A teaching not for every ear
…and in keeping with the saying that around Jerusalem punishments come upon those who are being smelted (Ezekiel 22:18–22), those who have taken into the very substance of their own soul what comes from vice; and vice is somewhere called lead, in a figure. That is why, in Zechariah, lawlessness was sitting upon “a talent of lead” (Zechariah 5:7–8).
Whatever might be said on this subject is not for everyone, nor is this the time to set it out. Nor is it without danger to entrust a plain account of such things to writing, since the many need no further teaching than that about the punishment of sinners. For it is not useful to go up to what lies beyond it, because of those who, through fear of eternal punishment, barely check, even in some measure, the flood of vice and of the sins that come from it.
So neither the diagram nor Celsus knows the teaching about Gehenna. Otherwise those people would not have made so solemn a show of pictures and diagrams, as though they were presenting the truth through them; nor would Celsus, in his treatise against Christians, have inserted into his charges against Christians things in no way said by Christians, but by certain people who perhaps no longer even exist, but have wholly died out and dwindled to a very few, easily counted.
And just as it is not fitting for those who follow the philosophy of Plato to answer for Epicurus and his impious doctrines, so neither is it fitting for us to answer for what is in the diagram and for what Celsus says against it. Therefore we leave aside, as superfluous and set out to no purpose, what Celsus has said on these matters; for we ourselves will accuse those people more than Celsus does, before any who are held fast by such teachings.
Greek
καὶ κατὰ τὸ περὶ τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ γίνεσθαι κολάσεις χωνευομένων, τῶν ἀναλαβόντων εἰς τὴν ἑαυτῶν τῆς ψυχῆς ὑπόστασιν τὰ ἀπὸ κακίας, τροπικῶς που ὀνομαζομένης μολίβδου· διὸ ἡ ἀνομία παρὰ τῷ Ζαχαρίᾳ ἐπὶ „τάλαντον μολίβδου“ ἐκαθέζετο. Ὅσα δ᾿ εἰς τὸν τόπον λεχθείη ἂν, οὔτε πᾶσιν οὔτε τοῦ παρόντος καιροῦ ἐστι διηγήσασθαι· ἀλλ᾿ οὐδ᾿ ἀκίνδυνον τὴν τῶν τοιούτων σαφήνειαν πιστεῦσαι γραφῇ. ἅτε τῶν πολῶν οὐ χρῃζόντων πλείονος διδασκαλίας παρὰ τὴν περὶ τῆς κατὰ τῶν ἁμαρτανόντων κολάσεως. εἰς γὰρ τὰ ὑπερέκεινα αὐτῆς οὐ χρήσιμον ἀναβαίνειν διὰ τοὺς μόγις φόβῳ τῆς αἰωνίου κολάσεως κἂν συστέλλοντας ἐπὶ ποσὸν τῆς κακίας καὶ τῶν ἀπ᾿ αὐτῆς ἁμαρτανομένων χύσιν. οὔτ᾿ οὖν τὸ διάγραμμα οὔτε Κέλσος οἶδε τὸν περὶ Γεέννης λόγον· ἐπεὶ οὔτ᾿ ἂν ἐκεῖνοι ζωγραφίας καὶ διαγράμματα ἐσεμνοποίουν ὡς δι᾿ αὐτῶν παριστάντες τὸ ἀληθὲς. οὔτ᾿ ἂν ὁ Κέλσος ἐν τῷ κατὰ Χριστιανῶν συγγράμματι τὰ μηδαμῶς ὑπὸ Χριστιανῶν λεγόμενα ἀλλά τινων, τάχα οὐδ᾿ ἔτι ὄντων ἀλλὰ πάντῃ ἐκλελοιπότων καὶ εἰς πάνυ ὀλίγους καὶ εὐαριθμήτους καταστάντων, ἐνετίθει ταῖς κατὰ Χριστιανῶν κατηγορίαις. καὶ ὥσπερ οὐ καθήκει τοῖς τὰ Πλάτωνος φιλοσοφοῦσιν ἀπολογεῖσθαι περὶ Ἐπικούρου καὶ τῶν ἀσεβῶν αὐτοῦ δογμάτων, οὕτως οὐδ᾿ ἡμῖν περὶ τῶν ἐν τῷ διαγράμματι καὶ τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτοῦ λεγομένων ὑπὸ Κέλσου. διόπερ ὡς περισσὰ καὶ μάτην ἐκκείμενα ἐῶμεν τὰ ὑπὸ Κέλσου εἰς ταῦτα λελεγμένα· μᾶλλον γὰρ Κέλσου ἡμεῖς αὐτῶν παρὰ τοῖς κεκρατημένοις ὑπὸ τοιούτων λόγων κατηγορήσομεν.