Chapter XXXII.

The supposed great learning of Celsus, which is composed, however, rather of curious trifles and silly talk than anything else, has made us touch upon these topics, from a wish to show to every one who peruses his treatise and our reply, that we have no lack of information on those subjects, from which he takes occasion to calumniate the Christians, who neither are acquainted with, nor concern themselves about, such matters.  For we, too, desired both to learn and set forth these things, in order that sorcerers might not, under pretext of knowing more than we, delude those who are easily carried away by the glitter1376    φαντασίας. of names.  And I could have given many more illustrations to show that we are acquainted with the opinions of these deluders,1377    ἀπατεώνων. and that we disown them, as being alien to ours, and impious, and not in harmony with the doctrines of true Christians, of which we are ready to make confession even to the death.  It must be noticed, too, that those who have drawn up this array of fictions, have, from neither understanding magic, nor discriminating the meaning of holy Scripture, thrown everything into confusion; seeing that they have borrowed from magic the names of Ialdabaoth, and Astaphæus, and Horæus, and from the Hebrew Scriptures him who is termed in Hebrew Iao or Jah, and Sabaoth, and Adonæus, and Eloæus.  Now the names taken from the Scriptures are names of one and the same God; which, not being understood by the enemies of God, as even themselves acknowledge, led to their imagining that Iao was a different God, and Sabaoth another, and Adonæus, whom the Scriptures term Adonai, a third besides, and that Eloæus, whom the prophets name in Hebrew Eloi, was also different

Ἐπὶ ταῦτα δὲ ἡμᾶς ἡ Κέλσου νομιζομένη μὲν πολυμά θεια, μᾶλλον δ' οὖσα περιεργία καὶ φλυαρία, προεκαλέσατο βουλομένους παραστῆσαι τῷ ἐντυχόντι τῇ ἐκείνου γραφῇ καὶ τοῖς ἡμῖν πρὸς αὐτὴν γεγραμμένοις ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἀπορία ἡμῖν τῶν Κέλσου μαθημάτων, ἐφ' οἷς καταψεύδεται Χριστιανῶν, οὔτε φρονούντων οὔτ' εἰδότων τὰ τοιαῦτα, εἰ καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐβουλήθημεν καὶ ταῦτα γνῶναι καὶ ἐκθέσθαι· ἵνα μὴ τῇ ἐπαγγελίᾳ τοῦ εἰδέναι τι πλεῖον ἡμῶν οἱ γόητες ἐξαπατῶσι τοὺς ὑπὸ τῆς τῶν ὀνομάτων φαντασίας συναρπα ζομένους. Ἐδυνάμην δὲ καὶ ἄλλα πλείονα παραθέμενος παραστῆσαι ὅτι ἴσμεν μὲν τὰ τῶν ἀπατεώνων, ἀρνούμεθα δὲ αὐτὰ ὡς ἀλλότρια καὶ ἀσεβῆ καὶ οὐ συνυπάρχοντα τοῖς μέχρι θανάτου ὑφ' ἡμῶν ὁμολογουμένοις ἀληθῶς Χριστιανῶν λόγοις. Χρὴ μέντοι εἰδέναι ὅτι οἱ ταῦτα συνταξάμενοι, οὔτε τὰ μαγείας νοήσαντες οὔτε τὰ τῶν θείων γραφῶν διακρίναντες, πάντ' ἔφυραν· ἀπὸ μὲν μαγείας τὸν Ἰαλδαβαὼθ [λαβόντες] καὶ τὸν Ἀσταφαιὸν καὶ τὸν Ὡραῖον, ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν ἑβραϊκῶν γραφῶν τὸν Ἰαὼ ἢ Ἰὰ παρ' Ἑβραίοις ὀνομαζόμενον καὶ τὸν Σαβαὼθ καὶ τὸν Ἀδωναῖον καὶ τὸν Ἐλωαῖον. Τὰ δὲ ἀπὸτῶν γραφῶν ληφθέντα ὀνόματα ἐπώνυμά ἐστι τοῦ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἑνὸς θεοῦ· ὅπερ μὴ συνέντες οἱ ἐχθροὶ θεῷ, ὡς καὶ αὐτοὶ ὁμολογοῦσιν, ᾠήθησαν ἄλλον μὲν εἶναι τὸν Ἰαὼ ἕτερον δὲ τὸν Σαβαὼθ καὶ τρίτον παρὰ τοῦτον τὸν Ἀδωναῖον, ὃν λέγουσιν αἱ γραφαὶ Ἀδωναΐ, καὶ ἄλλον τὸν Ἐλωαῖον, ὃν οἱ προφῆται ὀνομάζουσιν ἑβραϊστὶ Ἐλωαΐ.