Apologetics -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Celsus (Platonic philosopher), active 180; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
He next proceeds to make the following statement about the Jews:—“The
first point relating to the Jews which is fitted to excite wonder, is
that they should worship the heaven and the angels who dwell therein,
and yet pass by and neglect its most venerable and powerful parts, as
the sun, and moon, and the other heavenly bodies, both fixed stars and
planets, as if it were possible that ‘the whole’ could be God, and yet
its parts not divine; or [as if it were reasonable] to treat with the
greatest respect those who are said to appear to such as are in darkness
somewhere, blinded by some crooked sorcery, or dreaming dreams through
the influence of shadowy spectres,[853] while those who prophesy so
clearly and strikingly to all men, by means of whom rain, and heat, and
clouds, and thunder (to which they offer worship), and lightnings, and
fruits, and all kinds of productiveness, are brought about,—by means of
whom God is revealed to them,—the most prominent heralds among those
beings that are above,—those that are truly heavenly angels,—are to be
regarded as of no account!” In making these statements, Celsus appears
to have fallen into confusion, and to have penned them from false ideas
of things which he did not understand; for it is patent to all who
investigate the practices of the Jews, and compare them with those of
the Christians, that the Jews who follow the law, which, speaking in the
person of God, says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me: thou
shalt not make unto thee an image, nor a likeness of anything that is in
heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters
under the earth; thou shalt not bow down to them, nor serve them,”[854]
worship nothing else than the Supreme God, who made the heavens, and all
things besides. Now it is evident that those who live according to the
law, and worship the _Maker_ of heaven, will not worship the heaven at
the same time with God. Moreover, no one who obeys the law of Moses will
bow down to the angels who are in heaven; and, in like manner, as they
do not bow down to sun, moon, and stars, the host of heaven, they
refrain also from doing obeisance to heaven and its angels, obeying the
law which declares: “Lest thou lift up thine eyes to heaven, and when
thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of
heaven, shouldst be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the
Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations.”[855]
Footnote 853:
ἢ τοὺς μὲν ἐν σκότῳ ποῦ ἐκ γοητείας οὐκ ὀρθῆς τυφλώττουσιν, ἢ δι’
ἀμυδρῶν φασμάτων ὀνειρώττουσιν ἐγχρίμπτειν λεγομένους, εὖ μάλα
θρησκεύειν.
Footnote 854:
Cf. Ex. xx. 3, 4, 5.
Footnote 855:
Cf. Deut. iv. 19.
Chapter VII.
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