Chapter LXIII.
Celsus, not observing the difference between "after the image of God" and "God's image," next asserts that the "first-born of every creature" is the image of God,--the very word and truth, and also the very wisdom, being the image of His goodness, while man has been created after the image of God; moreover, that every man whose head is Christ is the image and glory of God;--and further, not observing to which of the characteristics of humanity the expression "after the image of God" belongs, and that it consists in a nature which never had nor longer has "the old man with his deeds," being called "after the image of Him who created it," from its not possessing these qualities,--he maintains: "Neither did He make man His image; for God is not such an one, nor like any other species of (visible) being." Is it possible to suppose that the element which is "after the image of God" should exist in the inferior part--I mean the body--of a compound being like man, because Celsus has explained that to be made after the image of God? For if that which is "after the image of God" be in the body only, the better part, the soul, has been deprived of that which is "after His image," and this (distinction) exists in the corruptible body,--an assertion which is made by none of us. But if that which is "after the image of God" be in both together, then God must necessarily be a compound being, and consist, as it were, of soul and body, in order that the element which is "after God's image," the better part, may be in the soul; while the inferior part, and that which "is according to the body," may be in the body,--an assertion, again, which is made by none of us. It remains, therefore, that that which is "after the image of God" must be understood to be in our "inner man," which is also renewed, and whose nature it is to be "after the image of Him who created it," when a man becomes "perfect," as "our Father in heaven is perfect," and hears the command, "Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy," [4609] and learning the precept, "Be ye followers of God," [4610] receives into his virtuous soul the traits of God's image. The body, moreover, of him who possesses such a soul is a temple of God; and in the soul God dwells, because it has been made after His image.
[4609] Lev. xi. 44.
[4610] Cf. Eph. v. 1 (mimetai).
[4611] The words as they stand in the text are probably corrupt: we have adopted in the translation the emendation of Guietus: eti kai naos esti tou Theou to soma tou toiauten echontos psuchen, kai en te psuche dia to kat' eikona, ton Theon.
Chapter LXIV.
Celsus, again, brings together a number of statements, which he gives as admissions on our part, but which no intelligent Christian would allow. For not one of us asserts that "God partakes of form or colour." Nor does He even partake of "motion," because He stands firm, and His nature is permanent, and He invites the righteous man also to do the same, saying: "But as for thee, stand thou here by Me." [4612] And if certain expressions indicate a kind of motion, as it were, on His part, such as this, "They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day," [4613] we must understand them in this way, that it is by sinners that God is understood as moving, or as we understand the "sleep" of God, which is taken in a figurative sense, or His "anger," or any other similar attribute. But "God does not partake even of substance." [4614] For He is partaken of (by others) rather than that Himself partakes of them, and He is partaken of by those who have the Spirit of God. Our Saviour, also, does not partake of righteousness; but being Himself "righteousness," He is partaken of by the righteous. A discussion about "substance" would be protracted and difficult, and especially if it were a question whether that which is permanent and immaterial be "substance" properly so called, so that it would be found that God is beyond "substance," communicating of His "substance," by means of office and power, [4615] to those to whom He communicates Himself by His Word, as He does to the Word Himself; or even if He is "substance," yet He is said be in His nature "invisible," in these words respecting our Saviour, who is said to be "the image of the invisible God," [4616] while from the term "invisible" it is indicated that He is "immaterial." It is also a question for investigation, whether the "only-begotten" and "first-born of every creature" is to be called "substance of substances," and "idea of ideas," and the "principle of all things," while above all there is His Father and God. [4617]
[4612] Deut. v. 31.
[4613] Cf. Gen. iii. 8.
[4614] ousia.
[4615] presbeia kai dunamei.
[4616] Cf. Col. i. 15.
[4617] ["It is a remarkable fact, that it was Origen who discerned the heresy outside the Church on its first rise, and actually gave the alarm, sixty years before Arius's day. See Athanasius, De Decret. Nic., § 27; also the peri archon (if Rufinus may be trusted), for Origen's denouncement of the still more characteristic Arianism of the en hote ouk en and the ex ouk onton."--Newman's The Arians of the Fourth Century, p. 97. See also Hagenbach's History of Doctrines, vol. i. pp. 130-133. S.]