Plato’s steps to knowledge and Christ
Celsus also sets out another passage of Plato, which runs thus: “It has come into my mind to speak still more at length about these matters, for perhaps what I am speaking of would become clearer once this has been said. There is a true argument that stands against anyone who has dared to write anything at all on such subjects; I have often stated it before, yet it seems it must be stated now as well. Each of the things that exist has three things through which knowledge must come; the fourth is knowledge itself; and as a fifth one must set the thing itself, which is knowable and true. Of these, the first is the name, the second the word, the third the image, and the fourth knowledge” (Plato, Seventh Letter 342a–b).
Along the same lines we might say that John, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (John 1:23; Isaiah 40:3), was brought in before Jesus, corresponding to the name in Plato; and that second, after John, comes Jesus, pointed out by him (John 1:29), to whom the words “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14) apply, corresponding to the word in Plato.
Plato calls the third the image. But since we give the name “image” another use, we will say more plainly that the imprint of the wounds that forms in the soul after the word is the Christ in each person, coming from Christ the Word. And whether Christ, the wisdom that is “among the mature” on our side (1 Corinthians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 1:24), also corresponds to the fourth, which is knowledge, let anyone who is able consider.
Greek
Καὶ ἄλλην δὲ τοῦ Πλάτωνος λέξιν ἐκτίθεται ὁ Κέλσος οὕτως ἔχουσαν· „ἔτι δὲ μακρότερα περὶ αὐτῶν ἐν νῷ μοι γέγονεν εἰπεῖν· τάχα γὰρ ἂν ὧν πέρι λέγω σαφέστερον ἂν εἴη τι λεχθέντων αὐτῶν· ἔστι γάρ τις λόγος ἀληθὴς, ἐναντίος τῷ τολμήσαντι γράφειν τῶν τοιούτων (καὶ) ὁτιοῦν, πολλάκις μὲν ὑπ᾿ ἐμοῦ καὶ πρότερον λεχθεὶς, ἔοικε δ᾿ οὖν εἶναι καὶ νῦν λεκτέος. ἔστι τῶν ὄντων ἑκάστῳ, δι᾿ ὧν τὴν ἐπιστήμην ἀνάγκη παραγίνεσθαι, τρία, τέταρτον δὲ αὕτη, πέμπτον δὲ αὐτὸ τιθέναι δεῖ, ὅ δὴ γνωστόν τε καὶ ἀληθές ἐστιν· ὧν ἓν μὲν ὄνομα, δεύτερον δὲ λόγος, τὸ δὲ τρίτον εἴδωλον, τὸ τέταρτον δὲ ἐπιστήμη.“ καὶ κατὰ ταῦτα δὲ εἴποιμεν ἂν ὅτι „φωνὴ μὲν βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ“ εἰσῆκται ὁ Ἰωάννης πρὸ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἀνάλογον τῷ παρὰ Πλάτωνι ὀνόματι, δεύτερος δὲ μετὰ τὸν Ἰωάννην δεικνύμενος ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ ὁ Ἰησοῦς, ᾧ ἐφαρμόζει τὸ „ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο“, ἀνάλογον ὂν τῷ παρὰ Πλάτωνι λόγῳ. Πλάτων μὲν οὖν τὸ τρίτον φησὶν εἴδωλον. ἡμεῖς δὲ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ εἰδώλου ἐπ᾿ ἄλλου τάττοντες τρανότερον φήσομεν ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ γινόμενον μετὰ τὸν λόγον τῶν τραυμάτων τύπον, τοῦτον εἶναι τὸν ἐν ἑκάστῳ Χριστὸν ἀπὸ Χριστοῦ λόγου. εἰ δὲ καὶ ἀνάλογόν ἐστι τῷ τετάρτῳ ὄντι ἐπιστήμη ἡ „ἐν τοῖς“ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς „τελείοις“ σοφία ὁ Χριστὸς, ἐπιστήσει ὁ δυνάμενος.