Righteousness dawned and peace spread
Celsus also threw in this remark: “No one proves anyone to be God and the Son of God from such signs and misunderstandings, nor from evidence so ignoble.” He ought to have set out the misunderstandings and refuted them, and shown by reasoning that the evidence is ignoble, so that, if the Christian seemed to say anything persuasive, he might try to contend against it and overturn the argument. But what he said about Jesus did come true, as of someone great, though he did not wish to see that it had come true, as the plain facts about Jesus make evident. “For as the sun,” he says, “lighting up all other things, first shows itself, so the Son of God ought to have done.”
We would say, then, that he has indeed done so. For “in his days righteousness dawned, and abundance of peace” (Psalm 72:7) came about, beginning from his birth. God was preparing the nations for his teaching, so that they would come under one Roman emperor, and so that the nations’ lack of contact with one another, owing to the many kingdoms, would not make it harder for Jesus’ apostles to do what Jesus commanded them when he said: “Go and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19).
It is clear that Jesus was born in the reign of Augustus, who, if I may put it so, brought the many peoples of the earth to one level under a single kingdom. The existence of many kingdoms would have hindered the spread of Jesus’ teaching through the whole world, not only for the reasons already given, but also because people everywhere were forced to serve as soldiers and to fight for their homelands. That was what happened before the times of Augustus and still earlier, whenever there was need for a war, as between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, and so too between other peoples. How, then, could this teaching of peace, which does not even allow people to avenge themselves on enemies (Matthew 5:38–44), have prevailed, unless at the coming of Jesus the affairs of the world had everywhere been changed to a gentler state?
Greek
Παρέῤῥιψε δ᾿ ὁ Κέλσος καὶ τό· θεὸν δὲ καὶ θεοῦ υἱὸν οὐδεὶς ἐκ τοιούτων συμβόλων καὶ παρακουσμάτων οὐδ᾿ ἐξ οὕτως ἀγεννῶν τεκμηρίων συνίστησιν. ἐχρῆν δὲ αὐτὸν τὰ παρακούσματα ἐκθέμενον ἐλέγξαι καὶ τὰ ἀγεννῆ τεκμήρια λόγῳ παραστῆσαι· ἵν᾿ εἴ τι πιθανὸν ἐδόκει λέγειν ὁ Χριστιανὸς. ἀγωνίσασθαι πρὸς αὐτὸ πειραθῇ καὶ ἀνατρέψαι τὸν λόγον. ὅπερ δὲ εἶπε περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἀπήντησε μὲν ὡς περὶ μεγάλου, οὐκ ἐβουλήθη δὲ ἰδεῖν ὅτι τοῦτ᾿ ἀπήντησεν. ὡς ἡ ἐνάργεια παρίστησι περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ. ὡς γὰρ ὁ ἥλιος, φησὶ. πάντα τὰ ἄλλα φωτίζων πρῶτον αὑτὸν δεικνύει. οὕτως ἐχρῆν πεποιηκέναι τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ. εἴποιμεν ἂν οὖν ὅτι καὶ πεποίηκεν· „ἀνέτειλε“ γὰρ „ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις αὐτοῦ δικαιοσύνη, καὶ πλῆθος εἰρήνης“ γέγονεν ἀρξάμενον ἀπὸ τῆς γενέσεως αὐτοῦ, εὐτρεπίζοντος τοῦ θεοῦ τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ αὐτοῦ τὰ ἔθνη, ἵν᾿ ὑπὸ ἕνα γένηται τῶν Ῥωμαίων βασιλέα, καὶ μὴ διὰ τὸ προφάσει τῶν πολλῶν βασιλειῶν ἄμικτον τῶν ἐθνῶν πρὸς ἄλληλα χαλεπώτερον γένηται τοῖς ἀποστόλοις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ τὸ ποιῆσαι ὅπερ προσέταξεν αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἰπών· „πορευθέντες μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη.“ καὶ σαφές γε ὅτι κατὰ τὴν Αὐγούστου βασιλείαν ὁ Ἰησοῦς γεγέννηται, τοῦ. ἵν᾿ οὕτως ὀνομάσω, ὁμαλίσαντος διὰ μιᾶς βασιλείας τοὺς πολλοὺς τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς. ἦν δ᾿ ἂν ἐμπόδιον τοῦ νεμηθῆναι τὴν Ἰησοῦ διδασκαλίαν εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην τὸ πολλὰς εἶναι βασιλείας οὐ μόνον διὰ τὰ προειρημένα ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ τὸ ἀναγκάζεσθαι στρατεύεσθαι καὶ ὑπὲρ τῶν πατρίδων πολεμεῖν τοὺς πανταχοῦ· ὅ τε ἐγίνετο πρὸ τῶν Αὐγούστου χρόνων καὶ ἔτι γε ἀνωτέρω, ὅτε γε χρεία ἦν ὡς Πελοποννσίων καὶ Ἀθηναίων εἶναι πόλεμον οὕτω καὶ ἑτέρων πρὸς ἑτέρους. πῶς οὖν οἷόν τε ἦν τὴν εἰρηνικὴν ταύτην διδασκαλίαν καὶ μηδὲ ἐχθροὺς ἐπιτρέπουσαν ἀμύνεσθαι κρατῆσαι, εἰ μὴ τὰ τῆς οἰκουμένης τῇ Ἰησοῦ ἐπιδημίᾳ μετεβέβλητο πανταχοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ ἡμερώτερον;