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| Chapter XIII
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Chapter
XIII.
This Jew of Celsus continues, after the above, in
the following fashion: “Although he could state many things
regarding the events of the life of Jesus which are true, and not like
those which are recorded by the disciples, he willingly omits
them.” What, then, are those true statements, unlike the
accounts in the Gospels, which the Jew of Celsus passes by without
mention? Or is he only employing what appears to be a figure of
speech,3257
| 3257 δοκούσῃ
δεινότητι
ῥητορικῇ. | in pretending to
have something to say, while in reality he had nothing to produce
beyond the Gospel narrative which could impress the hearer with a
feeling of its truth, and furnish a clear ground of accusation against
Jesus and His doctrine? And he charges the disciples with having
invented the statement that Jesus foreknew and foretold all that
happened to Him; but the truth of this statement we shall establish,
although Celsus may not like it, by means of many other predictions
uttered by the Saviour, in which He foretold what would befall the
Christians in after generations. And who is there who would not
be astonished at this prediction: “Ye shall be brought
before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony against them
and the Gentiles;”3258
and at any others
which He may have delivered respecting the future persecution of His
disciples? For what system of opinions ever existed among men on
account of which others are punished, so that any one of the accusers
of Jesus could say that, foreseeing the impiety or falsity of his
opinions to be the ground of an accusation against them he thought that
this would redound to his credit, that he had so predicted regarding it
long before? Now if any deserve to be brought, on account of
their opinions, before governors and kings, what others are they, save
the Epicureans, who altogether deny the existence of providence?
And also the Peripatetics, who say that prayers are of no avail, and
sacrifices offered as to the Divinity? But some one will say that
the Samaritans suffer persecution because of their religion. In
answer to whom we shall state that the Sicarians,3259
| 3259 Modestinus, lib. vi.
Regularum, ad legem Corneliam de Sicariis:
“Circumcidere filios suos Judæis tantum rescripto divi Pii
permittitur: in non ejusdem religionis qui hoc fecerit,
castrantis pœna irrogatur.” | on account of the practice of circumcision,
as mutilating themselves contrary to the established laws and the
customs permitted to the Jews alone, are put to death. And you
never hear a judge inquiring whether a Sicarian who strives to live
according to this established religion of his will be released from
punishment if he apostatizes, but will be led away to death if he
continues firm; for
the evidence of the circumcision is sufficient to ensure the death of
him who has undergone it. But Christians alone, according to the
prediction of their Saviour, “Ye shall be brought before
governors and kings for My sake,” are urged up to their last
breath by their judges to deny Christianity, and to sacrifice according
to the public customs; and after the oath of abjuration, to return to
their homes, and to live in safety. And observe whether it is not
with great authority that this declaration is uttered:
“Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I
confess also before My Father who is in heaven. And whosoever
shall deny Me before men,”3260
etc. And
go back with me in thought to Jesus when He uttered these words, and
see His predictions not yet accomplished. Perhaps you will say,
in a spirit of incredulity, that he is talking folly, and speaking to
no purpose, for his words will have no fulfilment; or, being in doubt
about assenting to his words, you will say, that if these predictions
be fulfilled, and the doctrine of Jesus be established, so that
governors and kings think of destroying those who acknowledge Jesus,
then we shall believe that he utters these prophecies as one who has
received great power from God to implant this doctrine among the human
race, and as believing that it will prevail. And who will not be
filled with wonder, when he goes back in thought to Him who then taught
and said, “This Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole
world, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles,”3261
and beholds, agreeably to His words, the
Gospel of Jesus Christ preached in the whole world under heaven to
Greeks and Barbarians, wise and foolish alike? For the word,
spoken with power, has gained the mastery over men of all sorts of
nature, and it is impossible to see any race of men which has escaped
accepting the teaching of Jesus. But let this Jew of Celsus, who
does not believe that He foreknew all that happened to Him, consider
how, while Jerusalem was still standing, and the whole Jewish worship
celebrated in it, Jesus foretold what would befall it from the hand of
the Romans. For they will not maintain that the acquaintances and
pupils of Jesus Himself handed down His teaching contained in the
Gospels without committing it to writing, and left His disciples
without the memoirs of Jesus contained in their works.3262
| 3262 [“Celsus
quotes the writings of the disciples of Jesus concerning His life, as
possessing unquestioned authority; and that these were the four
canonical Gospels is proved both by the absence of all evidence to the
contrary, and by the special facts which he brings forward. And
not only this, but both Celsus and Porphyry appear to have been
acquainted with the Pauline Epistles” (Westcott’s
History of the Canon of the New Testament, pp. 464, 465, 137,
138, 401, 402). See also infra, cap. lxxiv.
S.] | Now in these it is recorded, that
“when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed about with armies, then
shall ye know that the desolation thereof is nigh.”3263
But at that time there were no armies
around Jerusalem, encompassing and enclosing and besieging it; for the
siege began in the reign of Nero, and lasted till the government of
Vespasian, whose son Titus destroyed Jerusalem, on account, as Josephus
says, of James the Just, the brother of Jesus who was called Christ,
but in reality, as the truth makes clear, on account of Jesus Christ
the Son of God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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