Against Celsus 4.80

And the divine word according to Moses also presented the first human beings as hearing a more divine voice and oracles, and sometimes seeing visits of God's angels made to them. For it is likely that at the beginning of the world human nature was helped to a greater degree, until, having made progress in understanding and the other virtues and in the discovery of the arts, they were able to live on their own as well, not always needing those who serve God's will to guide and manage them with a wondrous appearance. It follows from this that it is false that at the beginning human beings were seized and eaten by wild beasts, while wild beasts were very rarely caught by human beings. From this it is plain that what Celsus says in these words is false too: "So that in this way at least God subjected human beings rather to the wild beasts." For God did not subject human beings to the wild beasts, but gave the wild beasts to be caught by human understanding and by the arts that understanding produces against them. For it was not without God that human beings contrived for themselves safety from wild beasts and mastery over them.