Celsus’s darkness and the light that heals the blind
This, however, Celsus said truly in the passage before us: that someone who has heard his words, and has seen that they are words of darkness, answers, “You cast darkness before my eyes.” Celsus, then, and those like him wish to cast darkness before our eyes; but we, by the light of the Word, make the darkness of impious doctrines vanish. And the Christian might well say to Celsus, who says nothing clear or compelling, “I see nothing clearly in your words.” So Celsus does not lead us out of darkness into bright light. Rather, he wishes to move us from light into darkness, making “darkness light and light darkness”, and he falls under what Isaiah rightly said in these words: “Woe to those who make darkness light and light darkness” (Isaiah 5:20).
But we, since the Word has opened the eyes of our soul and we see the difference between light and darkness, choose in every way to stand in the light, and have no wish at all to come near the darkness. The true light (John 1:9), being alive, knows to whom its full brilliance should be shown and to whom only light; and, because of the weakness still in a man’s eyes, it does not display its own brightness to him.
And if we must speak at all of sight being afflicted and harmed, whose eyes would we say suffer this, if not the eyes of one held fast by ignorance about God and kept by the passions from seeing the truth? Christians, then, by no means think they are blinded by the words of Celsus, or of anyone else who is a stranger to the worship of God. But let those who perceive that they are being blinded by following crowds that go astray, and nations that hold festivals to demons, come to the Word who grants eyes, so that, like the poor and blind men lying beside the road who were healed by Jesus because they had said to him, “Son of David, have mercy on me” (Mark 10:46–48; Luke 18:35–39), they too may receive mercy and get back their eyes, new and beautiful, such as the Word of God would create.
Greek
Τοῦτο δ᾿ ἐν τοῖς προκειμένοις ὁ Κέλσος εἶπεν ἀληθὲς. ὅτι ἀκούσας τις αὐτοῦ τῶν λόγων ἀποκρίνεται, ἰδὼν δ᾿ ὅτι λόγοι σκότους εἰσὶν οἱ λόγοι αὐτοῦ, ὅτι σκότος μου τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν προβάλλεις. Κέλσος μὲν ουν καὶ οἱ παραπλήσιοι αὐτῷ προβάλλειν σκότον τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἡμῶν θέλουσιν, ἡμεῖς δὲ τῷ φωτὶ τοῦ λόγου ἐξαφανίζομεν τὸ σκότος τῶν ἀσεβῶν δογμάτων. εἴποι δ᾿ ἂν ὁ Χριστιανὸς πρὸς Κέλσον οὐδὲν ἐναργὲς καὶ πληκτικὸν λέγοντα τό· οὐδὲν ἐναργὲς βλέπω ἐν τοῖς σοῖς λόγοις. οὐκ ἐκ σκότου τοίνυν εἰς λαμπρὸν φῶς προάγει ἡμᾶς ὁ Κέλσος, ἀλλὰ βούλεται ἐκ φωτὸς μεταστῆσαι εἰς σκότον, τιθεὶς „τὸ σκότος“ εἶναι „φῶς καὶ τὸ φῶς σκότος“ καὶ ὑποκείμενος τῷ καλῶς εἰρημένῳ ὑπὸ Ἡσαΐου τὸν τρόπον τοῦτον· „οὐαὶ οἱ τιθέντες τὸ σκότος φῶς καὶ τὸ φῶς σκότος.“ ἀλλ᾿ ἡμεῖς. ἀνοίξαντος τοῦ λόγου τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τῆς ψυχῆς ἡμῶν, ὁρῶντες διαφορὰν φωτὸς καὶ σκότους ἐν φωτὶ μὲν παντὶ τρόπῳ ἵστασθαι προαιρούμεθα, τῷ δὲ σκότῳ οὐδαμῶς προσεῖναι βουλόμεθα. ἔμψυχον δὲ τυγχάνον τὸ ἀληθινὸν φῶς ἐπίσταται, τίνι μὲν δεικτέον ἔσται τὰς μαρμαρυγὰς τίνι δὲ φῶς, οὐ παριστάντος αὐτοῦ τὴν λαμπρότητα ἑαυτοῦ διὰ τὴν ἔτι δὲ φῶς, οὐ ἀσθένειαν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἐκείνου. εἰ δ᾿ ὅλως χρὴ λέγειν κολάζεσθαι καὶ βλάπτεσθαι ὄψιν. τίνος ἂν ἄλλου φήσωμεν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ταῦτα πάσχειν ἢ τοῦ ὑπὸ τῆς περὶ θεοῦ ἀγνοίας συνεχομένου καὶ τοῦ ὑπὸ τῶν παθῶν ἐμποδιζομένου βλέπειν ἀλήθειαν; Χριστιανοὶ μὲν οὖν οὐδαμῶς νομίζουσι πηροῦσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν Κέλσου ἤ τινος ἀλλοτρίου θεοσεβείας λόγων· οἱ δ᾿ αἰσθανόμενοι ἑαυτῶν πηρουμένων ὑπὸ τοῦ κατακολουθεῖν ὄχλοις πλανωμένων καὶ ἔθνεσιν ἑορταζόντων δαιμονίοις προσίτωσαν τῷ χαριζομένῳ ὀφθαλμοὺς λόγῳ, ἵν᾿ ὁμοίως τοῖς παρὰ τῇ ὁδῷ ἐῤῥιμμένοις πτωχοῖς καὶ τυφλοῖς. ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ θεραπευθεῖσι διὰ τὸ εἰρηκέναι αὐτῷ· „υἱὲ Δαυΐδ, ἐλέησόν με,“ ἐλεηθέντες ἀπολάβωσι τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καινοὺς καὶ καλοὺς, ὁποίους λόγος θεοῦ δημιουργήσαι ἄν.