Against Celsus 4.18

By dwelling on things he has not understood, Celsus causes us to repeat ourselves, since we do not want to leave anything he has said, even in appearance, unexamined. He says next: “Either God really changes, as they say, into a mortal body, and it has been said already that this is impossible; or he does not himself change, but makes those who see him think so, and leads them astray and lies. Deceit and lying are otherwise evils, and one would use them only as a kind of medicine, either with friends who are sick and mad, to heal them, or with enemies, taking care to escape danger. But no one sick or mad is a friend to God, nor does God fear anyone, so as to escape danger by leading him astray.” To this one might reply partly about the nature of the divine Word, who is God, and partly about the soul of Jesus. About the nature of the Word: just as the quality of food changes into milk in the nurse to suit the nature of the infant, or is prepared by the physician for the sick man's need for health, or is made ready in this way for the stronger man as more capable, so God changes for men the power of the Word, which by nature nourishes the human soul, according to each one's worth. To one it becomes, as Scripture called it, “pure spiritual milk”; to another, as weaker, a kind of vegetables; to another, who is perfect, “solid food” is given. And surely the Word does not belie his own nature in becoming nourishment for each as he can receive him; nor does he lead astray or lie. But if one takes the change to refer to the soul of Jesus, when it came into a body, we shall ask what he means by change. If a change of being, it is not granted, not only of that soul, but of any other rational soul either. But if it is that it suffers something from the body with which it is mingled and from the place into which it has come, what absurdity results for the Word, who from great love for mankind brings down a Savior to the human race? For none of those who earlier professed to heal could do as much as this soul showed by what it did, having come down voluntarily into human misfortunes for the sake of our race. The divine word, knowing this, says much in many places of the Scriptures; but for the present it suffices to quote one passage of Paul, which runs: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name.”