Made in the image, not yet in the likeness
It seems to me that Celsus has also misheard the words “Let us make man according to our image and likeness” (Genesis 1:26), and on that basis has made the worms say, “Since we were made by God, we are in every way like him.” Yet if he had known the difference between man’s having been made “according to the image” of God and his being made “according to the likeness,” and that it is written that God said, “Let us make man according to our image and likeness” (Genesis 1:26), but that God made man “according to the image” of God (Genesis 1:27), and not yet also “according to the likeness,” he would not have made us say that we are in every way like God.
Nor do we say that the stars too have been made subject to us. For the resurrection of the righteous, as it is spoken of and as the wise understand it, is compared to the sun and moon and stars by him who says: “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:41–42); and Daniel too prophesied of these things long ago (Daniel 12:3).
He claims that we say, “All things have been appointed to serve us.” Perhaps he has not heard the intelligent among us saying such things; perhaps, too, he does not understand in what sense it has been said that the greater among us is the servant of all (Matthew 23:11; Mark 10:44). And when Greeks say, “Then sun and night serve mortals” (Euripides, Phoenician Women 546), they praise the saying and expound it; but when such a thing is either not said among us or said in another sense, Celsus slanders us even on these grounds.
In Celsus’s book we, who in his account are worms, were saying that “since some among us go wrong, God will come to us, or will send his own Son, to burn up the unrighteous, so that the rest of us frogs may have eternal life with him.” And see how this solemn philosopher, like a buffoon, has turned to mockery, laughter and ridicule the divine proclamation about judgment and about the punishment “against the unrighteous” and the reward for the righteous. To all this he adds that these things “are more bearable when worms and frogs say them than when Jews and Christians, quarrelling with one another, proclaim them.”
But we will not imitate him, nor will we say the like about the philosophers who profess to know the nature of the universe, and who debate with one another about how the universe was put together, how heaven and earth and all that is in them came to be, and whether souls, being unbegotten and not created by God, are set in order by him and pass from body to body, or, being sown together with bodies, outlast them or do not outlast them. For someone could mock and revile these things too, instead of speaking of them with respect and approving the purpose of those who have devoted themselves to the search for truth, and say that these men are worms in a corner of the mire of human life, who do not take their own measure and for that reason pronounce on such great matters as though they had grasped them; and that they speak insistently, as men who have beheld them, about things that cannot be beheld without the inspiration of a higher and more divine power. “For no one among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him; so also no one has known the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11).
But we are not mad, and we do not compare so great an understanding in men (I use “understanding” in its looser sense), one that has busied itself not with the concerns of the many but with the search for truth, to the movements of worms or of any other such creatures. Rather, as lovers of truth, we bear witness concerning some of the Greek philosophers that they came to know God, since “God made it plain to them” (Romans 1:19), even if “they did not glorify him as God or give thanks, but became futile in their reasonings” (Romans 1:21), and “claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things” (Romans 1:22–23).
Greek
Δοκεῖ δέ μοι παρακηκοέναι ὁ Κέλσος καὶ τοῦ „ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ᾿ εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν ἡμετέραν“ καὶ παρὰ τοῦτο πεποιηκέναι τοὺς σκώληκας λέγοντας ὅτι ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγονότες πάντῃ ἐσμὲν αὐτῷ ὅ μοιοι. εἰ μέντοι ἐγνώκει διαφορὰν τοῦ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ θεοῦ γεγονέναι τὸν ἄνθρωπον πρὸς τὸ „καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν.“ καὶ ὅτι ἀναγέγραπται εἰρηκέναι ὁ θεός· „ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ᾿ εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν ἡμετέραν,“ ἐποίησε δ᾿ ὁ θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ θεοῦ ἀλλ᾿ οὐχὶ καὶ „καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν“ ἤδη· οὐκ ἂν ἐποίει ἡμᾶς λέγοντας ὅτι πάντῃ ὅμοιοί ἐσμεν τῷ θεῷ. οὐ λέγομεν δ᾿ ὅτι ὑποβέβληται ἡμῖν καὶ τὰ ἄστρα. ἐπεὶ ἡ τῶν δικαίων λεγομένη ἀνάστασις καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν σοφῶν νοουμένη παραβάλλεται ἡλίῳ καὶ σελήνῃ καὶ ἄστροις ὑπὸ τοῦ φάσκοντος· „ἄλλη δόξα ἡλίου, καὶ ἄλλη δόξα σελήνης. καὶ ἄλλη δόξα ἀστέρων· ἀστὴρ γὰρ ἀστέρος διαφέρει ἐν δόξῃ. οὕτως καὶ ἡ ἀνάστασις τῶν νεκρῶν,“ καὶ τοῦ Δανιὴλ περὶ τούτων πάλαι προφητεύσαντος. φησὶ δ᾿ ἡμᾶς λέγειν ὅτι πάντα ἡμῖν δουλεύειν τέτακται. τάχα μὲν οὐκ ἀκούσας τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν συνετῶν τοιαῦτα λεγόντων τάχα δὲ καὶ μὴ ἐπιστάμενος, πῶς λέλεκται πάντων εἶναι δοῦλον τὸν ἐν ἡμῖν μείζονα. καὶ ἐὰν μὲν Ἕλληνες λέγωσιν· εἶθ᾿ ἥλιος μὲν νύξ τε δουλεύει βροτοῖς, ἐπαινέσαντες τὸ λεγόμενον καὶ διηγοῦνται αὐτό· ἐπὰν δὲ τὸ τοιοῦτον ἢ μὴ λέγηται ἢ ἄλλως λέγηται, συκοφαντεῖ ἡμᾶς ὁ Κέλσος καὶ ἐπὶ τούτοις. ἐλέγομεν δὲ παρὰ τῷ Κέλσῳ ἡμεῖς, οἱ κατ᾿ αὐτὸν σκώληκες, ὅτι ἐπεί τινες ἐν ἡμῖν πλημμελοῦσιν, ἀφίξεται πρὸς ἡμᾶς ὁ θεὸς ἢ πέμψει τὸν υἱὸν ἑαυτοῦ, ἵνα καταφλέξῃ τοὺς ἀδίκους, οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ βάτραχοι σὺν αὐτῷ βίον αἰώνιον ἔχωμεν. καὶ ὅρα πῶς ὡς βωμολόχος τὴν περὶ κρίσεως θείαν ἀπαγγελίαν καὶ περὶ κολάσεως μὲν τῆς „κατὰ τῶν ἀδίκων“ γέρως δὲ τοῦ εἰς τοὺς δικαίους εἰς χλεύην καὶ γέλωτα καὶ διασυρμὸν ἤνεγκεν ὁ σεμνὸς φιλόσοφος. καὶ ἐπιλέγει πᾶσι τούτοις ἀνεκτὰ εἶναι μᾶλλον ταῦτα ὑπὸ σκωλήκων καὶ βατράχων λεγόμενα ἢ ὑπὸ Ἰουδαίων καὶ Χριστιανῶν πρὸς ἀλλήλους διαφερομένων ἀπαγγελλόμενα. ἀλλ᾿ οὐ μιμησόμεθά γε αὐτὸν ἡμεῖς οὐδ᾿ ἐροῦμεν τὰ παραπλήσια περὶ τῶν τὴν τῶν ὅλων φύσιν ἐπαγγελλομένων εἰδέναι φιλοσόφων καὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους διαλεγομένων περὶ τοῦ, τίνα τρόπον συνέστη τὰ ὅλα καὶ γέγονεν ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ γῆ καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς πάντα, καὶ ὡς αἱ ψυχαὶ ἤτοι ἀγέννητοι οὖσαι καὶ μὴ ὑπὸ θεοῦ κτισθεῖσαι διακοσμοῦνται ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀμείβουσι σώματα, ἢ συσπαρεῖσαι τοῖς σώμασιν ἐπιδιαμένουσιν ἢ οὐκ ἐπιδιαμένουσιν. ἐδύνατο γάρ τις καὶ ταῦτα ἀντὶ τοῦ σεμνολογεῖν καὶ ἀποδέχεσθαι τὴν προαίρεσιν τῶν τῷ ἐξετάζειν τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἑαυτοὺς ἀνατεθεικότων χλευάζων καὶ κακολογῶν φάσκειν ὅτι σκώληκές εἰσιν οὗτοι ἐν γωνίᾳ τοῦ ἐν τῷ βίῳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων βορβόρου ἑαυτοὺς μὴ μετροῦντες καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἀποφαινόμενοι περὶ τῶν τηλικούτων ὡς κατειληφότες. καὶ ὅτι λέγουσι δια τεινόμενοι ὡς τεθεωρηκότες περὶ πραγμάτων, τῶν μὴ δυναμένων χωρὶς ἐπιπνοίας κρείττονος καὶ θειοτέρας δυνάμεως θεωρηθῆναι. „οὐδεὶς γὰρ οἶδεν ἀνθρώπων τὰ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, εἰ μὴ τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὸ ἐν αὐτῷ· οὕτω καὶ τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ οὐδεὶς ἔγνωκεν, εἰ μὴ τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ θεοῦ.“ ἀλλ᾿ οὐ μεμήναμεν οὐδὲ τὴν τηλικαύτην ἀνθρώπων σύνεσιν, κοινότερον δὲ λέγω σύνεσιν. ἀσχοληθεῖσαν οὐ περὶ τὰ τῶν πολλῶν ἀλλὰ περὶ τὴν ἐξέτασιν τῆς ἀληθείας, κινήμασι σκωλήκων ἢ ἄλλων τινῶν τοιούτων παραβάλλομεν· φιλαλήθως δὲ περί τινων μαρτυροῦμεν Ἑλλήνων φιλοσόφων ὅτι ἐπέγνωσαν τὸν θεὸν, ἐπεὶ „ὁ θεὸς αὐτοῖς ἐφανέρωσεν.“ εἰ καὶ μὴ „ὡς θεὸν ἐδόξασαν ἢ ηὐχαρίστησαν ἀλλ᾿ ἐματαιώθησαν ἐν τοῖς διαλογισμοῖς αὐτῶν,“ καὶ „φάσκοντες εἶναι σοφοὶ ἐμωράνθησαν καὶ ἤλλαξαν τὴν δόξαν τοῦ ἀφθάρτου θεοῦ ἐν ὁμοιώματι εἰκόνος φθαρτοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ πετεινῶν καὶ τετραπόδων καὶ ἑρπετῶν.“