{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">Now, in answer to this account of Aristeas, we have to say,\r\nthat if Celsus had adduced it as history, without signifying his\r\nown assent to its truth, it is in a different way that we should\r\nhave met his argument. But since he asserts that he “disappeared\r\nthrough the intervention of the divinity,” and “showed himself\r\nagain in an unmistakeable manner,” and “visited many parts\r\nof the world,” and “made marvellous announcements;” and,\r\nmoreover, that there was “an oracle of Apollo, enjoining the\r\nMetapontines to treat Aristeas as a god,” he gives the accounts\r\nrelating to him as upon his own authority, and with his full\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_108\">108</span>assent. And [this being the case], we ask, How is it possible\r\nthat, while supposing the marvels related by the disciples of\r\nJesus regarding their Master to be wholly fictitious, and finding\r\nfault with those who believe them, you, O Celsus, do not\r\nregard these stories of yours to be either products of jugglery<a id=\"r323\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f323\"><sup>[323]</sup></a>\r\nor inventions? And how,<a id=\"r324\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f324\"><sup>[324]</sup></a> while charging others with an irrational\r\nbelief in the marvels recorded of Jesus, can you show\r\nyourself justified in giving credence to such statements as the\r\nabove, without producing some proof or evidence of the alleged\r\noccurrences having taken place? Or do Herodotus and Pindar\r\nappear to you to speak the truth, while they who have made it\r\ntheir concern to <i>die</i> for the doctrine of Jesus, and who have\r\nleft to their successors writings so remarkable on the truths\r\nwhich they believed, entered upon a struggle for the sake\r\nof “fictions” (as you consider them), and “myths,” and\r\n“juggleries,” which entails a life of danger and a death of\r\nviolence? Place yourself, then, as a neutral party, between\r\nwhat is related of Aristeas and what is recorded of Jesus, and\r\nsee whether, from the result, and from the benefits which have\r\naccrued to the reformation of morals, and to the worship of\r\nthe God who is over all things, it is not allowable to conclude\r\nthat we must believe the events recorded of Jesus not to have\r\nhappened without the divine intervention, but that this was\r\nnot the case with the story of Aristeas the Proconnesian.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK III.","Chapter XXVII."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-160"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"f3cdf4b8458dbd2d6eed4a77c8ff34d4b396eb118bfa8257c8611db018b8822b","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-f323","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":"f323","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f323\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r323\">323</a>. </span><span lang=\"grc\">τερατείαν.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f323","text_sha256":"40a0a62939f32a1fee5158e6bc9635b3f3f0a4f4f6c0fccffe4aabc34a994bab","verified":false,"work_id":null}