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| Chapter L
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Chapter L.
In the next place, Celsus, after heaping together,
simply as mere assertions, the varying opinions of some of the ancients
regarding the world, and the origin of man, alleges that “Moses
and the prophets, who have left to us our books, not knowing at all
what the nature of the world is, and of man, have woven together a web
of sheer nonsense.”4533
| 4533 συνθεῖναι
ληρον
βαθύν. | If he had
shown, now, how it appeared to him that the holy Scriptures
contained “sheer nonsense,” we should have tried to
demolish the arguments which appeared to him to establish their
nonsensical character; but on the present occasion, following his own
example, we also sportively give it as our opinion that Celsus, knowing
nothing at all about the nature of the meaning and language of the
prophets,4534
| 4534 ὅτι
τίς ποτέ
ἐστιν ἡ φύσις
τοῦ νοῦ, καὶ
τοῦ ἐν τοῖς
προφήταις
λόγου. | composed a work
which contained “sheer nonsense,” and boastfully gave it
the title of a “true discourse.” And since he makes
the statements about the “days of creation” ground of
accusation,—as if he understood them clearly and correctly, some
of which elapsed before the creation of light and heaven, and
sun, and moon, and stars, and some of them after the creation of
these,—we shall only make this observation, that Moses must then
have forgotten that he had said a little before, “that in six
days the creation of the world had been finished,” and that in
consequence of this act of forgetfulness he subjoins to these words the
following: “This is the book of the creation of man, in the
day when God made the heaven and the earth!” But it is not
in the least credible, that after what he had said respecting the six
days, Moses should immediately add, without a special meaning, the
words, “in the day that God made the heavens and the
earth;” and if any one thinks that these words may be referred to
the statement, “In the beginning God made the heaven and the
earth,” let him observe that before the words, “Let there
be light, and there was light,” and these, “God called the
light day,” it has been stated that “in the beginning God
made the heaven and the earth.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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