Names Celsus misheard
He seems to me to have misheard both the apostle’s words, which say: “In later times some will fall away from the faith, devoting themselves to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars whose own conscience has been seared with a branding iron, who forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by the faithful” (1 Timothy 4:1–3), and also those who used these words of the apostle against people who had counterfeited Christianity. That is why Celsus said that among Christians some are called “branding irons of the ear.”
He himself says that some are called “riddles,” something we have never come across. It is true that the word “stumbling block” occurs often in these writings, and we commonly use it of those who turn the simpler and the easily deceived away from sound teaching. But we know of no one called “Sirens who dance and play the sophist, who seal up the ears and give swine’s heads to those who believe them”; and I think no one else does either, whether within our teaching or in the sects.
But this man, who professes to know everything, says this as well: “You will hear all of them,” he says, “who are so far divided and convict one another most shamefully in their quarrels, saying: ‘The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world’ (Galatians 6:14).” For this seems to be the only saying of Paul that Celsus remembered. For do we not also say countless other things that are written, such as: “For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but mighty before God for the pulling down of strongholds, as we pull down arguments and every height that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:3–5)?
Greek
Παρακηκοέναι δέ μοι φαίνεται τῆς τε ἀποστολικῆς λέξεως φασκούσης· „ἐν ὑστέροις καιροῖς ἀποστήσονταί τινες τῆς πίστεως, προσέχοντες πνεύμασι πλάνοις καὶ διδασκαλίαις δαιμονίων, ἐν ὑποκρίσει ψευδολόγων, κεκαυστηριασμένων τὴν οἰκείαν συνείδησιν, κωλυόντων γαμεῖν, ἀπέχεσθαι βρωμάτων, ἃ ὁ θεὸς ἔκτισεν εἰς μετάληψιν μετ᾿ εὐχαριστίας τοῖς πιστοῖς,“ παρακηκοέναι δὲ καὶ τῶν ταύταις τοῦ ἀποστόλου ταῖς λέξεσι χρησαμένων κατὰ τῶν παραχαραξάντων τὰ χριστιανισμοῦ· διόπερ εἶπεν ὁ Κέλσος ἀκοῆς καυστήριά τινας ὀνομάζεσθαι παρὰ Χριστιανοῖς. αὐτὸς δέ φησι τινὰς καλεῖσθαι αἰνίγματα, ὅπερ ἡμεῖς οὐχ ἱστορήσαμεν. ἀληθῶς δὲ τὸ τοῦ σκανδάλου ὄνομα πολὺ ἐν τοῖς γράμμασι τούτοις ἐστὶν, ὅπερ εἰώθαμεν λέγειν περὶ τῶν διαστρεφόντων ἀπὸ τῆς ὑγιοῦς διδασκαλίας τοὺς ἁπλουστέρους καὶ εὐεξαπατήτους. Σειρῆνας δέ τινας ἐξορχουμένας καὶ σοφιστρίας, κατασφραγιζομένας τὰ ὦτα καὶ ἀποσυοκεφαλούσας τοὺς πειθομένους. ἡμεῖς οὐκ ἴσμεν ὀνομαζομένους, οἶμαι δ᾿ ὅτι οὐδ᾿ ἄλλος τις τῶν ἐν τῷ λόγῳ οὐδ᾿ ἐν ταῖς αἱρέσεσιν. ἀλλ᾿ οὗτος ὁ πάντ᾿ εἰδέναι ἐπαγγελλόμενος καὶ τοιαῦτά φησι· πάντων δὲ, φησὶν, ἀκούσει τῶν ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον διεστηκότων καὶ σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ταῖς ἔρισιν αἴσχιστα διελεγχόντων λεγόντων τό· „ἐμοὶ κόσμος ἐσταύρωται, κἀγὼ κόσμῳ.“ τοῦτο γὰρ μόνον ἀπὸ τοῦ Παύλου ἔοικεν ἐμνημονευκέναι ὁ Κέλσος· διὰ τί γὰρ οὔ φαμεν καὶ ἄλλα μυρία τῶν γεγραμμένων ὡς τό· „ἐν σαρκὶ γὰρ ζῶντες οὐ κατὰ σάρκα στρατευόμεθα, τὰ γὰρ ὅπλα τῆς στρατείας ἡμῶν οὐ σαρκικὰ ἀλλὰ δυνατὰ τῷ θεῷ πρὸς καθαίρεσιν ὀχυρωμάτων, λογισμοὺς καθαιροῦντες καὶ πᾶν ὕψωμα ἐπαιρόμενον κατὰ τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ θεοῦ“;