Against Celsus 8.68

Next Celsus says that “one ought not to disbelieve an ancient man who long ago declared, ‘Let there be one king, to whom the son of crooked-counselling Kronos gave it.’” And he adds: “For if you undo this doctrine, the king will rightly punish you. For if all were to do the same as you, nothing would prevent him from being left alone and deserted, and the things on earth from falling into the hands of the most lawless and savage barbarians, and neither the fame of your worship nor of true wisdom would be left among men any longer.” Let there be one lord, then, one king, not the one “to whom the son of crooked-counselling Kronos gave it,” but the one to whom he gave it who sets up “kings and” removes them, “and raises up the useful man” on the earth at the right time; and it is not the son of Kronos, who was cast down into Tartarus, as the myths of the Greeks say, driving him from his rule, who sets up kings, not even if one allegorizes these passages; but God who governs all things knows what he does in the matter of the setting up of kings. We do, then, undo the doctrine, “to whom the son of crooked-counselling Kronos gave it,” since we are persuaded that God, or the Father of God, wishes nothing crooked or twisted. But we do not undo the doctrine about providence and about what happens by it, whether primarily or as consequences of other things. Nor would the king rightly punish us for saying that it was not the son of crooked-counselling Kronos who gave him his kingship, but he who removes “kings and” sets them up. And let all do the same as I do, overthrowing the Homeric doctrine, keeping the divine one about the king, and observing “Honour the king”; and on such a hypothesis the king will not be left alone, nor will he be deserted, nor will the things on earth be in the hands of the most lawless and savage barbarians. For if, as Celsus says, all were to do the same as I, clearly the barbarians too, having come to the Word of God, will be most law-abiding and most gentle; and every worship will be destroyed, and only that of the Christians will prevail; which indeed will one day alone prevail, as the Word continually wins more souls.