Chapter XXXIII.

Celsus, however, shows that he has read a good many Grecian histories, when he quotes further what is told of Cleomedes of Astypalæa, “who,” he relates, “entered into an ark, and although shut up within it, was not found therein, but through some arrangement of the divinity, flew out, when certain persons had cut open the ark in order to apprehend him.”  Now this story, if an invention, as it appears to be, cannot be compared with what is related of Jesus, since in the lives of such men there is found no indication of their possessing the divinity which is ascribed to them; whereas the divinity of Jesus is established both by the existence of the Churches of the saved,471    τῶν ὠφελουμένων. and by the prophecies uttered concerning Him, and by the cures wrought in His name, and by the wisdom and knowledge which are in Him, and the deeper truths which are discovered by those who know how to ascend from a simple faith, and to investigate the meaning which lies in the divine Scriptures, agreeably to the injunctions of Jesus, who said, “Search the Scriptures,”472    John v. 39. and to the wish of Paul, who taught that “we ought to know how to answer every man;”473    Cf. Col. iv. 6. nay, also of him who said, “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh of you a reason of the faith474    πίστεως. that is in you.”475    1 Pet. iii. 15.  If he wishes to have it conceded, however, that it is not a fiction, let him show with what object this supernatural power made him, through some arrangement of the divinity, flee from the ark.  For if he will adduce any reason worthy of consideration, and point out any purpose worthy of God in conferring such a power on Cleomedes, we will decide on the answer which we ought to give; but if he fail to say anything convincing on the point, clearly because no reason can be discovered, then we shall either speak slightingly of the story to those who have not accepted it, and charge it with being false, or we shall say that some demoniac power, casting a glamour over the eyes, produced, in the case of the Astypalæan, a result like that which is produced by the performers of juggling tricks,476    ἢτοι διαβαλοῦμεν τοῖς αὐτὴν μὴ παραδεξαμένοις, καὶ ἐγκαλέσομεν τῇ ἱστορία ὡς οὐκ ἀληθεὶ, ἤ δαιμόνιόν τι φησομεν παραπλήσιον τοῖς ἐπιδεικνυπένοις γόησιν ἀπατῆ ὀφθαλμῶν πεποιηκέναι καὶ περὶ τὸν ᾽Αστυπαλαιέα.  Spencer in his edition includes μὴ in brackets, and renders, “Aut eos incusabimus, qui istam virtutem admiserint.” while Celsus thinks that with respect to him he has spoken like an oracle, when he said that “by some divine arrangement he flew away from the ark.”

Ἔδειξε δ' ὁ Κέλσος ὅτι πλείονας ἀνέγνω ἱστορίας ἑλληνικάς, παραθέμενος καὶ τὰ περὶ τοῦ Ἀστυπαλαιέως Κλεομήδους· ὃν ἱστόρησεν εἰς κιβωτὸν καταδύντα καὶ ἔνδοθεν αὐτῆς εἰλημμένον μὴ εὑρῆσθαι ἔνδον, ἀλλ' ἔκτοθι δαιμονίᾳ τινὶ μοίρᾳ διαπτῆναι, ἡνίκα ὑπὲρ τοῦ αὐτὸν συλλαβεῖν διέκοψάν τινες τὴν κιβωτόν. Καὶ τοῦτο δὲ εἰ μὴ πλάσμα ἐστίν, ὥσπερ ἔοικεν εἶναι πλάσμα, οὐ παραβάλλεται τοῖς περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ· ἐπείπερ ἐκείνων μὲν οὐδὲν τῆς ἱστορουμένης θειότητος ἐν τῷ βίῳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων σύμβολον εὑρίσκεται, τοῦ δὲ Ἰησοῦ αἱ τῶν ὠφελουμένων ἐκκλησίαι καὶ αἱ περὶ αὐτοῦ λελεγμέναι προφητεῖαι καὶ αἱ ἐν ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ γινόμεναι θεραπεῖαι καὶ ἡ κατ' αὐτὸν μετὰ σοφίας γνῶσις καὶ λόγος εὑρισκόμενος παρὰ τοῖς φροντίσασιν ἀναβῆναι μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς ψιλῆς πίστεως, ἐρευνῆσαι δὲ τὸν ἐν ταῖς θείαις γραφαῖς νοῦν κατὰ τὰς τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ὑποθήκας εἰπόντος· "Ἐρευνᾶτε τὰς γραφάς", καὶ κατὰ τὸ βούλημα τοῦ διδάξαντος Παύλου δεῖν "εἰδέναι" ἡμᾶς "ἑκάστῳ" κατὰ τὸ δέον "ἀποκρίνεσθαι", ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ εἰπόντος· "Ἕτοιμοι ἀεὶ πρὸς ἀπολογίαν παντὶ τῷ αἰτοῦντι ὑμᾶς λόγον περὶ τῆς ἐν ὑμῖν πίστεως." Εἰ δὲ βούλεται αὐτὸς συγχωρεῖσθαι μὴ εἶναι πλάσμα, λεγέτω, τί βουλομένη ἡ ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον δύναμις πεποίηκεν ἔκτοθι τῆς κιβωτοῦ δαιμονίᾳ τινὶ μοίρᾳ διαπτῆναι. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἀξιόλογόν τι παραστήσει καὶ βούλημα θεοῦ ἄξιον τὸ δωρησάμενον τὸ τοιοῦτον τῷ Κλεομήδει, κρινοῦμεν, τί χρὴ λέγειν πρὸς αὐτόν· εἰ δ' ἀπορήσει κἂν πιθανόν τι εἰς τὸν τόπον λέγειν, δηλονότι τὸ ὅσον ἐπὶ τῷ μὴ εὑρίσκεσθαι λόγον, ἤτοι συμβα λοῦμεν τοῖς αὐτὴν μὴ παραδεξαμένοις καὶ ἐγκαλέσομεν τῇ ἱστορίᾳ ὡς οὐκ ἀληθεῖ, ἢ δαιμόνιόν τι φήσομεν παραπλήσιον τοῖς ἐπιδεικνυμένοις γόησιν ἀπάτῃ ὀφθαλμῶν πεποιηκέναι καὶ [τὰ] περὶ τὸν Ἀστυπαλαιέα· περὶ οὗ οἴεται ὁ Κέλσος ὅτι θεοπρόπιόν τι ἐθέσπισεν, ὡς ἄρα μοίρᾳ τινὶ δαιμονίᾳ διέπτη ἀπὸ τῆς κιβωτοῦ.