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Chapter
XXVII.
Now, in answer to this account of Aristeas, we
have to say, that if Celsus had adduced it as history, without
signifying his own assent to its truth, it is in a different way that
we should have met his argument. But since he asserts that he
“disappeared through the intervention of the divinity,” and
“showed himself again in an unmistakeable manner,” and
“visited many parts of the world,” and “made
marvellous announcements;” and, moreover, that there was
“an oracle of Apollo, enjoining the Metapontines to treat
Aristeas as a god,” he gives the accounts relating to him as upon
his own authority, and with his full assent. And (this being the
case), we ask, How is it possible that, while supposing the marvels
related by the disciples of Jesus regarding their Master to be wholly
fictitious, and finding fault with those who believe them, you, O
Celsus, do not regard these stories of yours to be either products of
jugglery3514 or
inventions? And how,3515
3515 Guietus conjectures,
καὶ πῶς,
ὧ λῷστε. | while charging
others with an irrational belief in the marvels recorded of Jesus, can
you show yourself justified in giving credence to such statement as the
above, without producing some proof or evidence of the alleged
occurrences having taken place? Or do Herodotus and Pindar appear
to you to speak the truth, while they who have made it their concern to
die for the doctrine of Jesus, and who have left to their
successors writings so remarkable on the truths which they believed,
entered for the sake of “fictions” (as you consider them),
and “myths,” and “juggleries,” upon a
struggle which entails a life of
danger and a death of violence? Place yourself, then, as a
neutral party, between what is related of Aristeas and what is recorded
of Jesus, and see whether, from the result, and from the benefits which
have accrued from the reformation of morals, and to the worship of the
God who is over all things, it is not allowable to conclude that we
must believe the events recorded of Jesus not to have happened without
the divine intervention, but that this was not the case with the story
of Aristeas the Proconnesian.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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