens were opened, and I saw a vision of God," which, having described, he adds to it:

"This was the vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord;

and he spoke to me." For if the things recorded about Jesus are false—since we cannot, as you suppose, demonstrate them plainly—how are these things true, seen or heard by him alone and, as you thought you had observed, also by one of those who were punished?

why shall we not rather say that Ezekiel too spoke as a teller of marvels when he said "The heavens were opened" and what follows? But also, if Isaiah asserts:

"I saw the Lord of Sabaoth seated upon a throne high and lifted up;

and the Seraphim stood around him, six wings to the one and six wings to the one," and what follows—from where do we know that he truly saw it? For you have believed these things, O Jew, as being free from falsehood and as not only having been seen by the prophet under a more divine Spirit, but also having been spoken and recorded.

And who is more worthy to be believed—the one asserting that the heavens were opened to him and that he heard a voice, or the one asserting that he saw the Lord of Sabaoth seated upon a throne high and lifted up: Isaiah and Ezekiel, or Jesus? For of those men no such great work is found;

but Jesus' deed of valor did not occur only during those same times of his incarnation, but even down to this present day Jesus' power is at work, effecting the conversion and improvement of those who through him believe in God.

And this is so, as he himself says and as is apprehended: that, though there are not enough laborers to work the harvest of souls, so great is the harvest, with souls being gathered in and brought together into the threshing floors and churches of God that are everywhere.

And I say these things to the Jew not because, as a Christian, I disbelieve Ezekiel and Isaiah, but putting him to shame on the basis of what is commonly believed by us, namely that this one [Jesus] is far more worthy than those men to be believed when he says he saw such things and, as is likely, handed on to his disciples the vision he saw and the voice he heard.

But another might say that not all who recorded the things about the form of the dove and the voice from heaven heard Jesus relating these things;

rather, the Spirit which taught Moses his earlier history, beginning from the creation of the world down to the time of Abraham his forefather—this same Spirit also taught those who wrote the Gospel the marvel that occurred at the time of Jesus' baptism.

And the one adorned with the gift called "the word of wisdom" will also explain the reason for the opening of the heavens and for the form of the dove, and why the Holy Spirit appeared to Jesus in the form of no other living creature than this one.

But concerning this, our discourse does not now require us to give an explanation;

for what lies before us is to refute Celsus, who unsoundly attached to a Jew, with such arguments, a disbelief about a matter which, in all likelihood, occurred—and the more so given the things believed by that very Jew.

I remember once, in a certain discussion with those who are called wise among the Jews, when many were judging what was being said, that I made use of such an argument:

"Tell me, sirs: of two who have come to sojourn among the human race, concerning whom paradoxical things beyond human nature are recorded—I mean Moses, your lawgiver, who wrote about himself, and Jesus, our teacher, who left behind no writing about himself but is attested by his disciples in the Gospels—

what is the arbitrariness in believing Moses to be telling the truth, even though the Egyptians slander him as a sorcerer who seemed to have performed his powers by trickery, yet disbelieving Jesus, since you accuse him? For nations bear witness to both: the Jews to Moses, and the Christians—who do not deny Moses' prophecy but actually prove the things about Jesus from it as well—accept that the paradoxical things about him, recorded by his disciples, are true.

If indeed you demand from us an account concerning Jesus, first render an account concerning Moses, who came before him, and then in turn we shall render the one concerning Jesus;

but if you shrink back and flee from the demonstrations concerning that man, then for the present, doing the like as you do, neither do we offer a demonstration.

Nonetheless, admit that you have no proof concerning Moses, and hear the demonstrations concerning Jesus from the Law and the Prophets.

From the demonstrations about Jesus in the Law and the Prophets, it is proved that both Moses and the prophets were prophets of God. And the Law and the Prophets are full of paradoxical things similar to what is recorded about Jesus at the baptism concerning the dove and the voice from heaven.

And I think that a sign of the Holy Spirit then seen in the form of a dove is the paradoxical deeds done by Jesus, which Celsus, in slandering them, says he performed after having learned them among the Egyptians.

And I shall make use not only of those deeds, but also, as is reasonable, of the things which the apostles of Jesus did.

For without powers and paradoxical deeds they would not have moved those who heard new doctrines and new teachings to abandon their ancestral ways and to accept, amid dangers even unto death, the teachings of these men.

And still traces of that Holy Spirit, which appeared in the form of a dove, are preserved among Christians, who charm away demons and accomplish many healings, and who see certain things concerning future events according to the will of the Word.

Many have, as it were against their will, come over to Christianity, some Spirit having suddenly turned their ruling faculty from hating the Word to being willing to die on its behalf, and having presented them with a vision while waking or in a dream.

For we have recorded many such things;

but if we were to write down these things—having ourselves been present at them and seen them—we would incur broad ridicule from the unbelievers, who suppose that, just like those whom they imagine to have fabricated such things, we too are fabricating them.

But indeed God is witness to our conscience, which desires to establish the divine teaching of Jesus not by means of false reports, but by some manifold clear evidence.

But since it is a Jew who is at a loss concerning the recorded descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove upon Jesus, it would be fitting to say to him:

"Sir, who is it that says in Isaiah:

'And now the Lord has sent me, and his Spirit'? In this, the saying being ambiguous—whether the Father and the Holy Spirit sent Jesus, or the Father sent both the Christ and the Holy Spirit—the second is true."

And since the Savior was sent, then the Holy Spirit, in order that what was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled—and it was necessary that the fulfillment of the prophecy be made known also to those who came afterward—

For this reason the disciples of Jesus recorded what had taken place.

I should like to say to Celsus, who has represented the Jew as somehow accepting John as a baptist who baptized Jesus, that the fact that John was a baptist who baptized for the remission of sins was recorded by one of those who lived not long after John and Jesus.

For in the eighteenth book of the Jewish Antiquities Josephus bears witness to John as having been a baptist and as promising purification to those who were baptized.

And the same author, although he did not believe in Jesus as the Christ, in seeking the cause of the fall of Jerusalem and of the destruction of the temple, ought to have said that the plot against Jesus was the cause of these calamities for the people, since they killed the prophesied Christ;

yet, as though against his will, not departing far from the truth, he says that these things befell the Jews in vengeance for James the Just, who was the brother of Jesus called Christ, inasmuch as they put to death one who was most righteous.

And this James, Paul the genuine disciple of Jesus says he saw as the brother of the Lord—not so much because of their kinship by blood or their common upbringing as because of his character and his teaching.

If, then, he says that the calamities concerning the desolation of Jerusalem befell the Jews on account of James, how is it not more reasonable to assert that this happened on account of Jesus the Christ? Of whose divinity there are witnesses in the so many churches of those who have turned away from the flood of evils, who depend upon the Creator and refer all things to pleasing Him.

Even if, then, the Jew does not give a defense concerning Ezekiel and Isaiah—when we draw the comparison regarding the opening of the heavens at Jesus' baptism and the voice that was heard by him, and find similar things recorded in Ezekiel and in Isaiah or in some other prophet—we, at any rate, will set forth the argument as far as we are able, saying that, just as it is believed that in a dream many people have imagined some things more divine, and others announcing future affairs of life, whether clearly or also through riddles—and this is evident to all who accept providence—so what is absurd in supposing that that which imprints the governing faculty in a dream can imprint it also in the waking state, for the benefit either of the one in whom it is imprinted or of those who will hear from him? And just as we receive an impression of hearing in a dream and the perceptive faculty of hearing is struck, and of seeing through eyes—neither the bodily eyes nor the hearing being struck, but the governing faculty experiencing these things—so there is nothing absurd in such things having happened in the case of the prophets, when it is recorded that they saw certain things more marvelous, or heard the words of the Lord, or beheld the heavens opened.

and that his body too was opened and divided as it was being opened, so that Ezekiel might record such a thing.

Perhaps, then, in the case of the Savior too the one who hears the Gospels prudently must understand something similar, even though such a thing offends the simpler folk, who through their great simplicity move the world, splitting asunder the so great unified body of the whole heaven.

But he who examines such a matter more deeply will say that there is, as Scripture has named it, a certain divine generic sense, which the blessed man alone now finds, according to what is said also in Solomon:

"That you will find a divine sense"—and since there are species of this sense: a sight by nature able to behold things superior to bodies, among which the Cherubim or the Seraphim are made manifest; and a hearing that apprehends voices which do not have their substance in the air; and a taste that uses the living bread which came down from heaven and gives life to the world; and likewise a smell that smells such things, as Paul says we are a sweet fragrance of Christ to God; and a touch, according to which John says he handled with his hands concerning the Word of life—

the blessed prophets, having found the divine sense and seeing divinely and hearing divinely and likewise tasting and smelling—if I may so put it—with a sense not perceptible to the bodily senses, and touching the Word with faith, so that an effluence from him came to them to heal them—thus they saw the things they record having seen, and heard the things they say having heard, and experienced like things, as they recorded, eating a scroll of a book given to them.

And thus too Isaac smelled the fragrance of his son's more divine garments and added with a spiritual blessing the words:

"Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed." And in a manner similar to these, and intellectually rather than sensibly, Jesus too touched the leper, in order to cleanse him, as I suppose, in a twofold way, delivering him not only—as the many understand—from a perceptible leprosy by a perceptible touch, but also from another leprosy by his truly divine touch.

Thus, then, John bore witness, saying: "I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and it remained upon him.

And I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize in water, he said to me:

'Upon whomever you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.'

And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God." And indeed the heavens were opened to Jesus;

and at that time no one except John is recorded to have seen the heavens opened.

And foretelling to the disciples that this opening of the heavens would come to pass, the Savior says to those who would see it:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." And thus Paul was caught up into the third heaven, having first seen it opened, since he was a disciple of Jesus.

But to explain now why Paul says:

"Whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows"—this does not belong to the present occasion.

Furthermore, I will add to the discussion the very things Celsus supposes—namely that Jesus himself spoke about the opening of the heavens and the Holy Spirit that descended upon him in the form of a dove at the Jordan;

though Scripture does not establish this, that he himself said he had seen this.

But this most noble fellow did not perceive that it is not in keeping with the one who said to the disciples concerning the vision on the mountain:

"Tell no one the vision until the Son of Man is risen from the dead," to have told the disciples about what was seen and heard at the Jordan by John.

One may also observe in the character of Jesus that he everywhere avoided speaking about himself, and for this reason said:

"Even if I bear witness concerning myself, my witness is not true." And since he avoided speaking about himself and wished to show by his works rather than by his words that he was the Christ, for this reason the Jews say to him:

"If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." But since it is a Jew who in Celsus' account says to Jesus, concerning the matters of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, this saying:

"Except that you say so, and you adduce some one of those who were punished along with you," it is necessary to demonstrate that he attributed even this in a manner unsuitable to the Jewish persona.

For the Jews do not connect John with Jesus, nor John's punishment with that of Jesus.

And in this too is exposed the one who boastfully claimed to know everything, as not having known what words to attribute to the Jewish persona against Jesus.

After this, I do not know how it is that he willingly passes over the greatest chief point concerning the establishment of Jesus' claim—namely that he was prophesied by the prophets among the Jews, by Moses and those after him or even before Moses—willingly, as I think, because of his inability to answer the argument, since not even the Jews nor any of the sects are unwilling to admit that the Christ was prophesied.

But perhaps he did not even know the prophecies concerning Jesus;

for had he grasped what is said by Christians—that many prophets foretold concerning the coming of the Savior—he would not have attributed to the Jewish persona things which it would have been more fitting for a Samaritan to say than for a Sadducee.

And a Jew in the assumed persona would not have said:

"But my prophet once said in Jerusalem that a Son of God would come, judge of the holy and chastiser of the unrighteous."

For it was not one prophet alone who prophesied the things concerning Christ;

and even if the Samaritans or Sadducees, who accept only the books of Moses, should assert that the Christ was prophesied in those books, yet at all events the prophecy was not spoken in Jerusalem, which had not yet even been named in the time of Moses.

Would, then, that all the accusers of the doctrine were in such ignorance, not only of the facts but even of the bare letters of Scripture, and that they accused Christianity in such a way that their argument might not have even the slightest plausibility—a plausibility capable of leading away the unstable and those who believe for a season, not away from faith but from littleness of faith.

But a Jew would not admit that some prophet said a Son of God would come;

for what they say is that the Christ of God will come.

And often they raise questions against us straightway concerning a Son of God, as though there were no such being and none had been prophesied.

And we do not say this, that a Son of God is not prophesied, but that he attributed unfittingly to the Jewish persona—which does not confess such a thing—the saying "my prophet once said in Jerusalem that a Son of God would come."

Then, as though this alone had been prophesied—that he would be judge of the holy and chastiser of the unrighteous—and as though neither the place of his birth, nor his passion which he would suffer at the hands of the Jews, nor his resurrection, nor the marvelous miracles he would perform had been foretold, he says:

"Why you rather than the countless others who arose after the prophecy, concerning whom these things were prophesied?" And I do not know how it is that, wishing to attribute also to others the possibility of being suspected to be the ones prophesied, he says that some, being inspired, and others, going about collecting (as beggars), declare that a Son of God has come from above;

for we have not found it recorded that these things are acknowledged among the Jews to have happened.

It must therefore be said, first, that many prophets foretold in all manner of ways the things concerning the Christ—some through riddles, others through allegory or in another manner, and some even in plain words.

And since in what follows he says, in the persona of the Jew addressed to those of the people who believe, that the prophecies referred to these matters could also be applied to other things—saying this in a clever and malicious way—we shall set forth a few out of many;

concerning which let anyone who wishes say something compelling toward their refutation, and capable of removing even those who believe diligently from their faith.

Now it has been said concerning the place of his birth, that from Bethlehem shall come forth the ruler, in this manner:

And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephratha, are little to be among the thousands of Judah;

Bethlehem, coming to rule over the people.

And concerning Jesus having been born in Bethlehem, if anyone wishes, after the prophecy of Micah and after the account recorded in the gospels by the disciples of Jesus, to be persuaded also from another source, let him consider that, in accordance with the account in the gospel concerning his birth, the cave in Bethlehem is shown where he was born, and the manger in the cave where he was wrapped in swaddling clothes.

And this thing that is shown is famous in those places even among those alien to the faith, that in this cave Jesus was born, who is worshipped and admired by the Christians.

But I think that before the coming of Christ, the chief priests and scribes of the people, on account of the clarity and plainness of the prophecy, taught that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem.

And this saying reached even to the many of the Jews;

whence also Herod is recorded as inquiring of the chief priests and scribes of the people, having heard from them that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem of Judea, whence David came.

And further, in the Gospel according to John it is stated that the Jews said that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem, whence David was.

But after the coming of Christ, those who busied themselves with destroying the supposition concerning him as having been prophesied of old regarding his birth, removed such teaching from the people;

doing something akin to those who persuaded the soldiers guarding the tomb, who had seen him risen from the dead and reported this, by telling them to say to those who saw it:

Say that his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were sleeping.

And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. For contentiousness and prejudice are powerful in making one resist even what is plainly evident, lest people abandon the doctrines they have steeped themselves in and to which they have somehow become accustomed, and which have permeated their soul.

And a man would more easily abandon his customs concerning other matters, even if he is hardly to be torn from them, than those concerning his doctrines.

Yet not even those former things do the accustomed easily overlook;

thus those who are preoccupied with them are not willing easily to leave houses, cities, villages, or accustomed companions.

This, then, became the cause why many of the Jews at that time were unable to look upon the plain evidences both of the prophecies and of the marvels which Jesus is recorded to have done and to have suffered.

That human nature has experienced something of this kind will be clear to those who consider that those who have once been preoccupied and brought up in the most shameful and futile traditions of fathers and fellow citizens are not easily changed;

for one would not quickly persuade an Egyptian to despise what he has received from his fathers, so as not to regard some irrational animal as a god, or to guard himself even unto death from tasting the flesh of that animal.

If, then, in examining such an argument we have gone at greater length into the matters concerning Bethlehem and the prophecy about it, we think we have necessarily done so, defending ourselves against those who might say that, if the prophecies among the Jews concerning Jesus were so plain, why then, when he came, did they not assent to his teaching and turn to the better things shown by Jesus.

But let none of us reproach believers with anything similar, seeing that no contemptible arguments are advanced concerning faith in Jesus by those who have learned to champion them.

And if there is need for us also of a second clear prophecy concerning Jesus, we shall set forth the one recorded very many years before the coming of Jesus by Moses, who said that Jacob, as he was departing from life, prophesied to each of his sons, and said to Judah, among other things, this:

—one of the unbelievers might suspect [it was] spoken by Moses—he would marvel how Moses was able to foretell that the rulers of the Jews, there being twelve tribes among them, would be born from the tribe of Judah and would rule the people;

wherefore also the whole people are named Jews, being named after the reigning tribe.

And secondly, he who reads the prophecy with a fair mind would marvel in what manner, having said that from the tribe of Judah would come the rulers and leaders of the people, he also established the end of that rule, saying that a ruler shall not depart from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until there come the things laid up for him, and he himself is the expectation of the nations.

For he has come for whom the things laid up are, the Christ of God, the ruler of the promises of God;

and clearly this one alone has become, beyond all those before him—and I would boldly say also those after him—the expectation of the nations;

for from all the nations they have believed in God through him, and according to what was said by Isaiah, 'In his name the nations hoped,' who said:

In his name shall the nations hope. And this one also said to those in bonds—inasmuch as each is bound fast by the cords of his own sins—the word 'Come forth,' and to those in ignorance, to come into the light, these things also having been thus prophesied:

And I have given you for a covenant of the nations, to establish the earth and to inherit the heritage of the desert, saying to those in bonds, 'Come forth,' and to those in darkness, 'Be revealed.' And it is possible to see, at his coming, fulfilled—through those who throughout the whole inhabited world believe more simply—the word, 'And in all the ways they shall be fed, and in all the paths shall be their pasture.' But since Celsus, who professes to know all things of the doctrine, reproaches the Savior for his suffering, as one not helped by the Father or unable to help himself, it must be set forth that his suffering was prophesied together with the cause, namely that it was profitable for men that he should die for them and suffer the stripe that came from being condemned.

And it had been foretold also that those from the nations, among whom the prophets had not been, would understand him; and it had been said that he would be seen having a form appearing dishonored among men:

Behold, my servant shall understand, and shall be exalted and glorified and lifted up exceedingly.

As many shall be astonished at you, so shall your appearance be without glory from men, and your glory from men.

So shall many nations marvel at him, and kings shall shut their mouths;

for those to whom it was not announced concerning him shall see, and those who have not heard shall understand.

Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We announced him as a child before him, as a root in a thirsty ground;

he has no form nor glory.

And we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty, but his form was dishonored and failing beyond all men;

a man in affliction and acquainted with bearing infirmity, because his face was turned away, he was dishonored and not esteemed.

He bears our sins and suffers pain for us, and we considered him to be in toil and in affliction and in misery.

But he was wounded for our sins, and he was bruised for our iniquities;

the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripe we were healed.

We all like sheep went astray, every man went astray in his own way;

and the Lord delivered him up for our sins, and he, because of being afflicted, opens not his mouth;

as a sheep led to the slaughter, and as a lamb dumb before its shearer, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away;

[lest] they become so on the pretext that the Jews were scattered among the rest of the nations.

And thus he was expounding the saying 'Your appearance shall be without glory from men' and 'Those to whom it was not announced concerning him shall see' and 'A man in affliction.' Many things, then, were said at that time in the inquiry which prove that those men do not reasonably apply these prophesied things to the whole people as referring to some single one.

And I was inquiring, whose person it might be that says:

"He bears our sins and suffers pain for us"; and the words:

"But he was wounded for our sins, and bruised for our iniquities"; and whose person was it that said:

"By his stripes we were healed." For clearly those who were in their sins and were healed because the Saviour suffered—whether from that people or from among the Gentiles—say these things through the prophet, who foresaw them and through the Holy Spirit gave them this dramatic expression.

Most of all we seemed to press the point from the passage which says: