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| Chapter LIX
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Chapter LIX.
He imagines also that both the earthquake and the
darkness were an invention;3351
but regarding
these, we have in the preceding pages, made our defence, according to
our ability, adducing the testimony of Phlegon, who relates that these
events took place at the time when our Saviour suffered.3352
| 3352 [See cap.
xxxiii., note, p. 455, supra.] | And he goes on to say, that
“Jesus, while alive, was of no assistance to himself, but that he
arose after death, and exhibited the marks of his punishment, and
showed how his hands had been pierced by nails.” We ask him
what he means by the expression, “was of no assistance to
himself?” For if he means it to refer to want of virtue, we
reply that He was of very great assistance. For He neither
uttered nor committed anything that was improper, but was truly
“led as a sheep to the slaughter, and was dumb as a lamb before
the shearer;”3353
and the Gospel
testifies that He opened not His mouth. But if Celsus applies the
expression to things indifferent and corporeal,3354
| 3354 εἰ δὲ τὸ “ἐπήρκεσεν
” ἀπὸ
τῶν μέσων καὶ
σωματικῶν
λαμβάνει. |
(meaning that in such Jesus could render no help to Himself,) we say
that we have proved from the Gospels that He went voluntarily to
encounter His sufferings. Speaking next of the statements in the
Gospels, that after His resurrection He showed the marks of His
punishment, and how His hands had been pierced, he asks, “Who
beheld this?” And discrediting the narrative of Mary
Magdalene, who is related to have seen Him, he replies, “A
half-frantic woman, as ye state.” And because she is not
the only one who is recorded to have seen the Saviour after His
resurrection, but others also are mentioned, this Jew of Celsus
calumniates these statements also in adding, “And some one else
of those engaged in the same system of
deception!”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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