The patriarchs are known only from Genesis
For we put this question to all who use such invocations of God: “Tell us, sirs, who Abraham was, how great Isaac was, and what power Jacob had, that the title ‘God’, joined to their name, works such mighty deeds? From whom have you learned, or from whom can you learn, the facts about these men? And who took the trouble to write down their history, whether one that on its face exalts the men in secret writings, or one that by hidden meanings hints at great and wonderful things to those able to contemplate them?”
Then, when we ask and no one can show from what history at all the facts about these men come, whether Greek or barbarian, or not a history but some mystical record, we shall bring forward the book entitled Genesis, which contains the deeds of these men and God’s oracles to them. And we shall say: May it not be that the very fact that you too make use of the names of these three founders of the nation, because you see plainly that calling on them achieves results not to be despised, shows the divine character of these men? And we receive these men from no other source than the sacred books held among the Jews.
What is more, “the God of Israel” (Exodus 5:1), “the God of the Hebrews” (Exodus 3:18), and “the God who drowned the king of the Egyptians and the Egyptians in the Red Sea” (Exodus 14:27–28; 15:4) are often named and called upon against demons or certain wicked powers. And we learn the history of what is named, and the meaning of the names, from the Hebrews, who honour these things and tell of them in their ancestral writings and their ancestral language.
How then can the Jews, in trying to trace their descent from the first seed of these men, whom Celsus has supposed to be sorcerers and vagabonds, be shamelessly trying to trace themselves and their origin back to them, when the names of these men, being Hebrew, bear witness on behalf of the Hebrews, who have their sacred books in the Hebrew language and letters, that their nation is akin to these men? For even to this day the Jewish names, which belong to the Hebrew language, have been taken either from their writings or simply from what words mean in the Hebrew tongue.
Greek
Πυνθανόμεθα γὰρ ἁπάντων τῶν χρωμένων ταῖς τοιαύταις τοῦ θεοῦ κατακλήσεσιν· εἴπατε ἡμῖν, ὦ οὗτοι, τίς ὁ Ἀβραὰμ καὶ πηλίκος ὁ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ ποίας δυνάμεως γέγονεν ὁ Ἰακὼβ, ὡς τὴν θεὸς προσηγορίαν ἁρμοζομένην αὐτῶν τῷ ὀνόματι τηλικάσδε ποιεῖν δυνάμεις; καὶ παρὰ τίνων μεμαθήκατε ἢ δύνασθε μαθεῖν τὰ περὶ τῶν ἀνδρῶν τούτων; τίς δὲ καὶ ἐπραγματεύσατο ἀναγράψαι τὴν περὶ αὐτοὺς ἱστορίαν, εἴτε καὶ αὐτόθεν σεμνύνουσαν ἐν ἀποῤῥήτοις τοὺς ἄνδρας εἴτε καὶ δι᾿ ὑπονοιῶν αἰνισσομένην τινὰ μεγάλα καὶ θαυμάσια τοῖς θεωρῆσαι αὐτὰ δυναμένοις; εἶτ᾿ ἐπὰν πυθομένων ἡμῶν μηδεὶς ἔχῃ παραστῆσαι ἀφ᾿ οἵας δή ποτε ἱστορίας, εἴτε Ἑλληνικῆς εἴτε καὶ βαρβαρικῆς ἢ οὐχ ἱστορίας ἀλλά τινος μυστικῆς ἀναγραφῆς τὰ περὶ τῶν ἀνδρῶν τούτων· ἡμεῖς προσοίσομεν τὴν ἐπιγεγραμμένην Γένεσιν, περιέχουσαν τὰς πράξεις τῶν ἀνδρῶν τούτων καὶ τοὺς τοῦ θεοῦ χρησμοὺς πρὸς αὐτοὺς, ἐροῦμέν τε ὅτι μή ποτε τὸ καὶ ὑφ᾿ ὑμῶν παραλαμβάνεσθαι τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν τριῶν τούτων γεναρχῶν τοῦ ἔθνους, τῇ ἐναργείᾳ καταλαμβανόντων οὐκ εὐκαταφρόνητα ἀνύεσθαι ἐκ τῆς κατεπικλήσεως αὐτῶν, παρίστησι τὸ θεῖον τῶν ἀνδρῶν; οὓς οὐδαμόθεν ἢ ἀπὸ τῶν ἱερῶν παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις βιβλίων παραλαμβάνομεν. ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ ὁ θεὸς τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ καὶ ὁ θεὸς τῶν Ἑβραίων καὶ ὁ θεὸς ὁ καταποντώσας ἐν τῇ ἐρυθρᾷ θαλάσσῃ τὸν Αἰγυπτίων βασιλέα καὶ τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους πολλάκις ὀνομάζεται παραλαμβανόμενος κατὰ δαιμόνων ἤ τινων πονηρῶν δυνάμεων. μανθάνομεν δὲ τὴν περὶ τὰ ὀνομαζόμενα ἱστορίαν καὶ τὴν τῶν ὀνομάτων ἑρμηνείαν ἀπὸ Ἑβραίων, τῶν τοῖς πατρίοις γράμμασι καὶ τῇ πατρίῳ διαλέκτῳ ταῦτα σεμνυνόντων καὶ διηγουμένων· πῶς οὖν Ἰουδαῖοι ταῦτ᾿ ἐπιχειρήσαντες ἑαυτοὺς γενεαλογεῖν ἀπὸ πρώτης σπορᾶς τούτων, οὓς γόητας καὶ πλανήτας ἀνθρώπους ὑπείληφεν εἶναι ὁ Κέλσος, ἀναισχύντως ἐπιχειροῦσιν ἑαυτοὺς καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν αὑτῶν ἐπὶ τούτους ἀνάγειν, ὧν τὰ ὀνόματα Ἑβραϊκὰ τυγχάνοντα μαρτυρεῖ Ἑβραίοις, τὰ ἱερὰ αὐτῶν βιβλία ἐν Ἑβραίων ἔχουσι διαλέκτῳ καὶ γράμμασιν. ὅτι οἰκεῖόν ἐστι τὸ ἔθνος αὐτῶν τοῖς ἀνδράσι τούτοις; καὶ γὰρ μέχρι τοῦ δεῦρο τὰ Ἰουδαϊκὰ ὀνόματα, τῆς Ἑβραίων ἐχόμενα διαλέκτου. ἤτοι ἀπὸ τῶν γραμμάτων αὐτῶν ἐλήφθη ἢ καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς ἀπὸ τῶν σημαινομένων ὑπὸ τῆς Ἑβραίων φωνῆς.