Moses is older than the theorists of world cycles

Next, wishing to show that we say nothing remarkable or new about a flood or a conflagration, but that we misheard what Greeks or barbarians say about these things and then believed our own Scriptures about them, he says this: “This too occurred to them because they misheard those others: that in long cycles of time, and with the returns and conjunctions of the stars, conflagrations and floods take place, and that after the last flood, in the time of Deucalion, the cycle, in keeping with the alternation of the universe, requires a conflagration. This made them say, in their mistaken opinion, that God will come down like a torturer bearing fire.”

To this too we shall reply: I do not know how Celsus, who has read so much and has shown that he knows many histories, failed to take note of the antiquity of Moses. Certain Greek writers record that Moses lived in the times of Inachus, father of Phoroneus, and he is admitted to be very ancient by the Egyptians, and also by those who have written on the history of Phoenicia. Anyone who wishes may read the two books of Flavius Josephus on the antiquity of the Jews (Josephus, Against Apion), to learn how Moses was older than those who said that floods and conflagrations happen in the world over long periods of time. Celsus says that Jews and Christians misheard these men and, not understanding what they said about the conflagration, said that God will come down like a torturer bearing fire.