Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c005\">For birth is an aid towards an individual’s becoming\r\nfamous, and distinguished, and talked about; viz., when a\r\nman’s parents happen to be in a position of rank and influence,\r\nand are possessed of wealth, and are able to spend it upon the\r\neducation of their son, and when the country of one’s birth\r\nis great and illustrious; but when a man having all these\r\nthings against him is able, notwithstanding these hindrances,\r\nto make himself known, and to produce an impression on\r\nthose who hear of him, and to become distinguished and\r\nvisible to the whole world, which speaks of him as it did not\r\ndo before, how can we help admiring such a nature as being\r\nboth noble in itself, and devoting itself to great deeds, and possessing\r\na courage which is not by any means to be despised?\r\nAnd if one were to examine more fully the history of such an\r\nindividual, why should he not seek to know in what manner,\r\nafter being reared up in frugality and poverty, and without\r\nreceiving any complete education, and without having studied\r\nsystems and opinions by means of which he might have\r\nacquired confidence to associate with multitudes, and play\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_428\">428</span>the demagogue, and attract to himself many hearers, he\r\nnevertheless devoted himself to the teaching of new opinions,\r\nintroducing among men a doctrine which not only subverted\r\nthe customs of the Jews, while preserving due respect for\r\ntheir prophets, but which especially overturned the established\r\nobservances of the Greeks regarding the Divinity?\r\nAnd how could such a person—one who had been so brought\r\nup, and who, as his calumniators admit, had learned nothing\r\ngreat from men—have been able to teach, in a manner not\r\nat all to be despised, such doctrines as he did regarding the\r\ndivine judgment, and the punishments that are to overtake\r\nwickedness, and the rewards that are to be conferred upon\r\nvirtue; so that not only rustic and ignorant individuals were\r\nwon by his words, but also not a few of those who were\r\ndistinguished by their wisdom, and who were able to discern\r\nthe hidden meaning in those more common doctrines, as they\r\nwere considered, which were in circulation, and which secret\r\nmeaning enwrapped, so to speak, some more recondite signification\r\nstill? The Seriphian, in Plato, who reproaches\r\nThemistocles after he had become celebrated for his military\r\nskill, saying that his reputation was due not to his own\r\nmerits, but to his good fortune in having been born in the\r\nmost illustrious country in Greece, received from the good-natured\r\nAthenian, who saw that his native country did contribute\r\nto his renown, the following reply: “Neither would\r\nI, had I been a Seriphian, have been so distinguished as I\r\nam, nor would you have been a Themistocles, even if you\r\nhad had the good fortune to be an Athenian!” And now,\r\nour Jesus, who is reproached with being born in a village,\r\nand that not a Greek one, nor belonging to any nation widely\r\nesteemed, and being despised as the son of a poor labouring\r\nwoman, and as having on account of his poverty left his\r\nnative country and hired himself out in Egypt, and being,\r\nto use the instance already quoted, not only a Seriphian, as\r\nit were, a native of a very small and undistinguished island,\r\nbut even, so to speak, the meanest of the Seriphians, has yet\r\nbeen able to shake<a id=\"r1170\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f1170\"><sup>[1170]</sup></a> the whole inhabited world not only to\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_429\">429</span>a degree far above what Themistocles the Athenian ever\r\ndid, but beyond what even Pythagoras or Plato, or any other\r\nwise man in any part of the world whatever, or any prince or\r\ngeneral, ever succeeded in doing.</p>","headings":["The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2","ORIGEN CONTRA CELSUM.","ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. BOOK I.","Chapter XXIX."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70561-paragraph-427"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"66b13f4272e02d9b0b5a65cf747cf2296a0e2d0292a0ae37789469f88b4b1886","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg70561-f1170","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 1869 English translation; translator died 1889. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f1170","source_ebook":70561,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f1170\">\n<p class=\"c006\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r1170\">1170</a>.  </span><span lang=\"grc\">σεῖσαι.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"de125e213d16053354f22b34a1c8d477ac23f201e660e4f4841b2ed7e05bb367","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70561/pg70561-images.html#f1170","text_sha256":"ab19380bc40f243c6334f0100b474900b8053249ab42bfa479af3b33da9beee8","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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