Against Celsus 2.39

How is it not plainly false, what is said by the Jew in Celsus, that “having persuaded no one while he lived, not even his own disciples, he was punished and endured such things”? For where did the envy of the chief priests, elders, and scribes among the Jews against him come from, if not from the crowds who were persuaded to follow him even into the deserts, held not only by the coherence of his words, since he always spoke what suited his hearers, but also because he astonished by his miracles those who did not believe through the coherence of his word? And how is it not plainly false that he did not persuade even his own disciples, who then suffered something human from cowardice (for they were not yet sharpened to courage), yet did not lay aside their judgment about him as the Christ? For Peter, after denying him, realizing what evil he had come to, “went out and wept bitterly”; and the others, struck by their dejection over him (for they still admired him), were strengthened by his appearance to believe still more, and more firmly than before, that he was the Son of God.