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| Chapter XXIX
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Chapter
XXIX.
It appears to me, indeed, that Celsus has
misunderstood some of the deeper reasons relating to the arrangement of
terrestrial affairs, some of which are touched upon4175
even in Grecian history, when certain of
those who are considered to be gods are introduced as having contended
with each other about the possession of Attica; while in the writings
of the Greek poets also, some who are called gods are represented as
acknowledging that certain places here are preferred by them4176
before others. The history of
barbarian nations, moreover, and especially that of Egypt, contains
some such allusions to the division of the so-called Egyptian homes,
when it states that Athena, who obtained Saïs by lot, is the same
who also has possession of Attica. And the learned among the
Egyptians can enumerate innumerable instances of this kind, although I
do not know whether they include the Jews and their country in this
division. And now, so far as testimonies outside the word of God
bearing on this point are concerned, enough have been adduced for the
present. We say, moreover, that our prophet of God and His
genuine servant Moses, in his song in the book of Deuteronomy, makes a
statement regarding the portioning out of the earth in the following
terms: “When the Most High divided the nations, when He
dispersed the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according
to the number of the angels of God; and the portion was His people
Jacob, and Israel the cord of His inheritance.”4177
And regarding the distribution of the
nations, the same Moses, in his work entitled Genesis, thus expresses
himself in the style of a historical narrative: “And the
whole earth was of one language and of one speech; and it came to pass,
as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of
Shinar, and they dwelt there.”4178
A little
further on he continues: “And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the
children of men had built. And the Lord
said, Behold, the
people is one, and they have all one language; and this they have begun
to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them which they
have imagined to do. Go to, let Us go down, and there confound
their language, that they may not understand one another’s
speech. And the Lord scattered them
abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left
off to build the city and the tower. Therefore is the name of it
called Confusion;4179
because the
Lord did there confound the language of all the
earth: and from thence did the Lord
scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”4180
In the treatise of Solomon, moreover,
on “Wisdom,” and on the events at the time of the confusion
of languages, when the division of the earth took place, we find the
following regarding Wisdom: “Moreover, the nations in their
wicked conspiracy being confounded, she found out the righteous, and
preserved him blameless unto God, and kept him strong in his tender
compassion towards his son.”4181
But on
these subjects much, and that of a mystical kind, might be said; in
keeping with which is the following: “It is good to keep
close the secret of a king,”4182
—in order
that the doctrine of the entrance of souls into bodies (not, however,
that of the transmigration from one body into another) may not be
thrown before the common understanding, nor what is holy given to the
dogs, nor pearls be cast before swine. For such a procedure would
be impious, being equivalent to a betrayal of the mysterious
declarations of God’s wisdom, of which it has been well
said: “Into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter, nor
dwell in a body subject to sin.”4183
It is sufficient, however, to
represent in the style of a historic narrative what is intended to
convey a secret meaning in the garb of history, that those who have the
capacity may work out for themselves all that relates to the
subject. (The narrative, then, may be understood as
follows.)E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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