Deeper teaching kept for able hearers
Consider, then, what Celsus says next, “Surely we see, too, those who put on the most disreputable displays in the market-places and go round collecting,” and see whether it is not said with plain falsehood and by a comparison that does not fit. Of these people to whom Celsus likens us, those who put on the most disreputable displays in the market-places and go round collecting, he says that they would never come forward into a gathering of sensible men, nor dare to put on their own show among them, but that wherever they see adolescents, a crowd of house-slaves and a throng of foolish people, there they push their way in and preen themselves. In saying this he does nothing but abuse us, like the women at the crossroads whose aim is to speak ill of one another.
For we do everything in our power so that our gathering may be made up of sensible men; and we venture to bring into the open what is finest and most divine among us in our discourses to the assembly at those times when we have plenty of intelligent hearers. But we conceal the deeper things and pass them over in silence when we see that those who come together are simpler and need teachings figuratively called “milk” (1 Corinthians 3:2).
Greek
Ὅρα δὴ μετὰ ταῦτα τὸ ὑπὸ τοῦ Κέλσου λεγόμενον· ὁρῶμέν που καὶ τοὺς ἐν ταῖς ἀγοραῖς (τὰ) ἐπιῤῥητότατα ἐπιδεικνυμένους καὶ ἀγείροντας εἰ μὴ ἄντικρυς ψευδῶς εἴρηται καὶ ἀνομοίως παραβέβληται. τούτους δὴ, οἷς ἡμᾶς ὁ Κέλσος ὁμοιοῖ, τοῖς ἐν ταῖς ἀγοραῖς τὰ ἐπιῤῥητότατα ἐπιδεικνυμένοις καὶ ἀγείρουσι, φησὶν εἰς μὲν φρονίμων ἀνδρῶν σύλλογον οὐκ ἄν ποτε παρελθεῖν οὐδ᾿ ἐν τούτοις τὰ ἑαυτῶν κατατολμᾶν ἐπιδεικνύειν, ἔνθα δ᾿ ἂν ὁρῶσι μειράκια καὶ οἰκοτρίβων ὄχλον καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἀνοήτων ὅμιλον, ἐνταῦθα ὠθουμένους τε καὶ καλλωπιζομένους, καὶ ἐν τούτῳ οὐδὲν ἄλλο ποιῶν ἢ λοιδορούμενος ἡμῖν παραπλησίως ταῖς ἐν ταῖς τριόδοις γυναιξὶ, σκοπὸν ἐχούσαις τὸ κακῶς ἀλλήλας λέγειν. ἡμεῖς γὰρ ὅση δύναμις πάντα πράττομεν ὑπὲρ τοῦ φρονίμων ἀνδρῶν γενέσθαι τὸν σύλλογον ἡμῶν, καὶ τὰ ἐν ἡμῖν μάλιστα καλὰ καὶ θεῖα τότε τολμῶμεν ἐν τοῖς πρὸς τὸ κοινὸν διαλόγοις φέρειν εἰς μέσον, ὅτ᾿ εὐποροῦμεν συνετῶν ἀκροατῶν· ἀποκρύπτομεν δὲ καὶ παρασιωπῶμεν τὰ βαθύτερα, (ἐπὰν ἁπλουστέρους θεωρῶμεν) τοὺς συνερχομένους καὶ δεομένους λόγων τροπικῶς ὀνομαζομένων „γάλα.“