Chapter XXVI.

This Jew of Celsus still accuses the disciples of Jesus of having invented these statements, saying to them:  “Even although guilty of falsehood, ye have not been able to give a colour of credibility to your inventions.”  In answer to which we have to say, that there was an easy method of concealing these occurrences,—that, viz., of not recording them at all.  For if the Gospels had not contained the accounts of these things, who could have reproached us with Jesus having spoken such words during His stay upon the earth?  Celsus, indeed, did not see that it was an inconsistency for the same persons both to be deceived regarding Jesus, believing Him to be God, and the subject of prophecy, and to invent fictions about Him, knowing manifestly that these statements were false.  Of a truth, therefore, they were not guilty of inventing untruths, but such were their real impressions, and they recorded them truly; or else they were guilty of falsifying the histories, and did not entertain these views, and were not deceived when they acknowledged Him to be God.

Ἔτι δὲ λέγει ὁ παρὰ τῷ Κέλσῳ Ἰουδαῖος πρὸς τοὺς Ἰησοῦ μαθητὰς ὡς πλασαμένους ταῦτα, ὅτι οὐδὲ ψευδόμενοι τὰ πλάσματα ὑμῶν πιθανῶς ἐπικαλύψαι ἠδυνήθητε. Καὶ πρὸς τόδε λελέξεται ὅτι εὐχερὴς μὲν ἦν ὁδὸς πρὸς τὸ ἐπικα λύψαι τὰ τοιαῦτα τὸ μηδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν αὐτὰ ἀναγράψαι. Τίς γὰρ ἂν τῶν εὐαγγελίων ταῦτα μὴ περιεχόντων ὀνειδίσαι ἐδύνατο ἡμῖν ἐπὶ τῷ τὸν Ἰησοῦν τοιαῦτα παρὰ τῇ οἰκονομίᾳ λελαληκέναι; Οὐ συνεῖδε δ' ὁ Κέλσος ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι κατὰ τοὺς αὐτοὺς καὶ ἠπατῆσθαι περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ὡς θεοῦ καὶ προφητευθέντος καὶ πλάσασθαι περὶ αὐτοῦ δηλονότι ἐγνω κότας ὅτι οὐκ ἀληθῆ τὰ πλάσματα. Ἤτοι οὖν οὐκ ἔπλασαν ἀλλ' οὕτως ἐφρόνουν καὶ οὐ ψευδόμενοι ἀνέγραψαν, ἢ ψευσάμενοι ἀνέγραψαν καὶ ταῦτα οὐκ ἐφρόνουν οὐδὲ ἀπατη θέντες θεὸν αὐτὸν ἐνόμιζον.