Sects are no charge against the Church
Next after this he says: “Let no one suppose that I do not know that some of them will agree that their God is the same as the God of the Jews, while others hold to another God, to whom this one is opposed, and say that the Son came from that other.”
If he thinks that the existence of several sects among Christians is a charge against Christianity, why, by the same reasoning, should not the disagreement among the sects of the philosophers be thought a charge against philosophy, a disagreement not about small or chance matters but about the most essential ones? It would be time, too, for medicine to be accused because of the sects within it.
Grant, then, that there are among us those who do not say that their God is the same as the God of the Jews. Yet those who prove from the same writings that one and the same God is God of Jews and of Gentiles (Romans 3:29–30) are not to be accused on that account. So Paul too, who came over to Christianity from the Jews, says plainly: “I thank my God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience” (2 Timothy 1:3).
Grant too that there is a third kind, of those who call some people “natural” and others “spiritual.” I think he means the followers of Valentinus. And what is this to us who belong to the Church, who condemn those who bring in natures saved by their very make-up or lost by their very make-up?
Grant too that there are some who profess to be Gnostics, just as the Epicureans proclaim themselves philosophers. But neither would those who abolish providence truly be philosophers, nor would those who have brought in strange fictions, displeasing to those who stand in the succession from Jesus, be Christians.
Grant too that there are some who accept Jesus and on that ground boast that they are Christians, but still wish to live according to the law of the Jews, as the mass of the Jews do. These are the two kinds of Ebionites: those who confess, as we do, that Jesus was born of a virgin, and those who say he was not born so, but like the rest of human beings. What charge does this bring against those of the Church, whom Celsus named for their great number?
He also said that there are some “Sibyllists.” Perhaps he misheard certain people who reproach those who think the Sibyl was a prophetess, and who call such people Sibyllists.
Greek
Ἑξῆς δὲ τούτοις φησί· μή με οἰηθῇ τις ἀγνοεῖν, ὡς οἱ μὲν αὐτῶν συνθήσονται τὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι σφίσιν ὅνπερ Ἰουδαίοις θεὸν, οἱ δ᾿ ἄλλον, ᾧ τοῦτον ἐναντίον, παρ᾿ ἐκείνου τε ἐλθεῖν τὸν υἱόν. εἴπερ δὲ τὸ εἶναι αἱρέσεις πλείονας ἐν Χριστιανοῖς κατηγορίαν οἴεται χριστιανισμοῦ εἶναι, διὰ τί οὐχὶ καὶ φιλοσοφίας κατηγορία κατὰ τὸ ἀνάλογον νομισθείη ἂν ἡ ἐν ταῖς αἱρέσεσι τῶν φιλοσοφούντων διαφωνία οὐ περὶ μικρῶν καὶ τῶν τυχόντων ἀλλὰ περὶ τῶν ἀναγκαιοτάτων; ὥρα δὲ καὶ ἰατρικὴν κατηγορεῖσθαι διὰ τὰς ἐν αὐτῇ αἱρέσεις. ἔστωσαν οὖν ἐν ἡμῖν οἱ μὴ τὸν αὐτὸν λέγοντες τῷ Ἰουδαίων θεῷ θεόν· ἀλλ᾿ οὔ τι γε παρὰ τοῦτο κατηγορητέοι οἱ ἀπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν γραμμάτων ἀποδεικνύντες ὅτι εἷς καὶ ὁ αὐτὸς θεὸς Ἰουδαίων ἐστὶ καὶ ἐθνῶν· ὡς καὶ τὸν Παῦλον λέγειν σαφῶς, ἀπὸ Ἰουδαίων προσελθόντα χριστιανισμῷ· „χάριν ἔχω τῷ θεῷ μου, ᾧ λατρεύω ἀπὸ προγόνων ἐν καθαρᾷ συνειδήσει.“ ἔστω δέ τι καὶ τρίτον γένος τῶν ὀνομαζόντων ψυχικούς τινας καὶ πνευματικοὺς ἑτέρους· οἶμαι δ᾿ αὐτὸν λέγειν τοὺς ἀπὸ Οὐαλεντίνου. καὶ τί τοῦτο πρὸς ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας, κατηγοροῦντας τῶν εἰσαγόντων φύσεις ἐκ κατασκευῆς σῳζομένας ἢ ἐκ κατασκευῆς ἀπολλυμένας; ἔστωσαν δέ τινες καὶ ἐπαγγελλόμενοι εἶναι Γνωστικοὶ, ἀνάλογον τοῖς ἑαυτοὺς ἀναγορεύουσι φιλοσόφους Ἐπικουρείοις. ἀλλ᾿ οὔτε οἱ τὴν πρόνοιαν ἀναιροῦντες φιλόσοφοι εἶεν ἂν ἀληθῶς, οὔτε οἱ τὰ ἀλλόκοτα ἀναπλάσματα καὶ μὴ ἀρέσκοντα τοῖς τῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ διαδοχῆς ἐπεισαγαγόντες εἶεν ἂν Χριστιανοί. ἔστωσαν δέ τινες καὶ τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἀποδεχόμενοι ὡς παρὰ τοῦτο Χριστιανοὶ εἶναι αὐχοῦντες, ἔτι δὲ καὶ κατὰ τὸν Ἰουδαίων νόμον ὡς τὰ Ἰουδαίων πλήθη βιοῦν ἐθέλοντες· οὗτοι δ᾿ εἰσὶν οἱ διττοὶ Ἐβιωναῖοι, ἤτοι ἐκ παρθένου ὁμολογοῦντες ὁμοίως ἡμῖν τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἢ οὐχ οὕτω γεγεννῆσθαι ἀλλὰ ὡς τοὺς λοιποὺς ἀνθρώπους· τί τοῦτο φέρει ἔγκλημα τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας, οὓς ἀπὸ τοῦ πλήθους ὠνόμασεν ὁ Κέλσος; εἶπε δέ τινας εἶναι καὶ Σιβυλλιστὰς, τάχα παρακούσας τινῶν ἐγκαλούντων τοῖς οἰομένοις προφῆτιν γεγονέναι τὴν Σίβυλλαν καὶ Σιβυλλιστὰς τοὺς τοιούτους καλεσάντων.