Chapter LIX.
He imagines also that both the earthquake and the darkness were an invention; [3351] but regarding these, we have in the preceding pages, made our defence, according to our ability, adducing the testimony of Phlegon, who relates that these events took place at the time when our Saviour suffered. [3352] And he goes on to say, that "Jesus, while alive, was of no assistance to himself, but that he arose after death, and exhibited the marks of his punishment, and showed how his hands had been pierced by nails." We ask him what he means by the expression, "was of no assistance to himself?" For if he means it to refer to want of virtue, we reply that He was of very great assistance. For He neither uttered nor committed anything that was improper, but was truly "led as a sheep to the slaughter, and was dumb as a lamb before the shearer;" [3353] and the Gospel testifies that He opened not His mouth. But if Celsus applies the expression to things indifferent and corporeal, [3354] (meaning that in such Jesus could render no help to Himself,) we say that we have proved from the Gospels that He went voluntarily to encounter His sufferings. Speaking next of the statements in the Gospels, that after His resurrection He showed the marks of His punishment, and how His hands had been pierced, he asks, "Who beheld this?" And discrediting the narrative of Mary Magdalene, who is related to have seen Him, he replies, "A half-frantic woman, as ye state." And because she is not the only one who is recorded to have seen the Saviour after His resurrection, but others also are mentioned, this Jew of Celsus calumniates these statements also in adding, "And some one else of those engaged in the same system of deception!"
[3351] terateian.
[3352] [See cap. xxxiii., note, p. 455, supra.]
[3353] Isa. liii. 7.
[3354] ei de to "eperkesen " apo ton meson kai somatikon lambanei.
Chapter LX.
In the next place, as if this were possible, viz., that the image of a man who was dead could appear to another as if he were still living, he adopts this opinion as an Epicurean, and says, "That some one having so dreamed owing to a peculiar state of mind, or having, under the influence of a perverted imagination, formed such an appearance as he himself desired, reported that such had been seen; and this," he continues, "has been the case with numberless individuals." But even if this statement of his seems to have a considerable degree of force, it is nevertheless only fitted to confirm a necessary doctrine, that the soul of the dead exists in a separate state (from the body); and he who adopts such an opinion does not believe without good reason in the immortality, or at least continued existence, of the soul, as even Plato says in his treatise on the Soul that shadowy phantoms of persons already dead have appeared to some around their sepulchres. Now the phantoms which exist about the soul of the dead are produced by some substance, and this substance is in the soul, which exists apart in a body said to be of splendid appearance. [3355] But Celsus, unwilling to admit any such view, will have it that some dreamed a waking dream, [3356] and, under the influence of a perverted imagination, formed to themselves such an image as they desired. Now it is not irrational to believe that a dream may take place while one is asleep; but to suppose a waking vision in the case of those who are not altogether out of their senses, and under the influence of delirium or hypochondria, is incredible. And Celsus, seeing this, called the woman "half-mad,"--a statement which is not made by the history recording the fact, but from which he took occasion to charge the occurrences with being untrue.
[3355] ta men oun ginomena peri psuches tethnekoton phantasmata apo tinos hupokeimenou ginetai, tou kata ten huphestekuian en to kaloumeno augoeidei somati psuchen. Cf. note in Benedictine ed.
[3356] hupar.
Chapter LXI.
Jesus accordingly, as Celsus imagines, exhibited after His death only the appearance of wounds received on the cross, and was not in reality so wounded as He is described to have been; whereas, according to the teaching of the Gospel--some portions of which Celsus arbitrarily accepts, in order to find ground of accusation, and other parts of which he rejects--Jesus called to Him one of His disciples who was sceptical, and who deemed the miracle an impossibility. That individual had, indeed, expressed his belief in the statement of the woman who said that she had seen Him, because he did not think it impossible that the soul of a dead man could be seen; but he did not yet consider the report to be true that He had been raised in a body, which was the antitype of the former. [3357] And therefore he did not merely say, "Unless I see, I will not believe;" but he added, "Unless I put my hand into the print of the nails, and lay my hands upon His side, I will not believe." These words were spoken by Thomas, who deemed it possible that the body of the soul [3358] might be seen by the eye of sense, resembling in all respects its former appearance,
"Both in size, and in beauty of eyes,
And in voice;"
and frequently, too,
"Having, also, such garments around the person [3359] (as when alive)."
Jesus accordingly, having called Thomas, said, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing." [3360]
[3357] en somati antitupo egegerthai.
[3358] psuches soma.
[3359] Cf. Homer, Iliad, xxiii. 66, 67.
[3360] Cf. John xx. 27.