Apologetics -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Celsus (Platonic philosopher), active 180; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
5. And what are we to say regarding the prophecies of Christ in the
Psalms, there being a certain ode with the superscription “For the
Beloved,”[811] whose “tongue” is said to be the “pen of a ready writer,
who is fairer than the sons of men,” since “grace was poured on His
lips?” For a proof that grace was poured on His lips is this, that
although the period of His teaching was short—for He taught somewhere
about a year and a few months—the world has been filled with His
teaching, and with the worship of God [established] through Him. For
there arose “in His days righteousness and abundance of peace,”[812]
which abides until the consummation, which has been called the taking
away of the moon; and He continues “ruling from sea to sea, and from the
rivers to the ends of the earth.”[813] And to the house of David has
been given a sign: for the Virgin bore, and was pregnant,[814] and
brought forth a son, and His name is Emmanuel, which is, “God with us;”
and as the same prophet says, the prediction has been fulfilled, “God
[is] with us; know it, O nations, and be overcome; ye who are strong, be
vanquished:”[815] for we of the heathen have been overcome and
vanquished, we who have been taken by the grace of His teaching. The
place also of His birth has been foretold in [the prophecies of] Micah:
“For thou, Bethlehem,” he says, “land of Judah, art by no means the
least among the rulers of Judah; for out of thee shall come forth a
Ruler, who shall rule my people Israel.”[816] And according to Daniel,
seventy weeks were fulfilled until [the coming of] Christ the
Ruler.[817] And He came, who, according to Job,[818] has subdued the
great fish,[819] and has given power to His true disciples to tread upon
serpents and scorpions, and all the power of the enemy,[820] without
sustaining any injury from them. And let one notice also the universal
advent of the apostles sent by Jesus to announce the gospel, and he will
see both that the undertaking was beyond human power, and that the
commandment came from God. And if we examine how men, on hearing new
doctrines, and strange words, yielded themselves up to these teachers,
being overcome, amid the very desire to plot against them, by a divine
power that watched over these [teachers], we shall not be incredulous as
to whether they also wrought miracles, God bearing witness to their
words both by signs, and wonders, and divers miracles.
FROM THE LATIN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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