God has no mouth or voice, and does not change
Again Celsus, perhaps having misheard the words: “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things” (Isaiah 1:20), and perhaps also because simple people have been rash in explaining such things, and not understanding what is meant when the names of bodily members are used of the powers of God, says: “He has neither mouth nor voice.” Indeed God will truly have no voice, if voice is struck air, or a striking of air, or a kind of air, or whatever else those skilled in these matters define voice to be. But what is called the voice of God is said, as the voice of God, to be seen by the people, in the words: “All the people saw the voice of God” (Exodus 20:18), “seeing” being taken, to use the customary language of Scripture, spiritually.
He also says: “Nor has He any other of the things we know.” But he does not make clear which things we know he means. If he means members, we agree with him, understanding “of the things we know” as those named in a bodily and more common way. But if we take “of the things we know” in a general sense, many things that we know are included; for God has virtue and blessedness and divinity. And if someone takes “of the things we know” in a loftier sense, since all things that we know are less than God, there is nothing absurd in our too accepting that God has none of the things we know. For what belongs to God is greater than all that is known, not only by the nature of man, but also by the nature of the beings who have risen above it.
If he had read the words of the prophets, David saying: “But You are the same” (Psalm 102:27), and Malachi, I think: “And I have not changed” (Malachi 3:6), he would have seen that none of us says that there is change in God, either in deed or in thought. For, remaining “the same,” He governs changeable things according to their nature, and His Word chooses that they be governed.
Greek
Πάλιν τε αὖ ὁ Κέλσος τάχα μὲν παρακούσας τοῦ „τὸ γὰρ στόμα κυρίου ἐλάλησε ταῦτα“ τάχα δὲ καὶ τῶν ἰδιωτῶν προπετευσαμένων περὶ τῆς τῶν τοιούτων διηγήσεως, μὴ νοήσας τε, ἐπὶ τίνων τάσσεται τὰ ὀνόμασι σωματικῶν μελῶν ἐπὶ τῶν δυνάμεων τοῦ θεοῦ λεγόμενα, φησίν· οὐδὲ στόμα αὐτῷ ἐστιν οὐδὲ φωνή. ἀληθῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἔσται τῷ θεῷ φωνὴ, εἴπερ ἐστὶν ἡ φωνὴ ἀὴρ πεπληγμένος ἢ πληγὴ ἀέρος ἢ εἶδος ἀέρος ἢ ὅ τι δήποτε ὁρίζονται εἶναι τὴν φωνὴν οἱ περὶ ταῦτα δεινοί· ἀλλ᾿ ἡ λεγομένη φωνὴ θεοῦ ὡς θεοῦ φωνὴ ὁρᾶσθαι λέγεται ὑπὸ τοῦ λαοῦ ἐν τῷ „πᾶς ὁ λαὸς ἑώρα τὴν φωνὴν τοῦ θεοῦ,“ τοῦ ὁρᾶσθαι λαμβανομένου, ἵνα κατὰ τὴν συνήθειαν ὀνομάσω τῆς γραφῆς, πνευματικῶς. ἀλλ᾿ οὐδ᾿ ἄλλο φησὶν εἶναι τῷ θεῷ ὧν ἡμεῖς ἴσμεν· τίνων δ᾿ ἡμεῖς ἴσμεν, οὐ σαφηνίζει. εἰ μὲν γὰρ μελῶν, σύμφαμεν αὐτῷ προσυπακούοντες ὧν ἴσμεν σωματικῶς καὶ κοινότερον ὀνομαζομένων· εἰ δὲ καθόλου ἀκούοιμεν· τοῦ ὧν ἡμεῖς ἴσμεν, πολλῶν ἡμεῖς ἴσμεν ἐξακουομένου· ἔστι γὰρ αὐτῷ ἀρετὴ καὶ μακαριότης καὶ θειότης. εἰ δέ τις ἀκούοι ὑψηλότερον τοῦ ὧν ἡμεῖς ἴσμεν, ἐπεὶ πάντα ἃ ἴσμεν ἐλάττονά ἐστι τοῦ θεοῦ· οὐδὲν ἄτοπον καὶ ἡμᾶς παραδέξασθαι ὅτι οὐδέν ἐστι τῷ θεῷ ὧν ἡμεῖς ἴσμεν. κρείττονα γάρ ἐστι πάντων ὧν οἶδεν οὐ μόνη ἡ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου φύσις ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ὑπεραναβεβηκότων αὐτὴν τὰ προσόντα τῷ θεῷ. εἰ δ᾿ ἀνεγνώκει τὰς τῶν προφητῶν λέξεις, τοῦ μὲν Δαυῒδ λέγοντος· „σὺ δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς εἶ,“ τοῦ δὲ Μαλαχίου οἶμαι· „καὶ οὐκ ἠλλοίωμαι,“ ἑώρα αν ὅτι οὐδεὶς ἡμῶν φησιν εἶναι μεταβολὴν ἐν τῷ θεῷ οὔτ᾿ ἔργῳ οὔτ᾿ ἐπινοίᾳ. μένων γὰρ „ὁ αὐτὸς“ διοικεῖ τὰ μεταβλητὰ, ὡς πέφυκε, καὶ λόγος αὐτοῦ αἱρεῖ διοικεῖσθαι αὐτά.