Against Celsus 2.45

Notice too the superficiality of his argument about Jesus' disciples at that time, where he says: “Then those who were with him while he lived, who heard his voice and had him as teacher, when they saw him punished and dying, neither died with him nor for him, nor were they persuaded to despise punishments, but even denied that they were his disciples. But now you die with him.” Here he believes that the sin committed by the disciples while they were still beginners and less perfect, and recorded in the Gospels, took place, so that he may accuse the teaching; but he passes over in silence what they did rightly after their sin, speaking boldly before the Jews, suffering countless things at their hands, and finally dying for Jesus' teaching. For he did not wish to hear Jesus foretelling to Peter, “But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands,” and what follows, on which the Scripture comments: “He said this to signify by what death he would glorify God”; nor that James the brother of John, an apostle and brother of an apostle, was killed by Herod “with the sword” for the word of Christ; nor all that Peter and the other apostles did, speaking boldly for the word, and how they went out “from the presence of the council” after being flogged, “rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to be dishonored for the name,” surpassing much of what is related among the Greeks of the endurance and courage of the philosophers. From the beginning, then, this teaching of Jesus above all prevailed among his hearers, teaching them to despise the life that the many cling to, and to strive for a life like the life of God.