Oracles of demons and the risen Jesus
We have no need, then, since we seek God in this way, to go off where Celsus sends us, to Trophonius, to Amphiaraus and to Mopsus, where he says gods in human form are to be seen, and, as Celsus puts it, “not deceptive but even plainly visible.” For we know that these are demons, fed on the savour of burnt fat, on blood, and on the fumes that rise from the sacrifices, and so held fast in prisons built from their own craving; these the Greeks have taken to be temples of gods. But we know that such places are the dwellings of deceiving demons.
After this Celsus speaks with malice about the gods in human form already mentioned, as he calls them, saying that one will see them “not slipping by once, like the one who deceived these people, but always conversing with any who wish.” By these words he seems to have thought that Jesus, who appeared to his disciples after his resurrection from the dead, was a phantom, as though he had slipped by in order to be seen by them; while those he named gods in human form he supposes to converse always with any who wish.
But how can a phantom which, as he himself says, slipped by to deceive those who saw it, go on after that sight to accomplish so much, to turn the souls of such people, and to persuade them that they must do everything in a way pleasing to God, as men who will be judged? And how does what he calls a phantom drive out demons and perform other works not to be despised, not confined to one allotted place, as his gods in human form are, but reaching through the whole inhabited world, and by its own divinity gathering and drawing all whom it finds to have turned themselves toward the good life?
Greek
Οὐ χρεία τοίνυν ἡμῖν ὡς οὕτω ζητοῦσι τὸν θεὸν ἀπιέναι, ὅπου ἡμᾶς πέμπει ὁ Κέλσος, εἰς Τροφωνίου καὶ εἰς Ἀμφιάρεω καὶ εἰς Μόψου, ἔνθα φησὶν ἀνθρωποειδεῖς θεωρεῖσθαι θεοὺς καὶ, ὡς λέγει Κέλσος, οὐ ψευδομένους ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐναργεῖς. ἴσμεν γὰρ ἡμεῖς τούτους δαίμονας ὄντας, τρεφομένους κνίσσαις καὶ αἵμασι καὶ ταῖς ἀπὸ τῶν θυσιῶν ἀναθυμιάσεσι καὶ οὕτω παρακατεχομένους ἐν τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας αὐτῶν κατασκευασθεῖσι δεσμωτηρίοις· ἅτινα ἱερὰ θεῶν Ἕλληνες νενομίκασιν. ἀλλ᾿ ἡμεῖς ἴσμεν ἀπατεώνων δαιμόνων εἶναι τὰ τοιαῦτα οἰκητήρια. μετὰ ταῦτα κακοήθως ὁ Κέλσος φησὶ περὶ τῶν προειρημένων ἀνθρωποειδῶν κατ᾿ αὐτὸν θεῶν ὅτι ὄψεταί τις αὐτοὺς οὐχ ἅπαξ παραῤῥυέντας ὥσπερ τὸν τούτους ἐξαπατήσαντα ἀλλ᾿ ἀεὶ τοῖς βουλομένοις ὁμιλοῦντας. καὶ ἔοικέ γε διὰ τούτων φάσμα μὲν νενομικέναι τὸν Ἰησοῦν, μετὰ τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀνάστασιν ἐπιφανέντα τοῖς μαθηταῖς, ὡσπερεὶ παραῤῥεύσαντα πρὸς τὸ ὀφθῆναι αὐτοῖς· οὕς δ᾿ ὠνόμασε λέγων ἀνθρωποειδεῖς θεοὺς, τούτους οἴεται ἀεὶ τοῖς βουλομένοις ὁμιλεῖν. πῶς δὲ δύναται φάσμα, ὥς φησιν αὐτὸς, παραῤῥυὲν ἐπ᾿ ἀπάτῃ τῶν θεασαμένων καὶ μετὰ τὴν τότε ὄψιν τοσαῦτα ἐνεργεῖν καὶ ἐπιστρέφειν τὰς τῶν τοιούτων ψυχὰς καὶ πειθὼ ἐμποιεῖν αὐταῖς περὶ τοῦ πάντα δεῖν ἀρεσκόντως πράττειν θεῷ ὡς κριθησομένους; πῶς δὲ φάσμα ὀνομασθὲν ἀπελαύνει δαιμόνια καὶ ἄλλας οὐκ εὐκαταφρονήτους ἐνεργείας ἐνεργεῖ, οὐχ ἕνα κεκληρωμένον τόπον ὡς οἱ κατ᾿ αὐτὸν ἀνθρωποειδεῖς θεοὶ ἀλλὰ διῆκον ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην καὶ συνάγον καὶ ἕλκον τῇ ἑαυτοῦ θειότητι οὓς ἂν εὕροι πρὸς τὸν καλὸν βίον κλίναντας ἑαυτούς;