Against Celsus 4.2

“That some Christians and Jews say, the former that some god or son of God has come down to earth, the latter that he will come down, as judge of the things here, is most shameful, and the refutation does not need a long argument.” He seems to speak accurately about the Jews, not some but all, that they think someone will come down to earth; but about the Christians, that some of them say he has come down. For he is pointing to those who establish from the Jewish Scriptures that the coming of Christ has already taken place, and he seems to know that there are some heresies that deny that Christ Jesus is the one prophesied. We have already discussed, as far as we could, in the earlier books the prophecies of Christ; therefore we do not repeat much of what could be said on this subject, so as not to say the same things twice. But notice that if he wanted, with at least an appearance of consistency, to overturn faith in the prophecies, or in the coming or the having come of Christ, he ought to have set out the very prophecies which we Christians and Jews use in debating with one another. For in that way he might at least have seemed to turn those distracted by what he thinks is persuasive away from assent to the prophecies and from faith in Jesus as Christ on account of the prophecies. But as it is, either unable to answer the prophecies about Christ or not even knowing at all what the prophecies about him are, he quotes not a single prophetic saying, though there are countless ones about Christ, and thinks he is accusing the prophecies without setting out even the persuasiveness he might claim for his view. He does not know, however, that the Jews do not by any means say that the Christ who will come down is God or the Son of God, as we have said above too.