Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">And whereas Celsus ought to have recognised the love of\r\ntruth displayed by the writers of sacred Scripture, who have\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_211\">211</span>not concealed even what is to their discredit,<a id=\"r679\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f679\"><sup>[679]</sup></a> and thus been led\r\nto accept the other and more marvellous accounts as true, he\r\nhas done the reverse, and has characterized the story of Lot\r\nand his daughters (without examining either its literal or its\r\nfigurative meaning) as “worse than the crimes of Thyestes.”\r\nThe figurative signification of that passage of history it is not\r\nnecessary at present to explain, nor what is meant by Sodom,\r\nand by the words of the angels to him who was escaping thence,\r\nwhen they said: “Look not behind thee, neither stay thou in\r\nall the surrounding district; escape to the mountain, lest thou\r\nbe consumed;”<a id=\"r680\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f680\"><sup>[680]</sup></a> nor what is intended by Lot and his wife,\r\nwho became a pillar of salt because she turned back; nor by\r\nhis daughters intoxicating their father, that they might become\r\nmothers by him. But let us in a few words soften down the\r\nrepulsive features of the history. The nature of actions—good,\r\nbad, and indifferent—has been investigated by the Greeks; and\r\nthe more successful of such investigators<a id=\"r681\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f681\"><sup>[681]</sup></a> lay down the principle\r\nthat intention alone gives to actions the character of good\r\nor bad, and that all things which are done without a purpose\r\nare, strictly speaking, indifferent; that when the intention is\r\ndirected to a becoming end, it is praiseworthy; when the reverse,\r\nit is censurable. They have said, accordingly, in the\r\nsection relating to “things indifferent,” that, strictly speaking,\r\nfor a man to have sexual intercourse with his daughters is a\r\nthing indifferent, although such a thing ought not to take place\r\nin established communities. And for the sake of hypothesis,\r\nin order to show that such an act belongs to the class of things\r\nindifferent, they have assumed the case of a wise man being\r\nleft with an only daughter, the entire human race besides\r\nhaving perished; and they put the question whether the father\r\ncan fitly have intercourse with his daughter, in order, agreeably\r\nto the supposition, to prevent the extermination of mankind.\r\nIs this to be accounted sound reasoning among the\r\nGreeks, and to be commended by the influential<a id=\"r682\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f682\"><sup>[682]</sup></a> sect of the\r\nStoics; but when young maidens, who had heard of the burning\r\nof the world, though without comprehending [its full meaning],\r\nsaw fire devastating their city and country, and supposing that\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_212\">212</span>the only means left of rekindling the flame<a id=\"r683\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f683\"><sup>[683]</sup></a> of human life lay\r\nin their father and themselves, should, on such a supposition,\r\nconceive the desire that the world should continue, shall their\r\nconduct be deemed worse than that of the wise man who,\r\naccording to the hypothesis of the Stoics, acts becomingly in\r\nhaving intercourse with his daughters in the case already supposed,\r\nof all men having been destroyed? I am not unaware,\r\nhowever, that some have taken offence at the desire<a id=\"r684\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f684\"><sup>[684]</sup></a> of Lot’s\r\ndaughters, and have regarded their conduct as very wicked;\r\nand have said that two accursed nations—Moab and Ammon—have\r\nsprung from that unhallowed intercourse. And yet truly\r\nsacred Scripture is nowhere found distinctly approving of their\r\nconduct as good, nor yet passing sentence upon it as blameworthy.\r\nNevertheless, whatever be the real state of the case,\r\nit admits not only of a figurative meaning, but also of being\r\ndefended on its own merits.<a id=\"r685\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f685\"><sup>[685]</sup></a></p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK IV.","Chapter XLV."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-266"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"3a51ff19c1d4c3fba8783e7a0e512a356516aee2d18698dc6f7931d3bfabfeab","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-f685","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":"f685","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f685\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r685\">685</a>.  </span><span lang=\"grc\">ἔχει δέ τινα καὶ καθ’ αὑτὸ ἀπολογίαν.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f685","text_sha256":"42e1ce1e69240cc59e303456ebfd5d62736280069cc31006bd67f1bd44de6c4a","verified":false,"work_id":null}

references: [] | work_id: | origin: existing-private-derived-record | source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f685