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Chapter
XXII.
But this low jester3493
Celsus, omitting no species of mockery and ridicule which can be
employed against us, mentions in his treatise the Dioscuri, and
Hercules, and Æsculapius, and Dionysus, who are believed by the
Greeks to have become gods after being men, and says that “we
cannot bear to call such beings gods, because they were at first
men,3494
3494 The reading in the
text is καὶ
πρῶτοι, for which Bohereau
proposes τὸ
πρῶτον, which we have adopted in
the translation. | and yet they manifested many noble
qualifies, which were displayed for the benefit of mankind, while we
assert that Jesus was seen after His death by His own followers;”
and he brings against us an additional charge, as if we said that
“He was seen indeed, but was only a shadow!” Now to
this we reply, that it was very artful of Celsus not here clearly to
indicate that he did not regard these beings as gods, for he was afraid
of the opinion of those who might peruse his treatise, and who might
suppose him to be an atheist; whereas, if he had paid respect to what
appeared to him to be the truth, he would not have feigned to
regard them as gods.3495
3495 We have followed in
the translation the emendation of Guietus, who proposes εἰ δὲ τὴν
φαινομένην
αὐτῷ
ἀλήθειαν
ἐπρέσβευσεν,
οὐκ ἄν,
κ.τ.λ.,,
instead of the textual reading, εἴ τε τῆς
φαινομένης
αὐτῷ
ἀληθείας
ἐπρέσβενσεν,
οὐκ ἄν,
κ.τ.λ. | Now to either
of the allegations we are ready with an answer. Let us,
accordingly, to those who do not regard them as gods reply as
follows: These beings, then, are not gods at all; but agreeably
to the view of those who think that the soul of man perishes
immediately (after death), the souls of these men also perished; or
according to the opinion of those who say that the soul continues to
subsist or is immortal, these men continue to exist or are immortal,
and they are not gods but heroes,—or not even heroes, but simply
souls. If, then, on the one hand, you suppose them not to
exist, we shall have to prove the doctrine of the soul’s
immortality, which is to us a doctrine of pre-eminent
importance;3496
3496 τὸν
προηγούμενον
ἡμῖν περὶ
ψυχῆς
κατασκευαστέον
λόγον. | if, on the other
hand, they do exist, we have still to prove3497
3497 Bohereau conjectures,
with great probability, that instead of ἀποδεκτέον,
we ought to read ἀποδεικτέον. | the doctrine of immortality, not only by
what the Greeks have so well said regarding it, but also in a manner
agreeable to the teaching of Holy Scripture. And we shall
demonstrate that it is impossible for those who were polytheists during
their lives to obtain a better country and position after their
departure from this world, by quoting the histories that are related of
them, in which is recorded the great dissoluteness of Hercules, and his
effeminate bondage with Omphale, together with the statements regarding
Æsculapius, that their Zeus struck him dead by a
thunderbolt. And of the Dioscuri, it will be said that they die
often—
“At one time live on alternate days, and at
another
Die, and obtain honour equally with the
gods.”3498
3498 Cf. Hom.,
Odyss., xi. 303 and 304. |
How, then, can they reasonably imagine that one of these is to be
regarded as a god or a hero?E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|