What terrors do we invent?
What are these “all sorts of things” by which we draw people, or what are the “terrors” we “invent,” as Celsus writes without any proof? Let anyone who wishes show it. Unless, perhaps, Celsus means to call “invented terrors” the teaching about God as judge and about men being judged for all they have done, a teaching established with varied proof, partly from the Scriptures and partly from reasonable argument.
And yet (for truth is dear) Celsus says, near the end of his work, “May neither these people, nor I, nor any other human being cast off the doctrine that the unjust will be punished and the just counted worthy of rewards.” What terrors, then, if you take away the teaching on punishment, do we invent to draw people in?
Again, when he says that we invent “misheard versions of the ancient account” and with these pipe to people beforehand and fill their ears beforehand, “like those who make a din around people in the frenzy of the Corybantic rites,” we shall say to him: misheard versions of what ancient account? For whether it is the Greek account, which also taught about the courts beneath the earth, or the Jewish one, which among other things prophesied also about the life that follows this life, he could not show that we live by such doctrines as men who have misheard the truth, at least those of us who try to believe with reason.
Greek
Ποῖα δὲ παντοδαπὰ ἐπισπώμεθα ἢ τίνα συμπλάσσομεν δείματα, ὡς ἀναποδείκτως γράφει ὁ Κέλσος, παραστησάτω ὁ βουλόμενος. εἰ μὴ ἄρα τὴν περὶ δικαστοῦ θεοῦ καὶ δικαζομένων ἀνθρώπων ἐφ᾿ οἷς ἔπραξαν πᾶσι διδασκαλίαν μετὰ κατασκευῆς ποικίλης, πῇ μὲν τῆς ἀπὸ τῶν γραφῶν πῇ δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ εἰκότος λόγου, δείματα βούλεται λέγειν ὁ Κέλσος συμπεπλασμένα. καίτοι γε (φίλη γὰρ ἡ ἀλήθεια) φησὶ πρὸς τοῖς τελευταίοις ὁ Κέλσος ὅτι μήτε τούτοις εἴη μήτ᾿ ἐμοὶ μήτε ἄλλῳ τινὶ ἀνθρώπων ἀποθέσθαι τὸ περὶ τοῦ κολασθήσεσθαι τοὺς ἀδίκους καὶ γερῶν ἀξιωθήσεσθαι τοὺς δικαίους δόγμα. ποῖα οὖν δείματα. ἐὰν ἀνέλῃς τὸν περὶ κολάσεως λόγον. συμπλάττοντες ἐπισπώμεθα τοὺς ἀνθρώπους; ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπὰν λέγῃ ὅτι τὰ τοῦ παλαιοῦ λόγου παρακούσματα συμπλάττοντες τούτοις προκαταυλοῦμεν καὶ προκατηχοῦμεν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ὡς οἱ τοὺς κορυβαντιζομένους περιβομβοῦντες, φήσομεν πρὸς αὐτόν· ποίου παλαιοῦ λόγου παρακούσματα; εἴτε γὰρ τοῦ Ἑλληνικοῦ, καὶ διδάξαντος περὶ τῶν ὑπὸ γῆν δικαστηρίων. εἴτε τοῦ Ἰουδαϊκοῦ, μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων καὶ περὶ τῆς ἑξῆς τῷ βίῳ τούτῳ ζωῆς προφητεύσαντος, οὐκ ἂν ἔχοι παραστῆσαι ὅτι ἡμεῖς ἐν παρακούσμασι γενόμενοι τῆς ἀληθείας, ὅσοι γε πειρώμεθα μετὰ λόγου πιστεύειν, πρὸς τὰ τοιαῦτα ζῶμεν δόγματα.