Nay, if the Jew perceive the meaning of the prophetic Scriptures, he will be able to show that it is for no light reason that God employs threatenings and revilings, when He says, “Woe unto you,” and “I tell you beforehand.” And how should God employ such expressions for the conversion of men, which Celsus thinks that even a prudent man would not have recourse to? But Christians, who know only one God—the same who spoke in the prophets and in the Lord [Jesus]—can prove the reasonableness of those threatenings and revilings, as Celsus considers and entitles them. And here a few remarks shall be addressed to this Celsus, who professes both to be a philosopher, and to be acquainted with all our system. How is it, friend, when Hermes, in Homer, says to Odysseus, “Why, now, wretched man, do you come wandering alone over the mountain-tops?”[235] that you are satisfied with the answer, which explains that the Homeric Hermes addresses such language to Odysseus to remind him of his duty,[236] because it is characteristic of the Sirens to flatter and to say pleasing things, around whom “Is a huge heap of bones,”[237] and who say, “Come hither, much lauded Odysseus, great glory of the Greeks;”[238] whereas, if our prophets and Jesus Himself, in order to turn their hearers from evil, make use of such expressions as “Woe unto you,” and what you regard as revilings, there is no condescension in such language to the circumstances of the hearers, nor any application of such words to them as healing[239] medicine? Unless, indeed, you would have God, or one who partakes of the divine nature, when conversing with men, to have regard to His own nature alone, and to what is worthy of Himself, but to have no regard to what is fitting to be brought before men who are under the dispensation and leading of His word, and with each one of whom He is to converse agreeably to his individual character. And is it not a ridiculous assertion regarding Jesus, to say that He was unable to persuade men, when you compare the state of matters not only among the Jews, who have many such instances recorded in the prophecies, but also among the Greeks, among whom all of those who have attained great reputation for their wisdom have been unable to persuade those who conspired against them, or to induce their judges or accusers to cease from evil, and to endeavour to attain to virtue by the way of philosophy? Footnote 227: Isa. v. 8. Footnote 228: Isa. v. 11. Footnote 229: Isa. v. 18. Footnote 230: Isa. v. 20. Footnote 231: Isa. v. 22. Footnote 232: Cf. Isa. i. 4. Footnote 233: Isa. i. 7. Footnote 234: Ezek. ii. 6. Footnote 235: Cf. _Odyss._ x. 281. Footnote 236: ὑπὲρ ἐπιστροφῆς. Footnote 237: Cf. _Odyss._ xii. 45. Footnote 238: _Ibid._ xii. 184. Footnote 239: παιώνιον φαρμάκον. Chapter LXXVII.