Against Celsus 1.17

In what follows, accusing the history of Moses, he blames those who interpret it figuratively and allegorize it. One might say to this most noble author, who entitled his book The True Word: Why, sir, do you speak solemnly of the gods, who, as your wise poets and philosophers record, fall into such great misfortunes, engage in accursed unions, make war on their fathers, and cut off their private parts—as having been recorded to have dared, done, and suffered such things; but when Moses says no such thing about God, nor even about holy angels, but far lesser things about human beings (for with him no one dared what Cronus did against Uranus, or what Zeus did against his father, nor did "the father of men and gods" have intercourse with his own daughter), you all think that those who received laws from him were deceived and led astray? Celsus seems to me to do something like Plato's Thrasymachus, who does not allow Socrates to answer as he wishes about justice but says: "See that you do not say that the just is the advantageous, or the needful, or anything else of that sort." For he too, having accused, as he thinks, the histories in Moses, and having blamed those who allegorize them—while also giving them a kind of praise, that they are the more reasonable—in effect prevents, after accusing as he wishes, those who are able from defending them as the facts naturally are.