{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">Celsus, in adopting the character of a Jew, could not discover\r\nany objections to be urged against the gospel which might\r\nnot be retorted on him as liable to be brought also against the\r\nlaw and the prophets. For he censures Jesus in such words as\r\nthe following: “He makes use of threats, and reviles men on\r\nlight grounds, when he says, ‘Woe unto you,’ and ‘I tell you\r\nbeforehand.’ For by such expressions he manifestly acknowledges\r\nhis inability to persuade; and this would not be the\r\ncase with a God, or even a prudent man.” Observe, now,\r\nwhether these charges do not manifestly recoil upon the Jew.\r\nFor in the writings of the law and the prophets God makes use\r\nof threats and revilings, when He employs language of not less\r\nseverity than that found in the Gospel, such as the following\r\nexpressions of Isaiah: “Woe unto them that join house to\r\nhouse, and lay field to field;”<a id=\"r227\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f227\"><sup>[227]</sup></a> and, “Woe unto them that rise\r\nup early in the morning that they may follow strong drink;”<a id=\"r228\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f228\"><sup>[228]</sup></a>\r\nand, “Woe unto them that draw their sins after them as with\r\na long rope;”<a id=\"r229\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f229\"><sup>[229]</sup></a> and, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and\r\ngood evil;”<a id=\"r230\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f230\"><sup>[230]</sup></a> and, “Woe unto those of you who are mighty to\r\ndrink wine;”<a id=\"r231\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f231\"><sup>[231]</sup></a> and innumerable other passages of the same\r\nkind. And does not the following resemble the threats of\r\nwhich he speaks: “Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with\r\niniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters?”<a id=\"r232\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f232\"><sup>[232]</sup></a>\r\nand so on, to which he subjoins such threats as are equal in\r\nseverity to those which, he says, Jesus made use of. For is it\r\nnot a threatening, and a great one, which declares, “Your\r\ncountry is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land,\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_80\">80</span>strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown\r\nby strangers?”<a id=\"r233\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f233\"><sup>[233]</sup></a> And are there not revilings in\r\nEzekiel directed against the people, when the Lord says to the\r\nprophet, “Thou dwellest in the midst of scorpions?”<a id=\"r234\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f234\"><sup>[234]</sup></a> Were\r\nyou serious, then, Celsus, in representing the Jew as saying of\r\nJesus, that “he makes use of threats and revilings on slight\r\ngrounds, when he employs the expressions, ‘Woe unto you,’\r\nand ‘I tell you beforehand?’” Do you not see that the charges\r\nwhich this Jew of yours brings against Jesus might be brought\r\nby him against God? For the God who speaks in the prophetic\r\nwritings is manifestly liable to the same accusations, as\r\nCelsus regards them, of inability to persuade. I might, moreover,\r\nsay to this Jew, who thinks that he makes a good charge\r\nagainst Jesus by such statements, that if he undertakes, in support\r\nof the scriptural account, to defend the numerous curses\r\nrecorded in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, we should\r\nmake as good, or better, a defence of the revilings and threatenings\r\nwhich are regarded as having been spoken by Jesus. And\r\nas respects the law of Moses itself, we are in a position to make\r\na better defence of it than the Jew is, because we have been\r\ntaught by Jesus to have a more intelligent apprehension of the\r\nwritings of the law. Nay, if the Jew perceive the meaning of\r\nthe prophetic Scriptures, he will be able to show that it is for\r\nno light reason that God employs threatenings and revilings,\r\nwhen He says, “Woe unto you,” and “I tell you beforehand.”\r\nAnd how should God employ such expressions for the conversion\r\nof men, which Celsus thinks that even a prudent man would\r\nnot have recourse to? But Christians, who know only one God—the\r\nsame who spoke in the prophets and in the Lord [Jesus]—can\r\nprove the reasonableness of those threatenings and revilings,\r\nas Celsus considers and entitles them. And here a few\r\nremarks shall be addressed to this Celsus, who professes both\r\nto be a philosopher, and to be acquainted with all our system.\r\nHow is it, friend, when Hermes, in Homer, says to Odysseus,</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK II.","Chapter LXXVI."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-124"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"ed375d402bad3dc10301332887ab1657fdf0a1e23b2823e8db14b01a6b88a438","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie","W. H. Cairns"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"ISA","chapter":5,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Isa. v. 11","verse":11,"verse_end":11}],"headings":[],"id":"pg70693-f228","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":"f228","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f228\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r228\">228</a>. </span><abbr title=\"Isaiah\">Isa.</abbr> <abbr title=\"five\">v.</abbr> 11.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f228","text_sha256":"5fbf3a8349049839940687c73f4e62d18f75fffd2cde7cb24a06870a12763a8e","verified":false,"work_id":null}