Against Celsus 1.68

Next after this, Celsus, suspecting the great deeds of Jesus that would be shown—of which we have mentioned a few out of many—pretends to grant that what is recorded about healings, or resurrection, or a few loaves feeding many, from which many fragments were left over, or whatever else he thinks the disciples told as marvels, is true; and he adds: "Come, let us believe that these things were done by you." And at once he puts them on a level with the works of sorcerers, as though they promised more wonderful things, and with what is done by those who have learned from the Egyptians, who in the middle of the marketplaces sell their venerable lessons for a few obols, drive demons out of people, blow away diseases, call up the souls of heroes, display costly banquets, tables, cakes, and dishes that do not exist, and set in motion as living things what are not really living things but only appear such to the imagination. And he says: "Since they do these things, shall we have to think them sons of God? Or must we say that these are the practices of wicked men possessed by evil demons?" You see how by these words he in effect accepts that magic exists—I do not know whether he is the same as the one who wrote several books against magic—but, as it is useful to him for his purpose, he likens the stories of Jesus to the results of magic. And they would have been similar if Jesus, like the tricksters, had gone only as far as display. But as it is, none of the sorcerers by what he does calls the spectators to the correction of their character, or trains in the fear of God those amazed at the spectacles, or tries to persuade those who have seen to live as people who will be judged by God. Sorcerers do none of these things, since they cannot, or do not even wish or want to take up the correction of human beings, being themselves full of the most shameful and notorious sins. But how is it not likely that he who by the wonders he did called those who saw them to the correction of their character offered himself as an example of the best life not only to his genuine disciples but also to the rest? So that the disciples might be moved to teach human beings according to the will of God, and the rest, taught more by his word and character than by his wonders how one must live, might do everything with reference to pleasing the God over all. If such was the life of Jesus, how could one reasonably compare him with the purpose of sorcerers, and not believe, according to the promise, that he is God appearing in a human body for the benefit of our race?