The city that crucified Jesus
I do not know how Celsus has fallen, without meaning to, into showing by the facts that those whom a little earlier he praised as demons or gods are thoroughly base, taking revenge to repay an injury rather than punishing to correct, whenever someone reviles them. For he says: “If you had reviled Dionysus himself or Heracles while he was present, perhaps you would not have got away with it.” Let anyone who wishes explain how one who is not present hears anything, and why he is sometimes present and sometimes not, and what business demons have in moving from place to place.
After this he goes on, supposing that we call God the body of Jesus that was stretched out and punished, and not the divinity in him, and that it was held to be God at the time it was stretched out and punished: “But those who stretched out and punished your God when he was present suffered nothing for doing it.” We have said a good deal earlier about the human sufferings he underwent, and now we pass over the subject on purpose, so as not to seem to repeat ourselves.
But since he says that those who punished Jesus suffered nothing even afterwards, in all the long life that followed, we will show him, and all who wish to learn, what became of the city in which the Jewish people demanded that Jesus be crucified, saying, “Crucify, crucify him” (Luke 23:21). For they preferred that the robber, who had been thrown “into prison for insurrection and murder,” be released, “but Jesus” (Luke 23:19; Luke 23:25), who had been handed over “out of envy” (Matthew 27:18; Mark 15:10), be crucified. Not long afterwards that city was attacked in war and besieged for so long a time that it was overturned from its foundations and laid waste. For God judged those who lived in that place unworthy of the life that people share in common. Indeed, if I may say something strange, it was in sparing them, and seeing that they were past cure and could not be changed for the better, and were growing every day in the flood of their wickedness, that he handed them over to their enemies. And these things happened because of the blood of Jesus, poured out through their plot upon their land, which could no longer bear those who had dared so great a sacrilege against Jesus.
Greek
Οὐκ οἶδα δ᾿ ὅπως ὁ Κέλσος ἄκων ἐνέπεσεν εἰς τὸ, οὓς πρὸ βραχέος ὕμνησε δαίμονας ἢ θεοὺς, νῦν τῷ ἔργῳ ἀποδεικνύναι φαυλοτάτους εἶναι καὶ τιμωρουμένους μᾶλλον ἀμυντικῶς ἤπερ κολάζοντας διορθωτικῶς, ἐπὰν αὐτοῖς λοιδορῆταί τις. φησὶ γάρ· ὡς αὐτόν γε τὸν Διόνυσον ἢ τὸν Ἡρακλέα παρόντα εἰ ἐλοιδόρησας, οὐκ ἂν ἴσως χαίρων ἀπήλλαξας. πῶς δὲ καὶ ἀκούει τι οὐ παρὼν, ὁ βουλόμενος παραστησάτω, καὶ διὰ τί ποτὲ μὲν πάρεστι ποτὲ δὲ οὐ πάρεστι, καὶ τίς ἡ πραγματεία τοῖς δαίμοσι τῆς μεταναστάσεως ἀπὸ τόπου εἰς τόπον. ἑξῆς δὲ τούτοις λέγει, οἰόμενος τὸ κατατεινόμενον καὶ κολζόμενον σῶμα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ καὶ οὐ τὴν ἐν αὐτῷ θειότητα θεὸν ἡμᾶς λέγειν καὶ, ὅτε κατετείνετο καὶ ἐκολάζετο, θεὸν νενομίσθαι, ὅτι τὸν δὲ σὸν θεὸν παρόντα κατατείνοντες καὶ κολάζοντες οὐδὲν οἱ ταῦτα δράσαντες πεπόνθασι. πλείονα δὲ περὶ ὧν πέπονθεν ἀνθρωπίνων ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω εἰπόντες νῦν ἑκόντες παραπέμπομεν τὸν λόγον. ἵνα μὴ δοκῶμεν παλιλλογεῖν. ἐπεὶ δέ φησι μηδὲ μετὰ ταῦτα ἐν τοσούτῳ βίῳ πεπονθέναι τι τούτους τὸν Ἰησοῦν κολάσαντας, δείξομεν αὐτῷ καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς βουλομένοις μαθεῖν ὅτι ἡ πόλις. ἐν ᾗ ὁ τῶν Ἰουδαίων λεὼς ἠξίωσε τὸν Ἰησοῦν σταυρωθῆναι λέγων· „σταύρου. σταύρου αὐτὸν“ (προὐτιμήσαντο (γὰρ) τὸν λῃστὴν „διὰ στάσιν καὶ φόνον“ βληθέντα „εἰς φυλακὴν“ ἀπολυθῆναι τοῦτον. „τὸν δὲ Ἰησοῦν“ „διὰ φθόνον“ παραδοθέντα (σταυρωθῆναι) ). μετ᾿ οὐ πολὺ ἐξεπολεμήθη καὶ ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον ἐπολιορκήθη χρόνῳ πλείονι, ὥστ᾿ ἐκ βάθρων αὐτὴν ἀνάστατον γενέσθαι καὶ ἐρημωθῆναι. ἀναξίους κρίνοντος τοὺς τὸν τόπον ἐκεῖνον οἰκοῦντας τοῦ θεοῦ τῆς κοινοτέρας ζωῆς. καὶ φειδόμενός γε αὐτῶν, ἵνα παραδόξως εἴπω, καὶ ὁρῶν ἀνιάτως ἔχοντας πρὸς τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ κρεῖττον μεταβολὴν καὶ ὁσημέραι αὔξοντας ἐν τῇ τῆς κακίας χύσει παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς τοῖς πολεμοῦσι. καὶ ταῦτα γέγονε διὰ τὸ ἐκχυθὲν αἷμα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ κατὰ τὴν ἐπιβουλὴν αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν αὐτῶν, μηκέτι δυναμένην χωρεῖν τοὺς τὸ τηλικοῦτον ἄγος κατὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ τολμήσαντας.