Against Celsus 7.13

Nor does God do or suffer the most shameful things, nor does he serve evil, as Celsus thinks; for nothing of the kind has been foretold. And if he says that it was foretold that God would serve evil or do or suffer the most shameful things, he should have cited the words of the prophets on this and not wished to defile his hearers to no purpose. The prophets did foretell what Christ would suffer, and they gave the reason why he would suffer; and God knew what his Christ would suffer. But where does it come from that these things were most abominable and most unclean, as Celsus says? He will seem to teach how the things he endured were most abominable and most unclean, when he says: For what else was it for a god to eat the flesh of sheep and to drink gall or vinegar but to eat dung? But in our view God did not eat the flesh of sheep. For even if he seems to have eaten, Jesus ate as one who bore a body. As for the gall and vinegar, prophesied in the words, “They gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink,” we have spoken above and are forced by Celsus to repeat ourselves. Those who plot against the word of truth always bring to the Christ of God the gall of their own wickedness and the vinegar of their own turning to evil; and he, “having tasted it, would not drink.”