Chapter VII.

Having, moreover, assumed that the Jews consider the heaven to be God, he adds that this is absurd; finding fault with those who bow down to the heaven, but not also to the sun, and moon, and stars, saying that the Jews do this, as if it were possible that “the whole” should be God, and its several parts not divine.  And he seems to call the heaven “a whole,” and sun, moon, and stars its several parts.  Now, certainly neither Jews nor Christians call the “heaven” God.  Let it be granted, however, that, as he alleges, the heaven is called God by the Jews, and suppose that sun, moon, and stars are parts of “heaven,”—which is by no means true, for neither are the animals and plants upon the earth any portion of it,—how is it true, even according to the opinions of the Greeks, that if God be a whole, His parts also are divine?  Certainly they say that the Cosmos taken as the whole1013    τὸ ὅλον ὁ κόσμος. is God, the Stoics calling it the First God, the followers of Plato the Second, and some of them the Third.  According to these philosophers, then, seeing the whole Cosmos is God, its parts also are divine; so that not only are human beings divine, but the whole of the irrational creation, as being “portions” of the Cosmos; and besides these, the plants also are divine.  And if the rivers, and mountains, and seas are portions of the Cosmos, then, since the whole Cosmos is God, are the rivers and seas also gods?  But even this the Greeks will not assert.  Those, however, who preside over rivers and seas (either demons or gods, as they call them), they would term gods.  Now from this it follows that the general statement of Celsus, even according to the Greeks, who hold the doctrine of Providence, is false, that if any “whole” be a god, its parts necessarily are divine.  But it follows from the doctrine of Celsus, that if the Cosmos be God, all that is in it is divine, being parts of the Cosmos.  Now, according to this view, animals, as flies, and gnats, and worms, and every species of serpent, as well as of birds and fishes, will be divine,—an assertion which would not be made even by those who maintain that the Cosmos is God.  But the Jews, who live according to the law of Moses, although they may not know how to receive the secret meaning of the law, which is conveyed in obscure language, will not maintain that either the heaven or the angels are God.

Ἀλλὰ καὶ ἑαυτῷ λαβών, ὡς ἄρα θεὸν νομίζουσι τὸν οὐρανὸν Ἰουδαῖοι, τούτῳ ὡς ἄτοπον ἐπιφέρει, ἐγκαλῶν τοῖς προσκυνοῦσι μὲν τὸν οὐρανὸν οὐχὶ δὲ καὶ τὸν ἥλιον καὶ τὴν σελήνην καὶ τοὺς ἀστέρας, ὅτι τοῦτο ποιοῦσιν Ἰουδαῖοι ὡς ἐνδεχόμενον τὸ μὲν ὅλον εἶναι [θεόν], τὰ μέρη δ' αὐτοῦ μὴ θεῖα· καὶ ὅλον μὲν ἔοικε λέγειν τὸν οὐρανὸν μέρη δ' αὐτοῦ ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ ἀστέρας. Οὐ λέγουσι μὲν οὖν σαφῶς οὔτε Ἰουδαῖοι οὔτε Χριστιανοὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν θεόν. Ἀλλὰ δεδόσθω κατ' αὐτὸν λέγεσθαι ὑπὸ Ἰουδαίων θεὸν εἶναι τὸν οὐρανόν, ἔστω δὲ καὶ μέρη τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἥλιος καὶ σελήνη καὶ ἀστέρες–ὅπερ οὐ πάντως ἐστὶν ἀληθές, οὐδὲ γὰρ τὰ ἐπὶ γῆς ζῷα καὶ φυτὰ μέρη γῆς–· πόθεν δὴ καὶ καθ' Ἕλληνας ἀληθὲς ὅτι, ἐὰν ὅλον τι θεὸς ᾖ, ἤδη καὶ τὰ μέρη αὐτοῦ ἐστι θεῖα; Σαφῶς δὴ τὸν ὅλον κόσμον λέγουσιν εἶναι θεόν, Στωϊκοὶ μὲν τὸν πρῶτον οἱ δ' ἀπὸ Πλάτωνος τὸν δεύτερον τινὲς δ' αὐτῶν τὸν τρίτον. Ἆρ' οὖν κατὰ τοὺς τοιούτους, ἐπεὶ τὸ ὅλον ὁ κόσμος θεός ἐστιν, ἤδη καὶ τὰ μέρη αὐτοῦ θεῖα· ὡς εἶναι θεῖα οὐ μόνον ἀνθρώπους ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντα τὰ ἄλογα ζῷα, μέρη ὄντα τοῦ κόσμου, πρὸς δὲ τούτοις καὶ τὰ φυτά; Εἰ δὲ μέρη τοῦ κόσμου καὶ τὰ ὄρη καὶ οἱ ποταμοὶ καὶ αἱ θάλασσαι, ἆρ' ἐπεὶ ὅλος ὁ κόσμος θεός ἐστιν, ἤδη καὶ οἱ ποταμοὶ καὶ αἱ θάλασσαι θεοί εἰσιν; Ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τοῦτο φήσουσιν Ἕλληνες· τοὺς δ' ἐπιστατοῦντας εἰ ἄρα δαίμονας –ἢ θεούς, ὡς ἐκεῖνοι ὀνομάζουσι–ποταμοῖς καὶ θαλάσσαις, τούτους ἂν λέγοιεν θεούς· καὶ τὸ καθολικὸν Κέλσου γίνεται καὶ καθ' Ἕλληνας, τοὺς τὴν πρόνοιαν εἰσάγοντας, ψεῦδος, ὅτι ἐάν τι ὅλον ᾖ θεός, πάντως τὰ μέρη τούτου ἐστὶ θεῖα. Ἀκολουθεῖ δὲ τῷ Κέλσου λόγῳ, ἐὰν θεὸς ᾖ ὁ κόσμος, πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ εἶναι θεῖα, μέρη ὄντα τοῦ κόσμου. Καὶ κατὰ τοῦτο θεῖα ἔσται ζῷα μυῖαι καὶ σκνίφες καὶ σκώληκες καὶ πᾶν τὸ τῶν ὄφεων εἶδος ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ τῶν ὀρνέων καὶ τὸ τῶν ἰχθύων· ἅπερ οὐδ' οἱ λέγοντες θεὸν εἶναι τὸν κόσμον φήσουσιν. Οἱ [δὲ] κατὰ τὸν τοῦ Μωϋσέως νόμον βιοῦντες Ἰουδαῖοι, κἂν μηδὲν εἰδῶσιν ἐκδέχεσθαι κεκρυμμένως εἰρημένον τοῦ νόμου βούλημα καὶ ἀπόρρητόν τι ἐμφαῖνον, οὔτε τὸν οὐρανὸν φήσουσιν εἶναι θεὸν οὔτε τοὺς ἀγγέλους.