Healings foretold and few raised from the dead
Celsus, unable to look squarely at the mighty works that Jesus is recorded to have done, has already often slandered them as sorcery, and we have often answered him in argument as best we could. And now he says that we answered, as it were, that we held Jesus to be the Son of God for this reason: “because he healed the lame and the blind.” He also adds: “and, as you say, he raised the dead.”
That he healed the lame and the blind, and that for this reason we hold him to be the Christ and the Son of God, is clear to us because it was also written in the prophecies: “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear; then the lame man will leap like a deer” (Isaiah 35:5–6). That he also raised the dead, and that this is not a fiction of those who wrote the Gospels, is shown by this: if it were a fiction, many would have been recorded as raised, and among them some who had already lain longer in their tombs; but since it is not a fiction, very few are told of. There is the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue (Luke 8:41–42, 49–56), of whom he said, in what sense I do not know, “She is not dead but is sleeping” (Luke 8:52; compare Mark 5:39; Matthew 9:24), saying something about her that was not true of all who have died. There is the only son of the widow, on whom he had compassion and whom he raised after stopping those who were carrying the dead man (Luke 7:11–15). And third, there is Lazarus, who had been four days in the tomb (John 11:17, 39–44).
To the fairer-minded, and above all to the Jew, we will say this further about these cases. “There were many lepers in the days of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian” (Luke 4:27), and “there were many widows in the days of Elijah” the prophet, “and to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath in the land of Sidon” (Luke 4:25–26), for by some divine judgment she had been found worthy of the wonder that the prophet worked with the loaves (1 Kings 17:8–16). In the same way, there were many dead in the days of Jesus, but only those rose whom the Word knew to be fit for resurrection, so that the things done by the Lord might not only be symbols of certain things, but might also, by the deeds themselves, draw many to the wonderful teaching of the gospel.
For my part I would say that, in keeping with Jesus’ promise, the disciples have done even “greater” works (John 14:12) than the visible works that Jesus did. For the eyes of those blind in soul are always being opened, and the ears of those who had been deaf to words of virtue hear eagerly about God and the blessed life with him. Many, too, who were lame in the feet of what Scripture calls the “inner” man (Romans 7:22; Ephesians 3:16), now that the Word has healed them, do not merely leap but leap “like a deer” (Isaiah 35:6), an animal that is the enemy of snakes and stronger than all the venom of vipers. And these lame who have been healed receive from Jesus “authority to tread,” with the very feet in which they were formerly lame, “upon” the “serpents and scorpions” of wickedness, and in a word “over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19); and as they tread they are not harmed, for they too have become stronger than the venom of all wickedness and of the demons.
Greek
Πολλάκις δ᾿ ὁ Κέλσος ἤδη μὴ δυνάμενος ἀντιβλέπειν αἷς ἀναγέγραπται πεποιηκέναι δυνάμεσιν ὁ Ἰησοῦς διαβάλλει αὐτὰς ὡς γοητείας· καὶ πολλάκις τῷ λόγῳ κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἡμῖν ἀντείπομεν. καὶ νῦν δέ φησιν οἱονεὶ ἡμᾶς ἀποκρίνασθαι ὅτι διὰ τοῦτ᾿ ἐνομίσαμεν αὐτὸν εἶναι υἱὸν θεοῦ, ἐπεὶ χωλοὺς καὶ τυφλοὺς ἐθεράπευσε. προστίθησι δὲ καὶ τό· ὡς ὑμεῖς φατε, ἀνίστη νεκρούς. ὅτι μὲν οὖν χωλοὺς καὶ τυφλοὺς ἐθεράπευσε, διόπερ Χριστὸν αὐτὸν καὶ υἱὸν θεοῦ νομίζομεν, δῆλον ἡμῖν ἐστιν ἐκ τοῦ καὶ ἐν προφητείαις γεγράφθαι· „τότε ἀνοιχθήσονται ὀφθαλμοὶ τυφλῶν, καὶ ὦτα κωφῶν ἀκούσονται· τότε ἁλεῖται ὡς ἔλαφος ὁ χωλός.“ ὅτι δὲ καὶ νεκροὺς ἀνίστη καὶ οὐκ ἔστι πλάσμα τῶν τὰ εὐαγγέλια γραψάντων, παρί σταται ἐκ τοῦ, εἰ μὲν πλάσμα ἦν, πολλοὺς (ἂν) ἀναγεγράφθαι τοὺς ἀναστάντας, καὶ τοὺς ἤδη χρόνους ἔχοντας πλείονας ἐν τοῖς μνημείοις· ἐπεὶ δ᾿ οὐκ ἔστι πλάσμα. πάνυ εὐαριθμήτους λελέχθαι, τήν τε τοῦ ἀρχισυναγώγου θυγατέρα (περὶ ἧς οὐκ οἶδ᾿ ὅπως εἶπεν· „οὐκ ἀπέθανεν ἀλλὰ καθεύδει,“ λέγων τι περὶ αὐτῆς, (ὃ) οὐ πᾶσι τοῖς ἀποθανοῦσι προσῆν,) καὶ τὸν μονογενῆ τῆς χήρας υἱὸν, ἐφ᾿ ᾧ σπλαγχνισθεὶς ἀνέστησεν αὐτὸν, στήσας τοὺς φέροντας τὸν νεκρὸν, καὶ τρίτον Λάζαρον τετάρτην ἡμέραν ἐν τῷ μνημείῳ ἔχοντα. καὶ φήσομεν γ᾿ ἔτι (περὶ) τούτων τοῖς εὐγνωμονεστέροις καὶ μάλιστα τῷ Ἰουδαίῳ ὅτι, ὥσπερ „πολλοὶ λεπροὶ ἦσαν ἐν ἡμέραις Ἐλισσαίου τοῦ προφήτου, καὶ οὐδεὶς αὐτῶν ἐκαθαρίσθη εἰ μὴ Ναιμὰν ὁ Σύρος,“ καὶ „πολλαὶ χῆραι ἦσαν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἠλίου“ τοῦ προφήτου, „καὶ πρὸς οὐδεμίαν αὐτῶν ἐπέμφθη χήραν ὁ Ἠλίας εἰ μὴ εἰς Σαραφθὰ τῆς Σιδωνίας“· ἀξία γὰρ ἐγεγόνει τοῦ ὑπὸ τοῦ προφήτου γεγενημένου τεραστίου ἐν τοῖς ἄρτοις κατά τινα θείαν κρίσιν· οὕτω πολλοὶ νεκροὶ ἦσαν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἰησοῦ, ἀλλὰ μόνοι ἀνέστησαν, οὓς ἔγνω ὁ λόγος ἐπιτηδείους πρὸς τὴν ἀνάστασιν, ἵνα μὴ μόνον σύμβολά τινων ᾖ τὰ γενόμενα ὑπὸ τοῦ κυρίου, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτόθεν προσαγάγῃ πολλοὺς τῇ θαυμασίᾳ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου διδασκαλίᾳ. ἐγὼ δ᾿ εἴποιμ᾿ ἂν ὅτι κατὰ τὴν Ἰησοῦ ἐπαγγελίαν οἱ μαθηταὶ καὶ „μείζονα“ πεποιήκασιν ὧν Ἰησοῦς αἰσθητῶν πεποίηκεν. ἀεὶ γὰρ ἀνοίγονται ὀφθαλμοὶ τυφλῶν τὴν ψυχὴν, καὶ ὦτα τῶν ἐκκεκωφημένων πρὸς λόγους ἀρετῆς ἀκούει προθύμως περὶ θεοῦ καὶ τῆς παρ᾿ αὐτῷ μακαρίας ζωῆς. πολλοὶ δὲ καὶ χωλοὶ τὰς βάσεις τοῦ, ὡς ἡ γραφὴ ὠνόμασεν, „ἔσω“ ἀνθρώπου, νῦν τοῦ λόγου ἰασαμένου αὐτοὺς, οὐχ ἁπλῶς ἅλλονται ἀλλ᾿ „ὡς ἔλαφος,“ πολέμιον τῶν ὄφεων ζῷον καὶ κρεῖττον παντὸς ἰοῦ τῶν ἐχιδνῶν. καὶ οὗτοί γε οἱ θεραπευθέντες χωλοὶ λαμβάνουσιν ἀπὸ Ἰησοῦ „ἐξουσίαν πατεῖν“ τοῖς ποσὶν, οἷς πρότερον ἦσαν χωλοὶ, „ἐπάνω“ τῶν τῆς κακίας „ὄφεων καὶ σκορπίων“ καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς „ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ ἐχθροῦ, καὶ πατοῦντες οὐκ ἀδικοῦνται· κρείττους γὰρ καὶ αὐτοὶ γεγόνασι τοῦ πάσης κακίας καὶ τῶν δαιμόνων ἰοῦ.