The Gospel writers’ love of truth
Celsus says that Jesus’ disciples too, “having no excuse to offer for a notorious fact, invented this: the claim that he had foreknown everything.” He did not notice, or did not wish to notice, the love of truth in those who wrote. They admitted that Jesus had told his disciples beforehand, “You will all fall away this night” (Matthew 26:31), and that he spoke the truth, since they did fall away (Matthew 26:56); and that he had also prophesied to Peter, “Before the cock crows you will deny me three times” (Matthew 26:34), and that Peter denied him three times (Matthew 26:69–75).
If they had not been lovers of truth but, as Celsus supposes, writers of fiction, they would not have recorded Peter’s denial or the falling away of Jesus’ disciples. For even if these things did happen, who could have refuted their account by showing that this is how it turned out? And yet one would expect men who wished to teach the readers of the Gospels to despise death for the sake of confessing Christianity to have kept silent about these things. But as it is, seeing that the word would prevail over men by its power, they set down even things like these, which somehow would neither harm their readers nor give them a pretext for denial.
Greek
Φησὶ δὲ ὁ Κέλσος ὅτι καὶ οἱ μαθηταὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐπὶ πράγματι περιφανεῖ μηδὲν ἔχοντες ἐπισκήψασθαι τοῦτο ἐπενόησαν, τὸ λέγειν αὐτὸν πάντα προεγνωκέναι, οὐκ ἐπιστήσας ἢ οὐ βουληθεὶς ἐπιστῆσαι τῷ φιλαλήθει τῶν γραψάντων, ὁμολογησάντων καὶ προειρηκέναι τὸν Ἰησοῦν τοῖς μαθηταῖς ὅτι „πάντες ὑμεῖς σκανδαλισθήσεσθε ἐν τῇ νυκτὶ ταύτῃ“ καὶ ἠληθευκέναι σκανδαλισθέντων αὐτῶν πεπροφητευκέναι δὲ καὶ τῷ Πέτρῳ· „ὅτι πρὸ ἀλεκτοροφωνίας ἀρνήσῃ με τρὶς“. καὶ ὅτι Πέτρος τρὶς ἠρνήσατο. εἰ γὰρ μὴ ἦσαν φιλαλήθεις ἀλλ᾿, ὡς οἴεται Κέλσος, πλάσματα ἀναγράφοντες, οὐκ ἂν Πέτρον ἀνέγραψαν ἀρνησάμενον ἢ τοὺς μαθητὰς Ἰησοῦ σκανδαλιζομένους. τίς γὰρ, εἰ καὶ γέγονε ταῦτα, ἤλεγξε τὸν λόγον, ὅτι οὕτως ἀπήντησε; καίτοι γε κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς ἐχρῆν σεσιωπῆσθαι ταῦτα ἀνθρώποις, βουλομένοις διδάσκειν τοὺς ἐντυγχάνοντας τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις θανάτου καταφρονεῖν ὑπὲρ τῆς ὁμολογίας τοῦ χριστιανισμοῦ· νυνὶ δ᾿ ὁρῶντες ὅτι ὁ λόγος δυνάμει κρατήσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἔθηκαν καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα, οὐκ οἶδ᾿ ὅπως οὐ βλάψοντα τοὺς ἐντυγχάνοντας οὐδὲ πρόφασιν δώσοντα ἀρνήσεως.