Against Celsus 2.32

We have already said that Jesus cannot be either a braggart or a sorcerer; so it is not necessary to repeat what has been said, lest we too repeat ourselves in reply to Celsus's repetitions. In finding fault with the genealogy he did not mention at all the questions that are raised among Christians too, and that some bring as charges, concerning the disagreement between the genealogies. For Celsus, who is truly a braggart and professes to know everything about Christians, did not know how to raise difficulties about Scripture intelligently. He says that those who traced Jesus' genealogy from the first man and from the kings among the Jews were arrogant. And he thinks he brings forward something fine, that the carpenter's wife, if she had been of so great a lineage, would not have been unaware of it. What has this to do with the argument? Suppose she was not unaware: what harm does that do to our case? But let her be unaware: why, because she was unaware, was she not descended from the first man, and did her line not go back to those who reigned among the Jews? Or does Celsus think it necessary that poorer people are born from ancestors who were all poorer, or kings from kings? It seems to me idle to spend time on this argument, since it is plain that even in our own times some people poorer than Mary have been born of rich and famous families, and leaders and kings of the most obscure nations.