Chapter LXIX.

After this, Celsus, confusing together the Christian doctrine and the opinions of some heretical sect, and bringing them forward as charges that were applicable to all who believe in the divine word, says:  “Such a body as yours could not have belonged to God.”  Now, in answer to this, we have to say that Jesus, on entering into the world, assumed, as one born of a woman, a human body, and one which was capable of suffering a natural death.  For which reason, in addition to others, we say that He was also a great wrestler;138    μέγαν ἀγωνιστήν. having, on account of His human body, been tempted in all respects like other men, but no longer as men, with sin as a consequence, but being altogether without sin.  For it is distinctly clear to us that “He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; and as one who knew no sin,”139    [1 Pet. ii. 22; 2 Cor. v. 21.  S.] God delivered Him up as pure for all who had sinned.  Then Celsus says:  “The body of god would not have been so generated as you, O Jesus, were.”  He saw, besides, that if, as it is written, it had been born, His body somehow might be even more divine than that of the multitude, and in a certain sense a body of god.  But he disbelieves the accounts of His conception by the Holy Ghost, and believes that He was begotten by one Panthera, who corrupted the Virgin, “because a god’s body would not have been so generated as you were.”  But we have spoken of these matters at greater length in the preceding pages.

Μετὰ ταῦτα φύρων τὸν λόγον καὶ τὰ ὑπὸ αἱρέσεώς τινος λεγόμενα ὡς κοινὰ Χριστιανῶν ἐγκλήματα πᾶσι τοῖς ἀπὸ τοῦ θείου προσάγων λόγου φησὶν ὅτι θεοῦ οὐκ ἂν εἴη τοιοῦτον σῶμα, οἷον τὸ σόν. Ἀλλ' ἡμεῖς πρὸς ταῦτα σῶμα αὐτὸν λέγομεν ἀνειληφέναι ὡς ἀπὸ θηλείας τῷ βίῳ ἐπιδη μήσαντα ἀνθρώπινον καὶ θανάτου ἀνθρωπίνου δεκτικόν. ∆ιὸ πρὸς τοῖς ἄλλοις αὐτόν φαμεν καὶ μέγαν ἀγωνιστὴν γεγο νέναι, διὰ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον σῶμα "πεπειρασμένον" μὲν ὁμοίως πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις "κατὰ πάντα" οὐκέτι δ' ὡς ἄνθρωποι μεθ' ἁμαρτίας ἀλλὰ πάντῃ "χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας". Τρανῶς γὰρ ἡμῖν φαίνεται "ὅτι ἁμαρτίαν οὐκ ἐποίησεν, οὐδὲ εὑρέθη δόλος ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτοῦ"· καὶ "μὴ γνόντα" αὐτὸν "ἁμαρτίαν" ὡς καθαρὸν παρέδωκεν ὑπὲρ πάντων τῶν ἡμαρτηκότων ὁ θεός. Εἶτα ὁ Κέλσος φησὶν ὅτι οὐκ ἂν εἴη θεοῦ σῶμα τὸ οὕτω σπαρέν, ὡς σύ, ὦ Ἰησοῦ, ἐσπάρης. Πλὴν ὑπείδετο ὅτι εἰ, ὡς γέγραπται, γεγέννητο, δύναταί πως εἶναι τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ καὶ θειότερον παρὰ τοὺς πολλοὺς καὶ κατά τι σημαινόμενον θεοῦ σῶμα. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἀπιστεῖ τοῖς ἀναγραφεῖσι περὶ τῆς ἐξ ἁγίου πνεύματος συλλήψεως αὐτοῦ καὶ πιστεύει αὐτὸν ὑπό τινος Πανθήρα φθείραντος τὴν παρθένον ἐσπάρθαι· διόπερ εἶπεν ὅτι οὐκ ἂν εἴη θεοῦ σῶμα οὕτω σπαρέν, ὡς σὺ ἐσπάρης. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ περὶ τούτων ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω πλείονα εἰρήκαμεν.