{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">He next continues: “You see how Plato, although maintaining\r\nthat [the chief good] cannot be described in words, yet,\r\nto avoid the appearance of retreating to an irrefutable position,\r\nsubjoins a reason in explanation of this difficulty, as even\r\n‘nothing’<a id=\"r1080\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1080\"><sup>[1080]</sup></a> might perhaps be explained in words.” But as\r\nCelsus adduces this to prove that we ought not to yield a\r\nsimple assent, but to furnish a reason for our belief, we shall\r\nquote also the words of Paul, where he says, in censuring the\r\nhasty<a id=\"r1081\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1081\"><sup>[1081]</sup></a> believer, “unless ye have believed inconsiderately.”<a id=\"r1082\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1082\"><sup>[1082]</sup></a>\r\nNow, through his practice of repeating himself, Celsus, so far\r\nas he can, forces us to be guilty of tautology, reiterating, after\r\nthe boastful language which has been quoted, that “Plato is\r\nnot guilty of boasting and falsehood, giving out that he has\r\nmade some new discovery, or that he has come down from\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_347\">347</span>heaven to announce it, but acknowledges whence these statements\r\nare derived.” Now, if one wished to reply to Celsus,\r\none might say in answer to such assertions, that even Plato <i>is</i>\r\nguilty of boasting, when in the <i>Timœus</i> he puts the following\r\nlanguage in the mouth of Zeus: “Gods of gods, whose creator\r\nand father I am,” and so on. And if any one will defend such\r\nlanguage on account of the meaning which is conveyed under\r\nthe name of Zeus, thus speaking in the dialogue of Plato, why\r\nshould not he who investigates the meaning of the words of the\r\nSon of God, or those of the Creator<a id=\"r1083\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1083\"><sup>[1083]</sup></a> in the prophets, express a\r\nprofounder meaning than any conveyed by the words of Zeus\r\nin the <i>Timœus</i>? For the characteristic of divinity is the announcement\r\nof future events, predicted not by human power,\r\nbut shown by the result to be due to a divine spirit in him who\r\nmade the announcement. Accordingly, we do not say to each\r\nof our hearers, “Believe, first of all, that He whom I introduce\r\nto thee is the Son of God;” but we put the gospel before\r\neach one, as his character and disposition may fit him to receive\r\nit, inasmuch as we have learned to know “how we ought to\r\nanswer every man.”<a id=\"r1084\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1084\"><sup>[1084]</sup></a> And there are some who are capable of\r\nreceiving nothing more than an exhortation to believe, and to\r\nthese we address that alone; while we approach others, again,\r\nas far as possible, in the way of demonstration, by means of\r\nquestion and answer. Nor do we at all say, as Celsus scoffingly\r\nalleges, “Believe that He whom I introduce to thee is\r\nthe Son of God, although He was shamefully bound, and disgracefully\r\npunished, and very recently<a id=\"r1085\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1085\"><sup>[1085]</sup></a> was most contumeliously\r\ntreated before the eyes of all men;” neither do we add,\r\n“Believe it even the more [on that account].” For it is our\r\nendeavour to state, on each individual point, arguments more\r\nnumerous even than we have brought forward in the preceding\r\npages.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK VI.","Chapter X."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-403"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"ad4f17a7af53c426dc7c2fc40e9204ae81f075c2812b7912551309be9d882955","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie","W. H. Cairns"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"COL","chapter":4,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Col. iv. 6","verse":6,"verse_end":6}],"headings":[],"id":"pg70693-f1084","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":"f1084","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f1084\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r1084\">1084</a>. </span><abbr class=\"spell\">Cf.</abbr> <abbr title=\"Colossians\">Col.</abbr> <abbr title=\"four\">iv.</abbr> 6.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f1084","text_sha256":"a8df3cb709e2c44913287bd21d7650b8fe180fb3ffbf5d99ad3f1db34121b22c","verified":false,"work_id":null}