The virgin birth and the limits of sight
Next, repeating himself after saying a great deal in the earlier parts and mocking the birth of God from a virgin, to which we have replied as well as we could, he says: “If he wanted to send down a spirit from himself, why did he need to breathe it into a woman’s womb? For since he already knew how to form men, he could have formed a body around this one too, and not cast his own spirit into such great pollution. In that way he would not even have been disbelieved, if he had been begotten straight from above.”
He said this because he did not know the virgin and pure birth, without any corruption, of the body that was to serve the salvation of men. And though he sets out the Stoic doctrine, he shows no sign of having learned what it teaches about things indifferent, and thinks that the divine nature was cast into pollution and was polluted, whether by coming to be in a woman’s body until a body was formed around it, or by taking up a body. He does much the same as those who think that the rays of the sun are polluted in mire and in foul-smelling bodies, and do not remain pure even there.
Even if, on Celsus’s supposition, the body had been formed for Jesus without birth, those who saw the body would not at once have believed that it did not come from birth. For what is seen does not also announce the nature from which it came. Suppose, for instance, there were some honey not made by bees: no one could tell from tasting it or looking at it that it was not from bees. Just so, honey from bees does not show its origin to the senses; experience shows that it comes from bees. So too experience teaches that wine comes from the vine; for the taste does not tell us that it comes from the vine. In the same way, then, the body that is perceived does not announce how it came into being.
You will be brought to accept what I say by the example of the heavenly bodies. We perceive their existence and their brightness when we see them; but sense surely does not suggest to us whether they have come into being or are without origin. In fact schools of thought have arisen about these very things; and even those who say they have come into being do not agree on how they came into being. For sense does not suggest to them in what way they came into being, even if reason, pressing hard, finds that they did come into being.
Greek
Εἶθ᾿ ἑξῆς ταυτολογῶν μετὰ τὸ πολλὰ ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω εἰπεῖν καὶ χλευάσαι τὴν ἐκ παρθένου γέννησιν τοῦ θεοῦ, πρὸς ἣν κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἡμῖν ἀπηντήσαμεν, φησίν· εἰ δ᾿ ἐβούλετο πνεῦμα ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ καταπέμψαι, τί ἐδεῖτο εἰς γυναικὸς γαστέρα ἐμπνεῖν; ἐδύνατο γὰρ ἤδη πλάσσειν ἀνθρώπους εἰδὼς καὶ τούτῳ περιπλάσαι σῶμα καὶ μὴ τὸ ἴδιον πνεῦμα εἰς τοσοῦτον μίασμα ἐμβαλεῖν· οὕτως μέν τ᾿ ἂν οὐδ᾿ ἠπιστεῖτο, εἰ ἄνωθεν εὐθὺς ἔσπαρτο. καὶ ταῦτ᾿ εἶπεν, ἐπεὶ μὴ εἶδε τὴν παρθενικὴν καὶ καθαρὰν γέννησιν καὶ ἀπὸ μηδεμιᾶς φθορᾶς τοῦ μέλλοντος ὑπηρετήσασθαι τῇ ἀνθρώπων σωτηρίᾳ σώματος. οἴεται δὲ ὁ τὸν Στωϊκὸν λόγον ἐκτιθέμενος καὶ μὴ προσποιούμενος τὰ περὶ ἀδιαφόρων μεμαθηκέναι εἰς μίασμα ἐμβεβλῆσθαι τὴν θείαν φύσιν καὶ μεμιάσθαι εἴτε γενομένην ἐν γυναικὸς σώματι, ἕως περιπλασθῇ αὐτῇ τὸ σῶμα, εἴτε σῶμα ἀνειληφυῖαν· παραπλήσιόν τι ποιῶν τοῖς οἰομένοις τὰς αὐγὰς τοῦ ἡλίου μιαίνεσθαι ἐν τοῖς βορβόροις καὶ τοῖς δυσώδεσι σώμασι καὶ μὴ μένειν κἀκεῖ καθαράς. καὶ εἰ κατὰ τὴν Κέλσου δὲ ὑπόθεσιν χωρὶς γεννήσεως περιεπλάσατο τὸ σῶμα τῷ Ἰησοῦ. (οὐκ) εὐθὺς ἂν οἱ βλέποντες τὸ σῶμα ἐπίστευον ὅτι οὐκ ἀπὸ γεννήσεως ἦν· οὐδὲ γὰρ τὸ βλεπόμενον ἀπαγγέλλει καὶ τὴν φύσιν, ὅθεν γεγένηται. οἷον εἰ καθ᾿ ὑπόθεσιν μέλι ἦν τι μὴ ἀπὸ μελισσῶν, οὐκ ἂν τοῦτό τις ἀπήγγελλεν ἀπὸ τῆς γεύσεως ἢ τῆς ὄψεως. ὅτι μὴ ἀπὸ μελισσῶν ἐστιν· ὡς οὐδὲ τὸ ἀπὸ μελισσῶν δείκνυσι τῇ αἰσθήσει τὴν ἀρχὴν, ἀλλ᾿ ἡ πεῖρα δείκνυσιν ὅτι τοῦτ᾿ μελισσῶν ἐστιν. οὕτω δὲ καὶ ἡ πεῖρα διδάσκει ὅτι ἀπὸ ἀμπέλου ὁ οἶνος· οὐ γὰρ ἀναφέρει ἡ γεῦσις τὸ ἀπὸ ἀμπέλου. τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον τοίνυν τὸ αἰσθητὸν σῶμα οὐκ ἀπαγγέλλει τὸν τρόπον τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ. προσαχθήσῃ δὲ τῷ λεγομένῳ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐν οὐρανοῖς, ὧν τῆς ὑποστάσεως καὶ τῆς λαμπρότητος αἰσθόμεθα βλέποντες ἀλλ᾿ οὐ δή που ἡ αἴσθησις ἡμῖν ὑποβάλλει, πότερον γενητὰ ἢ ἀγένητά ἐστιν. αἱρέσεις γοῦν καὶ περὶ τούτων συνέστησαν· ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ λέγοντες αὐτὰ γενητὰ οὐχ ὁμονοοῦσι περὶ τοῦ πῶς ἐστι γενητά· οὐδὲ γὰρ ὑποβάλλει ἡ αἴσθησις αὐτῶν. κἂν βιασάμενος ὁ λόγος εὕρῃ ὅτι γενητά ἐστι. περὶ τοῦ τίνα τρόπον γεγένηται.