駁瑟蘇斯 第 1 章 第 37/42 段

You see, then, that the one thing reckoned to be a single act—abstinence from adultery—becomes, in view of the intentions of those who abstain, not the same but a different thing;

for it proceeds either from sound doctrines, or from the depraved and most impious doctrines such as those in the Epicurean, or from such an uneducated man as described.

Just as, then, this one matter—abstinence from adultery—though it seems to be one, is found to be many, occurring in accordance with differing doctrines and intentions, so also among those who cannot bear to worship the divine at altars and temples and images, the Scythians, or the nomads among the Libyans, or the godless Seres, or the Persians do this from doctrines other than those by reason of which Christians and Jews cannot bear such supposed service offered to the divine;

for none of those [pagans] who refuse altars and images does so because he turns away from, drags down, and degrades the worship of the divine onto such material thus shaped; nor does he refuse them because he has come to understand concerning demons that such beings take their seat by such shapes and places—whether constrained by certain sorceries, or able in some other way to seize beforehand for themselves places in which, greedily sharing in the savory exhalation of the things sacrificed, they may hunt after unlawful pleasure and unlawful gains;

But Christians and Jews [refuse them] because of the command, 'You shall fear the Lord your God and shall serve him only,' and because of 'You shall have no other gods besides me,' and 'You shall not make for yourself an idol nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;'

'you shall not bow down to them nor serve them,' and because of 'You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only,' and many other commands similar to these. Not only do they turn away from temples and altars and images, but they even go readily to death, when need be, rather than defile their conception of the God of all by any such transgression.

It has been said in the foregoing concerning the Persians, in reference to the fact that they do not set up temples, but worship the sun and the works of God;

[the worship belonging to] the One who lacks nothing, or to his Son, the firstborn of all creation.

Therefore, in addition to those points, let this too suffice concerning the nation of the Persians, who turn away from altars and images but render service to the creation rather than to the Creator.

Since he also adduced the saying of Heraclitus, having interpreted it as hinting that it is foolish to pray to images if one does not know what gods and heroes are, it must be said that it is possible to know God and his only-begotten and those honored by God with the title 'god' and partaking of his divinity—beings other than all the gods of the nations, who are demons;

it is, however, not possible both to know God and to pray to images.

And not only is praying to images foolish, but so also is conforming to the many and pretending to pray to images—as those do who philosophize after the manner of the Peripatos, and those who embrace the doctrines of Epicurus or Democritus;

for nothing spurious ought to exist in the soul of one who is truly devout toward the divine.

And we do not honor images, also so that, as far as in us lies, we may not fall into the supposition that the images are other gods.

For this reason we also bring a charge against Celsus and against all who acknowledge that these are not gods, that the apparent honor paid to images is also [a mark] of those who are reputed to be wise;

and following this, the multitude not only sin by thinking they worship them merely out of conformity, but also, sinking down in their soul to thinking that these are gods, do not even endure to hear that the things worshiped by them are not gods.

Celsus, then, says that they do not regard them as gods but as votive offerings of the gods, without proving how these are not offerings of men but, as he termed it, of the gods themselves.

For it is clear that these are votive offerings of men who have gone astray concerning the divine.

But neither do we suppose images to be divine likenesses, inasmuch as we do not delineate the form of the invisible and incorporeal God.

But since Celsus supposes that we fall into contradictions, when we say that the divine is not of human form, and when we believe that 'God made man as his own image and made him in the image of God,'

it must be said, as has been stated in the foregoing, that we hold the 'according to the image of God' to be preserved in the rational soul, in the soul qualified by virtue.

And whereas Celsus, indeed, not seeing the difference between 'the image of God' and 'that which is according to the image of God,' says that we assert that God made man as his own image and a form like to himself,

but this also has been answered in the foregoing.

Then next he says concerning the Christians that 'they will agree that these things exist in honor of certain beings, whether like or unlike in form, yet that they are not gods to whom these are dedicated, but demons, and that whoever worships God ought not to serve demons.'

And indeed if he had understood the doctrine concerning demons, and what each of them effects—whether summoned by those skilled in these matters, or even voluntarily giving himself over to whatever operation he wishes and is able to perform—and had grasped the doctrine concerning demons, which is extensive and hard for human nature to comprehend, he would not have brought a charge against us for saying that whoever worships the God who is over all ought not to serve demons.

And so far are we from serving demons that we even drive them away by prayers and by the teachings drawn from the sacred Scriptures, from human souls and from the places in which they have established themselves, and sometimes even from animals.

For often the demons work certain effects upon such creatures, to their harm.

But because of the many things said by us above concerning Jesus, there is no need now to repeat them in response to [his claim] that, [as Celsus says,] they themselves are clearly convicted of worshiping not a god, nor even a demon, but a dead man.

Passing this over for the moment for this reason, let us look at the next words of Celsus, in which he says:

'...of the most high God, and each one has been appointed [over his domain], having obtained whatever power he was deemed worthy of? Will not, then, the one who reveres God justly render service to him who has obtained authority from that [supreme God]? For it is not possible,' he says, 'for the same man to serve several masters.'

Observe, then, how much even in these statements he sweeps along in confusion—matters requiring not a contemptible examination, but indeed a knowledge of things deeper and more mysterious concerning the administration of the whole order of things.

For how it is said that all things are administered according to the will of God must be examined, and whether the administration extends even to the things sinned, or not.

For if the administration extends even to the things sinned—not only among men but also among demons, and whatever else of beings outside bodies is by nature able to sin—let the one who says that all things are administered according to the will of God see the absurdity of it;

for it follows from the statement that even the things sinned and all that come from wickedness are administered according to the will of God—which is not the same as saying that they come to pass without God preventing them.

But if one takes 'being administered' in the strict sense, he says that the things proceeding from wickedness are administered—that is, all things are administered according to the will of God—and that everyone who sins does not act lawlessly against the administration of God.

The like must be distinguished also concerning providence, and it must be said that the statement 'all providence is from Him' signifies something true when providence is something good;

but if we shall say that absolutely all things that come to pass exist according to providence, even when something happens badly, then the statement 'all providence is from Him' will be false;

unless indeed one were to say that even the things which follow as consequences of the things done by God's providence are from God's providence.

And he declares that whatever there may be in the universe, whether it is the work of God, or of angels, or of other demons, or of heroes, all these have a law from the greatest God; and he does not declare a true statement.

For the things that act lawlessly do not, in acting lawlessly, follow the law that is from the greatest God.

And reason shows that not only base men act lawlessly, but also the base demons and the base angels.

And it is not only we who say that demons are base, but also nearly all who hold that demons exist.

Therefore not all things have a law from the greatest God.

For whatever, through its own inattention—whether wickedness, or evil, or ignorance of the good—has fallen away from the divine law, does not have the law of God, but (to name it by a new name, and one according to the Scripture) has the law of sin.

Now according to most of those who hold that demons exist, the base demons too do not have the law from God but act lawlessly;

but according to us, all demons have fallen from the road that leads to the good, not having been demons before;

and the class of demons is one species of those who have fallen away from God.

Wherefore whoever worships God ought not to serve demons.

The matter concerning demons is made plain also from those who call upon demons for so-called love-charms or hate-charms, or for the hindering of actions, or for ten thousand other such things;

which things are done by those who have learned, through incantations and sorceries, to call and to bring in demons for whatever they wish.

Wherefore the worship of all demons is foreign to us, who worship the God who is over all.

And the worship of the demons is the worship of those reputed to be gods;

for all the gods of the nations are demons. And this is plain also from the fact that meddlesome invocations were made over those things which seemed to be more effective among the reputed temples, and at the very founding of such images and shrines—invocations which those who busy themselves with the worship of demons through sorceries have made.

Therefore it has seemed good to us to flee, as from destruction, the worship of demons;

and we say that all the religion practised among the Greeks at altars and statues and temples of gods is demon-worship.

Just as robbers in the deserts, having set up one of their own to rule over them—so the demons, having become as it were associations according to the places of the earth, have made for themselves a certain ruler to lead them in the deeds which they chose for the sake of stealing and plundering the souls of men.

It is needful for the one who would speak well on these matters, in order to defend the Christians who turn away from worshipping anything other than the God who is over all and His Word, the firstborn of all creation, to expound also the saying, 'All who came before me are thieves and robbers, and the sheep did not hear them,' and 'The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy,' and whatever else like these is said in the sacred writings—as also, 'Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you,' and 'You shall tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample the lion and the dragon.'

But Celsus by no means knew these things;

for if he had known, he would not have said:

'And whatever there may be in the universe, whether it is the work of God, or of angels, or of other demons, or of heroes, these have a law from the greatest God, and over each is set one who has obtained power, whoever has been deemed worthy. Will not, then, the one who worships God justly worship this one who has obtained authority from thence?' And to these he adds: 'For it is not possible for the same man to serve more masters;'

concerning which we shall treat in the following book, since the seventh volume has now received a sufficient compass, written by us against the treatise of Celsus.

I have now reached the completion of seven books, and I wish to begin an eighth as well.

And may God and His only-begotten Word be present with us, that nobly the falsehoods of Celsus may be refuted—falsely inscribed 'A True Discourse'—and that, as far as in the dictations lies, the things of Christianity may be powerfully demonstrated; for we pray, in the disposition of Paul, the saying 'On behalf of Christ we are ambassadors, as though God were entreating you through us,' to speak and to be ambassadors on behalf of Christ to men, even as the Word of God calls them to friendship with Himself, willing to reconcile to righteousness and truth and the rest of the virtues those who, before receiving the teachings of Jesus the Christ, lingered in darkness concerning God and in ignorance concerning the Creator.

And again I will say that may God grant us the noble and true Word, the Lord who is mighty and powerful in the war that is against wickedness.

And now we must proceed to the next passage of Celsus and to the things that pertain to it.

In what preceded these things he raised a difficulty against us, why we do not worship demons;

and we answered the things he said about demons according to what appeared to us to be the intent of the divine word.

Then next after those things he introduces us as saying, in response to his difficulty—he wanting us to worship the demons too—that it is not possible for the same man to serve more masters.

And this, as he supposes, is the voice of sedition, of those who (as he himself named it) wall themselves off and break themselves away from the rest of mankind.

And he thinks that those who say this, so far as in them lies, wipe off their own passion onto God.

Wherefore he thinks that in the case of men it has place that one who serves someone would not reasonably serve also another man, as the former is harmed by the divided service, and that one who has already sworn an oath with someone would not swear with another, as it harms him; and that there is reason in not serving at the same time different heroes and such demons;

but in the case of God, to whom no harm or grief can reach, he thinks it irrational to guard oneself, in the same way as in the case of men and heroes and such demons, against worshipping several gods.

And he says that the one who worships several gods, by worshipping some one thing of the great God's, does in this very thing what is dear to that great one; and he adds that it is not even lawful for anyone to be honoured to whom this has not been granted from that one.

'Wherefore,' he says, 'one who honours and worships all that belong to Him does not grieve God, to whom they all belong.'

We accept the saying 'No one can serve two masters,' to which is added 'For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other'; and following upon it, 'You cannot serve God and mammon.'

But the defence calls us to a certain deeper and more secret discourse concerning gods and lords.

For the divine Scripture knows that the Lord is great above all gods;

among which 'gods' we do not understand those worshipped among the nations, since we have learned that 'all the gods of the nations are demons,' but gods of whom the prophetic word knows a certain assembly, and the God who is over all distinguishing these and ordaining to each the work proper to him.

'For God stood in the assembly of gods, and in the midst He will judge gods.'

For indeed He is God of gods, the Lord, who through the Son called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

And we are commanded to give thanks to the God of gods, having learned also the saying, 'God is not God of the dead, but of the living;'

which things indeed are said not only through the passages set forth but also through ten thousand others.

Such things the divine words teach us to examine and to think concerning Lord and lords, in some places saying:

'Give thanks to the God of gods, for His mercy endures forever;'

'Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His mercy endures forever'; and in another place that 'God is King of those who reign and Lord of those who rule.'

And the word knows that some are gods so called, but others also really are gods, whether so called or not;

and teaching the same thing also concerning lords that really are and that are not, Paul says:

'For even if indeed there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many gods and many lords.' Then, since the God of gods calls from east and west to His own portion through Jesus whomever He wills, and Christ, being the Lord of God, shows by the means whereby He set foot upon the bounds of all and calls all from all their bounds to Himself, that He differs from all who rule;

for this reason, knowing these things, Paul says after the words I have cited:

'But for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him.' And beholding a certain wondrous and mysterious word according to that place, he adds to them:

'But not in all is the knowledge.' But when he says:

'But for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things,' he says the 'for us' of himself and of all who have ascended to the God over all, the God of gods, and to the Lord over all, the Lord of lords.

And he has ascended to the God over all who worships Him unsplit and undivided and unpartitioned, through the only Son who brings near to Him, the Word and Wisdom of God beheld in Jesus—ascended, namely, those who try in every way to reconcile themselves, through choice words and deeds and thoughts, to the God who is Maker of all.

And besides these, and what is like these, I think it is the ruler of this age, transfiguring himself into an angel of light, who composed the saying, 'Upon him follows a host of gods and of demons, ranged according to eleven divisions,' in which, concerning himself and those who philosophized, he says:

'With Zeus go we, others go with other demons.' Therefore, since there are many gods so called, or really existing, and likewise lords also, we do all things that we may not only soar above those things worshipped as gods among the nations on earth, but also above the gods of whom the Scriptures speak, concerning whom those strangers to the covenants of God given through Moses and our Saviour Jesus know nothing, and who are aliens to the promises of God made plain through these.

And he who does no work dear to the demons soars above the slavery to all the demonic powers; and he soars above the portion of those called gods by Paul who considers, whether things are as those are or however they may be, not the things seen but the things not seen;

and he who sees in what manner 'the earnest expectation of the creation awaits the revelation of the sons of God,'

blessing the creation and seeing in what manner all of it shall be freed from the slavery of corruption and shall come into the freedom of the glory of the children of God, is not distracted towards serving both God and some other along with Him, nor towards serving two masters.

It is therefore not the voice of sedition, in the case of those who have understood such things and are unwilling to serve several masters, and who for this reason content themselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, who trains under Himself those who serve Him, that He may, when they have been trained, deliver them, having become a kingdom worthy of God, to the God and Father.

But they also cut themselves off and break themselves away from those who are aliens to the commonwealth of God and strangers to His covenants, that they may live out the citizenship in heaven, drawing near to the living God and to the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to ten thousands of angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven.

But neither do we decline serving any other than God, through His Word and His truth, as though God were harmed (as a man seems to be harmed by one who serves another beside him), but in order that we ourselves may not be harmed by separating ourselves from the portion of the God over all, living, as is proper to His blessedness, by a special spirit of adoption;

which is in the sons of the Father in heaven, not little phrases but realities, to those who in secret cry out with a great voice, 'Abba, Father.'

Now the ambassadors of the Lacedaemonians did not do obeisance to the king of the Persians, although the bodyguards were exceedingly pressing them to it, fearing their one lord, the law of Lycurgus;

but those who exercise the far greater and more divine embassy on behalf of Christ would not do obeisance to the ruler of the Persians, nor to the ruler of the Greeks, nor of the Egyptians, nor of any nation whatsoever, even if the bodyguards of the rulers—demons and angels of the devil—should wish to compel them to do this and should persuade them to bid a long farewell to that which is mightier than every law of those on earth.

For the Lord of those who are ambassadors on behalf of Christ is Christ Himself, on whose behalf they are ambassadors, who was in the beginning the Word, and was with God, and was God.

Then, since it seemed good to Celsus to stir up a certain discourse deeper than the things apparent to him concerning heroes and certain demons, saying, after the discourse about the slavery towards men—that the former master, whom one wishes to serve, is harmed if one should wish to serve a second—that the same would be the case also concerning heroes and such demons;

we must ask him what he understands the heroes to be, and of what sort he says such demons are; so that one who serves this hero must not serve another, and one who serves such a demon must not serve another also;

as the former demon is harmed, analogously to harmed men, by those whom one served before the latter.

But let him also set forth what harm he thinks there is to heroes or to such demons.

For he will be compelled either, falling into a sea of nonsense, to take up the argument again and to set aside what has been said, or, not wishing to talk nonsense, to confess that he knows neither heroes nor the nature of demons.

And against the argument concerning men, that the former are harmed if one serves a second, it must be said:

what harm does he say comes to the former man, if the one serving him wishes to serve another also? For if, as a layman and unphilosophical, he should mean the harm signified to us concerning external goods, money, he would be convicted of not having attended even to that finely said by Socrates in the saying:

'Anytus and Meletus can indeed kill me, but harm me they cannot;'

for it is not lawful for the better to be harmed by the worse. But if he should mean by 'harm' the motion or state according to wickedness, it is plain that, since no harm comes to the wise, one may serve two wise men who are in places far apart, with no harm occurring.

And if not even this is reasonable, the example has been adduced by him in vain, accusing the saying 'No one can serve two masters'; and rather the argument concerning the service towards the God of all, solely through His Son who brings near to God, will prevail.

We shall worship God neither as being in need, nor as being grieved if we do not worship Him, but as ourselves being benefited from the worship towards God, and becoming free from grief and free from passion through serving the God who is over all, through His only-begotten Word and Wisdom.

But see how unexamined is the saying 'For if you should worship also some other of the things in the universe,' in which it appears that the worship of God brings us near, without any harm to us, to some one of the things belonging to God, simply and absolutely.

But as though perceiving that he himself had not spoken soundly:

'For if you should worship also some other of the things in the universe,' he then takes it up again and applies a correction to what was said, in this:

'Nor is it even lawful for any to be honoured to whom this has not been granted from that one.'

And let us inquire of Celsus concerning those honoured as gods or demons or even heroes: 'Whence, sir, are you able to demonstrate that the being honoured has been granted to these from God, and not rather that men wander and fall away from Him who is truly honoured, through ignorance and human stupidity?' At any rate, the favourite of Hadrian is honoured, as you were saying a little before, O Celsus, and you will surely not say that to Antinous it has been granted by the God of all to be honoured as a god.

And the same we shall say also concerning the others, demanding a demonstration that the being honoured has been granted to them from the God who is over all.

But if he should bring back against us the like concerning Jesus, we shall demonstrate that it has been granted to Him from God to be honoured:

'That all may honour the Son even as they honour the Father.' For the prophecies before His birth were attestations of His honour.

But also the wonders done by Him, not by sorcery, as Celsus supposes, but by a divinity foretold by the prophets, had its testimony from God;

that the one who honours the Son, who is Word, doing nothing irrational, may be benefited from honouring Him; and honouring Him who is Truth, may become better from honouring Truth; and so likewise from honouring Wisdom and Righteousness and all the things which the divine words say the Son of God is.

And that the honour towards the Son of God comes to pass in a sound life, and so likewise the honour towards God and Father, see whether we are not taught both from the saying 'You who boast in the law, do you dishonour God through transgression of the law?' and from 'By how much worse punishment do you think he will be deemed worthy who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has counted as common the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?'

For if through transgression of the law he who transgresses the law dishonours God, and he who has not received the Word tramples underfoot the Son of God;

it is plain that he who keeps the law honours God, and he who is adorned with the Word of God and with His works worships God.

But if Celsus had known who are God's, and that only the wise are, and who are the aliens, and that all the base who in no way incline towards the taking up of virtue are aliens, he would have seen how one ought to say 'So then, one who honours and worships all that belong to Him, how does he grieve God, to whom they all belong?' And next after these things he says:

'And indeed, the one who asserts that one Lord is spoken of, speaking concerning God, acts impiously, dividing the kingdom of God and stirring up faction, as though there were a party and some other adversary opposing Him.'

These things would have had place for him, if by geometric demonstrations he established that those worshipped by the nations as gods are gods, and established that those reputed to attend the statues and shrines and altars are not certain base demons.

But the kingdom of God, which is continually spoken of and written among us—we both pray to understand it and to become such, that we may be ruled by God alone, and that the kingdom of God may come also of us.

But that man, teaching us to worship many gods, ought rather to have said 'kingdom of gods' than 'of God,' if he had considered what is consistent with himself.

...each one advances, having given over...

And one might think that, following upon these things, he says something plausible against us in this:

'If indeed these people worshipped no other than one God, perhaps there might be for them some firm argument against the others;

but as it is, they excessively venerate this one who has lately appeared, and yet they think they commit no fault concerning God, even if His servant too shall be worshipped.'

And in answer to this too it must be said that, if indeed Celsus had understood the saying 'I and the Father are one' and that spoken in prayer by the Son of God in 'As I and You are one,' he would not have supposed that we worship also another beside the God who is over all.

'For the Father,' He says, 'is in Me, and I in the Father.'

But if anyone should be distracted by these things, lest somehow we desert to those who do away with there being two hypostases, Father and Son, let him attend to the saying 'And the heart and soul of all who believed was one,' that he may behold the saying 'I and the Father are one.'