Celsus repeats himself on the six days
After the passage we have examined, as though his aim were somehow to fill his book with many words, he says in other words much the same as what we examined a little earlier, where he said: “Far more foolish is it also to parcel out certain days to the origin of the world, before there were days. For when heaven had not yet come to be, nor the earth yet been made firm, nor the sun yet borne round in its course here, how were there days?” For how does that differ from this: “Further, taking it from the beginning, let us consider: how would the first and greatest God not be absurd, giving the command: Let this come to be, and something else, this or that, and on one day fashioning so much, and on the second again so much more, and on the third, the fourth, the fifth and the sixth?”
We have in effect already spoken also to the words “giving the command: Let this come to be, and something else, this or that,” when we cited: “He spoke, and they came to be; He commanded, and they were created” (Psalm 33:9; Psalm 148:5). We said that the immediate Creator, the one who as it were made the world with His own hands, is the Son of God, the Word, while the Father of the Word, by having commanded His own Son, the Word, to make the world, is Creator in the primary sense.
As for “the light” having come to be on one day (Genesis 1:3–5), “the firmament” on the second (Genesis 1:6–8), and on the third the waters “under the heaven” having been gathered into their gatherings, and so the earth having sprouted the things governed by nature alone (Genesis 1:9–13), and on the fourth “the lights” and “stars” (Genesis 1:14–19), and on the fifth the creatures that swim (Genesis 1:20–23), and on the sixth the land animals and “man” (Genesis 1:24–31), we have spoken as far as we could in our work on Genesis. And in the earlier parts too, when we found fault with those who, following the more obvious interpretation, said that a span of six days passed in the making of the world, we cited the words: “This is the book of the origin of heaven and earth, when it came to be, on the day that God made heaven and earth” (Genesis 2:4).
Greek
Μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἐξετασθεῖσαν λέξιν ὡσπερεὶ σκοπὸν ἔχων τὸ ὅπως ποτὲ πολλῶν λόγων πληρῶσαι τὸ βιβλίον, ἄλλαις λέξεσι τὰ παραπλήσιά φησι τοῖς ὀλίγῳ ἀνωτέρω ἐξετασθεῖσιν, ἐν οἷς ἔλεγε· μακρῷ δ᾿ εὐηθέστερον τὸ καὶ ἡμέρας τινὰς ἐπιδιανεῖμαι τῇ κοσμογονίᾳ, πρὶν εἶναι ἡμέρας· οὐρανοῦ γὰρ οὔπω γεγονότος οὐδὲ γῆς πω ἐρηρεισμένης οὐδ᾿ ἡλίου πω τῇδε φερομένου, πῶς ἡμέραι ἦσαν; τί γὰρ διαφέρει ταῦτα τοῦ ἔτι δ᾿ ἄνωθεν λαβόντες ἐπισκεψώμεθα, πῶς οὐκ ἂν ἄτοπος εἴη θεὸς ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ μέγιστος κελεύων· γενέσθω τόδε καὶ ἕτερον τόδε ἢ τόδε, καὶ μιᾷ μὲν ἡμέρᾳ τοσόνδε τεκταινόμενος τῇ δευτέρᾳ δ᾿ αὖθις τοσῷδε πλέον καὶ τρίτῃ καὶ τετάρτῃ καὶ πέμπτῃ καὶ ἕκτῃ; δυνάμει δ᾿ εἴπομεν καὶ εἰς τὸ κελεύων· γενέσθω τόδε καὶ ἕτερον τόδε ἢ τόδε, ὅτε παρετιθέμεθα τὸ „αὐτὸς εἶπε καὶ ἐγενήθησαν, αὐτὸς ἐνετείλατο καὶ ἐκτίσθησαν,“ λέγοντες τὸν μὲν προσεχῶς δημιουργὸν εἶναι τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ λόγον καὶ ὡσπερεὶ αὐτουργὸν τοῦ κόσμου, τὸν δὲ πατέρα τοῦ λόγου τῷ προστεταχέναι τῷ υἱῷ ἑαυτοῦ λόγῳ ποιῆσαι τὸν κόσμον εἶναι πρώτως δημιουργόν. περὶ δὲ τοῦ μιᾷ μὲν ἡμέρᾳ γεγονέναι „τὸ φῶς“ δευτέρᾳ δὲ „τὸ στερέωμα,“ τρίτῃ δὲ συνῆχθαι τὰ „ὑποκάτω τοῦ οὐρανοῦ“ (ὕδατα) εἰς τὰς συναγωγὰς αὐτῶν, καὶ οὕτω βεβλαστηκένει τὴν γῆν τὰ ὑπὸ μόνης φύσεως διοικούμενα, καὶ τετάρτῃ τοὺς „φωστῆρας“ καὶ „ἀστέρας“ καὶ πέμπτῃ τὰ νηκτὰ καὶ ἕκτῃ τὰ χερσαῖα καὶ „τὸν ἄνθρωπον,“ κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἡμῖν ἐν τοῖς πραγματευθεῖσιν εἰς τὴν Γένεσιν εἰρήκαμεν· καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω δὲ ἐγκαλοῦντες τοῖς κατὰ τὴν προχειροτέραν ἐκδοχὴν φήσασι χρόνους ἓξ ἡμερῶν διεληλυθέναι εἰς τὴν κοσμοποιΐαν παρετιθέμεθα τὸ „αὕτη ἡ βίβλος γενέσεως οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς. ὅτε ἐγένετο· ᾗ ἡμέρᾳ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν.“