Against Celsus 1 part 41/42

After these things Celsus says such things as the following:

"That moreover in these matters, even down to the smallest things, there is one to whom authority has been given, one might learn from what the Egyptians say: namely, that the body of man having been parcelled out among six-and-thirty demons, or certain aethereal gods, divided into so many parts—and some say even far more—each is appointed to administer some different part of it."

"And they know the names of the demons in the local tongue, such as Chnoumen and Chnachoumen and Knat and Sikat and Biou and Erou and Erebiou and Ramanor and Reianoor, and all the other names by which they call them in their own language;

and indeed by calling upon them they heal the sufferings of the parts."

"What, then, prevents one—if anyone needs it—from propitiating both these and the others, so as to be healthy rather than sick, and fortunate rather than unfortunate, and to be freed, so far as possible, from torments and punishments?" And by these means, indeed, trying to drag down our soul to the demons, as having been allotted our bodies, and declaring that each single one presides over a part of our body, Celsus wishes us both to believe in the demons of whom he speaks and to serve them, that we may be healthy rather than sick, and fortunate rather than unfortunate, and, so far as possible, freed from torments.

So far, then, has he condemned the undivided and indivisible honour due to the God of all, that he does not believe that God alone, when worshipped and honoured with a loud voice, is sufficient to supply to the one who honours Him, from the very worship of Him, a power that wards off the plot of the demons against the holy man;

for he has not seen in what manner the name of Jesus, called upon by those who genuinely believe, has healed not a few from diseases and demon-possessions and other afflictions.

And it is likely that he who embraces the views of Celsus will laugh when we say that "in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and every tongue is brought to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father";

but having laughed, he will receive clearer demonstrations that these things are so than concerning the names he records—Chnoumen and Chnachoumen and Knat and Sikat and the rest of the Egyptian catalogue—as being called upon and as healing the sufferings of the parts.

And see in what manner, while turning us away from believing on the God of all through Jesus Christ, he calls us to faith—for the sake of the healing of our body—in six-and-thirty barbarous demons, whom the Egyptian magi alone call upon, and, I know not how, promise us the better things.

...He who with great power has sown the pure word of the worship of God throughout the whole inhabited world of men; and I shall not lie if I add and say, throughout the world of the other rational beings also that have need of correction and healing and of change from wickedness.

At any rate Celsus, suspecting the slide into magic on the part of those who have learned such things, and perceiving in a way the harm that will come to his hearers, says:

"This, however, must be guarded against: lest anyone, consorting with these things, become fused with the service concerning them, and, having become a lover of the body and turned away from the better things, be held fast by forgetfulness."

"For perhaps one ought not to disbelieve wise men, who indeed say that the greater part of the earthly demons, being fused with becoming and fastened to blood and the savour of burnt fat and to melodies and to certain other such things, are able to do nothing better than to heal the body and to foretell the coming fortune of a man and a city, and know and are able to do whatever pertains to mortal affairs."

Such a slide, then, existing concerning this matter—as even the enemy bears witness to the truth of God—how much better is it, without any suspicion, in the interest of not becoming fused with such demons or of becoming a lover of the body and turning away from the better things and being held fast by forgetfulness of the better things, to entrust oneself to the God who is over all through Jesus Christ, who has laid down for us such teaching, and from Him to ask for all help and the guardianship that comes from holy angels and from the righteous, that they may deliver us from the earthly demons, fused with becoming and fastened to blood and the savour of burnt fat and led by strange melodies and bound to other such things—demons confessedly, even according to Celsus, able to do nothing better than to heal the body!

But I would say that it is not even evident that these demons, however they may be served, are able to heal bodies;

rather, the healing of bodies, if one should wish to live more simply and in the more ordinary way, ought to be effected by the medical method; but if in a way better than the multitude, by piety toward the God who is over all and by prayers to Him.

For do you yourself consider with yourself which character the God who is over all will rather accept—He who is able, as no other, to do all things both for the benefit of men, whether concerning the soul or the body or external things—whether the one who is devoted to Him concerning all things, or the one who busies himself with the names and powers and actions of demons, and incantations and herbs proper to demons, and stones and the engravings on them corresponding to the forms of demons handed down, whether symbolically or in whatever way.

But it is clear to one who is able to follow even a little, that the unfeigned and unmeddlesome character, for this reason devoted to the God who is over all, will be acceptable to God and to all who are made His own;

but the character that, for the sake of bodily health and love of the body and good fortune in the midst of affairs, busies itself with the names of demons and seeks how it may charm the demons with certain incantations, as being depraved and impious and demonic rather than human, God will abandon to those whom the one who says such things has chosen—the demons—to be torn apart by the reasonings suggested by each, or even by other evils.

For it is likely that they, being base and, as Celsus has confessed, fastened to blood and the savour of burnt fat and to melodies and to certain other such things, do not even keep faith and, as it were, pledges of friendship toward those who gratify them with these things.

For when others call upon them against those who have served them, and buy their servitude with more blood and savour of burnt fat and whatever service they require, they would plot against the one who served them yesterday and shared with them the feast dear to them.

...being bound fast, able to do nothing better than these things.

And it is likely that, when we stood against Celsus, who theologizes about the oracles and the healings among the so-called gods, someone supposed us to be impious, we who say that these are works of demons that drag down the souls of men into the affairs of becoming;

but now let the one who supposed those things about us be persuaded that the things proclaimed by the Christians are rightly spoken, seeing that even the one who writes against Christians has now, at the end, as if overcome by the Spirit of truth, recorded these things.

And so, even if Celsus says, "These must be religiously observed, so far as it is expedient, for it is not in every way that reason chooses to do this"—

one must not religiously observe demons fused with the savour of burnt fat and with blood, nor, so far as in us lies, must the Divine be defiled by those who drag it down to depraved demons.

But if Celsus had made precise the notion of the expedient, and had seen that what is properly expedient is virtue and action according to virtue, he would not have applied the phrase "so far as it is expedient" to such beings and—as he himself confessed—to demons.

We, then, choose, if health and good fortune in the things of life are to come to us through the service of such demons, rather to be sick and unfortunate in the things of life, with a conscience that is purely pious toward the God of all, than, with being torn away and falling away from God and the soul being utterly diseased and ill-fated, to be healthy in body and to fare more fortunately in the things of life;

and one ought to approach Him who is in need of nothing whatever except the salvation of men and of every rational being, rather than those who crave the savour of burnt fat and blood.

Celsus, then, I think, after so many arguments which he made concerning the demons that crave the savour of burnt fat and blood, as if coming to a base palinode, says that one ought rather to think that the demons need nothing and require nothing, but rejoice in those who act piously toward them.

But if he thought this to be true, he ought either not to have laid down those former statements, or to have wiped these latter ones out.

But indeed human nature is not in every way forsaken by God and by the Truth that is His Only-begotten.

Wherefore Celsus, on the one hand, spoke the truth in what he said concerning the savour of burnt fat and blood, of which demons are in need;

but again, through his own wickedness, he slid down to falsehood and likens the demons to men who do what is just altogether justly, even if no one is grateful to them, but do good things to those who requite them with gratitude.

And he seems to me to be confounded in this passage, and at one time to have the governing faculty disturbed by the demons, while at another time, becoming somewhat sober from the irrationality under them, to see for a little something of the truth.

"But God must by no means and in no way be forsaken, neither by day nor by night, neither in public nor in private, in every word and deed continually; but rather, both with these things and apart from them, let the soul ever be stretched out toward God."

And I understand the phrase "with these things" to mean: with what is common and with every deed and with every word.

Then again, as if wrestling in his reasoning against the ecstasies that come from the demons, and for the most part being overcome, he adds and says:

"If these things be so, what is the terrible thing about propitiating the rulers here—both the others, and those who hold sway among men, and kings—seeing that not even these have been deemed worthy of the things here without daemonic power?" In the foregoing, then, he dragged down our soul, so far as in him lay, to the demons;

but now he wishes us also to propitiate the rulers among men and kings, of whom, since life and the histories are full, I have not now thought it necessary to set forth the examples.

One, then—the God who is over all—must we propitiate, and Him must we entreat to be gracious, propitiating Him by piety and by every virtue.

But if he wishes us also to propitiate certain others after the God who is over all, let him consider that, just as the motion of a body's shadow follows the moving body, in the same way, upon propitiating the God who is over all there follows having gracious toward us all His friends—angels and souls and spirits.

...they become so to the worthy, but also cooperate with those who wish to serve the God who is over all, and are gracious and pray together and ask together with them;

so that we venture to say that, to men who with deliberate purpose set before themselves the better things and pray to God, countless holy powers pray together with them, unbidden, presenting themselves to our perishable race, and, so to speak, contending together with us, since they see the demons warring and contending against the salvation, especially of those who devote themselves to God and do not heed the demons' enmity—even should those demons rage against the man who flees their services through the savour of burnt fat and blood, but in every way of words and deeds presses on to be made the household and to be united to the God who is over all, through Jesus who destroyed countless demons when He went about healing and turning back those tyrannized over by the devil.

For us, however, the propitiation of men and kings must be held in contempt—not only if we should propitiate them through bloody deeds and acts of licentiousness and most savage deeds, but also if it be through impiety toward the God of all, or through any voice attended with servility and abjectness, alien to brave and high-souled men who are willing to take up endurance as the greatest virtue together with the others.

But where we do nothing contrary to the law and word of God, we are not mad, nor do we rush to stir up against ourselves the anger of a king or potentate that brings upon us tortures and torments, or even deaths.

For we have read also the saying, "Let every soul be subject to the surpassing authorities."

"For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been ordained by God;

so that those who set themselves against the authority resist the ordinance of God."

In our exegetical works on the Epistle to the Romans, however, as far as it was possible for us, we have examined these words more fully and in various ways;

but now we have taken them for the matter before us more simply, according to the more common interpretation, since Celsus says:

"Neither have these been deemed worthy of the things here without daemonic power."

And since the discussion concerning the constitution of kings and potentates was long, there being much inquiry on this point on account of those who have ruled more savagely and tyrannically, or those who from ruling have run aground upon luxury and softness, for this reason we have for the present deferred examining the problem.

We do not, however, swear by the Fortune of the king, just as we do not swear by any other reputed god;

for if, as some have named it, Fortune is a mere chance happening, like opinion and dispersion, we do not swear by what in no way exists, as though it were a god or something subsisting at all and able to do anything, lest we take up the oath-power for things for which we ought not; or if also—as it seemed good to some who said:

those who swear by the Fortune of the Roman king swear by his daemon—the so-called Fortune of the king is a daemon, and thus we must rather die than swear by a depraved and untrustworthy daemon, one that often sins together with the man to whom it was allotted, or even sins more than he.

Then again Celsus, like those who from demon-possession sometimes rise up and then again fall down, as though sober, says some such things as these:

"If, however, anyone commands you—supposing you happen to worship God—either to act impiously or to say some other shameful thing, in no way at all must you yield, but before these things you must endure all tortures and undergo all deaths, sooner than say, much less even contemplate, anything unholy concerning God."

Then again, out of ignorance concerning our doctrine, and in addition to this, out of confounding all things, he says some such things as these:

"But if anyone commands you to celebrate the Sun or Athena, to celebrate them most eagerly with a beautiful paean, you will, by so doing, seem rather to worship the great God, if you hymn these also;

for piety, passing through all things, becomes more perfect."

We say, then, that we do not wait to celebrate the Sun at the command of the one who orders it, we who have learned to celebrate not only those subject to the ordinance, but even our enemies.

"...the Lord, sun and moon"; and, so far as is possible, hymning the Father and Creator of the universe.

Athena, however, placed alongside the Sun, the discourses of the Greeks have made into a myth, saying, whether with hidden meanings or without hidden meanings, that she was born fully armed from the head of Zeus;

and that, being then pursued by Hephaestus, who wished to ruin her virginity, she escaped him, while the seed which fell to the earth from his desire, she took up affectionately and reared, naming it Erichthonius—him whom, they say, "Athena once reared, the daughter of Zeus, and the grain-giving soil brought forth."

And we see, indeed, that for one who admits Athena, daughter of Zeus, many myths and fabrications must be received along with her—myths which one who flees myths but seeks truth would not accept.

But that Athena may also be allegorized and said to be prudence, let someone establish her hypostasis and her essence, as subsisting according to this allegory.

And if Athena, having become some ancient human being, is honoured—those who wished her name to be sung among men as that of a god having handed down mysteries and rites to their subordinates—much more ought one not to hymn Athena and glorify her as a god, if indeed it is not even lawful for us to worship the sun, great as it is, even though we may celebrate it.

Celsus, then, says that we seem rather to worship the great God if we also hymn the Sun and Athena; but we know the contrary.

For we sing hymns to the God who is over all things alone, and to His only-begotten Word, who is God.

And we indeed sing praise to God and to His only-begotten, just as the sun, the moon, the stars, and all the heavenly host do.

For all these, being a divine choir, sing praise together with the righteous among men to the God who is over all and to His only-begotten.

We have said before, then, that one must not swear by the king among men, nor by what is called his fortune.

Therefore it is not necessary for us to make a defense again on this point: even if someone should bid you swear by the king among men, this too is no terrible thing.

For the things upon the earth have been given to him, and whatever you receive in life, you receive from him.

But we say that not all the things upon the earth have been given to him entirely, nor is whatever we receive in life received from him.

For when we receive justly and rightly, we receive from God and from His providence—for example, cultivated fruits and bread that strengthens the heart of man, and the kindly vine and wine that gladdens the heart of man.

Moreover, we have the fruits of the olive too from the providence of God, to make the face cheerful with oil.

Next Celsus says in sequence that one ought not to disbelieve an ancient man who long ago foretold this:

"Let there be one king, to whom the son of crooked-counseled Cronus has given it."

—as if, should you abolish this doctrine, the king would justly punish you.

For if all should do the same as you, nothing would prevent the king from being left alone and forsaken, and the things on earth from falling into the hands of the most lawless and most savage barbarians, and neither of your religion nor of the true wisdom any glory remaining longer among men.

Let there then be one ruler, one king—not he to whom the son of crooked-counseled Cronus has given it, but he to whom it has been given by the One who appoints and deposes kings, and who raises up at the fitting time the man useful upon the earth;

and it is not the son of Cronus—who, as the myths of the Greeks say, was cast into Tartarus—who, having driven him from his rule, appoints kings (not even if anyone allegorizes the matters concerning those regions), but it is the God who governs the whole universe who knows what He is doing in the matter of the appointment of kings.

"To whom the son of crooked-counseled Cronus has given it"—for we are persuaded that God, or the Father of God, wills nothing crooked or perverse.

Nor do we abolish the doctrine concerning providence and the things that come to be either by its direct working or as consequences following from certain causes.

But neither does the king justly punish us, who assert that it was not the son of crooked-counseled Cronus who gave him the kingship, but He who deposes and appoints kings.

And yet, even on such a hypothesis, the king will neither be left alone, nor will he be forsaken, nor will the things on earth fall to the most lawless and most savage barbarians.

For if, as Celsus says, all should do the same as I, then clearly the barbarians too, coming to the word of God, would become most law-abiding and most gentle;

and every religion would be abolished, and only that of the Christians would prevail—which alone shall one day prevail, since the Word is ever winning over more souls.

Then Celsus, not even listening to himself, having spoken things inconsistent with his "for if all should do the same as you," says:

"You will surely not say this, that if the Romans, persuaded by you, should neglect their established customs toward gods and men, and call upon your Most High, or whomever you wish, he will come down and fight on their behalf, and they will need no other defense."

"For formerly the same God, promising to those who attended to Him these things and much greater than these—as you say—see how much He benefited them and you;

of whom, instead of being masters of the whole earth, there is left to them not so much as a clod of ground or a hearth; and as for you, even if any still wanders about hidden, yet he is hunted down to suffer the penalty of death."

And since he inquires hypothetically what answer might be made, if the Romans, persuaded by the Christian doctrine, should neglect the matters concerning the customary gods and the earlier laws among men, and worship the Most High—

let him hear what is our view concerning these matters.

We say that if indeed two of us should agree on earth concerning any matter whatsoever, that for which they ask shall be done for them by the Father of the righteous who is in the heavens;

for God rejoices in the harmony of rational beings and turns away from discord.

What then must we think, if not merely (as now) very few should be in harmony, but the whole empire under the Romans? For they would pray to Him who said of old to the Hebrews, when they were being pursued by the Egyptians:

"The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace." And praying with all harmony, they would be able to destroy far more enemies pursuing them than those whom the prayer of Moses, crying out to God, and of those with him, brought down.

And if the things which God promised to those who keep the law have not come to pass, it is not because God lies that they have not come to pass, but because the promises were made conditionally—on the conditions of keeping the law and living the life according to the law.

And if neither clod nor hearth is left to the Jews, who received the promises on conditions, one must blame all their transgression of the law, and especially that which was committed against Jesus.

But all the Romans who, on Celsus's hypothesis, should be persuaded would, by praying, prevail over their enemies, or would not even go to war at all, being guarded by a divine power—the power that promised to preserve five whole cities for the sake of fifty righteous men.

For the men of God are the salt that preserves the earthly constitutions of the world, and the things on earth hold together so long as the salt does not lose its savor;

for if the salt has lost its savor, it is no longer fit for the land or for the dunghill, but is cast out and trodden under foot by men.

And let him who has ears hear in what sense these things are said.

And we too, when God permits the tempter, giving him authority to persecute us, are persecuted;

but when God does not will that we should suffer this, then, even in a world that hates us, we wondrously enjoy peace and take courage in Him who said:

"Take courage, I have overcome the world." And truly He has overcome the world; therefore the world prevails only so far as He who overcame it wills, having received from the Father the power to overcome the world;

and we take courage in His victory.

But if He wills again that we should contend and strive for piety, let the adversaries come, to whom we shall say:

"I can do all things through Christ Jesus our Lord who strengthens me." For indeed, though two sparrows are sold for a farthing, as the Scripture has named it, not one of them falls into a snare without the Father who is in the heavens.

Then again, as is Celsus's habit, he muddles things in what follows, saying things which none of us has ever written:

"Nor indeed is that endurable, when you say that, if our present rulers, persuaded by you, should be taken captive, you will persuade those who reign afterward, and then others, if those too should be taken, and others upon others, until—when all who are persuaded by you have been captured—some single prudent and foresighted ruler, perceiving what is coming, will destroy you all, root and branch, before he himself first perishes."

But reason does not permit us to speak about these matters, for none of us says concerning the present rulers that, if they are persuaded and taken captive, we will again persuade those who come after them, and when those are captured, we will again persuade the next.

And from where did he throw out the notion that, by succession, as the later ones are continually persuaded by us and taken captive because they do not defend themselves against the enemy, some single prudent and foresighted ruler, perceiving what is coming, will destroy us all, root and branch? But he seems in these matters, stringing together nonsense in sequence, to have blurted this out of his own head.

And after these things, having uttered a certain prayer—this one:

"For if indeed it were possible that all those who inhabit Asia, Europe, and Libya, both Greeks and barbarians, to the uttermost ends of the earth, should come together in agreement under one law"—deeming this to be impossible, he adds that whoever supposes this knows nothing.

But if this too must be said, a few words shall be spoken on this topic—one which requires much examination and demonstration—to make it appear that what is said about all rational beings coming together in agreement under one law is not only possible but even true.

Now those of the Stoa say that, when the strongest of the other elements prevails (as they suppose), there will be a conflagration in which all things change into fire; but we say that the Word will one day master the whole rational nature and transform every soul into His own perfection, when each, having used his bare freedom, shall choose what he wills and come to be in those things which he has chosen;

and we say that it is not likely that—just as in the case of diseases and wounds in bodies some of the things that befall are stronger than all medical art—so in the case of souls there should be anything arising from evil that is incapable of being healed by the rational God who is over all things.

For the Word, being mightier than all the evils in the soul, and the healing that is in Him, applies it to each according to the will of God, and the end of these matters is the destruction of evil;

but whether so that it can never again in any way whatsoever be permitted, or not, is not for the present discourse to teach.

Now the prophecies say many things in hidden ways concerning the complete destruction of evils and the correction of every soul; but it suffices for the present to set down the passage from Zephaniah, which runs thus:

"All their gleaning is destroyed."

"Therefore wait for Me, says the Lord, in the day of My rising up for a testimony;

for My judgment is to gather the nations together, to receive kings, to pour out upon them all the fierceness of My wrath.

For in the fire of My jealousy all the earth shall be consumed;

for then I will turn upon the peoples a language for their generation, that all may call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him under one yoke.

From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia they shall offer sacrifices to Me.

In that day you shall not be put to shame for all your doings, in which you have been ungodly against Me;

for then I will remove from you the contemptible things of your pride, and you shall no longer continue to boast on My holy mountain.

And I will leave in you a meek and humble people, and the remnant of Israel shall reverence the name of the Lord; and they shall do no iniquity, nor speak vanity, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth;

for they shall feed and lie down, and there shall be none to make them afraid." Now let him who is able to enter into the meaning of the Scripture, having considered all these things, set forth the clarity of the prophecy, and let him especially examine what is meant by the turning, when all the earth is consumed, of a language upon the peoples for their generation, corresponding to the state of things before the confusion of tongues;

and that all should call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him under one yoke, so that the contemptible things of pride are removed, and there is no longer iniquity, nor vain words, nor a deceitful tongue.

But these things I thought fit to set down moderately and not with exact exposition, on account of Celsus's statement, in which he supposes it to be impossible that those who inhabit Asia, Europe, and Libya, both Greeks and barbarians, should come together in agreement.