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Translated from the Greek original by Frederick Crombie.
Origen Resources OnLine & in Print
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128 Pages
Page 105
Perhaps you will say, in a spirit of incredulity, that he is talking folly, and speaking to no purpose, for his words will have no fulfilment; or, being in doubt about assenting to his words, you will say, that if these predictions be fulfilled, and the doctrine of Jesus be established, so that governors and kings think of destroying those who acknowledge Jesus, then we shall believe that he utters these prophecies as one who has received great power from God to implant this doctrine among the human race, and as believing that it will prevail. And who will not be filled with wonder, when he goes back in thought to Him who then taught and said, "This Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles," [3261] and beholds, agreeably to His words, the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached in the whole world under heaven to Greeks and Barbarians, wise and foolish alike? For the word, spoken with power, has gained the mastery over men of all sorts of nature, and it is impossible to see any race of men which has escaped accepting the teaching of Jesus. But let this Jew of Celsus, who does not believe that He foreknew all that happened to Him, consider how, while Jerusalem was still standing, and the whole Jewish worship celebrated in it, Jesus foretold what would befall it from the hand of the Romans. For they will not maintain that the acquaintances and pupils of Jesus Himself handed down His teaching contained in the Gospels without committing it to writing, and left His disciples without the memoirs of Jesus contained in their works. [3262] Now in these it is recorded, that "when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed about with armies, then shall ye know that the desolation thereof is nigh." [3263] But at that time there were no armies around Jerusalem, encompassing and enclosing and besieging it; for the siege began in the reign of Nero, and lasted till the government of Vespasian, whose son Titus destroyed Jerusalem, on account, as Josephus says, of James the Just, the brother of Jesus who was called Christ, but in reality, as the truth makes clear, on account of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
[3261] Matt. xxiv. 14.
[3262] ["Celsus quotes the writings of the disciples of Jesus concerning His life, as possessing unquestioned authority; and that these were the four canonical Gospels is proved both by the absence of all evidence to the contrary, and by the special facts which he brings forward. And not only this, but both Celsus and Porphyry appear to have been acquainted with the Pauline Epistles" (Westcott's History of the Canon of the New Testament, pp. 464, 465, 137, 138, 401, 402). See also infra, cap. lxxiv. S.]
[3263] [Luke xxi. 20. S.]
Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/against-celsus.asp?pg=105
