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| Chapter XLIX
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Chapter
XLIX.
If Celsus had read the Scriptures in an impartial
spirit, he would not have said that “our writings are incapable
of admitting an allegorical meaning.” For from the
prophetic Scriptures, in which historical events are recorded (not from
the historical), it is possible to be convinced that the historical
portions also were written with an allegorical purpose, and were most
skilfully adapted not only to the multitude of the simpler believers,
but also to the few who are able or willing to investigate matters in
an intelligent spirit. If, indeed, those writers at the present
day who are deemed by Celsus the “more modest of the Jews and
Christians” were the (first) allegorical interpreters of our
Scriptures, he would have the appearance, perhaps, of making a
plausible allegation. But since the very fathers and authors of
the doctrines themselves give them an allegorical signification, what
other inference can be drawn than that they were composed so as to be
allegorically understood in their chief signification?3910
| 3910 κατὰ τὸν
προηούμενον
νοῦν. | And we shall adduce a few instances
out of very many to show that Celsus brings an empty charge against the
Scriptures, when he says “that they are incapable of admitting an
allegorical meaning.” Paul, the apostle of Jesus,
says: “It is written in the law, Thou shalt not muzzle the
mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care
for oxen? or saith He it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes,
no doubt, this is written, that he that plougheth should plough in
hope, and he that thresheth in hope of partaking.”3911
And in another passage the same Paul
says: “For it is written, For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and they two
shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery; but I speak
concerning Christ and the Church.”3912
And again, in another place:
“We know that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all
passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud,
and in the sea.”3913
Then,
explaining the history relating to the manna, and that referring to the
miraculous issue of the water from the rock, he continues as
follows: “And they did all eat the same spiritual meat, and
did all drink the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that
spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was
Christ.”3914
Asaph,
moreover, who, in showing the histories in Exodus and Numbers to be
full of difficulties and parables,3915
| 3915 προβλήματα
καὶ
παραβολαί. | begins in the
following manner, as recorded in the book of Psalms, where he is about
to make mention of these things: “Give ear, O my people, to
my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will
open my mouth in parables; I will utter dark sayings of old, which we
have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.”3916
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