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| Chapter LXIII
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Chapter
LXIII.
After these points, Celsus proceeds to bring
against the Gospel narrative a charge which is not to be lightly passed
over, saying that “if Jesus desired to show that his power was
really divine, he ought to have appeared to those who had ill-treated
him, and to him who had condemned him, and to all men
universally.” For it appears to us also to be true,
according to the Gospel account, that He was not seen after His
resurrection in the same manner as He used formerly to show
Himself—publicly, and to all men. But it is recorded in the
Acts, that “being seen during forty days,” He expounded to
His disciples “the things pertaining to the kingdom of
God.”3364
And in the
Gospels3365
it is not stated
that He was always with them; but that on one occasion He appeared in
their midst, after eight days, when the doors were shut, and on another
in some similar fashion. And Paul also, in the concluding
portions of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, in reference to His
not having publicly appeared as He did in the period before He
suffered, writes as follows: “For I delivered unto you
first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was seen of Cephas, then
of the twelve: after that He was seen of above five hundred
brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto the present
time, but some are fallen asleep. After that He was seen of
James, then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen of
me also, as of one born out of due time.”3366
I am of opinion now
that the statements in this passage
contain some great and wonderful mysteries, which are beyond the grasp
not merely of the great multitude of ordinary believers, but even of
those who are far advanced (in Christian knowledge), and that in them
the reason would be explained why He did not show Himself, after His
resurrection from the dead, in the same manner as before that
event. And in a treatise of this nature, composed in answer to a
work directed against the Christians and their faith, observe whether
we are able to adduce a few rational arguments out of a greater number,
and thus make an impression upon the hearers of this
apology.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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