Against Celsus 1.2

Next he says that the doctrine—evidently Judaism, on which Christianity depends—was barbarian in origin. And fairly enough he does not reproach the teaching for its barbarian origin, but praises the barbarians as capable of discovering doctrines; he adds, however, that the Greeks are better at judging, establishing, and putting into practice for virtue what the barbarians discovered. From what he says, then, we have this for the defense of what is contained in Christianity, since it is true: someone who comes to the teaching from Greek doctrines and training would not only judge it true, but by practicing it would also establish it and supply what seems lacking from the standpoint of Greek demonstration, establishing the truth of Christianity. We must say further that the teaching has a demonstration of its own, more divine than Greek demonstration from dialectic. This more divine one the apostle calls the demonstration "of the Spirit and of power": "of the Spirit" because of the prophecies, which are able to convince the reader, above all in what concerns Christ; and "of power" because of the wonderful mighty works, which can be shown to have happened from many other proofs and also because traces of them are still preserved among those who live according to the will of the Word.