How the Word makes the Father known
So if Celsus asks us how we think we come to know God, and how we shall be saved and brought to him, we will answer that the Word of God is able, when he comes to those who seek him or to those who receive him when he appears, to make known and to reveal the Father (Matthew 11:27), who was not seen before his coming. Who else can save the soul of man and bring it to the God who is over all, except God the Word? He was “in the beginning with God” (John 1:2), and for the sake of those who had clung to the flesh and become what flesh is, he “became flesh” (John 1:14), so that he might be received by those who could not see him in so far as he was “the Word,” and was “with God,” “and was God” (John 1:1).
And being spoken of in bodily terms and proclaimed as “flesh,” he calls to himself those who are flesh, so that he may first make them be formed after the Word who became flesh, and after this lead them up to see him as he was before he became “flesh.” In this way, once they have been helped and have climbed up from the first lessons according to the flesh, they may say: “Even though we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know him in that way” (2 Corinthians 5:16).
He “became flesh,” then, and having become “flesh” he “dwelt among us” (John 1:14), not coming to be outside us. And having dwelt and come to be among us, he did not stay in his first form. He led us up onto the “high mountain” (Matthew 17:1) of the Word and showed us his glorious form and the brightness of his garments (Matthew 17:2), and not his own only, but also that of the spiritual law, which is “Moses,” seen “in glory” with Jesus (Luke 9:30–31). He showed us also the whole of prophecy, which did not die even after he became man, but was taken up into heaven; Elijah was its symbol (2 Kings 2:11). And one who has gazed on these things could say: “We beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Celsus, then, has made up in a rather crude way what he thinks we will say to his question, how we think we shall come to know God and how we shall be saved and brought to him. But we would say what has been set out above.
Greek
Διόπερ ἐὰν ἔρηται ἡμᾶς Κέλσος, πῶς οἰόμεθα γνωρίζειν τὸν θεὸν, καὶ πῶς πρὸς αὐτὸν σωθήσεσθαι· ἀποκρινούμεθα ὅτι ἱκανός ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγος, γενόμενος τοῖς ζητοῦσιν αὐτὸν ἢ τοῖς ἐπιφαινόμενον αὐτὸν παραδεχομένοις, γνωρίσαι καὶ ἀποκαλύψαι τὸν πατέρα, πρὸ τῆς παρουσίας αὐτοῦ οὐχ ὁρώμενον. τίς δ᾿ ἄλλος σῶσαι καὶ προσαγαγεῖν τῷ ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεῷ δύναται τὴν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ψυχὴν ἢ ὁ θεὸς λόγος; ὅστις „ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν“ ὢν διὰ τοὺς κολληθέντας τῇ σαρκὶ καὶ γενομένους ὅπερ „σὰρξ“ „ἐγένετο“ „σὰρξ,“ ἵνα χωρηθῇ ὑπὸ τῶν μὴ δυναμένων αὐτὸν βλέπειν καθὸ „λόγος“ ἦν καὶ „πρὸς θεὸν“ ἦν „καὶ θεὸς ἦν.“ καὶ σωματικῶς γε λαλούμενος καὶ ὡς „σὰρξ“ ἀπαγγελλόμενος ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτὸν καλεῖ τοὺς ὄντας σάρκα, ἵν᾿ αὐτοὺς ποιήσῃ πρῶτον μορφωθῆναι κατὰ λόγον τὸν γενόμενον σάρκα, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο αὐτοὺς ἀναβιβάσῃ ἐπὶ τὸ ἰδεῖν αὐτὸν, ὅπερ ἦν πρὶν γένηται „σάρξ“· ὥστε αὐτοὺς ὠφεληθέντας καὶ ἀναβάντας ἀπὸ τῆς κατὰ σάρκα εἰσαγωγῆς εἰπεῖν τό· „εἰ καὶ Χριστόν ποτε κατὰ σάρκα ἐγνώκαμεν, ἀλλὰ νῦν οὐκέτι γινώσκομεν.“ „σὰρξ“ οὖν „ἐγένετο,“ καὶ γενόμενος „σὰρξ“ „ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν“ οὐκ ἔξω γινόμενος ἡμῶν, σκηνώσας δὲ καὶ γενόμενος ἐν ἡμῖν οὐκ ἔμεινεν ἐπὶ τῆς πρώτης μορφῆς, ἀλλ᾿ ἀναβιβάσας ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ τὸ λογικὸν „ὑψηλὸν ὄρος“ ἔδειξεν ἡμῖν τὴν ἔνδοξον μορφὴν ἑαυτοῦ καὶ τὴν λαμπρότητα τῶν ἐνδυμάτων αὐτοῦ καὶ οὐχ ἑαυτοῦ γε μόνου ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ πνευματικοῦ γε νόμου, ὅς ἐστιν „ἐν δόξῃ“ ὀφθεὶς μετὰ Ἰησοῦ „Μωϋσῆς“. ἔδειξε δ᾿ ἡμῖν καὶ πᾶσαν προφητείαν, οὐδὲ μετὰ τὸ ἐνανθρωπῆσαι ἀποθνῄσκουσαν ἀλλ᾿ ἀναλαμβανομένην εἰς οὐρανὸν, ἧς σύμβολον Ἠλίας ἦν. ὁ δὲ ταῦτα θεωρήσας εἴποι ἂν τό· „ἐθεασάμεθα τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ, δόξαν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρὰ πατρὸς, πλήρης χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας.“ Κέλσος μὲν οὖν ἰδιωτικώτερον ἀνέπλασεν ἃ οἴεται ἡμᾶς λέξειν πρὸς τὸ πύσμα αὐτοῦ· πῶς οἰόμεθα γνωρίσειν τὸν θεὸν, καὶ πῶς σωθήσεσθαι πρὸς αὐτόν; ἡμεῖς δὲ εἴποιμεν ἂν τὰ προεκκείμενα.