Chapter LXXII.

It is therefore in vain that Celsus asserts, as one who knows not the nature of the Spirit of God, that “as the Son of God, who existed in a human body, is a Spirit, this very Son of God would not be immortal.”  He next becomes confused in his statements, as if there were some of us who did not admit that God is a Spirit, but maintain that only with regard to His Son, and he thinks that he can answer us by saying that there “is no kind of spirit which lasts for ever.”  This is much the same as if, when we term God a “consuming fire,” he were to say that there “is no kind of fire which lasts for ever;” not observing the sense in which we say that our God is a fire, and what the things are which He consumes, viz., sins, and wickedness.  For it becomes a God of goodness, after each individual has shown, by his efforts, what kind of combatant he has been, to consume vice by the fire of His chastisements.  He proceeds, in the next place, to assume what we do not maintain, that “God must necessarily have given up the ghost;” from which also it follows that Jesus could not have risen again with His body.  For God would not have received back the spirit which He had surrendered after it had been stained by contact with the body.  It is foolish, however, for us to answer statements as ours which were never made by us.

∆ιόπερ μάτην λέλεκται τῷ Κέλσῳ, ὡς μὴ εἰδότι τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅτι ἐπείπερ πνεῦμά ἐστιν ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ υἱὸς ἐν ἀνθρωπίνῳ γεγονὼς σώματι, οὐδ' ἂν αὐτὸς εἴη ἀθάνατος ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ υἱός. Εἶτα πάλιν ἑαυτῷ φύρει τὸν λόγον, ὥς τινων ἀφ' ἡμῶν οὐχ ὁμολογησόντων πνεῦμα εἶναι τὸν θεὸν ἀλλὰ τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ οἴεται ἀπαντᾶν λέγων ὅτι οὐδεμία τοιαύτη φύσις ἐστὶ πνεύματος, ὥστ' ἀεὶ διαμένειν· ὡσεὶ καί, λεγόντων ἡμῶν ὅτι ὁ θεὸς "πῦρ" ἐστι "κατα ναλίσκον", ἔλεγεν ὅτι οὐδεμία τοιαύτη φύσις ἐστὶ πυρός, ὥστ' ἀεὶ διαμένειν· οὐχ ὁρῶν πῶς λέγομεν εἶναι "πῦρ" τὸν θεὸν ἡμῶν, καὶ τίνων ἀναλωτικόν, ὅτι ἁμαρτημάτων καὶ τῆς κακίας. Πρέπει γὰρ θεῷ ἀγαθῷ μετὰ τὸ ἕκαστον φανῆναι ἀγωνισάμενον, ὁποῖος γέγονεν ἀγωνιστής, ἀναλῶσαι τῷ πυρὶ τῶν κολάσεων τὴν κακίαν. Εἶτα πάλιν ἑαυτῷ τὸ μὴ λεγόμενον ὑφ' ἡμῶν λαμβάνει, ὅτι ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστι τὸ ἀναπεπνευκέναι τὸν θεόν. Καὶ τούτῳ ἀκόλουθον τὸ μὴ δύνασθαι ἀναστῆναι μετὰ τοῦ σώματος τὸν Ἰησοῦν· οὐκ ἂν γὰρ ἀπειλήφει ὃ δέδωκε πνεῦμα ὁ θεὸς καταμεμολυσμένον τῇ τοῦ σώματος φύσει. Εὔηθες οὖν ἀπαν τᾶν ἡμᾶς πρὸς τοὺς λόγους ὡς ἡμετέρους τοὺς μὴ ἡμετέρους.