Chapter XXVIII.

After thus misrepresenting our views of the nature of God, Celsus goes on to ask of us “where we hope to go after death;” and he makes our answer to be, “to another land better than this.”  On this he comments as follows:  “The divine men of a former age have spoken of a happy life reserved for the souls of the blessed.  Some designated it ‘the isles of the blest,’ and others ‘the Elysian plain,’ so called because they were there to be delivered from their present evils.  Thus Homer says:  ‘But the gods shall send thee to the Elysian plain, on the borders of the earth, where they lead a most quiet life.’1661    Odyss., iv. 563.  Plato also, who believed in the immortality of the soul, distinctly gives the name ‘land’ to the place where it is sent.  ‘The extent of it,’1662    Phædo, lviii. p. 109. says he, ‘is immense, and we only occupy a small portion of it, from the Phasis to the Pillars of Hercules, where we dwell along the shores of the sea, as grasshoppers and frogs beside a marsh.  But there are many other places inhabited in like manner by other men.  For there are in different parts of the earth cavities, varying in form and in magnitude, into which run water, and clouds, and air.  But that land which is pure lies in the pure region of heaven.’”  Celsus therefore supposes that what we say of a land which is much better and more excellent than this, has been borrowed from certain ancient writers whom he styles “divine,” and chiefly from Plato, who in his Phædon discourses on the pure land lying in a pure heaven.  But he does not see that Moses, who is much older than the Greek literature, introduces God as promising to those who lived according to His law the holy land, which is “a good land and a large, a land flowing with milk and honey;”1663    Ex. iii. 8. which promise is not to be understood to refer, as some suppose, to that part of the earth which we call Judea; for it, however good it may be, still forms part of the earth, which was originally cursed for the transgression of Adam.  For these words, “Cursed shall the ground be for what thou hast done; with grief, that is, with labour, shalt thou eat of the fruit of it all the days of thy life,”1664    Gen. iii. 17. were spoken of the whole earth, the fruit of which every man who died in Adam eats with sorrow or labour all the days of his life.  And as all the earth has been cursed, it brings forth thorns and briers all the days of the life of those who in Adam were driven out of paradise; and in the sweat of his face every man eats bread until he returns to the ground from which he was taken.  For the full exposition of all that is contained in this passage much might be said; but we have confined ourselves to these few words at present, which are intended to remove the idea, that what is said of the good land promised by God to the righteous, refers to the land of Judea.

Μετὰ [δὲ] τὰ περὶ θεοῦ, ἐν οἷς ἡμᾶς συκοφαντεῖ, πυνθάνεται ἡμῶν· Ποῖ ἀπεῖναι μέλλομεν; Καὶ τίνα ἐλπίδα ἔχομεν; Καὶ ὡς ἀποκριναμένων, τίθησι δῆθεν ἡμετέρας φωνὰς οὕτως ἐχούσας· Εἰς ἄλλην γῆν, ταύτης κρείττονα. Καὶ πρὸς τοῦτό φησιν· Ἱστόρηται θείοις ἀνδράσι παλαιοῖς εὐδαίμων βίος ψυχαῖς εὐδαίμοσιν· ὠνόμασαν δὲ οἱ μὲν μακάρων νήσους, οἱ δὲ "Ἠλύσιον πεδίον" ἀπὸ τῆς λύσεως τῶν ἔνθεν κακῶν, ὥσπερ καὶ Ὅμηρος· Ἀλλά σ' ἐς Ἠλύσιον πεδίον καὶ πείρατα γαίης ἀθάνατοι πέμψουσι, τῇ περ ῥηίστη βιοτή. Πλάτων δὲ ἀθάνατον τὴν ψυχὴν ἡγούμενος ἐκείνην τὴν χώραν, ἔνθα στέλλεται, ἄντικρυς "γῆν" ὠνόμασεν οὕτως· "Πάμμεγά τι εἶναι" φήσας "αὐτό, καὶ ἡμᾶς οἰκεῖν τοὺς μέχρι Ἡρακλείων στηλῶν ἀπὸ Φάσιδος ἐν σμικρῷ τινι μορίῳ, ὥσπερ περὶ τέλμα μύρμηκας ἢ βατράχους περὶ τὴν θάλασσαν οἰκοῦντας, καὶ ἄλλους ἄλλοθι πολλοὺς ἐν [πολλοῖς] τοιούτοις τόποις οἰκεῖν. Εἶναι γὰρ πανταχῇ περὶ τὴν γῆν πολλὰ κοῖλα καὶ παντοδαπὰ καὶ τὰς ἰδέας καὶ τὰ μεγέθη, εἰς ἃ συνερρυηκέναι τό τε ὕδωρ καὶ τὴν ὁμίχλην καὶ τὸν ἀέρα· αὐτὴν δὲ τὴν γῆν καθαρὰν ἐν καθαρῷ κεῖσθαι τῷ οὐρανῷ." Ὑπολαμβάνει τοίνυν ὁ Κέλσος τὰ περὶ τῆς ἄλλης γῆς κρείττονος καὶ πολλῷ ταύτης διαφερούσης εἰληφέναι ἡμᾶς ἀπό τινων νομιζομένων αὐτῷ θείων παλαιῶν ἀνδρῶν καὶ μάλιστα Πλάτωνος, τοῦ ἐν τῷ Φαίδωνι περὶ γῆς καθαρᾶς ἐν καθαρῷ κειμένης οὐρανῷ φιλοσοφήσαντος· οὐχ ὁρῶν ὅτι Μωϋσῆς, ὁ πολλῷ καὶ τῶν ἑλληνικῶν γραμμάτων ἀρχαιότερος, εἰσήγαγε τὸν θεὸν ἐπαγγελλόμενον τὴν ἁγίαν γῆν καὶ "ἀγαθὴν καὶ πολλήν, ῥέουσαν γάλα καὶ μέλι" τοῖς κατὰ τὸν νόμον ἑαυτοῦ βιώσασιν, οὐδ' ὡς οἴονταί τινες τὴν "ἀγαθήν", τὴν κάτω νομιζομένην Ἰουδαίαν, κειμένην καὶ αὐτὴν ἐν τῇ ἀρχῆθεν κατηραμένῃ ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις τῆς παραβάσεως τοῦ Ἀδὰμ γῇ. Τὸ γὰρ "ἐπικατάρατος ἡ γῆ ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις σου· ἐν λύπαις φαγῇ αὐτὴν πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς ζωῆς σου" περὶ ὅλης εἴρηται τῆς γῆς, ἣν "ἐν λύπαις", τουτέστι πόνοις, ἐσθίει πᾶς ἄνθρωπος "ἐν τῷ Ἀδὰμ" ἀποθανών, καὶ ἐσθίει "πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς" ἑαυτοῦ "ζωῆς". Καὶ ὡς "ἐπικατάρατος" πᾶσα ἡ γῆ "ἀκάνθας καὶ τριβόλους ἀνατελεῖ" "πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς ζωῆς" τοῦ "ἐν τῷ Ἀδὰμ" ἐκβληθέντος ἀπὸ τοῦ παραδείσου, καὶ "ἐν ἱδρῶτι τοῦ προσώπου" ἑαυτοῦ ἐσθίει πᾶς ἄνθρωπος τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ἄρτον, "ἕως ἐπιστρέψει εἰς τὴν γῆν, ἐξ ἧς ἐλήφθη". Πολὺν μὲν οὖν ἔχει λόγον ὅλα τὰ κατὰ τὸν τόπον τοῦτον, δυνάμενον εἰς τὴν σαφήνειαν τῶν λέξεων κατασκευασθῆναι· ὀλίγοις δ' ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος ἠρκέσθημεν, βουλόμενοι ἀπολῦσαι περισπασμοῦ, τοῦ ὡς περὶ τῆς Ἰουδαίας γῆς ὑπολαμβάνοντος εἰρῆσθαι τὰ περὶ ἀγαθῆς γῆς, ἣν ὁ θεὸς ὑπισχνεῖται τοῖς δικαίοις.