Against Celsus 1.71

Then he says, reviling Jesus—he who, because of his impiety and wicked doctrines, is, so to speak, hateful to God himself—that "these are the doings of someone hateful to God and a wicked sorcerer." Yet if the words and the facts are examined strictly, a human being cannot be hateful to God, since God loves all things that exist and loathes nothing of what he made; for he did not make anything hating it. And if some prophetic sayings say such a thing, they will receive this general explanation: that Scripture uses words about God as about one subject to human passions. What need is there to say in defense against one who thinks that, in what he professes to be persuasive arguments, he should use abuse and reviling of Jesus as a wicked man and a sorcerer? That is not the work of one who demonstrates, but of one who has fallen into a vulgar and unphilosophical passion. He ought, setting out the matter, to examine it fairly and say against it, as best he can, what occurs to him. But since Celsus's Jew ends his speech to Jesus here, we too will end here the scope of our first book against him. And if God grants the truth that destroys false arguments, according to the prayer that says, "In your truth destroy them," we will begin in what follows the second speech, in which his Jew is made to say what follows to those persuaded by Jesus.