Celsus’s claim to know everything
Then Celsus says, in these very words: “If they are willing to answer me, not as one who is testing them (for I know everything), but as one who cares for all alike, it would be well. But if they will not, and say, as they usually do, ‘Do not examine,’ and so on, then they must,” he says, “explain both what kind of things these are that they speak of, and from what source they have flowed,” and so on.
To his “for I know everything,” a most boastful thing for him to have ventured, we must reply this. If he had read above all the prophets, which are admittedly full of riddles and of words obscure to the many; if he had read the Gospel parables, the rest of the writing of the law and of Jewish history, and the sayings of the apostles; and if, having read them, he had been willing in good faith to enter into the meaning of the words, he would not have been so bold, nor said, “for I know everything.” Even we, who have spent long study on these writings, would not say “I know everything,” for we love the truth. None of us will say, “I know all of Epicurus,” or will dare to claim that he knows all of Plato, when there are so many disagreements even among those who expound them. For who is so bold as to say, “I know all the Stoic teaching,” or “all the Peripatetic”? Unless perhaps his “I know everything” comes from this: he heard from some ignorant and senseless people, who are unaware of their own lack of learning, and supposed that, having had such teachers, he had come to know everything.
He seems to me to have done something like this. Suppose someone visited Egypt, where the wise men of the Egyptians, following their ancestral writings, pursue much philosophy about what they hold to be divine, while the common people hear certain myths whose meaning they do not understand and pride themselves greatly on them; and suppose he thought he knew everything Egyptian, after becoming a pupil of their common people, without mixing with any of the priests or learning the secret teachings of the Egyptians from any of them. What I have said about the wise and the common people of the Egyptians can also be seen among the Persians. They have rites which their learned men honour with understanding, but which the many and more superficial among them perform symbolically. The same must be said of the Syrians and the Indians, and of all who have both myths and writings.
Greek
Εἶτ᾿ ἐπεί φησιν ὁ Κέλσος αὐταῖς λέξεσιν· εἰ μὲν δὴ θελήσουσιν ἀποκρίνεσθαί μοι, ὡς οὐ διαπειρωμένῳ (πάντα γὰρ οἶδα) ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ἐξ ἴσου πάντων κηδομένῳ, εὖ ἂν ἔχοι· εἰ δ᾿ οὐκ ἐθελήσουσιν ἀλλ᾿ ἐροῦσιν, ὥσπερ εἰώθασι, „μὴ ἐξέταζε“ καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς, ἀνάγκη αὐτοὺς ταῦτά τε, φησὶ, διδάξαι ὁποῖ᾿ ἄττα ἐστὶν, ἃ λέγουσι, καὶ ὁπόθεν ἐῤῥύηκε, καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς· λεκτέον δὲ πρὸς τὸ πάντα γὰρ οἶδα, ἀλαζονικώτατα ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἀποτετολμημένον, ὅτι, εἴπερ ἀνεγνώκει μάλιστα τοὺς προφήτας, ὁμολογουμένων αἰνιγμάτων πεπληρωμένους καὶ λόγων τοῖς πολλοῖς ἀσαφῶν, καὶ εἰ ἐντετεύχει ταῖς εὐαγγελικαῖς παραβολαῖς καὶ τῇ λοιπῇ (τοῦ) νόμου καὶ τῆς Ἰουδαϊκῆς ἱστορίας γραφῇ καὶ ταῖς τῶν ἀποστόλων φωναῖς, καὶ ἀναγνοὺς εὐγνωμόνως ἐβούλετο εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὸν τῶν λέξεων νοῦν, οὐκ ἂν οὕτως ἐθρασύνετο οὐδ᾿ εἶπε· πάντα γὰρ οἶδα. ὡς οὐδ᾿ ἡμεῖς οἱ τούτοις ἐνδιατρίψαντες εἴποιμεν ἄν· πάντα γὰρ οἶδα, φίλη γὰρ ἡ ἀλήθεια. οὐδεὶς ἡμῶν ἐρεῖ· πάντα γὰρ οἶδα τὰ Ἐπικούρου, ἢ θαῤῥήσει ὅτι πάντα οἶδε τὰ Πλάτωνος, τοσούτων οὐσῶν διαφωνιῶν καὶ παρὰ τοῖς διηγουμένοις αὐτά. τίς γὰρ οὕτω θρασὺς εἰπεῖν· πάντα γὰρ οἶδα τὰ Στωϊκὰ ἢ πάντα τὰ Περιπατητικά; εἰ μὴ ἄρα τὸ πάντα γὰρ οἶδα ἀπό τινων ἰδιωτῶν ἀναισθήτων ἀκούσας, οὐκ αἰσθανομένων τῆς ἑαυτῶν ἀμαθίας. ᾠήθη ὡς τοιούτοις διδασκάλοις χρησάμενος πάντα ἐγνωκέναι. δοκεῖ δέ μοι τοιοῦτόν τι πεποιηκέναι, ὡς εἴ τις τῇ Αἰγύπτῳ ἐπιδημήσας, ἔνθα οἱ μὲν Λἰγυπτίων σοφοὶ κατὰ τὰ πάτρια γράμματα πολλὰ φιλοσοφοῦσι περὶ τῶν παρ᾿ αὐτοῖς νενομισμένων θείων, οἱ δὲ ἰδιῶται μύθους τινὰς ἀκούοντες. ὧν τοὺς λόγους οὐκ ἐπίστανται, μέγα ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς φρονοῦσιν, ᾤετο πάντα τὰ Αἰγυπτίων ἐγνωκέναι, τοῖς ἰδιώταις αὐτῶν μαθητεύσας καὶ μηδενὶ τῶν ἱερέων συμμίξας μηδ᾿ ἀπό τινος αὐτῶν τὰ Αἰγυπτίων ἀπόῤῥητα μαθών. ἃ δ᾿ εἶπον περὶ Αἰγυπτίων σοφῶν τε καὶ ἰδιωτῶν δυνατὸν ἰδεῖν καὶ περὶ Περσῶν· παρ᾿ οἷς εἰσι τελεταὶ. πρεσβευόμεναι μὲν λογικῶς ὑπὸ τῶν παρ᾿ αὐτοῖς λογίων συμβολικῶς δὲ γινόμεναι ὑπὸ τῶν παρ᾿ αὐτοῖς πολλῶν καὶ ἐπιπολαιοτέρων. τὸ δ᾿ αὐτὸ καὶ περὶ Σύρων καὶ Ἰνδῶν καὶ τῶν ὅσοι καὶ μύθους καὶ γράμματα ἔχουσι λεκτέον.