Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">After thus misrepresenting our views of the nature of God,\r\nCelsus goes on to ask of us “where we hope to go after death;”\r\nand he makes our answer to be, “to another land better than\r\nthis.” On this he comments as follows: “The divine men of\r\na former age have spoken of a happy life reserved for the souls\r\nof the blessed. Some designated it ‘the isles of the blest,’\r\nand others ‘the Elysian plain,’ so called because they were\r\nthere to be delivered from their present evils. Thus Homer\r\nsays: ‘But the gods shall send thee to the Elysian plain, on\r\nthe borders of the earth, where they lead a most quiet life.’<a id=\"r1468\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1468\"><sup>[1468]</sup></a>\r\nPlato also, who believed in the immortality of the soul, distinctly\r\ngives the name ‘land’ to the place where it is sent.\r\n‘The extent of it,’<a id=\"r1469\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1469\"><sup>[1469]</sup></a> says he, ‘is immense, and we only occupy\r\na small portion of it, from the Phasis to the Pillars of Hercules,\r\nwhere we dwell along the shores of the sea, as grasshoppers\r\nand frogs beside a marsh. But there are many other places\r\ninhabited in like manner by other men. For there are in\r\ndifferent parts of the earth cavities, varying in form and in\r\nmagnitude, into which run water, and clouds, and air. But that\r\nland which is pure lies in the pure region of heaven.’” Celsus\r\ntherefore supposes that what we say of a land which is much\r\nbetter and more excellent than this, has been borrowed from\r\ncertain ancient writers whom he styles “divine,” and chiefly\r\nfrom Plato, who in his <i>Phœdon</i> discourses on the pure land\r\nlying in a pure heaven. But he does not see that Moses, who\r\nis much older than the Greek literature, introduces God as\r\npromising to those who lived according to His law the holy\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_451\">451</span>land, which is “a good land and a large, a land flowing with\r\nmilk and honey;”<a id=\"r1470\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1470\"><sup>[1470]</sup></a> which promise is not to be understood to\r\nrefer, as some suppose, to that part of the earth which we call\r\nJudæa; for it, however good it may be, still forms part of\r\nthe earth, which was originally cursed for the transgression\r\nof Adam. For these words, “Cursed shall the ground be for\r\nwhat thou hast done; with grief, that is, with labour, shalt thou\r\neat of the fruit of it all the days of thy life,”<a id=\"r1471\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1471\"><sup>[1471]</sup></a> were spoken\r\nof the whole earth, the fruit of which every man who died in\r\nAdam eats with sorrow or labour all the days of his life. And\r\nas all the earth has been cursed, it brings forth thorns and\r\nbriers all the days of the life of those who in Adam were\r\ndriven out of paradise; and in the sweat of his face every man\r\neats bread until he returns to the ground from which he was\r\ntaken. For the full exposition of all that is contained in this\r\npassage much might be said; but we have confined ourselves to\r\nthese few words at present, which are intended to remove the\r\nidea, that what is said of the good land promised by God to\r\nthe righteous, refers to the land of Judæa.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK VII.","Chapter XXVIII."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-505"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"a8037b2c1814ffeda94d4618de33efab842ce7053ee7ebcdc68f27a506fe1c0b","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-f1470","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":"f1470","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f1470\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r1470\">1470</a>.  </span><abbr title=\"Exodus\">Ex.</abbr> <abbr title=\"three\">iii.</abbr> 8.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f1470","text_sha256":"7128d52620acc9fba91f2ba264956b53b102e835b891a58fa9a0ae84281c2909","verified":false,"work_id":null}

references: [] | work_id: | origin: existing-private-derived-record | source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f1470