The same matter underlies the heavens
Further, Celsus says: “The soul is the work of God, but the body is of another nature. And in this respect the body of a bat or a maggot or a frog or a man will differ in nothing; for the matter is the same, and what is perishable in them is alike.” To this argument of his too we must reply: if, because the same matter underlies the body of a bat or a maggot or a frog or a man, these bodies will differ in nothing from one another, then clearly the bodies of these creatures will differ in nothing from the sun or the moon or the stars or heaven, or from any other of those that the Greeks call gods perceived by the senses. For the same matter underlies all bodies, and by its own definition it is without quality and without shape. From whom it receives its qualities, on Celsus’s view, since he will not have anything perishable be a work of God, I do not know. For by Celsus’s own argument what is perishable in anything whatever that has come into being from the same underlying matter must be alike.
Unless, perhaps, hard pressed at this point, Celsus will leap away from Plato, who makes the soul out of a kind of mixing bowl (Plato, Timaeus 41d), and take refuge with Aristotle and the Peripatetics, who say that the ether is immaterial and is of a fifth nature beside the four elements. Against this argument both the followers of Plato and those of the Stoa have taken a stand, and done so with credit. And we too, whom Celsus despises, shall take a stand against it, since we are called upon to explain and establish what is said in the prophet as follows: “The heavens will perish, but you will remain; and they will all grow old like a garment, and like a cloak you will roll them up, and they will be changed. But you are the same” (Psalm 102:26–27). Still, even these points are enough against Celsus, who declared that “The soul is the work of God, but the body is of another nature.” From his argument it followed that the body of a bat or a maggot or a frog differs in nothing from the ethereal body.
Greek
Ἔτι δὲ ἐπεί φησιν ὁ Κέλσος ὅτι ψυχὴ μὲν θεοῦ ἔργον, σώματος δὲ ἄλλη φύσις. καὶ ταύτῃ γε οὐδὲν διοίσει νυκτερίδος ἢ εὐλῆς ἢ βατράχου ἢ ἀνθρώπου σῶμα· ὕλη γὰρ ἡ αὐτὴ, καὶ τὸ φθαρτὸν αὐτῶν ὅμοιον, λεκτέον καὶ πρὸς τοῦτον αὐτοῦ τὸν λόγον ὅτι εἴπερ. ἐπεὶ ἡ ὕλη ἡ αὐτὴ ὑπόκειται νυκτερίδος ἢ εὐλῆς ἢ βατράχου ἢ ἀνθρώπου σώματι. οὐδὲν διοίσει ἀλλήλων ταῦτα τὰ σώματα. δηλονότι οὐδὲν διοίσει τὰ τούτων σώματα ἡλίου ἢ σελήνης ἢ ἀστέρων ἢ οὐρανοῦ ἢ οὑτινοσοῦν ἄλλου λεγομένου παρ᾿ Ἕλλησιν αἰσθητοῦ θεοῦ. ὕλη γὰρ ἡ αὐτὴ πᾶσι τοῖς σώμασιν ὑποκειμένη τῷ ἰδίῳ λόγῳ ἄποιος καὶ ἀσχημάτιστος, τὰς ποιότητας οὐκ οἶδα κατὰ Κέλσον, τὸν μὴ θέλοντα φθαρτόν τι ἔργον εἶναι τοῦ θεοῦ, ὑπὸ τίνος λαμβάνουσα. τὸ γὰρ φθαρτὸν ἀνάγκη παντὸς οὑτινοσοῦν ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς ὑποκειμένης ὕλης γεγενημένου ὅμοιον εἶναι κατὰ τὸν Κέλσον τῷ ἑαυτοῦ λόγῳ. εἰ μὴ ἄρα ἐνταῦθα ὁ Κέλσος θλιβόμενος ἀποπηδήσεται μὲν ἀπὸ Πλάτωνος, τοῦ ἔκ τινος κρατῆρος τὴν ψυχὴν ποιοῦντος, προσφεύξεται δὲ Ἀριστοτέλει καὶ τοῖς ἀπὸ τοῦ Περιπάτου, ἄϋλον φάσκουσιν εἶναι τὸν αἰθέρα, καὶ πέμπτης παρὰ τὰ τέσσαρα στοιχεῖα αὐτὸν εἶναι φύσεως· πρὸς ὃν λόγον οὐκ ἀγεννῶς καὶ οἱ ἀπὸ Πλάτωνος καὶ οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς Στοᾶς ἔστησαν. καὶ ἡμεῖς δὲ οἱ ὑπὸ τοῦ Κέλσου καταφρονούμενοι στησόμεθα, ἀπαιτούμενοι διηγήσασθαι καὶ κατασκευάσαι τὸ ἐν τῷ προφήτῃ λεγόμενον οὕτως· „οἱ οὐρανοὶ ἀπολοῦνται, σὺ δὲ διαμενεῖς· καὶ πάντες ὡς ἱμάτιον παλαιωθήσονται, καὶ ὡσεὶ περιβόλαιον ἑλίξεις αὐτοὺς [ὡς ἱμάτιον], καὶ ἀλλαγήσονται. σὺ δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς εἶ.“ πλὴν ἀρκεῖ πρὸς τὸν Κέλσον καὶ ταῦτα ἀποφηνάμενον ὅτι ψυχὴ μὲν θεοῦ ἔργον, σώματος δὲ ἄλλη φύσις· οὗ τῷ λόγῳ ἠκολούθησε μηδὲν διαφέρειν νυκτερίδος ἢ εὐλῆς ἢ βατράχου σῶμα τοῦ αἰθερίου σώματος.