A prayer to pull down Celsus’s conceit
It is not in pursuit of the much speaking that is forbidden, the speaking from which there is no escaping “sin” (Proverbs 10:19), that we now begin a fifth book against Celsus’s treatise, holy Ambrose. It is because, as far as our strength allows, we are trying to let nothing he has said pass untested, and above all those points where some might think he has brought a shrewd charge against us or against the Jews.
If it were possible for us to enter, with our argument, into the conscience of every single person who reads his treatise, to draw out each arrow that wounds anyone not fully fenced with the whole armour of God (Ephesians 6:11), and to apply a medicine of reason to heal the wound Celsus deals, the wound that keeps those who attend to his words from being sound “in the faith” (Titus 1:13), we would have done so.
But this is God’s work: to come and dwell invisibly, by his own Spirit together with the Spirit of Christ, in those in whom he judges he ought to dwell. Our part, since we try through words and writings to bring people to faith, is to do everything so that we may be called workmen who have no cause for shame, rightly handling “the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). And one part of that “everything,” it seems to us, is to refute Celsus’s plausible arguments as far as we can, faithfully carrying out the task you have set us. So come: let us set out what follows the words of Celsus to which we have already replied (whether we also overturned them, the reader will judge), and let us add our answer to it.
May God grant that our mind and our speech come to the task not bare and stripped of divinity, “so that the faith” of those we pray may be helped “may not rest in the wisdom of men” (1 Corinthians 2:5). Having received “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) from his Father, who alone gives it, and being helped to share in the Word of God, may we cast down “every height that is lifted up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5), and with it the conceit of Celsus, who lifts himself up against us and against our Jesus, and against Moses and the prophets as well; so that, as he who gives “a word to those who preach the good news with great power” (Psalm 68:11) supplies this to us also and grants the great power, faith may come about in those who will read this, in the word and power of God (1 Corinthians 2:4–5).
Greek
Οὐ τὴν ἀπηγορευμένην πολυλογίαν μεταδιώκοντες, ἀφ᾿ ἧς οὐκ ἔστι φυγεῖν τὴν „ἁμαρτίαν“, ἤδη πέμπτου ἀρχόμεθα βιβλίου πρὸς τὸ Κέλσου σύγγραμμα, ἱερὲ Ἀμβρόσιε, ἀλλ᾿ ὅση δύναμις πειρώμενοι μηδὲν τῶν ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ λεχθέντων παρελθεῖν ἀβασάνιστον, καὶ μάλιστα ἐν οἷς δόξαι ἄν τισι συνετῶς ἡμῶν ἢ Ἰουδαίων κατηγορηκέναι. καὶ εἰ μὲν οἷόν τ᾿ ἦν μετὰ τοῦ λόγου εἰσελθόντας εἰς τὴν παντὸς οὑτινοσοῦν συνείδησιν τῶν ἐντυγχανόντων τῷ ἐκείνου συγγράμματι ἕκαστον ἐξελκύσαι βέλος, τιτρῶσκον τὸν οὐ πάντῃ πεφραγμένον τῇ πανοπλίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ ἐπιθεῖναι λογικὸν φάρμακον, θεραπεῦον τὸ ἀπὸ Κέλσου τραῦμα, ποιοῦν μὴ ὑγιαίνειν „τῇ πίστει“ τοὺς προσέχοντας αὐτοῦ τοῖς λόγοις, τοῦτ᾿ ἂν πεποιήκειμεν. ἐπεὶ δὲ τοῦτο μὲν θεοῦ ἔργον ἐστὶν, ἀοράτως ἐπιδημεῖν κατὰ τὸ ἑαυτοῦ πνεῦμα μετὰ τοῦ πνεύματος Χριστοῦ οἷς κρίνει δεῖν ἐπιδημεῖν, ἡμῖν δὲ, διὰ λόγων καὶ συγγραμμάτων πειρωμένοις ἀνθρώπους πιστοποιεῖν, πρόκειται πάντα πράττειν ὑπὲρ τοῦ χρηματίσαι ἐργάτας ἀνεπαισχύντους, ὀρθοτομοῦντας „τὸν λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας“, ἓν δὲ τῶν πάντων εἶναι ἡμῖν φαίνεται καὶ τὰ πιθανὰ τοῦ Κέλσου κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἡμῖν λῦσαι, πιστῶς ποιοῦσι τὸ προστεταγμένον ὑπὸ σοῦ· φέρ᾿ ἐκθέμενοι τὰ ἑξῆς τοῖς Κέλσου λόγοις, πρὸς οὓς φθάσαντες ἀπηντήσαμεν (κρινεῖ δὲ ὁ ἐντυγχάνων, εἰ καὶ ἀνετρέψαμεν), τὰ πρὸς αὐτὰ ἐπαγάγωμεν. θεὸς δὲ δῳη μὴ ψιλῷ καὶ γυμνῷ θειότητος τῷ ἡμετέρῳ νῷ καὶ λόγῳ (πρὸς) τὸ προκείμενον γενέσθαι· „ἵν᾿ ἡ πίστις“ τῶν, οὓς εὐχόμεθα ὠφεληθῆναι. „μὴ ᾖ ἐν σοφίᾳ ἀνθρώπων,“ „νοῦν“ δὲ „Χριστοῦ“ λαβόντες ἀπὸ τοῦ μόνου διδόντος αὐτὸν πατρὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ πρὸς τὴν μετοχὴν τοῦ λόγου τοῦ θεοῦ βοηθηθέντες „πᾶν ὕψωμα ἐπαιρόμενον κατὰ τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ θεοῦ“ καθέλοιμεν καὶ τὸ οἴημα Κέλσου, καθ᾿ ἡμῶν καὶ κατὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἡμῶν ἐπαιρομένου ἔτι δὲ κατὰ Μωϋσέως καὶ τῶν προφητῶν· ἵνα τοῦ διδόντος „ῥῆμα τοῖς εὐαγγελιζομένοις δυνάμει πολλῇ“ καὶ ἡμῖν τοῦτ᾿ ἐπιχορηγοῦντος καὶ τὴν πολλὴν δύναμιν δωρουμένου, ἐγγένηται πίστις τοῖς ἐντευξομένοις ἐν λόγῳ καὶ δυνάμει τοῦ θεοῦ.