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| Chapter XLVIII
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Chapter
XLVIII.
Although the Jew, then, may offer no defence for
himself in the instances of Ezekiel and Isaiah, when we compare the
opening of the heavens to Jesus, and the voice that was heard by Him,
to the similar cases which we find recorded in Ezekiel and Isaiah, or
any other of the prophets, we nevertheless, so far as we can, shall
support our position, maintaining that, as it is a matter of belief
that in a dream impressions have been brought before the minds
of many, some relating to divine things, and others to future events of
this life, and this either with clearness or in an enigmatic
manner,—a fact which is manifest to all who accept the doctrine
of providence; so how is it absurd to say that the mind which could
receive impressions in a dream should be impressed also in a
waking vision, for the benefit either of him on whom the impressions
are made, or of those who are to hear the account of them from
him? And as in a dream we fancy that we hear, and that the organs
of hearing are actually impressed, and that we see with our
eyes—although neither the bodily organs of sight nor hearing are
affected, but it is the mind alone which has these sensations—so
there is no absurdity in believing that similar things occurred to the
prophets, when it is recorded that they witnessed occurrences of a
rather wonderful kind, as when they either heard the words of the Lord
or beheld the heavens opened. For I do not suppose that the
visible heaven was actually opened, and its physical structure divided,
in order that Ezekiel might be able to record such an occurrence.
Should not, therefore, the same be believed of the Saviour by every
intelligent hearer of the Gospels?—although such an occurrence
may be a stumbling-block to the simple, who in their simplicity would
set the whole world in movement, and split in sunder the compact and
mighty body of the whole heavens. But he who examines such
matters more profoundly will say, that there being, as the Scripture
calls it, a kind of general divine perception which the blessed man
alone knows how to discover, according to the saying of Solomon,
“Thou shalt find the knowledge of God;”3149
and as there are various forms of this
perceptive power, such as a faculty of vision which can naturally see things that are
better than bodies, among which are ranked the cherubim and seraphim;
and a faculty of hearing which can perceive voices which have not their
being in the air; and a sense of taste which can make use of living
bread that has come down from heaven, and that giveth life unto the
world; and so also a sense of smelling, which scents such things as
leads Paul to say that he is a sweet savour of Christ unto
God;3150
and a sense of touch, by which John says
that he “handled with his hands of the Word of
life;”3151
—the blessed
prophets having discovered this divine perception, and seeing and
hearing in this divine manner, and tasting likewise, and smelling, so
to speak, with no sensible organs of perception, and laying hold on the
Logos by faith, so that a healing effluence from it comes upon them,
saw in this manner what they record as having seen, and heard what they
say they heard, and were affected in a similar manner to what they
describe when eating the roll of a book that was given them.3152
And so also Isaac smelled the savour
of his son’s divine garments,3153
| 3153 ᾽Ωσφράνθη τῆς
ὀσμῆς τῶν
τοῦ υἱοῦ
θειοτέρων
ἱματίων. | and added to
the spiritual blessing these words: “See, the savour of my
son is as the savour of a full field which the Lord blessed.”3154
And
similarly to this, and more as a matter to be understood by the mind
than to be perceived by the senses, Jesus touched the leper,3155
to cleanse him, as I think, in a twofold
sense,—freeing him not only, as the multitude heard, from the
visible leprosy by visible contact, but also from that other leprosy,
by His truly divine touch. It is in this way, accordingly, that
John testifies when he says, “I beheld the Spirit descending from
heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not;
but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said to me, Upon
whom you will see the Spirit descending, and abiding on Him, the same
is He that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bear
witness, that this is the Son of God.”3156
Now it was to Jesus that the heavens
were opened; and on that occasion no one except John is recorded to
have seen them opened. But with respect to this opening of the
heavens, the Saviour, foretelling to His disciples that it would
happen, and that they would see it, says, “Verily, verily, I say
unto you, Ye shall see the heavens opened, and the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”3157
And so Paul was carried away into the
third heaven, having previously seen it opened, since he was a disciple
of Jesus. It does not, however, belong to our present object to
explain why Paul says, “Whether in the body, I know not; or
whether out of the body, I know not: God knoweth.”3158
But I shall add to my argument even
those very points which Celsus imagines, viz., that Jesus Himself
related the account of the opening of the heavens, and the descent of
the Holy Spirit upon Him at the Jordan in the form of a dove, although
the Scripture does not assert that He said that He saw it. For
this great man did not perceive that it was not in keeping with Him who
commanded His disciples on the occasion of the vision on the mount,
“Tell what ye have seen to no man, until the Son of man be risen
from the dead,”3159
to have related to
His disciples what was seen and heard by John at the Jordan. For
it may be observed as a trait of the character of Jesus, that He on all
occasions avoided unnecessary talk about Himself; and on that account
said, “If I speak of Myself, My witness is not
true.”3160
And since He
avoided unnecessary talk about Himself, and preferred to show by acts
rather than words that He was the Christ, the Jews for that reason said
to Him, “If Thou art the Christ, tell us plainly.”3161
And as it is a Jew who, in the work of
Celsus, uses the language to Jesus regarding the appearance of the Holy
Spirit in the form of a dove, “This is your own testimony,
unsupported save by one of those who were sharers of your punishment,
whom you adduce,” it is necessary for us to show him that such a
statement is not appropriately placed in the mouth of a Jew. For
the Jews do not connect John with Jesus, nor the punishment of John
with that of Christ. And by this instance, this man who boasts of
universal knowledge is convicted of not knowing what words he ought to
ascribe to a Jew engaged in a disputation with
Jesus.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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