Words no Jew would say

Next, Celsus’s Jew also reproaches the Christians for making use of the prophets who proclaimed beforehand the things concerning Jesus. To this, besides what we said earlier on the point, we shall also say that, out of the concern for people that he claims to have, he ought to have set out the prophecies themselves, spoken up for whatever makes them persuasive, and then set out what seemed to him the refutation of the use made of the prophetic texts. In that way he would not have seemed to sweep away so weighty a point with a few trifling phrases, especially as he says the prophecies can be fitted to countless others far more plausibly than to Jesus.

He ought to have taken a careful stand against this proof, which has prevailed among Christians as the strongest, and to have set out for each prophecy how it can be fitted to others far more plausibly than to Jesus. But he did not even see that if this was a plausible thing for anyone to say against Christians, it might perhaps have been plausible on the lips of those who are strangers to the prophetic writings. As it is, Celsus has put into the mouth of the Jew he portrays what a Jew would not have said. For the Jew will not grant that the prophecies can be fitted to countless others far more plausibly than to Jesus. Instead, giving for each one the explanation that seems right to him, he will try to take a stand against the Christians’ interpretation; what he says will not be altogether convincing, but that is what he will attempt.