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| Chapter VIII
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Chapter
VIII.
As we allege, however, that he has fallen into
confusion in consequence of false notions which he has imbibed, come
and let us point them out to the best of our ability, and show that
although Celsus considers it to be a Jewish custom to bow down to the
heaven and the angels in it, such a practice is not at all Jewish, but
is in violation of Judaism, as it also is to do obeisance to sun, moon,
and stars, as well as images. You will find at least in the book
of Jeremiah the words of God censuring by the mouth of the prophet the
Jewish people for doing obeisance to such objects, and for sacrificing
to the queen of heaven, and to all the host of heaven.4090
The writings of the Christians,
moreover, show, in censuring the sins committed among the Jews, that
when God abandoned that people on account of certain sins, these sins
(of idol-worship) also were committed by them. For it is related
in the Acts of the Apostles regarding the Jews, that “God turned,
and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the
book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to Me slain
beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the
wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the
star of your god Remphan, figures which you made to worship
them.”4091
And in the
writings of Paul, who was carefully trained in Jewish customs, and
converted afterwards to Christianity by a miraculous appearance of
Jesus, the following words may be read in the Epistle to the
Colossians: “Let no man beguile you of your reward in a
voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those
things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind;
and not holding the Head, from which all the body by joint and bands
having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the
increase of God.”4092
But Celsus,
having neither read these verses, nor having learned their contents
from any other source, has represented, I know not how, the Jews as not
transgressing their law in bowing down to the heavens, and to the
angels therein.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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