Against Celsus 8.34–8.49

Celsus also wants us to offer first-fruits to demons; but we offer them to him who said, “Let the earth bring forth green herbage, yielding seed according to its kind and likeness, and the fruit tree bearing fruit whose seed is in it according to its kind upon the earth.” And to him to whom we render first-fruits we also send up our prayers, “having a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God,” and we hold fast “the confession” as long as we live, finding God and his Only-begotten, made manifest to us in Jesus, kind to men. And if we long also for a multitude of beings whom we wish to find kind, we learn “that thousands of thousands stood before him, and myriads of myriads served him”; and they, looking upon those who imitate their piety toward God as kinsmen and friends, work together for the salvation of those who call upon God and pray sincerely, appearing to them, thinking that they ought to hear them, and coming as though by one agreed signal for the benefit and salvation of those who pray to God, to whom they themselves also pray. For “they are all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.” Let the wise men of the Greeks say, then, that demons have been allotted the human soul from birth; but Jesus taught us not to despise even “the little ones” in the church, saying that “their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven,” and the prophet says, “The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him and will deliver them.” We too, then, do not deny that there are many demons on earth; but we say that they exist and have power among the wicked because of their wickedness, but have no power against those who have put on “the whole armour of God” and have taken strength “to” stand “against the wiles of the devil,” and always study how to wrestle with them, knowing “that our wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

Let us consider also another statement of Celsus, which runs thus: “Or could the satrap, governor, general, or procurator of the king of the Persians or of the Romans, and even those who hold lesser offices, charges, or services, do great harm if neglected, while the satraps and ministers of air and earth would do little harm if insulted?” See how he presents human satraps, governors, generals, and procurators of the God over all, and those holding lesser offices, charges, and services, as doing great harm to those who insult them, not seeing that not even a wise man would wish to harm anyone, but would rather try, as far as he can, to convert and improve even those who insult him; unless, indeed, Celsus's satraps, governors, and generals of the God over all are worse than Lycurgus the lawgiver of the Spartans and Zeno of Citium. For Lycurgus, when he was given power over the man who had knocked out his eye, not only did not take revenge but did not cease charming him with words until he persuaded him to practise philosophy; and Zeno, to one who said, “May I perish if I do not take vengeance on you,” replied, “And I, if I do not make you my friend.” And I do not yet speak of those formed by the teaching of Jesus, who have heard, “Love your enemies and pray for those who mistreat you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, who makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” And in the prophetic words the righteous man says such things as this: “O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is injustice in my hands, if I have repaid those who repaid me with evil, then may I fall empty before my enemies; may the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and trample my life into the ground,”

But the angels of God, who are truly his satraps, governors, generals, and procurators, do not, as Celsus thinks, harm those who insult them; and if some demons, such as Celsus too imagined, do harm, they harm as wicked beings who have been entrusted with no satrapy, command, or stewardship from God, and they harm those subject to them who have submitted to them as masters. For perhaps this is why those who in each place transgress in eating the foods customarily considered forbidden are harmed, if they are among those under those demons; whereas if some are not under them and have not subjected themselves to the demon of the place, they are free from suffering anything at their hands, though, having bidden farewell to such demons but subjected themselves to others through ignorance of other things, they may suffer at their hands. But the Christian, the true Christian, who has subjected himself to God alone and to his Word, would suffer nothing from the demons, since he is stronger than demons. And he would suffer nothing, since “the angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him and will deliver them,” and his angel, who “always” beholds “the face of the Father” “in heaven,” always carries up his prayers through the only high priest to the God of the universe, and himself prays together with the one entrusted to his care. Let Celsus, then, not frighten us like children with bogeys, threatening the harm that comes from the demons if we neglect them; for demons, though neglected, could do nothing to us, who are devoted to him who alone can help all who are worthy, and who none the less sets his own angels over those who worship him, so that neither the opposing angels nor the one called their “ruler of this age” may be able to work anything against those devoted to God.

Then, forgetting that he is speaking to Christians, who pray to God alone through Jesus, and mixing up the practices of others and connecting them unreasonably with Christians, he says: “If one names them in a barbarian tongue, they will have power, but if in Greek or Latin, no longer.” Let him show whom we name in a barbarian tongue as calling on him for help; and let him be persuaded that Celsus said these things against us in vain, whoever observes that Christians generally do not even use in their prayers the names found in the divine Scriptures and given to God; but Greeks use Greek names and Romans Latin ones, and so each prays to God and sings his praise in his own language as he can; and the Lord of every language hears those who pray in every language as though hearing one voice, so to speak, in its meaning, expressed in the various languages. For the God over all is not one of those who have been allotted some language, barbarian or Greek, and do not know the others, or do not care for those who speak in other languages.

Then after this, either having heard no Christian at all, or some lawless and uneducated one among the many, he says that Christians say: “Look, I stand beside the statue of Zeus or Apollo or any god you like, and I blaspheme it and strike it, and it does not avenge itself on me.” He does not see that in the divine legislation it is also commanded, “You shall not revile gods,” so that our mouth may not grow used to reviling anyone, since we hear, “Bless and do not curse,” and are taught that “revilers” will not “inherit the kingdom of God.” And who among us is so foolish as to say such things and not see that such conduct can do nothing to overthrow the belief in those considered gods? For even those who are utter atheists, who deny providence and by their wicked and impious doctrines have produced a school of supposed philosophers, have themselves suffered none of what the many think evils, nor have those who embraced their doctrines, but they are even rich and healthy in body. And if one seeks harm among them, let him see that they are truly the ones who have been harmed. For what greater harm is there than not to perceive the Maker from the order of the world? And what worse misery than to be blinded in mind and not to see the Creator and Father of every mind?

Having attributed such words to us and slandered Christians, who do not say such things, he thinks he provides himself with a defence, which is rather a joke than a defence, where he says as though to us: “Do you not see, then, my good man, that someone even stands up to your demon and not only blasphemes him but banishes him from every land and sea, and binds you, who are dedicated to him like a statue, leads you away and impales you; and the demon, or, as you say, the Son of God, does not avenge himself on him at all?” This defence would have had force if we used such words as he recorded us as saying; and even so he would not have spoken the truth in calling the Son of God a demon. On our view, since we say that all demons are wicked, the one who has turned so many to God is not a demon but God the Word and God's Son; but according to Celsus, who has said nothing about wicked demons, Jesus has been called a demon, I do not know how, as though he had forgotten himself. Later, however, what is said about the impious will come, after all the remedies which they did not accept, upon those found in what one might call incurable wickedness.

And we, whatever we say about punishment, turn many from their sins through the teaching about punishment; but let us consider what answers the priest of Apollo or of Zeus, according to Celsus, gives: “Late,” he says, “grind the mills of the gods,” and “to children's children, who shall be born hereafter.” See how much better than this are “Fathers shall not die for children, nor shall sons die for fathers; each shall die for his own sin,” and this, “The teeth of him who eats the sour grape shall be set on edge,” and “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the lawlessness of the lawless shall be upon him.” And if anyone says that “to children's children, who shall be born hereafter” is like “visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,” let him learn that in Ezekiel this is called a “proverb,” since he blames those who say, “The fathers ate sour grapes, and the children's teeth were set on edge,” to which is added, “As I live, says the Lord,” “but each shall die for his own sin.” It is not the present occasion to explain what the proverb about the “sins” being visited “to the third and fourth generation” means.

Then, reviling us like old women, he says: “You mock their images as you revile them; but if you had reviled Dionysus himself or Heracles in person, perhaps you would not have got off lightly. But those who stretched out and punished your god in person have suffered nothing, not even afterwards in all this time. What new thing has happened since then to make one believe that he was not a sorcerer of a man but a son of God? And he who sent his son with certain messages, when he was so cruelly punished that the messages perished with him, looked on and has not turned to him in all the time that has passed. What father is so unholy? Perhaps, as you say, he wished it, and that is why he was treated with outrage. But these whom you blaspheme, one could say that they too wish it and that is why they endure being blasphemed; for it is best to compare like with like. But these at least take severe vengeance on the blasphemer, who either flees and hides for this reason, or is caught and destroyed.” To this too I would say that we revile no one, since we believe that “revilers” will not “inherit the kingdom of God,” and read, “Bless those who curse you,” and “Bless and do not curse,” and know also, “When reviled, we bless.” And if reviling has some justification as a defence for one who thinks he has been wronged, even this the Word of God does not allow us; how much more, where reviling shows great foolishness, must we not revile? It is equally foolish to revile stone or gold or silver, shaped into the form of gods customary among those far from divinity. So too we do not mock lifeless statues, but, if anything, those who worship them. And even if there are some demons established in certain statues, and one of them is thought to be Dionysus and another Heracles, we do not revile these either; for such a thing is vain and in no way befits one who is gentle, peaceable, and calm in soul, and who has learned that one must not revile anyone even for wickedness, whether man or demon.

I do not know how Celsus unwittingly fell into showing, in fact, that the demons or gods he praised a little before are most wicked, and take vengeance in retaliation rather than punish for correction, whenever someone reviles them. For he says: “If you had reviled Dionysus himself or Heracles in person, perhaps you would not have got off lightly.” Let whoever wishes explain how one who is not present hears anything, and why he is sometimes present and sometimes not, and what business the demons have in moving from place to place. Next he says, thinking that we call God the body of Jesus that was stretched out and punished, and not the divinity in him, and that he was considered God when he was stretched out and punished: “But those who stretched out and punished your god in person have suffered nothing.” Having said a good deal above about the human sufferings he underwent, we now willingly pass over the subject, so as not to seem to repeat ourselves. But since he says that those who punished Jesus suffered nothing afterwards in all this time, we shall show him and all who wish to learn that the city in which the Jewish people demanded that Jesus be crucified, saying, “Crucify, crucify him” (for they preferred that the robber cast “into prison for insurrection and murder” be released, and that “Jesus,” handed over “out of envy,” be crucified), not long afterwards was attacked and besieged for so long a time that it was overthrown from its foundations and made desolate, since God judged those who lived in that place unworthy of the common life of men. And, to speak paradoxically, sparing them, and seeing them incurable as regards a change for the better and growing daily in the flood of wickedness, he handed them over to their enemies. This happened because of the blood of Jesus shed on their land by their plotting, a land which could no longer hold those who had dared so great a crime against Jesus.

Something new, then, has happened since the time Jesus suffered: that, I mean, which concerns the city and the whole nation, and the sudden birth of a nation of Christians, born as it were all at once; new too is that the strangers “to the covenants” of God and aliens from the promises, those far from the truth, have received it by a certain divine power. These were not the works of a sorcerer of a man but of God, who sent his Word in Jesus for the sake of his messages, the Word who was so cruelly punished that the cruelty condemns those who punished him unjustly, and who endured most bravely and with all gentleness. His punishment did not destroy God's messages but, if one may put it so, brought them to knowledge; as Jesus himself taught, saying, “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” So Jesus, “the grain of wheat,” having died, bore “much fruit”; and the Father always cares for the fruits that have come, still come, and will come from the death of the grain “of wheat.” The Father of Jesus, then, is a holy father, who did not spare “his own Son,” “but gave him up for us all,” who was his own lamb, so that “the Lamb of God,” dying for the whole world, might take away “the sin of the world”; and for this cause he endured, not under compulsion but willingly, what those who outraged him inflicted. Then after this Celsus, returning to the argument about those who blaspheme the images, says: “But these whom you blaspheme, one could say that they too wish it and that is why they endure being blasphemed; for it is best to compare like with like. But these at least take severe vengeance on the blasphemer, who either flees and hides for this reason, or is caught and destroyed.” It is not Christians who blaspheme them, but Christians who drive them out of statues and human bodies and souls, on whom the demons think they are taking vengeance. For Celsus, not understanding what happens, has said something true here; for it is true that the souls of those who condemn Christians, and of those who betray them, and of those who delight in making war on Christians, are filled with wicked demons.

But since the souls of those who die for Christianity out of piety, departing from the body with glory, destroyed the power of the demons and made their plotting against men weaker, for this reason, I think, the demons, having learned by experience that they are defeated and overcome by the martyrs of the truth, have been afraid to come back to taking vengeance; and so, until they forget the troubles they have suffered, it is likely that the world will be at peace with Christians. But when they gather their strength and, blinded by wickedness, wish again to take vengeance and persecute Christians, they will be overthrown again; and then again the souls of the pious, putting off their bodies for piety's sake, will overthrow the army of the evil one. And I think that the demons, perceiving that those who conquer and die for piety destroy their dominion, while those who are defeated by their sufferings and deny their worship of God become subject to them, sometimes contend hard with the Christians who are handed over, as though punished by their confession and relieved by their denial. One can see traces of this even in the judges, who are pained by those who endure the outrages and tortures, and exult when a Christian is defeated. For they do not do this out of what they think is kindness, since they see clearly that “the tongue” of those overcome by pain “has sworn, but the mind” is “unsworn.” Let this be said also in answer to “But these at least take severe vengeance on the blasphemer, who either flees and hides for this reason, or is caught and destroyed.” And if a Christian flees, he does not flee out of cowardice, but keeping his Teacher's command, and preserving himself pure for the salvation of others who will be helped.

Let us see also what follows, which runs thus: “Why need I list all that has been foretold, from oracles, by prophets and prophetesses, and by other men and women possessed, with inspired voice? And all the wonderful things heard from the inner shrines themselves? And all that has been revealed to those who consult them from victims and sacrifices, and all from other marvellous signs? To some, clear apparitions have appeared. All of life is full of these things. How many cities have been raised up by oracles and rid of plagues and famines, and how many, neglecting or forgetting them, have been miserably destroyed? How many have been sent out to found colonies and, following what was commanded, have prospered? How many rulers, how many private persons, have fared better or worse because of this? How many, distressed at childlessness, have obtained what they asked for and escaped the wrath of demons? How many have been healed of bodily maladies? And how many, on the other hand, having committed outrage at the temples, have been caught at once, some seized with madness on the spot, others confessing what they had done, others having killed themselves, others bound by incurable diseases? And already a terrible voice from the inner shrines themselves has struck some down.” I do not know how Celsus puts forward these things as clearly evident, while he has thought the marvels recorded among us, whether Jewish or concerning Jesus and his disciples, to be myths. Why are not ours true, and what Celsus speaks of mythical fictions? Not even the philosophical schools of the Greeks have believed in them, such as those of Democritus, Epicurus, and Aristotle; and they would perhaps have believed ours because of their evidence, if they had met Moses or one of the prophets who did marvellous things, or Jesus himself.

The Pythia is related once to have given an oracle after being bribed; but our prophets were admired not only by their contemporaries for the clear evidence of what they said, but also in later times. For through the oracles the prophets gave, cities were set upright, men were healed, and famines ceased. Indeed, the whole Jewish nation manifestly went out as a colony from Egypt to Palestine according to oracles; and when it followed what God commanded, it prospered, and when it went astray, it repented. Why need I say how many rulers and how many private persons, according to the histories of Scripture, fared better or worse by heeding or neglecting the prophecies? And if we must speak of childlessness, over which some were distressed who then became fathers or mothers after sending up their prayers for this to the Creator of the universe, let one read about Abraham and Sarah, from whom Isaac was born when they were already old, the father of the whole Jewish nation and of others besides. Let him read also about Hezekiah, who not only was delivered from illness according to Isaiah's prophecies, but also said with confidence, “For from now on I will beget children, who will declare your righteousness.” And in the fourth book of Kingdoms the woman who received Elisha, who by God's grace prophesied the birth of a child, became a mother according to Elisha's prayers. Countless maladies too were healed by Jesus. And others who dared to outrage the Jewish worship at the temple in Jerusalem suffered what is recorded in the books of Maccabees.

But the Greeks will say these things are myths, although they are attested as true by two whole nations. Why are not the stories of the Greeks myths rather than these? And if someone, coming to close quarters with the argument so as not to seem to accept arbitrarily what is his own and disbelieve what is another's, were to say that the Greek wonders were done by certain demons, and the Jewish ones either by God through the prophets, or by the angels, or by God through the angels, and the Christian ones by Jesus and his power in the apostles, come, let us compare them all with one another and see the end of the intention of those who worked them, and the benefit or harm, or neither, to those who received the supposed benefits. Will he not see that the Jewish nation of old was philosophical, before they committed outrage against the divine, by whom they were abandoned because of their great wickedness; and that the Christians came together in a marvellous way, drawn at the beginning especially by miracles rather than by exhortations to leave their ancestral customs and choose what was foreign to them? For indeed, if one must use a probable argument about the first formation of the Christians, we shall say that it is not credible either that the apostles of Jesus, unlettered and simple men, took courage to proclaim Christianity to men from anything other than the power given them and the grace in their word for the things they declared; or that their hearers were moved from long-standing ancestral customs, unless some remarkable power and marvellous deeds had moved them to doctrines so strange and foreign to those in which they had been raised.

Then, I do not know how, Celsus, citing the zeal of those who contend to the death rather than forswear Christianity, adds, as though putting our teachings on a level with what is said by initiators and mystagogues: “Most of all, my good man, just as you believe in eternal punishments, so do the interpreters of those sacred rites, the initiators and mystagogues; which you threaten others with, and they threaten you with. Which of them is truer or more powerful one may consider. For in word both of you equally affirm your own views; but if proofs are needed, they show many clear ones, bringing forward works of certain demonic powers and of oracles, and from every kind of divination.” By this he means that we and the initiators speak equally of eternal punishments, and that one should examine which of us speaks more truly. I would say that those speak truly who have been able to dispose their hearers to live as though these things were so. Jews and Christians are so disposed concerning what they call the age to come and its rewards for the righteous and punishments for sinners. Let Celsus, then, or whoever wishes, show who were so disposed about eternal punishments by the initiators and mystagogues. For it is likely that the intention of the Father of what is said is not merely to discharge a duty and speak about punishments, but to dispose the hearers to avoid, as far as they can, doing what causes the punishments. Moreover, the prophecies, to those who read them not carelessly, seem to me sufficient by the foreknowledge in them to persuade the intelligent and fair-minded reader that the Spirit of God was in those men; and with them none of the demonic works displayed, nor of the powers from oracles, nor of divinations, can be compared even in the slightest.

Let us see also what Celsus says to us next, as follows: “Moreover, is it not absurd of you, on the one hand to long for the body and hope that this very body will rise, as though we had nothing better or more precious than it, and on the other hand to cast it into punishments as dishonourable? But with those who believe this and are glued to the body it is not worth discussing this; for these are people who are also rustic and impure in other respects and, without reason, share in the sickness of sedition. But with those who hope that the soul or the mind (whether they wish to call it spiritual, or an intelligent spirit, holy and blessed, or a living soul, or the supercelestial and incorruptible offspring of a divine and incorporeal nature, or whatever they like to name it), with those who hope that this will have eternal life with God, with these I will discuss. They are right in thinking that those who have lived well will be happy, and the unjust will be held altogether in eternal evils; and from this doctrine let neither they nor any other man ever depart ….” As for the resurrection, even if he himself has often reproached us with it, we, having set out as well as we could what seemed reasonable to us on the subject, do not intend to reply many times to one charge made many times. Celsus slanders us as thinking there is nothing better or more precious than the body in our constitution; for we say that the soul, especially the rational soul, is more precious than any body, since the soul, and in no way the body, receives what is “after the image of him who created it.” For on our view God is not a body, lest we fall into the absurdities into which those who follow the philosophy of Zeno and Chrysippus fall.