The better land promised to the righteous
After what he says about God, in which he slanders us, he asks us where we expect to go, and what hope we have. And as though we had answered, he sets down supposed words of ours, which run: “To another land, better than this one.” To this he says: “Divine men of old have told of a happy life for happy souls. Some named it the Islands of the Blessed, others the Elysian Plain, from the release from the evils of this world, as Homer too says: ‘But the immortals will send you to the Elysian Plain and the ends of the earth, where life is easiest’ (Homer, Odyssey 4.563–565). And Plato, who holds the soul to be immortal, openly calls that region to which it is sent a ‘land,’ in these words: ‘that it is something very great, and that we who dwell from the Phasis to the Pillars of Heracles inhabit a small part of it, living around the sea like ants or frogs around a marsh, and that many others dwell elsewhere in many such places. For everywhere around the earth there are many hollows of every kind, in shape and in size, into which water, mist and air have flowed together; but the earth itself lies pure in the pure heaven’ (Plato, Phaedo 109a–c).”
Celsus supposes, then, that we have taken what we say about the other land, better than this one and far superior to it, from certain men whom he regards as divine men of old, and above all from Plato, who in the Phaedo discoursed as a philosopher about a pure earth lying in the pure heaven. He does not see that Moses, who is far older even than the writings of the Greeks, brought in God promising the holy land, “good and broad, flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8), to those who had lived according to his law; and not, as some think, promising as the “good” land the Judaea that is reckoned to be here below, which itself also lies within the earth that was cursed from the beginning in the works of Adam’s transgression.
For the words “Cursed is the earth in your works; in sorrows you shall eat of it all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:17) were spoken about the whole earth. Every man who has died “in Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:22) eats of it “in sorrows,” that is, in toils, and he eats of it “all the days of” his “life.” And because the whole earth is “cursed,” it “will bring forth thorns and thistles” (Genesis 3:18) “all the days of the life” of him who was cast out of paradise in Adam (Genesis 3:23–24); and every man eats his bread “in the sweat of” his “face, until he returns to the earth from which he was taken” (Genesis 3:19).
Everything in this passage calls for long discussion, which could be worked out to make its words clear. For the present we have been content with a few remarks, wishing to free from distraction anyone who supposes that what is said about the good land which God promises to the righteous was said about the land of Judaea.
Greek
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 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 „αὐτὸ, 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 συνεῤῥυηκέναι 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 πολλὴν, ῥέουσαν γάλα καὶ μέλι“ τοῖς κατὰ τὸν νόμον ἑαυτοῦ βιώσασιν, οὐδ᾿ ὡς οἴονταί τινες τὴν „ἀγαθὴν,“ 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“ ἀποθανὼν, 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.