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| Chapter XXV PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XXV.
Let us next notice the statements of Celsus, which
follow the preceding, and which are as follow: “As the
Jews, then, became a peculiar people, and enacted laws in keeping with
the customs of their country,4169
4169 καὶ κατὰ τὸ
ἐπιχώριον
νόμους
θέμενοι. | and maintain them
up to the present time, and observe a mode of worship which, whatever
be its nature, is yet derived from their fathers, they act in these
respects like other men, because each nation retains its ancestral
customs, whatever they are, if they happen to be established among
them. And such an arrangement appears to be advantageous, not
only because it has occurred to the mind of other nations to decide
some things differently, but also because it is a duty to protect what
has been established for the public advantage; and also because, in all
probability, the various quarters of the earth were from the beginning
allotted to different superintending spirits,4170
4170 τὰ μέρη τῆς
γῆς ἐξ ἀρχῆς
ἄλλα ἄλλοις
ἐπόπταις
νενεμημένα. |
and were thus distributed among certain governing powers,4171
4171 καὶ κατά
τινας
ἐπικρατείας
διειλημμένα. | and in this manner the administration of the
world is carried on. And whatever is done among each nation in
this way would be rightly done, wherever it was agreeable to the wishes
(of the superintending powers), while it would be an act of impiety to
get rid of4172 the institutions
established from the beginning in the various places.” By
these words Celsus shows that the Jews, who were formerly Egyptians,
subsequently became a “peculiar people,” and enacted laws
which they carefully preserve. And not to repeat his statements,
which have been already before us, he says that it is advantageous to
the Jews to observe their ancestral worship, as other nations carefully
attend to theirs. And he further states a deeper reason why it is
of advantage to the Jews to cultivate their ancestral customs, in
hinting dimly that those to whom was allotted the office of
superintending the country which was being legislated for, enacted the
laws of each land in co-operation with its legislators. He
appears, then, to indicate that both the country of the Jews, and the
nation which inhabits it, are superintended by one or more beings, who,
whether they were one or more, co-operated with Moses, and enacted the
laws of the Jews.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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