Philosophers who knew God and bowed to images
At any rate, the divine word bears witness about those who grasped what Celsus sets out and who profess to practise philosophy by these doctrines, that “although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks, but became futile in their reasonings, and,” after so great a light of knowledge about what God had manifested to them, “their senseless heart,” for all its eagerness, “was darkened” (Romans 1:21). One can see, indeed, how those “who claim to be wise” (Romans 1:22) display signs of great folly, when, after such great discourses in their schools about God and the intelligible things, “they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things” (Romans 1:23).
And so they themselves, abandoned by providence as men who had not lived worthily of what God had manifested to them, wallow “in the lusts of their hearts, to uncleanness” (Romans 1:24), and “their bodies are dishonoured” (Romans 1:24) in indecencies and licentiousness, because they “exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25).
Greek
Μαρτυροῦνται γοῦν ὑπὸ τοῦ θείου λόγου οἱ τὰ παρὰ τῷ Κέλσῳ ἐκκείμενα καταλαβόντες καὶ κατὰ τὰ δόγματα ταῦτα φιλοσοφεῖν ἐπαγγελλόμενοι ὅτι „γνόντες τὸν θεὸν οὐχ ὡς θεὸν ἐδόξασαν ἢ εὐχαρίστησαν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐματαιώθησαν ἐν τοῖς διαλογισμοῖς αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐσκοτίσθη“ μετὰ τὸ τηλικοῦτο φῶς τῆς περὶ ὧν ἐφανέρωσεν αὐτοῖς ὁ θεὸς γνώσεως „ἡ“ ἐπειγομένη „ἀσύνετος αὐτῶν καρδία.“ ἔστι γοῦν ἰδεῖν, τίνα τρόπον οἱ „φάσκοντες εἶναι σοφοὶ“ μεγάλης μωρίας δείγματα ἐμφαίνουσιν, ὅτε μετὰ τοὺς τηλικούτους ἐν ταῖς διατριβαῖς περὶ θεοῦ καὶ τῶν νοητῶν λόγους „ἠλλάξαντο τὴν δόξαν τοῦ ἀφθάρτου θεοῦ ἐν ὁμοιώματι εἰκόνος φθαρτοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ πετεινῶν καὶ τετραπόδων καὶ ἑρπετῶν.“ διὸ καὶ αὐτοὶ μὲν καταλειφθέντες ὑπὸ τῆς προνοίας ὡς οὐκ ἀξίως βιώσαντες τῶν φανερωθέντων αὐτοῖς ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐγκαλινδοῦνται „ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῶν καρδιῶν αὐτῶν εἰς ἀκαθαρσίαν,“ καὶ ἀτιμάζεται „αὐτῶν τὰ σώματα“ ἐν ἀσχημοσύναις καὶ ἀκολασίαις, ἀνθ᾿ ὧν ἀντήλλαξαν „τὴν ἀλήθειαν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν τῷ ψεύδει, καὶ ἐσεβάσθησαν καὶ ἐλάτρευσαν τῇ κτίσει παρὰ τὸν κτίσαντα.“