Celsus mocks the tree of life
He also thinks that we, speaking about the cross in a figurative way, have invented the tree of life (Genesis 2:9). And, in keeping with his own error on this point, he says: “If that man had happened to be flung down a cliff, or pushed into a pit, or choked with a noose, a cliff of life above the heavens would have been invented, or a pit of resurrection, or a rope of immortality.” And again he says: “If the tree of life was invented because he was a carpenter, it would have followed that, had he been a cobbler, something would be said about holy leather; had he been a stonecutter, about a blessed stone; had he been a smith, about an iron of love.”
Who, then, does not see at once how cheap his accusation is, when he heaps abuse on people whom he had undertaken to win back as people who were deceived?
Next after this he says things that fit those who invented the lion-shaped, ass-headed and serpent-shaped rulers, and anyone else who has told myths like theirs, but not those who belong to the Church. For truly, even a drunken old woman singing a child to sleep would have been ashamed to chant and whisper to the child a tale like the one told by those who invented the ass-headed rulers and the speeches, so to speak, made at each gate.
But Celsus does not know the teachings of those who belong to the Church. Very few have trained themselves to understand them: those who, following the command of Jesus, have devoted their whole life to searching “the Scriptures” (John 5:39), and who have toiled over examining the meaning of the sacred writings more than the Greek philosophers toiled to gain some supposed knowledge.
Greek
Οἴεται δὲ καὶ τροπολογοῦντας ἡμᾶς περὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ ἀναπεπλακέναι τὸ ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς καὶ ἀκολούθως ἑαυτοῦ τῷ περὶ τούτου σφάλματί φησιν ὅτι, εἴπερ ἔτυχεν ἐκεῖνος κατὰ κρημνοῦ ἐῤῥιμμένος ἢ (εἰς) βάραθρον ἐωσμένος ἢ ἀγχόνῃ πεπνιγμένος, ἦν ἂν ὑπὲρ τοὺς οὐρανοὺς ἀναπεπλασμένος κρημνὸς ζωῆς ἢ βάραθρον ἀναστάσεως ἢ σχοινίον ἀθανασίας. πάλιν τε αὖ φησιν ὅτι, εἴπερ διὰ τὸ τέκτονα αὐτὸν γεγονέναι ἀναπέπλασται τὸ ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς, ἠκολούθησεν ἂν, εἰ μὲν σκυτοτόμος ἦν, λέγεσθαί τινα περὶ σκύτους ἁγίου, εἰ δὲ λιθοξόος, περὶ λίθου μακαρίου, εἰ δὲ σιδηρεὺς, περὶ σιδήρου ἀγάπης. τίς οὖν οὐχ ὁρᾷ αὐτόθεν τὸ εὐτελὲς αὐτοῦ τῆς κατηγορίας, διαλοιδορουμένου ἀνθρώπους, οὓς ἐπηγγείλατο ἐπιστρέφειν ὡς ἀπατωμένους; ἑξῆς δὲ τούτοις λέγει ἁρμόζοντα μὲν τοῖς ἀναπλάσασι τούς τε λεοντοειδεῖς καὶ ὀνοκεφάλους καὶ δρακοντοειδεῖς ἄρχοντας, καὶ εἴ τις ἐκείνοις παραπλησίως ἐμυθολόγησεν, οὐ μὴν καὶ τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας. ἀληθῶς γὰρ καὶ γραῦς ἐπὶ τῷ βαυκαλῆσαι παιδίον μεθύουσα μῦθον ἐπᾴδειν τοιοῦτον καὶ ψιθυρίζειν τῷ παιδίῳ ἐπῃσχύνθη, ὁποῖον οἱ τοὺς ὀνοκεφάλους ἀναπλάσαντες καὶ τὰς καθ᾿ ἑκάστην πύλην ὡσπερεὶ δημηγορίας. τὰ δὲ τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ὁ Κέλσος οὐκ ἐπίσταται, ἅπερ πάνυ ὀλίγοι ἠσκήκασι συνιέναι, οἱ πάντα τὸν βίον ἑαυτῶν ἀναθέντες κατὰ τὴν Ἰησοῦ ἐντολὴν τῷ ἐρευνᾶν „τὰς γραφὰς“ καὶ μᾶλλον τῶν φιλοσοφησάντων Ἑλλήνων περί τινος νομιζομένης ἐπιστήμης ἀνάληψιν κεκμηκότες περὶ τὴν ἐξέτασιν τοῦ βουλήματος τῶν ἱερῶν γραμμάτων.