Apologetics -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Celsus (Platonic philosopher), active 180; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
Footnote 692:
Divinasse.
Footnote 693:
1 Pet. v. 8.
Footnote 694:
Heb. i. 14.
Footnote 695:
Hospitium.
CHAPTER IV.
ON HUMAN TEMPTATIONS.
1. And now the subject of human temptations must not, in my opinion, be
passed over in silence, which take their rise sometimes from flesh and
blood, or from the wisdom of flesh and blood, which is said to be
hostile to God. And whether the statement be true which certain allege,
viz. that each individual has as it were two souls, we shall determine
after we have explained the nature of those temptations, which are said
to be more powerful than any of human origin, _i.e._ which we sustain
from principalities and powers, and from the rulers of the darkness of
this world, and from spiritual wickedness in high places, or to which we
are subjected from wicked spirits and unclean demons. Now, in the
investigation of this subject, we must, I think, inquire according to a
logical method whether there be in us human beings, who are composed of
soul and body and vital spirit, some other element, possessing an
incitement of its own, and evoking a movement towards evil. For a
question of this kind is wont to be discussed by some in this way:
whether, viz., as two souls are said to co-exist within us, the one is
more divine and heavenly and the other inferior; or whether, from the
very fact that we inhere in bodily structures which according to their
own proper nature are dead, and altogether devoid of life (seeing it is
from us, _i.e._ from our souls, that the material body derives its life,
it being contrary and hostile to the spirit), we are drawn on and
enticed to the practice of those evils which are agreeable to the body;
or whether, thirdly (which was the opinion of some of the Greek
philosophers), although our soul is one in substance, it nevertheless
consists of several elements, and one portion of it is called rational
and another irrational, and that which is termed the irrational part is
again separated into two affections—those of covetousness and passion.
These three opinions, then, regarding the soul, which we have stated
above, we have found to be entertained by some, but that one of them,
which we have mentioned as being adopted by certain Grecian
philosophers, viz. that the soul is tripartite, I do not observe to be
greatly confirmed by the authority of holy Scripture; while with respect
to the remaining two there is found a considerable number of passages in
the holy Scriptures which seem capable of application to them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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