[1] Keim, _Celsus' Wahres Wort_ (1873).
[2] Keim, pp. 264-273.
[3] Tertullian, _Apol._ 38, _nec ulla res aliena magis quam publica_.
Elsewhere Tertullian explains this: _laedimas Romanos nec Romani habemur
qui non Romanorum deum colimus, Apol._ 24.
[4] Apud Origen, _c. Cels._ viii, 2. References in what follows will
be made to the book and chapter of this work without repetition of
Origen's name. The text used is that of Koetschau.
[5] _c. Cels._ iii, 44.
[6] _Ibid._ iii, 59.
[7] iii, 55. I have omitted a clause or two.
Clem A. _Strom._ iv, 67, on the other hand, speaks of the difficult
position of wife or slave in such a divided household, and (68) of
conversions in spite of the master of the house. Tert. _ad Scap._ 3,
has a story of a governor whose wife became a Christian, and who in
anger began a persecution at once.
[8] iii, 75.
[9] i, 9. Cf. Clem. Alex. _Strom._ i, 43, on some Christians who think
themselves _euphusis_ and "ask for faith--faith alone and bare." In
_Paed._ i, 27, he says much the same himself, _to pisteusai monon kai
anagennethunai teleiois estin en zoe_.
[10] vi, 10. Clem. Alex. _Strom._ ii, 8, "The Greeks think Faith empty
and barbarous, and revile it," but (ii, 30) "if it had been a human
thing, as they supposed, it would have been quenched."
[11] iii, 62.
[12] iii, 62.
[13] iii, 65, _tous hamartangin pephykotas te kai eithismenous_.
[14] iii, 71.
[15] Clement of Alexandria, _Protr._ 92, uses this simile of worms in
the mud of swamps, applying it to people who live for pleasure.
[16] iv, 23.
[17] iv, 74.
[18] So Lucian _Icaromenippus_, 19, explicitly.
[19] iv, 88. Cf. Clem. Alex. _Paedag._ i, 7, _to philtron endon estin
en to anthropo touth' oper emphysema legetai theou_.
[20] _c. Cels._ iv, 74-99. Cf. Plato, _Laws_, 903 B, _hos to tou
pantos epimeloumeno pros ten soterian kai areten tou holou pant' esti
syntetagmena kte_, explicitly developing the idea of the part being for
the whole. Also Cicero, _N.D._ ii, 13, 34-36.
[21] Of. M. Aurelius, xi, 3, the criticism of the theatricality of the
Christians. See p. 198.
[22] _c. Cels._ vii, 42, _ton men oun poieten kai patera toude tou
pantos ehurein te epgon kai ehuronta eis pantas adynaton legein_;
_Timaeus_, 28 C--often cited by Clement too.
[23] vii, 42.
[24] vii, 42.
[25] vii, 45.
[26] iv, 14.
[27] iv, 18. See Tertullian's argument on this question of God
changing, in _de Carne Christi_, 3. See Plato, _Rep._ ii, 381 B.
[28] iv, 52. See _Timaeus_, 34 B ff. on God making soul.
[29] iv, 73. See Clem. Alex. _Paed._ i, ch. 10, on God threatening;
and Strom, ii, 72; iv, 151; vii, 37, for the view that God is without
anger, and for guidance as to the understanding of language in the O.T.
which seems to imply the contrary. For a different view, see
Tertullian, _de Testim. Animae_, 2, _unde igitur naturalis timor animae
in deum, si deus nan novit irasci? adv. Marc._ i, 26, 27, on the
necessity for God's anger, if the moral law is to be maintained; and
_adv. Marc._ ii, 16, a further account of God's anger, while a literal
interpretation of God's "eyes" and "right hand" is excluded.
[30] iv, 65.
[31] iv, 69.
[32] iv, 70. Long before (about 500 B.C.)
Heraclitus had said (fragm. 61): "To
God all things are beautiful and good and just; but men have supposed
some things to be unjust and others just." For this doctrine of the
relativity of good and bad to the whole, cf. hymn of Cleanthes to
Zeus:--
_alla su kai ta perissa t' epistasai artia theinai_,
_kai kosmein ta kosma, kai ou phila soi phila estin_.
_ode gar eis en panta synermokas esthla kakoisin_
_osth' ena gignesthai panton logon aien eonta_.
Cf. also the teaching of Chrysippus, as given by Gellius, _N.A._ vii,
1: _cum bona malis contraria sint, utraque necessum est opposita inter
sese et quasi mutuo adverse quaeque fulta nisu consistere; nullum adeo
contrarium est sine contrario altero ... situleris unum abstuleris
utrumque_. See also M. Aurelius in the same Stoic vein, viii, 50; ix,
42. On the other side see Plutarch's indignant criticism of this
attribution of the responsibility for evil to God, _de comm. not. adv.
Sto._ 14, 1065 D, ff. In opposition to Marcion, Tertullian emphasizes
the worth of the world; his position, as a few words will show, is not
that of Celsus, but Stoic influence is not absent: _adv. Marc._ i, 13,
14; _Ergo nec mundus deo indignus: nihil etenim deus indignum st fecit,
etsi mundum homini non sibi fecit, etsi omne opus inferius est suo
artifice_; see p. 317.
[33] iv, 3.
[34] iv, 6.
[35] iv, 7.
[36] vii, 36.
[37] viii, 63.
[38] viii, 66.
[39] vi, 69. "Men, who count themselves wise," says Clement (_Strom._
i, 88), "count it a fairy tale that the son of God should speak through
man, or that God should have a son, and he suffer."
[40] vi, 72.
[41] vi, 73. Cf. the Marcionite view; cf. Tert. _adv. Marc._ iii, 11;
iv, 21; v, 19, _cuius ingeniis tam longe abest veritas nostra ut ...
Christum ex vulva virginis natum non erubescat, ridentibus philosophis
et haereticis et ethnicis ipsis_. See also _de carne Christi_, 4, 5,
where he strikes a higher note; Christ loved man, born as man is, and
descended for him.
[42] vi, 75. Cf. Tert. _de carne Christi_, 9, _adeo nec humanae
honestatis corpus fuit; adv. Jud._ 14, _ne aspectu quidem honestus_.
[43] vi, 78. Cf. Tert. _adv. Marc._ iii, i, _atquin nihil putem a deo
subitum quia nihil a deo non dispositum_.
[44] vii, 13, _skataophagein_. Origen's reply is absurd--_hina gar kai
doxe hoti hesthein, hos soma phoron ho Iesous hesthein_. So also said
Clement (_Strom._ vi, 71). Valentinus had another theory no better,
_Strom._ iii. 59. Marcion, Tertullian says (_adv. Marc._ iii, 10),
called the flesh _terrenam et stercoribus infusam_. They are all
filled with the same contempt for matter--not Tertullian, however.
[45] i, 69.
[46] i, 54.
[47] i, 12.
[48] ii, 23, 24.
[49] ii, 34.
[50] ii, 37.
[51] ii, 66, 67. Tertullian meets this in _Apol._ 21. _Nam nec ille
se in vulgus eduxit ne impii errore liberarcntur, ut et fides, non
mediocri praemio destinata, difficultate constaret_.
[52] ii, 68,
[53] viii, 39.
[54] viii, 41.
[55] v, 65.
[56] vi, 34. Cf. a curious passage of Clem. Alex. _Protr._ 114, _outos
ten dusin eis anatolen metegagen kai ton thanaton eis zoen anestaursen
exarpasas de tes apoleias ton anthropon prosekremasen aitheri_, and so
forth. Cf. Tert. _adv. Valent._ 20, who suggests that the Valentinians
had "nut-trees in the sky"--it is a book in which he allows himself a
good deal of gaiety and free quotation.
[57] i, 28.
[58] M. Aurelius, i, 6, "From Diognetus I learnt not to give credit to
what was said by miracle-workers and jugglers (_goeton_) about
incantations and the sending away of daemons and such things." Cf.
Tertullian, _adv. Marc._ iii, 2-4, on inadequacy of proof from miracles
alone, without that from prophecy; also _de Anima_, 57, on these
conjurers, where he remarks, _nec magnum illi exteriores oculos
circumscribere, an interiorem mentis aciem excalcare perfacile est_.
See also _Apol._ 22, 23.
[59] i, 68.
[60] vii, 9.
[61] iii, 36.
[62] vi, 16. Cf. Plato, _Laws_, v, 12, p. 743 A.
[63] vi, 17-19; _Phaedrus_, 247 C.
[64] vi, 42.
[65] vii, 32; cf. Min. Felix, 11, 9.
[66] iv, 11.
[67] vi, 8.
[68] vi, 47. Cf. Plato, _Timaeus_ (last words), 92 C, _eis ouranos ode
monogenes on_.
[69] v, 14.
[70] v, 14.
[71] vii, 34.
[72] viii, 49.
[73] viii. 48.
[74] iii, 14.
[75] v, 59.
[76] iii, 12.
[77] vi, II.
[78] iii, 9. Tertullian speaks in a somewhat similar way of heretics,
especially of the Gnostics: _de praescriptione haeret_. c. 42.
[79] vii, 68.
[80] v, 25.
[81] viii, 53, 58.
[82] vii, 68.
[83] vii, 2.
[84] Cf. v, 34, 35.
[85] viii, ii. Cf. Tert. _adv. Prax._ 3, where it is argued that God's
monarchy is not impaired _tot angelorum numero_, nor by the _oikonomia_
of the Trinity.
[86] v, 41.
[87] v, 41.
[88] viii, 45.
[89] vii, 35.
[90] iii, 24. Cf. p. 222.
[91] viii, 35.
[92] viii, 63.
[93] viii, 12.
[94] vii, 68.
[95] viii, 24.
[96] i, 9, _Mithrais kai Sabadiois_.
[97] viii, 60. See note on ch. iii, p. 107.
[98] viii, 67.
[99] Cf. Tert. _de cor. mil._ 11, if a soldier is converted, _aut
deserendum statim ut a multis actum, aut,_ etc. The chapter is a
general discussion whether military service and Christianity are
compatible. Cf. also Tert. _de idol._ 19, _Non convenit sacramento
divino et humano, signo Christi et signo diaboli, castris lucis et
castris tenebrarum ... quomodo autem bellabit immo quomodo etiam in
pace militabit sine gladio quem dominus abstulit? .... omnem postea
militem dominus in Petro exarmando discinxit_. Tertullian, it may be
remembered, was a soldier's son.
[100] viii, 68. The Greeks used _basileus_ as Emperor.
[101] viii, 69. For this taunt against the Jews, cf. Cicero, _pro
Flacco_, 28, 69.
[102] viii, 72.
[103] viii, 73.
[104] viii, 75.
[105] Cf. Clem. Alex. _Strom._ i, 55, who says that hardly any words
could be to the many more absurd than the mysteries of the faith.
[106] Clem. Alex. _Protr._ 56 (on idols). _ou gar moi themis
empisteusai pote tois apsychois tas tes psyches elpidas_.
[107] This was at all events the view of Clement, _Strom._ i, 19.
_oude katapsephixesthai ton Hellenon oion te psile te peri ton
dogmatiothenton autois chromenous phrasei, me synembrainontas eis ten
kata meros achri syllnoseos ekkalypsin. pistos gar eu mala ho met'
empeirias elegchos, hoti kai teleiotate apadeixis ehurisketai he gnosis
ton kategnosmenon_.
[108] It is regrettable that Clement should have flung one of these
against the school of Carpocrates, _Strom._ iii, 10.
{262}