The Son shares the Father’s greatness
Celsus, however, says that we answer with a likely guess, and he acknowledges that he is writing down our answer in this form: “Since God is great and hard to behold, he put his own spirit into a body like ours and sent it down here, so that we might be able to hear from him and learn.”
But in our teaching the God and Father of all is not the only one who is great. For he has given a share of himself and of his greatness to the only-begotten and “firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15), so that, being himself “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), he might keep the image of the Father in greatness too. For there could not have been a well-proportioned image, if I may call it that, and a beautiful image “of the invisible God,” that did not also present the image of his greatness.
Further, in our teaching God is invisible because he is not a body; but to those who can contemplate him he can be beheld with the heart, that is, with the mind; and not with just any heart, but with a pure one (Matthew 5:8). For it is not right for a defiled heart to gaze on God; what would behold the Pure One as he deserves must itself be pure.
Granted, then, that God is hard to behold; yet he is not the only one hard to behold, but so is his only-begotten. For God the Word is hard to behold, and in the same way so is the Wisdom in which God made all things (Psalm 104:24). For who can behold, in each and every thing, the Wisdom in which God made each and every thing? It was not, then, because God is hard to behold that he sent the Son as one easy to behold.
Celsus did not understand this, and said, as though speaking for us: “Because he is hard to behold, he put his own spirit into a body like ours and sent it down here, so that we might be able to hear from him and learn.” But, as we have explained, the Son too, though he is hard to behold, since he is God the Word through whom all things came to be (John 1:3), also “dwelt among us” (John 1:14).
Greek
Πλήν φησιν ὁ Κέλσος ἡμᾶς ἀποκρίνεσθαι εἰκότι στοχασμῷ, ὁμολογῶν ἀναγράφειν ἡμῶν τὴν ἀπόκρισιν οὕτως ἔχουσαν· ἐπειδὴ μέγας ἐστὶ καὶ δυσθεώρητος ὁ θεὸς, πνεῦμα ἴδιον ἐμβαλὼν εἰς σῶμα ἡμῖν ὅμοιον δεῦρο κατέπεμψεν, ὡς ἂν δυνηθείημεν ἀκοῦσαι παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ καὶ μαθεῖν. οὐ μόνος δὲ μέγας καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐστιν ὁ τῶν ὅλων θεὸς καὶ πατήρ· μετέδωκε γὰρ ἑαυτοῦ καὶ τῆς μεγαλειότητος τῷ μονογενεῖ καὶ πρωτοτόκῳ „πάσης κτίσεως“· ἵν᾿ „εἰκὼν“ αὐτὸς τυγχάνων „τοῦ ἀοράτου θεοῦ“ καὶ ἐν τῷ μεγέθει σῴζῃ τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ πατρός. οὐ γὰρ οἷόν τ᾿ ἦν εἶναι σύμμετρον, ἵν᾿ οὕτως ὀνομάσω, καὶ καλὴν εἰκόνα „τοῦ ἀοράτου θεοῦ,“ μὴ καὶ τοῦ μεγέθους παριστᾶσαν τὴν εἰκόνα. ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ θεὸς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς τῷ μὲν μὴ εἶναι σῶμα ἀόρατός ἐστιν· τοῖς δὲ θεωρητικοῖς καρδίᾳ θεωρητὸς, τουτέστι νῷ, καρδίᾳ δὲ οὐ τῇ τυχούσῃ ἀλλὰ τῇ καθαρᾷ. οὐ γὰρ θέμις μεμολυσμένην καρδίαν ἐνορᾶν θεῷ, ἀλλὰ δεῖ καθαρὸν εἶναι τὸ τοῦ καθαροῦ κατ᾿ ἀξίαν θεωρητικόν. ἔστω δὴ καὶ δυσθεώρητος ὁ θεός· ἀλλ᾿ οὐ μόνος δυσθεώρητός ἐστι τινὶ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ μονογενὴς αὐτοῦ. δυσθεώρητος γὰρ ὁ θεὸς λόγος, δυσθεώρητος δὲ οὑτωσὶ καὶ σοφία ἐστὶν, ἐν ᾗ τὰ πάντα πεποίηκεν ὁ θεός. τίς γὰρ δύναται καθ᾿ ἕκαστον τῶν πάντων τὴν σοφίαν, ἐν ᾗ ὁ θεὸς καὶ ἕκαστον τῶν πάντων πεποίηκε, (θεωρῆσαι) ; οὐ διὰ τὸ δυσθεώρητος οὖν ὁ θεὸς εἶναι ὡς εὐθεώρητον τὸν υἱὸν ἔπεμψεν. ἅπερ μὴ νοήσας ὁ Κέλσος εἶπεν ὡς ἐκ προσώπου ἡμῶν· διὰ τὸ δυσθεώρητος εἶναι πνεῦμα ἴδιον ἐμβαλὼν εἰς σῶμα ἡμῖν ὅμοιον δεῦρο κατέπεμψεν, ὡς ἂν δυνηθείημεν ἀκοῦσαί τε παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ καὶ μαθεῖν. ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ἀποδεδώκαμεν, καὶ ὁ υἱὸς δυσθεώρητος ὢν, ἅτε λόγος θεὸς, δι᾿ οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο, „καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν.“