Against Celsus 6.28

Celsus seems to me to have set out some such thing deliberately, that Christians say the Creator is an accursed god, so that anyone who believed him when he said this against us might, if possible, even be moved to kill Christians as the most impious of all. Confusing matters, he also sets out the reason why the God of the creation according to Moses is called accursed, saying that he is such and deserves a curse, according to those who hold these opinions about him, because he cursed the serpent that brought the knowledge of good and evil to the first human beings. But he ought to have known that those who have taken the serpent's side, as though it gave good advice to the first human beings, outdoing the Titans and Giants of myth, and are for this reason called Ophites, are so far from being Christians that they accuse Jesus no less than Celsus does, and do not admit anyone to their assembly until he has pronounced curses against Jesus. See, then, how utterly unreasonable Celsus has been in his books against Christians, treating as Christians those who do not even wish to hear the name of Jesus, not even that he was a wise man or a person of moderate character. What could be more foolish or more mad, not only than those who wished to take their name from the serpent as the author of good things, but also than Celsus, who thought the accusations against the Ophites were accusations against Christians? Long ago the philosopher of the Greeks who loved simplicity and set out an example of a happy life, showing that he was not hindered from happiness by complete poverty, called himself a Cynic; but these impious men, as though they were not human beings, whose enemy the serpent is, but serpents, pride themselves on being called Ophites after the serpent, the most hostile and horrible of creatures to men, and boast of a certain Euphrates as the founder of their impious teachings.