Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">But what sort of being is this Ammon of Herodotus, whose\r\nwords Celsus has quoted, as if by way of demonstrating how\r\neach one ought to keep his country’s laws? For this Ammon\r\nwould not allow the people of the cities of Marea and Apis,\r\nwho inhabit the districts adjacent to Libya, to treat as a matter\r\nof indifference the use of cows’ flesh, which is a thing not only\r\nindifferent in its own nature, but which does not prevent a man\r\nfrom being noble and virtuous. If Ammon, then, forbade\r\nthe use of cows’ flesh, because of the advantage which results\r\nfrom the use of the animal in the cultivation of the ground,\r\nand in addition to this, because it is by the female that the\r\nbreed is increased, the account would possess more plausibility.\r\nBut now he simply requires that those who drink of the Nile\r\nshould observe the laws of the Egyptians regarding kine.\r\nAnd hereupon Celsus, taking occasion to pass a jest upon the\r\nemployment of the angels among the Jews as the ambassadors\r\nof God, says that “Ammon did not make a worse ambassador\r\nof divine things than did the angels of the Jews,” into the\r\nmeaning of whose words and manifestations he instituted no\r\ninvestigation; otherwise he would have seen, that it is not for\r\noxen that God is concerned, even where He may appear to\r\nlegislate for them, or for irrational animals, but that what is\r\nwritten for the sake of men, under the appearance of relating\r\nto irrational animals, contains certain truths of nature.<a id=\"r970\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f970\"><sup>[970]</sup></a> Celsus,\r\nmoreover, says that no wrong is committed by any one who\r\nwishes to observe the religious worship sanctioned by the laws\r\nof his country; and it follows, according to his view, that the\r\nScythians commit no wrong, when, in conformity with their\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_307\">307</span>country’s laws, they eat human beings. And those Indians\r\nwho eat their own fathers are considered, according to Celsus,\r\nto do a religious, or at least not a wicked act. He adduces,\r\nindeed, a statement of Herodotus which favours the principle\r\nthat each one ought, from a sense of what is becoming, to obey\r\nhis country’s laws; and he appears to approve of the custom\r\nof those Indians called Callatians, who in the time of Darius\r\ndevoured their parents, since, on Darius inquiring for how\r\ngreat a sum of money they would be willing to lay aside this\r\nusage, they raised a loud shout, and bade the king say no more.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK V.","Chapter XXXVI."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-363"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"01d8e5ffc9240820882e65d4cba231fba718052d2cc294899e115c3e288e9b53","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-f970","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":"f970","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f970\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r970\">970</a>.  </span><span lang=\"grc\">φυσιολογίαν.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f970","text_sha256":"6ea5ca4148211504c445f83881a1948427ee52b0462895f7e1ebd624eeaa1bd4","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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