Our Scriptures are not myths
After the Greek stories he set out, about men who, as it were, worked wonders and men who supposedly rose from the dead, the Jew says to the Jews who believe in Jesus: “Or do you think that the stories of the others are myths and are taken for myths, while you have devised a fitting or convincing ending for the drama, his cry on the stake as he breathed his last (Matthew 27:50; Luke 23:46)?”
We shall answer the Jew that we have held the stories you set out to be myths. But what stands in the Scriptures we share with you, in which not you alone but we too take pride, we say is in no way myth. That is why we believe those who wrote about the people who rose from the dead there, as men who were not telling marvellous tales; and in the present case we believe the one who both foretold it, and was foretold, and rose.
And in this he who rose from the dead is more wonderful than they: prophets, Elijah and Elisha, raised them (1 Kings 17:22; 2 Kings 4:35), but none of the prophets raised him; the Father in heaven did. That is why his resurrection has also achieved greater things than theirs. For what has come to the world from the children raised through Elijah and Elisha that is as great as what has come through the resurrection of Jesus, which is preached and has been believed by divine power?
Greek
Ἐπεὶ δὲ μεθ᾿ ἃς παρέθετο ὁ Ἰουδαῖος ἱστορίας Ἑλληνικὰς περὶ τῶν ὡσανεὶ τερατευσαμένων καὶ περὶ τῶν ὡς ἀναστάντων ἐκ νεκρῶν φησι πρὸς τοὺς ἀπὸ Ἰουδαίων τῷ Ἰησοῦ πιστεύοντας· 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 φωνὴν, ὅτ᾿ ἀπέπνει; φήσομεν πρὸς τὸν Ἰουδαῖον ὅτι οὓς παρέθου μύθους εἶναι νενομίκαμεν. τὰ δὲ τῶν κοινῶν ἡμῶν πρὸς ὑμᾶς γραφῶν, ἐν αἷς οὐχ ὑμεῖς μόνοι ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡμεῖς σεμνυνόμεθα, οὐδαμῶς μύθους εἶναί φαμεν. διόπερ καὶ τοῖς περὶ τῶν ἐκεῖ ἀναστάντων ἐκ νεκρῶν γράψασι πιστεύομεν ὡς μὴ τερατευομένοις καὶ τῷ ἐνταῦθα ὡς καὶ προειπόντι καὶ προφητευθέντι καὶ ἀναστάντι. τούτῳ δὲ παραδοξότερος οὗτος ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀναστὰς παρ᾿ ἐκείνους, ὄτι ἐκείνους μὲν προφῆται ἀνέστησαν Ἠλίας καὶ Ἐλισσαῖος, τοῦτον δ᾿ οὐδεὶς τῶν προφητῶν ἀλλ᾿ ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς πατήρ. διόπερ καὶ μείζονα εἰργάσατο ἡ τούτου ἀνάστασις τῆς ἐκείνων ἀναστάσεως. τί γὰρ τηλικοῦτον τῷ κόσμῳ ἀπὸ τῶν ἀναστάντων παιδαρίων δι᾿ Ἠλίου καὶ Ἐλισσαίου γεγένηται, ὁποῖον διὰ τῆς κηρυσσομένης ἀναστάσεως Ἰησοῦ. δυνάμει θείᾳ πεπιστευμένης;