After this Celsus continues: “It is not easy, indeed, for one who is not
a philosopher to ascertain the origin of evils, though it is sufficient
for the multitude to say that they do not proceed from God, but cleave
to matter, and have their abode among mortal things; while the
course[743] of mortal things being the same from beginning to end, the
same things must always, agreeably to the appointed cycles,[744] recur
in the past, present, and future.” Celsus here observes that it is not
easy for one who is not a philosopher to ascertain the origin of evils,
as if it were an easy matter for a philosopher to gain this knowledge,
while for one who is not a philosopher it was difficult, though still
possible, for such an one, although with great labour, to attain it.
Now, to this we say, that the origin of evils is a subject which is not
easy even for a philosopher to master, and that perhaps it is impossible
even for such to attain a clear understanding of it, unless it be
revealed to them by divine inspiration, both what evils are, and how
they originated, and how they shall be made to disappear. But although
ignorance of God is an evil, and one of the greatest of these is not to
know how God is to be served and worshipped, yet, as even Celsus would
admit, there are undoubtedly some philosophers who have been ignorant of
this, as is evident from the views of the different philosophical sects;
whereas, according to our judgment, no one is capable of ascertaining
the origin of evils who does not know that it is wicked to suppose that
piety is preserved uninjured amid the laws that are established in
different states, in conformity with the generally prevailing ideas of
government.[745] No one, moreover, who has not heard what is related of
him who is called “devil,” and of his “angels,” and what he was before
he became a devil, and _how_ he became such, and what was the cause of
the simultaneous apostasy of those who are termed his angels, will be
able to ascertain the origin of evils. But he who would attain to this
knowledge must learn more accurately the nature of demons, and know that
they are not the work of God so far as respects their demoniacal nature,
but only in so far as they are possessed of reason; and also what their
origin was, so that they became beings of such a nature, that while
converted into demons, the powers of their mind[746] remain. And if
there be any topic of human investigation which is difficult for our
nature to grasp, certainly the origin of evils may be considered to be
such.
Footnote 743:
περίοδος.
Footnote 744:
κατὰ τὰς τεταγμένας ἀνακυκλήσεις.
Footnote 745:
μὴ ἐγνωκὼς κακὸν εἶναι τὸ νομίζειν εὐσέβειαν σώζεσθαι ἐν τοῖς
καθεστηκόσι κατὰ τὰς κοινότερον νοουμένας πολιτείας νόμοις.
Footnote 746:
τὸ ἡγεμονικόν.