Chapter LII.

But since it is a Jew who makes these assertions in the treatise of Celsus, we would say to him:  Pray, friend, why do you believe the works which are recorded in your writings as having been performed by God through the instrumentality of Moses to be really divine, and endeavour to refute those who slanderously assert that they were wrought by sorcery, like those of the Egyptian magicians; while, in imitation of your Egyptian opponents, you charge those which were done by Jesus, and which, you admit, were actually performed, with not being divine?  For if the final result, and the founding of an entire nation by the miracles of Moses, manifestly demonstrate that it was God who brought these things to pass in the time of Moses the Hebrew lawgiver, why should not such rather be shown to be the case with Jesus, who accomplished far greater works than those of Moses?  For the former took those of his own nation, the descendants of Abraham, who had observed the rite of circumcision transmitted by tradition, and who were careful observers of the Abrahamic usages, and led them out of Egypt, enacting for them those laws which you believe to be divine; whereas the latter ventured upon a greater undertaking, and superinduced upon the pre-existing constitution, and upon ancestral customs and modes of life agreeable to the existing laws, a constitution in conformity with the Gospel.  And as it was necessary, in order that Moses should find credit not only among the elders, but the common people, that there should be performed those miracles which he is recorded to have performed, why should not Jesus also, in order that He may be believed on by those of the people who had learned to ask for signs and wonders, need262    [δεήσεται.  S.] to work such miracles as, on account of their greater grandeur and divinity (in comparison with those of Moses), were able to convert men from Jewish fables, and from the human traditions which prevailed among them, and make them admit that He who taught and did such things was greater than the prophets?  For how was not He greater than the prophets, who was proclaimed by them to be the Christ, and the Saviour of the human race?

Ἐπεὶ δ' Ἰουδαῖός ἐστιν ὁ παρὰ τῷ Κέλσῳ ταῦτα λέγων, εἴποιμεν ἂν πρὸς αὐτόν· σὺ δὲ δή, ὦ οὗτος, τί δή ποτε τὰ μὲν παρὰ σοὶ γεγραμμένα ὡς ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ διὰ Μωϋσέως ἐπιτελεσθέντα θεῖα εἶναι πεπίστευκας καὶ πειρᾷ πρὸς τοὺς διαβάλλοντας αὐτὰ ὡς κατὰ γοητείαν γεγενημένα ὁμοίως τοῖς παρ' Αἰγυπτίων σοφῶν ἐπιτελουμένοις διαλέ γεσθαι, τὰ δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ καὶ παρὰ σοὶ ὁμολογούμενα γεγονέναι τοὺς κατὰ σοῦ Αἰγυπτίους μιμούμενος κατηγορεῖς ὡς οὐ θεῖα; Εἰ γὰρ τὸ τέλος καὶ ὅλον τὸ ἔθνος συστὰν διὰ τῶν ἐν Μωϋσεῖ τεραστίων τὴν ἐνάργειαν τοῦ θεὸν εἶναι τὸν ταῦτα ποιήσαντα γενέσθαι συνίστησιν ἐπὶ Μωϋσέως, πῶς οὐχὶ μᾶλλον τὸ τοιοῦτον ἐπὶ τῷ Ἰησοῦ δειχθήσεται, μεῖζον ποιήσαντι παρὰ τὸ Μωϋσέως ἔργον; Ἐκεῖνος μὲν γὰρ τοὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ ἔθνους ἐκ σπέρματος Ἀβραὰμ κατὰ διαδοχὴν τὴν περιτομὴν φυλάξαντας καὶ τῶν ἐθῶν τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ γενομένους ζηλωτὰς ἑτοιμοτέρους παραλαβὼν ἐξήγαγεν ἐκ τῆς Αἰγύπ του, τοὺς θείους, οὓς πεπίστευκας, παρατιθέμενος αὐτοῖς νόμους· οὗτος δὲ μεῖζόν τι τολμήσας ἐπεισήγαγε τῇ προκαταλαβούσῃ πολιτείᾳ καὶ ἔθεσι πατρῴοις καὶ ἀνατροφαῖς ταῖς κατὰ τοὺς κειμένους νόμους τὴν κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον πολιτείαν. Καὶ ὥσπερ ἔχρῃζεν, ἵνα Μωϋσῆς πιστευθῇ οὐ μόνον ὑπὸ τῆς γερουσίας ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ λαοῦ, σημείων ὧν πεποιηκέναι ἀναγέγραπται, διὰ τί οὐχὶ καὶ Ἰησοῦς, ἵνα πιστευθῇ ὑπὸ τῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ λαοῦ μεμαθηκότων "σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα" αἰτεῖν, δεήσεται τοιούτων δυνάμεων, αἳ διὰ τὸ μεῖζον καὶ θειότερον συγκρίσει τῶν διὰ Μωϋσέως οἷαί τε ἦσαν ἀποστῆσαι μὲν τῆς ἰουδαϊκῆς μυθολογίας καὶ τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων παρ' αὐτοῖς παραδόσεων ποιῆσαι δὲ παραδέ ξασθαι τὸν ταῦτα διδάσκοντα καὶ ἐπιτελοῦντα, ὅτι μείζων τῶν προφητῶν ἦν; Πῶς γὰρ οὐ μείζων τῶν προφητῶν ἦν ὁ ὑπὸ τῶν προφητῶν ὡς Χριστὸς καὶ σωτὴρ τοῦ γένους τῶν ἀνθρώπων εἶναι κηρυσσόμενος;