Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus 4.39
Since Celsus also ridicules the serpent narrative as contradicting God's commands to humanity, treating the account as merely another myth like those told to old women, he deliberately omits mention of God's "paradise" and the statement that God "planted a garden in Eden, toward the east" and "made every tree grow from the ground that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:8-9), along with the subsequent details that could move a receptive reader, since all these matters are not treated without dignity. Let us therefore set against this the passages from Plato's Symposium concerning Eros as recounted to Socrates, and how Socrates' speech surpasses all others in the dialogue in dignity. Plato writes: "When Aphrodite was born, the gods held a feast, including Poros, son of Metis. After dinner, Penia arrived as if for a celebration and stood by the doors. Poros, drunk on nectar (for wine did not yet exist), entered the garden of Zeus and fell asleep, weighed down. Penia, plotting to have a child by Poros because of her poverty, lay beside him and conceived Eros. Thus Eros became Aphrodite's attendant and servant, born on her birthday and by nature a lover of beauty — and Aphrodite is beautiful. As the son of Poros and Penia, Eros finds himself in this condition: first, he is always poor and far from tender and fair, as most suppose, but hard, rough, barefoot, and homeless, always sleeping on the ground without bedding, in doorways and streets under the open sky, sharing his mother's nature of constant need. From his father, however, he schemes against the beautiful and the good. He is brave, enterprising, and intense, a mighty hunter, always weaving schemes, desiring wisdom, resourceful, philosophizing all his life, a terrible sorcerer, pharmacist, and sophist; neither immortal nor mortal by nature, but sometimes flourishing and living on the same day when he prospers, sometimes dying, then reviving again through his father's nature. What he acquires always slips away, so that Eros never lacks nor grows rich. And he stands midway between wisdom and ignorance." Consequently, those who encounter this myth, if they imitate Celsus' malice — which is alien to Christians — will mock the myth and bring shame upon the great Plato; but if, examining the mythic form philosophically, they can discern Plato's intention — how he managed to conceal his great doctrines from the many within a mythic framework while speaking as necessary to those who know how to find truth from myths. I have cited this Platonic myth because it seems to contain something akin to God's paradise, with Penia corresponding to the serpent there, and Poros, plotted against by Penia, corresponding to the man plotted against by the serpent. It is not entirely clear whether Plato hit upon these parallels by chance or, as some suppose, encountered them during his journey to Egypt and learned certain things from the Jewish philosophers, preserving some and adapting others while avoiding offense to Greeks by not openly preserving all Jewish wisdom — wisdom slandered among the many because of the strangeness of their laws and their distinctive polity. Neither was this the moment to narrate Plato's myth or the serpent and God's paradise and all written therein; for earlier, in the commentaries on Genesis, we treated these matters as thoroughly as possible.
Greek
Ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ τὰ περὶ τὸν ὄφιν ὡς ἀντιπράσσοντα τοῖς τοῦ θεοῦ πρὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον παραγγέλμασιν ὁ Κέλσος κωμῳδεῖ, μῦθόν τινα παραπλήσιον τοῖς παραδιδομένοις ταῖς γραυσὶν ὑπολαβὼν εἶναι τὸν λόγον, καὶ ἑκὼν οὔτε τὸν θεοῦ „παράδεισον“ ὠνόμασεν οὐδ᾿ ὡς πεφυτευκέναι λέγεται „ὁ θεὸς“ „ἐν Ἐδὲμ κατ᾿ ἀνατολὰς“ καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο ἐξανατεταλκέναι „ἐκ τῆς γῆς πᾶν ξύλον ὡραῖον εἰς ὅρασιν καὶ καλὸν εἰς βρῶσιν καὶ τὸ ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς ἐν μέσῳ τῷ παραδείσῳ καὶ τὸ γνωστὸν καλοῦ καὶ πονηροῦ ξύλον“ καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τούτοις εἰρημένα, δυνάμενα αὐτόθεν κινῆσαι τὸν εὐμενῶς ἐντυγχάνοντα, ὅτι πάντα ταῦτα οὐκ ἀσέμνως τροπολογεῖται· φέρε ἀντιπαραθῶμεν ἐκ τοῦ Συμποσίου Πλάτωνος τὰ εἰρημένα περὶ τοῦ Ἔρωτος τῷ Σωκράτει καὶ ὡς σεμνότερα πάντων τῶν ἐν τῷ Συμποσίῳ εἰπόντων περὶ αὐτοῦ τῷ Σωκράτει περιτεθέντα. οὕτω δ᾿ ἔχει ἡ Πλάτωνος λέξις· „ὅτ᾿ ἐγένετο ἡ Ἀφροδίτη, εἱστιῶντο οἱ θεοὶ, οἵ τε ἄλλοι καὶ ὁ τῆς Μήτιδος υἱὸς Πόρος. ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐδείπνησαν, προσαιτήσουσα οἷον δὴ εὐωχίας οὔσης ἀφίκετο ἡ Πενία καὶ ἦν περὶ τὰς θύρας. ὁ οὖν Πόρος μεθυσθεὶς τοῦ νέκταρος (οἶνος γὰρ οὔπω ἦν) εἰς τὸν τοῦ Διὸς κῆπον εἰσελθὼν βεβαρημένος εὗδεν. ἡ οὖν Πενία ἐπιβουλεύουσα διὰ τὴν αὑτῆς ἀπορίαν παιδίον ποιήσασθαι ἐκ τοῦ Πόρου, κατακλίνεταί τε παρ᾿ αὐτῷ καὶ ἐκύησε τὸν Ἔρωτα. διὸ δὴ καὶ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης ἀκόλουθος θεράπων γέγονεν ὁ Ἔρως, γεννηθεὶς ἐν τοῖς ἐκείνης γενεθλίοις καὶ ἅμα φύσει ἐραστὴς ὢν περὶ τὸ καλὸν, καὶ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης καλῆς οὔσης. ἅτε οὖν Πόρου καὶ Πενίας υἱὸς ὢν ὁ Ἔρως ἐν τοιαύτῃ τύχῃ καθέστηκε. πρῶτον μὲν πένης ἀεί ἐστι καὶ πολλοῦ δεῖ ἁπαλός τε καὶ καλὸς, οἷον οἱ πολλοὶ οἴονται, ἀλλὰ σκληρὸς καὶ αὐχμηρὸς καὶ ἀνυπόδητος καὶ ἄοικος, χαμαιπετὴς ἀεὶ ὢν καὶ ἄστρωτος, ἐπὶ θύραις καὶ ἐν ὁδοῖς ὑπαίθριος κοιμώμενος, τὴν τῆς μητρὸς φύσιν ἔχων ἀεὶ ἐνδείᾳ ξύνοικος. κατὰ δ᾿ αὖ τὸν πατέρα ἐπίβουλός ἐστι τοῖς καλοῖς καὶ τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς. ἀνδρεῖος ὢν καὶ ἴτης καὶ σύντονος, θηρευτὴς δεινὸς, ἀεὶ προσπλέκων μηχανὰς καὶ φρονήσεως ἐπιθυμητὴς καὶ πόριμος, φιλοσοφῶν διὰ παντὸς τοῦ βίου, δεινὸς γόης καὶ φαρμακεὺς καὶ σοφιστής· καὶ οὔτε ὡς ἀθάνατος πέφυκεν οὔτε ὡς θνητὸς, ἀλλὰ τοτὲ μὲν τῆς αὐτῆς ἡμέρας θάλλει καὶ ζῇ, ὅταν εὐπορήσῃ, τοτὲ δ᾿ ἀποθνῄσκει [πάλιν], πάλιν δ᾿ ἀναβιώσκεται διὰ τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς φύσιν. τὸ δὲ ποριζόμενον ἀεὶ ὑπεκρεῖ, ὥστε οὔτ᾿ ἀπορεῖ Ἔρως ποτὲ οὔτε πλουτεῖ. σοφίας δ᾿ αὖ καὶ ἀμαθίας ἐν μέσῳ ἐστίν.“ ἄρα γὰρ οἱ ἐντυγχάνοντες τούτοις ἐὰν μὲν τὴν κακοήθειαν τοῦ Κέλσου μιμῶνται, ὅπερ Χριστιανῶν ἀπείη, καταγελάσονται τοῦ μύθου καὶ ἐν χλεύῃ θήσονται τὸν τηλικοῦτον Πλάτωνα· ἐὰν δὲ τὰ ἐν μύθου σχήματι λεγόμενα φιλοσόφως ἐξετάζοντες δυνηθῶσιν εὑρεῖν τὸ βούλημα τοῦ Πλάτωνος . . . ., τίνα τρόπον δεδύνηται τὰ μεγάλα ἑαυτῷ φαινόμενα δόγματα κρύψαι μὲν διὰ τοὺς πολλοὺς ἐν τῷ τοῦ μύθου σχήματι, εἰπεῖν δ᾿ ὡς ἐχρῆν τοῖς εἰδόσιν ἀπὸ μύθων εὑρίσκειν τὸ περὶ ἀληθείας τοῦ ταῦτα συντάξαντος βούλημα. τοῦτον δὲ τὸν παρὰ Πλάτωνι μῦθον ἐξεθέμην διὰ „τὸν“ παρ᾿ αὐτῷ „τοῦ Διὸς κῆπον,“ παραπλήσιόν τι ἔχειν δοκοῦντα τῷ παραδείσῳ τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ τὴν Πενίαν, τῷ ἐκεῖ ὄφει παραβαλλομένην, καὶ τὸν ὑπὸ τῆς Πενίας ἐπιβουλευόμενον Πόρον τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ ἐπιβουλευομένῳ ὑπὸ τοῦ ὄφεως. οὐ πάνυ δὲ δῆλον, πότερον κατὰ συντυχίαν ἐπιπέπτωκε τούτοις ὁ Πλάτων ἢ, ὡς οἴονταί τινες, ἐν τῇ εἰς Αἴγυπτον ἀποδημίᾳ συντυχὼν καὶ τοῖς τὰ Ἰουδαίων φιλοσοφοῦσι καὶ μαθών τινα παρ᾿ αὐτῶν τὰ μέν τινα τετήρηκε τὰ δὲ παρεποίησε, φυλαξάμενος προσκόψαι τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἐκ τοῦ πάντῃ τὰ τῆς Ἰουδαίων τηρῆσαι σοφίας. διαβεβλημένων παρὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς διὰ τὸ ξενίζον τῶν νόμων καὶ τὴν ἰδιότροπον κατ᾿ αὐτοὺς πολιτείαν. οὔτε δὲ τὸν Πλάτωνος μῦθον οὔτε τὰ περὶ τὸν ὄφιν καὶ τὸν παράδεισον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ὅσα ἐν αὐτῷ ἀναγέγραπται γεγονέναι νῦν καιρὸς ἦν διηγήσασθαι· προηγουμένως γὰρ ἐν τοῖς ἐξηγητικοῖς τῆς Γενέσεως, ὡς οἷόν τ᾿ ἦν, εἰς ταῦτα ἐπραγματευσάμεθα.