The Spirit has left the Jews, but traces remain

I do not know why Celsus, after saying “the things spoken by those in Judaea after their fashion,” added “or not spoken,” claiming, as an unbeliever would, that these things may never have been spoken at all, and that perhaps things never spoken were written down. For he did not look at the dates, nor the fact that many years beforehand the prophets foretold countless things and spoke also of the coming of Christ.

Again, wishing to slander the ancient prophets, he says that they prophesied in the way “that those around Phoenicia and Palestine,” he says, “are still accustomed to do even now.” He does not make clear whether he means people who are strangers to the teaching of the Jews and Christians, or people who prophesy in the Jewish way, after the pattern of the prophets. But however his words are taken, they are shown to be false. For neither have any of those outside the faith done anything like what the prophets did, nor is anyone recorded as having prophesied among the Jews in later times, after the coming of Jesus. For it is acknowledged that the Holy Spirit has left them, because they acted impiously toward God and toward the one whom their own prophets foretold.

Signs of the Holy Spirit were shown at the beginning of Jesus’ teaching, and more after his ascension, but fewer later. Yet even now traces of the Spirit remain among a few, whose souls have been cleansed by the Word and by actions done in keeping with the Word. “For the holy Spirit of discipline will flee from deceit, and will rise and depart from senseless thoughts” (Wisdom of Solomon 1:5).