Tales of return from Hades
After this the Jew says to his countrymen who believe in Jesus: “Come, then, let us even grant you that this was said. How many others produce such marvels to persuade simple hearers, and make a profit out of the deception? So they say of Zamolxis among the Scythians, the slave of Pythagoras (Herodotus, Histories 4.95), and of Pythagoras himself in Italy, and of Rhampsinitus in Egypt: that this last even ‘played dice’ in Hades ‘with Demeter,’ and came back up bearing ‘a gift from her, a golden napkin’ (Herodotus, Histories 2.122). So too of Orpheus among the Odrysians, of Protesilaus in Thessaly, of Heracles at Taenarum, and of Theseus. But this is what must be examined: whether anyone who truly died ever rose again with the very same body. Or do you think that the stories of the others are myths and seem so, while you have contrived a seemly or plausible ending for your drama: his cry on the stake as he breathed his last (Matthew 27:46, 50), and ‘the earthquake’ (Matthew 27:51, 54), and the darkness (Matthew 27:45)? That he did not help himself while he lived (compare Matthew 27:42), yet rose when dead and showed the marks of his punishment and how his hands had been pierced (John 20:20, 25–27): who saw this? A frantic woman, as you say (compare John 20:11–18), and anyone else there may have been from the same sorcery, who either dreamed it in some state of mind and, as he wished, saw a vision shaped by a deluded opinion, which has happened to countless people before now, or, what is more likely, wanted to astound the rest with this marvel-mongering, and by such a lie to give an opening to other charlatans.”
Since, then, it is a Jew who says these things, we make our defence of our Jesus as to a Jew, still turning the argument against Moses as well and saying to him: ‘How many others produce such marvels as Moses did, to persuade simple hearers, and make a profit out of the deception?’ Indeed, it is more open to one who disbelieves Moses to cite Zamolxis and Pythagoras, who produced marvels, than to the Jew, who is not at all a keen student of the histories of the Greeks. And the Egyptian who disbelieves the wonders told of Moses will cite Rhampsinitus with some plausibility, saying that Rhampsinitus is far more believable when he is said to have gone down to Hades, played dice with Demeter, snatched a golden napkin from her, and shown it as a token that he had been in Hades and had come back up from there, than Moses, who wrote of himself that he entered “into the thick darkness where God was” (Exodus 20:21), and that he alone, apart from the rest, drew near to God. For he wrote thus: “And Moses alone shall come near to God, but the others shall not come near” (Exodus 24:2).
So we, the disciples of Jesus, will say to the Jew who says these things: You who bring charges over faith in Jesus, make your defence to us now, and tell the Egyptian and the Greeks: what will you say to the charges you have brought against our Jesus, charges that would have struck Moses first? And even if you strive with all your might to defend Moses, as indeed the facts about him do admit a forceful and clear argument, you will, without noticing it, in your very defence of Moses have commended Jesus, against your will, as more divine than Moses.
Greek
μετὰ ταῦτά φησιν ὁ Ἰουδαῖος πρὸς τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ πολίτας τῷ Ἰησοῦ πιστεύοντας· φέρε δὴ καὶ πιστεύωμενηι ὑμῖν τοῦτ' εἰρῆσθαι. πόσοι δ' ἄλλοι τοιαῦτα τερατεύονται, πειθοῦς ἕνεκα τῶν εὐήθως ἀκουόντων ἐνεργολαβοῦντες τῇ πλάνῃ; ὅπερ οὖν καὶ Ζάμολξιν ἐν Σκύθαις φασί, τὸν Πυθαγόρου δοῦλον, καὶ αὐτὸν Πυθαγόραν ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ καὶ Ῥαμψίνιτον ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ· τοῦτον μὲν καὶ „συγκυβεύειν“ ἐν ᾅδου „τῇ Δήμητρι“ καὶ ἀνελθεῖν „δῶρον“ „παρ' αὐτῆς χειρόμακτρον χρυσοῦν“ φέροντα· καὶ μὴν καὶ Ὀρφέα ἐν Ὀδρύσαις καὶ Πρωτεσίλαον ἐν Θεσσαλίᾳ καὶ Ἡρακλέα ἐπὶ Ταινάρῳ καὶ Θησέα. Ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνο σκεπτέον, εἴ τις ὡς ἀληθῶς ἀποθανὼν ἀνέστη ποτὲ αὐτῷ σώματι]· ἢ οἴεσθε τὰ μὲν τῶν ἄλλων μύθους εἶναί τε καὶ δοκεῖν, ὑμῖν δὲ τὴν καταστροφὴν τοῦ δράματος εὐσχημόνως ἢ πιθανῶς ἐφευρῆσθαι, τὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ σκόλοπος αὐτοῦ φωνήν, ὅτ' ἀπέπνει, καὶ „τὸν σεισμὸν“ καὶ τὸν σκότον; ὅτι δὴ ζῶν μὲν οὐκ ἐπήρκεσεν ἑαυτῷ, νεκρὸς δ' ἀνέστη καὶ τὰ σημεῖα τῆς κολάσεως ἔδειξε [καὶ τὰς χεῖρας ὡς ἦσαν πεπερονημέναι], τίς τοῦτο εἶδε; γυνὴ πάροιστρος, ὥς φατε, καὶ εἴ τις ἄλλος τῶν ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς γοητείας, ἤτοι κατά τινα διάθεσιν ὀνειρώξας καὶ κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ βούλησιν δόξῃ πεπλανημένῃ φαντασιωθεὶς, ὅπερ ἤδη μυρίοις συμβέβηκεν, ἢ. ὅπερ μᾶλλον. ἐκπλῆξαι τοὺς λοιποὺς τῇ τερατείᾳ ταύτῃ θελήσας καὶ διὰ τοῦ τοιούτου ψεύσματος ἀφορμὴν ἄλλοις ἀγύρταις παρασχεῖν. ἐπεὶ οὖν Ἰουδαῖός ἐστιν ὁ ταῦτα λέγων, ὡς πρὸς Ἰουδαῖον ἀπολογούμεθα περὶ τοῦ ἡμετέρου Ἰησοῦ, κοινοποιοῦντες ἔτι τὸν λόγον περὶ Μωϋσέως καὶ λέγοντες αὐτῷ· πόσοι δ᾿ ἄλλοι τοιαῦτα τερατεύονται, ὁποῖα Μωϋσῆς, πειθοῦς ἕνεκα τῶν εὐήθως ἀκουόντων ἐνεργολαβοῦντες τῇ πλάνῃ; καὶ μᾶλλον κατὰ τὸν ἀπιστοῦντα Μωϋσεῖ ἐστι δυνατὸν παραθέσθαι τὸν Ζάμολξιν καὶ Πυθαγόραν τοὺς τερατευσαμένους ἤπερ τὸν Ἰουδαῖον. οὐ πάνυ φιλομαθῶς ἔχοντα πρὸς τὰς Ἑλλήνων ἱστορίας. καὶ ὁ Αἰγύπτιος δὲ ἀπιστῶν τοῖς περὶ Μωϋσέως παραδόξοις πιθανῶς παραθήσεται τὸν Ῥαμψίνιτον, λέγων πολλῷ τοῦτον εἶναι πιθανώτερον εἰς ᾅδου καταβεβηκέναι καὶ συγκεκυβευκέναι τῇ Δήμητρι καὶ χρυσοῦν χειρόμακτρον παρ᾿ αὐτῆς ἁρπάσαντα δεικνύναι σύμβολον τοῦ ἐν ᾅδου γεγονέναι κἀκεῖθεν ἀναβεβηκέναι Μωυσέως. ἑαυτὸν ἀναγράψαντος εἰσεληλυθέναι „εἰς τὸν γνόφον. ὅπου ἦν ὁ θεὸς.“ καὶ ὅτι μόνος ἤγγισε πρὸς τὸν θεὸν παρὰ τοὺς λοιπούς. ἀνέγραψε γὰρ οὕτως· „καὶ Μωϋσῆς μόνος ἐγγιεῖ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν. οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ οὐκ ἐγγιοῦσι.“ φήσομεν οὖν ἡμεῖς οἱ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ μαθηταὶ πρὸς τὸν ταῦτα λέγοντα Ἰουδαῖον· ἀπολογοῦ δὴ ἡμῖν περὶ τῆς εἰς Ἰησοῦν πίστεως ἐγκαλῶν καὶ λέγε τῷ Αἰγυπτίῳ καὶ τοῖς Ἕλλησι· τί φήσεις πρὸς ἃ ἤνεγκας κατὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἡμῶν ἐγκλήματα. φθάσαντα ἂν καὶ ἐπὶ Μωϋσέα; κἂν πάνυ δὲ ἀγωνίσῃ περὶ Μωϋσέως ἀπολογήσασθαι. ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ ἔχει πληκτικὸν λόγον καὶ ἐναργῆ τὰ περὶ αὐτοῦ, λήσεις σαυτὸν ἐν οἷς περὶ Μωϋσέως ἀπολογήσῃ, ἄκων συστήσας τὸν Ἰησοῦν Μωϋσέως θειότερον.