Chapter XLVIII.

Celsus, moreover, unable to resist the miracles which Jesus is recorded to have performed, has already on several occasions spoken of them slanderously as works of sorcery; and we also on several occasions have, to the best of our ability, replied to his statements.  And now he represents us as saying that “we deemed Jesus to be the Son of God, because he healed the lame and the blind.”  And he adds:  “Moreover, as you assert, he raised the dead.”  That He healed the lame and the blind, and that therefore we hold Him to be the Christ and the Son of God, is manifest to us from what is contained in the prophecies:  “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man leap as an hart.”249    Cf. Isa. xxxv. 5, 6.  And that He also raised the dead, and that it is no fiction of those who composed the Gospels, is shown by this, that if it had been a fiction, many individuals would have been represented as having risen from the dead, and these, too, such as had been many years in their graves.  But as it is no fiction, they are very easily counted of whom this is related to have happened; viz., the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue (of whom I know not why He said, “She is not dead, but sleepeth,” stating regarding her something which does not apply to all who die); and the only son of the widow, on whom He took compassion and raised him up, making the bearers of the corpse to stand still; and the third instance, that of Lazarus, who had been four days in the grave.  Now, regarding these cases we would say to all persons of candid mind, and especially to the Jew, that as there were many lepers in the days of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was healed save Naaman the Syrian, and many widows in the days of Elijah the prophet, to none of whom was Elijah sent save to Sarepta in Sidonia (for the widow there had been deemed worthy by a divine decree of the miracle which was wrought by the prophet in the matter of the bread); so also there were many dead in the days of Jesus, but those only rose from the grave whom the Logos knew to be fitted for a resurrection, in order that the works done by the Lord might not be merely symbols of certain things, but that by the very acts themselves He might gain over many to the marvellous doctrine of the Gospel.  I would say, moreover, that, agreeably to the promise of Jesus, His disciples performed even greater works than these miracles of Jesus, which were perceptible only to the senses.250    ὧν ᾽Ιησοῦς αἰσθητῶν.  For the eyes of those who are blind in soul are ever opened; and the ears of those who were deaf to virtuous words, listen readily to the doctrine of God, and of the blessed life with Him; and many, too, who were lame in the feet of the “inner man,” as Scripture calls it, having now been healed by the word, do not simply leap, but leap as the hart, which is an animal hostile to serpents, and stronger than all the poison of vipers.  And these lame who have been healed, receive from Jesus power to trample, with those feet in which they were formerly lame, upon the serpents and scorpions of wickedness, and generally upon all the power of the enemy; and though they tread upon it, they sustain no injury, for they also have become stronger than the poison of all evil and of demons.

Πολλάκις δ' ὁ Κέλσος ἤδη μὴ δυνάμενος ἀντιβλέπειν αἷς ἀναγέγραπται πεποιηκέναι δυνάμεσιν ὁ Ἰησοῦς διαβάλλει αὐτὰς ὡς γοητείας· καὶ πολλάκις τῷ λόγῳ κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἡμῖν ἀντείπομεν. Καὶ νῦν δέ φησιν οἱονεὶ ἡμᾶς ἀποκρίνασθαι ὅτι διὰ τοῦτ' ἐνομίσαμεν αὐτὸν εἶναι υἱὸν θεοῦ, ἐπεὶ χωλοὺς καὶ τυφλοὺς ἐθεράπευσε. Προστίθησι δὲ καὶ τό· Ὡς ὑμεῖς φατε, ἀνίστη νεκρούς. Ὅτι μὲν οὖν χωλοὺς καὶ τυφλοὺς ἐθεράπευσε, διόπερ Χριστὸν αὐτὸν καὶ υἱὸν θεοῦ νομίζομεν, δῆλον ἡμῖν ἐστιν ἐκ τοῦ καὶ ἐν προφητείαις γεγράφθαι· "Τότε ἀνοιχθήσονται ὀφθαλμοὶ τυφλῶν, καὶ ὦτα κωφῶν ἀκούσονται· τότε ἁλεῖται ὡς ἔλαφος ὁ χωλός." Ὅτι δὲ καὶ νεκροὺς ἀνίστη καὶ οὐκ ἔστι πλάσμα τῶν τὰ εὐαγγέλια γραψάντων, παρίσταται ἐκ τοῦ, εἰ μὲν πλάσμα ἦν, πολλοὺς [ἂν] ἀναγεγράφθαι τοὺς ἀναστάντας, καὶ τοὺς ἤδη χρόνους πλείονας ἐν τοῖς μνημείοις· ἐπεὶ δ' οὐκ ἔστι πλάσμα, πάνυ εὐαριθμήτους λελέχθαι, τήν τε τοῦ ἀρχισυναγώγου θυγατέρα –περὶ ἧς οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως εἶπεν· "Οὐκ ἀπέθανεν ἀλλὰ καθεύδει", λέγων τι περὶ αὐτῆς, [ὃ] οὐ πᾶσι τοῖς ἀποθα νοῦσι προσῆν–, καὶ τὸν μονογενῆ τῆς χήρας υἱόν, ἐφ' ᾧ σπλαγχνισθεὶς ἀνέστησεν αὐτόν, στήσας τοὺς φέροντας τὸν νεκρόν, καὶ τρίτον Λάζαρον τετάρτην ἡμέραν ἐν τῷ μνημείῳ ἔχοντα. Καὶ φήσομεν γ' ἔτι περὶ τούτων τοῖς εὐγνωμονεστέροις καὶ μάλιστα τῷ Ἰουδαίῳ ὅτι, ὥσπερ "πολλοὶ λεπροὶ ἦσαν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἐλισσαίου τοῦ προφήτου, καὶ οὐδεὶς αὐτῶν ἐκαθαρίσθη εἰ μὴ Ναιμὰν ὁ Σύρος", καὶ "πολλαὶ χῆραι ἦσαν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἠλίου" τοῦ προφήτου, "καὶ πρὸς οὐδεμίαν αὐτῶν ἐπέμφθη χήραν ὁ Ἠλίας εἰ μὴ εἰς Σαραφθὰ τῆς Σιδωνίας"· ἀξία γὰρ ἐγεγόνει τοῦ ὑπὸ τοῦ προφήτου γεγενημένου τεραστίου ἐν τοῖς ἄρτοις κατά τινα θείαν κρίσιν· οὕτω πολλοὶ νεκροὶ ἦσαν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἰησοῦ, ἀλλὰ μόνοι ἀνέστησαν, οὓς ἔγνω ὁ λόγος ἐπιτηδείους πρὸς τὴν ἀνάστασιν, ἵνα μὴ μόνον σύμβολά τινων ᾖ τὰ γενόμενα ὑπὸ τοῦ κυρίου, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτόθεν προσαγάγῃ πολλοὺς τῇ θαυμασίᾳ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου διδασκαλίᾳ. Ἐγὼ δ' εἴποιμ' ἂν ὅτι κατὰ τὴν Ἰησοῦ ἐπαγγελίαν οἱ μαθηταὶ καὶ "μείζονα" πεποιήκασιν ὧν Ἰησοῦς αἰσθητῶν πεποίηκεν. Ἀεὶ γὰρ ἀνοίγονται ὀφθαλμοὶ τυφλῶν τὴν ψυχήν, καὶ ὦτα τῶν ἐκκεκωφημένων πρὸς λόγους ἀρετῆς ἀκούει προθύμως περὶ θεοῦ καὶ τῆς παρ' αὐτῷ μακαρίας ζωῆς, πολλοὶ δὲ καὶ χωλοὶ τὰς βάσεις τοῦ, ὡς ἡ γραφὴ ὠνόμασεν, "ἔσω" ἀνθρώπου, νῦν τοῦ λόγου ἰασαμένου αὐτούς, οὐχ ἁπλῶς ἅλλονται ἀλλ' "ὡς ἔλαφος", πολέμιον τῶν ὄφεων ζῷον καὶ κρεῖττον παντὸς ἰοῦ τῶν ἐχιδνῶν. Καὶ οὗτοί γε οἱ θεραπευθέντες χωλοὶ λαμβάνουσιν ἀπὸ Ἰησοῦ "ἐξουσίαν πατεῖν" τοῖς ποσίν, οἷς πρότερον ἦσαν χωλοί, "ἐπάνω" τῶν τῆς κακίας "ὄφεων καὶ σκορπίων" καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς "ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ ἐχθροῦ", καὶ πατοῦντες οὐκ ἀδικοῦνται· κρείττους γὰρ καὶ αὐτοὶ γεγόνασι τοῦ πάσης κακίας καὶ τῶν δαιμόνων ἰοῦ.