Jonah and Daniel set against Jesus
Then, next, as if his aim were to fill up a book, he wanted us to think Jonah a god rather than Jesus, preferring Jonah, who preached repentance to one city, Nineveh (Jonah 3:4–5), to Jesus, who preached repentance to the whole world and achieved more than Jonah did. He wanted us to proclaim as a god the man who, by a prodigy and against all expectation, spent “three days and three nights” “in the belly of the sea monster” (Jonah 1:17; Matthew 12:40); but the One who undertook to die for mankind, to whom God bore witness through the prophets, Celsus would not allow to be worthy of the honour that ranks second after the God of the universe, for the mighty deeds he did in heaven and on earth. And Jonah, so as not to preach what God had commanded, was swallowed by the sea monster (Jonah 1:3, 17), whereas Jesus, because he taught what God willed, took upon himself death for mankind.
Next he says that we ought to worship Daniel, who came up from the lions (Daniel 6:23), rather than Jesus, who trampled down the savagery of every opposing power and gave us “authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). Then, having no others to name, he says, “or others still more fantastic than these”, so as to revile Jonah and Daniel at the same time; for the spirit in Celsus did not know how to speak well of the righteous.
Greek
Εἶθ᾿ ἑξῆς ὡσπερεὶ σκοπὸν ἔχων τὸ συμπληροῦν βιβλίον ἐβούλετο ἡμᾶς μᾶλλον τὸν Ἰωνᾶν νομίσαι θεὸν ἤπερ Ἰησοῦν, Ἰωνᾶν, τὸν κηρύξαντα μετάνοιαν μιᾷ πόλει τῇ Νινευὴ, προκρίνων Ἰησοῦ, τοῦ κηρύξαντος μετάνοιαν ὅλῳ τῷ κόσμῳ καὶ μᾶλλον ἐκείνου ἀνύσαντος. καὶ τὸν μὲν „ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ τοῦ κήτους“ τεραστίως ποιήσαντα καὶ παραδόξως „τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας“ ἐβούλετο ἡμᾶς ἀναγορεῦσαι θεὸν, τὸν δ᾿ ἀναδεξάμενον ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπων ἀποθανεῖν οὐκ ἤθελε Κέλσος, μαρτυρούμενον ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ διὰ τῶν προφητῶν, ἄξιον εἶναι τῆς δευτερευούσης μετὰ τὸν θεὸν τῶν ὅλων, δι᾿ ἃ ἐποίησεν ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς ἀνδραγαθήματα, τιμῆς. καὶ Ἰωνᾶς μὲν, ἵνα ·μὴ κηρύξῃ τὸ προστεταγμένον ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, κατεπόθη ὑπὸ τοῦ κήτους, Ἰησοῦς δὲ, ἐπεὶ ἐδίδαξεν ἅπερ ὁ θεὸς ἐβούλετο, τὸν ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπων θάνατον ἀνεδέξατο. ἑξῆς δέ φησιν ὅτι ἔδει μᾶλλον τὸν Δανιὴλ, ἀναβάντα ἀπὸ τῶν λεόντων, προσκυνεῖσθαι ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν ἤπερ τὸν Ἰησοῦν. τὴν ἀγριότητα πάσης δυνάμεως ἀντικειμένης καταπατήσαντα καὶ ἡμῖν δόντα „ἐξουσίαν πατεῖν ἐπάνω ὄφεων καὶ σκορπίων καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ ἐχθροῦ“. εἶτα μὴ ἔχων ἄλλους λέγειν φησίν· ἢ οἱ τῶνδε ἔτι τερατωδέστεροι, ἅμα ἵνα λοιδορήσῃ τὸν Ἰωνᾶν καὶ τὸν Δανιήλ· τὸ γὰρ ἐν Κέλσῳ πνεῦμα εὐλογεῖν δικαίους οὐκ ἠπίστατο.