Ants, burdens and the image of God
Having spoken of the bees, in order to belittle, as far as he can, the cities, constitutions, offices and governments, and the wars for the fatherland, not of us Christians only but of all men, Celsus next goes on to set out a eulogy of ants. His aim is that by praising them he may overthrow, through his comparison with ants, men’s careful management of their food, and cast down their forethought in providing for winter as having nothing more in it than the irrational foresight he supposes ants to have.
Which of the simpler sort of people, who do not know how to look into the nature of all things, would Celsus not turn aside, as far as he can, from helping those weighed down by burdens and sharing their toils, when he says of ants that “whenever they see one of them tiring, they take up one another’s loads”? For a man who needs the training that comes through reason, and has no understanding of it, will say: “Since, then, we differ in nothing from ants even when we help those who are worn out from carrying very heavy loads, why should we do such a thing to no purpose?”
Ants, being irrational animals, would not be lifted up to think highly of themselves because their works are compared with those of men. But men, who through reason are able to hear how their fellow-feeling is being belittled, would be harmed, as far as it rests with Celsus and his words. He did not see that, in wishing to turn the readers of his book away from Christianity, he also discourages the compassion that even those who are not Christians feel toward people carrying the heaviest of loads. If he had been a philosopher with even some sense of human fellowship, he ought not only to have refrained from destroying, along with Christianity, what is useful among men, but also, if it were possible, to have lent his support to the good things that Christianity holds in common with other men.
And if ants also remove the sprouting parts of the grain they store up, so that it does not swell but lasts them through the year as food, we must not suppose that reasoning in the ants is the cause of this, but nature, the mother of all, which has ordered even irrational creatures, so as to leave not even the smallest thing without some trace of the reason that comes from nature.
Unless, perhaps, Celsus covertly means by this (for in many things he wants to follow Plato) that every soul is of the same kind, and that the soul of a man differs in nothing from that of ants and bees. This is the view of one who brings the soul down from the vault of heaven not into the human body alone, but into the other bodies as well. Christians will not be persuaded by this. They have already learned that the human soul was made “in the image” of God (Genesis 1:27), and they see that it is impossible for a nature fashioned “in the image” of God to wipe out its features entirely and take on others, made after the images of who knows what among the irrational creatures.
Greek
Εἰπὼν δ᾿ ὁ Κέλσος περὶ τῶν μελισσῶν, ἵνα τὸ ὅσον ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτῷ ἐξευτελίσῃ ἡμῶν οὐ Χριστιανῶν μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντων ἀνθρώπων τὰς πόλεις καὶ τὰς πολιτείας καὶ τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰς ἡγεμονίας καὶ τοὺς ὑπὲρ τῶν πατρίδων πολέμους, ἑξῆς ἐπιφέρει διεξιὼν μυρμήκων ἐγκώμιον· ὅπως τῷ περὶ ἐκείνων ἐγκωμίῳ τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων περὶ τὴν τροφὴν οἰκονομικὸν καταβάλῃ τῷ λόγῳ (τῷ) πρὸς τοὺς μύρμηκας καὶ τὸ τῶν χειμαδίων προνοητικὸν καταῤῥίψῃ ὡς οὐδὲν πλέον ἔχον τῆς ἀλόγου τῶν μυρμήκων ἐν οἷς ἐκεῖνος νομίζει προνοίας. τίνα δ᾿ οὐκ ἂν τῶν ἁπλουστέρων ἀνθρώπων καὶ οὐκ ἐπισταμένων ἐνορᾶν τῇ φύσει πάντων πραγμάτων ἀποτρέψαι τὸ ὅσον ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτῷ ὁ Κέλσος ἀπὸ τοῦ (τοῖς) βαρουμένοις ὑπὸ φορτίων βοηθεῖν καὶ κοινωνεῖν ἐκείνοις τῶν καμάτων, λέγων περὶ μυρμήκων ὡς ἂν ἀλλήλοις τῶν φορτίων, ἐπειδάν τινα κάμνοντα ἴδωσιν, ἐπιλαμβάνωνται; ἐρεῖ γὰρ ὁ δεόμενος τῆς διὰ λόγου παιδεύσεως καὶ μηδαμῶς ἐπαΐων αὐτῆς· ἐπεὶ τοίνυν μηδὲν διαφέρομεν μυρμήκων, καὶ ὅτε τοῖς κάμνουσι διὰ τὸ φέρειν βαρύτατα φορτία βοηθοῦμεν, τί μάτην τὸ τοιοῦτον ποιοῦμεν; καὶ οἱ μὲν μύρμηκες, ἅτε ἄλογα ζῷα τυγχάνοντες, οὐκ ἂν ἐπαρθεῖεν πρὸς τὸ μέγα φρονῆσαι διὰ τὸ παραβάλλεσθαι ἀνθρώποις τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν· οἱ δ᾿ ἄνθρωποι διὰ τὸν λόγον ἀκοῦσαι δυνηθέντες, τίνα τρόπον εὐτε λίζεται αὐτῶν τὸ κοινωνικὸν. βλαβεῖεν ἂν τὸ ὅσον ἐπὶ τῷ Κέλσῳ καὶ τοῖς λόγοις αὐτοῦ, οὐκ ἰδόντι ὅτι χριστιανισμοῦ ἀποτρέψαι θέλων τοὺς ἐντυγχάνοντας αὐτοῦ τῇ γραφῇ ἀποτρέπει καὶ τῶν οὐ Χριστιανῶν τὸ πρὸς τοὺς φέροντας τὰ βαρύτατα τῶν φορτίων συμπαθές. ἐχρῆν δ᾿ αὐτὸν, εἴπερ ην κἂν φιλόσοφος αἰσθανόμενος τοῦ κοινωνικοῦ, πρὸς τῷ (μὴ) συναναιρεῖν τῷ χριστιανισμῷ τὰ χρήσιμα τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις καὶ συνεργεῖν, εἰ οἷόν τ᾿ ἦν, τοῖς κοινοῖς ἐν χριστιανισμῷ πρὸς τοὺς ἄλλους ἀνθρώπους καλοῖς. εἰ δὲ καὶ τῶν ἀποτιθεμένων καρπῶν τὰς ἐκφύσεις ἀπεκτιθέασιν οἱ μύρμηκες, ἵνα μὴ σπαργῷεν. μένοιεν δὲ δι᾿ ἔτους αὐτοῖς εἰς τροφὴν, οὐ λογισμὸν εἶναι ἐν μύρμηξι τούτων αἴτιον ὑπονοητέον ἀλλὰ τὴν παμμήτορα φύσιν, καὶ τὰ ἄλογα κοσμήσασαν, ὡς μηδὲ τοὐλάχιστον καταλιπεῖν, μηδαμῶς φέρον ἴχνος τοῦ ἀπὸ τῆς φύσεως λόγου. εἰ μὴ ἄρα διὰ τούτων λεληθότως βούλεται ὁ Κέλσος (καὶ γὰρ ἐν πολλοῖς Πλατωνίζειν θέλει) ὁμοειδῆ εἶναι πᾶσαν ψυχὴν, καὶ μηδὲν διαφέρειν τὴν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τῆς τῶν μυρμήκων καὶ τῶν μελισσῶν· ὅπερ κατάγοντός ἐστι τὴν ψυχὴν ἀπὸ τῶν ἁψίδων τοῦ οὐρανοῦ οὐκ ἐπὶ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον σῶμα μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ λοιπά. τούτοις δ᾿ οὐ πείσονται Χριστιανοὶ. προκατειληφότες τὸ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ γεγονέναι θεοῦ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ψυχὴν καὶ ὁρῶντες ὅτι ἀμήχανόν ἐστι τὴν „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ θεοῦ δεδημιουργημένην φύσιν πάντῃ ἀπαλεῖψαι τοὺς χαρακτῆρας αὐτῆς καὶ ἄλλους ἀναλαβεῖν οὐκ οἶδα κατ᾿ εἰκόνας τίνων γεγενημένους ἐν τοῖς ἀλόγοις.