Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Origen/Origen Against Celsus/Book VII/Chapter XXV

Chapter XXV.

Celsus then extracts from the Gospel the precept, &#8220;To him who strikes thee once, thou shalt offer thyself to be struck again,&#8221; although without giving any passage from the Old Testament which he considers opposed to it.&#160; On the one hand, we know that &#8220;it was said to them in old time, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth;&#8221; and on the other, we have read, &#8220;I say unto you, Whoever shall smite thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also.&#8221; &#160; But as there is reason to believe that Celsus produces the objections which he has heard from those who wish to make a difference between the God of the Gospel and the God of the law, we must say in reply, that this precept, &#8220;Whosoever shall strike thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other,&#8221; is not unknown in the older Scriptures.&#160; For thus, in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, it is said, &#8220;It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth:&#160; he sitteth alone, and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.&#160; He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him; he is filled full with reproach.&#8221; &#160; There is no discrepancy, then, between the God of the Gospel and the God of the law, even when we take literally the precept regarding the blow on the face.&#160; So, then, we infer that neither &#8220;Jesus nor Moses has taught falsely.&#8221;&#160; The Father in sending Jesus did not &#8220;forget the commands which He had given to Moses:&#8221;&#160; He did not &#8220;change His mind, condemn His own laws, and send by His messenger counter instructions.&#8221;