Chapter XXXI.

Now if these things be so, why should it not be consistent with reason to hold with regard to Jesus, who was able to effect results so great, that there dwelt in Him no ordinary divinity? while this was not the case either with the Proconnesian Aristeas (although Apollo would have him regarded as a god), or with the other individuals enumerated by Celsus when he says, “No one regards Abaris the Hyperborean as a god, who was possessed of such power as to be borne along like an arrow from a bow.”463    ὥστε ὀϊστῷ βέλει συμφέρεσθαι.  Spencer and Bohereau would delete βέλει as a gloss.  For with what object did the deity who bestowed upon this Hyperborean Abaris the power of being carried along like an arrow, confer upon him such a gift?  Was it that the human race might be benefited thereby,464    Guietus would insert ἤ before ἵνα τὶ ὠφεληθῇ.  This emendation is adopted in the translation. or did he himself obtain any advantage from the possession of such a power?—always supposing it to be conceded that these statements are not wholly inventions, but that the thing actually happened through the co-operation of some demon.  But if it be recorded that my Jesus was received up into glory,465    Cf. 1 Tim. iii. 16. I perceive the divine arrangement466    την οἰκονομίαν. in such an act, viz., because God, who brought this to pass, commends in this way the Teacher to those who witnessed it, in order that as men who are contending not for human doctrine, but for divine teaching, they may devote themselves as far as possible to the God who is over all, and may do all things in order to please Him, as those who are to receive in the divine judgment the reward of the good or evil which they have wrought in this life.

Εἰ δὲ ταῦθ' οὕτως ἔχει, πῶς οὐκ εὔλογον μὲν νομίζειν περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, τοσαῦτα συστῆσαι δεδυνημένου, ὅτι οὐχ ἡ τυχοῦσα θειότης ἦν ἐν αὐτῷ, οὐκέτι δὲ οὔτε ἐν τῷ Προκον νησίῳ Ἀριστέᾳ, κἂν ὁ Ἀπόλλων αὐτὸν βούληται ἐν θεῶν μοίρᾳ νέμειν, οὔτ' ἐν οἷς ἐξαριθμεῖται ὁ Κέλσος λέγων ὅτι οὐδεὶς νομίζει θεὸν Ἄβαριν τὸν Ὑπερβόρειον, ὃς δύναμιν εἶχε τοσήνδε, ὥστε ὀϊστῷ συμφέρεσθαι; Τί γὰρ βουλομένη ἡ χαρισαμένη θειότης τῷ Ὑπερβορείῳ Ἀβάριδι ὀϊστῷ συμφέρεσθαι τὸ τηλικοῦτον αὐτῷ ἐδωρεῖτο; Ἵνα τί ὠφεληθῇ τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος; Ἢ αὐτὸς ἐκεῖνος τί ὤνατο [ἀπὸ τοῦ] ὀϊστῷ συμφέρεσθαι; Ἵνα καὶ συγχωρηθῇ ταῦτα μηδαμῶς εἶναι πλάσματα ἀλλὰ κατά τινα δαιμονίου συνεργίαν γεγονέναι. Ἐὰν δὲ ὁ ἐμὸς Ἰησοῦς ἀναλαμβάνεσθαι "ἐν δόξῃ" λέγηται, ὁρῶ τὴν οἰκονομίαν, ὅτι τοῖς θεωρήσασι συνίστη τὸν διδάσκαλον ὁ τοῦτ' ἐνεργήσας γενέσθαι θεός· ἵν' ὡς οὐχ ὑπὲρ ἀνθρωπίνων μαθημάτων ἀλλὰ θείας διδασ καλίας ἀγωνιζόμενοι ὅση δύναμις ἑαυτοὺς ἀναθῶσι τῷ ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεῷ καὶ πάντα πράττωσιν ὑπὲρ τῆς πρὸς ἐκεῖνον ἀρεσκείας ὡς ἀποληψόμενοι κατ' ἀξίαν ἐν θείῳ δικαστηρίῳ ἅπερ ἐν τῷ βίῳ τούτῳ εὖ ἢ κακῶς πεποιήκασιν.