Celsus attacks without order
After this he takes from the Gospel according to Matthew, and perhaps also from the other Gospels, the account of the dove that alighted on the Saviour when he was being baptized by John (Matthew 3:16), and wants to slander what is said as a fiction. Having ridiculed, as he supposed, the account of our Saviour's birth from a virgin, he does not set out what comes next in its order. For anger and hatred have nothing orderly about them; people who are angry and hostile abuse those they hate as things occur to them, since their passion does not allow them to state their charges with reflection and in order. If he had kept to the order, he would have taken up the Gospel and, having set himself to accuse it, would have attacked the first account and then gone on in turn to the second, and so to the rest. But as it is, Celsus, who professes to know everything about us, after the birth from a virgin brings charges against the Holy Spirit who appeared at the baptism in the form of a dove; then after this he slanders the prophecy of our Saviour's coming; and after that he runs back to what is recorded next after the birth of Jesus, the story of the star and of the magi who came from the east “to worship” the child (Matthew 2:1–2).
If you watch for it yourself, you could find many things said by Celsus in confusion throughout his whole book, so that by this too he may be convicted, before those who know how to keep order and to look for it, of having given his book the title True Doctrine with great rashness and boasting, a thing that none of the philosophers of repute did. For Plato says that it is not the part of a man of sense to insist firmly on such matters, and on others still more obscure (Plato, Phaedo 114d); and Chrysippus, after setting out in many places the reasons that moved him, sends us on to any we may find who will speak better than he. This man, then, wiser both than these and than the rest of the Greeks, in keeping with his claim to know everything, gave his book the title True Doctrine.
Greek
Ἑξῆς δὲ τούτοις ἀπὸ τοῦ κατὰ Ματθαῖον τάχα δὲ καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν εὐαγγελίων λαβὼν τὰ περὶ τῆς ἐπιπτάσης τῷ σωτῆρι βαπτιζομένῳ παρὰ τῷ Ἰωάννῃ περιστερᾶς διαβάλλειν βούλεται ὡς πλάσμα τὸ εἰρημένον. διασύρας δὲ, ὡς ᾤετο, τὴν περὶ τοῦ ἐκ παρθένου γεγεννῆσθαι τὸν σωτῆρα ἡμῶν ἱστορίαν οὐ τὰ ἑξῆς τῇ τάξει ἐκτίθεται, ἐπεὶ μηδὲν ἔχει τεταγμένον θυμὸς καὶ ἔχθρα, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸ ἐπελθὸν οἱ ὀργιζόμενοι καὶ οἱ ἐχθραΐζοντες κακηγοροῦσιν οὓς μισοῦσι, μὴ ἐπιτρεπόμενοι ἀπὸ τοῦ πάθους τεθεωρημένως καὶ κατὰ τάξιν λέγειν τὰς κατηγορίας. εἰ μὲν γὰρ τὴν τάξιν ἐτήρει, λαβὼν ἂν τὸ εὐαγγέλιον καὶ κατηγορεῖν αὐτοῦ προθέμενος τῆς πρώτης ἂν ἱστορίας κατειπὼν ἑξῆς ἐπὶ τὴν δευτέραν παρεγίνετο, καὶ οὕτως ἐπὶ τὰς λοιπάς· νυνὶ δὲ μετὰ τὴν ἐκ παρθένου γένεσιν ὁ πάντ᾿ εἰδέναι ἐπαγγειλάμενος Κέλσος τὰ ἡμέτερα κατηγορεῖ τοῦ παρὰ τῷ βαπτίσματι φανέντος ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς, εἶτα μετὰ τοῦτο διαβάλλει τὸ προφητεύεσθαι τὴν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἐπιδημίαν, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἀνατρέχει ἐπὶ τὸ ἑξῆς τῇ γενέσει τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἀναγεγραμμένον, τὸ περὶ τοῦ ἀστέρος διήγημα καὶ τῶν ἐληλυθότων ἀπὸ ἀνατολῆς μάγων „προσκυνῆσαι“ τῷ παιδίῳ. πολλὰ δ᾿ ἂν καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπιτηρῶν εὕροις συγκεχυμένως τῷ Κέλσῳ εἰρημένα δι᾿ ὅλης τῆς βίβλου· ἵνα καὶ διὰ τούτου ὑπὸ τῶν τάξιν ἐπισταμένων τηρεῖν καὶ ζητεῖν ἐλεγχθῇ μετὰ πολλῆς θρασύτητος καὶ ἀλαζονείας ἐπιγράψας ἀληθῆ λόγον τὴν βίβλον αὐτοῦ, ὅπερ τῶν ἐλλογίμων φιλοσόφων οὐδεὶς ἐποίησεν. ὁ μὲν γὰρ Πλάτων φησὶν οὐ κατὰ τὸν νοῦν ἒχοντα εἶναι τὸ διϊσχυρίζεσθαι περὶ τῶν τοιῶνδε καὶ ἀδηλοτέρων· ὁ δὲ Χρύσιππος πολλαχοῦ ἐκθέμενος τὰ κινήσαντα αὐτὸν ἀναπέμπει ἡμᾶς ἐφ᾿ οὓς ἂν εὕροιμεν κρεῖττον αὐτοῦ ἐροῦντας. οὗτος οὖν ὁ καὶ τούτων καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν Ἑλλήνων σοφώτερος ἀκολούθως τῷ φάσκειν πάντ᾿ εἰδέναι ἀληθῆ λόγον ἐπέγραψεν αὐτοῦ τὸ βιβλίον.