{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">But the Greeks will say that these accounts are fabulous,\r\nalthough two whole nations are witnesses to their truth. But\r\nwhy may we not consider the accounts of the Greeks as fabulous\r\nrather than those? Perhaps some one, however, wishing\r\nnot to appear blindly to accept his own statements and reject\r\nthose of others, would conclude, after a close examination of the\r\nmatter, that the wonders mentioned by the Greeks were performed\r\nby certain demons; those among the Jews by prophets\r\nor by angels, or by God through the means of angels, and those\r\nrecorded by Christians by Jesus Himself, or by His power\r\nworking in His apostles. Let us, then, compare all these\r\naccounts together; let us examine into the aim and purpose of\r\nthose who performed them; and let us inquire what effect was\r\nproduced upon the persons on whose account these acts of\r\nkindness were performed, whether beneficial or hurtful, or\r\nneither the one nor the other. The ancient Jewish people,\r\nbefore they sinned against God, and were for their great\r\nwickedness cast off by Him, must evidently have been a people\r\nof great wisdom.<a id=\"r1651\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1651\"><sup>[1651]</sup></a> But Christians, who have in so wonderful a\r\nmanner formed themselves into a community, appear at first to\r\nhave been more induced by miracles than by exhortations to\r\nforsake the institutions of their fathers, and to adopt others\r\nwhich were quite strange to them. And indeed, if we were\r\nto reason from what is probable as to the first formation of the\r\nChristian society, we should say that it is incredible that the\r\napostles of Jesus Christ, who were unlettered men of humble\r\nlife, could have been emboldened to preach Christian truth to\r\nmen by anything else than the power which was conferred upon\r\nthem, and the grace which accompanied their words and rendered\r\nthem effective; and those who heard them would not\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_532\">532</span>have renounced the old-established usages of their fathers, and\r\nbeen induced to adopt notions so different from those in which\r\nthey had been brought up, unless they had been moved by some\r\nextraordinary power, and by the force of miraculous events.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK VIII.","Chapter XLVII."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-594"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"e5522ba55d852610f83bff1963ee921076649b8aa0ece606679ad84517a24464","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-f1651","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":"f1651","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f1651\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r1651\">1651</a>. </span><span lang=\"grc\">φιλόσοφον.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f1651","text_sha256":"9496df00a1a6fa9be45e0cf34d4e93a2266d9f41144939c3b967a4418e880d78","verified":false,"work_id":null}