Chapter XXIX - ANF04. Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Parts First and Second

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Chapter XXIX
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Chapter XXIX.

In the next place, as if it were the Christians whom he was calumniating, he continues his accusations against those who termed the God of Moses and of his law an “accursed” divinity; and imagining that it is the Christians who so speak, he expresses himself thus: “What could be more foolish or insane than such senseless⁴⁴³³

⁴⁴³³ ἀναισθήτου.
wisdom? For what blunder has the Jewish lawgiver committed? and why do you accept, by means, as you say,⁴⁴³⁴

⁴⁴³⁴ Boherellus proposes φῇς for the textual reading φησί.
of a certain allegorical and typical method of interpretation, the cosmogony which he gives, and the law of the Jews, while it is with unwillingness, O most impious man, that you give praise to the Creator of the world, who promised to give them all things; who promised to multiply their race to the ends of the earth, and to raise them up from the dead with the same flesh and blood, and who gave inspiration⁴⁴³⁵

⁴⁴³⁵ καὶ τοῖς προφήταις ἐμπνέοντα.
to their prophets; and, again, you slander Him! When you feel the force of such considerations, indeed, you acknowledge that you worship the same God; but when your teacher Jesus and the Jewish Moses give contradictory decisions,⁴⁴³⁶

⁴⁴³⁶ ὅταν δὲ τὰ ἐναντία ὁ σὸς διδάσκαλος ᾽Ιησοῦς, καὶ ὁ ᾽Ιουδαίων Μωϋσῆς, νομοθετῇ.
you seek another God, instead of Him, and the Father!” Now, by such statements, this illustrious philosopher Celsus distinctly slanders the Christians, asserting that, when the Jews press them hard, they acknowledge the same God as they do; but that when Jesus legislates differently from Moses, they seek another god instead of Him. Now, whether we are conversing with the Jews, or are alone with ourselves, we know of only one and the same God, whom the Jews also worshipped of old time, and still profess to worship as God, and we are guilty of no impiety towards Him. We do not assert, however, that God will raise men from the dead with the same flesh and blood, as has been shown in the preceding pages; for we do not maintain that the natural⁴⁴³⁷

⁴⁴³⁷ ψυχικόν.
body, which is sown in corruption, and in dishonour, and in weakness, will rise again such as it was sown. On such subjects, however, we have spoken at adequate length in the foregoing pages.
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