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Book II.
Chapter I.
The first book of our
answer to the treatise of Celsus, entitled A True Discourse,
which concluded with the representation of the Jew addressing Jesus,
having now extended to a sufficient length, we intend the present part
as a reply to the charges brought by him against those who have been
converted from Judaism to Christianity.3210
| 3210 [Comp. Justin,
Dial. with Trypho (passim), vol. i., this
series.] | And we call attention, in the first
place, to this special question, viz., why Celsus, when he had once
resolved upon the introduction of individuals upon the stage of his
book, did not represent the Jew as addressing the converts from
heathenism rather than those from Judaism, seeing that his discourse,
if directed to us, would have appeared more likely to produce an
impression.3211
But probably
this claimant to universal knowledge does not know what is appropriate
in the matter of such representations; and therefore let us proceed to
consider what he has to say to the converts from Judaism. He
asserts that “they have forsaken the law of their fathers, in
consequence of their minds being led captive by Jesus; that they have
been most ridiculously deceived, and that they have become deserters to
another name and to another mode of life.” Here he has not
observed that the Jewish converts have not deserted the law of their
fathers, inasmuch as they live according to its prescriptions,
receiving their very name from the poverty of the law, according to the
literal acceptation of the word; for Ebion signifies “poor”
among the Jews,3212
and those Jews who
have received Jesus as Christ are called by the name of
Ebionites. Nay, Peter himself seems to have observed for a
considerable time the Jewish observances enjoined by the law of Moses,
not having yet learned from Jesus to ascend from the law that is
regulated according to the letter, to that which is interpreted
according to the spirit,—a fact which we learn from the Acts of
the Apostles. For on the day after the angel of God appeared to
Cornelius, suggesting to him “to send to Joppa, to Simon surnamed
Peter,” Peter “went up into the upper room to pray about
the sixth hour. And he became very hungry, and would have
eaten: but while they made ready he fell into a trance, and saw
heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been
a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth;
wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts, and creeping things of
the earth, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him,
Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I
have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the
voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed,
that call thou not common.”3213
Now
observe how, by this instance, Peter is represented as still observing
the Jewish customs respecting clean and unclean animals. And from
the narrative that follows, it is manifest that he, as being yet a Jew,
and living according to their traditions, and despising those who were
beyond the pale of Judaism, stood in need of a vision to lead him to
communicate to Cornelius (who was not an Israelite according to the
flesh), and to those who were with him, the word of faith.
Moreover, in the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul states that Peter,
still from fear of the Jews, ceased upon the arrival of James to eat
with the Gentiles, and “separated himself from them, fearing them
that were of the circumcision;”3214
and the rest of the Jews, and Barnabas also, followed the same
course. And certainly it was quite consistent that those should
not abstain from the observance of Jewish usages who were sent to
minister to the circumcision, when they who “seemed to be
pillars” gave the right hand of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas,
in order that, while devoting themselves to the circumcision, the
latter might preach to the Gentiles. And why do I mention that they who preached
to the circumcision withdrew and separated themselves from the heathen,
when even Paul himself “became as a Jew to the Jews, that he
might gain the Jews?” Wherefore also in the Acts of the
Apostles it is related that he even brought an offering to the altar,
that he might satisfy the Jews that he was no apostate from their
law.3215
Now, if Celsus had been acquainted
with all these circumstances, he would not have represented the Jew
holding such language as this to the converts from Judaism:
“What induced you, my fellow-citizens, to abandon the law of your
fathers, and to allow your minds to be led captive by him with whom we
have just conversed, and thus be most ridiculously deluded, so as to
become deserters from us to another name, and to the practices of
another life?”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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