Why the one foretold was rejected
He says that many others of the same kind as Jesus could also appear to those who wish to be deceived. Then let Celsus’s Jew show not many, nor even a few, but even one such as Jesus was: one who, with the power that was in him, brought into the human race a teaching and doctrines that benefit life, and turned people from the flood of sins.
He says that those who believe in Christ bring this charge against the Jews, that they have not believed in Jesus as God. On this point too we have already made our defence above, showing at the same time in what way we understand him to be God, and in what respect we call him man.
“And how,” he says, “could we, who declared to all people that one would come from God to punish the unrighteous, have dishonoured him when he came?” To make a defence against this, since it is so very silly, does not seem reasonable to me. It is as if someone else were to say: “How could we, who taught self-control, have done anything licentious? Or how could we, who champion justice, have done wrong?” For as such things are found among human beings, so it was a human thing that those who claimed to have believed the prophets when they spoke of the Christ who was to come should have disbelieved him when he came in accordance with what was prophesied. And if another reason must be added, we will say that the prophets foretold this very thing as well. Isaiah, at any rate, says plainly: “Hearing you will hear and will not understand, and seeing you will see and will not perceive; for the heart of this people has grown dull” (Isaiah 6:9–10), and what follows.
Let them tell us what it is that the Jews hear and what they see, when it is prophesied of them that they will not understand what is spoken and will not see in the way they ought what is seen. Yet it is plain that when they saw Jesus they did not see who he was, and when they heard him they did not grasp from his words the divinity in him, which was transferring God’s care from the Jews to those from the Gentiles who believe in him. So one can see that after the coming of Jesus the Jews have been wholly abandoned, and have nothing of what they once held sacred, nor even any sign that some divinity is among them. For there are no longer prophets or wonders among them, though traces of these are found to some extent among Christians, and some of them even “greater” (John 14:12); and if we are to be believed when we say so, we too have seen them.
Celsus’s Jew says: “Why would we have dishonoured the one whom we proclaimed beforehand? Was it so that we might be punished more than others?” To this too one can say that, because of their unbelief toward Jesus and all the other outrages they committed against him, the Jews will not only suffer more than others at the judgment in which we believe, but have already suffered. For what nation has been banished from its own mother city and from the place proper to its ancestral worship, except the Jews alone? And they have suffered this as the most ignoble of men; for though they sinned in many things, they suffered it for none of those so much as for what they dared against our Jesus.
Greek
Φησὶ δὲ πολλοὺς ἂν καὶ ἄλλους φανῆναι τοιούτους τοῖς ἐξαπατᾶσθαι θέλουσιν, ὁποῖος ἦν ὁ Ἰησοῦς. μὴ πολλοὺς οὖν ἀλλὰ μηδ᾿ ὀλίγους ἀλλὰ κἂν ἕνα δεικνύτω ὁ παρὰ τῷ Κέλσῳ Ἰουδαῖος τοιοῦτον, ὁποῖος ἦν ὁ Ἰησοῦς, λόγον καὶ δόγματα μετὰ τῆς ἐν αὐτῷ δυνάμεως βιωφελῆ ἐπεισάγοντα τῷ γένει τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ ἐπιστρέφοντα ἀπὸ χύσεως ἁμαρτημάτων. φησὶ δὲ τοῦτο ἔγκλημα ἀπὸ τῶν εἰς τὸν Χριστὸν πιστευόντων προσάγεσθαι Ἰουδαίοις, ἐπεὶ μὴ πεπιστεύκασιν ὡς εἰς θεὸν τὸν Ἰησοῦν· καὶ περὶ τούτου δὲ ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω προαπελογησάμεθα, δεικνύντες ἅμα, πῶς μὲν αὐτὸν θεὸν νοοῦμεν, κατὰ τί δὲ ἄνθρωπον λέγομεν. πῶς δὲ, φησὶν, ἡμεῖς οἱ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις δηλώσαντες ἥξειν ἀπὸ θεοῦ τὸν κολάσοντα τοὺς ἀδίκους ἐλθόντα ἠτιμάζομεν; πρὸς τοῦτο δὲ ἀπολογήσασθαι πάνυ εὔηθες ὂν οὐ δοκεῖ μοι εἶναι εὔλογον. ὡς εἰ καὶ ἄλλος τις ἔλεγε· πῶς ἂν ἡμεῖς οἱ διδάξαντες σωφρονεῖν ἀκόλαστον ἄν τι ἐποιήσαμεν, ἢ περὶ δικαιοσύνης πρεσβεύοντες ἠδικήσαμεν; ὡς γὰρ ἐκεῖνα ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὑρίσκεται, οὕτως φάσκοντας προφήταις πεπιστευκέναι, λέγουσι περὶ ἐπιδημήσοντος Χριστοῦ, ἠπιστηκέναι τῷ ἐληλυθότι κατὰ τὰ προφητευόμενα ἀνθρώπινον ἦν. εἰ δὲ δεῖ προσθεῖναι καὶ ἄλλην αἰτίαν, φήσομεν ὅτι καὶ τοῦτ᾿ αὐτὸ προεῖπον οἱ προφῆται. σαφῶς γοῦν Ἡσαΐας λέγει· „ἀκοῇ ἀκούσετε καὶ οὐ μὴ συνῆτε, καὶ βλέποντες βλέψετε καὶ οὐ μὴ ἴδητε. ἐπαχύνθη γὰρ ἡ καρδία τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου“ καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. καὶ λεγέτωσαν ἡμῖν, τί ἀκούουσι [τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις] καὶ τί βλέπουσι τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις προφητεύεται μὴ συνήσειν τὰ λεγόμενα καὶ μὴ ὃν δεῖ τρόπον ὄψεσθαι τὸ ὁραθέν. ἀλλὰ μὴν δῆλον ὅτι ἰδόντες τὸν Ἰησοῦν οὐκ εἶδον ὅστις ἦν, καὶ ἀκούοντες αὐτοῦ οὐ συνῆκαν ἐκ τῶν λεγομένων τὴν ἐν αὐτῷ θειότητα, μεταβιβάζουσαν τὴν ἐπὶ Ἰουδαίους τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπισκοπὴν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτὸν πιστεύοντας. ἔστιν οὖν ἰδεῖν μετὰ τὴν Ἰησοῦ ἐπιδημίαν Ἰουδαίους καταλελειμμένους πάντῃ καὶ μηδὲν ἔχοντας τῶν πάλαι νομιζομένων αὐτοῖς εἶναι σεμνῶν ἀλλὰ καὶ μηδὲν σημεῖον τοῦ εἶναί τινα θειότητα παρ᾿ αὐτοῖς. οὐκ ἔτι γὰρ προφῆται οὐδὲ τεράστια, ὧν κἂν ἴχνη ἐπὶ ποσὸν παρὰ Χριστιανοῖς εὑρίσκεται, καί τινα γὲ „μείζονα“· καὶ εἰ πιστοί ἐσμεν λέγοντες, καὶ ἡμεῖς ἑωράκαμεν. λέγει δ᾿ ὁ παρὰ τῷ Κέλσῳ Ἰουδαῖος· διὰ τί ἠτιμάζομεν ὃν προεκηρύσσομεν; ἢ ἴνα πλέον τῶν ἄλλων κολασθῶμεν; καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο δ᾿ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν ὅτι πλέον τῶν ἄλλων Ἰουδαῖοι διὰ τὴν εἰς Ἰησοῦν ἀπιστίαν καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα αὐτῷ ἐνύβρισαν οὐ μόνον κατὰ τὴν πεπιστευμένην κρίσιν πείσονται ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ ἤδη πεπόνθασι. ποῖον γὰρ ἔθνος πεφυγάδευται ἀπὸ τῆς ἰδίας μητροπόλεως καὶ τοῦ οἰκείου τόπου τῇ πατρίῳ θρησκείᾳ ἢ μόνοι Ἰουδαῖοι; τοῦτο δὲ πεπόνθασιν ὡς ἀγεννέστατοι, εἰ καὶ πολλὰ ἥμαρτον, δι᾿ οὐδὲν οὕτως ἐκείνων. ὡς διὰ τὰ κατὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἡμῶν τετολμημένα.