Truth is not condemned for being said plainly
To this, then, and to everything else that Celsus has treated as common property, saying that these things were said among the Greeks too, because he could not look their truth in the face, we must answer as follows. If a doctrine is beneficial and its intent sound, and it has been said among the Greeks by Plato or by one of the Greek sages, among the Jews by Moses or by one of the prophets, and among Christians in the recorded words of Jesus or in what was said by one of his apostles, we must not think that what is said among Jews or Christians stands condemned because the same things were said among the Greeks too; and least of all if the Jewish teachings are shown to be older than the Greek.
Nor again must we think that the same thing, said with the beauty of Greek diction, is in every way better than what is expressed more plainly and in simpler words among Jews or Christians. And yet the original wording of the Jews, which the prophets used in the books they have left us, was written in the Hebrew language and with an arrangement of words that is skilful by the standards of that language.
But if we must also show, though the claim may seem paradoxical, that the same doctrines are better expressed by the prophets of the Jews or in the words of Christians, the argument must be built from an example taken from foods and the way they are prepared. Let there be some wholesome food that gives strength to those who eat it. Suppose this food, prepared in one way and flavoured with certain seasonings, is eaten not by country people, raised on farmsteads and poor, who have not learned to eat such things, but only by the rich and those who live in luxury. And suppose that, prepared not in that way, nor as seems good to those reckoned more refined, but in the way the poor, the more rustic and the majority of men have learned to eat it, it is eaten by tens of thousands.
If, then, it were granted that from the one kind of preparation only those reckoned more refined are made healthy, while none of the many approach such foods, but that from the other the multitudes of men live in better health: which shall we approve the more, for the sake of the common good, on account of their wholesome foods? Those who prepare them usefully for the learned, or those who prepare them for the multitudes? Let it be granted that equal health and vigour come from food prepared in the one way or in the other; still it is plain that love for humankind itself, and concern for the common good, suggest that the physician who has cared for the health of the many is of more common benefit than the one who has cared for the health of a few only.
Greek
Πρὸς τοῦτο δὴ καὶ πρὸς πάντα, ὅσα ἐκοινοποίησεν ὁ Κέλσος, μὴ δυνηθεὶς αὐτῶν ἀντιβλέψαι τῇ ἀληθότητι, φάσκων αὐτὰ καὶ παρ᾿ Ἕλλησιν εἰρῆσθαι, τοιαῦτα λεκτέον· εἰ ὠφέλιμόν ἐστι τὸ δόγμα καὶ τὸ βούλημα αὐτοῦ ὑγιὲς, εἴρηται δὲ Ἕλλησι μὲν παρὰ Πλάτωνι ἤ τινι τῶν Ἑλλήνων σοφῶν, Ἰουδαίοις δὲ παρὰ Μωϋσεῖ ἤ τινι τῶν προφητῶν, Χριστιανοῖς δὲ (ἐν) τοῖς ἀναγραφεῖσιν Ἰησοῦ λόγοις ἢ λελεγμένοις παρά τινι τῶν ἀποστόλων αὐτοῦ· οὐ νομιστέον κατηγορεῖσθαι τὸ λεγόμενον παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις ἢ παρὰ Χριστιανοῖς ἐκ τοῦ καὶ παρ᾿ Ἕλλησιν αὐτὰ εἰρῆσθαι, καὶ μάλιστα ἐὰν ἀποδεικνύηται τὰ Ἰουδαίων πρεσβύτερα τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν. οὐδὲ πάλιν ὑπὸ τοῦ κάλλους τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς φράσεως λεγόμενον τὸ αὐτὸ πάντως κρεῖττον εἶναι νομιστέον τοῦ εὐτελέστερον ἀπαγγελλομένου καὶ ἁπλουστέραις λέξεσι παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις ἢ Χριστιανοῖς· καίτοι γε ἡ πρώτη Ἰουδαίων λέξις, ᾗ οἱ προφῆται χρησάμενοι καταλελοίπασιν ἡμῖν βιβλία. Ἑβραίων διαλέκτῳ καὶ σοφῇ συνθέσει τῶν ἐν τῇ διαλέκτῳ κατ᾿ ἐκείνους ἀναγέγραπται. εἰ δὲ χρὴ καὶ τὴν τῶν δογμάτων ταυτότητα, κἂν παράδοξος ὁ λόγος εἶναι δοκῇ, δεῖξαι βέλτιον εἰρημένην παρὰ τοῖς Ἰουδαίων προφήταις ἢ τοῖς λόγοις Χριστιανῶν, οὕτω τὸν λόγον κατασκευαστέον ἀπό τινος τοῦ περὶ τὰς τροφὰς καὶ τὴν σκευασίαν αὐτῶν παραδείγματος. ἔστω τι ὑγιεινὸν βρῶμα καὶ ἰσχύος τοῖς ἐσθίουσιν ἐμποιητικὸν. τοῦτο δὲ οὕτως μὲν σκευασθὲν καὶ τοιοῖσδε ἡδύσμασιν ἀρτυθὲν λαμβανέτωσαν οὐχ οἱ μὴ μανθάνοντες ἄγροικοι καὶ ἐν ἐπαύλεσιν ἀνατεθραμμένοι καὶ πένητες τὰ τοιάδε ἐσθίειν ἀλλ᾿ οἱ πλούσιοι καὶ ἁβροδίαιτοι μόνοι· οὐκ ἐκείνως δὲ καὶ ὡς δοκεῖ τοῖς νομιζομένοις καθαριωτέροις σκευασθὲν. ἀλλ᾿ ὡς μεμαθήκασιν ἐσθίειν οἱ πένητες καὶ οἱ ἀγροικότεροι καὶ οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων. ἐσθιέτωσαν μυριάδες ὅλαι. εἰ οὖν καὶ διδοῖτο ἀπὸ μὲν τῆς τοιασδὶ σκευασίας (τοὺς) νομιζομένους καθαριωτέρους μόνους ὑγιάζεσθαι. οὐδενὸς τῶν πολλῶν προσβάλλοντος τοῖς τοιοῖσδε βρώμασιν, ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς τοιασδὶ τὰ πλήθη τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὑγιεινότερον διάγειν· τίνας μᾶλλον τοῦ κοινωνικοῦ ἕνεκεν ἀποδεξόμεθα τῶν ὑγιεινῶν βρωμάτων χάριν; ἆρά γε τοὺς τοῖς λογίοις χρησίμως αὐτὰ σκευάζοντας ἢ τοὺς τοῖς πλήθεσι; τῆς ἴσης (δεδόσθω γὰρ) ὑγιείας καὶ εὐεξίας ἐγγινομένης ἀπὸ τῶν οὑτωσὶ σκευασθέντων ἢ οὑτωσὶ, ἀλλὰ φανερὸν ὅτι αὐτὸ τὸ φιλάνθρωπον καὶ τὸ κοινωνικὸν ὑποβάλλει κοινωφελέστερον εἶναι ἰατρὸν τὸν τῆς τῶν πολλῶν ὑγιείας προνοησάμενον ἤπερ τὸν τῆς ὀλίγων μόνων.