What we really teach women and boys
See, then, in this passage too, how he mocks those among us who teach the word and try in every way to raise the soul up to the Creator of the universe, who show that one must despise all things that are perceived by the senses, temporary and seen (compare 2 Corinthians 4:18), and must do everything in order to attain fellowship with God, the contemplation of things intelligible and invisible, and a blessed life with God and with those who belong to God; and how he compares them to the wool-workers in houses, and to the cobblers and fullers and the most boorish of men, as men who invite children, mere infants, and women to base things, so that they will abandon father and teachers and follow them.
From what sober-minded father, or from what teachers of nobler things, do we draw away children and women? Let Celsus show it; and in the case of the children and women who come to our teaching, let him set side by side and compare whether any of the things they used to hear was better than ours, and in what way we draw children and women away from fine and noble studies and invite them to worse ones. But he will not be able to show any such thing against us. On the contrary, we draw women away from licentiousness and from the perversion that comes from their companions, and from all mad love of theatres and dancing, and from superstition; and the boys who are just reaching manhood and swelling with sexual desires we bring to self-control, setting before them not only the shamefulness that lies in these sins, but also the state in which the soul of the wicked will be because of such things, what penalties it will pay, and how it will be punished.
Greek
Ὅρα δὴ καὶ ἐν τούτοις, τίνα τρόπον διασύρων τοὺς παρ᾿ ἡμῖν διδάσκοντας τὸν λόγον καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν τῶν ὅλων δημιουργὸν παντὶ τρόπῳ τὴν ψυχὴν ἀναβιβάζειν πειρωμένους, παριστάντας δὲ καὶ ὡς χρὴ μὲν τῶν αἰσθητῶν καὶ προσκαίρων καὶ βλεπομένων πάντων καταφρονεῖν πάντα δὲ πράττειν ὑπὲρ τοῦ τυχεῖν τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ κοινωνίας καὶ τῆς τῶν νοητῶν καὶ ἀοράτων θεωρίας καὶ μακαρίας μετὰ θεοῦ καὶ τῶν οἰκείων τοῦ θεοῦ διεξαγωγῆς, παραβάλλει αὐτοὺς τοῖς κατὰ τὰς οἰκίας ἐριουργοῖς καὶ τοῖς σκυτοτόμοις καὶ τοῖς κναφεῦσι καὶ τοῖς ἀγροικοτάτοις τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἐπὶ τὰ φαῦλα προκαλουμένους παῖδας κομιδῇ νηπίους καὶ γύναια. ἵν᾿ ἀποστῶσι μὲν πατρὸς καὶ διδασκάλων αὐτοῖς δὲ ἕπωνται. τίνος γὰρ πατρὸς σωφρονοῦντος ἢ τίνων διδασκάλων σεμνότερα διδασκόντων ἀφίσταμεν τοὺς παῖδας καὶ τὰ γύναια, παραστησάτω ὁ Κέλσος καὶ ἀντιπαραβαλέτω ἐπὶ τῶν προσιόντων τῷ λόγῳ ἡμῶν παίδων καὶ γυναίων, πότερά τινα ὧν ἤκουν βελτίονα τῶν ἡμετέρων. καὶ τίνα τρόπον καλῶν τινων καὶ σεμνῶν μαθημάτων ἀφιστάντες παῖδας καὶ γύναια ἐπὶ τὰ χείρονα προκαλούμεθα. ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ἕξει παραστῆσαι τὸ τοιοῦτο καθ᾿ ἡμῶν· τοὐναντίον γὰρ τὰ μὲν γύναια ἀκολασίας καὶ διαστροφῆς τῆς ἀπὸ τῶν συνόντων ἀφίσταμεν καὶ πάσης θεατρομανίας καὶ ὀρχηστομανίας καὶ δεισιδαιμονίας. τοὺς δὲ παῖδας ἄρτι ἡβῶντας καὶ σφριγῶντας ταῖς περὶ τὰ ἀφροδίσια ὀρέξεσι σωφρονίζομεν, παρατιθέντες οὐ μόνον τὸ ἐν τοῖς ἁμαρτανομένοις αἰσχρὸν ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν οἷς ἔσται διὰ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἡ τῶν φαύλων ψυχὴ, καὶ οἵας τίσει δίκας καὶ ὡς κολασθήσεται.