Why believe Herodotus and not the disciples?
To the story about Aristeas we must say this. If Celsus had set it out as a story, without also showing his own assent as one who had accepted it as true, we would have met his argument in another way. But he says that Aristeas vanished in a supernatural way, appeared again plainly, visited many parts of the world and reported marvels; and he also sets out the oracle of Apollo, who enjoined the Metapontines to count Aristeas among the gods, in his own voice and with assent. So we address our reply to him: How is it that you take the marvels recorded about Jesus by his disciples to be sheer fictions, and blame those who believe them, yet do not consider these stories either tall tales or fictions? And how is it that you, who accuse others of believing the marvels about Jesus without reason, show that you have believed so many such things yourself, bringing no proof about them and no argument that they happened? Or are Herodotus and Pindar held by you to be free of falsehood, while those who trained themselves to die for the teachings of Jesus, and who left to those after them such writings about the things they were convinced of, contend so hard for what you think are fictions, myths and tall tales that for their sake they live amid hardships and die by violence?
Place yourself, then, midway between what is written about Aristeas and what is related about Jesus, and see whether, from the outcome and from those who are helped to amend their characters and to revere the God over all, it is not possible to say that we must believe the things related about Jesus, as things that did not happen without God, but not the things about Aristeas of Proconnesus.
Greek
Λεκτέον δὴ πρὸς τὴν περὶ τοῦ Ἀριστέου ἱστορίαν ὅτι, εἰ μὲν ὁ Κέλσος ὡς ἱστορίαν αὐτὴν ἐξετίθετο, μὴ καὶ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ συγκατάθεσιν ἐμφαίνων παραδεξαμένου αὐτὴν ὡς ἀληθῆ, αλλως ἂν πρὸς τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ ἀπηντήσαμεν· ἐπεὶ δὲ δαιμονίως αὐτὸν ἠφανίσθαι ἐναργῶς δ᾿ αὖθις φανῆναι καὶ πολλαχοῦ τῆς οἰκουμένης ἐπιδεδημηκέναι φησὶ καὶ θαυμαστὰ ἠγγελκέναι, ἔτι δὲ καὶ χρησμὸν τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος, ἐπισκήψαντος Μεταποντίνοις ἐν θεῶν μοίρᾳ νέμειν τὸν Ἀριστέαν, ὡς ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ καὶ συγκατατιθέμενος ἐκτίθεται, † λόγον τὸν πρὸς αὐτόν· καὶ πῶς ὅλως τε πλάσματα ὑπολαμβάνων τὰ ὑπὸ τῶν Ἰησοῦ μαθητῶν παράδοξα περὶ αὐτοῦ ἀναγεγραμμένα καὶ μεμφόμενος τοῖς πιστεύουσιν αὐτοῖς, ταῦτα οὔ (τε) τερατείαν οὔτε πλάσματα εἶναι νομίζεις; πῶς δὲ καὶ ὁ ἄλλοις ἐγκαλῶν ὡς ἀλόγως πιστεύουσι τοῖς περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ παραδόξοις σὺ τοσούτοις ἐμφαίνῃ πεπιστευκέναι. οὐδεμίαν ἀπόδειξιν περὶ αὐτῶν ἢ κατασκευὴν περὶ τοῦ αὐτὰ γεγονέναι φέρων; ἢ Ἡρόδοτος μὲν καὶ Πίνδαρος ἀψευδεῖν παρὰ σοὶ νομίζονται, οἱ δ᾿ ἀποθνῄσκειν μελετήσαντες ὑπὲρ τῶν Ἰησοῦ μαθημάτων καὶ τοιαῦτα περὶ ὧν ἐπείσθησαν τοῖς ἑξῆς καταλιπόντες γράμματα, περὶ πλασμάτων, ὡς οἴει, καὶ μύθων καὶ τερατειῶν τοσοῦτον ἀγωνίζονται, ὡς καὶ ζῆν περιστατικῶς δι᾿ αὐτὰ καὶ ἀποθνῄσκειν βιαίως; μέσον τοίνυν σαυτὸν στήσας τῶν τε περὶ τοῦ Ἀριστέου γεγραμμένων καὶ τῶν περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἱστορουμένων, ἴδε εἰ μὴ ἐκ τοῦ ἀποβάντος καὶ τῶν ὠφελουμένων εἰς ἠθῶν ἐπανόρθωσιν καὶ εὐλάβειαν τὴν πρὸς τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεὸν ἔστιν εἰπεῖν ὅτι πιστευτέον μὲν ὡς οὐκ ἀθεεὶ γενομένοις τοῖς περὶ Ἰησοῦ ἱστορουμένοις οὐχὶ δὲ τοῖς περὶ τοῦ Προκοννησίου Ἀριστέου.