{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">Next to the remarks of Celsus on which we have already\r\ncommented, come others which he addresses to all Christians,\r\nbut which, if applicable to any, ought to be addressed to persons\r\nwhose doctrines differ entirely from those taught by Jesus. For\r\nit is the Ophians who, as we have before shown,<a id=\"r1509\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1509\"><sup>[1509]</sup></a> have utterly\r\nrenounced Jesus, and perhaps some others of similar opinions\r\nwho are “the impostors and jugglers, leading men away to idols\r\nand phantoms;” and it is they who with miserable pains learn\r\noff the names of the heavenly doorkeepers. These words are\r\ntherefore quite inappropriate as addressed to Christians: “If\r\nyou seek one to be your guide along this way, you must shun\r\nall deceivers and jugglers, who will introduce you to phantoms.”\r\nAnd, as though quite unaware that these impostors entirely\r\nagree with him, and are not behind him in speaking ill of Jesus\r\nand His religion, he thus continues, confounding us with them:\r\n“otherwise you will be acting the most ridiculous part, if, whilst\r\nyou pronounce imprecations upon those other recognised gods,\r\ntreating them as idols, you yet do homage to a more wretched\r\nidol than any of these, which indeed is not even an idol or a\r\nphantom, but a dead man, and you seek a father like to himself.”\r\nThat he is ignorant of the wide difference between our\r\nopinions and those of the inventors of these fables, and that he\r\nimagines the charges which he makes against them applicable\r\nto us, is evident from the following passage: “For the sake of\r\nsuch a monstrous delusion, and in support of those wonderful\r\nadvisers, and those wonderful words which you address to the\r\nlion, to the amphibious creature, to the creature in the form\r\nof an ass, and to others, for the sake of those divine doorkeepers\r\nwhose names you commit to memory with such pains, in such a\r\ncause as this you suffer cruel tortures, and perish at the stake.”\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_463\">463</span>Surely, then, he is unaware that none of those who regard beings\r\nin the form of an ass, a lion, or an amphibious animal, as the\r\ndoorkeepers or guides on the way to heaven, ever expose themselves\r\nto death in defence of that which they think the truth.\r\nThat excess of zeal, if it may be so called, which leads us for\r\nthe sake of religion to submit to every kind of death, and to\r\nperish at the stake, is ascribed by Celsus to those who endure\r\nno such sufferings; and he reproaches us who suffer crucifixion\r\nfor our faith, with believing in fabulous creatures—in the lion,\r\nthe amphibious animal, and other such monsters. If we reject\r\nall these fables, it is not out of deference to Celsus, for we have\r\nnever at any time held any such fancies; but it is in accordance\r\nwith the teaching of Jesus that we oppose all such notions, and\r\nwill not allow to Michael, or to any others that have been\r\nreferred to, a form and figure of that sort.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK VII.","Chapter XL."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-517"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"834c90ccc074888187ec0e76026a0d2b9e55399f9366f3f3cb28deafbc9b263a","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-f1509","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":"f1509","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f1509\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r1509\">1509</a>. </span>See Book <abbr title=\"six\">vi.</abbr> <abbr title=\"chapter\">chap.</abbr> <abbr title=\"thirty\">xxx.</abbr> etc.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f1509","text_sha256":"7f808ba16f2fd0acaf007b6f7ed30df3af95e61311ef3a2257a153e4321b43fb","verified":false,"work_id":null}