Celsus traces the saying on worldly wisdom to the Greeks
So we pass on to another charge of Celsus. He does not even know our actual words, but from scraps he has misheard he said that we say “the wisdom among men is foolishness with God,” although what Paul says is: “The wisdom of the world is foolishness with God” (1 Corinthians 3:19). Celsus says that the reason for this has been given already. He thinks the reason is that by this saying we want to win over only the uneducated and the stupid. But, as he himself noted, he said the same thing earlier, and we have answered that argument as well as we could. Even so, he wanted to show that this too was made up by us and taken from the wise men of the Greeks, who said that human wisdom is one thing and divine wisdom another.
He does indeed set out sayings of Heraclitus: one in which he says, “For human character has no insight, but divine character has” (Heraclitus, fragment 78 DK), and another, “A man is called an infant by a divinity, as a child is by a man” (Heraclitus, fragment 79 DK). He also sets out these words from the Apology of Socrates written by Plato: “For I, men of Athens, have gained this name through nothing else than wisdom. What sort of wisdom is this? The kind that is perhaps human wisdom; for in truth I may well be wise in that” (Plato, Apology 20d).
These, then, are the passages Celsus sets out. I will add these as well, from Plato’s letter to Hermias, Erastus and Coriscus: “To Erastus and Coriscus I say, old as I am, that besides this fine wisdom of the Forms they still need a wisdom that guards against wicked and unjust men, and a certain power of self-defence. For they lack experience, because they have spent much of their life with us, who are moderate men and not bad ones. That is why I said they still need these things, so that they may not be forced to neglect the true wisdom and to attend to the human and necessary kind more than they should” (Plato, Letter 6, 322d–e).
Greek
Διὸ μεταβαίνομεν ἐπ᾿ ἄλλην Κέλσου κατηγορίαν. οὐδὲ τὰς λέξεις ἡμῶν εἰδότος ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ παρακουσματίων φήσαντος ὅτι φαμὲν τὴν ἐν ἀνθρώποις σοφίαν μωρίαν εἶναι παρὰ θεῷ, τοῦ Παύλου λέγοντος· „ἡ σοφία τοῦ κόσμου μωρία παρὰ θεῷ ἐστι.“ καί φησιν ὁ Κέλσος ὅτι ἡ τούτου αἰτία καὶ πάλαι εἴρηται. οἴεται δὲ αἰτίαν εἶναι τὸ βούλεσθαι ἡμᾶς διὰ τῆς λέξεως ταύτης τοὺς ἀπαιδεύτους καὶ ἠλιθίους προσάγεσθαι μόνους. ἀλλ᾿ ὡς καὶ αὐτὸς ἐσημειώσατο, ταὐτὸ εἶπεν ἀνωτέρω, καὶ ἡμεῖς πρὸς τὸν λόγον κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἡμῖν ἀπηντήσαμεν. ὅμως μέντοι ἐβουλήθη καὶ τοῦτο δεῖξαι πεπλασμένον ἡμῖν καὶ ληφθὲν ἀπὸ τῶν παρ᾿ Ἕλλησι σοφῶν. ἄλλην μὲν εἶναι φησάντων τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην σοφίαν ἄλλην δὲ τὴν θείαν. καὶ ἐκτίθεταί γε Ἡρακλείτου λέξεις, μίαν μὲν, ἐν ᾗ φησιν· „ἦθος γὰρ ἀνθρώπειον μὲν οὐκ ἔχει γνώμας, θεῖον δὲ ἔχει,“ ἑτέραν δέ· „ἀνὴρ νήπιος ἤκουσε πρὸς δαίμονος ὅκως περ παῖς πρὸς ἀνδρός.“ ἐκτίθεται δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς Πλάτωνος γεγραμμένης Σωκράτους ἀπολογίας ταῦτα· „ἐγὼ γὰρ, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, δι᾿ οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἢ διὰ σοφίαν τοῦτο τὸ ὄνομα ἔσχηκα. ποίαν δὲ σοφίαν ταύτην; ἥπερ ἐστὶν ἴσως ἀνθρωπίνη σοφία· τῷ ὄντι γὰρ κινδυνεύω ταύτην εἶναι σοφός.“ ἃ μὲν οὖν ἐκτίθεται ὁ Κέλσος ταῦτά ἐστιν. ἐγὼ δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς πρὸς Ἑρμείαν καὶ Ἔραστον καὶ Κορίσκον Πλάτωνος ἐπιστολῆς καὶ ταῦτα παραθήσομαι· „Ἐράστῳ δὲ καὶ Κορίσκῳ πρὸς τῇ τῶν εἰδῶν σοφίᾳ τῇ καλῇ ταύτῃ φημὶ ἐγὼ καίπερ γέρων ὢν προσδεῖν σοφίας τῆς περὶ τοὺς πονηροὺς καὶ ἀδίκους φυλακτικῆς καί τινος ἀμυντικῆς δυνάμεως. ἄπειροι γάρ εἰσι διὰ τὸ μεθ᾿ ἡμῶν μετρίων ὄντων καὶ οὐ κακῶν συχνὸν διατετριφέναι τοῦ βίου· διὸ δὴ τούτων προσδεῖν εἶπον, ἵνα μὴ ἀναγκάζωνται τῆς ἀληθινῆς μὲν ἀμελεῖν σοφίας, τῆς δ᾿ ἀνθρωπίνης τε καὶ ἀναγκαίας ἐπιμελεῖσθαι μειζόνως ἢ δεῖ.“