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| Chapter XXX
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Chapter XXX.
It appears to me that Celsus has also
misunderstood this statement, “Let Us make man in Our image and
likeness;”3806
and has therefore
represented the “worms” as saying that, being created by
God, we altogether resemble Him. If, however, he had known the
difference between man being created “in the image of God”
and “after His likeness,” and that God is recorded to have
said, “Let Us make man after Our image and likeness,” but
that He made man “after the image” of God, but not then
also “after His likeness,”3807
he
would not have represented us as saying that “we are altogether
like Him.” Moreover, we do not assert that the stars are
subject to us; since the resurrection which is called the
“resurrection of the just,” and which is understood by wise
men, is compared to the sun, and moon, and stars, by him who said,
“There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon,
and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another
star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the
dead.”3808
Daniel also
prophesied long ago regarding these things.3809
Celsus says further, that we assert
that “all things have been arranged so as to be subject to
us,” having perhaps heard some of the intelligent among us
speaking to that effect, and perhaps also not understanding the saying,
that “he who is the greatest amongst us is the servant of
all.”3810
And if the
Greeks say, “Then sun and moon are the slaves of mortal
men,”3811
| 3811 Cf. Eurip.,
Phœniss., 546, 547. | they express
approval of the statement, and give an explanation of its meaning; but
since such a statement is either not made at all by us, or is expressed
in a different way, Celsus here too falsely accuses us.
Moreover, we who, according to Celsus, are “worms,” are
represented by him as saying that, “seeing some among us are
guilty of sin, God will come to us, or will send His own Son, that He
may consume the wicked, and that we other frogs may enjoy eternal life
with Him.” Observe how this venerable philosopher, like a
low buffoon,3812
turns into ridicule
and mockery, and a subject of laughter, the announcement of a divine
judgment, and of the punishment of the wicked, and of the reward of the
righteous; and subjoins to all this the remark, that “such
statements would be more endurable if made by worms and frogs than by
Christians and Jews who quarrel with one another!” We shall
not, however, imitate his example, nor say similar things regarding
those philosophers who profess to know the nature of all things, and
who discuss with each other the manner in which all things were
created, and how the heaven and earth originated, and all things in
them; and how the souls (of men), being either unbegotten, and not
created by God, are yet governed by Him, and pass from one body to
another;3813
| 3813 καὶ
ἀμείβουσι
σώματα. | or being formed at
the same time with the body, exist for ever or pass away. For
instead of treating with respect and accepting the intention of those
who have devoted themselves to the investigation of the truth, one
might mockingly and revilingly say that such men were
“worms,” who did not measure themselves by their corner of
their dung-heap in human life, and who accordingly gave forth their
opinions on matters of such importance as if they understood them, and
who strenuously assert that they have obtained a view of those things
which cannot be seen without a higher inspiration and a diviner
power. “For no man knoweth the things of a man, save the
spirit of man which is in him: even so the things of God knoweth
no man, but the Spirit of God.”3814
We are not, however, mad, nor do we
compare such human wisdom (I use the word “wisdom” in the
common acceptation), which busies itself not about the affairs of the
multitude, but in the investigation of truth, to the wrigglings of
worms or any other such creatures; but in the spirit of truth, we
testify of certain Greek philosophers that they knew God, seeing
“He manifested Himself to them,”3815
although “they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful,
but became vain in their imaginations; and professing themselves to be
wise, they became foolish, and changed the glory of the incorruptible
God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and
four-footed beasts, and creeping things.”3816
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