Against Celsus 8.46

The Pythia is related once to have given an oracle after being bribed; but our prophets were admired not only by their contemporaries for the clear evidence of what they said, but also in later times. For through the oracles the prophets gave, cities were set upright, men were healed, and famines ceased. Indeed, the whole Jewish nation manifestly went out as a colony from Egypt to Palestine according to oracles; and when it followed what God commanded, it prospered, and when it went astray, it repented. Why need I say how many rulers and how many private persons, according to the histories of Scripture, fared better or worse by heeding or neglecting the prophecies? And if we must speak of childlessness, over which some were distressed who then became fathers or mothers after sending up their prayers for this to the Creator of the universe, let one read about Abraham and Sarah, from whom Isaac was born when they were already old, the father of the whole Jewish nation and of others besides. Let him read also about Hezekiah, who not only was delivered from illness according to Isaiah's prophecies, but also said with confidence, “For from now on I will beget children, who will declare your righteousness.” And in the fourth book of Kingdoms the woman who received Elisha, who by God's grace prophesied the birth of a child, became a mother according to Elisha's prayers. Countless maladies too were healed by Jesus. And others who dared to outrage the Jewish worship at the temple in Jerusalem suffered what is recorded in the books of Maccabees.