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Chapter
LXXI.
But as, in what follows, Celsus, not understanding
that the language of Scripture regarding God is adapted to an
anthropopathic point of view,3982
3982 [See note, p. 502,
supra.] | ridicules those
passages which speak of words of anger addressed to the ungodly, and of
threatenings directed against sinners, we have to say that, as we
ourselves, when talking with very young children, do not aim at
exerting our own power of eloquence,3983
3983 οὐ τοῦ
ἑαυτῶν ἐν τῷ
λέγειν
στοχαζόμεθα
δυνατοῦ. | but, adapting
ourselves to the weakness of our charge, both say and do those things
which may appear to us useful for the correction and improvement of the
children as children, so the word of God appears to have dealt with the
history, making the capacity of the hearers, and the benefit which they
were to receive, the standard of the appropriateness of its
announcements (regarding Him). And, generally, with regard to
such a style of speaking about God, we find in the book of Deuteronomy
the following: “The Lord thy God
bare with your manners, as a man would bear with the manners of his
son.”3984
3984 Cf. Deut. i. 31. Origen appears to have read, not
ἐτροφόρησεν,
the common reading (Heb. אשָֹנָ), but
ἐτροποφόρησεν,
the reading of the Codex Alex. | It is, as it
were, assuming the manners of a man in order to secure the advantage of
men that the Scripture makes use of such expressions; for it would not
have been suitable to the condition of the multitude, that what God had
to say to them should be spoken by Him in a manner more befitting the
majesty of His own person. And yet he who is anxious to attain a
true understanding of holy Scripture, will discover the spiritual
truths which are spoken by it to those who are called
“spiritual,” by comparing the meaning of what is addressed
to those of weaker mind with what is announced to such as are of acuter
understanding, both meanings being frequently found in the same passage
by him who is capable of comprehending it.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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