{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c005\">That Herod conspired against the child (although the Jew\r\nof Celsus does not believe that this really happened), is not\r\nto be wondered at. For wickedness is in a certain sense\r\nblind, and would desire to defeat fate, as if it were stronger\r\nthan it. And this being Herod’s condition, he both believed\r\nthat a king of the Jews had been born, and yet cherished a\r\npurpose contradictory of such a belief; not seeing that the\r\nchild is assuredly either a king and will come to the throne, or\r\nthat he is not to be a king, and that his death, therefore, will\r\nbe to no purpose. He desired accordingly to kill Him, his\r\nmind being agitated by contending passions on account of\r\nhis wickedness, and being instigated by the blind and wicked\r\ndevil who from the very beginning plotted against the Saviour,\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_465\">465</span>imagining that He was and would become some mighty one.\r\nAn angel, however, perceiving the course of events, intimated\r\nto Joseph, although Celsus may not believe it, that he was\r\nto withdraw with the child and His mother into Egypt, while\r\nHerod slew all the infants that were in Bethlehem and the\r\nsurrounding borders, in the hope that he would thus destroy\r\nHim also who had been born King of the Jews. For he saw\r\nnot the sleepless guardian power that is around those who\r\ndeserve to be protected and preserved for the salvation of\r\nmen, of whom Jesus is the first, superior to all others in\r\nhonour and excellence, who was to be a King indeed, but\r\nnot in the sense that Herod supposed, but in that in which\r\nit became God to bestow a kingdom,—for the benefit, viz.,\r\nof those who were to be under His sway, who was to confer\r\nno ordinary and unimportant blessings, so to speak, upon\r\nHis subjects, but who was to train them and to subject them\r\nto laws that were truly from God. And Jesus, knowing this\r\nwell, and denying that He was a king in the sense that the\r\nmultitude expected, but declaring the superiority of His kingdom,\r\nsays: “If my kingdom were of this world, then would\r\nmy servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews:\r\nbut now is my kingdom not of this world.”<a id=\"r1228\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f1228\"><sup>[1228]</sup></a> Now, if Celsus\r\nhad seen this, he would not have said: “But if, then, this\r\nwas done in order that you might not reign in his stead\r\nwhen you had grown to man’s estate; why, after you did\r\nreach that estate, do you not become a king, instead of\r\nyou, the Son of God, wandering about in so mean a condition,\r\nhiding yourself through fear, and leading a miserable\r\nlife up and down?” Now, it is not dishonourable to avoid\r\nexposing one’s self to dangers, but to guard carefully against\r\nthem, when this is done, not through fear of death, but from\r\na desire to benefit others by remaining in life, until the proper\r\ntime come for one who has assumed human nature to die a\r\ndeath that will be useful to mankind. And this is plain to\r\nhim who reflects that Jesus died for the sake of men,—a\r\npoint of which we have spoken to the best of our ability in\r\nthe preceding pages.</p>","headings":["The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2","ORIGEN CONTRA CELSUM.","ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. BOOK I.","Chapter LXI."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70561-paragraph-459"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"5b55896be362e71ecf9f880e781a29c859eb7addc46adc14b1eb40834f017fe1","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"JHN","chapter":18,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"John xviii. 36","verse":36,"verse_end":36}],"headings":[],"id":"pg70561-f1228","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 1869 English translation; translator died 1889. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f1228","source_ebook":70561,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f1228\">\n<p class=\"c006\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r1228\">1228</a>. </span><abbr class=\"spell\">Cf.</abbr> John <abbr title=\"eighteen\">xviii.</abbr> 36.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"de125e213d16053354f22b34a1c8d477ac23f201e660e4f4841b2ed7e05bb367","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70561/pg70561-images.html#f1228","text_sha256":"9329da3c280b20b5aa02e2bea4ad6544720e7a4b276697d03b35d09cf13a4feb","verified":false,"work_id":null}