True realities bear the names of earthly things
Celsus himself puts off the explanation of the myth in Plato, which is found in the Phaedo, saying: “What he means to show by these words is not easy for everyone to know, unless one were able to understand what it is that he says: ‘through weakness and slowness we are not able to pass through to the uttermost air’; and ‘if one’s nature were able to bear the sight, one would know that that is the true heaven and the true light’ (Plato, Phaedo 109d–110a).” In the same way we too, thinking that it does not belong to the present treatise to make clear what concerns the holy and good land and the city of God in it, put this off to our commentaries on the prophets. We have already given a partial account, as far as we could, of the city of God in what we have written on the forty-fifth Psalm and the forty-seventh Psalm (Psalms 46 and 48).
The most ancient teaching of Moses and the prophets knows that all the true things bear the same names as the more common things here. For example, it speaks of a “true light” (John 1:9), and a “heaven” other than “the firmament” (Genesis 1:1, 1:8), and a sun “of righteousness” (Malachi 4:2) other than the sun we perceive with the senses. And, in a word, to set them apart from the things of sense, none of which is true, it says: “God, true are his works” (Deuteronomy 32:4). It applies the name “works of God” to some things, and the so-called “works of his hands” to lesser ones. At any rate, when it reproaches certain people through Isaiah, it says: “They do not look upon the works of the Lord, and they do not consider the works of his hands” (Isaiah 5:12). So much for this.
Greek
Ὥσπερ δὲ αὐτὸς τὴν διήγησιν ἀνατίθεται τοῦ παρὰ Πλάτωνι μύθου, κειμένου (ἐν) τῷ Φαίδωνι. λέγων τάδε· τί δὲ διὰ τούτων ἐμφανίζει, οὐ παντὶ γνῶναι ῥᾴδιον· εἰ μὴ ὅστις ἐπαΐειν δύναιτο, τί ποτ᾿ ἐστὶν ἐκεῖνο ὅ φησιν· „ὑπ᾿ ἀσθενείας καὶ βραδυτῆτος οὐχ οἱους τε εἶναι διεξελθεῖν ἐπ᾿ ἔσχατον τὸν ἀέρα“· „καὶ εἰ ἡ φύσις ἱκανὴ εἴη ἀνασχέσθαι θεωροῦσα, γνῶναι ἂν ὅτι ἐκεῖνός ἐστιν ὁ ἀληθῶς οὐρανὸς καὶ τὸ ἀληθινὸν φῶς“· τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ ἡμεῖς τὰ περὶ τῆς ἁγίας καὶ ἀγαθῆς γῆς καὶ τῆς ἐν αὐτῇ πόλεως τοῦ θεοῦ οὐ κατὰ τὴν ἐνεστῶσαν νομίζοντες εἶναι πραγματείαν σαφηνίσαι ὑπερτιθέμεθα εἰς τὰ ἐξηγητικὰ τῶν προφητῶν, ἀπὸ μέρους κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἡμῖν διηγησάμενοι περὶ πόλεως θεοῦ ἐν τοῖς πραγματευθεῖσιν ἡμῖν εἰς τὸν τεσσαρακοστὸν καὶ πέμπτον ψαλμὸν καὶ τὸν τεσσαρακοστὸν καὶ ἕβδομον ψαλμόν. οἶδε δὲ ὁ ἀρχαιότατος Μωϋσέως καὶ τῶν προφητῶν λόγος τὰ ἀληθινὰ πάντα ὁμώνυμα τοῖς τῇδε καθολικωτέροις, οἷον „ἀληθινὸν φῶς“ καὶ „οὐρανὸν“ ἕτερον παρὰ „τὸ στερέωμα“ καὶ τὸν „τῆς δικαιοσύνης“ ἥλιον ἄλλον παρὰ τὸν αἰσθητόν. καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς δέ φησιν [ὅτι] πρὸς ἀντιδιαστολὴν τῶν αἰσθητῶν, ὧν οὐδέν ἐστιν ἀληθινὸν, τό· „θεὸς, ἀληθινὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ,“ ἐπ᾿ ἄλλων μὲν τάσσων τὰ ἔργα τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπὶ ἡττόνων δὲ τὰ λεγόμενα „ἔργα τῶν χειρῶν“ αὐτοῦ. μεμφόμενος γοῦν τισι διὰ τοῦ Ἡσαΐου φησί· „τὰ ἔργα κυρίου οὐκ ἐμβλέπουσι καὶ τὰ ἔργα τῶν χειρῶν αὐτοῦ οὐ κατανοοῦσι.“ καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον.