Why the child was taken to Egypt
After this, Celsus’s Jew goes on to say to Jesus: “Why did you also, while still an infant, have to be carried off to Egypt, so that you would not be slaughtered? For it was not likely that a god would be afraid of death. Yet an angel came from heaven ordering you and your family to flee, so that you would not be left behind and die (Matthew 2:13). Could the great God, who had already sent two angels on your account, not keep his own Son safe right there?”
In these words Celsus supposes that what is said of Jesus is not that there was something divine in a human body and soul, but that his body too was of the kind that the myths of Homer present. At any rate, mocking the blood of Jesus that was poured out on the cross, he says that it was not “ichor, such as flows in the blessed gods” (Homer, Iliad 5.340).
We, however, believe Jesus himself when he says of the divinity that was in him, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6), and whatever else is like this; and when he declares of his being in a human body, “But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth” (John 8:40). So we say that he became a composite being. And it was right that he who was taking thought for his own sojourn in this life as a man should not go out at the wrong time to meet a mortal danger. So too he had to be led by those who brought him up, who were guided by a divine angel. First the angel who gave the divine message said: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for what has been begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20); and a second time: “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him” (Matthew 2:13).
What is recorded in these passages does not seem to me at all extraordinary. For in both places of Scripture the angel is said to have spoken these words to Joseph in a dream (Matthew 1:20; 2:13); and to be shown in a dream to do this or that happens to many other people as well, whether it is an angel or some other being that brings images before the soul. What is absurd, then, in this: that he who had once become man should also be guided in a human way so as to avoid dangers? This was not because it was impossible for things to happen otherwise, but because what was possible had to be arranged, step by step and in due order, for the safety of Jesus.
And it was certainly better that the child Jesus should slip away from Herod’s plot and go abroad with those who were bringing him up “into Egypt” “until the death” of the one plotting against him (Matthew 2:14–15), than that the providence watching over Jesus should hinder the free choice of Herod, who wanted to kill the child; or that it should put about Jesus what the poets call the “cap of Hades” (Homer, Iliad 5.845), or something like it; or that it should strike those who came to kill him, as the men in Sodom were struck (Genesis 19:11). For help given to him in a wholly extraordinary and more conspicuous way would not have served his purpose: to teach that he, a man to whom God bore witness, had something more divine within the man who was seen. That more divine element was he who is Son of God in the proper sense, God the Word (John 1:1), the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24), the one called Christ.
But now is not the time to set out what concerns the composite being, and of what elements Jesus, who became man, was made up; for this is a question that is, if I may call it so, a family matter for believers.
Greek
Ἐπὶ δὲ τούτοις ἐξῆς ὁ Ἰουδαῖος πρὸς τὸν Ἰησοῦν παρὰ τῷ Κέλσῳ λέγει· τί δὲ καί σε νήπιον ἔτι ἐχρῆν εἰς Αἴγυπτον ἐκκομίζεσθαι, μὴ ἀποσφαγῇς; θεὸν γὰρ οὐκ εἰκὸς ἦν περὶ θανάτου δεδιέναι. ἀλλ᾿ ἄγγελος μὲν ἧκεν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, κελεύων σοι καὶ τοῖς σοῖς οἰκείοις φεύγειν, μὴ ἐγκαταλειφθέντες ἀποθάνητε. φυλάσσειν δέ σε αὐτόθι ὁ δύο ἤδη διὰ σὲ πεπομφὼς ἀγγέλους, ὁ μέγας θεὸς τὸν ἴδιον υἱὸν, οὐκ ἐδύνατο; οἴεται δ᾿ [ἡμᾶς] ἐν τούτοις ὁ Κέλσος μὴ θεῖόν τι εἶναι ἐν ἀνθρωπίνῳ σώματι καὶ ψυχῇ κατὰ τὸν Ἰησοῦν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ τοιοῦτον γεγονέναι, ὁποῖον Ὁμήρου μῦθοι εἰσάγουσι. παίζων γοῦν τὸ ἐπὶ τῷ σταυρῷ προχυθὲν αἷμα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ φησιν ὅτι οὐκ ἦν ἰχὼρ, οἷός περ τε ῥέει μακάρεσσι θεοῖσιν. ἡμεῖς δ᾿ αὐτῷ πιστεύοντες Ἰησοῦ περὶ μὲν τῆς ἐν αὐτῷ θειότητος λέγοντι· „ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωὴ,“ καὶ εἴ τι τούτοις παραπλήσιον, περὶ δὲ τοῦ. ὅτι ἐν ἀνθρωπίνῳ σώματι ἦν, ταῦτα φάσκοντι· „νῦν δὲ ζητεῖτέ με ἀποκτεῖναι, ἄνθρωπον, ὅστις τὴν ἀλήθειαν ὑμῖν λελάληκα,” σύνθετόν τι χρῆμά φαμεν αὐτὸν γεγονέναι. καὶ ἐχρῆν τὸν προνοούμενον τῆς ὡς ἀνθρώπου ἑαυτοῦ εἰς τὸν βίον ἐπιδημίας μὴ ἀκαίρως ὁμόσε χωρεῖν τῷ ἕως θανάτου κινδύνῳ. οὕτως δὲ ἔδει αὐτὸν καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνατρεφόντων ἄγεσθαι. ὑπὸ θείου ἀγγέλου οἰκονομουμένων· πρότερον μὲν λέγοντος τοῦ χρηματίζοντος· „Ἰωσὴφ υἱὸς Δαυὶδ, μὴ φοβηθῇς παραλαβεῖν Μαριὰμ τὴν γυναῖκά σου· τὸ γὰρ ἐν αὐτῇ γεννηθὲν ἐκ πνεύματος ἁγίου ἐστὶ,“ δεύτερον δέ· „ἐγερθεὶς παράλαβε τὸ παιδίον καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ, καί φεῦγε εἰς Αἴγυπτον, καὶ ἴσθι ἐκεῖ ἕως ἂν εἴπω σοι· μέλλει γὰρ Ἡρώσης ζητεῖν τὸ παιδίον τοῦ ἀπολέσαι αὐτό.“ ἐν τούτοις δ᾿ οὐδὲ πάνυ παράδοξόν μοι φαίνεται τὸ ἀναγεγραμμένον. ὄναρ γὰρ τῷ Ἰωσὴφ καθ᾿ ἑκάτερον τόπον τῆς γραφῆς λέγεται ἄγγελος ταῦτ᾿ εἰρηκέναι· τὸ δὲ ὄναρ δηλοῦσθαί τισι τάδε ποιεῖν καὶ ἄλλοις πλείοσι συμβαίνει, εἴτ᾿ ἀγγέλου εἴθ᾿ οὑτινοσοῦν φαντασιοῦντος τὴν ψυχήν. τί οὖν ἄτοπον τὸν ἅπαξ ἐνανθρωπήσαντα καὶ κατ᾿ ἀνθρωπίνην ἀγωγὴν οἰκονομεῖσθαι πρὸς τὸ ἐκκλίνειν κινδύνους, οὐ τῷ ἄλλως ἀδύνατον εἶναι τοιοῦτον γενέσθαι ἀλλὰ τῷ δεῖν τὸ ἐγχωροῦν ὁδῷ καὶ τάξει περὶ τῆς σωτηρίας τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ᾠκονομῆσθαι; καὶ βέλτιόν γε ἦν ὑπεκστῆναι τὸ παιδίον Ἰησοῦν τὴν Ἡρώδου ἐπιβουλὴν καὶ ἀποδημῆσαι μετὰ τῶν τρεφόντων αὐτὸ „εἰς Αἴγυπτον“ „ἕως τῆς τελευτῆς“ τοῦ ἐπιβουλεύοντος, ἢ τὴν περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ πρόνοιαν κωλύειν τὸ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν Ἡρώδου ἀναιρεῖν τὸ παιδίον θέλοντος ἢ τὴν λεγομένην παρὰ τοῖς ποιηταῖς „Ἄϊδος κυνέην“ ἤ τι παραπλήσιον ποιεῖν εἶναι περὶ τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἢ πατάξαι ὁμοίως τοῖς ἐν Σοδόμοις τοὺς ἥκοντας ἐπὶ τὴν ἀναίρεσιν αὐτοῦ. τὸ γὰρ πάνυ παράδοξον τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐτὸν βοηθείας καὶ ἐπὶ πλέον ἐμφανὲς οὐκ ἦν χρήσιμον τῷ βούλεσθαι αὐτὸν διδάξαι ὡς ἄνθρωπον μαρτυρούμενον ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ἔχειν τι θειότερον ἐν τῷ βλεπομένῳ ἀνθρώπῳ· ὅπερ ἦν ὁ κυρίως υἱὸς θεοῦ, θεὸς λόγος, θεοῦ δύναμις καὶ θεοῦ σοφία, ὁ καλούμενος Χριστός. οὐ καιρὸς δὲ νῦν τὰ περὶ τοῦ συνθέτου, καὶ ἐξ ὧν συνέκειτο (ὁ) ἐνανθρωπήσας Ἰησοῦς, διηγήσασθαι. οὔσης τινὸς καὶ, ἵν᾿ οὕτως ὀνομάσω. οἰκείας ζητήσεως τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸν τόπον.