Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus 31

You would also wonder where the disciples of Jesus got their resolve, if you listen to those who slander him. They claim the disciples never saw him risen from the dead, nor were they ever convinced that he was something divine. On top of that, they were not afraid to suffer the same fate as their teacher, to share his danger, and to leave their homelands behind in order to teach the message he had delivered to them, doing his will. I think anyone who examines the matter fairly would not say these men handed themselves over to a precarious life for the sake of Jesus' teaching without some powerful conviction. He instilled that conviction in them through his teaching, shaping them not only to live by his lessons themselves but to set others right as well — to correct them even if it meant stepping forward boldly as innovators before all people everywhere, and refusing to call anyone a friend who clung to the old doctrines and customs. Did Jesus’ disciples not see this, when they dared not only to prove to the Jews from the prophetic writings that he was the promised one, but also to declare to the other nations that the man crucified just the day before had willingly accepted that death for the sake of the whole human race? Their message was analogous to those who die for their homelands to stop a destructive plague, or a famine, or a peril at sea. For it is plausible that in the nature of things, according to certain unspeakable and hard-to-grasp truths, there is a principle such that one righteous person, dying voluntarily for the common good, can ward off the evil influences of wicked demons — demons that bring plagues, famines, perilous voyages, or similar disasters. So let those who refuse to believe that Jesus died for humanity on a cross answer this: will they not also accept the many Greek and barbarian histories that tell of individuals who died for the common good and delivered their cities and nations from evil? Or will they grant that those stories happened, yet insist that the man thought to have died to overthrow a great demon, the ruler of demons who had subjected all human souls on earth, has nothing persuasive about him? The disciples of Jesus saw all this, and more besides — things they likely learned from him in secret — and they were also filled with a certain power. He gave them strength and courage, not from some created maiden, but from the true prudence and wisdom of God. They hurried to make themselves known to everyone, not only to the Argives but to all Greeks and barbarians together, and to win a noble reputation.