Against Celsus 7.41

We must consider also whom Celsus wishes us to follow, so that we may not lack ancient guides and holy men. He refers us to inspired poets, as he calls them, and wise men and philosophers, without giving their names; and having promised to show us the guides, he indicates in vague terms “the inspired poets and wise men and philosophers.” If he had given the names of each of them, it would have seemed reasonable for us to argue that he is giving us guides who are blind about the truth, so that we may go astray, or if not wholly blind, at least mistaken about many doctrines of the truth. Whether he wants Orpheus to be an inspired poet, or Parmenides, or Empedocles, or even Homer himself or Hesiod, let whoever wishes show how those who use such guides will travel better and be helped in the conduct of life, compared with those who, because of the teaching of Jesus Christ, have abandoned all images and statues, and all Jewish superstition as well, and through the Word of God look up only to God, the Father of the Word. And who are the wise men or philosophers from whom Celsus wishes us to hear many divine things, abandoning Moses the servant of God and the prophets of the Creator of the universe, who truly spoke countless things by inspiration, and abandoning him who shone upon the human race and proclaimed the way of the worship of God, and who, as far as lay in him, left no one without a taste of his mysteries, but out of surpassing love for humankind was able to give to the more intelligent a theology capable of lifting the soul from the things of this world, while nonetheless also coming down to the lower capacities of simple men, of plainer women and slaves, and in short of those helped by no one but Jesus alone, so that they might live better, as far as possible, with such doctrines about God as they could grasp?