Chapter LXXVI.

And he produces a second illustration to our disadvantage, saying that “our teacher acts like a drunken man, who, entering a company of drunkards, should accuse those who are sober of being drunk.”  But let him show, say from the writings of Paul, that the apostle of Jesus gave way to drunkenness, and that his words were not those of soberness; or from the writings of John, that his thoughts do not breathe a spirit of temperance and of freedom from the intoxication of evil.  No one, then, who is of sound mind, and teaches the doctrines of Christianity, gets drunk with wine; but Celsus utters these calumnies against us in a spirit very unlike that of a philosopher.  Moreover, let Celsus say who those “sober” persons are whom the ambassadors of Christianity accuse.  For in our judgment all are intoxicated who address themselves to inanimate objects as to God.  And why do I say “intoxicated?”  “Insane” would be the more appropriate word for those who hasten to temples and worship images or animals as divinities.  And they too are not less insane who think that images, fashioned by men of worthless and sometimes most wicked character, confer any honour upon genuine divinities.601    [See vol. iii. Elucidation I. p. 76, this series; and as against the insanity of the Deutero-Nicene Council (a.d. 787) note this prophetic protest.  Condemned at Frankfort (a.d. 794) by Anglicans and Gallicans.  See Sir W. Palmer, Treatise on the Church, part iv. 10, sect. 4.  The Council of Frankfort is the pivot of history as to the division between East and West, the rise of Gallicanism, and of the Anglican Reformation.]

Καὶ δεύτερον δὲ φέρει καθ' ἡμῶν παράδειγμα φάσκων ὅμοιον ποιεῖν τὸν ἐν ἡμῖν διδάσκαλον, [ὡς] εἴ τις μεθύων εἰς μεθύοντας παριὼν κακηγορεῖ τοὺς νήφοντας ὡς μεθύοντας. Παραστησάτω γὰρ ἐκ τῶν γραμμάτων, φέρ' εἰπεῖν, Παύλου ὅτι ἐμέθυεν ὁ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἀπόστολος καὶ οὐκ ἦσαν οἱ λόγοι αὐτοῦ νήφοντες, ἢ ἐξ ὧν ἔγραψεν Ἰωάννης ὅτι οὐχὶ σωφρο νοῦντος καὶ ἀπηλλαγμένου τῆς ἀπὸ κακίας μέθης πνεῖ αὐτοῦ τὰ νοήματα. Οὐδεὶς οὖν σωφρονῶν καὶ διδάσκων τὸν Χριστιανῶν λόγον μεθύει, ἀλλ' ἀφιλοσόφως ἡμῖν λοιδορού μενος ταῦτά φησιν ὁ Κέλσος. Τίνας δὲ καὶ νήφοντας κακηγο ροῦμεν οἱ πρεσβεύοντες τὰ Χριστιανῶν δόγματα, λεγέτω ὁ Κέλσος. Πάντες γὰρ καθ' ἡμᾶς μεθύουσιν οἱ τοῖς ἀψύχοις ὡς θεῷ προσλαλοῦντες. Καὶ τί λέγω μεθύουσι; Μᾶλλον γὰρ μεμήνασιν, εἰς τοὺς νεὼς σπεύδοντες καὶ ὡς θεοῖς τοῖς ἀγάλμασιν ἢ τοῖς ζῴοις προσκυνοῦντες. Οὐχ ἧττον δὲ τούτων μαίνονται καὶ οἱ νομίζοντες εἰς τιμὴν θεῶν ἀληθινῶν κατεσκευάσθαι τὰ ὑπὸ βαναύσων καὶ φαυλοτάτων ἔσθ' ὅτε ἀνδρῶν κατασκευαζόμενα.