And since Jesus, in teaching His disciples not to be guilty of rashness,
gave them the precept, “If they persecute you in this city, flee ye into
another; and if they persecute you in the other, flee again into a
third,”[1243] to which teaching He added the example of a consistent
life, acting so as not to expose Himself to danger rashly, or
unseasonably, or without good grounds; from this Celsus takes occasion
to bring a malicious and slanderous accusation,—the Jew whom he brings
forward saying to Jesus, “In company with your disciples you go and hide
yourself in different places.” Now similar to what has thus been made
the ground of a slanderous charge against Jesus and His disciples, do we
say was the conduct recorded of Aristotle. This philosopher, seeing that
a court was about to be summoned to try him, on the ground of his being
guilty of impiety on account of certain of his philosophical tenets
which the Athenians regarded as impious, withdrew from Athens, and fixed
his school in Chalcis, defending his course of procedure to his friends
by saying, “Let us depart from Athens, that we may not give the
Athenians a handle for incurring guilt a second time, as formerly in the
case of Socrates, and so prevent them from committing a second act of
impiety against philosophy.” He further says, “that Jesus went about
with his disciples, and obtained his livelihood in a disgraceful and
importunate manner.” Let him show wherein lay the disgraceful and
importunate element in their manner of subsistence. For it is related in
the Gospels, that there were certain women who had been healed of their
diseases, among whom also was Susanna, who from their own possessions
afforded the disciples the means of support. And who is there among
philosophers, that, when devoting himself to the service of his
acquaintances, is not in the habit of receiving from them what is
needful for his wants? Or is it only in them that such acts are proper
and becoming; but when the disciples of Jesus do the same, they are
accused by Celsus of obtaining their livelihood by disgraceful
importunity?
Footnote 1243:
Cf. Matt. x. 23.