Ante-Nicene Fathers • VOLUME 4
Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian & Origen
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Chapter LV.
Chapter LV. But as Celsus delights to heap up calumnies against us, and, in addition to those which he has already uttered, has added others, let us examine these also, and see whether it be the Christians or Celsus who have reason to be ashamed of what is said. He asserts, "We see, indeed, in private houses workers in wool and…
703 wordsSECTION 282Chapter LVII.
Chapter LVII. But who are the teachers whom we call triflers and fools, whose defence is undertaken by Celsus, as of those who teach better things? (I know not,) unless he deem those to be good instructors of women, and no triflers, who invite them to superstition and to unchaste spectacles, and those, moreover, to be teachers …
733 wordsSECTION 283Chapter LIX.
Chapter LIX. Immediately after this, Celsus, perceiving that he has slandered us with too great bitterness, as if by way of defence expresses himself as follows: "That I bring no heavier charge than what the truth compels me, any one may see from the following remarks. Those who invite to participation in other mysteries, make …
742 wordsSECTION 284Chapter LXI.
Chapter LXI. Not to participation in mysteries, then, and to fellowship in the wisdom hidden in a mystery, which God ordained before the world to the glory of His saints, [3616] do we invite the wicked man, and the thief, and the housebreaker, and the poisoner, and the committer of sacrilege, and the plunderer of the dead, and …
798 wordsSECTION 285Chapter LXIII.
Chapter LXIII. After this, not understanding how it has been said that "every one who exalted himself shall be abased;" [3626] nor (although taught even by Plato) that "the good and virtuous man walketh humbly and orderly;" and ignorant, moreover, that we give the injunction, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand…
729 wordsSECTION 286Chapter LXV.
Chapter LXV. He imagines, however, that we utter these exhortations for the conversion of sinners, because we are able to gain over no one who is really good and righteous, and therefore open our gates to the most unholy and abandoned of men. But if any one will fairly observe our assemblies we can present a greater number of t…
1,002 wordsSECTION 287Chapter LXVIII.
Chapter LXVIII. That philosophical discourses, however, distinguished by orderly arrangement and elegant expression, [3643] should produce such results in the case of those individuals just enumerated, and upon others [3644] who have led wicked lives, is not at all to be wondered at. But when we consider that those discourses, …
876 wordsSECTION 288Chapter LXX.
Chapter LXX. In the next place, he objects to the statement, as if it were maintained by us, that "God will be able to do all things," not seeing even here how these words are meant, and what "the all things" are which are included in it, and how it is said that God "will be able." But on these matters it is not necessary now t…
832 wordsSECTION 289Chapter LXXIII.
Chapter LXXIII. After this he again slanders the ambassador of Christianity, and gives out regarding him that he relates "ridiculous things," although he does not show or clearly point out what are the things which he calls "ridiculous." And in his slanders he says that "no wise man believes the Gospel, being driven away by the…
1,498 wordsSECTION 290Chapter LXXVI.
Chapter LXXVI. And he produces a second illustration to our disadvantage, saying that "our teacher acts like a drunken man, who, entering a company of drunkards, should accuse those who are sober of being drunk." But let him show, say from the writings of Paul, that the apostle of Jesus gave way to drunkenness, and that his wor…
898 wordsSECTION 291Chapter LXXIX.
Chapter LXXIX. But if in these matters any one were to imagine that it is superstition rather than wickedness which appears in the multitude of those who believe the word, and should charge our doctrine with making men superstitious, we shall answer him by saying that, as a certain legislator [3674] replied to the question of o…
760 wordsSECTION 292Chapter LXXXI.
Chapter LXXXI. And do not suppose that it is not in keeping with the Christian religion for me to have accepted, against Celsus, the opinions of those philosophers who have treated of the immortality or after-duration of the soul; for, holding certain views in common with them, we shall more conveniently establish our position,…
898 wordsSECTION 293Chapter II.
Chapter II. "But that certain Christians and (all) Jews should maintain, the former that there has already descended, the latter that there will descend, upon the earth a certain God, or Son of a God, who will make the inhabitants of the earth righteous, [3687] is a most shameless assertion, and one the refutation of which does…
1,212 wordsSECTION 294Chapter IV.
Chapter IV. The argument which Celsus employs against us and the Jews will be turned against himself thus: My good sir, does the God who is over all things know what takes place among men, or does He not know? Now if you admit the existence of a God and of providence, as your treatise indicates, He must of necessity know. And i…
762 wordsSECTION 295Chapter VI.
Chapter VI. But if you will have us to meet the most ridiculous among the charges of Celsus, listen to him when he says: "Now God, being unknown amongst men, and deeming himself on that account to have less than his due, [3701] would desire to make himself known, and to make trial both of those who believe upon him and of those…
1,042 wordsSECTION 296Chapter IX.
Chapter IX. There came, then, although Celsus may not wish to admit it, after the numerous prophets who were the reformers of that well-known Israel, the Christ, the Reformer of the whole world, who did not need to employ against men whips, and chains, and tortures, as was the case under the former economy. For when the sower w…
795 wordsSECTION 297Chapter XII.
Chapter XII. Whether, then, there are cycles of time, and floods, or conflagrations which occur periodically or not, and whether the Scripture is aware of this, not only in many passages, but especially where Solomon [3719] says, "What is the thing which hath been? Even that which shall be. And what is the thing which hath been…
914 wordsSECTION 298Chapter XIV.
Chapter XIV. But let us look at what Celsus next with great ostentation announces in the following fashion: "And again," he says, "let us resume the subject from the beginning, with a larger array of proofs. And I make no new statement, but say what has been long settled. God is good, and beautiful, and blessed, and that in the…
801 wordsSECTION 299Chapter XVI.
Chapter XVI. For there are different appearances, as it were, of the Word, according as He shows Himself to each one of those who come to His doctrine; and this in a manner corresponding to the condition of him who is just becoming a disciple, or of him who has made a little progress, or of him who has advanced further, or of h…
1,191 wordsSECTION 300Chapter XIX.
Chapter XIX. Others, then, may concede to Celsus that God does not undergo a change, but leads the spectators to imagine that He does; whereas we who are persuaded that the advent of Jesus among men was no mere appearance, but a real manifestation, are not affected by this charge of Celsus. We nevertheless will attempt a reply,…
740 wordsSECTION 301Chapter XXI.
Chapter XXI. But I do not understand how he can imagine the overturning of the tower (of Babel) to have happened with a similar object to that of the deluge, which effected a purification of the earth, according to the accounts both of Jews and Christians. For, in order that the narrative contained in Genesis respecting the tow…
954 wordsSECTION 302Chapter XXIII.
Chapter XXIII. In the next place, ridiculing after his usual style the race of Jews and Christians, he compares them all "to a flight of bats or to a swarm of ants issuing out of their nest, or to frogs holding council in a marsh, or to worms crawling together in the corner of a dunghill, and quarrelling with one another as to …
1,023 wordsSECTION 303Chapter XXVI.
Chapter XXVI. But if it is on account of those opinions of the Christians and Jews which displease Celsus (and which he does not at all appear to understand) that they are to be regarded as worms and ants, and the rest of mankind as different, let us examine the acknowledged opinions of Christians and Jews, [3779] and compare t…
945 wordsSECTION 304Chapter XXVIII.
Chapter XXVIII. But since he has represented those whom he regards as worms, viz., the Christians, as saying that "God, having abandoned the heavenly regions, and despising this great earth, takes up His abode amongst us alone, and to us alone makes His announcements, and ceases not His messages and inquiries as to how we may b…
1,143 wordsSECTION 305Chapter XXX.
Chapter XXX. It appears to me that Celsus has also misunderstood this statement, "Let Us make man in Our image and likeness;" [3806] and has therefore represented the "worms" as saying that, being created by God, we altogether resemble Him. If, however, he had known the difference between man being created "in the image of God"…
816 wordsSECTION 306Chapter XXXI.
Chapter XXXI. After this, wishing to prove that there is no difference between Jews and Christians, and those animals previously enumerated by him, he asserts that the Jews were "fugitives from Egypt, who never performed anything worthy of note, and never were held in any reputation or account." [3817] Now, on the point of thei…
1,144 wordsSECTION 307Chapter XXXIII.
Chapter XXXIII. Immediately after this, Celsus, assailing the contents of the first book of Moses, which is entitled "Genesis," asserts that "the Jews accordingly endeavoured to derive their origin from the first race of jugglers and deceivers, [3827] appealing to the testimony of dark and ambiguous words, whose meaning was vei…
873 wordsSECTION 308Chapter XXXV.
Chapter XXXV. And let any one who peruses the treatise of Celsus observe whether it does not convey some such insinuation as the above, when he says: "And they attempted to derive their origin from the first race of jugglers and deceivers, appealing to the testimony of dark and ambiguous words, whose meaning was veiled in obscu…
924 wordsSECTION 309Chapter XXXVII.
Chapter XXXVII. He charges us, moreover, with introducing "a man formed by the hands of God," although the book of Genesis has made no mention of the "hands" of God, either when relating the creation or the "fashioning" [3841] of the man; while it is Job and David who have used the expression, "Thy hands have made me and fashio…
1,293 wordsSECTION 310Chapter XXXIX.
Chapter XXXIX. But as Celsus makes a jest also of the serpent, as counteracting the injunctions given by God to the man, taking the narrative to be an old wife's fable, [3855] and has purposely neither mentioned the paradise [3856] of God, nor stated that God is said to have planted it in Eden towards the east, and that there a…
967 wordsSECTION 311Chapter XL.
Chapter XL. But as he asserts that "the Mosaic narrative most impiously represents God as in a state of weakness from the very commencement (of things), and as unable to gain over (to obedience) even one single man whom He Himself had formed," we say in answer that the objection [3869] is much the same as if one were to find fa…
809 wordsSECTION 312Chapter XLII.
Chapter XLII. In order to show that he had read the book of Genesis, Celsus rejects the story of the dove, although unable to adduce any reason which might prove it to be a fiction. In the next place, as his habit is, in order to put the narrative in a more ridiculous light, he converts the "raven" into a "crow," and imagines t…
711 wordsSECTION 313Chapter XLIV.
Chapter XLIV. And erring widely from the meaning of Scripture, he says that "God gave wells [3892] also to the righteous." Now he did not observe that the righteous do not construct cisterns, [3893] but dig wells, seeking to discover the inherent ground and source of potable blessings, [3894] inasmuch as they receive in a figur…
1,106 wordsSECTION 314Chapter XLVI.
Chapter XLVI. Celsus, moreover, sneers at the "hatred" of Esau (to which, I suppose, he refers) against Jacob, although he was a man who, according to the Scriptures, is acknowledged to have been wicked; and not clearly stating the story of Simeon and Levi, who sallied out (on the Shechemites) on account of the insult offered t…
1,130 wordsSECTION 315Chapter XLIX.
Chapter XLIX. If Celsus had read the Scriptures in an impartial spirit, he would not have said that "our writings are incapable of admitting an allegorical meaning." For from the prophetic Scriptures, in which historical events are recorded (not from the historical), it is possible to be convinced that the historical portions a…
981 wordsSECTION 316Chapter LI.
Chapter LI. Celsus appears to me to have heard that there are treatises in existence which contain allegorical explanations of the law of Moses. These however, he could not have read; for if he had he would not have said: "The allegorical explanations, however, which have been devised are much more shameful and absurd than the …
711 wordsSECTION 317Chapter LIII.
Chapter LIII. I do not know, indeed, how he could conjoin things that do not admit of union, and which cannot exist together at the same time in human nature, in saying, as he did, that "the above treatise deserved to be treated both with pity and hatred." For every one will admit that he who is the object of pity is not at the…
1,024 wordsSECTION 318Chapter LV.
Chapter LV. But I maintain that, if he had the patience (to use his own expression) to listen to the writings of Moses and the prophets, he would have had his attention arrested by the circumstance that the expression "God made" is applied to heaven and earth, and to what is called the firmament, and also to the lights and star…
754 wordsSECTION 319Chapter LVII.
Chapter LVII. See, then, whether we ought to yield to one who, holding such opinions, calumniates the Christians, and thus abandon a doctrine which explains the difference existing among bodies as due to the different qualities, internal and external, which are implanted in them. For we, too, know that there are "bodies celesti…
832 wordsSECTION 320Chapter LIX.
Chapter LIX. For it would, indeed, be absurd that certain stones and buildings should be regarded as more sacred or more profane than others, according as they were constructed for the honour of God, or for the reception of dishonourable and accursed persons; [3945] while bodies should not differ from bodies, according as they …
958 wordsSource & rights
Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.