Against Celsus 2.49

Jesus, then, turned his disciples away, not from paying attention in general to sorcerers and to those who profess to do wonders by any means whatever (for his disciples did not need this), but from those who proclaim themselves to be the Christ of God and try by certain apparitions to turn Jesus' disciples to themselves. In one place he said: “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There,’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and will give great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the desert,’ do not go out; ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” In another: “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not eat in your name and drink in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works?’ And I will say to them, ‘Depart from me, for you are workers of unrighteousness.’” But Celsus, wishing to put Jesus' wonders on the same level as human sorcery, says in these very words: “O light and truth! With his own voice he expressly declares, as you yourselves have written, that others too will come to you, using similar powers, wicked men and sorcerers, and he names a certain Satan as contriving such things; so that not even he denies that these things are in no way divine but are the works of wicked men. But compelled by the truth, he both revealed what others do and convicted himself. How then is it not wretched to consider him a god because of the same works, and them sorcerers? Why, on the basis of these, should we think the others wicked rather than him, when we use him as witness? He himself admitted that these are the marks not of a divine nature but of certain deceivers and utterly wicked men.” See whether in this Celsus is not clearly convicted of perverting the text, since Jesus says one thing about those who will do “signs and wonders,” and the Jew in Celsus claims another. For if Jesus had simply told his disciples to guard against those who profess to work wonders, without adding what they will claim to be, his suspicion might perhaps have had some ground. But since those Jesus wants us to guard against profess to be “the Christ,” which sorcerers do not do; and since he also says that some who live wickedly in the name of Jesus will do certain mighty works and cast demons out of people; rather, if one must put it so, sorcery is disowned for those in the passage, along with every suspicion against them, and the divinity of Christ and of his disciples is brought in: since it is possible for someone who uses his name, and is moved, I know not how, by some power to pretend that he is the Christ, to seem to perform things like Christ's, and for others, in the name of Jesus, to perform things seemingly like those of his genuine disciples.