The virgin birth and the Greeks’ own stories
It seems to me, then, that a fair case has been made, not only that our Saviour was to be born of a virgin, but also that there were prophets among the Jews. They foretold not only general things about the future, such as those concerning Christ, the kingdoms of the world, what would befall Israel, the nations that would believe in the Saviour, and many other things said about him, but also particular things: how the lost asses of Kish would be found (1 Samuel 9:3–20), the illness from which the son of the king of Israel was suffering (1 Kings 14:1–13), or anything else of the kind on record.
Further, to Greeks who refuse to believe in the birth of Jesus from a virgin, this must be said. In the generation of the various living creatures the Creator showed that, if he willed, he could do in other creatures, and in human beings themselves, what he does in a single kind of creature. Some female creatures are found that have no union with a male, as writers on animals say of vultures; this creature keeps up the succession of its kind without mating. What is so extraordinary, then, if God, wishing to send a divine teacher to the human race, caused the formative principle of the child to be born to come about in another way, instead of through the seminal principle that comes from the union of men with women?
And even by the account of the Greeks themselves, not all human beings were born of a man and a woman. For if the world had a beginning, as many of the Greeks also held, the first human beings must have come into being not from intercourse but from the earth, when seminal principles took form in the earth. And this, I think, is more extraordinary than that Jesus should have been born half in the same way as the rest of humankind.
There is nothing out of place in using Greek stories too in answering Greeks, so that we may not seem to be the only ones to make use of this extraordinary story. For some have seen fit to record, not only about ancient and heroic tales but also about people of yesterday and the day before, that it was possible that Plato too was born of Amphictione, Ariston being prevented from having union with her until she had given birth to the child begotten by Apollo. But these are truly myths, and they moved people to invent such a story about a man whom they thought to have greater wisdom and power than most, and to have received the first formation of his body from higher and more divine seed, since this befits those who are greater than human.
But since Celsus has brought in his Jew arguing with Jesus and ridiculing what Celsus takes to be the pretence of his birth from a virgin, and adducing the Greek myths about Danae, Melanippe, Auge and Antiope, it must be said that such words befitted a buffoon, not a man in earnest about what he reports.
Greek
Δοκεῖ μοι οὖν μετρίως κατεσκευάσθαι οὐ μόνον ὅτι γεννηθήσεται ἐκ παρθένου ὁ σωτὴρ ἡμῶν ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι καὶ προφῆται ἦσαν ἐν Ἰουδαίοις, προλέγοντες οὐ μόνον τὰ καθολικὰ περὶ μελλόντων, ὡς τὰ περὶ Χριστοῦ καὶ τὰ περὶ βασιλειῶν κοσμικῶν καὶ περὶ τῶν συμβησομένων τῷ Ἰσραὴλ καὶ περὶ τῶν πιστευόντων τῷ σωτῆρι ἐθνῶν καὶ πολλῶν ἄλλων τῶν περὶ αὐτοῦ λεχθέντων, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ καθ᾿ ἕνα, ὡς περὶ τῶν ὄνων Κὶς ἀπολομένων, πῶς εὑρεθήσονται, καὶ περὶ τῆς νόσου, ἧς ἐνόσησεν ὁ τοῦ βασιλέως Ἰσραὴλ υἱὸς, ἢ εἴ τι ἄλλο ἀναγέγραπται τοιοῦτον. ἔτι δὲ πρὸς Ἕλληνας λεκτέον, ἀπειθοῦντας τῇ ἐκ παρθένου γενέσει τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, ὅτι ὁ δημιουργὸς ἐν τῇ τῶν ποικίλων ζῴων γενέσει ἔδειξεν ὅτι ἦν αὐτῷ βουληθέντι δυνατὸν ποιῆσαι ὅπερ ἐφ᾿ ἑνὸς ζῴου καὶ ἐπ᾿ ἄλλων καὶ ἐπ᾿ αὐτῶν τῶν ἀνθρώπων. εὑρίσκεται δέ τινα τῶν ζῴων θήλεα, μὴ ἔχοντα ἄῤῥενος κοινωνίαν. ὡς οἱ περὶ ζῴων ἀναγράψαντες λέγουσι περὶ γυπῶν· καὶ τοῦτο τὸ ζῷον χωρὶς μίξεως σῴζει τὴν διαδοχὴν τῶν γενῶν. τί οὖν παράδοξον, εἰ βουληθεὶς ὁ θεὸς θεῖόν τινα διδάσκαλον πέμψαι τῷ γένει τῶν ἀνθρώπων πεποίηκεν ἀντὶ σπερματικοῦ λόγου, τοῦ· ἐκ μίξεως τῶν ἀῤῥένων ταῖς γυναιξὶ, [ποιῆσαι] ἄλλῳ τρόπῳ γενέσθαι τὸν λόγον τοῦ τεχθησομένου: καὶ κατ᾿ αὐτοὺς δὲ τοὺς Ἕλληνας οὐ πάντες ἄνθρωποι ἐξ ἀνδρὸς καὶ γυναικὸς ἐγένοντο. εἰ γὰρ γενητός ἐστιν ὁ κόσμος, ὡς καὶ πολλοῖς Ἑλλήνων ἤρεσεν, ἀνάγκη τοὺς πρώτους μὴ ἐκ συνουσίας γεγονέναι ἀλλ᾿ ἀπὸ γῆς, σπερματικῶν λόγων συστάντων ἐν τῇ γῇ· ὅπερ οἶμαι παραδοξότερον εἶναι τοῦ ἐξ ἡμίσους ὁμοίως τοῖς λοιποῖς ἀνθρώποις γενέσθαι τὸν Ἰησοῦν. οὐδὲν δ᾿ ἄτοπον πρὸς Ἕλληνας καὶ Ἑλληνικαῖς ἱστορίαις χρήσασθαι, ἵνα μὴ δοκῶμεν μόνοι τῇ παραδόξῳ ἱστορίᾳ ταύτῃ κεχρῆσθαι. Ἔδοξε γάρ τισιν οὐ περὶ ἀρχαίων τινῶν ἱστοριῶν καὶ ἡρωϊκῶν ἀλλὰ καὶ περί τινων χθὲς καὶ πρώην γενομένων ἀναγράψαι ὡς δυνατὸν ὅτι καὶ Πλάτων ἀπὸ τῆς Ἀμφικτιόνης γέγονε, κωλυθέντος τοῦ Ἀρίστωνος αὐτῇ συνελθεῖν, ἕως ἀποκυήσει τὸν ἐξ Ἀπόλλωνος σπαρέντα. ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ἀληθῶς μῦθοι, κινήσαντες εἰς τὸ ἀναπλάσαι τοιοῦτό τι περὶ ἀνδρὸς, ὃν ἐνόμιζον μείζονα τῶν πολλῶν ἔχοντα σοφίαν καὶ δύναμιν καὶ ἀπὸ κρειττόνων καὶ θειοτέρων σπερμάτων τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς συστάσεως τοῦ σώματος εἰληφέναι, ὡς τοῦθ᾿ ἁρμόζον τοῖς μείζοσιν ἢ κατὰ ἄνθρωπον, ἐπεὶ δὲ τὸν Ἰουδαῖον ὁ Κέλσος εἰσήγαγε διαλεγόμενον τῷ Ἰησοῦ καὶ διασύροντα τὴν, ὡς οἴεται, προσποίησιν τῆς ἐκ παρθένου γενέσεως αὐτοῦ, φέροντα τοὺς Ἑλληνικοὺς μύθους περὶ Δανάης καὶ Μελανίππης καὶ Αὔγης καὶ Ἀντιόπης, λεκτέον ὅτι ταῦτα βωμολόχῳ ἔπρεπε τὰ ῥήματα καὶ οὐ σπουδάζοντι ἐν τῇ ἀπαγγελίᾳ.