Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus 10

If he had been well-disposed toward the accusation, he ought to have set out the prophecies in their own words — whether those in which God Almighty promised to be the speaker, or those in which the Son of God was the speaker, or even those in which the Holy Spirit was believed to be speaking. For in this way he also struggled to dismantle what had been said and to show that the words were not inspired, even though they contain a turning away from sins, a rebuke of what once was, and a foreknowledge of what is to come. That is why those who copied down the prophecies of the prophets also preserved them, so that later readers might marvel at them as words of God and be benefited not only by the reproachful and corrective passages but also by the predictive ones. By the outcomes they are persuaded concerning the divine Spirit, and so they continue practicing piety according to the word, persuaded by the law and the prophets. The prophets spoke whatever was useful for hearers to understand and that contributed to the correction of character, without any concealment, according to the will of God. But whatever was more mystical, more contemplative, and belonged to a theory beyond common hearing, they declared through riddles, allegories, what are called dark sayings, and the so-called parables or proverbs — so that those who do not shirk labor but accept every toil for the sake of virtue and truth, after examining, might find, and having found, might manage as reason directs. But the foolish Celsus, as if enraged because he did not grasp such words of the prophets, insulted them. He said that, stretching these things out, they add in sequence unknown, absurd, and completely unclear things, of which no one with a mind could find the meaning. For they are unclear and meaningless, and they give any foolish or deceitful person an opportunity to interpret whatever they want, wherever they want. And it seemed to me he said these things cunningly, wishing to prevent those who encounter the prophecies from testing and examining their meaning, as far as he is able. He suffered something similar to those who spoke about a certain prophet: when a prophet entered someone's presence and foretold the future to him, they said, "Why did this epileptic enter to you?"