{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">In the next place, after other Platonic declarations, which\r\ndemonstrate that “the good” can be known by few, he adds:\r\n“Since the multitude, being puffed up with a contempt for\r\nothers, which is far from right, and being filled with vain and\r\nlofty hopes, assert that, because they have come to the knowledge\r\nof some venerable doctrines, certain things are true.”\r\n“Yet although Plato predicted these things, he nevertheless does\r\nnot talk marvels,<a id=\"r1074\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1074\"><sup>[1074]</sup></a> nor shut the mouth of those who wish to ask\r\nhim for information on the subject of his promises; nor does\r\nhe command them to come at once and believe that a God of a\r\nparticular kind exists, and that he has a son of a particular\r\nnature, who descended [to earth] and conversed with me.”\r\nNow, in answer to this we have to say, that with regard to\r\nPlato, it is Aristander, I think, who has related that he was not\r\nthe son of Ariston, but of a phantom, which approached Amphictione\r\nin the guise of Apollo. And there are several other\r\nof the followers of Plato who, in their lives of their master,\r\nhave made the same statement. What are we to say, moreover,\r\nabout Pythagoras, who relates the greatest possible\r\namount of wonders, and who, in a general assembly of the\r\nGreeks, showed his ivory thigh, and asserted that he recognised\r\nthe shield which he wore when he was Euphorbus, and who is\r\nsaid to have appeared on one day in two different cities!\r\nHe, moreover, who will declare that what is related of Plato\r\nand Socrates belongs to the marvellous, will quote the story of\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_345\">345</span>the swan which was recommended to Socrates while he was\r\nasleep, and of the master saying when he met the young man,\r\n“This, then, was the swan!”<a id=\"r1075\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1075\"><sup>[1075]</sup></a> Nay, the third eye which Plato\r\nsaw that he himself possessed, he will refer to the category of\r\nprodigies.<a id=\"r1076\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1076\"><sup>[1076]</sup></a> But occasion for slanderous accusations will never\r\nbe wanting to those who are ill-disposed, and who wish to speak\r\nevil of what has happened to such as are raised above the\r\nmultitude. Such persons will deride as a fiction even the\r\ndemon of Socrates. We do not, then, relate marvels when we\r\nnarrate the history of Jesus, nor have His genuine disciples\r\nrecorded any such stories of Him; whereas this Celsus, who\r\nprofesses universal knowledge, and who quotes many of the\r\nsayings of Plato, is, I think, intentionally silent on the discourse\r\nconcerning the Son of God which is related in Plato’s\r\nepistle to Hermeas and Coriscus. Plato’s words are as follows:\r\n“And calling to witness the God of all things—the ruler both\r\nof things present and things to come, father and lord both of\r\nthe ruler and cause—whom, if we are philosophers indeed, we\r\nshall all clearly know, so far as it is possible for happy human\r\nbeings to attain such knowledge.”<a id=\"r1077\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1077\"><sup>[1077]</sup></a></p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK VI.","Chapter VIII."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-401"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"11eec6619318beb36879ab543dfd48ddaf277e12f2063310657c58a78add0967","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-f1074","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":"f1074","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f1074\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r1074\">1074</a>. </span><span lang=\"grc\">οὐ τερατεύεται.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f1074","text_sha256":"e4b3b068e989bd8d535983503e7c11def01706f4d72628a9816992d7f8abe5ee","verified":false,"work_id":null}