After this, Celsus, confusing together the Christian doctrine and the
opinions of some heretical sect, and bringing them forward as charges
that were applicable to all who believe in the divine word, says: “Such
a body as yours could not have belonged to God.” Now, in answer to this,
we have to say that Jesus, on entering into the world, assumed, as one
born of a woman, a human body, and one which was capable of suffering a
natural death. For which reason, in addition to others, we say that He
was also a great wrestler;[1250] having, on account of His human body,
been tempted in all respects like other men, but no longer as men, with
sin as a consequence, but being altogether without sin. For it is
distinctly clear to us that “He did no sin, neither was guile found in
His mouth; and as one who knew no sin,” God delivered Him up as pure for
all who had sinned. Then Celsus says: “The body of God would not have
been so generated as you, O Jesus, were.” He saw, besides, that if, as
it is written, it had been born, His body somehow might be even more
divine than that of the multitude, and in a certain sense a body of God.
But he disbelieves the accounts of His conception by the Holy Ghost, and
believes that He was begotten by one Panthera, who corrupted the Virgin,
“because a God’s body would not have been so generated as you were.” But
we have spoken of these matters at greater length in the preceding
pages.
Footnote 1250:
μέγαν ἀγωνιστήν.