Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">Let us see how he continues after this: “These events,” he\r\nsays, “he predicted as being a God, and the prediction must\r\nby all means come to pass. God, therefore, who above all\r\nothers ought to do good to men, and especially to those of\r\nhis own household, led on his own disciples and prophets,\r\nwith whom he was in the habit of eating and drinking, to\r\nsuch a degree of wickedness, that they became impious and\r\nunholy men. Now, of a truth, he who shared a man’s table\r\nwould not be guilty of conspiring against him; but after banqueting\r\nwith God, he became a conspirator. And, what is still\r\nmore absurd, God himself plotted against the members of his\r\nown table, by converting them into traitors and villains!”\r\nNow, since you wish me to answer even those charges of\r\nCelsus which seem to me frivolous,<a id=\"r92\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f92\"><sup>[92]</sup></a> the following is our\r\nreply to such statements. Celsus imagines that an event, predicted\r\nthrough foreknowledge, comes to pass because it was\r\npredicted; but we do not grant this, maintaining that he who\r\nforetold it was not the cause of its happening, because he foretold\r\nit would happen; but the future event itself, which would\r\nhave taken place though not predicted, afforded the occasion to\r\nhim, who was endowed with foreknowledge, of foretelling its\r\noccurrence. Now, certainly this result is present to the foreknowledge\r\nof him who predicts an event, when it is possible\r\nthat it may or may not happen, viz. that one or other of these\r\nthings will take place. For we do not assert that he who foreknows\r\nan event, by secretly taking away the possibility of its\r\nhappening or not, makes any such declaration as this: “This\r\nshall infallibly happen, and it is impossible that it can be otherwise.”\r\nAnd this remark applies to all the foreknowledge of\r\nevents dependent upon ourselves, whether contained in the\r\nsacred Scriptures or in the histories of the Greeks. Now, what\r\nis called by logicians an “idle argument,”<a id=\"r93\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f93\"><sup>[93]</sup></a> which is a sophism,\r\nwill be no sophism as far as Celsus can help, but according to\r\nsound reasoning it is a sophism. And that this may be seen, I\r\nshall take from the Scriptures the predictions regarding Judas,\r\nor the foreknowledge of our Saviour regarding him as the\r\ntraitor; and from the Greek histories the oracle that was given\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_27\">27</span>to Laius, conceding for the present its truth, since it does\r\nnot affect the argument. Now, in <abbr title=\"Psalms\">Ps.</abbr> <abbr title=\"a hundred and nine\">cix.</abbr>, Judas is spoken\r\nof by the mouth of the Saviour, in words beginning thus:\r\n“Hold not Thy peace, O God of my praise; for the mouth of\r\nthe wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against\r\nme.” Now, if you carefully observe the contents of the psalm,\r\nyou will find that, as it was foreknown that he would betray the\r\nSaviour, so also was he considered to be himself the cause of\r\nthe betrayal, and deserving, on account of his wickedness, of the\r\nimprecations contained in the prophecy. For let him suffer\r\nthese things, “because,” says the psalmist, “he remembered\r\nnot to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man.”\r\nWherefore it was possible for him to show mercy, and not to\r\npersecute him whom he did persecute. But although he might\r\nhave done these things, he did not do them, but carried out the\r\nact of treason, so as to merit the curses pronounced against him\r\nin the prophecy.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK II.","Chapter XX."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-60"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"d54b3988a5eb60b4014ddabf2c1f9169c5c64eb8b5d2d8f053bd4c73e8d91272","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie","W. H. Cairns"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg70693-f93","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1872 English edition; listed translators died 1889 and 1872. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f93","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f93\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r93\">93</a>.  </span><span lang=\"grc\">ἀργὸς λόγος.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f93","text_sha256":"b1d2e18e10fac92800eb5ba8d87ca069a08b85efa21b94ee5bf08e91134eb59e","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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