Where the image of God is found
Next Celsus speaks without having noticed the difference between “after the image of God” (Genesis 1:27) and “his image”: that the “image of God” is the “firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15), the very Word, the very Truth, and also the very Wisdom, which is “the image of his goodness” (Wisdom of Solomon 7:26), while man has been made “after the image” of God (Genesis 1:27); and further, that every man of whom “Christ is the head” (1 Corinthians 11:3) is “the image and glory of God” (1 Corinthians 11:7). He speaks, too, without even having stopped to consider in which part of man the “after the image” of God is stamped, and that it lies in the soul that either never had or no longer has “the old man with his deeds” (Colossians 3:9), a soul which, because it does not have these, is called “after the image” of the Creator (Colossians 3:10). He says: “Nor did he make man his image; for God is not of this kind, nor like any other form.”
What sort of notion is it to suppose that the “after the image” of God resides in the worse part of the composite man, I mean the body, and, as Celsus has taken it, that the body itself is what is “after the image” of him? For if the “after the image” of God is in the body alone, then the better part, the soul, has been deprived of the “after the image”, and it lies in the corruptible body; and none of us says this. And if the “after the image” of God is in both together, then God must be composite, and must himself consist, as it were, of soul and body, so that the better part of the “after the image” would be in the soul, and the lesser, the part that answers to the body, would be in the body; and none of us says this either.
It remains, then, that the “after the image” of God is to be understood as lying in what we call the inner man, which is being renewed (2 Corinthians 4:16) and is by nature able to become “after the image of the Creator” (Colossians 3:10). This happens when someone becomes “perfect, as the heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), and hears, “You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2), and, learning the words “Be imitators of God” (Ephesians 5:1), takes up into his own virtuous soul the features of God. Then too the body of one who has taken up the things of God into what is “after the image” is a “temple” of God (1 Corinthians 6:19), since he has a soul of this kind and, because of the “after the image”, has God in his soul.
Greek
Εἶτά φησιν ὁ Κέλσος, μὴ ἐνιδὼν τῇ διαφορᾷ τοῦ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα θεοῦ“ καὶ „τῆς εἰκόνος αὐτοῦ,“ ὅτι „εἰκὼν“ μὲν „τοῦ θεοῦ“ ὁ „πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεώς“ ἐστιν ὁ αὐτολόγος καὶ ἡ αὐτοαλήθεια ἔτι δὲ καὶ ἡ αὐτοσοφία, „εἰκὼν“ οὖσα „τῆς ἀγαθότητος αὐτοῦ,“ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ δὲ τοῦ „θεοῦ“ ὁ ἄνθρωπος πεποίηται. ἔτι δὲ καὶ ὅτι πᾶς ἀνὴρ, οὗ „Χριστός ἐστι κεφαλὴ,“ „εἰκὼν καὶ δόξα θεοῦ“ ὑπάρχει· ἀλλ᾿ οὐδ᾿ ἐπιστήσας, ἐν τίνι τῶν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὸ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ τοῦ „θεοῦ“ χαρακτηρίζεται, καὶ ὅτι ἐν τῇ ἢ μὴ ἐσχηκυίᾳ ἢ μηκέτι ἐχούσῃ ψυχῇ „τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον σὺν ταῖς πράξεσιν αὐτοῦ,“ ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ἔχειν ταῦτα χρηματιζούσῃ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ τοῦ κτίσαντος, φησὶ τό· οὐδ᾿ ἄνθρωπον ἐποίησεν εἰκόνα αὐτοῦ· οὐ γὰρ τοιόσδε ὁ θεὸς οὔτ᾿ ἄλλῳ εἴδει οὐδενὶ ὅμοιος. οἷον δ᾿ ἐστὶ τοῦ συνθέτου ἀνθρώπου τῷ χείρονι μέρει, λέγω δὲ τῷ σώματι, νομίζειν ἐνυπάρχειν τὸ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ τοῦ „θεοῦ,“ ὡς δ᾿ ὁ Κέλσος ἐξείληφεν, αὐτὸ εἶναι τὸ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ αὐτοῦ; εἰ γὰρ τὸ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ τοῦ „θεοῦ“ ἐν τῷ σώματί ἐστι μόνῳ, ἐστέρηται τὸ κρεῖττον, ἡ ψυχὴ, τοῦ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ καὶ ἔστιν ἐν τῷ φθαρτῷ σώματι, ὅπερ οὐδεὶς ἡμῶν λέγει. εἰ δ᾿ ἐστὶν ἐν τῷ συναμφοτέρῳ τὸ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ τοῦ „θεοῦ,“ ἀνάγκη σύνθετον εἶναι τὸν θεὸν καὶ οἱονεὶ συνεστῶτα καὶ αὐτὸν ἐκ ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος, ἵνα τὸ μὲν „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ τὸ κρεῖττον ᾖ ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ, τὸ δ᾿ ἔλαττον καὶ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα ἐν τῷ σώματι, ὅπερ οὐδεὶς ἡμῶν φησι. λείπεται δὴ τὸ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ τοῦ „θεοῦ“ ἐν τῷ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς λεγομένῳ ἔσω ἀνθρώπῳ καὶ ἀνακαινουμένῳ καὶ πεφυκότι γίνεσθαι „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα τοῦ κτίσαντος“ νοεῖσθαι [τὸ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“], ὅτε γίνεταί τις „τέλειος“, „ὡς ὁ πατὴρ ὁ οὐράνιος τέλειός ἐστι“, καὶ ἀκούει ὅτι „ἅγιοι ἔσεσθε, ὅτι ἐγὼ ἅγιος κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν,“ καὶ μανθάνων τὸ „μιμηταὶ τοῦ θεοῦ γίνεσθε“ ἀναλαμβάνει εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἐνάρετον ψυχὴν τοὺς χαρακτῆρας τοῦ θεοῦ· ὅτε καὶ „ναός“ ἐστι τοῦ ἐν τῷ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ ἀνειληφότος τοῦ θεοῦ τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ „τὸ σῶμα,“ τοῦ τοιαύτην ἔχοντος ψυχὴν καὶ ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ διὰ τὸ „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ τὸν θεόν.