Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">It appears to me, indeed, that Celsus has misunderstood some\r\nof the deeper reasons relating to the arrangement of terrestrial\r\naffairs, some of which are touched upon<a id=\"r938\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f938\"><sup>[938]</sup></a> even in Grecian history,\r\nwhen certain of those who are considered to be gods are\r\nintroduced as having contended with each other about the\r\npossession of Attica; while in the writings of the Greek poets\r\nalso, some who are called gods are represented as acknowledging\r\nthat certain places here are preferred by them<a id=\"r939\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f939\"><sup>[939]</sup></a> before others.\r\nThe history of barbarian nations, moreover, and especially that\r\nof Egypt, contains some such allusions to the division of the\r\nso-called Egyptian nomes, when it states that Athena, who\r\nobtained Saïs by lot, is the same who also has possession of\r\nAttica. And the learned among the Egyptians can enumerate\r\ninnumerable instances of this kind, although I do not know\r\nwhether they include the Jews and their country in this\r\ndivision. And now, so far as testimonies outside the word of\r\nGod bearing on this point are concerned, enough have been\r\nadduced for the present. We say, moreover, that our prophet\r\nof God and His genuine servant Moses, in his song in the book\r\nof Deuteronomy, makes a statement regarding the portioning\r\nout of the earth in the following terms: “When the Most\r\nHigh divided the nations, when He dispersed the sons of Adam,\r\nHe set the bounds of the people according to the number of the\r\nangels of God; and the Lord’s portion was His people Jacob,\r\nand Israel the cord of His inheritance.”<a id=\"r940\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f940\"><sup>[940]</sup></a> And regarding the\r\ndistribution of the nations, the same Moses, in his work entitled\r\nGenesis, thus expresses himself in the style of a historical\r\nnarrative: “And the whole earth was of one language and\r\nof one speech; and it came to pass, as they journeyed from\r\nthe east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and\r\nthey dwelt there.”<a id=\"r941\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f941\"><sup>[941]</sup></a> A little further on he continues: “And\r\nthe Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the\r\nchildren of men had built. And the Lord said, Behold, the\r\npeople is one, and they have all one language; and this they\r\nhave begun to do: and now nothing will be restrained from\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_298\">298</span>them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down,\r\nand there confound their language, that they may not understand\r\none another’s speech. And the Lord scattered them\r\nabroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they\r\nleft off to build the city and the tower. Therefore is the\r\nname of it called Confusion;<a id=\"r942\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f942\"><sup>[942]</sup></a> because the Lord did there\r\nconfound the language of all the earth: and from thence did\r\nthe Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”<a id=\"r943\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f943\"><sup>[943]</sup></a>\r\nIn the treatise of Solomon, moreover, on “Wisdom,” and on\r\nthe events at the time of the confusion of languages, when the\r\ndivision of the earth took place, we find the following regarding\r\nWisdom: “Moreover, the nations. in their wicked conspiracy\r\nbeing confounded, she found out the righteous, and\r\npreserved him blameless unto God, and kept him strong in his\r\ntender compassion towards his son.”<a id=\"r944\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f944\"><sup>[944]</sup></a> But on these subjects\r\nmuch, and that of a mystical kind, might be said; in keeping\r\nwith which is the following: “It is good to keep close the\r\nsecret of a king,”<a id=\"r945\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f945\"><sup>[945]</sup></a>—in order that the doctrine of the entrance\r\nof souls into bodies (not, however, that of the transmigration\r\nfrom one body into another) may not be thrown before the\r\ncommon understanding, nor what is holy given to the dogs,\r\nnor pearls be cast before swine. For such a procedure would\r\nbe impious, being equivalent to a betrayal of the mysterious\r\ndeclarations of God’s wisdom, of which it has been well said:\r\n“Into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter, nor dwell in a\r\nbody subject to sin.”<a id=\"r946\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f946\"><sup>[946]</sup></a> It is sufficient, however, to represent\r\nin the style of a historic narrative what is intended to convey\r\na secret meaning in the garb of history, that those who have\r\nthe capacity may work out for themselves all that relates to the\r\nsubject.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK V.","Chapter XXIX."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-356"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"ed04ea2c12a485e0f2297214252bba1ec05f4b96d7931713a61c70300f7bbcad","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-f939","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":"f939","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f939\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r939\">939</a>.  </span><span lang=\"grc\">οἰκειοτέρους.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f939","text_sha256":"fe8c00f54524e297d2be7d4681bbdb0d0b83610151f2493ce541db35153396c2","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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