{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">Celsus in the next place says, with indescribable silliness:\r\n“If, after inventing defences which are absurd, and by which\r\nye were ridiculously deluded, ye imagine that you really make\r\na good defence, what prevents you from regarding those other\r\nindividuals who have been condemned, and have died a miserable\r\ndeath, as greater and more divine messengers of heaven\r\n[than Jesus]?” Now, that manifestly and clearly there is no\r\nsimilarity between Jesus, who suffered what is described, and\r\nthose who have died a wretched death on account of their\r\nsorcery, or whatever else be the charge against them, is patent\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_46\">46</span>to every one. For no one can point to any acts of a sorcerer\r\nwhich turned away souls from the practice of the many sins\r\nwhich prevail among men, and from the flood of wickedness\r\n(in the world).<a id=\"r130\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f130\"><sup>[130]</sup></a> But since this Jew of Celsus compares Him\r\nto robbers, and says that “any similarly shameless fellow\r\nmight be able to say regarding even a robber and murderer\r\nwhom punishment had overtaken, that such an one was not a\r\nrobber, but a god, because he predicted to his fellow-robbers\r\nthat he would suffer such punishment as he actually did suffer,”\r\nit might, in the first place, be answered, that it is not because\r\nHe predicted that He would suffer such things that we entertain\r\nthose opinions regarding Jesus which lead us to have confidence\r\nin Him, as one who has come down to us from God.\r\nAnd, in the second place, we assert that this very comparison<a id=\"r131\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f131\"><sup>[131]</sup></a>\r\nhas been somehow foretold in the Gospels; since God was\r\nnumbered with the transgressors by wicked men, who desired\r\nrather a “murderer” (one who for sedition and murder had\r\nbeen cast into prison) to be released unto them, and Jesus to be\r\ncrucified, and who crucified Him between two robbers. Jesus,\r\nindeed, is ever crucified with robbers among His genuine disciples\r\nand witnesses to the truth, and suffers the same condemnation\r\nwhich they do among men. And we say, that if those\r\npersons have any resemblance to robbers, who on account of\r\ntheir piety towards God suffer all kinds of injury and death,\r\nthat they may keep it pure and unstained, according to the\r\nteaching of Jesus, then it is clear also that Jesus, the author\r\nof such teaching, is with good reason compared by Celsus to the\r\ncaptain of a band of robbers. But neither was He who died\r\nfor the common good of mankind, nor they who suffered\r\nbecause of their religion, and alone of all men were persecuted\r\nbecause of what appeared to them the right way of honouring\r\nGod, put to death in accordance with justice, nor was Jesus\r\npersecuted without the charge of impiety being incurred by His\r\npersecutors.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK II.","Chapter XLIV."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-88"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"43d4f0a0554417221d53c1675ecba55c237cd5dce01483c929439e1c8518693e","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-f131","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":"f131","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f131\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r131\">131</a>. </span><span lang=\"grc\">καὶ ταῦτα.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f131","text_sha256":"8d83f5c89534ea24c5e2904948517920399fe7a7f9e775be4a7dc8ac7df2fe18","verified":false,"work_id":null}