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Chapter II.
But let Celsus, and those who assent to his
charges, tell us whether it is at all like “an ass’s
shadow,” that the Jewish prophets should have predicted the
birth-place of Him who was to be the ruler of those who had lived
righteous lives, and who are called the “heritage” of
God;3440
3440 τῶν
χρηματιζόντων
μερίδος
Θεοῦ. | and that Emmanuel should be conceived by a
virgin; and that such signs and wonders should be performed by Him who
was the subject of prophecy; and that His word should have such speedy
course, that the voice of His apostles should go forth into all the
earth; and that He should undergo certain sufferings after His
condemnation by the Jews; and that He should rise again from the
dead. For was it by chance3441 that the
prophets made these announcements, with no persuasion of the truth in
their minds,3442
3442 σὺν οὑδεμιᾷ
πιθανότητι. | moving them not
only to speak, but to deem their announcements worthy of being
committed to writing? And did so great a nation as that of the
Jews, who had long ago received a country of their own wherein to
dwell, recognise certain men as prophets, and reject others as utterers
of false predictions, without any conviction of the soundness of the
distinction?3443
3443 σὺν οὑδεμιᾷ
πιθανότητι. | And was there
no motive which induced them to class with the books of Moses, which
were held as sacred, the words of those persons who were afterwards
deemed to be prophets? And can those who charge the Jews and
Christians with folly, show us how the Jewish nation could have
continued to subsist, had there existed among them no promise of the
knowledge of future events? and how, while each of the surrounding
nations believed, agreeably to their ancient institutions, that
they received oracles
and predictions from those whom they accounted gods, this people alone,
who were taught to view with contempt all those who were considered
gods by the heathen, as not being gods, but demons, according to the
declaration of the prophets, “For all the gods of the nations are
demons,”3444
3444 Ps. xcvi. 5, δαιμόνια,
“idols,” Auth. Vers. We have in this passage, and in
many others, the identification of the δαίμονες or gods
of the heathen with the δαίμονες or
δαιμόνια,
“evil spirits,” or angels, supposed to be mentioned in
Gen. vi. 2. | had among them no
one who professed to be a prophet, and who could restrain such as, from
a desire to know the future, were ready to desert3445
3445 The reading in the
text is αὐτομολεῖν,
on which Bohereau, with whom the Benedictine editor agrees, remarks
that we must either read αὐτομολήσοντας,
or understand some such word as ἑτοίμους before
αὐτομολεῖν. | to the demons3446
3446 Ps. xcvi. 5, δαιμόνια,
“idols,” Auth. Vers. We have in this passage, and in
many others, the identification of the δαίμονες or gods
of the heathen with the δαίμονες or
δαιμόνια,
“evil spirits,” or angels, supposed to be mentioned in
Gen. vi. 2. | of
other nations? Judge, then, whether it were not a necessity, that
as the whole nation had been taught to despise the deities of other
lands, they should have had an abundance of prophets, who made known
events which were of far greater importance in themselves,3447 and which surpassed the oracles of all other
countries.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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