Who divided the earth among its overseers?
“And the laws must be kept,” he says, “not only because different people have come to think in different ways, and because what has been publicly ratified must be preserved, but also because, as is likely, the parts of the earth were allotted from the beginning to different overseers and, being divided into certain dominions, are administered in this way.” Then, as though he had forgotten what he said against the Jews, Celsus now includes them too in his general praise of all who keep their ancestral customs, saying: “And indeed what is done among each people would be done rightly when it is done in the way that pleases them.”
And see whether he does not plainly wish, as far as it rests with him, that the Jew who lives under his own laws should not depart from them, since he would be doing what is not holy if he departed. For he says that “it is not holy to abolish the customs established in each place from the beginning.”
On this I should like to ask him, or those who think as he does: who, then, was it who from the beginning distributed the parts of the earth to different overseers, and clearly also gave the land of the Jews, and the Jews themselves, to the one or the several who received it by lot? Was it, to use the name Celsus would give him, Zeus who gave the nation of the Jews and their land to someone, or to several, and did he will that the one who received Judaea should lay down such laws among the Jews? Or did this come about against his will? Whichever way he answers, you see that his argument will be hard pressed.
But if the parts of the earth were not distributed to their overseers by some one being, then each of them took a share of the earth haphazardly, as it happened, with no one presiding. Yet this too is absurd, and goes some way toward doing away with the providence of the God who is over all.
Greek
Καὶ χρὴ, φησὶ, τοὺς νόμους τηρεῖν, οὐ μόνον καθότι ἐπὶ νοῦν ἦλθεν ἄλλοις ἄλλως νομίσαι καὶ ὅτι δεῖ φυλάσσειν τὰ ἐς κοινὸν κεκυρωμένα, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅτι ὡς εἰκὸς τὰ μέρη τῆς γῆς ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἄλλα ἄλλοις ἐπόπταις νενεμημένα καὶ κατά τινας ἐπικρατείας διειλημμένα ταύτῃ καὶ διοικεῖται. εἶθ᾿ ὡσπερεὶ ἐπιλαθόμενος ὁ Κέλσος ὧν εἶπε κατὰ Ἰουδαίων, νῦν ἐν τῷ καθολικῷ περὶ πάντων τῶν τὰ πάτρια τηρούντων ἐπαίνῳ καὶ τούτους περιλαμβάνει λέγων· καὶ δὴ τὰ παρ᾿ ἑκάστοις ὀρθῶς ἂν πράττοιτο ταύτῃ δρώμενα, ὅπῃ ἐκείνοις φίλον. καὶ ὅρα εἰ μὴ ἄντικρυς τὸ ὅσον ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτῷ τὸν Ἰουδαῖον ἐν τοῖς ἰδίοις νόμοις βούλεται βιοῦντα μὴ ἀφίστασθαι αὐτῶν, ὡς οὐχ ὅσιον πράττοντα, ἐὰν ἀποστῇ· λέγει γὰρ ὅτι παραλύειν οὐχ ὅσιον εἶναι τὰ ἐξ ἀρχῆς κατὰ τόπους νενομισμένα. ἐβουλόμην δὲ πρὸς ταῦτα αὐτοῦ ἢ τῶν συμφρονούντων αὐτῷ πυθέσθαι, τίς ἄρα εἴη ὁ τὰ μέρη τῆς γῆς ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἄλλα ἄλλοις ἐπόπταις διανείμας καὶ δηλονότι τὴν Ἰουδαίων χώραν καὶ τοὺς Ἰουδαίους τῷ λαχόντι ἢ τοῖς λαχοῦσιν αὐτήν. ἆρα γὰρ. ὡς ὀνομάσαι ἂν ὁ Κέλσος, ὁ Ζεύς τινι ἤ τισι διένειμε τὸ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνος καὶ τὴν χώραν αὐτῶν καὶ ἐβούλετο τὸν λαχόντα τὴν Ἰουδαίαν τοιούτους θέσθαι ἐν Ἰουδαίοις νόμους; ἢ παρὰ τὸ βούλημα αὐτοῦ τὸ τοιοῦτον γεγένηται; ὡς δ᾿ ἂν ἀποκρίνηται. ὁρᾷς ὅτι ὁ λόγος στενοχωρηθήσεται. εἰ δὲ μὴ ἀπό τινος ἑνὸς διανενέμηται τὰ μέρη τῆς γῆς τοῖς ἐπόπταις αὐτῶν, ἄρα ἀποκληρωτικῶς καὶ χωρὶς ἐπιστάτου ἕκαστος ὡς ἔτυχε διενείματο τὴν γῆν· ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτ᾿ ἄτοπον καὶ μετρίως τῆς τοῦ ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεοῦ προνοίας ἀναιρετικόν ἐστι.