But let us see the manner in which this Celsus, who professes to know
everything, brings a false accusation against the Jews, when he alleges
that “they worship angels, and are addicted to sorcery, in which Moses
was their instructor.” Now, in what part of the writings of Moses he
found the lawgiver laying down the worship of angels, let him tell, who
professes to know all about Christianity and Judaism; and let him show
also how sorcery can exist among those who have accepted the Mosaic law,
and read the injunction, “Neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by
them.”[1166] Moreover, he promises to show afterwards “how it was
through ignorance that the Jews were deceived and led into error.” Now,
if he had discovered that the ignorance of the Jews regarding Christ was
the effect of their not having heard the prophecies about Him, he would
show with truth how the Jews fell into error. But without any wish
whatever that this should appear, he views as Jewish errors what are no
errors at all. And Celsus having promised to make us acquainted, in a
subsequent part of his work, with the doctrines of Judaism, proceeds in
the first place to speak of our Saviour as having been the leader of our
generation, in so far as we are Christians,[1167] and says that “a few
years ago he began to teach this doctrine, being regarded by Christians
as the Son of God.” Now, with respect to this point—His prior existence
a few years ago—we have to remark as follows. Could it have come to pass
without divine assistance, that Jesus, desiring during these years to
spread abroad His words and teaching, should have been so successful,
that everywhere throughout the world, not a few persons, Greeks as well
as Barbarians, learned as well as ignorant, adopted His doctrine, so
that they struggled even to death in its defence, rather than deny it,
which no one is ever related to have done for any other system? I
indeed, from no wish to flatter[1168] Christianity, but from a desire
thoroughly to examine the facts, would say that even those who are
engaged in the healing of numbers of sick persons, do not attain their
object—the cure of the body—without divine help; and if one were to
succeed in delivering souls from a flood of wickedness, and excesses,
and acts of injustice, and from a contempt of God, and were to show, as
evidence of such a result, one hundred persons improved in their natures
(let us suppose the number to be so large), no one would reasonably say
that it was without divine assistance that he had implanted in those
hundred individuals a doctrine capable of removing so many evils. And if
any one, on a candid consideration of these things, shall admit that no
improvement ever takes place among men without divine help, how much
more confidently shall he make the same assertion regarding Jesus, when
he compares the former lives of many converts to His doctrine with their
after conduct, and reflects in what acts of licentiousness and injustice
and covetousness they formerly indulged, until, as Celsus, and they who
think with him, allege, “they were deceived,” and accepted a doctrine
which, as these individuals assert, is destructive of the life of men;
but who, from the time that they adopted it, have become in some way
meeker, and more religious, and more consistent, so that certain among
them, from a desire of exceeding chastity, and a wish to worship God
with greater purity, abstain even from the permitted indulgences of
[lawful] love.
Footnote 1166:
Lev. xix. 31.
Footnote 1167:
Ὡς γενομένου ἡγεμόνος τῇ καθὸ Χριστιανοί ἐσμεν γενέσει ἡμῶν.
Footnote 1168:
οὐ κολακεύων.