But as, in what follows, Celsus, not understanding that the language of
Scripture regarding God is adapted to an anthropopathic point of view,
ridicules those passages which speak of words of anger addressed to the
ungodly, and of threatenings directed against sinners, we have to say
that, as we ourselves, when talking with very young children, do not aim
at exerting our own power of eloquence,[760] but, adapting ourselves to
the weakness of our charge, both say and do those things which may
appear to us useful for the correction and improvement of the children
as children, so the word of God appears to have dealt with the history,
making the capacity of the hearers, and the benefit which they were to
receive, the standard of the appropriateness of its announcements
[regarding Him]. And, generally, with regard to such a style of speaking
about God, we find in the book of Deuteronomy the following: “The Lord
thy God bare with your manners, as a man would bear with the manners of
his son.”[761] It is, as it were, assuming the manners of a man in order
to secure the advantage of men that the Scripture makes use of such
expressions; for it would not have been suitable to the condition of the
multitude, that what God had to say to them should be spoken by Him in a
manner more befitting the majesty of His own person. And yet he who is
anxious to attain a true understanding of Holy Scripture, will discover
the spiritual truths which are spoken by it to those who are called
“spiritual,” by comparing the meaning of what is addressed to those of
weaker mind with what is announced to such as are of acuter
understanding, both meanings being frequently found in the same passage
by him who is capable of comprehending it.
Footnote 760:
οὐ τοῦ ἑαυτῶν ἐν τῷ λέγειν στοχαζόμεθα δυνατοῦ.
Footnote 761:
Cf. Deut. i. 31. Origen appears to have read, not ἐτροφορησεν, the
common reading (Heb. נָשָׂא), but ἐτροποφορησεν, the reading of the
Codex Alex.