Against Celsus 2.79

Then, as the Jew's conclusion to all this, he says of Jesus: “He, then, was a man, and such a man as the truth itself makes plain and reason shows.” I do not know whether a man who dared to sow throughout the whole world the worship of God and the teaching that he brought could, without God, do what he wishes and prevail over all who opposed the spread of his teaching: kings, governors, the Roman senate, rulers everywhere, and the people. And how could a human nature having nothing greater in itself convert so great a multitude? And it is no wonder if it converted the sensible; but it converted also the most irrational and those given over to their passions, who because of their irrationality are harder to change to a more self-controlled life. But since Christ was the power of God and the wisdom of the Father, for this reason he has done these things and still does them, even if neither Jews nor Greeks, who disbelieve his word, wish it. We then shall not cease believing in God according to the precepts of Jesus Christ and wishing to turn those who are blind concerning the worship of God, even if those who are truly blind revile us as blind, and those who lead astray, whether Jews or Greeks, accuse us, who seek to bring people to agree with us, of leading people astray. A fine leading astray indeed, that from being licentious they become self-controlled, or at least make progress toward self-control; from unjust, just, or making progress toward justice; from foolish, wise, or on the way to wisdom; and from cowardly, ignoble, and unmanly, brave and steadfast, showing this especially in their contests for piety toward God, who created all things. Jesus Christ, then, came, proclaimed beforehand not by one prophet but by all. And this too belonged to Celsus's ignorance, to make the Jewish character say that one prophet foretold the Christ. And since the Jew in Celsus is introduced saying these things, supposedly according to his own law, and there somewhere ended his speech, after saying other things not worth remembering, I too shall here end the second book dictated by me in reply to his treatise. God granting, and the power of Christ dwelling in our soul, we shall try in the third to deal with what Celsus wrote next.