The prophets foretold the death of a man
But not even the things we took up by way of hypothesis are like the prophecies about Jesus. For the prophecies did not foretell that God would be crucified. Of him who took death upon himself they say: “And we saw him, and he had no form or beauty; but his form was without honour, falling short of the sons of men; a man stricken and in pain, and knowing how to bear weakness” (Isaiah 53:2–3). See, then, how plainly they have called a man the one who suffered human things. And Jesus himself, knowing exactly that what was dying was a man, says to those plotting against him: “But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God” (John 8:40).
But if there was something divine in the man understood in him, namely the Only-begotten of God and “the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15), who says “I am the truth” (John 14:6), and “I am the life” (John 11:25), and “I am the door” (John 10:9), and “I am the way” (John 14:6), and “I am the living bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:51), then surely the account of him and of his essence is a different one from the account of the man understood in Jesus.
That is why not even the very simplest Christians, who have not been trained in critical reasoning, would say that the truth died, or the life, or the way, or the living bread that came down from heaven, or the resurrection. For he who, in the man seen in Jesus, taught the words “I am the resurrection” (John 11:25) says that he himself is the resurrection. Indeed, none of us is so witless as to say: “The life has died,” or “The resurrection has died.” Celsus’s hypothesis would have had some ground if we claimed that the prophets had foretold that God the Word would die, or the truth, or the life, or the resurrection, or any other of the things which the Son of God says he is.
Greek
Ἀλλ᾿ οὐδ᾿ ἅπερ ἐν ὑποθέσει παρειλήφαμεν παραπλήσιά ἐστι ταῖς περὶ Ἰησοῦ προφητείαις. οὐ γὰρ προεῖπον αἱ προφητεῖαι θεὸν σταυρωθήσεσθαι, αἵτινές φασι περὶ τοῦ ἀναδεξαμένου τὸν θάνατον· „καὶ εἴδομεν αὐτὸν, καὶ οὐκ εἶχεν εἶδος οὐδὲ κάλλος, ἀλλὰ τὸ εἶδος αὐτοῦ ἄτιμον, ἐκλεῖπον παρὰ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων· ἄνθρωπος ἐν πληγῇ ὢν καὶ πόνῳ καὶ εἰδὼς φέρειν μαλακίαν.“ ὅρα οὖν (ὡς) σαφῶς ἄνθρωπον εἰρήκασι τὸν πεπονθότα ἀνθρώπινα. καὶ αὐτὸς ἀκριβῶς εἰδὼς Ἰησοῦς ὅτι τὸ ἀποθνῇσκον ἄνθρωπος ἦν, φησὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἐπιβουλεύοντας αὐτῷ· „νῦν δὲ ζητεῖτέ με ἀποκτεῖναι, ἄνθρωπον, ὃς τὴν ἀλήθειαν ὑμῖν λελάληκα, ἣν ἤκουσα ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ.“ εἰ δέ τι θεῖον ἐν τῷ κατ᾿ αὐτὸν νοουμένῳ ἀνθρώπῳ ἐτύγχανεν, ὅπερ ἦν ὁ μονογενὴς τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ὁ „πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως,“ ὁ λέγων· „ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἀλήθεια“ καὶ „ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ζωὴ“ καὶ „ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ θύρα“ καὶ „ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς“ καὶ „ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ἄρτος ὁ ζῶν ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβάς“· ἄλλος δή που ὁ περὶ τούτου καὶ τῆς οὐσίας αὐτοῦ λόγος ἐστὶ παρὰ τὸν περὶ τοῦ νοουμένου κατὰ τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἀνθρώπου. διόπερ οὐδ᾿ οἱ πάνυ ἁπλούστατοι καὶ λόγοις οὐκ ἐντεθραμμένοι ἐξεταστικοῖς Χριστιανοὶ εἴποιεν ἂν τεθνηκέναι τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἢ τὴν ζωὴν ἢ τὴν ὁδὸν ἢ τὸν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καταβάντα ζῶντα ἄρτον ἢ τὴν ἀνάστασιν· φησὶ γὰρ ἑαυτὸν ἀνάστασιν εἶναι ὁ ἐν τῷ φαινομένῳ ἀνθρώπῳ κατὰ τὸν Ἰησοῦν διδάξας τὸ „ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἀνάστασις.“ ἀλλὰ καὶ οὐδεὶς (οὕτως) ἐμβρόντητος ἡμῶν ἐστιν, ἵν᾿ εἴπῃ· τέθνηκεν „ἡ ζωὴ“ ἤ· τέθνηκεν „ἡ ἀνάστασις.“ ἦν δ᾿ ἂν τὸ τῆς ὑποθέσεως τοῦ Κέλσου χώραν ἔχον, εἰ ἐφάσκομεν προειρηκέναι τοὺς προφήτας τεθνήξεσθαι τὸν θεὸν λόγον ἢ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἢ τὴν ζωὴν ἢ τὴν ἀνάστασιν ἤ τι τῶν ἄλλων, ἅ φησιν εἶναι ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ.