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| Chapter L
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Chapter L.
Celsus, still expressing his opinion regarding the
Jews, says: “It is not probable that they are in great
favour with God, or are regarded by Him with more affection than
others, or that angels are sent by Him to them alone, as if to them had
been allotted some region of the blessed. For we may see both the
people themselves, and the country of which they were deemed
worthy.” We shall refute this, by remarking that it is
evident that this nation was in great favour with God, from the fact
that the God who presides over all things was called the God of the
Hebrews, even by those who were aliens to our faith. And because
they were in favour with God, they were not abandoned by Him;4244
| 4244 καὶ ὡς
εὐδοκιμοῦντές
γε ὅσον οὐκ
ἐγκατλείποντο.
The negative particle (οὐκ) is wanting in the editions of
Hœschel and Spencer, but is found in the Royal, Basil, and Vatican
mss. Guietus would delete
ὅσον (which emendation has been adopted in
the translation), while Boherellus would read ὅσοι instead.—Ruæus. | but although few in number, they continued
to enjoy the protection of the divine power, so that in the reign of
Alexander of Macedon they sustained no injury from him, although they
refused, on account of certain covenants and oaths, to take up arms
against Darius. They say that on that occasion the Jewish high
priest, clothed in his sacred robe, received obeisance from Alexander,
who declared that he had beheld an individual arrayed in this fashion,
who announced to him in his sleep that he was to be the subjugator of
the whole of Asia.4245
Accordingly,
we Christians maintain that “it was the fortune of that people in
a remarkable degree to enjoy God’s favour, and to be loved by Him
in a way different from others;” but that this economy of things
and this divine favour were transferred to us, after Jesus had conveyed
the power which had been manifested among the Jews to those who had
become converts to Him from among the heathen. And for this
reason, although the Romans desired to perpetrate many atrocities
against the Christians, in order to ensure their extermination, they
were unsuccessful; for there was a divine hand which fought on their
behalf, and whose desire it was that the word of God should spread from
one corner of the land of Judea throughout the whole human
race.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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