Disagreements from the very beginning
He also says that they all “were of one mind,” not seeing even here that from the beginning there were disagreements among believers over the interpretation of the books believed to be divine. At any rate, while the apostles were still preaching and the eyewitnesses of Jesus were teaching what he had taught, the believers from among the Jews had no small debate with one another (Acts 15:1–7) about the Gentiles who were coming over to the word: whether they must keep the Jewish customs, or whether the “burden” (Acts 15:28) of clean and unclean foods should be lifted, as not required, from the Gentiles who had left their ancestral ways and believed in Jesus.
Moreover, in the letters of Paul, who lived in the time of those who had seen Jesus, we find things said that show that questions had been raised about the resurrection, and about its having “already taken place” (2 Timothy 2:18), and about the day of the Lord, whether it “has come” or not (2 Thessalonians 2:2). And again the saying, “turning away from the profane empty talk and the contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed, and so made shipwreck of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:20–21; 1 Timothy 1:19), shows that some misreadings arose from the beginning, and not, as Celsus supposes, only after believers had become many.
Greek
Φησὶ δὲ καὶ ὅτι ἓν ἐφρόνουν πάντες, οὐδ᾿ ἐν τούτῳ ὁρῶν ὅτι ἀρχῆθεν περὶ τὴν ἐν τοῖς πεπιστευμένοις θείοις εἶναι βιβλίοις ἐκδοχὴν γεγόνασι διαφωνίαι τῶν πιστευόντων, ἔτι γοῦν τῶν ἀποστόλων κηρυσσόντων καὶ τῶν αὐτοπτῶν τοῦ Ἰησοῦ διδασκόντων τὰ ἐκείνου μαθήματα, ζήτησις οὐκ ὀλίγη πρὸς ἀλλήλους γεγένηται παρὰ τοῖς ἀπὸ Ἰουδαίων πιστεύουσι περὶ τῶν ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἐπερχομένων τῷ λόγῳ, πότερον δεῖ τὰ Ἰουδαϊκὰ αὐτοὺς τηρεῖν ἔθη ἢ τὸ περὶ καθαρῶν καὶ ἀκαθάρτων βρωμάτων „βάρος“ ἀφαιρεῖν ὡς οὐκ ἐπεῖγον ἀπὸ τῶν τὰ πάτρια καταλιπόντων ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσι καὶ πιστευόντων τῷ Ἰησοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν ταῖς Παύλου ἐπιστολαῖς, γενομένου ἐν τῷ χρόνῳ τῶν Ἰησοῦν ἑωρακότων, εὑρίσκεται λεγόμενά τινα ὡς ζητηθέντων τινῶν περὶ ἀναστάσεως καὶ περὶ τοῦ „ἤδη“ αὐτὴν „γεγονέναι“ καὶ περὶ ἡμέρας κυρίου, πότερον „ἐνέστηκεν“ ἢ μή, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ „ἐκτρεπόμενος τὰς βεβήλους κενοφωνίας καὶ ἀντιθέσεις τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως, ἥν τινες ἐπαγγελλόμενοι“ „περὶ τὴν πίστιν ἐναυάγησαν,“ δηλωτικόν ἐστιν ὅτι ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς γεγόνασί τινες παρεκδοχαὶ, οὐδέπω, ὡς οἴεται Κέλσος, πολλῶν τῶν πιστευόντων γεγενημένων.