Against Celsus 2.46

How is the Jew in Celsus not lying when he says that “while he was present he won over only ten sailors and tax collectors of the most accursed kind, and not even all of these”? For it is clear that even Jews would admit that he won over not only ten, nor a hundred, nor a thousand, but at once sometimes five thousand, sometimes four thousand; and he won them over to such an extent that they followed him even into the deserts, which alone could hold a great crowd of those who believed in God through Jesus, and there he showed them not only words but also deeds. His repetitions force us to do something similar, since we are careful not to be thought to pass over any of the charges he makes. In the passage before us, then, in the order of his writing that we are following, he says: “If, while he lived, he persuaded no one, but after his death those who wish persuade so many, how is this not utterly absurd?” He ought, keeping the logical sequence, to have said: “If after his death not simply those who wish, but those who both wish and are able, persuade so many, how much more reasonable is it that he, when he was living among us, persuaded many times more by a more powerful word and deeds?”