43. My opponent
will perhaps meet me with many other slanderous and childish charges
which are commonly urged. Jesus was a Magian;3320
| 3320
Magus, almost equivalent to sorcerer. |
He effected all these things by
secret
arts. From the
shrines of the Egyptians He stole the names of
angels of might,
3321
| 3321
Arnobius uses nomina, “names,” with special
significance, because the Magi in their incantations used barbarous and
fearful names of angels and of powers, by whose influence they thought
strange and unusual things were brought to pass. |
and the
religious system of a remote
country. Why, O witlings, do you
speak of things which you have not
examined, and which are unknown to
you, prating with the garrulity of a rash
tongue? Were, then,
those things which were done, the freaks of
demons, and the tricks of
magical arts? Can you specify and point out to me any one of all
those magicians who have ever existed in past ages, that did anything
similar, in the thousandth degree, to
Christ? Who has done this
without any
power of incantations, without the juice of
herbs and of
grasses, without any anxious watching of sacrifices, of libations, or
of
seasons? For we do not press it, and inquire what they profess
to do, nor in what
kind of acts all their learning and experience are
wont to be comprised. For who is not aware that these men either
study to know beforehand things impending, which, whether they will or
not, come of necessity as they have been
ordained? or to
inflict a
deadly and wasting
disease on whom they choose; or to sever the
affections of relatives; or to open without keys places which are
locked; or to seal the month in
silence; or in the
chariot race to
weaken, urge on, or retard
horses; or to inspire in
wives, and in the
children of
strangers, whether they be males or
females, the
flames and
mad desires of illicit
love?
3322
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All these different effects the magicians of old attempted to
produce: to break family ties by bringing plagues into houses, or
by poisons; open doors and unbind chains by charms (Orig., contra
Cels., ii.); affect horses in the race—of which Hieronymus in
his Life of Hilarion gives an example; and use philters and love
potions to kindle excessive and unlawful desires. |
Or if they seem to attempt
anything useful, to be able to do it not by their own power, but by the
might of those deities whom they invoke.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
