{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">If Celsus had read the Scriptures in an impartial spirit,\r\nhe would not have said that “our writings are incapable of\r\nadmitting an allegorical meaning.” For from the prophetic\r\nScriptures, in which historical events are recorded (not from\r\nthe historical), it is possible to be convinced that the historical\r\nportions also were written with an allegorical purpose, and were\r\nmost skilfully adapted not only to the multitude of the simpler\r\nbelievers, but also to the few who are able or willing to investigate\r\nmatters in an intelligent spirit. If, indeed, those writers\r\nat the present day who are deemed by Celsus the “more modest\r\nof the Jews and Christians” were the [first] allegorical interpreters\r\nof our Scriptures, he would have the appearance, perhaps,\r\nof making a plausible allegation. But since the very\r\nfathers and authors of the doctrines themselves give them an\r\nallegorical signification, what other inference can be drawn than\r\nthat they were composed so as to be allegorically understood\r\nin their chief signification?<a id=\"r690\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f690\"><sup>[690]</sup></a> And we shall adduce a few\r\ninstances out of very many to show that Celsus brings an empty\r\ncharge against the Scriptures, when he says “that they are\r\nincapable of admitting an allegorical meaning.” Paul, the\r\napostle of Jesus, says: “It is written in the law, Thou shalt\r\nnot muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn.\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_216\">216</span>Doth God take care for oxen? or saith He it altogether for our\r\nsakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he that\r\nplougheth should plough in hope, and he that thresheth in hope\r\nof partaking.”<a id=\"r691\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f691\"><sup>[691]</sup></a> And in another passage the same Paul says:\r\n“For it is written, For this cause shall a man leave his father\r\nand mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and they two shall\r\nbe one flesh. This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning\r\nChrist and the church.”<a id=\"r692\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f692\"><sup>[692]</sup></a> And again, in another place: “We\r\nknow that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed\r\nthrough the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud,\r\nand in the sea.”<a id=\"r693\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f693\"><sup>[693]</sup></a> Then, explaining the history relating to the\r\nmanna, and that referring to the miraculous issue of the water\r\nfrom the rock, he continues as follows: “And they did all eat\r\nthe same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual\r\ndrink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed\r\nthem, and that rock was Christ.”<a id=\"r694\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f694\"><sup>[694]</sup></a> Asaph, moreover, who, in\r\nshowing the histories in Exodus and Numbers to be full of\r\ndifficulties and parables,<a id=\"r695\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f695\"><sup>[695]</sup></a> begins in the following manner, as\r\nrecorded in the book of Psalms, where he is about to make\r\nmention of these things: “Give ear, O my people, to my law:\r\nincline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my\r\nmouth in parables; I will utter dark sayings of old, which we\r\nhave heard and known, and our fathers have told us.”<a id=\"r696\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f696\"><sup>[696]</sup></a></p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK IV.","Chapter XLIX."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-270"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"a27cdfb50d8d566179ba9a352caca8ec5e5ba41ff7c58489a304e0f0ff66dedd","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie","W. H. Cairns"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"1CO","chapter":10,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"1 Cor. x. 3","verse":3,"verse_end":3}],"headings":[],"id":"pg70693-f694","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":"f694","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f694\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r694\">694</a>. </span><abbr class=\"spell\">Cf.</abbr> 1 <abbr title=\"Corinthians\">Cor.</abbr> <abbr title=\"ten\">x.</abbr> 3, 4.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f694","text_sha256":"be3704979179ea204b3506debdd2603cc3d94ded7613aa60e57e589846ed9726","verified":false,"work_id":null}