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| Chapter LXXX
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Chapter
LXXX.
After this, it seemed proper to Celsus to term the
Chaldeans a most divinely-inspired nation from the very earliest
times,4679
from whom the
delusive system of astrology4680
has spread abroad
among men. Nay, he ranks the Magi also in the same category, from
whom the art of magic derived its name and has been transmitted
to other nations, to
the corruption and destruction of those who employ it. In the
preceding part of this work, (we mentioned) that, in the opinion even
of Celsus, the Egyptians also were guilty of error, because they had
indeed solemn enclosures around what they considered their temples,
while within them there was nothing save apes, or crocodiles, or goats,
or asps, or some other animal; but on the present occasion it pleases
him to speak of the Egyptian people too as most divinely inspired, and
that, too, from the earliest times,—perhaps because they made war
upon the Jews from an early date. The Persians, moreover, who
marry their own mothers,4681
and have
intercourse with their own daughters, are, in the opinion of Celsus, an
inspired race; nay, even the Indians are so, some of whom, in the
preceding, he mentioned as eaters of human flesh. To the Jews,
however, especially those of ancient times, who employ none of these
practices, he did not merely refuse the name of inspired, but declared
that they would immediately perish. And this prediction he
uttered respecting them, as being doubtless endued with prophetic
power, not observing that the whole history of the Jews, and their
ancient and venerable polity, were administered by God; and that it is
by their fall that salvation has come to the Gentiles, and that
“their fall is the riches of the world, and the diminishing of
them the riches of the Gentiles,”4682
until the fulness of the Gentiles come, that after that the whole of
Israel, whom Celsus does not know, may be saved.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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