And after such statements, showing his ignorance even of the number of
the apostles, he proceeds thus: “Jesus having gathered around him ten or
eleven persons of notorious character, the very wickedest of
tax-gatherers and sailors, fled in company with them from place to
place, and obtained his living in a shameful and importunate manner.”
Let us to the best of our power see what truth there is in such a
statement. It is manifest to us all who possess the Gospel narratives,
which Celsus does not appear even to have read, that Jesus selected
twelve apostles, and that of these Matthew alone was a tax-gatherer;
that when he calls them indiscriminately sailors, he probably means
James and John, because they left their ship and their father Zebedee,
and followed Jesus; for Peter and his brother Andrew, who employed a net
to gain their necessary subsistence, must be classed not as sailors, but
as the Scripture describes them, as fishermen. The Lebes[1229] also, who
was a follower of Jesus, may have been a tax-gatherer; but he was not of
the number of the apostles, except according to a statement in one of
the copies of Mark’s Gospel.[1230] And we have not ascertained the
employments of the remaining disciples, by which they earned their
livelihood before becoming disciples of Jesus. I assert, therefore, in
answer to such statements as the above, that it is clear to all who are
able to institute an intelligent and candid examination into the history
of the apostles of Jesus, that it was by help of a divine power that
these men taught Christianity, and succeeded in leading others to
embrace the word of God. For it was not any power of speaking, or any
orderly arrangement of their message, according to the arts of Grecian
dialectics or rhetoric, which was in them the effective cause of
converting their hearers. Nay, I am of opinion that if Jesus had
selected some individuals who were wise according to the apprehension of
the multitude, and who were fitted both to think and speak so as to
please them, and had used such as the ministers of His doctrine, He
would most justly have been suspected of employing artifices, like those
philosophers who are the leaders of certain sects, and consequently the
promise respecting the divinity of His doctrine would not have
manifested itself; for had the doctrine and the preaching consisted in
the persuasive utterance and arrangement of words, then faith also, like
that of the philosophers of the world in their opinions, would have been
through the wisdom of men, and not through the power of God. Now, who is
there, on seeing fishermen and tax-gatherers, who had not acquired even
the merest elements of learning (as the Gospel relates of them, and in
respect to which Celsus believes that they speak the truth, inasmuch as
it is their own ignorance which they record), discoursing boldly not
only among the Jews of faith in Jesus, but also preaching Him with
success among other nations, would not inquire whence they derived this
power of persuasion, as theirs was certainly not the common method
followed by the multitude? And who would not say that the promise,
“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,”[1231] had been
accomplished by Jesus in the history of His apostles by a sort of divine
power? And to this also, Paul, referring in terms of commendation, as we
have stated a little above, says: “And my speech and my preaching was
not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the
Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of
men, but in the power of God.”[1232] For, according to the predictions
in the prophets, foretelling the preaching of the gospel, “the Lord gave
the word in great power to them who preached it, even the King of the
powers of the Beloved,”[1233] in order that the prophecy might be
fulfilled which said, “His word shall run very swiftly.”[1234] And we
see that “the voice of the apostles of Jesus has gone forth into all the
earth, and their words to the end of the world.”[1235] On this account
are they who hear the word powerfully proclaimed filled with power,
which they manifest both by their dispositions and their lives, and by
struggling even to death on behalf of the truth; while some are
altogether empty, although they profess to believe in God through Jesus,
inasmuch as, not possessing any divine power, they have the appearance
only of being converted to the word of God. And although I have
previously mentioned a Gospel declaration uttered by the Saviour, I
shall nevertheless quote it again, as appropriate to the present
occasion, as it confirms both the divine manifestation of our Saviour’s
foreknowledge regarding the preaching of His gospel, and the power of
His word, which without the aid of teachers gains the mastery over those
who yield their assent to persuasion accompanied with divine power; and
the words of Jesus referred to are, “The harvest is plenteous, but the
labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He
will send forth labourers into His harvest.”[1236]
Footnote 1229:
Λεβης.
Footnote 1230:
Cf. Mark iii. 18 with Matt. x. 3.
Footnote 1231:
Matt. iv. 19.
Footnote 1232:
Cf. 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5.
Footnote 1233:
Cf. Ps. lxviii. 11 (Septuag.).
Footnote 1234:
Ps. cxlvii. 15.
Footnote 1235:
Ps. xix. 4.
Footnote 1236:
Matt. ix. 37, 38.