Wonders among the Jews and the Spirit in the prophets
Again: were mighty works done everywhere, or in many places (as Celsus himself relates further on, telling of Asclepius doing good and foretelling the future to whole cities dedicated to him, such as Tricca, Epidaurus, Cos and Pergamum, and of Aristeas of Proconnesus, a certain man of Clazomenae, and Cleomedes of Astypalaea), while among the Jews alone, who say they are dedicated to the God of the universe, there was no sign or wonder to support and confirm their faith in the Creator of the universe, together with their hope of another and greater life? How could that be? They would at once have gone over to worshipping the demons who give oracles and heal, and abandoned the God whom they believed to help them, though only in word, and who never showed his presence at all.
But if this did not happen, and they even endured countless sufferings so as not to renounce Judaism and the law that belongs to it, suffering at one time in Assyria, at another in Persia, at another under Antiochus, is it not shown from probability, to those who disbelieve the extraordinary histories and prophecies, that such things were not fictions, but that a divine Spirit, dwelling in the souls of the prophets as in pure souls, for they were men who had taken on every toil for the sake of virtue, moved them to prophesy some things to their own contemporaries, others to those who came later, and above all concerning a Saviour who would come to dwell among the human race?
Greek
Εἶτα πανταχοῦ μὲν ἢ πολλαχοῦ δυνάμεις ἐγίνοντο, ὡς καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν τοῖς ἑξῆς παρατίθεται Ἀσκληπιὸν εὐεργετοῦντα καὶ τὰ μέλλοντα προλέγοντα ὅλαις πόλεσιν ἀνακειμέναις αὐτῷ, οἷον τῇ Τρίκκῃ καὶ τῇ Ἐπιδαύρῳ καὶ τῇ Κῷ καὶ τῇ Περγάμῳ. καὶ Ἀριστέαν τὸν Προκοννήσιον καὶ Κλαζομένιόν τινα καὶ Ἀστυπαλαιέα Κλεομήδην· παρὰ δὲ μόνοις Ἰουδαίοις. φάσκουσιν ἀνακεῖσθαι τῷ τῶν ὅλων θεῷ. οὐδὲν ἦν σημεῖον ἢ τεράστιον, τὸ συνεργοῦν καὶ βεβαιοῦν αὐτῶν τὴν εἰς τὸν κτίσαντα τὰ ὅλα πίστιν μετὰ καὶ ἐλπίδος τῆς περὶ ἄλλου ζῆν μείζονος; ἀλλὰ πῶς οἷόν τε τὸ τοιοῦτον; εὐθέως γὰρ ἂν μετέστησαν ἐπὶ τὸ σέβειν τοὺς μαντευομένους καὶ θεραπεύοντας δαίμονας, καταλιπόντες τὸν μέχρι λόγου πεπιστευμένον αὐτοῖς βοηθεῖν θεὸν οὐδαμῶς δὲ παριστάντα τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἐπιφάνειαν. εἰ δὲ μὴ γέγονε τοῦτο ἀλλὰ καὶ μυρία ὅσα ὑπέμενον, ἵνα μὴ ἐξομόσωνται τὸν ἰουδαϊσμὸν καὶ τὸν κατ᾿ αὐτὸν νόμον, καὶ ὁτὲ μὲν πεπόνθασιν ἐν τῇ Ἀσσυρίᾳ ὁτὲ δὲ ἐν τῇ Περσίδι ὁτὲ δὲ ὑπὸ Ἀντιόχου, πῶς οὐχὶ ἐξ εἰκότων κατασκευάζεται τοῖς ἀπιστοῦσι ταῖς παραδόξοις ἱστορίαις καὶ προφητείαις ὅτι οὐ πλάσματα ἦν τὰ τοιαῦτα, ἀλλά τι θεῖον πνεῦμα ὡς ἐν καθαραῖς ψυχαῖς τυγχάνον ταῖς τῶν προφητῶν, πάντα πόνον ὑπὲρ ἀρετῆς ἀνειληφότων, ἐκίνει αὐτοὺς πρὸς τὸ προφητεύειν τινὰ μὲν τοῖς καθ᾿ ἑαυτοὺς ἄλλα δὲ τοῖς ὕστερον ἐξαιρέτως δὲ περί τινος ἐπιδημήσοντος σωτῆρος τῷ γένει τῶν ἀνθρώπων;