Against Celsus 7.25

Celsus, without setting side by side the apparently contrary passages of the law and of the Gospel, also says: and must offer oneself to be struck again to the one who has struck once. We shall say that we know both the saying spoken to those of old, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” and have read, “But I say to you,” “To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.” But since Celsus, I think, having heard things from those who separate the divinity of the Gospel from the divinity of the law, sets out such things, it must be said to his argument that the ancient writings too know, “To the one who strikes you on the right cheek, offer the other also.” At any rate, it is written in the Lamentations of Jeremiah: “It is good for a man when he bears a yoke in his youth; he will sit alone and keep silent, because he has taken it upon himself. He will give his cheek to the one who strikes him, and he will be filled with reproaches.” The Gospel, then, does not set in opposition to the God of the law a God who legislates differently, not even concerning a literal blow on the cheek. Neither of the two is lying, neither Moses nor Jesus; nor did the Father, when he sent Jesus, forget what he had commanded Moses; nor did he condemn his own laws, change his mind, and send his messenger for the opposite purposes.