Christians do not say that God has a body
After this, Celsus at some length sets down, as if they were said by us, things about God that we do not say: as though God were by nature a body, and a body of human form. And he wishes to overturn positions we have not laid down, which it is superfluous to quote, or his refutation of them either. For if we said what he claims we assert about God, and he were taking his stand against that, we would have had to set down his words, to establish our own position and to undo his. But if he strings together for himself things that he either heard from no one, or, granting even that he heard them, heard from some simple and guileless people who do not know the intent of our teaching, we need not busy ourselves with what is not necessary.
For our Scriptures plainly say that God is incorporeal. That is why “no one has ever seen God” (John 1:18), and “the firstborn of all creation” is said to be “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), as if it said “of the incorporeal God.” We have also dealt with God adequately in what came before, when we examined how we understand “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).
Greek
Ἑξῆς δὲ τούτοις ὁ Κέλσος διὰ πλειόνων τὰ μὴ λεγόμενα ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν τιθεὶς ὡς λεγόμενα ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ, ὡς σώματος τῇ φύσει τυγχάνοντος καὶ ἀνθρωποειδοῦς σώματος, ἀνατρέπειν ἐθέλει τὰ μὴ τεθειμένα ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν, ἅπερ περισσὸν παραθέσθαι ἢ τὴν ἀνατροπὴν αὐτῶν. εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἃ λέγει ἡμᾶς φάσκειν περὶ θεοῦ ἐλέγομεν, καὶ πρὸς αὐτὰ ἵστατο, ἀναγκαῖον ην ἡμῖν τὸ τιθέναι τὰς λέξεις αὐτοῦ καὶ κατασκευάζειν μὲν τὰ ἡμέτερα λύειν δὲ τὰ ἐκείνου· εἰ δ᾿ ἑαυτῷ συνείρει ἃ ἤτοι ἀπ᾿ οὐδενὸς ἤκουσεν ἢ, ἵνα καὶ δοθῇ ὅτι ἤκουσεν, ἀπό τινων ἁπλῶν καὶ ἀκεραίων καὶ μὴ εἰδότων τὸ τοῦ λόγου βούλημα, οὐ χρὴ ἡμᾶς τευτάζειν περὶ τὰ μὴ ἀναγκαῖα. σαφῶς γὰρ ἀσώματόν φασιν οἱ λόγοι τὸν θεόν· διὸ καὶ „θεὸν οὐδεὶς ἑώρακε πώποτε,“ καὶ „εἰκὼν“ λέγεται εἶναι „τοῦ ἀοράτου θεοῦ ὁ πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως,“ ὡς εἰ ἔλεγεν ἀσωμάτου. μετρίως δ᾿ ἐν τοῖς πρὸ τούτων καὶ περὶ θεοῦ διειλήφαμεν ἐξετάζοντες, πῶς νοοῦμεν τὸ „πνεῦμα ὁ θεὸς, καὶ τοὺς προσκυνοῦντας αὐτὸν ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ δεῖ προσκυνεῖν.“