Darkness for idolaters, light for the Word’s followers
Let us look also at his next statement, in which he brings on stage, as it were, someone who, after hearing these things, says something like this: “How then am I to know God? And how am I to learn the way there? And how do you show him to me? For now you cast darkness before my eyes, and I see nothing clearly.” Then he gives what is meant as an answer to the one who raised this difficulty, and thinks he is supplying the reason why darkness has been poured over the eyes of the one who said these things. He says: “Those whom someone leads out of darkness into bright light, being unable to bear the brilliance, have their sight afflicted and harmed, and think they have been blinded.”
To this too we shall reply that all those sit in darkness and are settled in it who gaze at the wicked crafts of painters, modellers and makers of statues, and who refuse to look up and to rise in mind from things visible and from everything perceived by the senses to the Maker of the universe, who is light (1 John 1:5). But everyone who has followed the rays of the Word is in light. For the Word has shown from how great an ignorance and impiety, and from how great a want of learning about the divine, these things were worshipped instead of God, and has taken the mind of anyone who wishes to be saved and led it by the hand to the uncreated God who is over all. For “the people who sat in darkness”, the people of the nations, “saw a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death a light dawned” (Matthew 4:16; Isaiah 9:2), namely Jesus, who is God.
No Christian, then, answers Celsus or any of those who accuse the divine word by saying, “How am I to know God?” For each of them has known God, as far as that is possible. And no one says, “How am I to learn the way there?”, since he has heard the one who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6), and has tasted, in walking it, the benefit that comes from walking it. Nor would any Christian say to Celsus, “How do you show God to me?”
Greek
Ἴδωμεν δὲ καὶ τὴν ἑξῆς αὐτοῦ λέξιν, δι᾿ ἧς οἱονεὶ προσωποποιεῖταί τινα, μετὰ τὸ ἀκοῦσαι τούτων τοιαῦτα λέγοντα· πῶς οὖν γνῶ τὸν θεόν; καὶ πῶς τὴν ἐκεῖσε ὁδὸν μάθω; καὶ πῶς αὐτόν μοι δεικνύεις; ὡς νῦν γε σκότον μου τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν προβάλλεις, καὶ οὐδὲν ἐναργὲς βλέπω. εἶτα πρὸς τὸν οὕτως ἐπαπορήσαντα οἱονεὶ ἀποκρίνεται, καί [φησι] τὴν αἰτίαν τοῦ σκότον [εἶναι] τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν κατακεχύσθαι τοῦ εἰπόντος τὰ προειρημένα ἀποδιδόναι νομίζει φάσκων· οὓς ἄν τις εἰς λαμπρὸς φῶς ἐκ σκότους προαγάγῃ, τούτους μὴ δυναμένους ἀντέχειν ταῖς μαρμαρυγαῖς κολάζεσθαι τὴν ὄψιν καὶ βλάπτεσθαι καὶ νομίζειν πηροῦσθαι. καὶ πρὸς ταῦτα δὲ φήσομεν καθῆσθαι μὲν ἐν σκότῳ καὶ ἱδρῦσθαι ἐν αὐτῷ πάντας τοὺς εἰς τὰς τῶν ζωγράφων καὶ πλαστῶν τῶν καὶ ἀνδριαντοποιῶν ἐνορῶντας κακοτεχνίας, μὴ βουλομένους δ᾿ ἀναβλέψαι καὶ ἀναβῆναι τῷ νῷ ἀπὸ ὁρατῶν καὶ πάντων αἰσθητῶν ἐπὶ τὸν ὅλων δημιουργὸν, ὅς ἐστι φῶς· ἐν φωτὶ δὲ τυγχάνειν πάντα τὸν ταῖς τοῦ λόγου αὐγαῖς ἀκολουθήσαντα, δείξαντος ἀφ᾿ ὅσης ἀγνοίας καὶ ἀσεβείας καὶ τῆς περὶ τὸ θεῖον ἀμαθίας ταῦτα ἀντὶ τοῦ θεοῦ προσεκυνεῖτο, καὶ χειραγωγήσαντος τὸν τοῦ βουλομένου σῴζεσθαι νοῦν πρὸς τὸν ἀγένητον καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεόν. „λαὸς“ γὰρ „ὁ καθήμενος ἐν σκοτίᾳ“, ὁ τῶν ἐθνῶν, „φῶς εἶδε μέγα, καὶ τοῖς καθημένοις ἐν χώρᾳ καὶ σκιᾷ θανάτου φῶς ἀνέτειλεν,“ ὁ θεὸς Ἰησοῦς. οὐδεὶς οὖν Χριστιανὸς ἀποκρίνεται τῷ Κέλσῳ ἤ τινι τῶν κατηγορούντων τοῦ θείου λόγου φάσκων· πῶς γνῶ τὸν θεόν; ἕκαστος γὰρ αὐτῶν, ὡς ἐγχωρεῖ, ἔγνω τὸν θεόν. καὶ οὐδείς φησι· πῶς τὴν ἐκεῖσε ὁδὸν μάθω; ἅτε ἀκούσας τοῦ εἰπόντος· „ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωὴ“ καὶ γευσάμενος ἐν τῷ ὁδεύειν τῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ ὁδεύειν ὠφελείας. καὶ οὐδεὶς ἂν Χριστιανῶν λέγοι Κέλσῳ· πῶς μοι δεικνύεις τὸν θεόν;