Celsus mixes sect with sect
Then, I think, mixing up sects with sects and not noting that these views belong to one sect and those to another, he brings forward the difficulties we raise against Marcion. Perhaps he misheard these too from some who attack that teaching cheaply and like amateurs, and not very intelligently at that. So, setting out what is said against Marcion, and without noting that he is speaking against him, he says: “Why does he send in secret and destroy the works this one has made? Why does he force his way in covertly, and entice, and lead astray? Why does he beguile those whom this one has condemned or cursed, as you say, and spirit them away like some kidnapper? Why does he teach them to run away from the Master? Why to flee the Father? Why does he adopt them himself, without the Father’s consent? Why does he profess to be the father of those who belong to another?”
And he adds to these words, as if in astonishment: “A fine God indeed, who longs to be father of sinners condemned by another, of the disinherited, and, as they themselves say, of refuse; and who could not avenge the one he sent to steal them away from the other, when that one was caught!”
Next after these, as if speaking to us who confess that this world does not belong to some foreign and strange god, he says something like this: “But if these are his works, how did God make evils? How is he unable to persuade and admonish? How does he repent over them when they have become ungrateful and wicked, and find fault with his own craftsmanship, and hate, and threaten, and destroy his own offspring (Genesis 6:6–7)? Or where does he lead them away to, out of this world which he himself made?”
It seems to me that here too he does not make clear what evils are, although among the Greeks too there have been many schools of thought about goods and evils. Instead he jumps to the conclusion that, on our teaching, God is the maker of evils, as though this followed for us, who say that this world too is the work of the God over all. Let the question of evils stand however it stands, whether God made them, or whether instead they came about as a by-product of what he primarily made. But I should be surprised if what he thinks follows for us, who say that this world too is the work of the God over all, namely that God has made evils, does not follow for him as well, judging by what he himself says. For one might say to Celsus: “If these are his works, how did God make evils? How is he unable to persuade and admonish?” And the worst fault in argument is to accuse people of other opinions of holding certain doctrines that are unsound, when one’s own doctrines are open to those very charges, and far more so.
Greek
Εἶτ᾿ οἶμαι φύρων αἱρέσεις αἱρέσεσι καὶ μὴ ἐπισημειούμενος ὅτι τάδε μὲν ἄλλης αἱρέσεώς ἐστι τάδε δὲ ἄλλης, τὰ πρὸς Μαρκίωνα ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν ἀπορούμενα προφέρει, τάχα καὶ τούτων παρακούσας ἀπό τινων εὐτελῶς καὶ ἰδιωτικῶς [ἐγκαλεῖ τῶν] ἐγκαλούντων λόγῳ. οὐ μὴν πάνυ συνετῶς. ἐκτιθέμενος οὖν τὰ κατὰ Μαρκίωνος λεγόμενα καὶ μὴ ἐπισημειωσάμενος ὅτι πρὸς αὐτὸν λέγει φησί· τί δὲ λάθρα πέμπει καὶ διαφθείρει τὰ τούτου δημιουργήματα; τί δὲ εἰσβιάζεται κρύφα καὶ παραπείθει καὶ πλανᾷ; τί δὲ τοὺς ὑπὸ τούτου κατεγνωσμένους ἢ κατηραμένους, ὥς φατε, ψυχαγωγεῖ καὶ δίκην ἀνδραποδιστοῦ τινος ὑπεξάγει; τί δὲ ἀποδιδράσκειν ἀπὸ τοῦ κυρίου διδάσκει; τί δὲ φεύγειν τὸν πατέρα; τί δ᾿ αὐτὸς εἰσποιεῖται, μὴ συγχωροῦντος τοῦ πατρός; τί δ᾿ ἐπαγγέλλεται τῶν ἀλλοτρίων εἶναι πατήρ; καὶ ἐπιφέρει γε αὐτοῖς οἱονεὶ θαυμαστικῶς τό· σεμνός γε ὁ θεὸς τῶν παρ᾿ ἄλλῳ καταδίκων ἁμαρτωλῶν καὶ ἀκλήρων καὶ, ὡς αὐτοὶ λέγουσι, σκυβάλων ἐπιθυμῶν εἶναι πατὴρ, καὶ ὅν γε ἐξέπεμψεν, αὐτοῦ ὑπεξάγοντα, τοῦτον ἁλόντα ἐκδικῆσαι μὴ δυνάμενος. ἑξῆς δὲ τούτοις ὡσπερεὶ πρὸς ἡμᾶς τοὺς ὁμολογοῦντας οὐκ ἀλλοτρίου τινὸς εἶναι καὶ ξένου θεοῦ τόνδε τὸν κόσμον, τοιαῦτά φησιν· εἰ δὲ (αὐτοῦ) ταῦτ᾿ ἔστιν ἔργα, πῶς μὲν κακὰ ὁ θεὸς ἐποίει; πῶς δὲ πείθειν καὶ νουθετεῖν ἀδυνατεῖ; πῶς δ᾿ ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς ἀχαρίστοις καὶ πονηροῖς γενομένοις μεταμέλει καὶ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ τέχνην μέμφεται καὶ μισεῖ καὶ ἀπειλεῖ καὶ φθείρει τὰ ἴδια ἔκγονα; ἢ ποῖ ποτε ὑπεξάγει τοῦ κόσμου τοῦδε ὃν ἐποίησεν αὐτός; δοκεῖ δή μοι καὶ ἐν τούτοις μὴ σαφηνίζων, τίνα ἐστὶ τὰ κακὰ, καίτοι γε καὶ ἐν Ἕλλησι πολλῶν αἱρέσεων γενομένων περὶ ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν, συναρπάζων ὡς ἀκόλουθον ἡμῖν, τοῖς φάσκουσιν ἔργα τοῦ ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεοῦ εἶναι καὶ τόνδε τὸν κόσμον, τὸ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς κακῶν εἶναι ποιητὴν τὸν θεόν. ἐχέτω μὲν οὖν ὅπως ποτὲ ἔχει τὰ περὶ τῶν κακῶν, πότερον ὁ θεὸς αὐτὰ πεποίηκεν ἢ μὴ, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ παρακολουθήσεως γεγένηται τῆς πρὸς τὰ προηγούμενα· θαυμάζω δὲ εἰ μὴ ὅπερ ἡμῖν, τοῖς φάσκουσιν ἔργα εἶναι τοῦ ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεοῦ καὶ τόνδε τὸν κόσμον, οἴεται ἀκολουθεῖν περὶ τοῦ τὸν θεὸν τὰ κακὰ πεποιηκέναι, ἀκολουθεῖ ὅσον ἐφ᾿ οἷς λέγει καὶ αὐτός. εἴποι γὰρ ἄν τις πρὸς τὸν Κέλσον· εἰ αὐτοῦ ταῦτ᾿ ἔστιν ἔργα, πῶς μὲν κακὰ ὁ θεὸς ἐποίει; πῶς δὲ πείθειν καὶ νουθετεῖν ἀδυνατεῖ; κακία δὲ ἡ μεγίστη ἐν λόγοις ἐστὶν, ὅτε ἐγκαλεῖ τις τοῖς ἑτεροδόξοις περί τινων δογμάτων ὡς οὐχ ὑγιῶν, πολλῷ πρότερον αὐτὸς ἔχων τὰ ἐγκλήματα ἐν τοῖς ἰδίοις δόγμασιν.