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| Chapter XXVIII
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Chapter
XXVIII.
With some such object as this in view does Celsus
seem to have been actuated, when he alleged that Christians term the
Creator an “accursed divinity;” in order that he who
believes these charges of his against us, should, if possible, arise
and exterminate the Christians as the most impious of mankind.
Confusing, moreover, things that are distinct,4425
| 4425 φύρων δὲ τὰ
πράγματα. | he
states also the reason why the God of the Mosaic cosmogony is termed
“accursed,” asserting that “such is his character,
and worthy of execration in the opinion of those who so regard him,
inasmuch as he pronounced a curse upon the serpent, who introduced the
first human beings to the knowledge of good and evil.” Now
he ought to have known that those who have espoused the cause of the
serpent, because he gave good advice to the first human beings, and who
go far beyond the Titans and Giants of fable, and are on this account
called Ophites, are so far from being Christians, that they bring
accusations against Jesus to as great a degree as Celsus himself; and
they do not admit any one into their assembly4426
until he has uttered maledictions against Jesus. See, then, how
irrational is the procedure of Celsus, who, in his discourse against
the Christians, represents as such those who will not even listen to
the name of Jesus, or omit even that He was a wise man, or a
person of virtuous4427
character!
What, then, could evince greater folly or madness, not only on the part
of those who wish to derive their name from the serpent as the author
of good,4428
but also on the
part of Celsus, who thinks that the accusations with which the
Ophites4429
| 4429 ᾽Οφιᾶνοι: cf.
Irenæus, vol. i. pp. 354–358. | are charged, are
chargeable also against the Christians! Long ago, indeed, that
Greek philosopher who preferred a state of poverty,4430
| 4430 τὴν
εὐτέλειαν
ἀγαπήσας. | and who exhibited the pattern of a happy
life, showing that he was not excluded from happiness although he was
possessed of nothing,4431
| 4431 ἀπὸ
τῆς
παντελοῦς
ἀκτημοσύνης. | termed himself a
Cynic; while these impious wretches, as not being human beings, whose
enemy the serpent is, but as being serpents, pride themselves upon
being called Ophites from the serpent, which is an animal most hostile
to and greatly dreaded by man, and boast of one Euphrates4432
| 4432 “Euphraten hujus
hæresis auctorem solus Origenes
tradit.”—Spencer; cf. note in
Spencer’s edition. | as the introducer of these unhallowed
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