Origen: Against Celsus, Books I–VIII

Chapter VII.

Moreover, let them show where there is to be found even the appearance of language dictated by arrogance ^{Edition note 1} and proceeding from Jesus. For how could an arrogant man thus express himself, “Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls?” ^{Edition note 2} or how can He be styled arrogant, who after supper laid aside His garments in the presence of His disciples, and, after girding Himself with a towel, and pouring water into a basin, proceeded to wash the feet of each disciple, and rebuked him who was unwilling to allow them to be washed, with the words, “Except I wash thee, thou hast no part with Me?” ^{Edition note 3} Or how could He be called such who said, “I was amongst you, not as he that sitteth at meat, but as he that serveth?” ^{Edition note 4} And let any one show what were the falsehoods which He uttered, and let him point out what are great and what are small falsehoods, that he may prove Jesus to have been guilty of the former.

And there is yet another way in which we may confute him. For as one falsehood is not less or more false than another, so one truth is not less or more true than another. And what charges of impiety he has to bring against Jesus, let the Jew of Celsus especially bring forward. Was it impious to abstain from corporeal circumcision, and from a literal Sabbath, and literal festivals, and literal new moons, and from clean and unclean meats, and to turn the mind to the good and true and spiritual law of God, while at the same time he who was an ambassador for Christ knew how to become to the Jews as a Jew, that he might gain the Jews, and to those who are under the law, as under the law, that he might gain those who are under the law?