A quarrel over an ass’s shadow
In the first book of our reply to Celsus’s boastful title (for he entitled the book he composed against us The True Doctrine), we dealt, as you instructed, most faithful Ambrose, and as far as we were able, with his preface, and then tested each of his statements in turn, until we ended with the speech of the Jew that he has invented against Jesus. In the second book we met, as best we could, every point in the speech that his Jew makes against us who believe in God through Christ. Now we begin this third book, in which our task is to contend with what he sets out in his own person.
He says that “Christians and Jews quarrel with one another most foolishly,” and he says that our debate with one another about Christ is no different from what the proverb calls “a fight over the shadow of an ass.” He thinks there is nothing worthy of respect in the inquiry that Jews and Christians carry on with one another, since both believe that it was prophesied by a divine Spirit that a Saviour would come to dwell among the human race, but beyond that they do not agree on whether the one prophesied has come or not.
For we Christians have believed in Jesus as the one who came in accordance with the prophecies. But most of the Jews are so far from believing in him that those of that time plotted against Jesus, and those of the present day, approving what the Jews then dared against him, speak evil of Jesus, as though by some sorcery he had pretended to be the one whose coming the prophets proclaimed, who is called Christ in the ancestral usage of the Jews.
Greek
Ἐν μὲν τῷ πρώτῳ τῶν πρὸς τὴν ἀλαζόνα ἐπιγραφὴν Κέλσου. ἐπιγράψαντος ἀληθῆ λόγον τὸ καθ᾿ ἡμῶν αὐτῷ συνταχθὲν βιβλίον. ὡς προσέταξας. κατὰ δύναμιν. πιστότατε Ἀμβρόσιε, διειλήφαμεν τὸ προοίμιον αὐτοῦ καὶ ἑξῆς ἕκαστον τῶν εἰρημένων βασανίζοντες. ἕως κατελήξαμεν εἰς τὴν παρ᾿ αὐτῷ δημηγορίαν τοῦ Ἰουδαίου. πεπλασμένην γεγονέναι πρὸς τὸν Ἰησοῦν. ἐν δὲ τῷ δευτέρῳ πρὸς ὅλα. ὡς οἷοί τ᾿ ἦμεν. ἀπαντήσαντες τὰ τῆς πρὸς ἡμᾶς. τοὺς διὰ Χριστοῦ πιστεύοντας τῷ θεῷ. δημηγορίας τοῦ παρ᾿ αὐτῷ Ἰουδαίου. τρίτον τοῦτον ἐνιστάμεθα λόγον, ἐν ᾧ πρόκειται ἀγωνίσασθαι πρὸς ἃ ἐκτίθεται ὡς ἀπὸ ἰδίου προσώπου. φησὶ δὴ ὅτι εὐηθέστατα ἐρίζουσι πρὸς ἀλλήλους χριστιανοὶ καὶ Ἰουδαῖοι. καὶ λέγει μηδὲν διαφέρειν ἡμῶν τὸν πρὸς ἀλλήλους διάλογον περὶ Χριστοῦ τῆς κατὰ τὴν παροιμίαν καλουμένης ὄνου σκιᾶς μάχης· καὶ οἴεται μηδὲν σεμνὸν εἶναι ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίων καὶ Χριστιανῶν πρὸς ἀλλήλους ζητήσει. πιστευόντων μὲν ἀμφοτέρων ὅτι ἀπὸ θείου πνεύματος ἐπροφητεύθη τις ἐπιδημήσων σωτὴρ τῷ γένει τῶν ἀνθρώπων οὐκέτι δ᾿ ὁμολογούντων περὶ τοῦ ἐληλυθέναι τὸν προφητευόμενον ἢ μή. Χριστιανοὶ μὲν γὰρ τῷ Ἰησοῦ ὡς κατὰ τὰ προφητευόμενα ἐληλυθότι πεπιστεύκαμεν· Ἰουδαίων δ᾿ οἱ πλεῖστοι τοσοῦτο δέουσι τοῦ πιστεύειν εἰς αὐτὸν. ὡς καὶ τοὺς μὲν κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν ἐκεῖνον ἐπιβεβουλευκέναι τῷ Ἰησοῦ τοὺς δὲ νῦν εὐδοκοῦντας τοῖς ὑπὸ Ἰουδαίων κατ᾿ αὐτοῦ τετολμημένοις τότε κακηγορεῖν τὸν Ἰησοῦν. ὡς διά τινος γοητείας πλασάμενον ὅτι ἄρα εἴη ὁ ὑπὸ τῶν προφητῶν κηρυχθεὶς ἐπιδημήσειν. καλούμενος κατὰ τὰ Ἰουδαίων πάτρια Χριστός.