Against Celsus, preface 1

Our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, when false witness was borne against him, "kept silent," and when he was accused, "answered nothing," being persuaded that his whole life and his deeds among the Jews were stronger than a voice refuting the false witness or than words of defense against the accusations. But you, God-loving Ambrose, wished—I do not know why—that I should make a defense against the false witness that Celsus bore against Christians in his writings, and against his accusation of the faith of the churches in his book. As though there were not a plain refutation in the facts themselves, and a reasoning stronger than all writings, which both makes the false witness vanish and does not allow the accusations even the plausibility of having any force! That Jesus "kept silent" when false witness was borne against him, it is enough for the present to set out what Matthew says, for Mark wrote words of equal force. Matthew's text runs thus: "The high priest and the council sought false witness against Jesus, that they might put him to death, and they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward and said: This man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days. And the high priest stood up and said to him: Do you answer nothing? What is it that these men testify against you? But Jesus kept silent." And that he did not answer when he was accused is written as follows: "Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying: Are you the King of the Jews? And Jesus said to him: You say so. And when he was accused by the chief priests and elders he answered nothing. Then Pilate said to him: Do you not hear how many things they testify against you? And he did not answer him to a single word, so that the governor wondered greatly."