Against Celsus 1 part 40/42

But since the souls of those who die for Christianity, departing from the body with glory for the sake of piety, used to break down the power of the demons and to make weaker their plot against men, for this reason, I think, the demons, having learned by experience that they were being defeated and overcome by the martyrs of the truth, were afraid to come again to avenge themselves;

and so, until they forget the sufferings they have endured, it is likely that there will be peace between the world and the Christians.

But whenever they gather their power and, being blinded by wickedness, again wish to avenge themselves and to persecute the Christians, they will again be overthrown;

and then again the souls of the godly, who put off their bodies for the sake of piety, will destroy the camp of the evil one.

And I think that, when the demons perceive that those who conquer and die for piety destroy their dominion, while those who are defeated through the torments and deny godliness become subject to them, they sometimes contend over the Christians who are handed over, being, as it were, punished by their confession but given rest by their denial.

And one may see traces of these things even in the judges, who are tormented by those who endure the tortures and torments, but exult whenever a Christian is overcome.

For they do not do these things even out of any seeming kindness, since they clearly see that, though the tongue of those overcome by torment has sworn, yet the mind remains unsworn.

And these things, in reference to the saying, "but these at any rate vigorously avenge themselves on the blasphemer, either making him flee for it and hide, or be caught and perish"—

...he flees through cowardice—but rather keeping the commandment of his Teacher and preserving himself pure for the salvation of others who will be benefited.

Let us also look at what follows, which runs thus:

"What need is there to enumerate how many things, partly prophets and prophetesses, partly others possessed, both men and women, have foretold with inspired voice from the oracles? How many marvels have been heard from their sanctuaries? How many things have been made plain to those consulting them from sacrificial victims and offerings, how many from other portentous signs? To some, manifest apparitions have presented themselves."

"The whole of life is full of these things."

"How many cities have been raised up from oracles and have laid aside diseases and famines, while how many that neglected or forgot these have been miserably destroyed? How many have been sent out to colonies and, having performed what was enjoined, have prospered? How many rulers, how many private men, have fared better or worse on account of this? How many who grieved over childlessness have, on obtaining what they asked, escaped the wrath of the demons? How many bodily maimings have been healed? And how many, on the other hand, who committed outrage at the sacred places were straightway caught—some seized with madness on the very spot, some confessing what they had done, some having destroyed themselves, some bound fast in incurable diseases? And ere now a deep voice from the very sanctuaries has struck some down."

And I do not know how Celsus brings these things forward as manifest, yet has reckoned the marvels recorded among us—whether Jewish, or those concerning Jesus and His disciples—to be myths.

For why are not our things true, while the things Celsus tells are mythical fabrications? Things which not even the philosophical schools of the Greeks have believed—such as that of Democritus, of Epicurus, and of Aristotle—schools which might perhaps have believed, on account of the evidentness, in our records, if they had chanced upon Moses, or upon some one of the prophets who wrought marvels, or upon Jesus Himself.

The Pythia is recorded once to have given an oracle even when corrupted;

but our prophets were admired not only by those of their own time, on account of the evidentness of the things spoken by them, but also in the times that followed.

For from the things which the prophets foretold, cities were raised up and men were healed and famines ceased; and moreover the whole Jewish nation clearly went out to a colony, from Egypt to Palestine, according to oracles;

and this nation, when it carried out the things enjoined by God, prospered, but when it stumbled, it repented.

And what need is there to tell how many rulers and how many private men, according to the histories of the Scripture, fared better or worse according as they paid heed to the prophecies or neglected them? And if one must also speak about childlessness, over which some fathers or mothers have grieved, having sent up their prayers about this to the Creator of all, let one read the things about Abraham and Sarah, from whom Isaac was born when they were already aged—he who is father of the whole Jewish nation and of others besides these; and let one also read the things about Hezekiah, who not only obtained release from disease according to the prophecies of Isaiah, but also said with confidence:

"For from now on I will beget children, who shall declare your righteousness." And in the fourth book of Kings, the woman who received Elisha, who by the grace of God prophesied concerning the birth of a child, became a mother according to the prayers of Elisha.

But also countless bodily maimings were healed by Jesus.

And many who dared to commit outrage against the Jewish religion at the temple in Jerusalem suffered the things recorded in the books of the Maccabees.

But the Greeks will say that these are myths, although they are attested as true by two whole nations.

And why are not the things of the Greeks rather myths than these? And if one were to come to close quarters with the argument, lest he seem arbitrarily to accept his own things while disbelieving those of others, and were to say that the things of the Greeks also came to pass through certain demons, and the things of the Jews either through God by means of the prophets, or through the angels, or through God by means of the angels, and the things of the Christians through Jesus and the power in His apostles;

...having experienced what were deemed benefits—if only he will see that the ancient Jewish nation was philosophical, before they outraged the Divine, by whom, on account of their great wickedness, they were forsaken; while the Christians, who came together in a marvellous way, were at the beginning won over rather by the marvels than by the persuasive words, to forsake their ancestral customs and to choose things alien to their fathers' ways.

For indeed, if one must also use a probable argument concerning the original formation of the Christian body, we shall say that it is not likely either that the apostles of Jesus—men unlettered and of private station—took courage to proclaim Christianity to men by anything other than the power given to them and the grace in the word for setting forth the matters indicated; nor that those who heard them were transferred from ancestral, time-honoured customs, unless some considerable power and portentous deeds had moved them over to things so strange and alien to the doctrines in which they had been reared.

Then, I know not how, Celsus, having set forth the eagerness of those who contend even unto death not to abjure Christianity, adds, as if equating our things with what is said by the initiators and hierophants, and says:

"Above all, my good sir, just as you believe in eternal punishments, so too do the expounders of those sacred rites, the initiators and hierophants;

the punishments which you threaten to others, they threaten to you.

For which of the two is truer or has the upper hand, it is possible to consider.

For in argument each side asserts equally concerning its own matters;

but if proofs are required, they bring forward many evident works both of certain demonic powers and of oracles, adducing them from manifold sorts of divination."

By these words, then, he wishes us and the initiators alike to speak of eternal punishments, and to examine which of the two are the more truthful.

But I would say that those speak the truth who have been able so to dispose their hearers, of the things spoken, that they live as though these things were so.

Jews and Christians are disposed concerning what is called by them the age to come, and the rewards in it for the righteous and the punishments for the sinners.

Let Celsus, then, or whoever wishes, show who have been disposed concerning eternal punishments by the initiators and hierophants.

For it is likely that the intention of the father of the things spoken is not merely to acquit oneself of duty and to speak about punishments, but to dispose the hearers so that, as far as possible, they may guard themselves against doing the things that are causes of the punishments.

But the prophecies also, to those who read them not carelessly, seem to me, by the foreknowledge in them, sufficient to persuade the one who reads with understanding and at the same time with good will, that the Spirit of God was in those men;

with which neither any of the demonstrated works of demons, nor any of the powers from oracles, nor any of the divinations, can be compared even in the slightest degree.

Let us also see what is said next by Celsus against us, which runs thus:

"Moreover, how are these things of yours not absurd—to long for the body and to hope that this very body will rise again, as though we had nothing better or more precious than it, and yet again to throw it into punishments as worthless? But it is not worth while to argue thus with those who are persuaded of this and have grown fused with the body;

for these are the very ones who are in other respects also boorish and unclean, and who, apart from reason, share in the disease of the seditious faction;

but to those who think of the soul or the mind—whether they wish to call it spiritual, or a spirit intellectual and holy and blessed, or a living soul, or the offspring of a divine and incorporeal nature, supercelestial and incorruptible, or whatever else they delight in naming it—to those who hope to have this eternally with God, to these I will speak."

"This indeed they rightly believe, that those who have lived well shall be blessed, while the unjust shall be held fast entirely by eternal evils;

and from this doctrine let neither these nor any other man ever depart."

...what is often said is often to be defended.

And Celsus slanders us as holding that nothing is better or more precious than the body in our constitution;

for we say that the soul of every body, and especially the rational soul, is a thing more precious, since the soul, but by no means the body, has room for what is according to the image of the Creator.

For according to us, God is not a body;

that we may not fall into the absurdities into which those who philosophize after the manner of Zeno and Chrysippus fall.

And since he reproaches us also as longing for the body, let him know that, if the longing is base, we long for nothing; but if it is a thing indifferent, we long for all that God promises to the righteous.

In this way, then, we both long for and hope for the resurrection of the righteous.

Celsus thinks that we also make ourselves inconsistent, in that on the one hand we hope for the resurrection of the body, as being worthy of honour from God, while on the other hand we throw it into punishments as worthless.

Nothing, then, is worthless that suffers for the sake of piety and chooses hardships for the sake of virtue; but rather everything is worthless that is squandered with wickedness in pleasures.

At any rate, the divine word also says:

"What kind of seed is honoured? The seed of man;

what kind of seed is dishonoured? The seed of man." Then Celsus thinks that we ought not to argue with those who hope for the things concerning the body, as being fused, without reason, to a thing impossible to attain to of the things hoped for by them, calling them boorish and unclean and consorting without reason with the seditious faction—when one ought, as a lover of mankind, to help even the more boorish.

For sociability is not circumscribed so as to exclude the more boorish men, as it is the irrational animals; but He who made us made us equally sociable toward all men.

It is therefore worth while to argue even with the boorish, and, so far as possible, to lead them over to a more refined state; and with the unclean, to make them, as far as may be, purer; and with those who in any way whatever think without reason and are diseased in soul, that they may no longer do anything without reason nor be diseased in soul.

And after this he accepts those who hope to have eternally the soul, or the mind, or what is called by them the spiritual or rational spirit—intellectual, holy, and blessed—or a living soul, and to have it with God; and he admits as rightly believed the doctrine concerning those who have lived well, that they shall be blessed, and concerning the unjust, that they shall be held fast entirely by eternal evils.

And I have indeed marvelled at Celsus, among all the things said by him, at what he thus subjoins to the foregoing, in which he says:

"And from this doctrine let neither these nor any other man ever depart."

And he ought indeed to have seen, writing against Christians—for whom the whole basis of the faith is God and the promises through Christ concerning the righteous and the teachings concerning punishment concerning the unjust—that the Christian who is subverted from accepting Celsus's arguments against Christians is likely, having cast away the doctrine, to cast away along with it the dogma, from which, he says, neither would Christians depart, nor any other man.

But I think Chrysippus acted more humanely than Celsus in his treatise on the therapy of the passions, wishing to heal the passions as things that press hard upon and trouble the human soul, primarily by what seemed to him sound arguments, but secondarily and thirdly even by those doctrines which did not please him;

for he says: "Even if there be three kinds of goods, even so one must treat the passions, not busying oneself, at the very moment of the inflammation of the passions, with the doctrine that has taken possession of the one troubled by the passion, lest by an ill-timed leisure spent on overturning the doctrines that have preoccupied the soul, the healing that is possible should be lost."

And he says that, even if pleasure be the good, and the one mastered by the passion holds this view, none the less one ought to help him and to point out that, even to those who set pleasure as the good and the end, every passion is inconsistent with it.

...to make for himself, and, if it were possible, after the argument that seemed to him primary, to build up in addition and to demonstrate through more arguments that truly the unjust shall be held fast entirely by eternal evils, and those who have lived well shall be blessed.

For we too, primarily, on account of the many and countless things that have persuaded us to live according to Christianity, wish, so far as we are able, to make all men at home with all the doctrines of the Christians;

but where we find men preoccupied by the slander against Christians, so that they will not even lend an ear, on the supposition that Christians are not even pious, to certain men who profess to teach the things of the divine word, there, in keeping with our love of mankind, we take our stand as far as we are able, that, even by building up the doctrines concerning eternal punishment upon the impious, we may bring even those unwilling to be Christians to accept the word.

And so too concerning those who have lived well, that they shall be blessed, we wish to instil conviction, seeing that many of the things pertaining to a sound life are said even by those alien to the faith in the same way as by us;

for one would not find anyone who has utterly lost the common notions concerning things noble and base, and just and unjust.

Let all men, therefore, beholding the world and the ordered motion in it of heaven and of the things in the fixed sphere, and the order of those called planets that are borne contrary to the motion of the world, and beholding also the blending of the airs and waters for the benefit of living creatures and especially of men, and the abundance of the things created for the sake of men—let them beware of doing anything displeasing to the Creator of the whole and of their own souls and of the mind in them, and let them be persuaded that they shall be punished for their sins, but shall be led by Him who dispenses to each according to his desert, to rewards proportionate to the deeds rightly done or duly rendered;

and let all men be persuaded that the good shall depart well, on account of the better deeds, while the wicked shall wickedly be handed over to toils and torments for their wrongdoings and licentious acts and dissolute deeds, and further for their unmanliness and cowardice and for all their folly.

Having said so much on this point too, let us look at another statement of Celsus, which runs thus:

"And since men have come into being bound to a body, whether for the administration of the universe, or paying penalties for sin, or because the soul has been weighed down by certain passions, until in the appointed cycles it be purified;

for, according to Empedocles, it must be that 'for thrice ten thousand seasons he wander far from the blessed, becoming in the course of time all manner of mortal forms';

one must therefore be persuaded that men have been handed over to certain overseers of this prison."

See, then, in these matters too, concerning how many things he is humanly in doubt, and, having set forth the doctrines of several thinkers concerning the cause of our coming into being, he manifests a certain caution, not daring to declare any of these to be false.

Was it not then fitting for such a one, who had once decided neither to assent at random nor rashly to reject the opinions held by the ancients, also concerning the doctrine of the Jews set forth among their prophets, and concerning Jesus, if he did not wish to believe, at least to be in doubt and to consider that it was likely that those who served the God of all, and who for the sake of honouring Him and for the things believed by Him had often undergone countless dangers and deaths, were not overlooked by God, but that some manifestation also came to them—to them who despised the human art concerning the images and tried to ascend by reasoning to the God who is over all Himself? And he ought to have considered that the common Father and Creator of all, who beholds all and hearkens to all, judging according to desert the purpose of each one that seeks Him and wills to be godly, assigns to these too some fruit of His protection, that they may the more increase the notion of Him which they once received.

...thus they reviled Moses and the prophets and Jesus and His apostles;

nor did they reject the Jews alone above all the nations on earth, saying that they were even worse than the Egyptians, who, whether through superstition or through some cause or error whatever, debased, so far as in them lay, the honour due to the Divine even down to the level of irrational animals.

But we have said these things not to urge anyone to be in doubt concerning the doctrine of Christianity, but to set forth that, for those who utterly revile the doctrine of the Christians, it is more to be chosen at least to be in doubt concerning these things, and not so rashly to say concerning Jesus or His disciples things which they do not know and pronounce upon—not with what is called among the Stoics a comprehensive apprehension, nor from any other criterion, concerning which each school of philosophers has constructed what appears to it, as seemed good to it.

Then, since Celsus says:

"One must therefore be persuaded that men have been handed over to certain overseers of this prison," it is to be said to him that the diligent soul would be loosed from the bonds of wickedness even in the life of those whom Jeremiah named "the prisoners of the earth," through Jesus who spoke—as long before His sojourn the prophet Isaiah foretold;

and what did he foretell but, "to those who are bound, Come forth, and to those in darkness, Be uncovered"? And this same Jesus, as the same Isaiah foretold concerning Him, made a light to rise upon those sitting in the region and shadow of death, so that on this account we say:

"Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their yoke from us." And if Celsus, and those disposed against us in like manner with him, were able to hear the depth of the Gospels, he would not have counselled us to obey those whom he named overseers of the prison.

And it is written in the Gospel that there was a certain woman bent over and not able to straighten herself up at all, whom Jesus, seeing and perceiving for what cause she was bent, not permitted to straighten up at all, said:

"Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years, to be loosed from this bond on the day of the Sabbath?" And how many others now, bound by Satan, are bent over, not able on account of him to straighten up at all, since he wishes us to look downward? And no one sets them upright except the Word that sojourned in Jesus, and that before also inspired men.

And Jesus indeed came to set free all those tyrannized over by the devil, and concerning that one, having spoken with a certain depth befitting Him, said:

"Now is the ruler of this world judged." We therefore do not revile the demons here, but we expose their activities for the destruction of the human race, who under the pretext of oracles and of healing bodies and of certain other things wish to separate from God the soul that has fallen into the body of humiliation;

which soul those who have understood cry aloud:

"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" But neither do we without cause give over the body to be racked and beaten to death;

for he does not without cause give over his body to these things who, for the sake of not having the earthly demons proclaimed as gods, is plotted against by them and by those who worship them.

And we have reasonably reckoned it to be dear to God to be beaten to death for the sake of virtue, and to be racked for the sake of piety, and to die for the sake of holiness; for "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His holy ones";

and we say that it is also a good thing not to be a lover of life.

But Celsus, likening us to malefactors who reasonably endure what they suffer for robbery, and not being ashamed to declare so great a purpose as akin to the disposition of robbers, makes himself in these things a brother of those who reckoned Jesus among the lawless, in whom is fulfilled the Scripture that says:

"He was reckoned among the lawless." And next to these Celsus says:

"One of two things the argument compels:

either to depart hence in full force, leaving behind no seed, so that this whole race should be utterly wiped off the earth;

or, if they will also take wives and beget children and taste of fruits and partake of the things in this life and bear with the evils that are laid upon them—for it is nature itself that all men should make trial of evils;

for it is necessary that evils exist, and they have no other place—then they must render the fitting honours to those to whom these things have been entrusted, and must perform for life the services that are due, until they be loosed from the bonds, lest they even seem to be ungrateful toward these."

"For it is unjust that those who partake of what these provide should contribute nothing to them."

But we say in answer to these things too that no reasonable departure from life seems to us to exist except that for the sake of piety and virtue alone, whenever, by those reputed to be judges or who seem to have authority over our living, the alternative is set before us: either to live by doing what is contrary to the things ordained by Jesus, or to die by obeying His words.

But God also permitted us to take a wife, since not all have room for the more excellent thing—that is, the wholly pure—and to those who take wives, by all means to rear the children begotten and not to destroy the offspring given by Providence.

And these things do not conflict with our not obeying the demons that have a share in the earth;

for, having armed ourselves with the whole armour of God, we stand as athletes of piety against the race of demons that plot against us.

Even if, then, in his own argument Celsus would send us all in full force away from life, that, as he thinks, this whole race of ours might be utterly wiped from the earth, yet we will live according to the laws of God in the things of our Creator, by no means willing to be enslaved to the laws of sin.

And we will take wives, if we wish, and will receive the children given to us in our marriages.

And if need be, we will also partake of the things in this life, bearing with the evils laid upon us as trials of the soul.

For thus it is the custom of the divine words to name the things that befall men;

in which, as gold in fire, the soul of man being tested is either proved or shown to be admirable.

And so we are prepared against the evils which Celsus mentions, so that we even say:

"Test me, O Lord, and try me; purge my reins and my heart." For no one is crowned unless he has lawfully striven here, even on earth, with the body of humiliation.

And besides these things, neither do we render the honours that he says are due to those to whom Celsus says the things here have been entrusted.

For we worship the Lord our God and serve Him alone, praying to become imitators of Christ, who, to the devil that said to Him:

"All these things will I give you, if you will fall down and worship me," said:

"You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve." And on this account we do not render the honours said to be due to those to whom Celsus says the things here have been entrusted, since "No one can serve two masters," and we cannot serve God and mammon at the same time, whether it be called one thing or more than one.

But also, if one dishonours the lawgiver by transgressing the law, it appears clear to us that, since two laws are mutually opposed—the law of God and the law of mammon—it is more to be chosen for us to dishonour mammon by transgressing the law of mammon, that by keeping the law of God we may honour God, than, by transgressing the law of God, to dishonour God, that by keeping the law of mammon we may honour mammon.

Celsus, then, thinks that one performs for life the fitting services, until men are loosed from the bonds, when one renders the sacrifices according to the customs of the multitude to each of the gods deemed to belong to the city—not having understood what is truly fitting, as it is conceived by exact piety;

but we say that he performs for life the fitting services who remembers who is the Creator, and what things are dear to Him, and who does all things with a view to what is dear to God.

...that thank-offerings are owed to them;

and we, making clear the doctrine concerning thanksgiving, say to those who do us no good but rather set themselves in opposition, that we do nothing ungrateful when we do not sacrifice to them nor even serve them.

But we avoid being ungrateful toward God, of whose benefits we are full, being both His creatures and provided for by Him, having been judged worthy in whatever measure, and awaiting from Him our hopes beyond this life.

And there is also a symbol with us of our thanksgiving to God, the bread called the Eucharist (thanksgiving).

But neither do the demons have, as we said also in the foregoing, the administration of the things created for our needs;

wherefore neither do we do anything unjust in partaking of the created things and in not sacrificing to those to whom they do not belong.

And even if we should see, not as demons but as angels, certain ones appointed over the fruits of the earth and over the generation of animals, we bless them and call them blessed, as having been entrusted by God with the things useful to our race;

yet we do not assign to these the honour owed to God, for neither does God will this, nor do those themselves who have been entrusted with such things.

And they accept us as guarding ourselves against sacrificing to them, whether we sacrifice or not;

for neither do those have need of the things sent up in smoke from the earth.